The government endorsed a plan Friday to prioritize investment in human resource development to buttress Japan's economic growth and improve its tattered finances. Japan will maintain its pledge to achieve a surplus in the primary balance by fiscal 2020, while the government's annual economic policy blueprint said that another indicator used to gauge fiscal health -- the debt to gross domestic product ratio -- is also important. Ballooning social security costs have made it imperative to rein in spending as the graying of its population picks up pace. One key step on the agenda is to make preschool education free, although questions remain over how to fund such a policy. The blueprint only states that a decision should be reached by the end of the year. With a public debt twice the size of its GDP, Japan's fiscal health is already the worst of the major economies.

In a winning scenario, smiling can decrease your odds of success against the same opponent in subsequent matches, according to new research presented by the USC Institute for Creative Technologies and sponsored by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory. People who smiled during victory increased the odds of their opponent acting aggressively to steal a pot of money rather than share it in future gameplay, according to a paper presented in May at the International Conference on Autonomous Agents and Multiagent Systems by USC ICT research assistant Rens Hoegen, USC ICT research programmer Giota Stratou and Jonathan Gratch, director of virtual humans research at USC ICT and a professor of computer science at the USC Viterbi School of Engineering. Conversely, researchers found smiling during a loss tended to help the odds of success in the game going forward. The study is in line with previous research published by senior author Gratch, whose main interest lies both in how people express these tells -- an unconscious action that betrays deception -- and using this data to create artificial intelligence to discern and even express these same emotional cues as a person. "We think that emotion is the enemy of reason. But the truth is that emotion is our way of assigning value to things," said Gratch.

In the event of a natural disaster that disrupts phone and Internet systems over a wide area, autonomous aircraft could potentially hover over affected regions, carrying communications payloads that provide temporary telecommunications coverage to those in need. However, such unpiloted aerial vehicles, or UAVs, are often expensive to operate, and can only remain in the air for a day or two, as is the case with most autonomous surveillance aircraft operated by the U.S. Air Force. Providing adequate and persistent coverage would require a relay of multiple aircraft, landing and refueling around the clock, with operational costs of thousands of dollars per hour, per vehicle. Now a team of MIT engineers has come up with a much less expensive UAV design that can hover for longer durations to provide wide-ranging communications support. The researchers designed, built, and tested a UAV resembling a thin glider with a 24-foot wingspan.

Kar-go the robotic pod (artist's impression pictured) could soon be delivering packages direct to your front door, if the startup firm behind its creation can find funding to create a fleet of the vehicle Kar-Go uses state of the art artificial intelligence software to detect and manoeuvre around hazards. As the vehicle arrives at each delivery address, the system automatically selects the package belonging to the corresponding customer for delivery. The Academy of Robotics, has already gained permission from the UK government to test out a prototype of the vehicle (pictured) on public roads. As the vehicle arrives at each delivery address, the system automatically selects the package belonging to the corresponding customer.

Facebook has launched yet another politically focused feature. The social network is making the most of the general election, and has created a collection of new graphics breaking down the results. A notification saying, "You have newly elected representatives. Find out who represents your constituency," has just started rolling out to users. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Boston Dynamics makes a variety of robots, including machines that mimic humans and animals, but has struggled to find a market for them. Boston Dynamics makes a variety of robots, including machines that mimic humans and animals, but has struggled to find a market for them. Boston Dynamics products also include Big Dog's little brother Spot, a complex machine that can walk and trot on four legs like a dog. Their companion robot Pepper, hit the headlines last year, after the Japanese robot refused to share whether it held a desire to rule the world.

So there's a blend of anticipation and dread within a wide range of organizations and industries--and public-sector agencies are no exception.4 Conversations with government executives suggest that most lack a clear vision of how AI applications might affect their staff and missions, which is understandable, since prior research hardly offers an actionable forecast. The US Bureau of Labor Statistics optimistically predicts that government workforces will see almost no job losses between now and 2024,5 while a recent study by Deloitte-UK and Oxford University suggests that up to 18 percent of UK public-sector jobs could be automated by 2030.6 We've attempted to bring clarity to the confusion, for agency chiefs looking to future workforce needs. Our view is that the key to planning ahead is understanding how much time cognitive technologies could save. And indeed, our research, based on a new method for studying AI-based technology's effects on government workforces, indicates that cognitive technologies could free up large numbers of labor hours by automating certain tasks and allowing managers to shift employees to tasks requiring human judgment. These new applications could save hundreds of millions of staff hours and billions of dollars annually.

An American F-15 warplane has shot down a pro-government drone in Syria after it fired at coalition forces, officials said, marking an escalation of tensions in the war-torn country's south. No one was hurt in Thursday's incident which occurred near the coalition's At-Tanaf garrison close to the Jordan border, Colonel Ryan Dillon, spokesman for the coalition against ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant), told Pentagon reporters. The drone "was armed and still had weapons on it when it was fired upon by US forces from an aircraft", said Dillon. Although the weapon deployed by the drone deployed hit only dirt, the action was "clearly meant" as an attack, added Dillon. Dillon said it was not immediately clear who owned the drone. "Regardless of what kind of drone it was, it fired upon our coalition forces, and therefore showed hostile intent, and it was perceived as a threat," he said.

WASHINGTON – A drone likely connected to Iranian-supported militias fired on U.S.-backed troops near a military camp in southern Syria on Thursday, near where the U.S.-led coalition is training Syrian rebels fighting the Islamic State group, an American military spokesman said. The weapon fired by the drone did not detonate and no one was hurt, but Army Col. Ryan Dillon told reporters at the Pentagon that it was considered a direct threat and that a manned U.S. aircraft shot it down. The attack came just hours after the U.S. bombed Syrian government and allied troops inside a protected zone in that area, and marked a sharp escalation in the skirmishes between the coalition and those pro-Syrian government forces there. Dillon said this was the first time that forces supporting Damascus had attacked coalition troops in that region, which is near the training camp in Tanf, close to the border with Jordan. He declined to say who owned or operated the drone, but other officials said it was likely Iranian or Iranian-backed Hezbollah.

William D. Eggers is the executive director of the Deloitte Center for Government Insights. Dr. Peter Viechnicki is a strategic analysis manager and data scientist with the center. This piece is adapted from their new study, How much time and money can AI save government? Government agencies are no exception, and today this requires endless staff hours spent inputting, processing and sharing information across systems. The work needs to get done, so someone has to peck away at a keyboard, right?