On September 25 Turin will host the first meeting of the "I-7 Innovators' Strategic Advisory Board on People-Centered Innovation", the engagement group launched last May during the G7 Summit in Taormina. The group is in charge of providing guidance on emerging innovation issues. The creation of this group proves Italian G7 Presidency's attention towards the multiple challenges that innovation poses and that cannot be faced only at national level. The format of the Advisory Board requires that each G7 country and the EU should appoint a Focal Point who is in charge of selecting up to 5 innovators. Each country and the EU have designated their own group of innovators. Italy Focal Point is Diego Piacentini, Commissioner for the Digital Transformation.

Apple this week unveiled its new iPhone X, and with it, a host of security concerns. Apple this week unveiled its new iPhone X as part of the smartphone's 10th birthday, and with it comes a host of security concerns. One of the major features of the iPhone X (X for the roman numeral 10) is FaceID, a facial recognition feature for unlocking the phone by just looking at it. Apple has a solid track record on personal privacy when it comes to securing its devices, but FaceID raises major issues, such as whether the tool be used against an owner's will to gain access to their phone or what happens if a hacker steals your facial identity? A staff attorney with the American Civil Liberties Union argued that law enforcement could use someone's face against their will to unlock their phone, possibly without violating the person's' Fifth Amendment right against self-incrimination.

The Prime Minister, Justin Trudeau, today took part in Facebook's announcement that they will open a new AI lab in Montréal – the company's first intelligence lab in Canada, and only its second outside of the United States. By next year, the lab is expected to employ a team of twenty researchers headed by McGill University's Dr. Joelle Pineau, a leading AI researcher. This new lab will help grow a stronger Canadian technology ecosystem. Facebook's new lab in Montréal will underline Canada's status as a global AI powerhouse, and a leader in the economy of the future -- and encourage other leading tech companies to set up shop here and create good, middle class jobs for Canadians."

Preface: Lately we hear too many news about Artificial Intelligence (AI). Google, IBM, Apple, Microsoft etc. years ago announced "mobile" support. Today, mobile is obvious, and to differentiate, they claim to use "AI". The word "AI" for most people can be only the sci-fi movies AI, since we get too many AI movies too: Her, Ex Machina, … and even "Alien: Covenant" is about a rogue AI, the aliens are secondary. Companies went mobile for real: their services run in cell phones. But, we don't see sci-fi "AI" in any service like Alexa, Cortana, Siri etc.

Facebook is opening a new Artificial Intelligence Research Lab in Montreal -- FAIR Montreal. This is the company's first research and development investment in Canada, and only its fourth AI research lab in all. Prof. Joelle Pineau, from the School of Computer Science and co-director of McGill's Reasoning & Learning Lab, will head the new Montreal AI lab while maintaining her academic position at the university. Pineau is one of a group of AI researchers at McGill whose work focuses on social applications, particularly in the areas of robotics related to health, transportation and language processing. For example, one of Pineau's research projects has been to build and test smart wheelchairs designed to assist people with mobility impairments.

After years of hearings, investigations, and states doing whatever they like in the absence of federal decision-making, self-driving car decrees flowed out of Washington, DC, this week like your data from Equifax. The Department of Transportation updated its policy on automated vehicles. The National Transportation Safety Board released the results of a yearlong investigation into a deadly Tesla Autopilot crash. The Senate took on self-driving trucks, with a hearing that pitted the industry against the truckers who ply the nation's highways. Transportation change is happening, and this country's policymakers finally seem ready to tackle it.

NHTSA released their latest draft robocar regulations just a week after the U.S. House passed a new regulatory regime and the senate started working on its own. The proposed regulations preempt state regulation of vehicle design, and allow companies to apply for high volume exemptions from the standards that exist for human-driven cars. It's clear that the new approach will be quite different from the Obama-era one, much more hands-off. There are not a lot of things to like about the Trump administration but this could be one of them. The prior regulations reached 116 pages with much detail, though they were mostly listed as "voluntary."

After eight months of isolation in a simulated space home atop a remote Hawaii volcano, six NASA-backed research subjects will emerge from their Mars-like habitat on Sunday and return to civilization. In this 2017 photo released by the University of Hawaii crew members of Mission V, walk up hill with a cart next to the university's facility Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation (HI-SEAS) at the Mauna Loa volcano, Big Island, Hawaii. HONOLULU - After eight months of living in isolation on a remote Hawaii volcano, six NASA-backed research subjects will emerge from their Mars-like habitat on Sunday and return to civilization. Their first order of business after subsisting on mostly freeze-dried and canned food: Feast on fresh-picked pineapple, papaya, mango, locally-grown vegetables and a fluffy, homemade egg strata cooked by their project's lead scientist. The crew of four men and two women were quarantined on a vast plain below the summit of the world's largest active volcano in January.

"If Congress preempts state and local governments from enacting smart safety protections, the adoption of this amazing technology could be unnecessarily delayed by court challenges and state legislative action," said Leah Treat, director of the transportation bureau in Portland, Oregon, which is set to enact its own self-driving regulations by the end of the year.

ISLAMABAD (AP) -- Two Pakistani officials say a suspected U.S. drone strike has targeted a compound in a northwestern tribal region along the Afghan border, killing three suspected militants. The officials said two suspects were also wounded in Friday's strike on a border village in the Kurram tribal region. If confirmed, it would be the first U.S. drone strike on Pakistan since President Donald Trump announced his new strategy for Afghanistan. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity as they were not authorized to brief media. The officials said apparently Afghan Taliban, including member Abdul Salam, were targeted but it was unclear whether they were present at the time. Salam is a relative of Taliban leader Mullah Abdul Salam Zaeef, who served as ambassador to Pakistan during the Taliban's rule.