Each year, the U.S. Census Bureau spends $1 billion surveying the population. These surveys are designed to tease apart the demographic makeup of the country by asking a representative group of people about their race, gender, education, occupation, and so on. This is an important exercise because it gives a crucial bird's-eye view of the population and how it is changing. For a start, the data is relatively large scale--the Census Bureau's main survey, the American Community Survey, gives results for all cities and counties with a population greater than 65,000. What's more, surveying the population is a time-consuming exercise; so much so that some data can be five years old by the time it is published.

Some of NASA's most impressive technology is now available to the masses. "The software catalog is our way of supporting the innovation economy by granting access to tools used by today's top aerospace professions to entrepreneurs, small businesses, academia and industry," Steve Jurczyk, associate administrator for NASA's Space Technology Mission Directorate, said in a statement. "Access to these software codes has the potential to generate tangible benefits that create American jobs, earn revenue and save lives." The catalog was made available both online to download and in hard copy. The released software comes from a variety of different areas: business, data processing, operations, propulsion and aeronautics.

The Government's new digital strategy has outlined key changes it wants to make in 2017, including a heavy focus on AI, data and to create new markets for the UK's creative industries. In a speech today (1 March), culture secretary Karen Bradley says the digital sector needs to be taken seriously as it is now worth 7% of the the economy and grew nearly three times faster than comparable sectors in 2015. "But that does not mean that we can stand still. And just keeping up should not be the limit of our ambitions. The UK must lead the world. Meanwhile, none of our citizens should be left behind," Bradley explains.

Citizens often do not make the connection between AI and the amazing new products and services broadly available on the market. But the impact of AI goes far beyond innovative consumer products. Historically, humans exclusively created and delivered knowledge. Now, in the era of cognitive computing, machines have the potential to help people unlock knowledge and insights from massive volumes of data. This combination of human and machine makes AI both powerful and transformative.

The Washington fight over the future of Obamacare will have enormous repercussions for our health care system, which now accounts for nearly 18 percent of the U.S. economy. First there was "open washing," the marketing strategy for dressing up proprietary software as open source. Next came "cloud washing," whereby … Advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and deep learning are impacting businesses. But, the terms are often used interchangeably. As consumer banking becomes increasingly virtual, banks are setting the bar high for their non-human ambassadors.

It's been a rocky week, at home and abroad. Bomb threats were made against Jewish community centers and schools. More controversy over Russia's role in the 2016 elections engulfed Congress and the White House. Russia and China vetoed new sanctions on Syria. Deadly tornadoes ripped across the Midwest.

March 3, 2017 --On March 6, NASA's MAVEN Mars orbiter is expected to cross paths with the Red Planet's moon Phobos. At first, computer models showed the two satellites missing each other by just seven seconds. Mission controllers decided that was too great a risk for the $671 million spacecraft, whose name stands for Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN. So, on Tuesday, they fired its rocket engine enough to increase its velocity by 0.4 meters per second. Controllers say that small correction will yield a safe 2.5 minutes between MAVEN and Phobos on the 6th.

If a tree falls in Peru's rainforest, Greg Asner can tell you what kind it was. Asner, an ecologist at the Carnegie Institution for Science and Stanford University, uses artificial intelligence and a powerful spectral imaging method to map the rainforest in unprecedented detail. By identifying each tree species by its chemical composition, he has shown the rainforest is more diverse than anyone thought. Asner's map takes the guesswork out of protecting one of the most biodiverse places on Earth and pinpointing new areas for conservation. "It's really advancing our ability to save forests and curb climate change," he said.

Anyone who has access to the Internet has certainly encountered all of the buzz and hype surrounding virtual reality (VR) and artificial intelligence (AI). Everything's becoming digitized as we become consumed by new innovations more than ever before, leading many brands to feel overwhelmed to keep up and stand out. What does this exactly mean for brands and marketers? The penetration of breakthrough technological advances like IoT, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality has given way for marketers to approach elements in their marketing stack in a new and innovative way. New capabilities open up the opportunity for brands to reach their target market and provide experiences like never before.

We can roughly divide the year into two halves: September through February is the "Release" bit, and March through August the "Hype" bit. Sure, there are exceptions--games get released all year long at this point. The Game Developer's Conference, which took place this week in San Francisco and where we start to see news about the year's most-anticipated games. Another solid Humble Bundle this week, this time focused on the Arma series. The tiers are a bit complicated but basically $1 gets you the original Arma, beating the average gets you Arma 2, and paying $15 or more gets you Arma 3. If you're looking for a hellishly complicated but ultra-rewarding military sim, Arma's a damn good choice--or if you just want to play the original DayZ, before it fell into Early Access hell.