Countries are amassing cyberweaponry on an unprecedented scale and reconfiguring militaries to meet the threat of cyberwar. Autonomous weapons are being increasingly sought my militaries around the world, but experts fear the worst. AUTONOMOUS robots with the ability to make life or death decisions and snuff out the enemy could very soon be a common feature of warfare, as a new-age arms race between world powers heats up. Harnessing artificial intelligence -- and weaponising it for the battlefield and to gain advantage in cyber warfare -- has the US, Chinese, Russian and other governments furiously working away to gain the edge over their global counterparts. But researchers warn of the incredible dangers involved and the "terrifying future" we risk courting.

India's patent laws allow for reverse-engineering of certain technologies. A prime example of this reverse-engineering is in the pharmaceutical space, where Indian pharma companies are allowed to reverse-engineer drugs, especially life-saving ones. These drugs may have been developed by pharma majors in other parts of the world--and then introduced into western markets--after India-based outsourcing firms had helped them out with clinical trials, data gathering and reporting to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) or its equivalent to get these drugs passed. Indian courts have continued to allow such reverse-engineering of drugs--famously prompting Bayer AG's then CEO Martin Dekkers to say at a conference a few years ago, "We did not develop this medicine for Indians. We developed it for western patients who can afford it."

AI has become such a huge topic that late last year the White House released a report on the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which focused on the opportunities, considerations, and challenges of AI. As more and more industries, including healthcare and financial services, adopt AI technology, the technology's value will increase its impact on society as a whole. AI, machine learning and other technologies are already making a significant impact in several industries, including e-commerce, hospitality, and retail. While there has always been a slight tension among workers about robots taking over and claiming jobs, there is a lot to be said about how these types of technologies will, in fact, add more value, contribute to economic growth and augment the workplace so employees can work more effectively. It starts with the huge volumes of contracts that define business relationships, capture the rules of engagement and are the foundation of business transactions every day.

This photo combo, made from footage taken from the Russian Defense Ministry official website, purports to show the Roman-era amphitheater on June 6, 2016, left, and on Feb. 5, 2017, right. Russia's defense ministry has released drone footage showing new destruction in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, which was recently recaptured by the Islamic State group, and warned that the militants could be planning the further demolition of antiquities. The video shows that the militants have badly damaged the facade of the amphitheater. This photo combo, made from footage taken from the Russian Defense Ministry official website, purports to show the Roman-era amphitheater on June 6, 2016, left, and on Feb. 5, 2017, right. Russia's defense ministry has released drone footage showing new destruction in Syria's historic town of Palmyra, which was recently recaptured by the Islamic State group, and warned that the militants could be planning the further demolition of antiquities.

Last October, 11-year-old Evan Spisak wandered down to his father's basement workshop to help out on a weekend project, a time-honored tradition in homes across the country. But Evan's father, Mike, is an IBM master inventor. And what they came up with was no birdhouse or pinewood derby car. It was Havyn, a homegrown voice assistant that taps into IBM's enormous cybersecurity infrastructure, putting Watson's AI smarts at their literal beck and call. Think of Havyn, instead, as a highly specific analog to Amazon's Alexa voice assistant.

The EU is to force people to watch Netflix libraries from other countries. The European Parliament is finalising legislation that would let people access their online media, like games or films, from their own country. At the moment, doing so is either impossible or very hard, because of restrictions that companies like Netflix put on the use of VPNs and other services. Under the new rules, the parliament will stop content providers from using an IP address as a way of identifying where people are. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

A Japanese insurance firm Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance has introduced IBM's Watson Explorer AI to calculate pay-outs to policyholders. Alexa, from Amazon, which is currently in an Echo or Dot device, and in more than 5 million homes around the globe, is set to become our latest companion in the car too as Alexa Voice Services roll out across the UK this year. Personal assistants, such as x.ai and Microsoft's Cortana, are becoming increasingly popular and have the ability to organise and maintain information, manage emails, calendars, to do lists and some can perform concierge type tasks. Chatbots are being adopted by most industries. Even The White House, under Obama's administration, used them.

Columbus, Ohio, is a mid-size city known primarily as the home of Ohio State University, not as a hub of cutting edge technology for public transportation. But that is exactly what this city of 790,000 people plans to be. By 2019, residents of Columbus could see autonomous shuttles cruising the Easton commercial district, motion-sensitive LED streetlights that also provide free Wi-Fi internet to the residential neighborhood of Linden, and 175 smart traffic signals that aim to ease traffic jams and speed first-responders' paths through the city. Residents will also be able to use one app to plan and pay for trips that require multiple types of public transportation. Columbus's smart city evolution is taking shape thanks to $40m in federal funds the city recently won as part of the US Department of Transportation's Smart City Challenge.

It was doing a favour for his mother that gave entrepreneur Matt Barrie the idea for setting up a business that is now worth more than A$400m ($300m; £243m). His company and website Freelancer has a simple concept - it connects people who have work they need doing with others who compete to do the task by submitting the fee they would charge. Founded just eight years ago in Sydney, today the website has more than 22.5 million users around the world, both freelance workers and those seeking their services. Jobs advertised on Freelancer include everything from help with building a mobile phone app, to writing a company report, designing a tattoo, and help with gaining publicity for something. US space agency Nasa has even used the website since 2015, allowing people to bid to help design items for the International Space Station, including a new robotic arm.

LONDON – Warning: the Kremlin is trying to split the West by spreading "altered facts," conducting blackmail and setting up front organizations, the U.S. State Department said -- in 1981. So-called active measures were common during the Cold War, when the U.S. and the Soviet Union sought to unify and divide Europe with equal urgency. Now those tactics appear to be back, retooled for the digital age as President Vladimir Putin embraces the even older Russian foreign policy tradition of "derzhavnost," or "great powerness." Fears of Russian interference are rampant across the continent. Already reeling from Brexit, the European Union faces a string of key elections starting next month in the Netherlands, then in France and Germany.