Echo devices misinterpret human commands, and, say, start recording private conversations without permission? Two senators want to know. In a letter dated June 11, Sens. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) and Christopher A. Coons (D-Del.) The letter was first reported by Wired. The senators, who lead the Judiciary subcommittee on privacy, technology and the law, framed the letter around a recent incident involving a family that discovered that their Echo had recorded a private conversation and sent it to a random person in their contacts.

What do "Star Trek" (original series, of course) and "Transformers" have in common? They have been closer to more accurately predicting the future than all the futurists combined. From Artificial Intelligence (AI) infused computers, to handheld communications devices, to robots that can replicate human tasks, to lethal autonomous weapons systems, fiction has become fact. One fact I have written about before is how the United States is in a race with China for robotic and AI superiority. The implications cover national security, defense, health care, the economy, education, public safety, transportation, outer space and more.

DISCOVERING and harnessing fire unlocked more nutrition from food, feeding the bigger brains and bodies that are the hallmarks of modern humans. Google's chief executive, Sundar Pichai, thinks his company's development of artificial intelligence trumps that. "AI is one of the most important things that humanity is working on," he told an event in California earlier this year. "It's more profound than, I don't know, electricity or fire." Hyperbolic analogies aside, Google's AI techniques are becoming more powerful and more important to its business.

Facial recognition technology used by the UK police is making thousands of mistakes - and now there could be legal repercussions. Civil liberties group, Big Brother Watch, has teamed up with Baroness Jenny Jones to ask the government and the Met to stop using the technology. They claim the use of facial recognition has proven to be'dangerously authoritarian', inaccurate and a breach if rights protecting privacy and freedom of expression. If their request is rejected, the group says it will take the case to court in what will be the first legal challenge of its kind. South Wales Police, London's Met and Leicestershire are all trialling automated facial recognition systems in public places to identify wanted criminals.

The identical robotic explorers, Spirit and Opportunity, were able to trek up to 109 yards each Martian day. They found evidence for liquid water among many other things, with Opportunity traveling farther than any autonomous vehicle on any world: over 45 km (28 miles) over more than 5000 days. In 2004, NASA launched two exploration vehicles to the red planet: the Spirit and Opportunity rovers. These two Mars Exploration Rovers were originally designed for 90-day missions to image, explore, and investigate the Martian surface. Yet these twin solar-powered rovers far exceeded their design lifetimes.

Donald Trump has slapped a 25 percent tariff on $50 billion worth of Chinese goods, significantly ramping up trade tensions between the nations. The tariff applies to "industrially significant" goods in sectors like aerospace, information tech, robotics and machinery, but not on consumer goods like smartphones or TVs. "The United States can no longer tolerate losing our technology and intellectual property through unfair economic practices," Trump said in a statement. China responded immediately, saying it will impose comparable taxes on US goods, despite threats from Trump that such a move would results in further retaliatory measures. It also considers all previous trade negotiation gains to be null and void. "China is unwilling to have a trade war, but the Chinese side has no choice but to strongly oppose this, due to the United States' myopic behavior that will harm both parties," said China's commerce department in a statement.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. This article is part of Update or Die, a series from Future Tense about how businesses and other organizations keep up with technological change--and the cost of falling behind. Few passengers realize that in the airline industry, we exclusively train our pilots using simulators. When a new-hire pilot flies the real airplane for the first time, it's with paying customers in the back. To create one of our simulators, we hacksaw off the pointy end of a real airplane, put it on a 6-degree-of-freedom hexapod motion platform, and outfit it with video displays so pilots have something to look at out the front window.

Mullah Fazlullah, Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) leader, accused of shooting activist Malala Yousafzai was killed by a United States drone strike June 13 close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, a U.S. military official confirmed to Voice of America. "U.S. forces conducted a counterterrorism strike June 13 in Kunar province, close to the border between Afghanistan and Pakistan, which targeted a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization," army Lt. Col. Martin O'Donnell, a spokesman for U.S. forces in Afghanistan said. He was reportedly traveling in a vehicle with four other commanders when the strike took place, Pakistani daily the Express Tribune reported. "A US drone strike in Afghanistan's northeastern Kunar province has killed the leader of the TTP," Mohammad Radmanish, Afghanistan's Ministry of Defense spokesperson, told CNN. "US Forces-Afghanistan and NATO-led Resolute Support forces continue to adhere to the Government of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan's unilateral ceasefire with the Afghan Taliban, announced by ... Afghan President Ashraf Ghani, which began on the 27th day of Ramadan," a statement from U.S. Forces-Afghanistan said claiming the strike did not put the ceasefire order by President Ashraf Ghani into risk, CNN reported. "As previously stated, the ceasefire does not include US counterterrorism efforts against IS-K, al Qaeda, and other regional and international terrorist groups, or the inherent right of US and international forces to defend ourselves if attacked," the statement added.

Nov. 7, 2013: Pakistani Taliban leader Mullah Fazlullah is seen on television at a coffee shop in Islamabad. The Pakistani Taliban leader known for beheading police officers and even ordering the assassination of Nobel Peace Prize winner Malala Yousafzai has been killed by a U.S. drone strike, Afghanistan's Defense Ministry says. Mohammad Radmanish told the Associated Press on Friday that Mullah Fazlullah, the ruthless insurgent leader, died along with two other terrorists a day earlier in the Marawara district along the Afghanistan-Pakistan border. A statement attributed to U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Lt. Col Martin O'Donnell said an American "counterterrorism strike" was carried out in the region targeting "a senior leader of a designated terrorist organization," but did not say whether it had killed anyone. Fazlullah previously ordered the bombing and beheadings of dozens of opponents when his band of insurgents controlled Pakistan's picturesque Swat Valley from 2007 until a massive military operation routed them in 2009.

The leader of Pakistan's Taliban armed group has been killed in neighbouring Afghanistan's Kunar province, the Afghan defence ministry said on Friday. "I confirm that Mullah Fazlullah, leader of the Pakistani Taliban, has been killed in an joint air operation [with the US] in the border area of Marawera district of Kunar province," Mohammad Radmanish, spokesman for Afghan defence ministry, told Reuters news agency, adding the air attack was carried out at about 9am local time on Thursday. In a separate statement to the Associated Press news agency, Radmanish said that two other armed fighters were killed alongside Fazlullah. Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (known by the acronym TTP) acknowledged that its leader had been killed, according to Turkey's Anadolu Agency. TTP accused the Afghan intelligence service NDS, which has long been suspected by Pakistan of harbouring Fazlullah, of providing information for the drone attack.