The government's recent investment into AI is a welcome step towards securing the UK's position as a leader in this field, but the road to success is littered with challenges. The best way around them is for the government, private sector and academia to work hand-in-glove to fulfil AI's promise, says Ed Stacey, a partner at IQ Capital, Harnessing artificial intelligence and big data is one of the great opportunities for the UK, as the government rightly recognised in its recently published AI Sector Deal policy paper. In it, the government outlined plans to raise total R&D investment to 2.4% of GDP by 2027. The cash injection into research is most welcome, but we should not consider leadership in an academic field as a triumph. An academic paper that gathers dust, no matter how brilliant and well-argued its case – is pretty obsolete.

A SPACEX rocket that flew just two months ago with a Nasa satellite has roared back into action, launching the first orbiting robot with artificial intelligence and other station supplies. The used Falcon rocket blasted off hauling nearly 2700kg of cargo, including the spherical AI bot named Cimon; genetically identical mice, or mousetronauts; and super-caffeinated coffee for the crew of the International Space Station. The shipment – packed into a Dragon capsule that is also recycled – should reach the station on Monday. The launch took place at Cape Canaveral, Florida. The same first-stage booster launched the planet-hunting Tess satellite in April, while the capsule flew in 2016.

Tech companies are beginning to accept that the artificial intelligence they're building their futures on could be flawed. From studies showing that language-processing AI can be sexist to more recent research on facial recognition's failures on darker skin tones, years of research have erupted into a flurry of actions from Microsoft, IBM, Google, Mozilla, Accenture, and even Congress. It's difficult to pin a reason on "why now?" Or maybe it's how big tech companies are suddenly seen as complicit in invasive national security projects with the US Department of Defense or Immigration and Customs Enforcement, contributing to the perception of a creeping police state. Or maybe the world is just becoming more tech-literate and conscious.

The Wall Street Journal reports that the White House is cooking up new export controls on China. The idea is to restrict exports to China of technologies that could assist in China's Made in China 2025 manufacturing upgrade initiative. That initiative focuses on 10 priority industries, which include new advanced information technology; automated machine tools and robotics; aerospace and aeronautical equipment; maritime equipment and high-tech shipping; modern rail transport equipment; new-energy vehicles and equipment; power equipment; agricultural equipment; new materials; and biopharma and advanced medical products. Some of these items and technology might on the Commerce Control List and may already be controlled for export to China. Politico reports that the National Security Council is drawing up a list of technologies to be controlled for export to China targeting the priority sectors for Made in China 2025.

It has been, to be quite honest, a fairly bad week, as far as weeks go. But despite the sustained downbeat news, a few good things managed to happen as well. California has passed the strongest digital privacy law in the United States, for starters, which as of 2020 will give customers the right to know what data companies use, and to disallow those companies from selling it. It's just the latest in a string of uncommonly good bits of privacy news, which included last week's landmark Supreme Court decision in Carpenter v. US. That ruling will require law enforcement to get a warrant before accessing cell tower location data.

Google made headlines earlier this month when it pulled out of the U.S. Defense Department's flagship artificial intelligence program known as Project Maven, which leverages sophisticated algorithms to analyze drone footage. Until then, the project had been so secretive that few people knew Google was involved -- not even the former executive chairman of Google's parent company, Alphabet, who now sits on the Defense Department's Innovation Advisory Board -- let alone what it actually is. But Google's decision not to seek another contract for the AI project has thrust it into the spotlight as tech companies face a wave of protests over government contracts. "We believe that Google should not be in the business of war," more than 3,000 Google employees wrote in an April letter to company CEO Sundar Pichai that prompted the move. The growing resistance from Silicon Valley to working with the government, particularly the Pentagon, raises questions about the viability of Defense Secretary James Mattis's ambitious plans to leverage cutting-edge commercial technology for military purposes.

An artificial intelligence-powered robot tasked with assisting astronauts was launched into space for the first time ever Friday to join the crew of the International Space Station. Roughly the size of a volleyball and weighing 5 kilograms, CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion) will float through the zero-gravity environment of the space station because of a system of fans. CIMON is able to answer voice commands and can research a database of information about the ISS. The robot can even assess the moods of its human crewmates and interact with them accordingly. "An observational pilot study with the [CIMON] aims to provide first insights into the effects of crew support from an artificial intelligence in terms of efficiency and acceptance during long-term missions in space," NASA said in a statement Friday after the successful launch.

The European Commission published on April 25 2018 a Communication outlining the strategy of the EU for Artificial Intelligence. This post looks at the document, its structure and main points. While the first two chapters deal with a general introduction an AI scenarios and Europe's competitive posture in the international landscape (not great), the third part details the way forward the Commission is proposing and it's by far the most interesting. The first instinct, as always, is to throw money at the problem (the problem being Europe is lagging behind in this field, even if the first part of the document does not say it in so many words). So, in the paragraph titles somewhat pompously "Boosting the EU's technological and industrial capacity and AI uptake across the economy" an ambitious program of investments is outlines.

I was challenged by the editors here at Work: Reimagined to imagine what a corporation might look like in 2050. My immediate response was to think'that's a long ways off.' But on the other hand, it does take an incredibly long time to make foundational changes in society, except when major disruptions occur, as with the rise of the Internet over the past few decades, or the Black Death, when over 100 million people died, leading to the shifts in power that ultimately sparked the Renaissance. So I am resorting to a futurist sleight-of-hand to get to an answer in several steps. I can't just scramble to the roof of the house to see out over the horizon: First, I have to build a ladder to climb up to the roof.

Google will not seek to extend its contract next year with the Defense Department for artificial intelligence used to analyze drone video, squashing a controversial alliance that had raised alarms over the technological buildup between Silicon Valley and the military. The tech giant will stop working on its piece of the military's AI endeavor known as Project Maven when its 18-month contract expires in March, a person familiar with Google's thinking told The Washington Post. Diane Greene, the chief executive of Google's cloud-computing business, told employees of the decision at an internal meeting Friday, first reported by Gizmodo. Google, which declined to comment, has faced widespread public backlash and employee resignations for helping develop technological tools that could aid in warfighting. The person said Google will soon release new company principles related to the ethical uses of AI.