South Korea is deploying a fleet of drone-catching drones to bolster security at this month's 2018 Winter Olympics. Police will use the drones to drop nets on dangerous-looking unmanned aerial vehicles approaching the Olympics grounds in Pyeongchang. The Games, which start Friday, are expected to draw 35,000 spectators, with a host of world leaders including US Vice President Mike Pence set to attend. Officials are concerned that terrorists could use rogue flying machines to disrupt the two-week event by carrying bombs toward crowd members or athletes. South Korea is deploying a fleet of drone-catch drones to bolster its security at this month's 2018 Winter Olympics.

As the new year draws near, healthcare organizations are thinking about where to focus their resources. Matt Mellen, security architect and healthcare solution lead at Palo Alto Networks, predicts that, in 2018, machine learning capabilities will not only enhance a healthcare organization's cybersec...

The biggest Silicon Valley legal battle in years pits a highflying startup against a tech behemoth, in a case that has already yielded a year of drama and legal wrangling. Waymo's lawsuit, filed in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, alleges Uber ransacked the tech giant's driverless-car design secrets after paying about $680 million in 2016 to buy autonomous-truck company Otto, founded by a former star engineer at Google, Anthony Levandowski. Uber denies the allegations, though court filings indicate it knew before buying Otto that Mr. Levandowski had possession of sensitive Google files. The San Francisco startup has said it is using its own technology to create autonomous vehicles. Last May, it fired Mr. Levandowski in part due to what it said was his unwillingness to cooperate with its own investigation.

The UK could be hit hard by the increasing use of machine learning technology over the next few decades, new research has claimed. A report from Google has predicted that the UK economy would see an average negative growth in the years up to 2030 as artificial intelligence and machine learning take over a range of traditional job roles. Governments and policymakers were also warned that major investment needs to be made in skills and education for workers in all industries, ensuring that human productivity continues to rise in tandem with the growth of technology. The report, which evaluated three econometric scenarios affected the UK, US, Australia, Japan and developing Asia regions, also looked at the impact machine learning would have on four major industries, concluding that a number of benefits could emerge. Across transportation, healthcare, energy and manufacturing, machine learning was predicted to have a positive effect, with the report noting that such technology was already commonplace in many areas, with improvements in safety and efficiency highlighted.

Artificial intelligence is hard to define, but it is affecting everyone's lives already and will shape the world's future, a visiting world leader in the field says. "I think a lot of people don't realise what we call narrow AI is already in their homes and computers," Ms Kay Firth-Butterfield said. "I always say that AI is the engine of the fourth industrial revolution. For example, people talk a lot about the changes autonomous vehicles will bring, but you wouldn't have autonomous vehicles without the underpinning of artificial intelligence." An English lawyer, Ms Firth-Butterfield has a background in both law and international relations.

The government will soon offer incentives to startups and venture funds that undertake application-oriented research on artificial intelligence across key sectors including banking, insurance, education, health, retail, and transportation. Financial allocation under the Atal Innovation Mission will be used to fund the programme on a nationwide scale and projects will be granted on the challenge mode, a senior government official told ET. The government is already providing support of up to Rs 10 crore to already established and upcoming new incubation centres depending on the set criteria laid under the Atal Innovation Mission, for which an allocation of Rs 500 crore was made in 2015-16. The original allocation under AIM for 2017-18 stood at Rs 112 crore, which has been revised to Rs 150 crore while Rs 200 crore has been allocated for 2018-19. "It has just been announced. Niti (Aayog) has been working on the subject for a while and will be coming out with a roadmap shortly," the official said requesting anonymity.

With the exponential growth of Artificial Intelligence based applications in various fields, it is now making its way to the space. Japan government plans to use Artificial intelligence to analyze images of earth captured by the satellites to predict and prevent disasters. AI based analysis could be used to develop new services for disaster management in areas prone to high occurrence of disasters. The main idea is to use AI to monitor any change in the images and predict the risk of disasters. For example, changes in the steep slopes could be an indication for landslides, or changes in sea behavior may imply arrival of tsunami.

The primary thrust among global commentators last week was on dissecting and analysing the State of the Union address delivered by President Donald Trump. He tried to reach out to an American public exhausted by divisive politics and a waning faith in the American dream. The general sense was that it was a half-hearted call for unity. The focus of this column is on a global disruption in technology that is having a major impact on national and international security thinking, the role of Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the 21st Century. America's competitive edge has been its unrivalled technological superiority that made it the 20th century powerhouse leading to an unprecedented industrial growth helmed by American innovation.

Startup industry doesn't have much to take away from Budget 2018 barring two major announcements. Firstly, Finance minister, Arun Jailtey said that the government would invest in research and development in areas such as robotics, machine learning, and artificial intelligence. To that end, Amitabh Kant-led Niti Aayog will establish a National Programme to direct efforts in the area of Artificial Intelligence towards national development. "Technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence and others are the technologies of the future and NITI Aayog will establish a national programme to conduct research and development in these areas," Jaitley said in his budget speech. Appreciating the move, Keshab Panda, CEO & MD, L&T Technology Services said, "We welcome the government's thrust on encouraging R&D pursuits in the areas of AI, machine learning, robotics and edge analytics. This move will further leapfrog the innovations in this space that is significantly driven by Indian companies and will place the country at the centre of global digital transformation focus."

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a state House panel has advanced legislation that would give people the ability to stop drone flights near their homes and bar sex offenders from taking pictures of people with drones.