Robotic milkers are helping UConn's nationally acclaimed dairy herd run away from the pack. In May, UConn Storrs became the first campus in the nation to launch an automatic milking system that allows its pack of dairy cows to be milked when they're ready, rather than on a set, three-times-a-day schedule. In addition to freeing up UConn staff from the utterly monotonous work of milking, the on-demand, technology-driven system also allows the school's researchers to better track and manage the health of its herd. UConn is using two, $200,000 robots in addition to sensors that collect real-time data 24 hours a day to predict the healthfulness of about 88 cows and monitor their physical environment. The school added 3,000 square feet at its dairy center to house the new machines.

Cisco is set to pump $100 million (£76.8 million) into building one of the world's largest AI research centres with University College London (UCL), aiming to spur innovation in machine learning, big data and autonomous vehicles. The UK government welcomed the plans, with prime minister Theresa May and digital secretary Jeremy Wright saying the initiative will run hand-in-hand with the government's industrial strategy that aims to generate £230 billion to the UK economy by 2030. Once build, the centre will house more than 200 academics and researchers, and will train new talent in AI and innovation, digital skills and more as the centre seeks to expand the use of AI to different industries. "The UK has become the natural destination in Europe for the largest and most innovative tech companies to operate and invest," Wright said, according to City AM. "Cisco's strong commitment to the UK highlights we have the ambition, research excellence and regulatory environment for world-leading firms to develop the innovations that will change people's lives for the better." The scheme was unveiled at Downing Street at the end of last week and May described it as a vote of confidence in the government's industrial strategy.

China is developing large, smart and relatively low-cost unmanned submarines that can roam the world's oceans to perform a wide range of missions, from reconnaissance to mine placement to even suicide attacks against enemy vessels, according to scientists involved in these artificial intelligence (AI) projects. The autonomous robotic submarines are expected to be deployed in the early 2020s. While not intended to entirely replace human-operated submarines, they will challenge the advantageous position established by Western naval powers after the second world war. The robotic subs are aimed particularly at the United States forces in strategic waters like the South China Sea and western Pacific Ocean, the researchers said. The project is part of the government's ambitious plan to boost the country's naval power with AI technology.

On this week's episode of my podcast, I Have to Ask, I spoke to Annie Lowrey, a contributing editor at the Atlantic and the author of the new book Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World. It's about universal basic income--the idea that the government would give all its citizens checks every month. Versions of this proposal have caught on with people on the left as well as tech leaders in Silicon Valley and even some hardcore libertarians. Lowrey has written for many years now about economics, but Give People Money is both a reported work--she travels to Kenya, South Korea, and India to view their economic experiments--and a policy brief on what she believes can help alleviate some of the social and political discontent that has arisen from economic change and dislocation. Below is an edited excerpt from the show. In it, we discuss the benefits and drawbacks of UBI, whether or not we should be skeptical that so many Silicon Valley titans have embraced the idea, and how to make the safety net less vulnerable to political attacks.

File photo - Attendees gather at an IBM Watson event in lower Manhattan, New York Jan. 9, 2014. Two years ago, oncologists with the US Department of Veterans Affairs started using IBM Watson artificial intelligence to identify targeted treatment options for cancer patients. Now, they will be able to continue that work for at least another year. The VA and IBM Watson Health today announced an extension of their partnership through at least June 2019. Working out of a precision oncology "hub" in Durham, N.C., a small group of VA oncologists and pathologists receive tumor samples from patients around the country.

Companies like to flaunt their use of artificial intelligence to the point where it's virtually meaningless, but the truth is that AI as we know it is still quite dumb. While it can generate useful results, it can't explain why it produced those results in meaningful terms, or adapt to ever-evolving situations. DARPA thinks it can move AI forward, thoug. It's launching an Artificial Intelligence Exploration program that will invest in new AI concepts, including "third wave" AI with contextual adaptation and an ability to explain its decisions in ways that make sense. If it identified a cat, for instance, it could explain that it detected fur, paws and whiskers in a familiar cat shape. Importantly, DARPA also hopes to step up the pace.

The South China Post reported Sunday that Beijing expects to deploy artificially intelligent unmanned submarines in the early 2020s. The seacraft could be used to survey waters, place munitions or even be used in suicide attacks against enemies, scientists involved in the program told the outlet. Lin Yang, marine technology equipment director at the Shenyang Institute of Automation, Chinese Academy of Sciences, confirmed the program, and said it was a response to work in the US to develop similar watercraft. These subs, dubbed extra-large unmanned underwater vehicles, or XLUUVs, are much bigger than the current crop of underwater vehicles -- large enough to dock as conventional submarines and to carry significant weaponry and other equipment. Their artificial intelligence will help them operate undersea, not only to avoid natural phenomena, but to detect and identify friendly or hostile ships and make navigational decisions to avoid them.

From personal computers (PCs) to servers to IoT devices, Intel has made chips for all of them and continues to chug on. And, this is the reason why the company with a 50-year history globally and a 20-year track record in India is staying relevant despite evolving technologies, said Prakash Mallya MD, Sales and Marketing Group, Intel India in an interview. "We have succeeded because we kept an open mind, taken risks and evolved over a period of years," he said. How has the company evolved over the years? If you look at our portfolio, we started as a memory company.

If we talked about Artificial Intelligence being a reality a few years back, people would have definitely laughed on us. But today it is one of the trendiest topics. From health care to self-driving cars, what we could only imagine has now become a reality thanks to AI. The increased interest in AI in all fields has led to major breakthroughs. The field in itself has major potential that could change the world as we know it.

Tech leaders, including Elon Musk and the three co-founders of Google's AI subsidiary DeepMind, have signed a pledge promising to not develop "lethal autonomous weapons." It's the latest move from an unofficial and global coalition of researchers and executives that's opposed to the propagation of such technology. The pledge warns that weapon systems that use AI to "[select] and [engage] targets without human intervention" pose moral and pragmatic threats. Morally, the signatories argue, the decision to take a human life "should never be delegated to a machine." On the pragmatic front, they say that the spread of such weaponry would be "dangerously destabilizing for every country and individual."