In today's world, data is the new basis of competitive advantage – and businesses are paying close attention to how they use their data, especially highly-regulated customer information. While the goal is to extract insights and knowledge for better decision making, organizations must also ensure they are abiding by the legal and data privacy requirements. This process can be time-intensive for legal professionals, who must stay on top of ever-changing laws, often across multiple global jurisdictions. And there is a lot at stake, with noncompliance resulting in increasingly higher fines and substantial risk to a business' reputation. In the US alone, there are more than 70 government authorities with a legal point of view on data privacy, from states and state agencies, to congress and federal agencies, including the US Attorney General, Department of Justice and the Securities and Exchange Commission. On a global scale, complying with these regulations is becoming more complex, especially with the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) coming into effect in the EU later this year.

The actual impact of artificial intelligence (AI) on the world's economy and jobs will likely be somewhere between the utopian and dystopian futures that it is often discussed in terms of, according to a new report from the Economist Intelligence Unit. The report, commissioned by Google, examined how AI will impact certain industries in the US, the UK, Australia, Japan, and Asia as a whole. The findings are based on econometric modelling, desk research, and interviews with academic and industry experts. Firms developing and using machine learning need to better communicate among themselves as well as with the public and policymakers, the report stated. This means doing more to manage expectations around the impact of machine learning, acknowledging the potential risks and rewards, improving trust and transparency, and educating the public.

When it comes to space policy, reliving the glory days too often means pouring billions of taxpayer dollars into black holes. Preliminary budget plans suggest that the Trump Administration will provide funding for Space Policy Directive 1, which tasks NASA with getting humans back to the moon for the first time in over 45 years. Ross Marchand (@RossAMarchand) is the policy director for the Taxpayers Protection Alliance in Washington DC. NASA is already testing the feasibility of using the Orion space capsule to get humans to and from alien worlds. President Trump's directive, hatched from a unanimous recommendation from the National Space Council in June, has the agency eager to prove that it can once again taxi humans into space.

Imagine it is the spring of 2019. A bottom-feeding website, perhaps tied to Russia, "surfaces" video of a sex scene starring an 18-year-old Kirsten Gillibrand. It is soon debunked as a fake, the product of a user-friendly video application that employs generative adversarial network technology to convincingly swap out one face for another. It is the summer of 2019, and the story, predictably, has stuck around -- part talk-show joke, part right-wing talking point. "It's news," political journalists say in their own defense.

New Delhi: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 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.

Senator Mark Warner of Virginia warns of'optimising for outrageous, salacious, and often fraudulent content' amid 2016 election concerns Mon 5 Feb 2018 07.00 EST Last modified on Mon 5 Feb 2018 07.02 EST The top-ranking Democrat on the Senate intelligence committee has warned that YouTube's powerful recommendation algorithm may be "optimising for outrageous, salacious, and often fraudulent content" or susceptible to "manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities". Senator Mark Warner, of Virginia, made the stark warning after an investigation by the Guardian found that the Google-owned video platform was systematically promoting divisive and conspiratorial videos that were damaging to Hillary Clinton's campaign in the months leading up to the 2016 election. "Companies like YouTube have immense power and influence in shaping the media and content that users see," Warner said. "I've been increasingly concerned that the recommendation engine algorithms behind platforms like YouTube are, at best, intrinsically flawed in optimising for outrageous, salacious, and often fraudulent content." He added: "At worst, they can be highly susceptible to gaming and manipulation by bad actors, including foreign intelligence entities." YouTube's recommendation algorithm is a closely guarded formula that determines which videos are promoted in the "Up next" column beside the video player.

Scores of Yemenis have taken to the streets of the southern province of Shabwa after a US drone attack killed at least seven civilians. The January 28 drone attack decimated a car carrying at least six male members of the same family and another individual as they were searching for a "missing child" in Shabwa's Said district, residents said. Saleh al-Aishi al-Ateeqi, a relative of one of the victims who organised the protest, told local media that "the victims were all innocent civilians who had nothing to do with any political or religious organisation." Speaking at a protest in the city of Ateq on Sunday, al-Ateeqi blamed the Arab coalition at war with Yemen for the deaths, saying it was responsible for the country's airspace and protecting civilian lives. The United States is the only force known to operate armed drones over Yemen and does not normally comment on its operations.

China is working on the development of artificial intelligence (AI) systems that would enhance the thinking capabilities of commanding officers of nuclear submarines, a senior scientist, who was a part of the project, said. The scientist, who asked to remain anonymous due to the sensitivity of the project, said by updating the old systems and providing nuclear submarines with AI-augmented brainpower, the Chinese navy would have an advantage in underwater wars. It would also result in the progress of AI technology, he added. The scientist said, "Though a submarine has enormous power of destruction, its brain is actually quite small." Speaking to the South China Morning Post, he said although the operation of a nuclear submarine depends on the efficiency of the crew's performance, novel challenges posed by the demands of modern warfare could result in new variables that would make the operations even easier to perform.

The US Navy is set to roll out a self-driving drone warship that can hunt down enemy submarines. Dubbed the'Sea Hunter', the 132ft (40-metre) ship is designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board. Now a prototype of this submarine-stalking autonomous ship that could scour the open seas for months at a time has been officially transferred to the US Navy. The vessel is currently a surveillance platform and has no weapons on board. It can reach speed of 27 knots and uses cameras and radar to track its location and spot other ships.

The next level of strategic cooperation between India and Japan has become apparent with the news that India and Japan are to work together to introduce artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics in the defence sector. Chatting with Indian media last month, said, "You should expect to see increased bilateral cooperation between us (India and Japan) to develop unmanned ground vehicles (UGV) and robotics." This cooperation is important considering the increasingly aggressive stance by China and China's assistance to Pakistan in terms of AI and robotics. Recent reports indicate China has secretly sold its Wing Loong-I strike-capable medium-altitude, 5000 km range, 200 kg payload drone to Pakistan. Wing Loong-I is China's latest armed drone that conducted firing exercises during January 2018.