France will dedicate 1.5 billion euros (1.85 billion US dollars) to developing artificial intelligence (AI) by 2022, President Emmanuel Macron announced here on Thursday. During a speech to the "artificial intelligence for humanity" conference, Macron presented strategies to develop new technology in order to make France one of the "world leaders" in AI. Mathematician and national assembly representative Cedric Villani said AI "concerns the whole society" and spoke of the "wake up call to France and Europe". The French president said: "We must not have fear or refuse change. We must neither be naive", in order to "define the route which will allow us to have a strategy for AI".

The UK's first major Parliamentary inquiry into Artificial Intelligence has called for a new cross-sector ethics code to ensure that the country becomes a world leader in AI. Lord Clement-Jones, the Chairman of The House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, told Techworld that an ethical approach was essential to ensure public support for AI. "What we want is to make sure that the public is fully trusting in this technology, and you can only do that if they believe it's for the benefit of them and others when they're being applied, and also that it's transparent and unbiased in its application," he said. The proposed "AI Code" could attract public support by creating consistent guidelines for developing and using AI across all organisations and companies in both the public and private sectors. In a report titled AI in the UK: Ready, Willing and Able?, the committee set out five principles to form the basis of the code, which could be adopted internationally: This AI code could provide the basis for future statutory regulation, but the committee stopped short of recommending new regulation specifically for AI at this point.

The UK's House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence, has finally published its major report into the impact, regulation and use of AI, called'AI in the UK: ready, willing and able?' after taking evidence from multiple experts across many sectors, including from the legal industry. For those who have been following the debate closely it will come as no surprise that the report understandably sticks to the main themes of jobs and ethics. Although'the law' appears many times as a subject related to liability, transparency and ethics, there is little about the actual business of law and AI, or the New Wave of legal technology that is driven by AI tech such as NLP and machine learning. Although, again, there are references to the need for transparency in any algorithms that may help make decisions related to a defendant in a court case. The Lords committee also have asked the UK's Law Commission to review whether existing laws on liability cover errors created by an AI system.

A controversial Facebook AI tool could soon be making a return to Europe and Canada. Facial recognition, launched in 2010, suggests names for people it identifies in photos uploaded by users. It was suspended for users in Europe in 2012 over privacy concerns, but still lives on in the US and other regions worldwide. Now the firm says it will make a comeback, using the new European data protection regulations as a chance to collect more information if users opt in. The move to reintroduce the image scanning software is likely to ruffle feathers, coming in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica data handling debacle.

Facebook has started to seek explicit consent from users for targeted advertising, storage of sensitive information, and – for the first time in the EU – application of facial recognition technology as the European general data protection regulation (GDPR) is due to come into force in just over a month. The company is only required to seek the new permissions in the European Union, but it plans to roll them out to all Facebook users, no matter where they live. The move follows Mark Zuckerberg's stated goal to apply the spirit of GDPR worldwide. When Facebook users log in during the coming weeks, they will be asked to agree to the company's updated terms of service, and to make specific choices in a number of areas defined by the new law. In a blogpost, Facebook executives Erin Egan and Ashlie Beringer said users would be asked to review information about targeted advertising, and to choose whether or not they want the social network to use data from partners to show them ads; to explicitly confirm whether they're happy to share "political, religious, and relationship information", which is defined as specially protected data under EU law; and to agree to the use of facial recognition technology, which Facebook says will be used to detect which pictures users are in and help protect them against strangers using their photos.

A detailed map of the bubbling magma below the Yellowstone supervolcano could help experts reveal when the next deadly eruption may happen. The monstrous volcano - which last erupted around 640,000 years ago - has dual magma chambers. Now, a new computer model has revealed a'transition zone' that may control the movement of magma in these chambers. The new research doesn't currently reveal when the next eruption might happen, but it could help scientists put together predictions in the future. The mammoth volcano blows roughly every 600,000 to 700,000 years, meaning an eruption could be imminent.

If you're in the mood for shopping, this is a great, great week. Especially if you're awaiting a juicy tax refund, why not treat yourself to something you probably need? Nintendo's Labo kits come out this Friday and are currently available for pre-order. You can learn more about the kits, which we love, and how to order them, here Our friends at TechBargains have also found our favorite robot vacuum, the iRobot Roomba 690, on sale. The Roomba 690 lets you enjoy iRobot's top-of-the-line navigational engineering at an accessible price point.

The public sector should use targeted procurement to boost the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, according to Lords. In a report, the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence said the UK was "in a strong position to be among the world leaders in the development of artificial intelligence" and the technology, if "handled carefully", could solve complex problems and improve productivity. In evidence, the committee was told the use of AI across government departments and the public sector could save an estimated £4bn a year and "enable more informed policy decisions". The report said the government's annual spend of £45bn on goods and services gave it "immense power in encouraging the adoption of new behaviours and practices in its supply chains". The report said Brexit provided an opportunity to alter EU public procurement rules "to ensure that these rules and thresholds benefit businesses in the UK, in particular when it comes to public sector procurement and the stimulation of a fertile AI development sector, as long as it is still a competitive process".

The public sector should use targeted procurement to boost the development and deployment of artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK, according to Lords. In a report, the House of Lords Select Committee on Artificial Intelligence said the UK was "in a strong position to be among the world leaders in the development of artificial intelligence" and the technology, if "handled carefully", could solve complex problems and improve productivity. In evidence, the committee was told the use of AI across government departments and the public sector could save an estimated £4bn a year and "enable more informed policy decisions". The report said the government's annual spend of £45bn on goods and services gave it "immense power in encouraging the adoption of new behaviours and practices in its supply chains". The report said Brexit provided an opportunity to alter EU public procurement rules "to ensure that these rules and thresholds benefit businesses in the UK, in particular when it comes to public sector procurement and the stimulation of a fertile AI development sector, as long as it is still a competitive process".

A mayoral candidate in Japan has vowed to replace politicians with artificial intelligence that he says will gather statistics on voters to create policies. Michihito Matsuda, outlining his campaign in Tama New Town, western Tokyo, insisted machines would be able to crunch data to form'clearly defined politics'. Photographs show his campaign poster, which features a picture of a metallic humanoid robot with female features, on cars and billboards in the area. Matsuda, 44, made an impassioned speech outlining his unusual political vision for the vast Tama New Town housing development, which was built in the 1960s and is the largest in Japan. He said: 'Tama New Town was the most advanced city in Japan 40 years ago.