Open any business publication or digital journal today, and you will read about the promise of AI, known as artificial or augmented intelligence, and how it will transform your business. The fact is, AI will not only transform your entire business, whether you are in health care, finance, retail or manufacturing, but it will also transform technology itself. The essential task of information technology (IT), and how we measure its value, has reached an inflection point. Instead, insight is the new currency, and the speed with which we can scale that insight and the knowledge it brings is the basis for value creation and the key to competitive advantage. This trend is fueling a surging interest in deep learning and AI, or, as IBM calls it, cognitive computing.

Britain and France's leading tech sectors will be brought closer together with plans for a digital conference – or digital colloque – to promote deeper integration in the digital economy, the Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary Matt Hancock has announced. The UK tops the list in Europe for global tech investors, with its tech firms attracting more venture capital funding than any other European country in 2017. In December it was named by Oxford Insights as the best prepared country in the world for artificial intelligence (AI) implementation. France has made big strides in creating new tech businesses and encouraging entrepreneurs, with Paris's newly built Station F, a former railway station hosting startups, multinationals and investors, symbolising the country's ambition. "The UK and France are strengthening ties in technology and innovation," explained Hancock.

THE UK AND FRANCE have teamed up in the name of artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity in a bid to boost future developments in these areas. Ministers from the two county's governments made the decision to join forces on Thursday in hope that the arrangement will foster cross-Channel collaboration between academics, industry and government and thus "help both countries seize the economic and social benefits of fast-developing tech such as AI". The UK's Digital, Culture, Media and Sport Secretary minister, Matt Hancock pioneered the initiative and to get the ball rolling on the deal, met his French counterpart, Françoise Nyssen, at the UK France Summit. It was hosted by the prime minister and the French president, Emmanuel Macron, at Royal Military Academy in Sandhurst. Hancock said the two countries will establish "cutting-edge digital conference" as part of the new pact, which will take place later this year and "see our world-leading experts in cybersecurity, digital skills, artificial intelligence, data and digital government share their talent and knowledge".

Fri 19 Jan 2018 09.09 EST Last modified on Sat 20 Jan 2018 01.44 EST Russia responded on 5 January to an attack by a swarm of drones targeting a Russian airbase in north-western Syria and a naval station on the Mediterranean Sea. The multi-drone attack, which is suspected to have been launched by militants, is the first of its kind, representing a new threat from terrorist groups. The use of a swarm attack demonstrates a militant capability, which was previously limited to states, to simultaneously control and coordinate several commercial drones at one time using a GPS unit. This development may send viewers of the science-fiction series Black Mirror into hiding, but it should prompt professional militaries to double down on countermeasures, specifically the creation of electronic jamming tech. Swashbuckling drones operated by rebels and militants have been shoring up the frontlines of conflict internationally, in some cases braving the choppy waters off the coast of Yemen, and in others crowding the skies over Syria and Iraq.

It was so hot in 2017 that a computer program threw out an entire year's worth of Alaskan weather data because it seemed like a statistical anomaly. It was so hot, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration now predicts that Arctic ice might not reliably freeze every year anymore, and the region's tundras are increasingly green as permafrost thaws. It came in second, thanks to an exceptionally warm El Nino year in 2016. Nevertheless, the slight blip in ever-increasing annual global temperature is consistent with an overall warming trend. The planet's temperature has risen by about about two degrees Fahrenheit in the past century, largely due to human activities that emit greenhouse gases.

Three months ago, the biggest players in the artificial intelligence industry checked out a Delaware State Police cruiser parked conspicuously on a convention floor in the Ronald Reagan Building and International Trade Center in Washington, D.C.. On the roof of the taxpayer-owned vehicle sat a drone.

On this week's Tech Tent we hear why China's determination to be a leading player in artificial intelligence could lead to tensions with the United States. We have two other reports on this week's programme. Her victory is being seen as a key moment in the battle against the internet scourge known as revenge porn. And in a report from Rahul Tandon in Kolkata, we find out why India's new Aadhaar biometric identity card scheme has become mired in controversy. For millions of people who have struggled to open a bank account or get access to government services without proof of identity, it has proved life-changing.

Ensuring endpoint security has always been a key challenge for enterprises. But whereas it was once enough to install antivirus (AV) software across a network and expect a reasonable level of endpoint protection, this is no longer the case. With the proliferation of bring your own device policies in the workplace and the wide variety of smart devices available to end users, not to mention the growth of IoT, there are more endpoints than ever, and endpoint security has never been more under threat. Get the latest from CSO by signing up for our newsletters. Various studies put the number of security breaches originating at endpoints between 70 and 95 per cent.

The new guidance around artificial intelligence in federal IT seems to boil down to this: Get beyond the hype. IT leaders, lawmakers and federal technology partners seem to be getting the message and are seeking practical and realistic ways to incorporate AI into how the government runs. IT leaders are starting to use AI in more applications, and agencies are thinking about how AI can make their operations more efficient and enhance national security. Meanwhile, the growth of AI in the consumer market and in government is pushing lawmakers to consider how AI will impact society and how it might be regulated. "Agency use of AI is accelerating in a number of areas based on machine learning technology, including cyberwarfare, robotics, border security, healthcare and virtual assistants," Deniece Peterson, Deltek's director of federal market analysis, told FedScoop last month.

Ministers have agreed a technology tie-up with Emmanuel Macron's government that will see the UK unite with France in areas such as artificial intelligence and cyber security. Matt Hancock, the Culture Secretary, will this morning announce the two countries plan to work together to pool industry and academic research. Britain and France will host a conference later this year to encourage cross-Channel investment, targeting work on AI in particular. It comes as France's new government tries to shake off its reputation for protectionism and onerous employment rules that has held back start-ups in the country and seen Paris lose out to London as a tech hub. Last year more venture capital deals were signed involving French tech companies than British ones, the first time this has happened in half a decade, although the UK raises far more money in total and dominates rankings of European "unicorns", start-ups with valuations of more than $1bn (£720m).