Just because a worker isn't technically "alive" doesn't mean it can make money for nothing, according to Bill Gates. In a recent interview with Quartz editor-in-chief Kevin Delaney, the billionaire philanthropist explained that robot labor should get taxed just like human labor -- primarily as a way to maintain funding for society's many social services. "You can't just give up that income tax," Gates said. Economists and future-minded techies alike, Gates included, have been discussing the looming threat of robotic automation for several years now. An Oxford report from 2013 found robots could displace up to 50% of jobs between 2023 and 2033.

Stanford University has invited leading thinkers from several institutions to begin a 100-year effort to study and anticipate how the effects of artificial intelligence will ripple through every aspect of how people work, live and play. This effort, called the One Hundred Year Study on Artificial Intelligence, or AI100, is the brainchild of computer scientist and Stanford alumnus Eric Horvitz, who, among other credits, is a former president of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence. In that capacity, Horvitz convened a conference in 2009 at which top researchers considered advances in artificial intelligence and its influences on people and society, a discussion that illuminated the need for continuing study of AI's long-term implications. Now, together with Russ Altman, a professor of bioengineering and of computer science at Stanford, Horvitz has formed a committee that will select a panel to begin a series of periodic studies on how AI will affect automation, national security, psychology, ethics, law, privacy, democracy and other issues. "Artificial intelligence is one of the most profound undertakings in science, and one that will affect every aspect of human life," said Stanford President John Hennessy, who helped initiate the project.

Automakers Toyota and GM and ride-sharing firm Lyft called on the US government to create US-wide standards to ease the testing and adoption of autonomous cars. The problem, they say, is that rules vary widely across the country are more restrictive in some states (like California) than others (Michigan). "Self-driving cars won't drive while impaired by drugs or alcohol [and] they won't be distracted by a cell phone," GM VP Michael Abelson told a subcommittee on Tuesday. "We have the further opportunity to avoid crashes altogether." It's not as though the US Department of Transport (DoT) is doing nothing, as it released a policy document last September.

The future of federal IT belongs to CIOs who can build flexible, nimble organizations able to maximize the advantage of existing technologies like cloud services and automated machine intelligence while laying the groundwork for a range of emerging technologies on the horizon. That's according to a new report on government technology trends for 2017 published Wednesday by Deloitte. Researchers identified eight technologies they believe have an opportunity to disrupt and change the way the federal government leverages information, data and software over the next two years. Some are a continuation of existing trends that are already established, like IT consolidation and greater reliance on cloud-based software and services. Others, like artificial intelligence, mixed reality and nanotechnology veer more into the outer edges of what is currently possible today, but may have far more relevance a few years down the line.

The technology industry is facing up to the world-shaking ramifications of artificial intelligence. There is now a recognition that AI will disrupt how societies operate, from education and employment to how data will be collected about people. Machine learning, a form of advanced pattern recognition that enables machines to make judgments by analysing large volumes of data, could greatly supplement human thought. But such soaring capabilities have stirred almost Frankenstein-like fears about whether developers can control their creations. Failures of autonomous systems -- like the death last yearof a US motorist in a partially self-driving car from Tesla Motors -- have led to a focus on safety, says Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science and AI expert at the University of California, Berkeley.

Soaring over the world's highest buildings and racing a solar-powered car across the desert may not be on your vacation itinerary this summer, but you can still see what such experiences might be like, thanks to the spectacular new IMAX film, "Dream Big: Engineering Our World." The movie takes audiences from Dubai to Australia, while sharing stirring stories about the impact engineers have on society. Narrated by Academy Award winner Jeff Bridges, it celebrates the inspiring work and people behind these engineering feats. Featured footage includes the Great Wall of China and the Golden Gate Bridge, not to mention an underwater robot developed by a team of students from an underprivileged high school in Phoenix. Made up primarily of Mexican immigrants, the robotics team entered its creation in a competition and succeeded against all odds.

The Defense Department is likely within 18 months of introducing autonomous cybersecurity tools that will be capable of augmenting human analysts by predicting threats, including insider activity, and dynamically isolating parts of the network that may come under attack, the department's outgoing chief information officer said Thursday. Terry Halvorsen, speaking to reporters during his last media roundtable before retiring at the end of the month, said as the department continues deployment of its 12 Joint Regional Security Stacks--a $1.6 billion effort to eliminate hundreds of disparate firewalls with centrally managed commercial security appliances and network monitoring tools--the next major step will be the deployment and testing of AI-based security applications. "Given the volume [of attacks] and where I see the threat moving it will be impossible for humans by themselves to keep pace. We can and we're very close to being able to put more autonomy into the security tools, and we will get to the point within the next 18 months where AI is becoming a key factor in augmenting the human analyst in making those decisions about what to do," Halvorsen said. Halvorsen recently hosted a special meeting of the Five Eyes alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States), plus Germany, Japan, and NATO, at which AI-based cybersecurity was discussed in detail. "This is very real inside the department.

As organizations struggle with finding the delicate balance of cybersecurity and customer convenience, Mordecai Rosen of CA Technologies says behavioral analytics and machine learning will help. Rosen is senior vice president and general manager for the cybersecurity business at CA Technologies. He joined CA in August 2015 when it acquired Xceedium, where he was the COO. He has more than 25 years of technology experience, including founding and leading an early stage venture management firm. Rosen formerly served as senior vice president of corporate development and strategy at NetSec, a leading managed security services provider acquired by MCI/Verizon.

Although artificial intelligence (as a set of technologies, not in the sense of mimicking human intelligence) is here since a long time in many forms and ways, it's a term that quite some people, certainly IT vendors, don't like to use that much anymore – but artificial intelligence is real, for your business too. Instead of talking about artificial intelligence (AI) many describe the current wave of AI innovation and acceleration with – admittedly somewhat differently positioned – terms and concepts such as cognitive computing or focus on several real-life applications of artificial intelligence that often start with words such as "smart", "intelligent", "predictive" and, indeed, "cognitive", depending on the exact application – and vendor. Despite the term issues, artificial intelligence is essential for and in, among others, information management, medicine/healthcare, data analysis, digital transformation, security (cybersecurity and others), various consumer applications, scientific advances, FinTech, predictive systems and so much more. There are many reasons why several vendors doubt using the term artificial intelligence for AI solutions/innovations and often package them in another term (trust us, we've been there). Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term that has somewhat of a negative connotation in general perception but also in the perception of technology leaders and firms. One major issue is that artificial intelligence – which is really a broad concept/reality, covering many technologies and realities – has become like a thing we talk about and also seem to need to have an opinion/feeling about, with thanks to, among others, popular culture.

As advancements in Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence are always popular media topics, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at how the two are converging and what such a convergence might mean for cybersecurity. Today's traditional computers operate by processing information as "bits." A bit can be either a "1" or a "0." Even massive data-crunching super computers such as the US Department of Energy's Titan Cray XK7 operate in this fashion. These computers explore potential solutions to problems in a methodical, sequential manner.