The world's largest plane, Stratolaunch, has a completed a key taxi test ahead of taking to the skies for the first time. The gigantic plane, which is the vision of late Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, is believed to be close to its first flight after reaching a record-breaking 90mph during medium-speed taxi testing at the Mojave Air & Space Port. Allen died Monday in Seattle from complications of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, aged 65. The massive plane has a wingspan longer than a football field and comes equipped with two cockpits, 28 wheels and six engines normally used to power 747 jumbo jets. Eventually it will be used to transport rockets carrying satellites and even a newly revealed manned space plane into the Earth's upper atmosphere, where they will blast off into space.

Retail to cloud-computing giant Amazon plans to hire over 1,000 new staff across three sites in the UK, and will open a new office in Manchester next year. "These are Silicon Valley jobs in Britain, and further cement our long-term commitment to the UK." said Doug Gurr, Amazon's UK country manager. A new corporate office in Manchester, due to open next year, will be located in the Hanover Building in the Northern Quarter. The company said the six-storey, 90,000 square-foot site will house at least 600 new staff working on software development, machine learning and R&D. Amazon said it will also expand its development centre in Edinburgh, adding 250 new staff where it already has hundreds of software engineers, machine learning scientists and user experience designers.

Increasingly available data and rising computational power have combined to usher in a new age of information. We seldom go a day without using some service powered by sophisticated techniques from the data sciences. Machine learning is a set of techniques that have revolutionized the modern world. These approaches involve computer programs that analyze features in input data and develop their own ways of identifying relevant patterns and information. Its applications range from voice recognition in our cell phones and cars to internet searches and recommendation systems.

Israel is becoming a world leader in medical A.I. with dozens of new health care start-ups in a country that has a population just shy of New Jersey's. The government announced a five-year program with a budget of $280 million to digitize patient data and use A.I. to gather important insights, with hopes of turning the homegrown expertise into consumer products that could make Israel an industry leader. India released its A.I. strategy only this summer, but it contains a big idea that could catch them up: become the "garage" that develops A.I. that creates economic growth and social development for themselves and the rest of the developing world. The plan, which they are calling #AIforAll, will focus on projects around health care, agriculture, education, smart cities and infrastructure, and smart mobility and transportation. The French government released a 150-page document earlier this year that spells out its A.I. efforts around the health, environment, transportation and security sectors, and is putting $2 billion into funding projects around those areas.

This is a rush transcript from "The Five," October 17, 2018. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated. It's 5 o'clock in New York City, and this is The Five. The liberal media is once again whipping itself into a frenzy over President Trump. First up, amid the presidents brewing battle with Stormy Daniels and her lawyer, Michael Avenatti, Trump-hating MSNBC host Mika Brzezinski is calling on the president to be removed from office. MIKA BRZEZINSKI, MSNBC: This is one of the many, many, many ways this president has shown us that he's not fit, possibly not even well. You're working for a president who is not fit to lead, who's going to do something crazy in 5 minutes, one hour, tonight or tomorrow. Like what more do you need to hear from him to start thinking 25th amendment or something else? DON LEMON, CNN: Does he own a mirror? Has he -- he keeps talking about people gaining weight and how people look? Has he -- does he own a mirror that doesn't have Vaseline over it or a cloth? I mean, all he has to do is look in the mirror. Donald Trump is no prize. And if I were him, not that I'm one either, I would keep my thoughts about other people's looks to myself. Some in the media are trying to spin Elizabeth Warren's disastrous DNA reveal by using it to attack Trump. It is ultimately a dog whistle that plays into the grievances of his base, his overwhelmingly white bass, and it goes into multiple themes that are at issue for conservatives, predominately around affirmative action and whether or not they're people who are sort of cheating the system by claiming to be minorities. WATTERS: And the architect of the Iran nuclear deal, former Obama adviser, Ben Rhodes, is parroting this new media talking point about the disappearance of the Washington Post columnist. BEN RHODES, FORMER OBAMA OFFICIAL: The message -- the Saudis wanted to send and they have sent is that you're not safe anywhere if you criticize us. And the message of President Trump is sending is that there's no consequences. We have a President of the United States who says Journalist (INAUDIBLE). So values like freedom of speech and dissent, suddenly are very endangered around the world. And that's a thread line that I think it's getting much worse. Juan, let's pick up on what Ben Rhodes just said. I think it's pretty irresponsible to link the Washington Post columnist death with President Trump's war on the media.

Your next professor could be a robot. Bina48 became the first robot to co-teach a university class when she helped lead a course at West Point, the U.S. Military academy, according to Axios. The humanoid AI taught two sessions of a philosophy course, with topics ranging from ethics, just war theory and use of artificial intelligence in society, which is pretty meta. Bina48 (pictured) became the first robot to co-teach a university class when she helped lead a course at West Point, the U.S. Military academy. William Barry, who has been using Bina48 to teach for several years, decided to put the robot in front of students in the classroom to see if she could'support a liberal education model.'

A New York City-based firm that develops a "digital colleague" named Amelia is the first to state interest in providing artificial intelligence services to the Government of Canada. A tender notice posted by Public Works and Government Services Canada on Saturday morning is the most recent step taken by the government towards acquiring AI services. Its purpose is to create a pre-qualified list of suppliers that will deliver AI services towards several key areas where the government believes it has the most to gain from the technology. IPsoft Canada is the first to be listed as an interested supplier. Its Amelia AI system that promises to handle customer service requests without the need for human intervention.

Facebook has built a "war room" in its California headquarters ahead of upcoming elections. The social network is fighting to stop its platform being used to interfere in elections and promote fake news, after a run of scandals that saw it blamed for promoting false stories and helping boost particular candidates. Now it has built a physical room inside of its Menlo Park campus which will host different experts in election interference and allow them to work together. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Employees at Amazon and Microsoft have raised concerns about ethical decisions being made at the highest level of their companies. Both tech firms have drawn criticism over their involvement in controversial military and police projects, prompting anonymous workers to write public letters denouncing them. The protests come after Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos said that part of his job is to make unpopular decisions, such as choosing to work with the US military or providing tools that enable police surveillance. In response, an Amazon employee wrote in a post published to Medium: "Companies like ours should not be in the business of facilitating authoritarian surveillance. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

MORRISTOWN, N.J.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The digital era shift is realigning fundamental elements of business that require major adjustments from insurers in order for them to survive and thrive, according to a new thought leadership report released today by Majesco (NYSE AMERICAN:MJCO), a global provider of core insurance platform software and consulting services for insurance business transformation. A new digital era of insurance focused on innovation and growth requires platform-based business models and solutions to succeed. The report, A New Business Model for a New Era of Insurance: Digital Insurance 2.0 in the Platform and API Economy, highlights the impacts of the shift to a new age of insurance, Digital Insurance 2.0. Underpinning this new era is the shift to the application programming interface ("API") and platform economy, which consists of key technologies such as cloud computing, open APIs, microservices, ecosystems, and data and analytics, which together help insurers create new business models, products and services, connect everything and, most importantly, create new customer experiences. "The digital age shift is now top of mind for every leadership team and board because it is extending an organization's growth and innovation capabilities," remarked Denise Garth, SVP - Strategic Marketing, Industry Relations and Innovation for Majesco.