The US tax authority – the Internal Revenue Service – is looking at how AI can secure and protect taxpayers' data held on its servers. It recently filed a request for information aimed at experts that can help guide the IRS into possibly developing a platform that uses machine learning to sniff out and react to threats. The cybersecurity division working for the Cybersecurity Cloud Solution Program is hoping that the information will help them identify potential solutions based on current capabilities. "The Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) Cybersecurity Division has a business need for an Artificial Intelligent (AI) machined-based analytical platform to proactively detect and respond to cyber- and insider-related threats," it said in the request. "The IRS intends to use the results of this RFI to assist in the assessment of on-going industry efforts within the identified focus areas. The finding will also help to shape the path forward for potential acquisitions to include determination of contractual mechanisms to potentially pursue capabilities."

The debate over the effects of artificial intelligence has been dominated by two themes. One is the fear of a singularity, an event in which an AI exceeds human intelligence and escapes human control, with possibly disastrous consequences. The other is the worry that a new industrial revolution will allow machines to disrupt and replace humans in every--or almost every--area of society, from transport to the military to healthcare. There is also a third way in which AI promises to reshape the world. By allowing governments to monitor, understand, and control their citizens far more closely than ever before, AI will offer authoritarian countries a plausible alternative to liberal democracy, the first since the end of the Cold War.

On May 27, a deluge dumped more than 6 inches of rain in less than three hours on Ellicott City, Maryland, killing one person and transforming Main Street into what looked like Class V river rapids, with cars tossed about like rubber ducks. The National Weather Service put the probability of such a storm at once in 1,000 years. Yet, "it's the second time it's happened in the last three years," says Jeff Allenby, director of conservation technology for Chesapeake Conservancy, an environmental group. Floods are nothing new in Ellicott City, located where two tributaries join the Patapsco River. But Allenby says the floods are getting worse, as development covers what used to be the "natural sponge of a forest" with paved surfaces, rooftops, and lawns.

Two start-ups leading the race to build the first self-flying taxis are using money from the US military. Last year, Kitty Hawk and Joby Aviation received a total of nearly $2m from the Defense Innovation Unit Experimental (DIUx), a Pentagon organization founded to help America's military make faster use of emerging technologies. Neither company, nor the DIUx, disclosed the funding at the time. The website for Cora, Kitty Hawk's experimental air taxi, emphasizes its role in solving urban transportation challenges: "Cora is about the time you could save soaring over traffic. The people you could visit.

Earlier this year, concerns over the development of autonomous military systems -- essentially AI-driven machinery capable of making battlefield decisions, including the selection of targets -- were once again the center of attention at a United Nations meeting in Geneva. "Where is the line going to be drawn between human and machine decision-making?" Paul Scharre, director of the Technology and National Security Program at the Center for a New American Security in Washington, D.C., told Time magazine. "Are we going to be willing to delegate lethal authority to the machine?" "Malicious computer programs that could be described as'intelligent autonomous agents' are what steal people's data."

"President Trump is a complete and total dipshit." So announced Barack Obama, in a video released on YouTube earlier this year. Uncharacteristic, certainly, but it appeared very real. It was, however, a falsified video made -- by BuzzFeed and the actor and director Jordan Peele -- with the help of artificial intelligence. Deepfakes, as they have been dubbed, are the most recent -- and perhaps most troubling -- manifestation in the evolving arms race of digital disinformation.

Better Life Lab is a partnership of Slate and New America. In an age where every day brings more doomsday forecasts of massive technologicallybdriven unemployment, from driverless cars to A.I. robots as caregivers, journalist Annie Lowrey set out to answer a question: Is it possible to live in a world where we get what she calls "wages for breathing"? This week her findings come out in Give People Money: How a Universal Basic Income Would End Poverty, Revolutionize Work, and Remake the World. We spoke about what the idea of giving every American cash--no strings attached--would mean for work, gender inequality, and American identity, and whether it's actually a policy that could pass in the U.S. given the current climate of tying even the most basic benefits to paid work. This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

The IRS has its sights set on using artificial intelligence and machine learning to detect and respond to cyberthreats. The agency, though it has some concept of what it's looking for, has issued a request for information seeking input from industry on what kind of technology is already available in the marketplace. The RFI asks for responses with information on "artificial intelligence, machine learning, cognitive computing and data analytics techniques, algorithms, and capabilities" that might increase its capacity to combat both insider threats and cyberattacks from outside. Specifically, the RFI goes on to state, the IRS would like an AI platform that "automatically and continuously learns the environment(s), improving accuracy," "identifies previously unknown threats and tracks entities over time" and more. An ideal system would also have an intuitive user interface and integrate well with existing IRS cybersecurity systems.

IMAGE: Marinka Zitnik and colleagues designed a system to predict billions of potential drug combination side effects. Last month alone, 23 percent of Americans took two or more prescription drugs, according to one CDC estimate, and 39 percent over age 65 take five or more, a number that's increased three-fold in the last several decades. And if that isn't surprising enough, try this one: in many cases, doctors have no idea what side effects might arise from adding another drug to a patient's personal pharmacy. The problem is that with so many drugs currently on the U.S. pharmaceutical market, "it's practically impossible to test a new drug in combination with all other drugs, because just for one drug that would be five thousand new experiments," said Marinka Zitnik, a postdoctoral fellow in computer science. With some new drug combinations, she said, "truly we don't know what will happen."

A creepy surveillance start-up backed by the Chinese government is expanding its artificial intelligence-powered face-reading operations. Beijing firm Megvii has announced it is shifting its powerful Face facial recognition technology beyond China after securing a distributor in Thailand. Megvii's world-leading Face technology uses AI to identify people by their facial features, allowing police to spy on'anyone, anywhere' without them knowing. The software has already been used by Chinese police departments to arrest more than 3,000 fugitives by instantly scanning crowds of thousands in busy cities. The company says its software has many potential uses beyond law enforcement, including in financial services, retail, and identity verification.