PARACHINAR/PESHAWAR, Pakistan (Reuters) - A suspected U.S. drone strike killed three people in the tribal area of Pakistan near the Afghanistan border on Friday, a senior regional official said, in what Afghan Taliban sources say was an attack targeting a Haqqani network militant.

Last year, seven U.S. states including California and New York approved future increases in their hourly minimums to $12 or more. Two new economic studies say such changes can also help machines take jobs from human workers. A working paper distributed by the National Bureau for Economic Research last month leans on historical data to suggest that minimum-wage hikes increase the chances some low-skilled workers will be replaced by machines. A separate study of 14 advanced economies found that the balance between humans and robots shifted away from humans after the introduction of new job-protection rules, like longer notice periods and increased severance payments. The studies are timely because rapid advances in artificial intelligence have sparked a debate about their impact on jobs.

AQAP has taken advantage of a more than two-year civil war between the Iran-aligned Houthi group and President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi's Saudi-backed government to strengthen its position in the impoverished country.

Thanks in part to research at the University of Toronto, Canada has emerged as an early leader in the artificial intelligence revolution – but truly reaping its rewards will require political vision, an ongoing commitment to diversity and an appetite for winning that, outside of hockey, is rather un-Canadian. That was one of the themes that emerged from this week's Elevate Toronto festival, a three-day event that was designed to showcase the city and surrounding region's growing clout in technology and innovation. Raquel Urtasun, a U of T associate professor of computer science and a star in the AI field, used her time on the main stage at the Sony Centre for the Performing Arts to explain why she decided to make Toronto home – and, more importantly, why she resisted the temptation to relocate when Silicon Valley came calling. "Toronto was and is at the forefront of AI," said Urtasun, who is now the head of ride-sharing giant Uber's new self-driving car lab in Toronto. "The machine learning group, for example, at the University of Toronto is one of the best groups in the world."

In France it is termed "Industrie du Futur", in Japan "Society 5.0 and Connected Industries", while in Canada it is called "Innovation and Skills Plan", and the European Union launched in 2016 "Digitising European Industry – Reaping the full benefits of a Digital Single Market", but the most commonly used term globally is the German "Industrie 4.0". However, the different approaches to this development give indications on the complexity of the phenomenon. Basically it is directed on the digital transformation of the society and its consequences with special focus on developments in robotics, the industrial application of artificial intelligence, 3D printing technologies and real-time big data analytics. When the Italian presidency of G7 calling to the first meeting September 25-26 it is these questions that are on the table with focus on innovation within the field. Small- and medium-sized businesses are seen as key-players in this development, and the necessary collaboration with bigger business and higher education requires openness concerning free flow of data and information, interoperability of systems, access to enabling digital infrastructures.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is pervading nearly in every sphere of our lives. Banks, hospitals, hotels, manufacturing, and other industries are actively deploying AI-based solutions for efficiency, cost savings, and higher profit. The defense industry is the latest sector to utilize AI. Recently, a group of 116 leading AI experts wrote an open letter to ban AI use for developing autonomous weapons. The experts are calling use of AI as the third revolution in warfare after gunpowder and nuclear weapons.

Are you working in a tech company which has a strong engineering & data-science team? Are you looking for some early-stage funding? If so, and if your company is not making something that is messing up the world but actually is trying to make it a better place, you might be interested in our call for data science funding. The UNICEF Innovation Fund is looking to fund and support, with both data and technical expertise, startups that are working with sophisticated applications of computer science including data mining, data processing, machine learning, artificial intelligence, and others, to help make the world a better place. We are interested in companies that can help compile large data collections where they are scarce.

Apple said: "People were handling the device for the stage demo ahead of time and didn't realise Face ID was trying to authenticate their face". So this week Apple ended months of rumours and speculation with the announcement of not just two phones replacing its now year old iPhones, but three, properly celebrating the tenth anniversary of the iPhone with a newly named iPhone X, a model that basically aims to be the one everyone wants, but will of course cost the proverbial arm and leg. Al Franken of Minnesota chose to put several of them directly to Apple CEO Tim Cook, a day after the company announced that its iPhone X would unlock with Face ID. The company went head-to-head with the Federal Bureau of Investigation over the agency's demand that Apple unlock an iPhone belonging to one of the terrorists behind the San Bernardino, California, shootings. Apple Inc's highly anticipated iPhone X features a slew of innovations but delayed availability could hurt holiday-quarter sales.

We got our first look at Assassin's Creed: Origins at E3 this past summer. The latest installment of the big-budget title from Ubisoft is set to release on all major platforms October 27th, and will feature ancient Roman and Egyptian settings brought to life in 4K (provided you have a console or PC and TV to handle that many pixels). The developer has just released a brand new trailer for the game that reveals a bit more about a shadowy yet powerful enemy, the Order of the Ancients. The trailer reveals "the mysterious figures who seek the power of the ancient gods" with a dramatic voiceover. Apparently, this Order controls the Pharoah, which could mean that you'll have to assassinate the Egyptian leader before long.

On this episode of Women of Washington, host Gigi Schumm welcomed four female executives who have begun embracing new tools in data science and machine learning to help their agencies modernize and run more efficiently. Included on the panel were Nancy Potok, chief statistician of the U.S. at the Office of Management and Budget; Christina Ho, deputy assistant secretary for accounting policy and financial transparency at the Treasury Department; Robyn Konkel, attorney advisor at the Social Security Administration and Angela Zutavern, vice president at Booz Allen Hamilton. Innovations in analysis – cyber, data and even medicine – help to keep agencies up-to-date and transparent. "Very valuable data is [now] crossing over to help the federal government, states and localities with their operations," Potok said. "For example, setting up really strong scientific computing environments is allowing cities, for example, to get access to federal data and their own data, and partner with universities and consultants to really understand their operations."