Battalions of insect cyborgs - stealthier than any man-made mini-drone - could soon hit the skies to join the fight against terrorism. Draper, along with Howard Hughes Medical Institute at Janelia Research Campus, have created cyborg dragonflies in an effort to aid intelligence and reconnaissance. Known as DragonflEye, the project would allow the US military and intelligence services to deploy these cyborgs as micro-drones capable of spying for their masters. In addition to the secretive nature of the drones, they're also expected to be more agile, lighter and smaller. The US military, like others around the world, has long pursued tiny flying robots to deploy for surveillance.

Come 2050, a researcher predicts, the human race would cease to exist. It is not because of a nuclear holocaust or due to an extraterrestrial body hitting the earth. Researcher Jeff Nesbit, a former director of the US-based National Science Foundation, believes our extinction would be triggered by our own creation: artificial intelligence. He claims that the human race would either cease to exist by 2050 -- or become immortal. While both the scenarios appear to be taken from science fiction, it is a fact that we are staring at a human crisis caused by automation and robotics, which are the result of machine intelligence.

"The connectivity that is the heart of globalisation can be exploited by states with hostile intent to further their aims.[…] The risks at stake are profound and represent a fundamental threat to our sovereignty." "It's not MI6's job to warn of internal threats. It was a very strange speech. Was it one branch of the intelligence services sending a shot across the bows of another? Or was it pointed at Theresa May's government? Does she know something she's not telling us?" Senior intelligence analyst, April 2017 In June 2013, a young American postgraduate called Sophie was passing through London when she called up the boss of a firm where she'd previously interned. The company, SCL Elections, went on to be bought by Robert Mercer, a secretive hedge fund billionaire, renamed Cambridge Analytica, and achieved a certain notoriety as the data analytics firm that played a role in both Trump and Brexit campaigns. But all of this was still to come. London in 2013 was still basking in the afterglow of the Olympics. Britain had not yet Brexited. The world had not yet turned. "That was before we became this dark, dystopian data company that gave the world Trump," a former Cambridge Analytica employee who I'll call Paul tells me. "It was back when we were still just a psychological warfare firm." Was that really what you called it, I ask him. Psychological operations – the same methods the military use to effect mass sentiment change.

Everything from a new accessibility toolkit for smart cities, to an AI assistant, to a patrol car prototype were part of Microsoft's presentations at Smart Cities NYC '17. First on the agenda was Microsoft's announcement about its Smart Cities for All Toolkit to help city officials and urban planners design cities with inclusive features to assist people with disabilities. The toolkit was developed by G3ict and World Enabled as part of the Smart Cities for All initiative to give city leaders a strategic guide to benefit all citizens, including the approximately 1.2 billion people in the world with disabilities. The toolkit is the first step toward what Microsoft plans to be a long road to help cities become more inclusive. It's comprised of four new tools to address priority challenges and alleviate the top barriers for disabled individuals in smart cities. "The toolkit is meant to be guidance for city leaders to think about how to make the business of becoming a smart city accessible to everyone. They don't know where to start," said Kathryn Wilson, director of cities solutions worldwide public sector for Microsoft.

In the future, depending on the company size and business type, many organizations will need to consider adding the role of chief artificial intelligence officer. While a full-time dedicated position might seem to be excessive now, the role of a senior leader who is deeply knowledgeable in the broad domain of artificial intelligence is rapidly becoming critical. The chief AI officer is tasked with providing strategic and tactical guidance and support for exploring AI methodologies. This role would also serve as the evangelist for the process, people and tools that can help achieve real business results with AI or human intelligence augmentation. Since artificial intelligence, and with it machine learning, is a broad and cross-cutting capability, this individual can focus across the landscape, and research and dig deep into the possible advantages and opportunities to aid business objectives. Organizations should understand the most appropriate area for inserting the chief AI officer.

Data scientists are using machine learning to tackle lung cancer detection. Beginning in January, nearly 10,000 data scientists around the world competed in the Data Science Bowl to develop the most effective algorithm to help medical professionals detect lung cancer earlier and with better accuracy. In 2010, the National Lung Screening Trial showed that annual screening with low-dose computed tomography (CT) -- a scanner that uses computer-processed combinations of many X-ray images from different angles to generate high-contrast 3D images -- could reduce lung cancer deaths by 20 percent. While a breakthrough for early detection, the technology has also resulted in a relatively high rate of false positives compared with more traditional X-rays. An anonymized high-res lung scan from the NCI, which Data Science Bowls participants used when developing algorithms.

The Vector Institute in Toronto has only been around for a few weeks, and it is already attracting top machine learning talent from Silicon Valley. "Geopolitics is playing a part, as people contacting us have said'I don't want to live in the U.S.,'" Jordan Jacobs, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC. The Trump administration's recent battles over immigration have made some people feel unwelcome, and others more hesitant to move to the U.S. to do research in artificial intelligence. "People have been emailing and calling to ask: When can I send my application?" Raquel Urtasun, co-founder of the Vector Institute, told CNBC.

Modern sensors can see farther than humans. Electronic circuits can shoot faster than nerves and muscles can pull a trigger. Humans still outperform armed robots in knowing what to shoot at -- but new research funded in part by the Army may soon narrow that gap. Researchers from DCS Corp and the Army Research Lab fed datasets of human brain waves into a neural network -- a type of artificial intelligence -- which learned to recognize when a human is making a targeting decision. They presented their paper on it at the annual Intelligent User Interface conference in Cyprus in March.

Congratulations! You've gotten through the week of the Google Docs phishing ploy that rocked the world, or at least a vocal corner of the media. Speaking of speaking out, FBI Director James Comey this week gave his most thorough explanation yet of the election-rocking Clinton investigation letter he gave last fall, though it's unlikely to satisfy critics. Oh, and apps can use your phone's mic to listen for marketing beacons your ears can't hear. In other news, hackers tried to extort Netflix by threatening to put the unreleased, upcoming season of Orange Is the New Black online, a pretty serious miscalculation. Intel fixed a seven-year-old bug that left enterprise machines exposed.

SEOUL – Ahn Cheol-soo's supporters believe that as South Korean president he'll rise above a political culture long bogged down by corruption and factional bickering. His critics say the former computer software mogul is torn between his slogans that cater to both liberal and conservative voters. Opinion surveys see Ahn as coming in second in Tuesday's vote to Moon Jae-in, who seems to be capitalizing on conservative disarray following the ouster of former President Park Geun-hye, who was jailed in March on corruption charges. However, South Korean elections can be tricky to predict because the electorate is deeply split along ideological lines. Surveys have suggested Ahn was attracting conservative voters disappointed by Park but who continue to dislike Moon, who calls for engagement with belligerent North Korea.