For years, Facebook has been investing in artificial intelligence fields like machine learning and deep neural nets to build its core business--selling you things better than anyone else in the world. But earlier this month, the company began turning some of those AI tools to a more noble goal: stopping people from taking their own lives. But it's not just tech giants like Facebook, Instagram, and China's up-and-coming video platform Live.me who are devoting R&D to flagging self-harm. Doctors at research hospitals and even the US Department of Veterans Affairs are piloting new, AI-driven suicide-prevention platforms that capture more data than ever before. The goal: build predictive models to tailor interventions earlier.

Lockheed Martin has completed the design, development and demonstration of a radical 60 kW laser weapon for the U.S. Army. In testing earlier this month, the Lockheed Martin laser produced a single beam of 58 kW, representing a world record for a laser of this type. Army bosses hope the radical weapon will give protection against threats such as swarms of drones or large numbers of rockets and mortars, and says It could one day be installed on military planes, helicopters and ships. A rendering of a truck mounted 60 kW laser weapon system for tactical U.S. Army vehicles. Lockheed Martin has revealed it has completed the design, development and demonstration of a radical 60 kW laser weapon for the U.S. Army.

Russia-based Kalashnikov announced plans to super-size its 7-ton combat vehicle. The gunmaker is developing an unmanned 20-ton'robot' tank capable of carrying both machine guns and anti-tank missiles. The vehicle's predecessor, BAS-01G Soratnik, is designed to support a 30mm gun or eight anti-tank missiles – all while traveling at top speeds of 25 miles per hour. Kalashnikov announced plans to super-size its 7-ton combat vehicle. The firm is developing an unmanned 20-ton'robot' tank capable of carrying both machine guns and anti-tank missiles.

The software, based on voice authentication tech used by banks and insurance, is designed to analyze the dialects of refugees based on speech samples. That indicator can then be used to help authorities figure out if the person comes form a particularly war-torn area and is thus truly in need of asylum. Experts are concerned about the accuracy of the software and that potential immigrants could be coached to game it. "I don't see how automated software can distinguish whether a person uses a certain word or pronounces it in a particular way because this is part of their own repertoire or because they were primed to do so by the interviewer or interpreter," University of Essex linguistics Professor Monika Schmid told Deutsch Welle. Instead, she believes the job is best left to BAMF's 45 linguistics experts, who cover 80 languages and have done such work since 1998.

If rumors that James Cameron is interested in picking up Terminator 6 prove true, perhaps Bill Gates will be in the running for a cameo. Gates recently cautioned that robots are replacing humans in a wide range of jobs, and he proposed implementing a robot tax as a way to temporarily slow the spread of automation. He was promptly -- and predictably -- trashed by a bevy of economists. Lawrence Summers, the former U.S. treasury secretary, dubbed Gates' plan "protectionism against progress," and others scoffed that the founder of Microsoft had joined the ranks of Luddites. Economic growth has slowed markedly in the past decade, they pointed out.

Drone fans north of the border have been hit with tough new rules restricting how and where they can use their flying toys. Announced on Thursday by Canadian transport minister Marc Garneau, the new regulations place strict limitations on drone flights close to people, animals, and buildings. The rules, aimed specifically at non-commercial drone flights, also stipulate that the machines should be kept well clear of airports. "I am taking measures now, before a drone hits an airplane and causes a catastrophic accident," Garneau told the Globe and Mail, adding, "That's the kind of nightmare scenario that keeps me up at night." Folks with an unmanned aerial vehicle weighing more than 0.5 pounds and up to 77 pounds are now banned from operating the machine within 5.6 miles of any airport as well as other places where aircraft operate such as heliports or seaplane bases. Drones must stay within 295 feet of the ground, and keep at least 246 feet (75 meters) from buildings.

AliveCor, which has developed an FDA-cleared smartphone-enabled ECG device, has launched a clinician-facing app using artificial intelligence to pick up signs of atrial fibrillation earlier, according to a company news release. It's an interesting development for the business because it can alert physicians to patients with an elevated risk of having a stroke. The Kardia Pro app is for clinical use. But the goal is to analyze data from patients that includes weight, activity and blood pressure with AI to personalize the heart profiles of each patient, the news release said. An estimated 795,000 people suffer a stroke each year, the majority of them for the first time.

Distributed planning, communication, and control algorithms for autonomous robots make up a major area of research in computer science. But in the literature on multirobot systems, security has gotten relatively short shrift. In the latest issue of the journal Autonomous Robots, researchers from MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory and their colleagues present a new technique for preventing malicious hackers from commandeering robot teams' communication networks. The technique could provide an added layer of security in systems that encrypt communications, or an alternative in circumstances in which encryption is impractical. "The robotics community has focused on making multirobot systems autonomous and increasingly more capable by developing the science of autonomy. In some sense we have not done enough about systems-level issues like cybersecurity and privacy," says Daniela Rus, an Andrew and Erna Viterbi Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at MIT and senior author on the new paper.

For years, Facebook has been investing in artificial intelligence fields like machine learning and deep neural nets to build its core business--selling you things better than anyone else in the world. But earlier this month, the company began turning some of those AI tools to a more noble goal: stopping people from taking their own lives. But it's not just tech giants like Facebook, Instagram, and China's up-and-coming video platform Live.me who are devoting R&D to flagging self-harm. Doctors at research hospitals and even the US Department of Veterans Affairs are piloting new, AI-driven suicide-prevention platforms that capture more data than ever before. The goal: build predictive models to tailor interventions earlier.

Do you know where the next cyber attack will strike or when it's likely to happen? Using machine learning techniques and data analysis, it's now possible to forecast cyber attacks with a decent degree of accuracy. Mind you, we can't pinpoint the exact time of an attack, but like weather forecasters, we can review the available data, look for digital fingerprints and behavior patterns and assess whether a specific target is in the crosshairs of cybercriminals. Like sharks circling prey, attackers exhibit certain behaviors and characteristics when they're planning to strike, and we're getting better at detecting the early stages of their kill chain. In some recent cases, Level 3 Threat Research Labs identified behavior signaling an imminent attack and notified the targets.