Most people are not very familiar with the concept of artificial intelligence (AI). As an illustration, when 1,500 senior business leaders in the United States in 2017 were asked about AI, only 17 percent said they were familiar with it.1 A number of them were not sure what it was or how it would affect their particular companies. They understood there was considerable potential for altering business processes, but were not clear how AI could be deployed within their own organizations. Despite its widespread lack of familiarity, AI is a technology that is transforming every walk of life. It is a wide-ranging tool that enables people to rethink how we integrate information, analyze data, and use the resulting insights to improve decisionmaking. Our hope through this comprehensive overview is to explain AI to an audience of policymakers, opinion leaders, and interested observers, and demonstrate how AI already is altering the world and raising important questions for society, the economy, and governance. In this paper, we discuss novel applications in finance, national security, health care, criminal justice, transportation, and smart cities, and address issues such as data access problems, algorithmic bias, AI ethics and transparency, and legal liability for AI decisions. We contrast the regulatory approaches of the U.S. and European Union, and close by making a number of recommendations for getting the most out of AI while still protecting important human values.2 Although there is no uniformly agreed upon definition, AI generally is thought to refer to "machines that respond to stimulation consistent with traditional responses from humans, given the human capacity for contemplation, judgment and intention."3 According to researchers Shubhendu and Vijay, these software systems "make decisions which normally require [a] human level of expertise" and help people anticipate problems or deal with issues as they come up.4 As such, they operate in an intentional, intelligent, and adaptive manner. Artificial intelligence algorithms are designed to make decisions, often using real-time data. They are unlike passive machines that are capable only of mechanical or predetermined responses. Using sensors, digital data, or remote inputs, they combine information from a variety of different sources, analyze the material instantly, and act on the insights derived from those data. With massive improvements in storage systems, processing speeds, and analytic techniques, they are capable of tremendous sophistication in analysis and decisionmaking.

Facebook is in "crisis" over its data abuse scandal, according to the academic at the heart of it. The social network is still struggling to deal with the fallout from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which arose amid allegations about the misuse of people's most personal data. That scandal – which has been linked to both the Brexit and Trump campaigns – has quickly become about Facebook more generally. The company has been forced to respond to criticisms of its business practises by posting a series of articles online, in which it defends itself in a variety of different ways. It has been forced to admit that it gathers ad data by tracking people around the web, for instance, and has claimed that people are wrong to suggest that users are the product in Facebook's services.

"I see them as kind of a great white shark. You don't really want to mess with them." The words are those of a former manager at Amazon – and she is describing her former employer. It is an apt analogy. Amazon is huge – worth $740bn (£530bn) at Monday night's share price – but it moves fast and is a lethal predator.

The UK government is drawing up plans to ban robots from buying tickets for concerts and musicals – and, I assume, other things you might need tickets for, such as An Evening With Les Dennis. Actually, what the authorities want to crack down on is ticket touts swallowing up vast amounts of tickets with automated software – which they then sell on at massively inflated prices to fill their greedy pockets. The ticket-tackling legislation will be presented to MPs this week, and if passed those who use software in such a covetous manner will'face an unlimited fine'. Back in December, the Telegraph reported that tickets to the hip-hop musical Hamilton were being sold by touts for up to £6,000. Meanwhile, and also in 2017, the inexplicably popular Ed Sheeran was so incensed by the antics of touts that he cancelled 10,000 tickets to some of his shows that were being sold online at ridiculous prices.

NEW DELHI: In a concerted effort towards making India a leading nation in the field of artificial intelligence, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has asked Niti Aayog to familiarise all ministries with the high-end technology and explain how it can be leveraged to address the country's socio-economic problems. Central ministries will be required to set up dedicated artificial intelligence cells and eventually they will all be integrated to help scale up the performance of all social indicators. Following this directive from the PM, the government's think-tank is likely to periodically review the progress made on AI across ministries. The Aayog has already initiated pilot projects on adoption of AI across health, education and agriculture. By May end, it will formulate a national strategy/policy on AI, outlining the scope of research, adoption and commercialisation of the technology.

Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Scott Gottlieb took aim at various players in the drug supply chain in a Feb. 28 speech, painting a picture of how the system should look. "We want to create a system that flags illegitimate drugs in the supply chain," Gottlieb said. "A fully digitized supply chain can also help develop predictive analytics to reduce health care fraud, waste, and abuse. It can allow regulated industry and regulators to more easily manage or avoid costly or dangerous supply disruptions." As a potential solution to challenges across the system, Gottlieb called for standardized documentation practices for the supply chain as a potential solution -- and that's where technology comes in.

Singapore, South Korea, and Germany topped a recent survey of how countries across the world are dealing with rapidly advancing artificial intelligence (AI) technology primed to automate millions of jobs in the coming years. Commissioned by ABB, The Economist Intelligence Unit created their Automation Readiness Index using data and interviews with industry stakeholders, economists, government officials, and NGOs. The index ranks countries by how prepared they are for what they call "intelligent automation." There have long been questions about the future of automation and the adoption of AI-backed robotics that can do more than just replicate physical human tasks. Businesses are showing little hesitation in exploring AI, but governments continue to struggle in preparing populations for the coming changes to the workforce.

Well before Terminator robots rise and attack us, AI could help us destroy ourselves with nuclear weapons, warns a new study. The news: A RAND Corporation report concludes that military adoption of artificial intelligence and other emerging technologies could have a destabilizing effect over the next couple of decades, and lead one nation to take the nuclear option. Details: Strategic stability provided by "mutually assured destruction" might be undermined if AI offers a new--and vastly better--way to target an adversary's weapons systems, the report says. The report's findings are drawn from information collected through workshops including experts on nuclear weapons, national security, government policy, and AI. The study also suggests that, under some scenarios, AI could help preserve strategic stability, by providing new ways of gathering and analyzing information about nuclear capabilities.

A representation of a deep learning neural network designed to intelligently extract text-based information from cancer pathology reports. Despite steady progress in detection and treatment in recent decades, cancer remains the second leading cause of death in the United States, cutting short the lives of approximately 500,000 people each year. To better understand and combat this disease, medical researchers rely on cancer registry programs--a national network of organizations that systematically collect demographic and clinical information related to the diagnosis, treatment, and history of cancer incidence in the United States. The surveillance effort, coordinated by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, enables researchers and clinicians to monitor cancer cases at the national, state, and local levels. Much of this data is drawn from electronic, text-based clinical reports that must be manually curated--a time-intensive process--before it can be used in research.

A new RAND Corporation paper finds that artificial intelligence has the potential to upend the foundations of nuclear deterrence by the year 2040. While AI-controlled doomsday machines are considered unlikely, the hazards of artificial intelligence for nuclear security lie instead in its potential to encourage humans to take potentially apocalyptic risks, according to the paper. During the Cold War, the condition of mutual assured destruction maintained an uneasy peace between the superpowers by ensuring that any attack would be met by a devastating retaliation. Mutual assured destruction thereby encouraged strategic stability by reducing the incentives for either country to take actions that might escalate into a nuclear war. The new RAND publication says that in coming decades, artificial intelligence has the potential to erode the condition of mutual assured destruction and undermine strategic stability.