A strong declaration from a historically antagonist foe should put chills in the hearts of Americans preparing themselves for the world ahead: Russian President Vladimir Putin says the nation that leads in AI will be the ruler of the world [1]" … The ruler of the world! "The development of artificial intelligence has increasingly become a national security concern in recent years. It is China and the US (not Russia), which are seen as the two frontrunners, with China recently announcing its ambition to become the global leader in AI research by 2030. Many analysts warn that America is in danger of falling behind, especially as the [current US] administration prepares to cut funding for basic science and technology research." Elon Musk, one of America's foremost technology advocates, predicts that countries seeking leadership (and domination) from artificial intelligence will be the basis for World War III[2].

It has been nearly five years since Syrian government forces imposed a siege on the rebel-held Eastern Ghouta. The past month has been one of the deadliest in the enclave, with more 1,200 civilians killed since the aerial and ground bombardment began on February 18. As the campaign against Eastern Ghouta continues, schools and universities have either been destroyed or shut down, leaving students with few options for continuing their education. Some have enrolled in online universities, while others have joined new, start-up medical academies to address the extreme shortage of medical staff in the area. Three students spoke to Al Jazeera about the obstacles they face as they try to continue their education in Eastern Ghouta.

Companies have an expensive retention problem. Identifying, sourcing and training the right talent, which can range from $4,000 to nearly $60,000, is simply the first step in a journey of the employee experience. Yet, this investment does not always bear fruit, as the average time an employee spends at a company is only 4.2 years, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Estimates in Silicon Valley are much lower. What makes people stay at their place of work?

Last December, NASA announced that two new exoplanets had been hiding in plain sight among data from the Kepler space telescope. These two new planets weren't discovered by a human, however. Instead, an exoplanet hunting neural network--a type of machine learning algorithm loosely modeled after the human brain--had discovered the planets by finding subtle patterns in the Kepler data that would've been nearly impossible for a human to see. On Thursday, Christopher Shallue, the lead Google engineer behind the exoplanet AI, announced in a blog post that the company was making the algorithm open source. In other words, anyone can download the code and help hunt for exoplanets in Kepler data.

For this year's report, I took a stab at learning all the CSS/JS that I've always wanted to know, and then went after the task of making a fully responsive report. I've succeeded in doing so, and so this PDF version isn't as good as the real thing. In the next few days I will be sharing a link to the real digital experience. But for now -- enjoy this static version of the report which has a few parts that couldn't render to static form. Because ... this year's report is truly computationally designed and therefore needs to be expressed appropriately (smile). Expect a video version on my new YouTube channel "John Maeda is Learning." What can I do about it? As the marginal return on computing power (a la Moore's law) diminishes and technology is less of a differentiating factor, the value of design has entered the foreground. Five (20%) of the top cumulative-funded VC- backed ventures that have raised additional capital since 2013 are noted to have designer co-founders.

The attorney general for the US state of Massachusetts is launching an investigation into alleged harvesting of Facebook profiles by a firm employed by Donald Trump's election campaign. Investigations by the Observer and New York Times newspapers claim details from 50 million profiles were gathered without the users' knowledge. The company, Cambridge Analytica, was suspended from Facebook on Friday. Both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica deny any wrongdoing. The American data analysis firm - which is not associated with the famous British university - is well known for the role it played in President Trump's election campaign, where it provided intricate data on the thoughts of American voters.

In today's always connected world, losing power is more than just an annoyance. "The truth is, we rely on electricity much more than we realize," writes Sherry Hewins in her column What Could Happen in a Long-Term Power Outage? "Even if you live'off the grid' as I did for years, you are still living in a world and a society that is deeply dependent upon electricity." It is the "deep dependency" that has power companies moving toward what is called the Smart Grid, a more efficient and reliable power-distribution infrastructure. One reason these capabilities are possible is the use of two-way communications between power-distribution centers and smart equipment (smart meters and smart appliances) downstream. Enhanced communications help more than just the people who make sure electricity keeps flowing.

Last year, more than 15,000 victims lost some $210 million in "confidence frauds" and romance scams, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation. The lesson: Meeting people online comes with risks. And the way to protect yourself or someone you love isn't as simple as "Don't be foolish." Smart people fall prey to scams. Scammers are really good at what they do.

The use of bots to meddle in political elections. Algorithms that learn who people are and keep them coming back to social media platforms. The rise of autonomous vehicles and drones that could displace hundreds of thousands of workers. The "robot apocalypse" that some envisioned with the rise of artificial intelligence hasn't arrived, but machine learning systems are becoming part of Californians' everyday lives, tech experts told state lawmakers in Sacramento earlier this month. As use of the technology becomes more widespread, so will the challenges for legislators who will have to grapple with how and when they should step in to protect people's personal data.

Artificial intelligence might arguably be the newest frontier of human experience, but there's no denying that man has been fascinated with the concept for millennia. From the mythical stories of Hephaestus creating mechanical servants and brazen-footed bulls that puffed fire from their mouths, to the talking heads of the 13th century, to IBM Watson and modern forms of AI, the subject has been bubbling on the surface of human consciousness. The time is now here for AI to come of age; and, in many ways, it already has. But now there's a new problem, and it's not one of how AI can be implemented, as has been the major challenge in the past. AI has now sprouted into a plethora of forms, each rivaling the other in an attempt to showcase its superior capabilities.