Former Google chief Eric Schmidt has revealed he is'very concerned' that Russia and China are leading the race on artificial intelligence. Schmidt flagged the risk of their commercial as well as military aspirations, saying their lead in AI could help them conquer the world. It follows his warning last year that China will overtake the US in AI by 2025. The former Google chief Eric Schmidt (pictured) has revealed he'very concerned' Russia and China could use AI to get world domination Speaking at BBC's Tomorrow's World Live at London's Science Museum with Professor Brian Cox, Schmidt, 62, admitted he worries about what rival countries could do with their technology. 'I'm very concerned about this', he said in response to a question from a member of the audience about the AI race between China and Russia.

As data pools get bigger and ever more complex, we increasingly use artificial intelligence to make sense of it all and inform decisions. That creates an ethical need to demonstrate those decisions are fair. Street Bump, an app used by the City of Boston to extrapolate the state of roads from mobile phone data, ran into such ethical problems. The poorest people in the more run down parts of the city made the fewest trips, so collected the least data. That meant resources were naturally funnelled to wealthier areas where there was more information. In this case the problem was identified and solved, but it's easy to see how AI could create a big ethical dilemma.

We started the contest by asking the assistants basic questions about topics like the weather forecast, conversions between different measurements, and trivia. Every assistant could answer a simple query about the weather and provide the forecast for the next few days. We did notice some very slight variations in the responses, probably because these apps rely on different sources. Alexa gave the most useful information in the shortest time, which makes sense--as a voice-only program, it has to be as succinct as possible. They could even update us on the time in different time zones--though we should knock points off for Siri and Cortana, which didn't include the day as well as the time in their spoken responses, something you need to know if a region is a day ahead of or behind you.

The global refugee crisis has been going on for quite a while now. According to the United Nations, an incredible 65 million people have been displaced from their home globally. Per day, more than 28,000 people are forced to flee their surroundings. A recently published study aims to streamline and answer the pressing question – where should the authorities place the refugees to optimize their skills? Currently, the process is done manually and in a lot of cases, at random.

In all the Singularity-based angst over whether robots are going to take over, few have considered the human qualities that might allow our silicon cousins to prevail. Specifically, will robots dupe us into doing something dumb or dangerous because we trust them too much? PCMag discussed this recently with robotics expert Dr. Ayanna Howard after her keynote at the first IEEE Multi-Robot Systems (MRS) conference. Howard spent 12 years at NASA JPL as a Senior Robotics Researcher but is now the founder and CTO of Zyrobotics, which creates advanced technology to assist children living with disabilities. Here are edited and condensed excerpts from our conversation.

British Prime Minister Theresa May speaks at the World Economic Forum. British Prime Minister Theresa May spent most of her speech today at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, on the defensive. According to The New York Times, it was mainly focused on rationalizing the Brexit vote. But another, less heralded aspect of her remarks could have a big impact on tech both in Britain and around the world. The BBC reported that May wants the U.K. to lead the world in safe and ethical uses of artificial intelligence.

Consider, for a moment, some of the most pernicious challenges facing humanity today: the increasing prevalence of natural disasters; the systemic overfishing of the world's oceans; the clear-cutting of primeval forests; the maddening persistence of poverty; and above all, the accelerating effects of global climate change. Yet as a group, they share some common characteristics. Each problem is messy, with lots of moving parts. Each is riddled with perverse incentives, which can lead local actors to behave in a way that is not in the common interest. Each is opaque, with dynamics that are only partially understood, even by experts; each can, as a result, often be made worse by seemingly rational and well-intentioned interventions.

If you want to understand what's happening with artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity, look no further than this week's news. On Monday, Palo Alto Networks introduced Magnifier, a behavioral analytics solution that uses structured and unstructured machine learning to model network behavior and improve threat detection. Additionally, Google's parent company, Alphabet, announced Chronicle, a cybersecurity intelligence platform that throws massive amounts of storage, processing power, and advanced analytics at cybersecurity data to accelerate the search and discovery of needles in a rapidly growing haystack. So, cybersecurity suppliers are innovating to bring AI-based cybersecurity products to market in a big way. OK, but is there demand for these types of advanced analytics products and services?

During winter when the nights are long and days short, getting up for work in the dark and coming home in the dark can be grim. Some of us succumb to the January blues, leading to increased illness, reduced productivity and a general feeling of melancholy. But can clever lighting improve our sleep patterns and lift our moods? "I only feel like I start to breathe properly again after the solstice," says Jacqueline Hazelton, a professor at the US Naval War College in Rhode Island. She's referring to the winter solstice - usually 21 December - the point after which the days start lengthening again following the longest night of the year.

Google on Monday announced it will open a research centre in Paris devoted to artificial intelligence, following a meeting between the tech giant's boss and French President Emmanuel Macron. "The different achievements in this country, including in science, art and the academic field make it an ideal place for the creation of a centre of theoretical research in artificial intelligence," Google chief executive Sundar Pichai said in a statement. The announcement came as Macron welcomed 140 multinational business leaders to Versailles in Paris on Monday night, ahead of the opening of the World Economic Forum in Davos on Tuesday. Google said it will be extend it's headquarters in the capital to accomodate the centre--the third to open worldwide, after California and Switzerland. The number of staff in Paris is set to increase from 700 to 1,000.