Technological advances in artificial intelligence are fuelling a new race between hackers and those toiling to protect cybersecurity networks. Cybersecurity is always a race between offence and defence but new tools are giving companies that employ them a leg up on those trying to steal their data. Whereas past responses to cybercrimes often looked for known hacking methods long after they occurred, AI techniques using machine learning scan huge volumes of data to detect patterns of abnormal behaviour that are imperceptible to humans. Experts expect machines will become so sophisticated that they'll develop answers to questions that humans won't clearly understand. David Decary-Hetu, assistant professor of criminology at the University of Montreal, says defenders have an edge right now in using artificial intelligence.

It began with the "heartless" Tin man from the Wizard of Oz and continued with the humanoid robot that impersonated Maria in Metropolis. By the 1950s, we had a generation of scientists, mathematicians, and philosophers with the concept of artificial intelligence (or AI) culturally assimilated in their minds. One such person was Alan Turing, a young British polymath who explored the mathematical possibility of artificial intelligence. Turing suggested that humans use available information as well as reason in order to solve problems and make decisions, so why can't machines do the same thing? This was the logical framework of his 1950 paper, Computing Machinery and Intelligence in which he discussed how to build intelligent machines and how to test their intelligence.

When Celeste Kidd was a graduate student of neuroscience at the University of Rochester she says a professor supervising her made her life unbearable by stalking her, making demeaning comments about her weight and talking about sex. Ten years on and now a professor of neuroscience at the university, Kidd is taking legal action. She has filed a federal lawsuit against the school alleging that it mishandled its sexual harassment investigation into the professor's actions and then retaliated against her and her colleagues for reporting the misconduct. "We are trying to bring transparency to a system that is corrupt," Kidd told The Associated Press. Academia -- like Hollywood, the media and Congress -- is facing its own #MeToo movement over allegations of sexual misconduct. Brett Sokolow, who heads an association of sexual harassment investigators on campuses, estimates that the number of reported complaints has risen by about 10 percent since the accusations against Hollywood mogul Harvey Weinstein surfaced in early October, spurring more women to speak out against harassment in various fields.

Oracle will be opening the first artificial intelligence (AI) lab in the region at Dubai Internet City by end of January, a top executive said. Arun Khehar, senior vice-president of applications at Oracle Eastern Central Europe, Middle East, Africa, told Gulf News in an interview that the whole idea is focused on Dubai Government and Federal Government's stress on emerging technologies like AI, internet of things and blockchain. "This will be a key contribution to what the government plans to do. The lab will show the power of the technology to the customers. There will be industry solutions relevant to this part of the world," he said, adding that investments in AI will be integral to drive the future of cloud computing.

As early as 2018, we can expect to see truly autonomous weaponised artificial intelligence that delivers its blows slowly, stealthily and virtually without trace. And 2018 will be the year of the machine-on-machine attack. There is much debate about the possible future of autonomous AI on the battlefield. Once released, these systems are not controlled. They do not wait for orders from base.

They were there to compete in a global-hacking event: the DARPA-sponsored Cyber Grand Challenge designed for machines that can hack other machines. The winner would take home $2 million (£1.5m). The battle was waged over dozens of rounds, with each machine striving to find the most software vulnerabilities, exploit them and patch them before the other machines could use the same tactics to take it out of the game. Each machine was a cluster of processing power, software-analysis algorithms and exploitation tools purposely created by the human teams. This was the ultimate (and, so far, the only) all-machine hacking competition.

Apple and Amazon are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, sources claim. The move is part of Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman's push to give the conservative kingdom a high-tech look. A third source confirmed to Reuters that Apple was in talks with SAGIA, Saudi Arabia's foreign investment authority. Both companies already sell products in Saudi Arabia via third parties but they and other global tech giants have yet to establish a direct presence. Apple and Amazon are in licensing discussions with Riyadh on investing in Saudi Arabia, sources claim.

"Jobs Terminatored" is the Sun's headline for a story about how the rise of robotics and artificial intelligence will affect British workers. The paper says the automation revolution will split the country into winners and losers unless the government steps in. The Guardian reports that the machine economy threatens jobs which bring in about a third of the UK's annual pay. It says that leading figures, including the Archbishop of Canterbury, want ministers to manage the adoption of automation better and help people share in the benefits of new technology. Meanwhile, some of the newspaper headlines may make for uncomfortable reading for chief constables.

I know we all are sad after listening to the news, one of the biggest Torrent search engine Torrentz.eu is closed permanently merely leaving a small message below the search box claiming Torrentz was a free, fast and powerful meta-search engine combining results from dozens of search enginesBut what was the reason why one of the biggest Torrent search engines come to an end? TorrentFreak was the first to report of its shutdown. But so far nobody knows its actual reason for closure. According to some reports found on the deep web. After the closure of KickassTorrent, the best torrent site in the history and the owner's arrest and all his wealth was confiscated by the United State Government.

This piece was written by PI Technologist Dr Richard Tynan. Tech firms and governments are keen to use algorithms and AI, everywhere. We urgently need to understand what algorithms, intelligence, and machine learning actually are so that we can disentangle the optimism from the hype. It will also ensure that we come up with meaningful responses and ultimately protections and safeguards. Many technologists emerge from University, College or graduate courses with the impression that technology is neutral and believe that all systems they apply their expertise in developing will also be completely neutral.