Tomorrow's wars will be fought with a lethal combination of soldiers, drones, and AI-powered systems. The Internet of Battle Things, as it's being called, is a vast battlefield network of machines and humans -- and the US Army is working to make it a reality. In what reads like a list of kill-streak perks in a Call of Duty game, the Army described what the "things" in its "Internet of Battle Things" would be in a just-released white paper: Most of such intelligent things will not be too dissimilar from the systems we see on today's battlefield, such as unattended ground sensors, guided missiles (especially the fire-and-forget variety) and of course the unmanned aerial systems (UAVs). They will likely include physical robots ranging from very small size (such as an insect-scale mobile sensors) to large vehicle that can carry troops and supplies. Some will fly, others will crawl or walk or ride.

SAN FRANCISCO – Alexa's been studying up on the royal wedding. So go ahead, ask the Amazon assistant everything your heart desires about the upcoming marriage of American actress Meghan Markle to Britain's Prince Harry. Amazon's artificial intelligence-infused Alexa digital assistant routinely gears up for blockbuster occasions, which the May 19 union of British and Hollywood royalty promises to be. Since November, the Amazon group that preps Alexa for news and cultural events has been adding answers and information so that no one gets the dreaded "Here's what I found on the web" answer in a response to questions ranging from "Who's going to walk Meghan Markle down the aisle?" to "What time is the royal wedding?" Google Assistant, with its Google Home rival to Alexa, isn't far behind when thrown the same types of questions. In our tests, Apple's Siri drew blanks on most of them, in terms of reading the answers aloud.

The National Transportation Safety Board is investigating a crash and fire involving a Telsa Model S car. Two teens died in Fort Lauderdale, Florida crash on Tuesday. The probe is not expected to involve Tesla's semi-autonomous Autopilot system. A Tesla sedan with a semi-autonomous Autopilot feature rear-ended a fire department truck at 60 mph (97 kph) apparently without braking before impact on May 11, 2018, but police say it's unknown if the Autopilot feature was engaged. SAN FRANCISCO -- Tesla's week started with a bang Monday as CEO Elon Musk announced a management "flattening" designed to meet make-or-break manufacturing goals while Utah police investigated why a Model S hit a stopped fire truck at 60 mph.

Subscribe to receive updates on Industry 4.0 The Fourth Industrial Revolution is upon us. The first three were based, respectively, on mechanization, mass production, and computing/automation; Industry 4.0 is all about the marriage of physical and digital technologies. Just as with the previous revolutions, Industry 4.0 is disrupting and redefining industries. This time, however, the revolution is progressing with unprecedented speed, driven by smart, connected technologies that are developing at an exponential rate.1 These technology innovations--including cloud computing and platform technologies, big data and analytics, mobile solutions, social and collaborative systems, Internet of Things (IoT) technology, and artificial intelligence (AI)--are fueling and accelerating a new era of digital business transformation. They're reshaping how organizations work, innovate, and create products--and enabling completely new kinds of products and services.2 They're spurring businesses to invent new business models and reimagine how they deliver value to their customers and markets. More broadly, industry boundaries are expanding and blurring, and relationships with business partners are being redefined. Yet too many organizations remain unprepared for the new revolution. A recent Deloitte Industry 4.0 study of C-level executives around the world indicates that, across all industries, only 14 percent of CXOs are "highly confident" that their organizations are ready to harness the changes associated with the new era.3

Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today. Meanwhile, nearly 4,000 workers have now demanded an end to the company's participation in Maven in a petition that also calls for Google to avoid military work in the future. Project Maven seeks to help the military analyze drone footage faster through machine learning, as the AI detects people and objects for human review. Those who resigned from Google cited ethical concerns over the use of AI in drone operations and the company's broader involvement in political and military spheres -- Google recently sponsored the Conservative Political Action Conference, for instance. Some claimed that Google is increasingly less transparent with employees about contentious decisions and seems less concerned about objections from staffers than it used to be.

We are currently experiencing another gold rush in AI. Billions are being invested in AI startups across every imaginable industry and business function. Google, Amazon, Microsoft and IBM are in a heavyweight fight investing over $20 billion in AI in 2016. Corporates are scrambling to ensure they realise the productivity benefits of AI ahead of their competitors while looking over their shoulders at the startups. China is putting its considerable weight behind AI and the European Union is talking about a $22 billion AI investment as it fears losing ground to China and the US.

Around a dozen Google employees have quit over the company's involvement in an artificial intelligence drone program for the Pentagon called Project Maven, Gizmodo reported today.

About a dozen Google employees are resigning in protest over the tech giant's involvement in Project Maven, a controversial military program that uses artificial intelligence, Gizmodo reports. Project Maven, which harnesses AI to improve drone targeting, has been a source of concern for a number of Google employees. Last month, over 3,100 Google workers signed a letter to the company's CEO Sundar Pichai asking him to pull the tech giant out of the project. Announced last year, Project Maven is designed to swiftly pull important data from vast quantities of imagery. The tech news website cites an internal Google document containing written accounts from many of the employees that details their decisions to leave.

The Language Big Data Alliance (LBDA) is to host a major summit in London later this month. Formed by leading research institutes, universities and government departments from around Europe, the LBDA works to create solutions in the fields of Big Data and artificial intelligence. Now it is to host a summit in the United Kingdom for the first time on Friday May 25th at St James's in London, where a number of high-profile executives, including the Chief Executive Officer of Ipsos MORI Ben Page, will deliver keynotes. Across the day there will also be panel discussions from high calibre speakers and key-decision makers in the research, education and technology sectors. "The ultimate goal of this Summit is to recruit partners and other long-standing members of the LBDA and unite them with the partners in our ecosystem to help further the mass adoption and application of AI and Big Data in educational, technological and scientific research in Europe," said Eric Yu, co-founder and secretary general of the LBDA.

Nasa intends to study Mars from the sky, with the help of a miniature helicopter. The world first would see the US space agency launch the drone-like craft to Mars in 2020, reaching the red planet in early 2021. Known simply as The Mars Helicopter, the device weighs less than four pounds (1.8 kilograms), and its main body section, or fuselage, is about the size of a softball. It will serve as a proof of concept, demonstrating that airborne drones work well on Mars, and could pave the way for a fleet of the machines. Because of the thin atmosphere on the Red Planet, the helicopter's blades will spin at almost 3,000 rpm, approximately ten times faster than on Earth.