David Mitchell pulls into the parking lot of the Desert Research Institute, an environmental science outpost of the University of Nevada, perched in the dry red hills above Reno. On this morning, wispy cirrus clouds draw long lines above the range. Mitchell, a lanky, soft-spoken atmospheric physicist, believes these frigid clouds in the upper troposphere may offer one of our best fallback plans for combating climate change. But Mitchell, an associate research professor at the institute, thinks there might be a way to counteract the effects of these clouds. It would work like this: Fleets of large drones would crisscross the upper latitudes of the globe during winter months, sprinkling the skies with tons of extremely fine dust-like materials every year. If Mitchell is right, this would produce larger ice crystals than normal, creating thinner cirrus clouds that dissipate faster.

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.

Think of the ancient art of Kung Fu, and you may not immediately see a link with cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence. But a Hong Kong-based start-up is combining traditional methods of learning the Chinese martial art with AI technology that analyses the speed and strength of your punches and provides personalised, professional advice to hone your technique. "We chose Hong Kong to start our business as the city is rich in Kung Fu culture and we would like to revive Kung Fu by using AI technology," said Thomas Yu, the founder of JabJabX, an app that stores and analyses data in order to help users hone their technique. "Rather than pure observation, big data analysis can tell you your speed and strength as you learn Kung Fu, and provides more personalised advice." JabJabX is now in a "testing stage", but has drawn the interest of potential investors, said Yu, who won the Big Data for Business (B4B) Challenge organised by Cyberport in Hong Kong and Innobator in Shanghai.

While the flying car is yet to become commonplace, an Israeli firm believes its version of the much anticipated transport could seen be ferrying passengers around in the air. Called the CityHawk, the five seater could be ferrying four passengers using giant jet fuel powered fans. It is based on the Cormorant, a military craft set to ferry wounded soldiers from the battlefield. The radical design uses enclosed fans, allowing it to land and take off in enclosed spaces. Although initial versions will have a pilot, future craft will be able to fly themselves.

Getting supplies delivered to troops in remote areas is a big part of what the U.S. military does in terms of logistics. In many cases, it's too dangerous to send an airplane or helicopter, so the military is always looking for new ways of carrying out such resupply missions. Earlier this month at the Sea Air Space 2017 trade show in National Harbor, Md., we saw a new concept for remote resupply that the U.S. Marine Corps Warfighting Laboratory has been testing. The TACAD (TACtical Air Delivery) glider is a prototype for an unpowered drone that can fly huge distances to deliver up to 700 pounds (317 kilograms) of whatever you need with high accuracy, and then be abandoned where it lands without a second thought. The picture above is a small scale model of the TACAD drone glider that the Marines are planning on building.

The news seemed to arrive all at once, even though Canada has long been at the forefront of technology, from Vancouver's film studios to Montreal's world-class animation talent. But in the past few months, things were different. Everyone seemed to come together (a rarity) and as a group, all parties were thinking ahead (another rarity): academia, government, non-profit organizations and businesses all came out in strong support of artificial intelligence research and development. The announcements were made in relatively quick succession: A new federal budget would provide $125 million to improve Canada's competitive and strategic advantage in AI. The University of Toronto's Vector Institute would hire roughly 25 new faculty and research scientists devoted to the field of artificial intelligence.

The original Ghost in the Shell (GitS) movie was practically compulsory material in the hacker subculture of the late 90s, early 2000s. The original touched on themes that all geeks can appreciate, including robotics, sentient AI, human augmentation, active ("thermal-optic") camouflage, transferring human consciousness to a machine, and more. The main protagonist was a hacker called the Puppet Master, and the idea of hacking technically augmented humans was ahead its time (the Internet of Things wasn't even a "thing" then). This is probably why GitS imagery and themes have been iconic in hacker culture (like this GitS-ish t-shirt). As a fan of the complete Ghost in the Shell franchise (manga, TV shows, sequels), I was excited for the live-action remake of the movie, despite my wariness for "reboots" in general.

Let's take a breath: Robots and artificial intelligence systems are nowhere near displacing the human workforce. Nevertheless, no less a voice than Bill Gates has asserted just the opposite and called for a counterintuitive, preemptive strike on these innovations. His proposed weapon of choice? Taxes on technology to compensate for losses that haven't happened. David Kenny (@davidwkenny) is IBM's senior vice president for Watson and the company's cloud platform.

There is a stretch of highway through the Ozark Mountains where being data-driven is a hazard. Jason Tashea (@justicecodes), a writer and technologist based in Baltimore, is the founder of Justice Codes, a criminal justice and technology consultancy. Heading from Springfield, Missouri, to Clarksville, Arkansas, navigation apps recommend the Arkansas 43. While this can be the fastest route, the GPS's algorithm does not concern itself with factors important to truckers carrying a heavy load, such as the 43's 1,300-foot elevation drop over four miles with two sharp turns. The road once hosted few 18-wheelers, but the last two and half years have seen a noticeable increase in truck traffic--and wrecks.

Windows users are being told to update their computers after a hacking group released a collection of exploits designed to help cybercriminals break into Microsoft's software. The tools, which were released by the Shadow Brokers group, had allegedly been stolen from the US' National Security Agency (NSA) last summer. It is believed that NSA spies had been using the exploits to secretly break into computers running older versions of Windows, including XP and Vista. Microsoft says "most of the exploits" have already been addressed with a series of patches – one of which was issued as recently as last month – but warned Windows users to make sure their devices are up to date. 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.