More than 50 AI experts have boycotted a South Korean university, over fears that it could be looking to "accelerate the arms race" by building so-called "killer robots". The Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) recently announced the launch of a "Research Center for the Convergence of National Defense and Artificial Intelligence", in partnership with arms company Hanwha Systems. The move suggested that KAIST, which came in 46th place in QS' 2018 rankings of the best universities in the world, was planning to help the arms firm build artificial intelligence-enhanced weapons that could be used by the military. Over 50 AI and robotics researchers have now signed an open letter, calling for the boycott of KAIST. "At a time when the United Nations is discussing how to contain the threat posed to international security by autonomous weapons, it is regrettable that a prestigious institution like KAIST looks to accelerate the arms race to develop such weapons," it reads.

Facebook faces the dilemma of losing trust and even users in the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica data leak. Consumer privacy groups are filing a complaint with the FTC that Facebook is violating a privacy decree by failing to get consent from users before it scans their photos to identify them. Already under siege over loose privacy controls and Russian manipulation, Facebook is about to be challenged on another issue: facial recognition. The Electronic Privacy Information Center and several other consumer groups plan Friday to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission asking for an investigation into the network's use of facial recognition technology. Facebook for years has used the technology to help users in tagging photos, but it has failed to gain proper consent for linking biometric markers with individual users, the technology watchdog groups say.

NEW DELHI: The four committees set up by the ministry of electronics and IT (MEITY) to deliberate on the various aspects of Artificial Intelligence (AI) are expected to publish the report of their findings by end of this month. The government had constituted four committees in February this year with the aim of understanding various regulatory and technical challenges associated with AI along with areas where the technology could be implemented. The committees have a representation from the government, academia, companies such as Google and Microsoft along with industry bodies such as Nasscom. While the committee on platforms and data for AI is headed by Professor PP Chakraborty of IIT Kharagpur, the one for leveraging AI for identifying national missions in key sectors has Professor Rajeev Sangal of IIT-BHU as its chairman. Executives such as Anant Maheshwari, president of Microsoft India, Gautam Shroff, head of research of Tata Consultancy Services and Ganesh Mahabala of Nvidia and Sanjay Sinha, India/ South Asia Leader for Watson Data & AI Platforms at IBM are some of the top industry representatives to be part of these committees.

The artificial intelligence (AI) community has a clear message for researchers in South Korea: Don't make killer robots. Nearly 60 AI and robotics experts from almost 30 countries have signed an open letter calling for a boycott against KAIST, a public university in Daejeon, South Korea, that has been reported to be "develop[ing] artificial intelligence technologies to be applied to military weapons, joining the global competition to develop autonomous arms," the open letter said. In other words, KAIST might be researching how to make military-grade AI weapons. According to the open letter, AI experts the world over became concerned when they learned that KAIST -- in collaboration with Hanwha Systems, South Korea's leading arms company -- opened a new facility on Feb. 20 called the Research Center for the Convergence of National Defense and Artificial Intelligence. Given that the United Nations (U.N.) is already discussing how to safeguard the international community against killer AI robots, "it is regrettable that a prestigious institution like KAIST looks to accelerate the arms race to develop such weapons," the researchers wrote in the letter.

A former US marine who lost her left arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident has been fitted with a bionic prosthetic arm that allows her to feel things through the fake fingers. Claudia Mitchell, 37, never thought she'd be able to do things like open water bottles or pick up items with her left thumb and forefinger again after her arm was amputated. However, through more than a decade of research trials a team at Cleveland Clinic has created a bionic prosthetic arm that allows her to do most of those things she didn't think would ever be possible. The cutting-edge technology is part of a booming field of research into prosthetics that could revolutionize movement for amputees. Claudia Mitchell, 37, lost her arm at the shoulder in a motorcycle accident in 2004.

More than 3,000 Google employees have penned an open letter calling upon the internet giant's CEO to end its controversial'Project Maven' deal. Calling the deal'business of war', they said Google boss Sundar Pichai should'cancel this project immediately'. It was revealed last month that Google is allowing the Pentagon to use some of its artificial intelligence technologies to analyze drone footage. Google employees were reportedly outraged by the project from the beginning, but took their opposition a step further by publishing the open letter. Google employees penned a letter urging CEO Sundar Pichai to step away from'Project Maven,' where the Pentagon using TensorFlow software to identify objects in drone footage Project Maven involves using Google's artificial intelligence software to analyze aerial surveillance video to look for patterns that can help military intelligence analysts. Work on the project began last April.

Scientists at the Army Research Laboratory (ARL) are covering some new ground in artificial intelligence (AI) by connecting a machine with human intelligence via a neural connection. Not to worry: the research team isn't cooking up an AI system that will run the show inside a person's head. But it does have promise for both medical as well as deep machine learning systems uses, potentially in military and everyday applications. The work by ARL and the DCS Corporation recently won the Neurally Augmented Image Labelling Strategies, or NAILS, challenge at an international machine learning research competition in Tokyo, according to ARL. The goal of NAILS was to incorporate brain activity into machine learning methods that can detect if an image a person was seeing was relevant to the task at hand, as part of an effort to improve the ability of humans and machines to manage information by working together.

London/Singapore:The scandal over the alleged abuse of Facebook Inc.'s user data is unfolding a long way from China, and yet privacy regulators in Beijing have been watching intently. Their interest shows how all three big players in the technology world--the Americans, Chinese and Europeans--are feeling their way to balance the demands of consumers for privacy and of governments for security. But they're also competing to shape the rules of the game for internet companies and, for the US and China in particular, to maximize access to data for a bigger goal: to dominate artificial intelligence, the next frontier in machine learning. "All of these governments and companies are in the middle of trying to figure out what data governance should look like," said Samm Sacks, senior fellow in the technology program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, a Washington think tank. "And this is happening in a global context that will have implications for trade and for research and development in AI." New Chinese privacy standards take effect on 1 May.

WASHINGTON – Investigators on two congressional panels are looking into whether Russia acquired the data of millions of Facebook users and if companies with ties to then-2016 Republican election candidate Donald Trump's campaign played any role in providing it, three sources familiar with the inquiries said. On Tuesday, Facebook said it had deleted 70 Facebook accounts, 138 Facebook pages and 65 Instagram accounts that it said were "controlled" by the Internet Research Agency (IRA), a Russian propaganda arm based in St. Petersburg. Last September, Facebook disclosed that it had suspended about 470 "inauthentic accounts" that it believed were "likely operated out of Russia" and had purchased 3,000 ads which "appeared to focus on amplifying divisive social and political messages." And on Wednesday, the social media platform said the personal information of up to 87 million users, mostly in the United States, may have been improperly shared with political consultancy Cambridge Analytica, up from a previous news media estimate of more than 50 million. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg will testify on April 10 and 11 to Congress.

Politicians worldwide are stealing one of the US government's best ideas by drawing up ambitious plans to make the most of advances in artificial intelligence. These AI manifestos, penned in Paris, Beijing, and elsewhere, follow the example of the Obama administration, which released a report on the technology toward the end of its tenure. This report did not include funding, but it made it clear that AI should be a key focus of government strategy. The Trump administration has abandoned this vision and has no intention of devising its own AI plan, say those working there. They say there is no need for an AI moonshot, and that minimizing government interference is the best way to make sure the technology flourishes.