Industrial technology and engine specialist Rolls-Royce has joined forces with the Alan Turing Institute and the Hasso Plattner Institute to further its industrial artificial intelligence (AI) and other digital capabilities. The first of these partnerships was revealed by Internet of Business in its coverage of the UK's £1 billion Sector Deal for AI last week, but further details have since emerged. Business secretary Greg Clark is eager to present the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), signed between Rolls-Royce and the Alan Turing Institute, as being indicative of the UK government's new AI ambitions: "Advances in science, technology, and data are changing the way we live and work. Through our modern Industrial Strategy, and its landmark AI Sector Deal, we want to ensure the UK continues to be at the heart of this growing industry, reap the economic benefits, and deliver the transformational nature of this technology to people across the country. This agreement between The Alan Turing Institute and Rolls-Royce will make a valuable contribution in this pioneering field, bringing together the best minds from both institutions to develop the innovative AI solutions of tomorrow. Building on the pioneering work of its namesake, the Alan Turing Institute is the UK's not-for-profit institute for data science. The research body was formed by some of the country's leading universities and seeks to promote data science in the'age of algorithms'. Neil Crockett, chief digital officer, Rolls-Royce, commented:"This collaboration is about delivering real-world impact from AI technologies, but on an industrial scale.

FLORENCE – For policymakers anywhere, the best way to make decisions is to base them on evidence, however imperfect the available data may be. But what should leaders do when facts are scarce or non-existent? That is the quandary facing those who must grapple with the fallout of "advanced predictive algorithms" – the binary building blocks of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI). In academic circles, AI-minded scholars are either "singularitarians" or "presentists." Singularitarians generally argue that while AI technologies pose an existential threat to humanity, the benefits outweigh the costs.

It has been an incredible few years watching artificial intelligence (AI) emerge from the world of academia to become a mainstream business practice, and even being mentioned in Teen Vogue. AI is arguably the biggest technology opportunity for the UK economy today, so it's good to see the government taking this seriously by making it a core part of its modern industrial strategy. Last Thursday, the government agreed its AI sector deal with international tech firms, which will see £1bn of investment put into the industry. The step-changes in the capacity to collect and process massive amounts of data, combined with unprecedented accessibility of scalable cloud computing power and a wave of global entrepreneurship, has unlocked the AI technology developed in the 1950s, leading to massive innovation. AI already enables me to plan traffic-free journeys, play the perfect next music track, unlock my iPhone using my face, set a timer using my voice – and soon, hopefully, drive better.

Its chief economist has hinted that analysis of people's music choices could be a useful tool and give a "window on their soul". In a speech about new possibilities in data analytics, Andy Haldane said data on downloads from Spotify had been used to gain an insight into people's mood. Book lists, TV choices and even computer games could also be used to gauge consumer confidence. He said: "To give one recent example, data on music downloads from Spotify has been used, in tandem with semantic search techniques applied to the words of songs, to provide an indicator of people's sentiment." He said the results did at least as well in tracking consumer spending as the well-regarded Michigan survey of consumer confidence in the US.

Victoria has threatened to pull out of a state and federal government agreement for the home affairs department to run a facial recognition system because the bill expands Peter Dutton's powers and allows access to information by the private sector and local governments. In October the Council of Australia Governments agreed to give federal and state police real-time access to passport, visa, citizenship and driver's licence images for a wide range of criminal investigations. The identity matching services bill, introduced in February, enables the home affairs department to collect, use and disclose identification information including facial biometric matching. In a submission to the parliamentary joint committee on intelligence and security, the Victorian special minister of state, Gavin Jennings, warned that the bill provided "significant scope" for the home affairs minister to expand his powers beyond what was agreed. This includes the ability to collect new types of identification information and expand identity matching services.

The European Commission (EC) has put forward new measures to boost funding for AI and open up more data for re-use to make data-sharing easier within the digital single market. Publically available data, like data from public utilities, environmental data as well as research and health data will be made available for reuse under the EC's plans, in a bid to help startups and larger businesses across the EU use the data to develop innovative services. Using data in the public domain is essential to developing services based on new technologies, the EC believes, such as artificial intelligence (AI), which China, the US and other countries are investing heavily in - just today the UK announced a £1 billion public-private sector partnership investment in the technology. The Commission's vice-president for the digital single market, Andrus Ansip, highlighted the need for data to make the most of technological advances. "The digital single market is rapidly taking shape; but without data, we will not make the most of artificial intelligence, high-performance computing and other technological advances," he said.

Of all the wonders in our solar system, there's no place beyond our own planet that's been studied more intensely than Mars. Since humans first took to the stars we've sent over 21 different spacecraft to study our rust-colored neighbor. Right now there are two rovers driving around inside of craters, and six satellites overhead. But all of this activity still isn't enough--Mars is about to get one more resident. In about a week NASA will launch a lander called InSight.

ABU DHABI – Japan and its top trade partner in the Middle East, the United Arab Emirates, agreed on Monday to expand economic, political and defense cooperation. Tokyo and Abu Dhabi also signed an investment protection agreement, capping off a two-day visit by Prime Minister Shinzo Abe to the oil-rich Gulf state. Abe arrived late Sunday on the first leg of a Middle East tour that will also take him to Jordan, Israel and the Palestinian territories. In a joint statement, the two countries praised growing trade between them. They "stressed the importance of further enhancing trade, investments, and business such as renewable energy, sustainable water desalination … artificial intelligence, health care and medical equipment," the statement said.

The US Army recently announced that it is developing the first drones that can spot and target vehicles and people using artificial intelligence (AI). This is a big step forward. Whereas current military drones are still controlled by people, this new technology will decide who to kill with almost no human involvement. Once complete, these drones will represent the ultimate militarization of AI and trigger vast legal and ethical implications for wider society. There is a chance that warfare will move from fighting to extermination, losing any semblance of humanity in the process.

Hold the narrative about self-aware artificial intelligence wiping out the human race, at least for now. We've got more pressing issues. According to a study published last week, the United States is quickly falling behind other developed nations in preparing workers for a future driven by AI and automation. The Automation Readiness Index looks at 25 advanced economies to determine which is making the greatest strides in preparing their workforce for an automated future. Researchers broke it down into three main categories: innovation environment (money spent on research and development, and investment in the space), school policies (early education and lifelong curricula), and public workforce development (government-led programs, re-training of workers).