Chinese tech leaders articulated their vision for the post-internet future at the World Internet Conference held this past week, with artificial intelligence, complete digitisation of the economy and a call for more basic science being among the topics of discussion – though it was mostly a local affair with the absence of high profile US tech company representatives amid the ongoing US-China trade war. "Artificial intelligence and the internet represent two different eras," said Baidu CEO Robin Li Yanhong on Thursday. "We will step into the AI era in the coming three to five decades while the previous 20 years belonged to internet." Baidu, which operates China's largest internet search engine, is a so-called AI national champion with its efforts in the field endorsed by the central government. It was also the first Chinese company to join an international AI ethics group set up last month, alongside members such as Apple and Alphabet's Google.

While Mongolia may be most sparsely populated independent country in the world, in the European Union that claim goes to Finland. With just 5.5 million people (that's about the same population as Houston and Chicago put together, just without that whole deadly crime thing) Finland has many claims to fame. She is a country of great natural beauty that has influenced generations of minimalist industrial designers. More importantly though, the country follows the Nordic model of capitalism and has thus became one of the few working examples of a progressive, socially sensitive state with superb welfare, education, and healthcare services. It's no surprise then that the country's liberal administration is keen to explore the possibilities offered by artificial intelligence.

Deep learning is a technology with a lot of promise: helping computers "see" the world, understand speech, and make sense of language. But away from the headlines about computers challenging humans at everything from spotting faces in a crowd to transcribing speech -- real-world performance has been more mixed. One deep-learning technology whose real-world results have often disappointed has been facial-recognition. In the UK, police in Cardiff and London used facial-recognition systems on multiple occasions in 2017 to flag persons of interest captured on video at major events. Unfortunately, more than 90% of people picked out by these systems were false matches.

Here's a quick question--what do artificial intelligence, virtual health, digital consumer engagement, and value-based contracting all have in common? The answer--all of them require interoperability for realizing a return-on-investment (ROI). Unfortunately, the state of interoperability in the system serving consumers with complex needs is not great. The gap between where most provider organizations are and where they need to go is still large. So, what exactly is interoperability?

In 2017, the cybersecurity firm Darktrace reported a novel attack that used machine learning to observe and learn normal user behavior patterns inside a network. The malignant software began to mimic normal behavior thus blending it into the background and become difficult for security tools to spot. Many organizations are exploring the use of AI and machine learning to secure their systems against malware or cyber attacks. However, given their nature for self-learning, these AI systems have now reached a level where they can be trained to be a threat to systems i.e., go on the offensive. This brings us to a point where we should be aware of different threats that AI poses on cybersecurity and how we should be careful while dealing with it.

A New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and USA Today Bestseller! Kai-Fu Lee named a Wired Icon, as part of Wired Magazine's 25th Anniversary Feature Publishers Weekly Fall 2018 Top 10 in Business & Economics Featured in the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, the Washington Post, Wired, Financial Times, Bloomberg Businessweek, Business Insider, Forbes, and more. "After thirty years of pioneering work in artificial intelligence at Google China, Microsoft, Apple and other companies, Lee says he's figured out the blueprint for humans to thrive in the coming decade of massive technological disruption: 'Let us choose to let machines be machines, and let humans be humans.'"--Forbes "Kai-Fu Lee believes China will be the next tech-innovation superpower and in his new (and first) book, AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, he explains why. Taiwan-born Lee is perfectly positioned for the task."--New Times "AI Superpowers: China, Silicon Valley, and the New World Order, by Kai-Fu Lee, about the ways that artificial intelligence is reshaping the world and the economic upheaval new technology will generate. We need to start thinking now about how to address these gigantic changes."--Senator

A robot on a mission to Mars to search for signs of alien life, has after years of discussion, has had its landing site selected more than four years of discussion. Due to land in 2021, the ExoMars rover will drill into the surface of the red planet to search for evidence of ancient life buried underground. The team behind the joint European-Russian project has selected a spot called Oxia Planum, which scientists think was the site of a large body of water billions of years ago. Going to Mars could destroy astronauts' guts, Nasa-funded study finds Going to Mars could destroy astronauts' guts, Nasa-funded study finds Experts had previously been wavering between that site and another called Mawrth Vallis, which also bears signs of a wetter past on Mars. Now the Landing Site Selection Working Group has opted for Oxia Planum as their preferred site, a decision that will be officially confirmed next year.

Former intelligence official Richard A. Clarke says that Earth is virtually defenseless against incoming asteroids, and that an asteroid large enough to level a city could strike with almost no warning. "We do not have a plan for dealing with that," Clarke says in Episode 334 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "We don't have a rocket or a missile we can fire up right now, certainly not on 48 hours alert, but not even on six months alert." Clarke explores asteroid impact and other future threats in his recent book Warnings: Finding Cassandras to Stop Catastrophes. Many of the scenarios he covers have appeared in Hollywood movies, and that can be a problem when it comes to raising awareness about an issue.

Recent breakthroughs in machine learning and artificial intelligence (A.I.) have prompted breathless speculation about their national security applications. Yet most of that work has focused narrowly on their implications for autonomous weapons systems, rather than on the broader security environment. Apart from Michael Horowitz and a handful of others, few scholars have sketched out how A.I. might affect core questions of international relations and foreign policy. One key challenge stands out: What influence will A.I. have on security dilemmas between great powers? With the two leading producers of A.I., the United States and China, already eyeing each other warily, the question is far from an idle one.

China is rolling out stealth drones and pilot-less aircraft fitted with deadly weapons, such as AK-47 rifles, onto world markets. Combat drones were among the jet fighters, missiles and other military hardware shown off this week at Airshow China, the country's biggest aerospace industry exhibition. China's automated warplanes are already flying in the Middle East, and the newly unveiled unmanned jets signal Beijing's determination in catching up and eventually rivaling with the United States in the global military drone market. Visitors to the Airshow China take pictures of CH-7, China's newest stealth combat drone Saudi Arabia and Pakistan are in discussions to acquire the Chinese-made Blowfish A2 (pictured). A director from Ziyan, the manufacturer of the helicopter drone, said they could add'whatever' weapons required by clients to the unmanned aircraft One of the most eye-catching drones displayed at the exhibition in Zhuhai was CH-7, or Rainbow-7, China's newest stealth combat drone.