WHEN it comes to detecting landmines, being slow is an advantage. Swarms of robotic sea turtles teaching themselves to crawl in the Arizona desert could one day be used to help clear landmines in war zones. The military already has minesweeping robots, but their bulk makes them costly and difficult to deploy – something the turtle bots could help resolve. The robotic turtles, which are about the size of a small drone, are laser-cut from two sheets of cardboard before being folded together origami-style and fitted with an inexpensive computer chip and motors that move their fins. Each robot only takes 2 to 3 hours to put together and costs around $80, so losing one in a landmine blast isn't necessarily a huge setback, says Heni Ben Amor, joint leader of the project at Arizona State University.

The Middle East and North Africa's youthful, fast-urbanizing population are perfectly placed to embrace technology and reap the rewards of the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Much has been written already about the arrival of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR) and the opportunity that the convergence of its new technologies offers in terms of building value into production systems and economies around the world. In one sense, the playing field could be levelled out. Localized production is being made more feasible for many small producers, setting developing communities on a path towards self-sufficiency, while falling costs could enable factories of all sizes to boost their productivity levels. However, on the opposite side of the equation, news headlines have been dominated by predictions that human workers will be substituted by robots, leading to widespread job losses and heightened societal challenges. Additionally, doubt has been shed on the ability of regions that are less industrialized, or those with fractured economies and infrastructure, to be able to respond to these disruptions and compete effectively in the future.

The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a'crash-proof' drone to fly on missions to Mars and beyond. The new drones could one day help Martian settlers explore lava tubes on the planet by mapping out tight spots that humans cannot reach. The drone, surrounded by a protective spherical cage and equipped with thermal cameras, deliberately bumps into its surroundings in order to build a 3D-map. The European Space Agency (ESA) has developed a'crash-proof' drone (pictured) to fly on missions to Mars and beyond. The ESA has been testing equipment, techniques and working methods in caves for space missions for many years.

Is it just a new version of the model aircraft that decades of schoolchildren have flown in their backyards and parks with little harm to people or property? Or is it a far more dangerous, often much more substantial, piece of machinery that can fly thousands of feet in the air, requires little or no training to get off the ground and can cause serious damage? And that's a problem because, as a federal appeals court noted last week, the Federal Aviation Administration doesn't have the authority to regulate model aircraft. This means the FAA must drop its 18-month-old requirement that owners of large recreational drones (defined as between 0.55 pound and 55 pounds) register with a federal database before they take to the air and possibly blunder into the path of a commercial jet. Congress must fix this, and quickly.

Last year, a strange self-driving car was released onto the quiet roads of Monmouth County, New Jersey. The experimental vehicle, developed by researchers at the chip maker Nvidia, didn't look different from other autonomous cars, but it was unlike anything demonstrated by Google, Tesla, or General Motors, and it showed the rising power of artificial intelligence. The car didn't follow a single instruction provided by an engineer or programmer. Instead, it relied entirely on an algorithm that had taught itself to drive by watching a human do it. Getting a car to drive this way was an impressive feat. But it's also a bit unsettling, since it isn't completely clear how the car makes its decisions. Information from the vehicle's sensors goes straight into a huge network of artificial neurons that process the data and then deliver the commands required to operate the steering wheel, the brakes, and other systems.

A highly coveted and highly controversial role, one traditionally held by humans. The use of "traditionally" is a recently added modifier, one necessary when discussing a Wired article suggesting that the role of president might one day be filled by an artificial intelligence (AI). Others have pushed the idea of an AI president before, with one group even fighting for Watson, IBM's AI, to run for the position in 2016. This massive, strange, sci-fi political makeover would completely upend the idea of traditional political discourse, so why are so many considering it? One major reason is level-headedness.

Car makers, technology companies and governments now have a set of official guidelines to instruct trials of driverless vehicles in Australia. Published by the National Transport Commission and AustRoads, the guidelines [pdf] set out how autonomous vehicles can be tested on public roads in the country, and how triallists can seek exemption from permits and requirements such as Australian design rules (ADR) ahead of testing. Organisations that wish to trial autonomous vehicles must clearly set out the trial location and provide a high-level description of the technology used, the guidelines state. A traffic management plan that takes into account vehicle density, pedestrians, signage, and route complexity will also need to be provided. A comprehensive insurance policy is similarly a must.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is all over the technology headlines lately. It seems to be the latest buzzword to take hold, yet the question remains: Will this be a quick fad, or are we actually seeing the second coming of AI? Most recently, there has been a heavy surge of artificial intelligence thinking applied to cybersecurity. Could this be a long-term application for the cognitive technology and a way for enterprises to ward off some of the increasingly stealthy attacks they are blind to at the moment? Will cybersecurity give AI new life and a second chance in an industry desperate to provide protection against cyberthreats?

Google artificial intelligence unit DeepMind teamed up with Chinese authorities to hold a five-day festival in the country this week focused on the ancient game of Go. The centerpiece of the event is a three-game contest pitting a DeepMind computer program against China's world Go champion, Ke Jie -- all of it livestreamed on Google's YouTube. Just one problem: Chinese Go fans couldn't watch the first game on Tuesday because the YouTube livestream was blocked in China. DeepMind's AlphaGo program won by just half a point. Major Chinese news websites were prepared to livestream the game, but the plans were suddenly canceled, according to people with knowledge of the plans who declined to be identified because of the sensitivity of the matter.

In what is likely a warning to nuclear-armed North Korea, the U.S. military on Wednesday showed off to media its Global Hawk surveillance drone, which is temporarily deployed to its Yokota Air Base in western Tokyo. The massive drone, with a wingspan of about 40 meters and a length of about 15 meters, can fly for long durations at altitudes higher than manned aircraft. The main focus of the deployment is believed to be to collect surveillance data on the North's nuclear- and missile-related facilities as well Chinese military activity in the Western Pacific. The aircraft is one of five Global Hawks sent to Yokota from their home base in Guam to avoid the harsh summer typhoon season that annually hits the Pacific island. The drones are scheduled to operate out of Yokota until the end of October.