Nasa is sending a robot to the sun to help understand dangerous solar activity which could threaten humanity's existence. The mission, known as the Solar Probe Plus (SPP), will go seven times closer to the sun's surface than any spacecraft before it. Nasa is launching the Solar Probe Plus (SPP) which scientists hope will unlock secrets of the sun's corona - the hole at the heart of the star It is unstable and produces solar wind and flares. Millions of tons of highly magnetized material can erupt from the sun at speeds of several million miles an hour. We need to get closer to it in order to understand how it works.

Spencer Kelly tells me that he can't stop talking, which is a handy skill to have for a television presenter. In fact, this trait is why he put aside the career path expected of a computer science graduate from Cambridge University and joined radio. He started off at a local station in the UK, as a traffic presenter and moved on to hosting the station's breakfast show. Kelly says the early 2000s were a good time for British radio, though the years since have seen the medium become formulaic. "It was innovative and people were constantly trying new things. As companies start to understand what works and what doesn't, there is greater control over what music is played and what people say."

A Kansas filmmaker's drone video of the Kansas wheat harvest will premiere next month at the New York City Drone Film Festival. The Wichita Eagle reported Monday http://bit.ly/2lrrePw that his video t is among 32 entries accepted to be shown March 17-19 at the drone film festival. A trailer of the movie shows a race against time as harvest gets underway complete with music, combines, gray skies, and thunder. Armknecht has been capturing farm life in Kansas for the past five years. He says the aerial shots give unique views of the farm and allow the scenery of Kansas to shine. A trailer of the movie shows a race against time as harvest gets underway complete with music, combines, gray skies, and thunder.

Dronescapes is a collection of vibrant, mystical paintings of drones by Australian artist Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox. In a conversation with the Center for the Study of the Drone, the artist shares the meaning of her work, explains her use of traditional Australian motifs, and shares her views on the rise of autonomous technology. The Federal Aviation Administration released a new set of reports of airspace incidents involving drones, including close encounters with manned aircraft and drone use over airports. The dataset includes 1,274 reported incidents that occurred between February and September 2016, around 400 more than occurred during the same period in 2015. At the National Interest, Elsa Kania argues that China could soon overtake the U.S. in the development of autonomous drones.

The UK government is going to lead a "major review" into what artificial intelligence means for the country's economy as part of its long-awaited Digital Strategy. Officials at the Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) say its review will look at how the government and firms can work together to "back the technology" in the coming years. It is claimed, based on figures from Accenture, that AI could add £654 billion to the UK's economy by 2035. While research from the think tank Reform has suggested 250,000 public sector jobs administration jobs could be replaced by chat bots, artificial intelligence, and automation by 2030. The review will be led by the University of Southampton's computer science professor Wendy Hall and Jerome Pesenti from BenevolentAI.

The pledge is part of the government's digital strategy, which will be set out by the culture secretary Karen Bradley on Wednesday. According to the department, the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is expected to give a funding boost of £17.3m to support the development of new robotics and artificial intelligence technologies in universities across the UK. Moreover, the government will also launch a major independent review to examine how it can work together with the artificial intelligence sector. Bradley said, "We are already pioneers in today's artificial intelligence revolution and the digital strategy will build on our strengths to make sure UK-based scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs continue to be at the forefront." Research carried out by Accenture found that artificial intelligence could add in the region of £654bn to the UK economy by 2035.

Ken makes a decent living operating a large harvester on behalf of farmer Luke. Ken's salary generates income tax and social security payments that help finance government programmes for less fortunate members of his community. Alas, Luke is about to replace Ken with Nexus, a robot that can operate the harvester longer, more safely, in any weather and without lunch breaks, holidays or sick pay. Bill Gates thinks that, to ease the inequality and offset the social costs implied by automation's displacement effects, either Nexus should pay income tax, or Luke should pay a hefty tax for replacing Ken with a robot. And this "robot tax" should be used to finance something like a universal basic income (UBI).

The UK government is planning to announce new measures to help artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics researchers to commercialise their breakthroughs. The Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DCMS) announced on Monday that it will include a number of AI-related proposals in its upcoming Digital Strategy document, which will be unveiled in Parliament on Wednesday. As part of the Digital Strategy, DCMS said it expects to announce an AI review that will be led Southampton University professor Wendy Hall and ex-IBM scientist Jérôme Pesenti, who is now the CEO of London healthcare startup Benevolent.AI. The government is also expected to announce a £17.3 million investment into robotics and AI that will be given to UK universities via the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC). "There has been a lot of unwarranted negative hype around AI but it has the ability to drive enormous growth for the UK economy, create jobs, foster new skills, positively transform every industry and retain Britain's status as a world leader in innovative technology," said Hall in a statement.

Police in New York City are looking for the owner of a drone that crashed through a window on a high-rise apartment building. NYPD officials say the drone crash occurred around 3:15 p.m. Saturday into a 27th-floor apartment in the Waterside Plaza tower overlooking the East River in Manhattan's Kips Bay section. Police say a 66-year-old woman living in the apartment was at her computer when the drone crashed through the window and landed just a few feet away from her. Police have recovered the drone, but so far don't know who owns it. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

The US government is researching technology that it hopes will turn soldiers into cyborgs, allowing them to connect directly to computers. The US military's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) has unveiled a research programme called Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) which aims to develop an implantable neural interface, connecting humans directly to computers. Human-computer interfaces are not a new research topic, but most have been hampered by slow, limited control, providing movement of robotic prosthetics or allowing humans to input text or similar into a computer by concentrating on certain feelings or thoughts of motions. Phillip Alvelda, NESD manager for Darpa, said: "Today's best brain-computer interface systems are like two supercomputers trying to talk to each other using an old 300-baud modem. Imagine what will become possible when we upgrade our tools to really open the channel between the human brain and modern electronics."