The cyber attack that broke many of the world's biggest companies was intent only on destruction. Experts say that initial suggestions that the software was being used to make money may have been a distraction. The software might instead be part of a plan simply to cripple as many systems, companies and countries as possible, they said. The software itself suggested it was ransomware – when it was loaded up and had taken over users' computers, it asked for money to get the files back. But actually paying that money wasn't possible, and so it generated a tiny amount of cash.

EDUCATING AN AI WORKFORCE: Will robots really take our jobs? As artificial intelligence (AI) technology advances, a new White House report offers three policy strategies that can help prepare Americans for a changing and increasingly automated economy. The study comes about two months after the White House released a companion report surveying the state of AI technology and its potential applications. The Obama Administration will release in the coming months a follow-up report "exploring in greater depth the effect of AI-driven automation on jobs and the economy."

Artificial intelligence is being used in a variety of ways in the healthcare industry, and one area where it is proving to be an effective asset is cybersecurity. Healthcare CIOs and CISOs should recognize that AI has the ability to enhance technology's ability to identify malicious activity and attackers and to protect systems and data, healthcare cybersecurity experts said. And AI does so in different ways. "Machine learning and artificial intelligence can be used to augment and/or replace traditional signature-based protections," said Robert LaMagna-Reiter, senior director of information security at First National Technology Solutions, a managed IT services company that, among other things, advises on cybersecurity issues. "One area is security information and event management alerting, or anti-virus solutions."

There is a rising demand for IT engineers in Japan as many point out there is a shortage of such professionals domestically. An estimate shows that Japan will face a shortage of close to 600,000 IT-related professionals by 2030. As companies are moving to recruit workers from overseas, skilled IT engineers, especially from Asia, are increasingly garnering attention. Such a trend seems to be in line with the government's policy to further increase the number of foreign workers with technical skills. What are some of the issues Japanese firms need to address when expanding the hiring of foreign workers? Staffing agencies reportedly plan to shore up their efforts to recruit IT workers from Asian countries. Meanwhile, a program called Project Indian Institutes of Technology (PIITs), which involves IT-powerhouse India, invites students from the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) to intern at Japanese firms. The Japan Times organized a forum on June 13, titled "IT human resources sought overseas by Japanese companies: an example of an internship program by IIT students," to enhance the discussion regarding the IT engineer situation in Japan. Japanese companies accepting IIT students as interns and Indian students taking part in the program were invited to discuss their thoughts. The participants of this forum were Hiroshi Hirabayashi, president and representative director of the Japan-India Association; Shigeo Mizuno, director and corporate vice president of Fujifilm Software Co.; Koji Iwamoto, deputy manager of the general planning department at Tonichi Printing Co.; and Toyoaki Machida, Japan general manager of the global section at Webstaff Co. Additionally, Himanshu Tolani, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar; Shubham Jain, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Jodhpur; and Yash Ubale, a third-year undergraduate student at the Indian Institute of Technology, Ropar, participated. The moderator was Takashi Kitazume, chief editorial writer of The Japan Times. Below are excerpts of their discussion. Moderator: Thank you for your participation despite the bad weather today. At this panel discussion, I'd like to hear the intentions of those taking part in this program, the feedback from Japanese companies accepting Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) students as interns and also from the Indian students to enhance the discussion on the theme of "IT human resources sought overseas by Japanese companies: an example of an internship program by IIT students."

From Alexa and self-driving cars to job applicant screening processes, artificial intelligence is fast becoming the norm in business. But it also could start playing far bigger roles in security, helping law enforcement and other protective agents figure out who's up to no good. As Fredrick Kunkle of The Washington Post reports, there's now an AI-based kiosk designed to detect whether travelers are fibbing. Designed by Aaron Elkins, assistant professor of the Fowler College of Business Administration at San Diego State University, the new AI lie detector goes by the name Automated Virtual Agent for Truth Assessments in Real Time, or AVATAR for short. Once you've scanned your ID or passport, the kiosk asks you a bunch of questions.

It is predicted that within three years 100 percent of all effective IoT efforts will be supported by cognitive or artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities, a landmark New Zealand IoT Alliance study says. For an IoT deployment to be really effective, New Zealand organisations need applications such as machine learning and cognitive systems to obtain insight and action from data, the report says. The 92-page report was commissioned by the New Zealand IoT Alliance, an independent member funded group of tech firms, major corporates, startups, universities and government agencies. It says the potential net benefit to New Zealand could be worth as much as $3.3 billion over 10 years from just nine applications of IoT alone. Alliance chair and NZTech chief executive Graeme Muller says New Zealand can be more effective and efficient, by understanding and acting on a raft of improvements from issues as simple as water system improvements and intelligent street lighting through to more complex challenges such as driverless vehicles and better farm management.

Tuesday night I had the opportunity to visit Hacker Lab, where the Sacramento Women in Data Science hosted Dr. Ian Brooks, one of our super-talented Solutions Engineers. SWDS has over 500 members and regularly hosts data science events to help grow the data science and analytics community for, but not exclusive to, women. Groups such as the Sacramento Women in Data Science (SWDS) are vital to help grow the field of data science, and it appears their work is taking off. Ian is focused on our public sector customers. He is currently helping state and local governments leverage Big Data for machine learning and analytics around management of resources such as water, and innovation around traffic volume and other critical infrastructure.

What is it like to drive on Mars? Every movement on the rough terrain risks damage to the wheels on NASA's Curiosity rover, which would be stranded on the alien planet, a trip of several months away from any Earth help, should anything go seriously wrong. To avoid a terminal error, NASA has developed a new algorithm for driving its rover that changes the wheels' speed based on what rocks are beneath them. NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory said the software was uploaded onto the rover earlier this year, following months of testing on the ground, and the space agency started using it in June. It's geared toward traction control -- stopping the six wheels from spinning at different speeds when one or more of them climbs over a rock.

It's no secret that in our decades of space travel, we haven't always cleaned up after ourselves. Space debris--like dead satellites, empty rocket fuel containers, and shrapnel from past collisions like the 2009 Russian satellite crash--is gradually building up in the Earth's orbit. The off-world litter is causing current astronauts real problems, as new missions require careful calculations to keep track of and avoid obstacles. The International Space Station makes adjustments several times a year to avoid disastrous collisions with such space junk. But no one knows how to pull the trash in and get rid of it. Some debris can be hooked if it has a handle, but much of the trash is made of up smooth surfaces that have no access points.

A logo of Alibaba Group is pictured at its headquarters in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, China, October 14, 2015. "Amazon Echo", launched in 2014, is a speaker which one can leave on all day and give voice commands to, similar to Siri on an Apple Inc iPhone. Alibaba's new product would be made available only in China and speak only Mandarin, the source told Reuters. Apple and Google, a unit of Alphabet Inc, have unveiled products similar to Echo with the HomePod and Google Home. The Information, a technology website, was the first to report the news on Thursday.