American Mark Pavlyukovskyy created a company that provides materials people can use to build their own computer. Last year, when he was searching for people to invest in his company, he wanted someone who knew the Chinese market. Pavlyukovskyy did not have to travel to Beijing or Shanghai to find people knowledgeable about China. Silicon Valley in California is home to many Chinese with money to invest in small or start-up businesses. Pavlyukovskyy was born in Ukraine.

As companies increasingly turn to artificial intelligence to communicate with customers, make sense of big data and find answers to vexing questions, some say it's time to think about hiring a chief A.I. officer. A chief artificial intelligence Officer – or CAIO -- could round out your C-level execs, sitting at the big table with your CIO, CFO, CTO and CEO. "A.I. is going to be really important to some companies – enough to have top officers who will focus on just that," said Steve Chien, head of the artificial intelligence group for NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif. "And beyond that, you'll want every employee thinking about how A.I. can improve what they do and you'll want a chief A.I. officer overseeing all of that. They should be constantly thinking about how A.I. can improve things."

The Federal Aviation Administration has said that online shopping powerhouse Amazon may not employ drones to deliver packages, at least not anytime soon. The revelation was buried in a FAA document (PDF) unveiled Monday seeking public comment on its policy on drones, or what the agency calls "model aircraft." The FAA has maintained since at least 2007 that the commercial operation of drones is illegal. A federal judge ruled in March, however, that the FAA enacted the regulations illegally because it did not take public input before adopting the rules, which is a violation of federal law. Flight regulators have appealed the decision, maintaining that commercial applications are still barred.

How do babies learn things in the first few years of their lives? They observe and imitate everyone around them. If Mummy is stacking blocks that keep toppling over, Junior can still get what she is trying to do, even though she doesn't succeed. Just like human babies, computers can teach themselves. This field is called machine learning, and it has become a big trend in the public sector.

A new start-up lets users synthesise a person's speech from just a one minute-long recording of them talking. Using artificial intelligence (AI) the Lyrebird service uses a voice-imitation algorithm to mimic a person's voice and have it read any text with a given emotion. Although this voice-copying technology might be amusing it also has serious implications as users can essentially poach part of someone else's identity. The Lyrebird service synthesise a person's speech from just a one minute-long recording and can generate 1000 sentences in less than half a second (stock image) The Lyrebird service allows users to compress the individual characteristics of a voice into a single key which means users can generate 1000 sentences in less than half a second. Not only can users create voices but they can control the generated voice too - for example making it sound angry, sympathetic or stressed.

China is talking with the European Space Agency about collaborating on a human settlement on the moon. The secretary general for China's space agency, Tian Yulong, disclosed the talks today in Chinese state media. The ESA has previously described its'Moon Village' as a potential international launching pad for future missions to Mars. China is talking with the European Space Agency about collaborating on a human settlement on the moon. Pictured is an artist's illustration released by the ESA last year The European Space Agency's CEO Jan Woerner said the project could allow exploration of the far side of the moon.

A US drone strike has killed five suspected members of al-Qaeda in central Yemen, according to local news media and a government security official. Yemen Ajel, a local news website, reported that the drone fired three consecutive missiles at 12:30am local time on Sunday, or 22:30 GMT on Saturday, at a car reportedly transporting weapons to Marib province. Speaking on condition of anonymity, a military official told AFP news agency that the car belonged to a local leader of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP). The strike comes 24 hours after a similar raid killed three suspected AQAP operatives in the southern Shabwa province, which has been a central target of the US military. The US has stepped up its use of drone strikes under President Donald Trump, with the Pentagon confirming more than 70 strikes since February 28.

Chris Skinner is surprised when he hears that he's popular among bankers. Surprised because the messages he delivers are often uncomfortable. Skinner intends to push bankers out of their comfort zone. While never a banker himself, Skinner has worked on banking projects for several technology companies before establishing his niche as a fintech blogger (TheFinanser.com) His specialty is discerning relevant chords amid all the noise regarding technology and its impact on financial services.

A helicopter pelts Guam's trees with poison-baited dead mice to fight the voracious brown tree snake. A special boat with giant winglike nets stuns and catches Asian carp in the U.S. Midwest. In the fight against alien animals that invade and overrun native species, the weird and wired wins. "Critters are smart -- they survive," said biologist Rob "Goose" Gosnell, head of U.S. Department of Agriculture's wildlife services in Guam, where brown tree snakes have gobbled up nearly all the native birds. "Trying to outsmart them is hard to do." Invasive species are plants and animals that thrive in areas where they don't naturally live, usually brought there by humans, either accidentally or intentionally.

President Trump suggested tonight that it's not fair to compare the Republican health care plan to the Affordable Care Act, because the law is "dying, dying, dying" and won't be around anyway. "They always like to compare -- well, what about [Obamacare]? Obamacare's dead," Trump said at a rally in Harrisburg, PA. "It's gone ... The insurance companies are fleeing." Between the lines: His comments suggested that he might try to use the law's problems -- including the steep premium hikes last year -- to dismiss the comparisons people are making to the GOP replacement plan, which aren't flattering. The biggest criticisms: it would cover 24 million fewer people than the ACA, and under some of the latest changes, it might not give the same protections to people with pre-existing conditions.