China is pushing hard towards becoming a trailblazer when it comes to automation and intelligent engineering. Already the biggest market for industrial robots, the Chinese government has clearly identified its goals of becoming one of the pioneers in robotics and automated machinery. It will lead a major overhaul in how the Chinese industry functions and, amidst its robotic ambitions, the domain of driverless trucks is not far behind. Last year, the Chinese internet giant Baidu unveiled its self-driving truck, made in collaboration with Foton Motor Group, a step forward in revolutionizing not only the $300 billion Chinese transportation industry but also in boosting competitiveness in a slowing economy that aims to become the world's largest within the next decade. China's economic growth has slowed down in recent years and in 2015, its exports fell for just the second time since 1978, when China formally opened its borders.

The National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore will launch AI.SG, a national programme in Artificial Intelligence (AI) to catalyze, synergize and boost Singapore's AI capabilities. Up to $150 million will be invested in AI.SG over the next five years. The initiative will be driven by a government-wide partnership comprising NRF, the Smart Nation and Digital Government Office (SNDGO), the Economic Development Board (EDB), the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), SGInnovate, and the Integrated Health Information Systems (IHiS). AI:SG will bring together research institutions, AI start-ups and companies developing AI products, to grow knowledge, create tools and develop talent to power Singapore's AI efforts. For example, AI can be used to increase traffic throughput during peak hours, or to address healthcare challenges that are to come with an ageing population.

During the ongoing Smart Nation Innovation Week, Minister Dr. Yaacob Ibrahim announced two new initiatives by the National Research Foundation (NRF) Singapore as part of the key thrust area of investing in frontier technologies to develop Singapore's digital economy. NRF will be setting up a Singapore Data Science Consortium (SDSC), in collaboration with the National University Singapore (NUS), the Nanyang Technological University (NTU)1, the Singapore Management University (SMU) and the Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR). This partnership between government and academia is expected to deepen Singapore's existing strengths in data science and analytics. It will facilitate collaboration between Institutes of Higher Learning (IHLs), research institutes and industry in data science R&D, with the aim of facilitating industry adoption of the latest cutting-edge data science and analytics technologies to address real-world challenges. The Consortium will work in partnership with the Economic Development Board (EDB) and the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) to engage companies in six sectors: finance; healthcare; customer and retail; manufacturing; logistics; and transport.

Uber could be facing a criminal probe by the Department of Justice into its use of a ghost-app program called Greyball, according to a Reuters report late Thursday. The controversial program allowed Uber engineers to take over a user's app and send them a map that did not accurately reflect which drivers were in the area. Uber admitted that Greyball was used in part to track and avoid regulators who might be hailing rides to scrutinize the company's business practices, and discontinued the practice five days after a March 3 New York Times report exposed the program. If true, a criminal investigation would represent a significant ratcheting up of problems for the world's most valuable startup, which already is dealing with an internal probe about a sexist work environment and a lawsuit from Waymo over allegedly stolen self-driving car technology. Uber declined to comment, but provided a letter the company sent to Portland, Ore., officials in March that describes the program.

Canada, with nine percent of the world's forests, is a land of plenty. As well as an enviable array of natural resources, Canada also boasts incredible support for entrepreneurs, both homegrown and international. Many household names, such as Slack, Hootsuite and Shopify -- which may be mistakenly considered as U.S. products -- hail from north of the border. This proves Canada is capable of delivering on startup success. And it's no surprise that startups excel in the country. Sure, there is less access to VC funding and the persuasive call of Canada's southern neighbor, but the Canadian government is working hard to build and keep successful startup ecosystems. There is a huge selection of government aid available to small businesses, some of which includes grants that don't have to be paid back.

Explainable AI – or XAI – is a relatively new research area that hopes to'open the black box' on deep learning neural networks, complex algorithms and probabilistic graphical models. Artificial intelligence systems that can explain their decision making process in human terms are now the subject of intense research by software and cloud vendor Oracle, the company's senior vice-president of data-driven applications revealed to Computerworld yesterday. "One thing we don't make a big call out to is that we have a dedicated research team at Oracle called Oracle labs, mostly PhD computer scientists. And we have a lot of research going on that we don't tend to advertise very much in those research groups looking into that specific research area," said Clive Swan on the fringes of Oracle's Modern Business Experience event in Sydney. "It remains a big area of academic research. That problem is…very difficult academically to solve in some cases, and frankly varies from algorithm to algorithm."

"We have to go through miles of case law on this one." "We don't know because we can't track events like that." Spend enough time in or around government agencies, and these are the kinds of pressures you're likely to hear about. How can governments overcome challenges like these that are both detail-oriented and labor-intensive? Increasingly, they could be turning to artificial intelligence (AI).

File- In this June 5, 2014 file photo, a Border Patrol agent uses a headset and computer to conduct a long distance interview by video from a facility in San Diego. A government report says inefficient computer systems and a lack of exit screening hamper U.S. authorities' efforts to track the number of foreigners who overstay their visas. The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General said Thursday, May 4, 2017, that immigration agents and analysts need better and more integrated computer systems to check visitors' immigration status.

As global tensions continue to build, science fiction-fueled fears of a devastating electromagnetic pulse attack have begun to surface. Some speculate that North Korea could detonate a high-altitude nuclear weapon in space, setting off an EMP that would knock out electrical systems down below, with catastrophic results. But, experts are not convinced that this is how the scenario would pan out. According to nuclear non-proliferation expert Jeffrey Lewis, tests of such devices in the past were largely anticlimactic, and failed to produce the widespread electrical disruption that's been predicted over the years. The expert points to a test conducted by the US in 1962 known as'Starfish Prime.' EMP, or electromagnetic pulse weapons use missiles equipped with an electromagnetic pulse cannon.

In 2006, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency vowed to build, within four years, a brain-controlled prosthetic arm indistinguishable from the real thing. Yet after hundreds of millions of dollars and more than a decade of engineering, most limb replacements (even those wired straight to the noggin) struggle to mimic human gestures. Cracking the neural code for movement was trickier than expected. The trouble lies in getting past conscious thought. "Capturing the body's innate ability to just know what to do is something really lacking from all prosthetics today," says Mike McLoughlin, who manages the prosthetics program at Johns Hopkins.