A UK government scheme is trying to clip the wings of drones across Britain. New legislation will see the introduction of a drone database, restrictions on drone size and an online test for prospective pilots. The new rules will also ban drones from flying above 400 feet (122 metres), and within one kilometre (0.6 miles) of airport boundaries. These restrictions come on the back of a recent surge in'near-misses' between aircraft and drones as the amount of incidents has gone from six events in 2014 to 93 last year. New legislation, passed by the House of Commons, will see the introduction of a drone database, restrictions on drone size and an online test for prospective pilots.

Experts at recognizing faces often play a crucial role in criminal cases. A photo from a security camera can mean prison or freedom for a defendant--and testimony from highly trained forensic face examiners informs the jury whether that image actually depicts the accused. Just how good are facial recognition experts? A study appearing today in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences has brought answers. In work that combines forensic science with psychology and computer vision research, a team of scientists from the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) and three universities has tested the accuracy of professional face identifiers, providing at least one revelation that surprised even the researchers: Trained human beings perform best with a computer as a partner, not another person.

According to data published by Grand View Research, the global artificial intelligence market size is projected to reach $35.87 billion by 2025, while growing at a CAGR of 57.2 percent. The report indicates that rapid improvements in fast information storage capacity, high computing power, and parallelization are some of the factors that are contributing to the rapid innovations of robotics and artificial intelligence technology. AI becomes prominent in end-use industries such as automotive and healthcare. In addition, there is strong demand for understanding and analyzing visual contents and gaining meaningful insights, which is also expected to provide strength to the market over the forecast period. A report by the McKinsey Global Institute surveyed companies about their use of AI.

BEIJING – It can crack your smartphone password in seconds, rip personal data from call and messaging apps, and peruse your contact book. The Chinese-made XDH-CF-5600 scanner -- or "mobile phone sleuth," as sales staff described it when touting its claimed features -- was one of hundreds of surveillance gadgets on display at a recent police equipment fair in Beijing. The China International Exhibition on Police Equipment is something of a one-stop shop for China's police forces looking to arm up with the latest in "black tech" -- a term widely used to refer to cutting-edge surveillance gadgets. The fair underscores the extent to which China's security forces are using technology to monitor and punish behavior that runs counter to the ruling Communist Party. That sort of monitoring -- both offline and online -- is stoking concerns from human rights groups about the development of a nationwide surveillance system to quell dissent.

UK drone users may have to pass online safety tests under legislation being introduced to the Commons on Wednesday. Restrictions around airport boundaries have also been clarified stopping any drone flying within 1km of them. The changes, which are set to come into effect between 30 July and 30 November, follow a rise in the number of drone near-misses with aircrafts. Aviation Minister Baroness Sugg said the measures were needed to "protect" aircraft and their passengers. In addition to the safety tests, people who own drones weighing 250g or more will have to register with the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA).

As I'm passionate about shaping a better future in the Smart Technology and specifically to help transform Africa through Artificial Intelligence (AI), Big Data & Analytics, Internet of Things (IoT), and Blockchain technologies, it was a privilege to participate as invited AI expert at the AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland on 15-17 May 2018 as well as the AI: Current Policy Reflections and Future Strategies on 18 May 2018 at the United Nations. As mentioned here as well as this post, this was also an opportunity to represent the Machine Intelligence Institute of Africa (MIIA), Cortex Logic (as one of the sponsors) and the African perspective on the use of these technologies with respect to the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals. In this post I would like to share some links, feedback, perspectives and outcomes of the AI for Good Global Summit. I also share my presentation on Health, Water, Smart Education & Smart Technology Services for African Smart Cities. In a separate post, I'll do the same for the AI: Current Policy Reflections and Future Strategies conference.

A new approach developed by Zak Costello (left) and Hector Garcia Martin brings the the speed and analytic power of machine learning to bioengineering. Scientists from the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (Berkeley Lab) have developed a way to use machine learning to dramatically accelerate the design of microbes that produce biofuel. Their computer algorithm starts with abundant data about the proteins and metabolites in a biofuel-producing microbial pathway, but no information about how the pathway actually works. It then uses data from previous experiments to learn how the pathway will behave. The scientists used the technique to automatically predict the amount of biofuel produced by pathways that have been added to E. coli bacterial cells.

It sounds like a script from the Netflix futuristic dystopia Black Mirror. Chatbots now ask: "How can I help you?" The reply typed in return: "Are you human?" "Of course I am human," comes the response. "But how do I know you're human?" The so-called Turing Test where people question a machine's ability to imitate human intelligence is happening right now.

Officially sworn in this past October as the Director of the National Cancer Institute (NCI), Ned Sharpless, MD, believes that artificial intelligence will "probably" be in the future of cancer care. Sharpless, whose professional experience in cancer research spans across decades, said in a recent interview with STAT News that AI will be most helpful when treating a surplus number of patients or using genomically guided therapy for treatment. Specifically, an AI tool to help radiologists or pathologists to read chest x-rays and other images will most likely be an integral technology in the future of oncology, Sharpless explained.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more influential in our everyday lives, dictating what news we see in our social media feeds, transforming how we commute to work, and even improving the odds of early disease detection. While the benefits of AI have been covered thoroughly, so have the potential negative consequences. Algorithm bias, changing employment landscape, and even the collapse of society at the hands of autonomous systems have been and continue to be debated. These are important issues, but they are missing a key component. The cascading effects of the AI revolution and how it affects our world depends largely on how well AI and humans learn to work together.