The federal government is looking to capitalize on the advances made in artificial intelligence as technology becomes more commonplace in the commercial sector, said the executive editor of NextGov, a government technology news website. It comes down to pretty much automating processes and using A.I. for things like chatbots," said Camille Tuutti. Artificial intelligence's contemporary use in government is as basic as it sounds: chatbots simply read questions from users and output relevant answers. "I think that's going to change rapidly over the next years," Tuutti told What's Working in Washington. "What we're going to see is a little bit more advancement within the [Department of Defense] or intelligence community when it comes to artificial intelligence." "It's not going to be Skynet," Tuutti said, referring to the fictional neural net-based conscious group mind and artificial general intelligence system featured in the Terminator movies. Artificial intelligence can execute monotonous jobs such as data entry. "I think any new, emerging technology is going to be considered a little bit scary," said Tuutti. Cloud computing, for example, was a tough sell when it first became viable for businesses. "People were very afraid to implement it at first, or even embrace it.

About 20 percent of youth in the United States live with a mental health condition, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. The good news is that mental health professionals have smarter tools than ever before, with artificial intelligence-related technology coming to the forefront to help diagnose patients, often with much greater accuracy than humans. A new study published in the journal Suicide and Life-Threatening Behavior, for example, showed that machine learning is up to 93 percent accurate in identifying a suicidal person. The research, led by John Pestian, a professor at Cincinnati Children's Hospital Medical Center, involved 379 teenage patients from three area hospitals. Each patient completed standardized behavioral rating scales and participated in a semi-structured interview, answering five open-ended questions such as "Are you angry?" to stimulate conversation, according to a press release from the university.

According to Scout.ai, a publication of journalists, professors, and science fiction authors, the answer is a resounding YES. It is even possible that Donald Trump used data analytics to determine which cities, and states to visit, as well as commanded his own personal botnet army that outnumbered Hillary Clinton's 5 to 1. Naturally, I was skeptical of everything this article claims, I even slept on this story before hitting publish. I've since looked into their claims and they appear to be telling the truth about the technology and people involved. What is unknown is the extent and success of what Trump and his team accomplished, but given the fact Trump won the election it is entirely possible these technologies could have been a deciding factor. Which means artificial intelligence, machine learning, echo chambers, and weaponized propaganda just influenced the election--not the Russians.

From phone apps and GPS maps to music recommendations and artificial intelligence, our lives are increasingly molded by algorithms. Sets of instructions for completing tasks or solving problems, algorithms are the governing principles of our age--the underlying equations that help us make decisions, and, in some cases, make decisions for us. Are these life recipes a force for good or ill? Pew surveyed 1,302 experts of various stripes--futurists, academics, coders, IT guys and girls--and opinions were split. Asked if the "net overall effect" for individuals and society would be positive or negative in the next decade, 38% said the positives would outpace the negatives, while 37% saw it the other way.

In January, the Legal Affairs Committee of the European Parliament put forward a draft report urging the creation and adoption of EU-wide rules to corral the myriad issues arising from the widespread use of robots and AI--a development, it says, is "poised to unleash a new industrial revolution." It's an interesting read, and a valiant effort to get a handle on how to standardize and regulate the ever-expanding robot universe: drones, industrial robots, care robots, medical robots, entertainment robots, robots in farming--you name it, they're all in there. Beginning with Frankenstein's monster, Prague's golem, and Karel Čapek's robot and ending with a code of ethics for robotics engineers and some daunting lists of "shoulds" for robot designers and end users, the 22-page worry catalog toggles between practical concerns about liability, accountability, and safety--who's going to pay when a robot or a self-driving car has an accident?--and The practical concerns addressed include a call for the creation of a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence to support the European Commission in its regulation- and legislation-making efforts. Definitions and classifications of robots and smart robots need to be detailed, and a robot registration system described.

The French military is developing a new, unusual defense weapon to combat terrorism. Four golden eagles, d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis are being trained to attack drones that enter into restricted French air space according to the Washington Post. Terrorists are beginning to experiment with drones in Iraq and the French presidential palace has had numerous drones fly within its restricted air space in recent years. Terrorists are reportedly using store bought drones and turning them into weapons. Jean-Christophe Zimmermann, a French air force general, told Reuters the military chose to use eagles for defense to avoid using guns.

HIMSS 2017 buzz centered on health data cybersecurity, but that hot topic of recent years' gatherings of the health IT universe simmered alongside emerging trends such as patient engagement and artificial intelligence and machine learning. The progression of healthcare IoT, or the Internet of Medical Things, is not without its challenges. Download a PDF of this exclusive guide now and learn how to overcome the obstacles: security, data overload, regulations, and more. This email address is already registered. By submitting my Email address I confirm that I have read and accepted the Terms of Use and Declaration of Consent.

The French military is literally going where eagles dare in an effort to combat the increasing use of drones by criminals and terrorists. Following incidents of drones flying over the presidential palace and restricted military sites – along with the deadly 2015 Paris terror attacks – the French air force has trained four golden eagles to intercept and destroy the rogue aircraft. Aptly named d'Artagnan, Athos, Porthos and Aramis – an homage to Alexandre Dumas' "The Three Musketeers" – the four birds of prey have been honing their attack skills at the Mont-de-Marsan in southwestern France since mid-2016. A French army falconer works with a golden eagle as part of a military training for combat against drones in Mont-de-Marsan French Air Force base, Southwestern France, February 10, 2017. It takes about eight months to fully train the birds, but the eagles are surrounded by drones from before they hatch to make the unmanned flying devices part of their natural environment and to teach the birds to associate drones with being fed.

A SpaceX capsule carrying more than 5,000 pounds of cargo aborted its attempt to dock at the International Space Station early Wednesday because of an "easily correctable" GPS error, officials said. It is scheduled to try again Thursday. This was not the mission's first small delay. Hawthorne-based SpaceX scuttled its planned launch Saturday because of a potential issue with the Falcon 9 rocket meant to propel the Dragon capsule into space. The Dragon spacecraft, which launched Sunday from Kennedy Space Center in Florida, was en route to the space station to deliver supplies and research materials, including biological materials to be grown in crystals in space and an instrument that would survey Earth's upper atmosphere, according to a NASA blog post.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a game changer for the future of cybersecurity. Security professionals need to mine not only structured information, but also unstructured data, including human-generated content. Artificial intelligence enables IT teams to reason, learn and provide context in real time beyond simple analytics patterns. Armed with this collective insight, security analysts can respond to threats with increased speed, accuracy and confidence. Like any new technology, AI introduces many concerns related to governance, transparency, human interactions, privacy and security principles.