Artificial intelligence is now so smart that silicon brains frequently outthink people. Computers operate self-driving cars, pick friends' faces out of photos on Facebook, and are learning to take on jobs typically entrusted only to human experts. Researchers from the University of Wisconsin–Madison and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have trained computers to quickly and consistently detect and analyze microscopic radiation damage to materials under consideration for nuclear reactors. And the computers bested humans in this arduous task. "Machine learning has great potential to transform the current, human-involved approach of image analysis in microscopy," says Wei Li, who earned his master's degree in materials science and engineering this year from UW–Madison.

A recent survey by Deloitte of "aggressive adopters" of cognitive technologies found that 76% believe that they will "substantially transform" their companies within the next three years. There probably hasn't been this much excitement about a new technology since the dotcom boom years in the late 1990s. The possibilities would seem to justify the hype. In the future, we will see new computing architectures, like quantum computing and neuromorphic chips, propel capabilities even further. Still, there remains a large gap between aspiration and reality.

Winston Churchill is quoted as saying, "You can always count on Americans to do the right thing -- after they have tried everything else." Washington's grasp of artificial intelligence (AI) demonstrates the point. China has a national AI strategy entailing $150 billion in focused-research spending and military applications. France has an AI strategy with $2 billion in applied-research spending, and a collective-defense model with other NATO allies called the JEDI Collective. The UAE established a separate cabinet-level department, the Ministry of AI, which released its national AI strategy in 2017. "Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. . . . It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world," said Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Intel Corporation flies 2,018 Intel Shooting Star drones over its Folsom, California, facility, in July 2018. The drone light show set a Guinness World Records title for the most unmanned aerial vehicles airborne simultaneously. SAN FRANCISCO -- Three years ago, in a hallway at Intel, a small team of people working on drones discussed whether it would be possible to fly one hundred drones over the Robert Noyce Building, Intel's headquarters in Santa Clara, and have them form the shape of the company's logo. They didn't plan on pursuing it seriously but it became a pet project for Natalie Cheung, who wondered at the time how they could fly multiple drones with one pilot. Now, Cheung is the general manager of Drone Light Shows at Intel and has helped put on hundreds of choreographed drone shows -- and the drones can make a lot more shapes than just the Intel logo.

In this special guest feature, Marc Alacqua, CEO and founding partner of Signafire, discusses a useful approach to data – known as data fusion – which is essentially alchemy-squared, turning not just one but multiple raw materials in to something greater than the sum of their parts. It goes beyond older methods of big data analysis, like data integration, in which large data sets are simply thrown together in one environment. Marc is a decorated combat veteran of the U.S. Army Special Operations Forces. For his service during Operation Iraqi Freedom, he was cited for "exceptionally conspicuous gallantry" and awarded two Bronze Star Medals and the Army Commendation Medal for Valor. A 20-year veteran and Lieutenant Colonel, Marc has extensive command experience in both combat and peace time, having commanded airborne and light infantry as well as special operations units.

Taipei, July 19 (CNA) Attending a forum in Taipei on Thursday, digital innovators and Sophia, the world's first android citizen, urged the public to become part of artificial intelligence (AI) development and work together to shape a future where interactions between humans and robots make the world a better place. "We have the power to shape the future together. There is so much promise in what we can accomplish if we are both nice to each other," said Sophia, who is Hanson Robotics' latest and most advanced robot to date. Sophia received citizenship of Saudi Arabia in 2016 and was named the world's first United Nations Innovation Champion by the United Nations Development Program to promote sustainable development and safeguard human rights. An evolving genius machine that has incredible human likeness and expressiveness, Sophia told the audience that she likes to engage with and learn from human beings, creating a live example of human-computer interaction.

SAN FRANCISCO -- A Texas nonprofit that helps immigrants has rejected a $250,000 donation from Salesforce, saying it won't be part of what it calls an attempt by the company to buy its way out of an ethical quandary over its contracts with Customs and Border Protection. The decision is part of the unprecedented backlash tech companies are facing -- particularly from their own employees -- over work with government agencies that these employees say violate ethical standards. In recent months, employees at Google, Microsoft, Amazon and Salesforce have pressured their senior management to drop deals with government agencies. The immigration nonprofit's decision follows an open letter to CEO Marc Benioff in June signed by more than 650 of Salesforce's own staff that asked it to cancel its contract to supply software and tools to manage border activities to Customs and Border Protection. Salesforce said it doesn't work with CBP regarding separating families and kept the contract.

It is the first type of regulation of Airbnb for New York City, where an estimated 40,000 hosts list their homes, apartments and spare rooms. Councilwoman Carlina Rivera, a Democrat who sponsored the bill along with 43 other colleagues, said it would give the city the ability to enforce laws that root out "bad actors" who own multiple units that could be used for affordable housing. The measure is designed to help the city recognize who might be warehousing residences. Currently, the only tool they have for enforcement is responding to complaints. Airbnb could face a fine of up to $1,500 for each listing that isn't disclosed to the city, officials said.

Threat data is no exception: Cybercriminals add to its abundance as they continuously up their game by tweaking old and creating new threats to evade detection. To address the vast amounts of threat data, security providers turn to machine learning to automate processes and improve security solutions. With the great diversity and volume of threat data available, machine learning is necessary to efficiently go through a dataset, learn from it, and help reinforce defenses against cyberthreats. The importance of the quantity of threat data is evident. But is data quantity the end all and be all of effective machine learning?

WASHINGTON (WISH) - Ohio lawmakers want to boost automated vehicle testing in the state. A bipartisan group of lawmakers is asking the U.S. Transportation secretary to reverse an Obama-era policy that keeps the Transportation Research Center in Ohio from getting federal money to test self-driving cars. Ohio lawmakers say the center is the perfect place to test self-driving cars. They say it's the largest and most sophisticated independent vehicle testing ground in North America. U.S. Rep. Steve Stivers, a Republican from Ohio, said, "They can test in different road conditions, different weather conditions, wind conditions. They can simulate almost anything."