The bank joins several organizations, ranging from the research arm of the U.S. Department of Defense to Uber Technologies Inc. and Capital One Financial Corp., that are grappling with the opaque nature of advanced AI algorithms. It recently announced they're working with Harvard University to address topics such as bias in algorithms. "We're not fans of lack of transparency and black boxes, where the answer is just'yes' or'no,'" said Hari Gopalkrishnan, client-facing platforms technology executive at Bank of America. Mr. Gopalkrishnan spoke about the bank's interest in artificial intelligence at Bank of America's Tech Summit, hosted Thursday at enterprise technology venture capital fund Work-Bench. The bank currently uses analytic models to help employees detect fraud and, for the past few months, has been studying how artificial intelligence could further improve the detection rate, he said.

The mantra of modern technology is to improve and innovate continuously. It makes sense as we strive to look for more improved ways to get processes, actions and activities done. Automation and machine learning, for instance, is currently used across many industries to streamline basic processes and remove the repetition from a normal worker's routine. Not to mention, machines tend to be more efficient and less resource intensive. A robotic or automated system continues to work at its set performance, never tiring, growing hungry or getting burnt out. As we create more innovative solutions as a society, do we also set ourselves up for harder, more damaging falls?

It's not an object you can blow up with a missile or send a UN team to inspect, but the technical knowledge of how to identify and exploit a set of systems, written clearly enough that a computer can do it. It's a recipe that can make millions of copies of itself even as it bakes the cake it describes, and even if all copies were to be deleted, all it would take to recreate it is a single person with the technical knowledge writing it down again. It's a poem that, written down, unread by human eyes, causes havoc in the real world. You might as well apply the concepts of "deterrence" and "arms control" to a rumor. By calling them "weapons," politicians and the military, while reflecting the uses for them they desire and fear, misunderstand their nature.

According to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 4.8 million people have fled Syria alone since the outbreak of civil war in 2011. In 2015, Amnesty International reported that the number of refugees worldwide reached nearly 20 million. When including displacements within countries, the number climbs to 60 million. Such numbers may appear to be a crippling crisis for many governments and NGOs - but they may be an opportunity for businesses and startups. Refugees looking for shelter away from areas of conflict often live in appalling conditions, with minimal access to food, water or healthcare.

In the search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI), we've often looked for signs of intelligence, technology and communication that are similar to our own. But as astronomer and SETI trailblazer Jill Tarter points out, that approach means searching for detectable technosignatures, like radio transmissions, not searching for intelligence. Now scientists are considering whether artificial intelligence (AI) could help us search for alien intelligence in ways we haven't even thought of yet. As we think about extraterrestrial intelligence it's helpful to remember humans are not the only intelligent life on Earth. Chimpanzees have culture and use tools, spiders process information with webs, cetaceans have dialects, crows understand analogies and beavers are great engineers.

As the latest indication of this, the White House announced the creation of a Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence during an organized AI summit of industry and academic partners Thursday. "As artificial intelligence transforms everything from agriculture to manufacturing to transportation, the potential for AI remains breathtaking," Michael Kratsios, deputy CTO at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, said in his remarks at the event. "But we cannot be passive. To realize the full potential of AI for the American people, it will require the combined efforts of industry, academia, and government." The new committee, likewise, holds a mission "to improve the coordination of Federal efforts related to AI to ensure continued U.S. leadership in this field."

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing field of technological development with potentially significant implications for national security. As such, the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) is developing AI applications for a range of military functions. AI research is underway in the fields of intelligence collection and analysis, logistics, cyberspace operations, command and control, and a variety of military autonomous vehicles. AI applications are already playing a role in operations in Iraq and Syria, with algorithms designed to speed up the target identification process. Congressional action has the potential to shape the technology's trajectory, with fiscal and regulatory decisions potentially influencing growth of national security applications and the standing of military AI development versus international competitors.

Donald Trump isn't the sort of person you'd expect to be up to speed on artificial intelligence technology. But U.S. tech companies made a pilgrimage to the White House last week to tell somebody that it's important. The summit on AI policy called for a combination of industry, academia, and government collaboration to compete with other nations in AI. AI will be used in everything from self-driving cars to household robots, and it could very well become a game changer for nation states. The stakes are going to be huge, with experts saying trillions of dollars in opportunities and life-saving breakthroughs will be up for grabs.

SkillMil, a new business venture spun off from the independent, nonprofit research center SRI International, aims to pair military veterans with civilian job opportunities. SkillMil uses a platform that quantifies the percentage match of a veteran's skills and experience with current job postings. The platform also identifies the training and skills needed to achieve a 100 percent job match. "Using state-of-the-art semantic reasoning technology, SkillMil improves the civilian employment experience for veterans by precisely matching the skills and experience of military veterans with job opportunities at companies seeking to hire veterans," the Menlo Park, California-based SRI announced in a release. To leverage a veteran's background, the platform also helps translate military jargon, revamping the process of understanding a soldier's skills and qualifications into a less confounding experience for civilian hiring managers.

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, but police say it's unknown if the Autopilot feature was engaged. The cause of the Friday evening crash, involving a Tesla Model S and a fire department mechanic truck stopped at a red light, was under investigation, said police in South Jordan, a suburb of Salt Lake City. The crash, in which the Tesla driver was injured, comes as federal safety agencies investigate the performance of Tesla's semi-autonomous driving system. The Tesla's air bags were activated in the crash, South Jordan police Sgt. The Tesla's driver suffered a broken right ankle, and the driver of the Unified Fire Authority mechanic truck didn't require treatment, Winkler said.