He may no longer be president of the White House but former US president Barack Obama is still making some presidential speeches, although all is not as it appears. Despite looking and sounding exactly like the real deal the new Obama is actually a digital construction carefully crafted by researchers at the University of Washington who fed 14 hours of genuine speeches into a neural net which has binge-watched so much footage it can now generate new clips indistinguishable from reality. The result is that researchers are now able to put any words of their choosing into the mouth of their photorealistic sock puppet, modeling the movement of his lips to mimic Obama's actual tics and mannerisms. Asked by the BBC whether we should be perturbed by the phoney president, professor Ira Kemelmacher-Sclizerman of the University of Washington, said: "Every technology can be used in a negative way and so we all should work towards making sure that doesn't happen. Once you know how to create something you can reverse engineer it and so you could identify methods for identifying what is an edited video and what is a real video."

Innovative mobile apps married to increasingly powerful artificial intelligence (A.I.) are rapidly getting smarter -- making them even more helpful for users. These kinds of apps, showcased at VentureBeat's two-day MobileBeat conference here this week, are designed to anticipate user needs. Who knew, for example, that you can use your smartphone to simplify the process of getting a green card to enter the United States or to streamline corporate travel? The program is based on a bot that walks users through a series of simple questions that, when answered, generates a package of documents you can file with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to complete the application process. "When I came to this country, I needed a visa urgently, but it took a month," said Visibot's co-founder and chief operating officer, Andrey Ziniviev.

The Chinese government's wish-list for AI researchers is pretty ambitious: "Breakthroughs should be made in basic theories of AI, such as big data intelligence, multimedia aware computing, human-machine hybrid intelligence, swarm intelligence and automated decision-making." They'll get right on that, I'm sure. A common technology system should be developed based on algorithms, data and hardware. Technologies in the system include a computational knowledge engine, swarm computing, virtual reality modeling and natural language processing. Innovation platforms should be constructed, such as an open-source computing platform, which can promote coordination among different hardware, software and clouds.

In 2016, the scientific community thrilled to news that the LIGO collaboration had detected gravitational waves for the first time. LIGO is the latest in a long line of revolutionary technologies in astronomy, from the ability to'see' the universe from radio waves to gamma rays, or from detecting cosmic rays and neutrinos (the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory--LIGO--is an NSF-supported collaborative effort by the U.S National Science Foundation and is operated by Caltech and MIT). Each time a new technology is deployed, it can open up a new window on the cosmos, and major new theoretical developments can follow rapidly. These, in turn, can inform future technologies. This interplay of technological and fundamental theoretical advance is replicated across all the natural sciences--which include, we argue, computer science.

Artificial Intelligence – Neil Jacobstein recently gave an information-packed talk at the Exponential Manufacturing conference on how artificial intelligence is redefining the future of work, production, supply chain, and design. Singularity University recently held the Exponential Manufacturing Summit with some of the world's brightest executives, entrepreneurs and investors being led through an intensive three-day program in Boston to prepare them for the changes brought forth by unstoppable technological progress. See the full lecture below. At the Summit, Neil Jacobstein chairs the Artificial Intelligence and Robotics Track at Singularity University, explored how exponential technologies including artificial intelligence, additive manufacturing, exponential energy, and bio manufacturing are continually redefining the future of work, production, supply chain, and design. "What you'll see when you look behind the scenes of most AI startups and even research labs is an emerging symbiosis between human intelligence and machine intelligence."

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu is under pressure internationally to back down and remove the metal detectors, but he has resisted those calls, saying security is paramount. He is meeting senior cabinet members to examine a way forward, with signs that alternatives, such as face-recognition cameras or selective searches, might be proposed. The problem is any Israeli-led initiative is likely to be rejected by the Palestinians and possibly Jordan. So the United Nations, the United States, Europe and Russia may get involved. U.S. President Donald Trump's regional go-between, Jason Greenblatt, is scheduled to return to the region on Monday.

As companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to communicate with customers, make sense of big data and find answers to vexing questions, some say it's time to think about hiring a chief A.I. is going to be really important to some companies – enough to have top officers who will focus on just that," said Steve Chien, head of the artificial intelligence group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And beyond that, you'll want every employee thinking about how A.I. Steve Chien is the head of artificial intelligence for NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab. is the chief data officer or the chief analytics officer because they understand how machine learning works."

China aims to make the artificial intelligence industry a "new, important" driver of economic expansion by 2020, according to a development plan issued by the State Council. Policymakers want to be global leaders, with the AI industry generating more than 400 billion yuan ($59 billion) of output per year by 2025, according to an announcement from the Cabinet late Thursday. Key development areas include AI software and hardware, intelligent robotics and vehicles, virtual reality and augmented reality, it said. "Artificial intelligence has become the new focus of international competition," the report said. "We must take the initiative to firmly grasp the next stage of AI development to create a new competitive advantage, open the development of new industries and improve the protection of national security."

Machine-learning enterprise-focused cybersec firm Darktrace has raised $75m in order to expand its sales operations into Latin America and Asia as it prepares for a possible IPO. The $75m Series D fundraising round, led by new investor Insight Ventures, comes a year after a $65m funding round and propels the company towards tech unicorn status (startups valued at over $1bn). Analysts value Darktrace at $850m. Existing investors Summit Partners, KKR and TenEleven Ventures also contributed to the latest funding round. Cambridge-based Darktrace, backed by one-time Autonomy chief exec Mike Lynch, uses machine learning and AI technology to protect corporate networks against cyber threats through what it markets as an "Enterprise Immune System".

Labor economists have been pointing out the employment consequences of new digital technologies for several years, and the White House report dutifully lays out many of those findings. It is an attempt to elevate into Washington political circles the discussion of how automation and, increasingly, AI are affecting employment, and why it's time to finally adopt educational and labor policies to address the plight of workers either displaced by technology or ill suited for the new opportunities. Joel Mokyr, a leading economic historian at Northwestern University, has spent his career studying how people and societies have experienced the radical transitions spurred by advances in technology, such as the Industrial Revolution that began in the late 18th century. Such generous benefits are unlikely to be offered anytime soon, acknowledges Muro, who has worked with manufacturing communities in the Midwest (see "Manufacturing Jobs Aren't Coming Back").