CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - A robot with true artificial intelligence has invaded space. The large, round, plastic robot head is part of SpaceX's latest supply delivery to the International Space Station. Friday's pre-dawn liftoff also included two sets of genetically identical female mice, 20 mousestronauts that will pick up where NASA's identical twin brother astronauts left off a few years ago. Super-caffeinated coffee is also flying up for the space station's java-craving crew. As intriguing as identical space siblings and turbo-charged space coffee may be, it's the German robot - named Cimon, pronounced Simon, after a genius doctor in science fiction's "Captain Future" - that's stealing the show.

"Man is still the most extraordinary computer of all" – so said John F. Kennedy in 1963. With recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), some will question whether this statement still holds true. While computers have been used to assist with creative processes for some time, the creative input has largely been human. However, recent advances in machine learning software have changed all this. Using machine learning, computers now have the ability to'learn' without being explicitly programmed with any task-specific rules. As a result, AI is already writing new articles, poems and books, creating paintings and artistic works, producing video games, and composing music.

The UK faces huge opportunities but major competition with the likes of China and Canada investing mega-bucks to establish centres of excellence and gravity. The UK Government is putting AI and Data at the heart of its Industrial Strategy alongside the other Grand Challenges and the time to act is now. At the beginning of July, I start a new role at Innovate UK. I'll be the new Director for AI and the Data Economy. My first role was as the Technologist covering Information and Communication Technologies so I've come back home, via enabling technologies, high value manufacturing and strategy.

When you visit any website, it may store or retrieve information on your browser, mostly in the form of cookies. This information might be about you, your preferences or your device and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to. The information does not usually directly identify you, but it can give you a more personalized web experience. Because we respect your right to privacy, you can choose not to allow some types of cookies. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings.

Debate has always been integral to democracy. In its most beautiful form, a presidential debate is a meeting of minds, a moment when two or more upright and well-spoken potential statesmen argue over the fate of a nation and enlighten listeners about their policy positions. In its ugliest appearance, debate devolves into a charade viewed for entertainment rather than illumination, a circus performance full of eye-rolling, name-calling, and deflections. A team of researchers at Northeastern University have taken on the task of predicting debate "winners" by deconstructing their arguments, hoping to encourage more meaningful meetings. The researchers aren't focused on style but content -- they're concern isn't with fancy rhetoric or theatrics but with sound reasoning.

A SpaceX rocket that flew just two months ago with a NASA satellite is back in action, launching with fresh station supplies. The used Falcon rocket blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, before dawn Friday. It's hauling nearly 6,000 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of cargo, including the first robot with artificial intelligence bound for space, 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's also recycled -- should reach the station Monday. The same first-stage booster launched the planet-hunting Tess satellite in April. The capsule, meanwhile, flew in 2016.

MIAMI – A floating, ball-shaped artificial intelligence robot specially trained to follow around a German astronaut at the International Space Station is scheduled to blast off Friday on its ground-breaking mission. The basketball-size device, called CIMON (Crew Interactive Mobile Companion), was described as a "flying brain" by Manfred Jaumann, head of microgravity payloads at Airbus SE. It launches from Cape Canaveral, Florida on Friday at 5:42 am, along with some 5,900 pounds (2,700 kilograms) of gear packed aboard SpaceX's unmanned Dragon cargo capsule. CIMON's activation will mark "a historical moment," becoming the first robot of its kind to interact with people in space, said Christian Karrasch, CIMON project manager at the German Aerospace Center (DLR), during a NASA press briefing Thursday. A project in the works for the past two years, CIMON has been trained to recognize the voice and face of Alexander Gerst, 42, a geophysicist with the European Space Agency.

SAN FRANCISCO – Danhua Capital has invested in some of Silicon Valley's most promising startups in areas like drones, artificial intelligence and cybersecurity. The venture capital firm is based just outside Stanford University, the epicenter of U.S. technology entrepreneurship. Yet it was also established and funded with help from the Chinese government. And it is not alone. More than 20 Silicon Valley venture capital firms have close ties to a Chinese government fund or state-owned entity, according to interviews with venture capital sources and publicly available information.

Since I recently held a series of congressional hearings on artificial intelligence (AI), I've been asking constituents, friends, and strangers what's the first thing that comes to mind when I say the phrase "artificial intelligence." If my interlocutor is older than me, he or she describes something close to HAL 9000, the scary computer from Stanley Kubrick's sci-fi film 2001: A Space Odyssey. If the person is younger than me, he or she describes something like Ava, the manipulative and willing-to-kill humanoid robot played by Alicia Vikander in Alex Garland's thriller Ex Machina. Having talked to government agencies about their engagement with AI and spoken with folks in the private sector about the challenges and opportunities AI brings, I've learned we are far from a HAL or Ava scenario becoming reality. The government adoption of AI will not bring about a government being run by robots.

Computing and cybersecurity aren't changing -- they've already changed. End users have transformed the way IT works, and this means the widely accepted definition of endpoints has morphed. End users want to be connected to everything, which means virtually everything is (or can be) an endpoint today. This has opened new possibilities for how we do business, but it has also created more opportunities for bad guys to infiltrate your system. To adapt to the way our modern, hyperconnected world operates, organizations must adopt a new endpoint security strategy built around artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning.