America is now one step closer to becoming a sci-fi utopia, thanks to a new law passed in Virginia. On Friday the state's governor signed a ruling which will allow delivery robots to use its sidewalks and crosswalks from July 1st. Advised by Starship Technologies (an Estoninan robotics company that specializes in ground delivery) the legislation states that the bots cannot travel faster than ten miles per hour, or weigh over 50 pounds. The new law will allow the little bots to roam the streets completely autonomously. In a bid to reduce collisions, however, Virginia requires them to remain under the watchful eye of the delivery company via remote monitoring.

Economists are watching China very closely, and they're worried. Autor cites the possibility of a trade war between the U.S. and China or Mexico as one of the foremost concerns economists have in 2017. He also lists the possibility of a housing or financial crisis in China as a major concern for global markets that could upset demand worldwide. On the other hand, we probably shouldn't be worrying too much about robots stealing our jobs--yet. "I'm not yet convinced that we will face an unemployment problem created by AI," writes Autor.

Artificial intelligence boosters predict a brave new world of flying cars and cancer cures. Detractors worry about a future where humans are enslaved to an evil race of robot overlords. Veteran AI scientist Eric Horvitz and Doomsday Clock guru Lawrence Krauss, seeking a middle ground, gathered a group of experts in the Arizona desert to discuss the worst that could possibly happen -- and how to stop it. Their workshop took place last weekend at Arizona State University with funding from Tesla Inc. co-founder Elon Musk and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn. Officially dubbed "Envisioning and Addressing Adverse AI Outcomes," it was a kind of AI doomsday games that organized some 40 scientists, cyber-security experts and policy wonks into groups of attackers -- the red team -- and defenders -- blue team -- playing out AI-gone-very-wrong scenarios, ranging from stock-market manipulation to global warfare.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is likely to prove the most transformative technology of the 21st century. Those of us who work in the field – whether in the public or private sector – are at a frontier that is advancing at an ever-accelerating rate. Yet my work on tech policy at the Government Digital Service and the Home Office often left me in despair. At a time when the possibilities created by AI are multiplying rapidly, the government isn't really at the races. The Government's Digital Strategy, published yesterday, and the government's Transformation Strategy, published a couple of weeks ago, are a case in point.

It may sound strange, but a number of prominent people have been asking this question lately. As fears about the impact of automation grow, calls for a "robot tax" are gaining momentum. Earlier this month, the European parliament considered one for the EU. Benoît Hamon, the French Socialist party presidential candidate who is often described as his country's Bernie Sanders, has put a robot tax in his platform. Even Bill Gates recently endorsed the idea.

CloudMinds, a Chinese startup developing cloud-intelligence-based services for robotics and other application areas, raised $100 million in a Series A funding round. Although no funder information was provided, seed financing was provided by SoftBank, Foxconn, Walden International and Keytone Ventures. Desktop Metal, a 3D metal printing startup based in Burlington, Mass., is gearing up to take its first product into production and raised $45 million from GV, BMW I Ventures and Lowe's Ventures. The company has now raised a total of $97 million. Other investors include NEA, Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, Lux Capital, GE Ventures, Saudi Aramco, and Stratasys.

Congress told to brace for'robotic soldiers'

Neura AI taps myriad sources of data to predict your habits -- information that's incredibly useful to preventive medicine apps. Our smartphones go everywhere we go. To a certain extent, so do our smartwatches, fitness trackers, wireless health monitors, and wallet locators. A Fitbit can't tap health information from a Wi-Fi glucose monitor. Meiri is the CEO and founder of Neura AI, an artificial intelligence startup that develops some of the most advanced machine-learning algorithms.

March 1, 2017 --Is there – or was there ever – life on Mars? NASA has spent decades investigating the question with orbiters and rovers, including its upcoming Mars 2020 rover, but at least one scientist suspects he already knows the answer. According to Gibert Levin, NASA probably detected microbial life on Mars in 1976. Dr. Levin was one of the scientists involved with the Viking lander, whose biological experiments gave conflicting results when samples tested positive for metabolism but negative for organic molecules. The unreliable organic molecule experiment was the one that failed, and the metabolism detection succeeded.

US troops could soon be fighting "The Terminator" on the battlefield. Experts in cyber warfare told a House committee Wednesday that they expect enemies of the US to begin using artificial intelligence in the next 10 years, The Hill reported. "There has been lot of speculation … about how soon it will be before robotic soldiers take the place of the fight in the kinetic world," Rep. Mike Conaway asked the experts at the panel's hearing. "How soon will A.I. supplant the need … for all these human beings to be able to defend these networks and do what we do?" Peter Singer, a strategist for the New America Foundation, said brace for Arnold Schwarzeneggers in camouflage.