At Agricenter, the group looked at agribusiness startups under the umbrella of AgLaunch, a joint effort of Memphis Bioworks Foundation and Tennessee Department of Agriculture. Case said agriculture has traditionally been an early adopter of technology, with driverless tractors tilling fields long before autonomous vehicles showed up on highways.

WASHINGTON - A bill aimed at tightening oversight of foreign investment in the United States because of concern about China's acquisition of critical technology is headed for a vote this month in the U.S. Senate Banking Committee, the panel said on Friday. The committee also released draft proposals that will be voted on to amend the bill, which was introduced last November by Senator John Cornyn. Proposed changes to the measure appear aimed largely at blunting opposition from high tech companies and investment firms, which had worried that even innocuous transactions would be subject to extended reviews by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States, or CFIUS. CFIUS is an inter-agency panel led by the Treasury Department that assesses potential foreign investment to ensure it does not harm national security. The bill in the Senate, and a companion measure in the U.S. House of Representatives, would broaden CFIUS' reach in hopes of reining in China's acquisition of U.S. high tech knowledge even as China has sought to focus on production of higher-value goods, like robots, computers and telecommunications equipment.

The following essay is reprinted with permission from The Conversation, an online publication covering the latest research. 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.

Google Duplex will call salons, restaurants, and pretend to be your personal human. Google will one day be able to drive a car for you. It can help you compose your e-mails and finish your thoughts now, automatically. And now, in a spooky view of the future, it can even make phone calls on your behalf. Google's display of artificial intelligence and what computers are now capable of this week at its I/O developer's conference was both the most exciting breakthrough in tech of the year, and the scariest.

The federal government is finally embracing drones. This week, the FAA endorsed 10 pilot projects that will see UAVs delivering medicine, inspecting infrastructure, monitor the border, and more. "This tech is developing so rapidly that our country is reaching a tipping point," said Secretary of Transportation Elaine Chao, when announcing the trials. Depending on the results, the little buzzers could become even more common than the mosquitos some of them are being programmed to help eradicate. So it's natural for drone operators to start thinking ahead to the next big leap: carrying people.

I'm afraid I can't do that." In "2001: A Space Odyssey" Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke may have presciently described our robotic future. Google's recent announcement of Duplex, "An AI System for Accomplishing Real-World Tasks Over the Phone," has once-again raised the issue of artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics. The big question now is will we end up with the HAL 9000, bent on self-preservation at any cost? Or will we get his benign cousin who unfailingly follows Isaac Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics: Would you realize you were speaking to a robot? While Google's Duplex is an AI system specifically trained for a narrow set of circumstances over the phone, it's only the beginning. What if Duplex is integrated into robots? Let's explore two future scenarios. The first is a benevolent world served by the intelligent robots we've designed. The second scenario, where intelligent robots dominate future warfare and siphon jobs away, is probably closer to the truth for many.

TAMPA, FLORIDA – The U.S. space agency said Friday it plans to launch the first helicopter to Mars in 2020, a miniature, unmanned drone-like chopper that could boost our understanding of the red planet. Known simply as the Mars Helicopter, the device weighs less than 1.8 kilograms and its main body section, or fuselage, is about the size of a softball. It will be attached to the belly pan of the Mars 2020 rover, a wheeled robot that aims to determine the habitability of the Martian environment, search for signs of ancient life and assess natural resources and hazards for future human explorers. Mars 2020 is planned for launch in July 2020, with an arrival on the surface of Mars expected in February 2021. "NASA has a proud history of firsts," said NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine in a statement.

India has ambitions to fire up its artificial intelligence capabilities -- but experts say that it's unlikely to catch up with the U.S. and China, which are fiercely competing to be the world leader in the field. An Indian government-appointed task force has released a comprehensive plan with recommendations to boost the AI sector in the country for at least the next five years -- from developing AI technologies and infrastructure, to data usage and research. The task force, appointed by India's Ministry of Commerce and Industry, proposes that the government work with the private sector to develop technologies, with a focus on smart cities and the country's power and water infrastructure. It recommends a network of infrastructure -- a testing facility, and six centers focusing on research in generating AI technologies, such as robotics, autonomous trucks and advanced financial technology. A data center could be set up to "develop an autonomous AI machine that can work on multiple data streams in real time," the plan said. Calling data the "fuel that powers AI," the report said data marketplaces and exchanges could allow the "free flow of data."

Security threats are major concerns to healthcare organizations due to the value and vulnerability of clinical data that is being recorded and distributed. The value of the data comes from the fact that it is historical in nature; it directly affects our ability to safely treat patients, it takes a long time to rebuild, and it contains more than just clinical data, but also a lot of personal, financial, and demographic data, which allows it to be used for wider identity theft. It is persistent, whereas you can change credit cards and their passwords, PINs and account numbers in the event of a breach, you cannot change your mother's maiden name. The vulnerability comes from the fact that there has been a revolution in healthcare with the interconnection of systems, cloud computing, Internet of Health Things (IoHT) and mobile devices and the changes in working practices of clinicians, such as remote monitoring, telemedicine, and working from home. This revolution has not always been matched with the security awareness, policies, practices, and budgets of health care organizations.

First, the project attempts to utilize game theory to "ascertain the intent of the adversary." Interestingly, the project assumes that all agents are rational--meaning, I believe, that agents will act to maximize their respective utilities--and that normative theories about how agents will act are important. Explicitly excluded, however, are "descriptive theories that focus on … intangible aspects such as human judgment, irrationality, biases, [and] cognitive limitations." While this may make sense from a streamlined game-theoretic approach, it in no way reflects the real world. Indeed, even game theorists acknowledge the importance of factors that COMPASS excludes, which is why they make ample use of theories of bounded rationality, uncertainty, imperfect information, and the very notion of "adversarial."