Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. In late September, Egyptian authorities began a crackdown against the country's queer communities after fans of Mashrou' Leila, an outspoken Lebanese indie rock group with an openly gay band member, displayed a rainbow flag at the group's concert in Cairo. The government responded quickly in what some activists called the worst campaign against LGBTQIA Egyptians in decades. Security forces arrested more than 85 individuals on a range of charges, including "habitual debauchery." Officials convicted at least 16 and issued sentences ranging from six months to six years in prison (though a handful were later released).

Russia claims it has developed powerful lasers to fire at enemy satellites in orbit. The plane-mounted lasers form part of an anti-satellite system that also involves both radar and ground-based components, reports claim. The news comes after a US Air Force chief warned yesterday that space warfare could break out between superpower nations'within years'. The system includes a laser mounted onto an aircraft as well as relevant ground control gear and radar that will help the device to find targets. The US Navy is also developing laser weapons, including this anti-drone'active laser' that will be mounted onto warships According to an anonymous source quoted by Russian news agency Interfax, weapons maker Almaz-Antey has'completed work on an anti-satellite complex'.

These eye-opening designs propose a future of flight that is both supersonic and eco-friendly. The hypersonic plane would cut travel times between New York and London to just three hours, more than halving the duration of current flights. What's more, the amazing aircraft will produce zero carbon emissions, thanks to the compact fusion reactor that will power it. According to designer Oscar Vinals, the craft, which he hopes will revolutionise the aeronautic industry, will run primarily on a compact fusion reactor (CFR). This reactor, the plans say, would provide the Magavem with an incredible amount of electrical energy - all at no cost to the environment.

Following the school shooting in Parkland, Florida, responsible for the loss of 17 lives, Donald Trump held a meeting at the White House. Seemingly intended to disabuse the nation of the imminent threat of semi-automatic weapons, the president shifted attention to other possible culprits: violent video games. He said: "I'm hearing more and more people say the level of violence on [sic] video games is really shaping young people's thoughts." Considering he couldn't maintain focus on violent games for a full speech, let alone a news cycle, it's a challenge to muster concern about what Trump's bluster means for the future of the medium. Nor is the fate of the video game industry as pressing as the fate of the nation's populace, whose lives will remain in real peril, so long as Trump and his supporters continue to turn the conversation away from dramatic change in the commercial gun industry.

Since entrepreneur Chris Mansi cofounded Viz.ai in 2016, the best-funded wizards of artificial intelligence have taken on board games, and created emoji that mirror your facial expressions. Meanwhile, Mansi has been developing algorithms to save the brain cells of stroke patients. This month, the Food and Drug Administration cleared Viz.ai to market its algorithms to doctors and hospitals. It was a small breakthrough toward using AI to make healthcare more efficient and powerful. Someone in the US suffers a stroke every 40 seconds, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

Over 60 years ago, in what is today southern Kazakhstan, the Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite into Earth's orbit. The launch of Sputnik 1 provoked a panic in the United States that catalyzed a flurry of investment and research, which ultimately put man on the moon. China's Sputnik moment came in March 2016, when AlphaGo, an artificial intelligence program developed by Google's DeepMind, defeated South Korean Go master Lee Sedol. As The New York Times reported, AlphaGo's victory had a profound impact on politicians in China, one that spurred increased commitment to Beijing's effort to rule AI. In July 2017, China's State Council published an ambitious policy blueprint calling for the country to become "the world's primary AI innovation center" by 2030.

As was also clearly stated by Vladimir Putin on September 4, 2017: "whichever country leads the way in Artificial Intelligence research will be the ruler of the world". According to Thomas Kuhn's old, but still useful, epistemological model, every change of the scientific paradigm – rather than the emergence of new material discoveries – radically changes the visions of the world and hence strategic equilibria. Hence, first of all, what is Artificial Intelligence? It consists of a series of mathematical tools, but also of psychology, electronic technology, information technology and computer science tools, through which a machine is taught to think as if it were a human being, but with the speed and security of a computer. The automatic machine must representman's knowledge, namely show it, thus enabling an external operator to change the process and understand its results within the natural language.

Perhaps the revelation that predictive policing software is deeply biased against people of color. Or outrage over the use of predictive algorithms to evaluate teachers. Or maybe it'll be something way more pedestrian, like Amazon pushing its own products instead of the cheapest. Either way, we're nearing a moment of reckoning with how AI is regulated by the government, and it's going to be a long road toward reasonable, working legislation on it. This week the AI Now Institute, a leading group studying the topic, published its own proposal.

PSD2 stands for second payment standards directive, and was issued by the EU with the intent to open access to data and services previously only available to banks. In theory, PSD2 went into effect on January 13, and should provide a clear framework for implementation. The difference between theory and practice is small in theory, but big in practice. PSD2 is defined in a set of documents published by the EU, which are to be subsequently implemented as legislation by parliaments in EU countries and enforced by regulating bodies. PSD2 will effectively force financial institutions active in the EU to open up data and functionality previously only available to them to other parties.

The government plans to build a system using artificial intelligence to ease spectator congestion at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, sources said Tuesday. The system will help guide spectators to less crowded exit routes at competition venues. Some 10 million spectators are expected to attend the Summer Olympics and Paralympics from July to September 2020. Fans will receive congestion forecasts at various points every 30 minutes after an event ends through their smartphones and electronic boards set up around the venue, and will be guided toward less congested routes to train stations. To make such forecasts, the AI-based system will obtain information on the flow of pedestrians through roadside cameras and by measuring smartphone activity. Measures to protect individuals' privacy are being considered.