WikiLeaks has turned its focus to the upcoming French presidential election, revealing that its archives contain thousands of potentially sensitive documents on three candidates. A series of posts on its Twitter account targeted Republican Francois Fillon, far-right leader Marine Le Pen and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron. WikiLeaks claims to have over 3,000 files on Fillon, whose popularity has dropped amid allegations that he paid his wife close to €1 million of public money with little evidence of work. Fillon denies any wrongdoing, but calls for him to drop out of the presidential race are mounting. Le Pen, who is currently leading the polls according to the latest numbers from Elabe, is the subject of a further 1,138 WikiLeaks documents.

The 8-year-old daughter of Anwar al-Awlaki, the radical cleric and U.S. citizen who was killed in a drone strike in 2011, was reportedly among those killed Sunday during a raid in Yemen. The Guardian reported that Nawar al-Awlaki was killed after suffering a gunshot wound to the neck. The girl's grandfather told the paper that he did not believe the girl was targeted. "I don't think this incident was intentional," the former government minister said. He told the paper that the location of the strike was confusing because it was not a hotbed for Al Qaeda, rathera tribal sheikhs fighting the government, which is supported by Iran-backed Houthis.

Artificial intelligence (AI) developed by a University of Cincinnati doctoral graduate was recently assessed by subject-matter expert and retired United States Air Force Colonel Gene Lee - who holds extensive aerial combat experience as an instructor and Air Battle Manager with considerable fighter aircraft expertise - in a high-fidelity air combat simulator. The artificial intelligence, dubbed ALPHA, was the victor in that simulated scenario, and according to Lee, is "the most aggressive, responsive, dynamic and credible AI I've seen to date." Details on ALPHA - a significant breakthrough in the application of what's called genetic-fuzzy systems are published in the most-recent issue of the Journal of Defense Management, as this application is specifically designed for use with Unmanned Combat Aerial Vehicles (UCAVs) in simulated air-combat missions for research purposes. The tools used to create ALPHA as well as the ALPHA project have been developed by Psibernetix, Inc., recently founded by UC College of Engineering and Applied Science 2015 doctoral graduate Nick Ernest, now president and CEO of the firm; as well as David Carroll, programming lead, Psibernetix, Inc.; with supporting technologies and research from Gene Lee; Kelly Cohen, UC aerospace professor; Tim Arnett, UC aerospace doctoral student; and Air Force Research Laboratory sponsors. ALPHA is currently viewed as a research tool for manned and unmanned teaming in a simulation environment.

An independent report by a group of scientists commissioned by the US Defense Department argues that the increasingly impressive developments in the field of artificial intelligence are in no way a threat to humanity, as some prominent figures have recently suggested. The report's authors say that concern about the development of artificial intelligence comes from excessive media attention by journalists and science fiction writers about the progress of so-called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), or Strong Artificial Intelligence, relating to attempts to create intelligence in machines that can successfully perform any intellectual task carried out by humans. This generalist approach to artificial intelligence, while obviously provocative and highly (if not excessively) visible, is presently restricted, limited in its progress, and the results of which are far from disturbing. The fears it generates in some quarters do not correspond to the facts: at present, the attention devoted to the development of machines capable of making long-term decisions or thinking and acting like human beings is scarce. On the other hand, the development of artificial intelligence, whether relevant to the DoD or in other areas, focuses more on enhancing the abilities of humans and freeing us from certain tasks, rather that substituting us as such.

One in three NHS trusts are using AI for patient services. Business and government are on a mission to deploy and succeed with AI in healthcare – IBM Watson has been drafted in the fight against cancer, while the NHS is trialling an AI app and working with the likes of Google's Deepmind to improve patient care. It is easy to see why the UK's NHS would be rushing to adopt AI, with the over-burdened, costly and complex infrastructure of the NHS a perfect candidate in which to reap the efficiency and productivity benefits of AI. Although archaic processes still reign supreme in the NHS, new data does suggest that AI is starting to infiltrate and make an impact in trusts around the UK. According to a Freedom of Information request filed by Nuance, one in three NHS trusts are using AI for patient services.

Information technologies are accelerating at an exponential rate, ushering in the fourth industrial revolution. This is a digital revolution and the pace of change is unprecedented. This revolution incorporates machine learning (think parallel processing and neural networks) and the concept of self-assembly or self-programmability. As technologies continue to advance, they accelerate the progress of other technologies, and so on, and so on. Thanks to parallel processing, big data, cloud technology, and advanced algorithms, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and machine learning are becoming more powerful.

They cover more than 70% of the earth's surface and the sheer size of the oceans makes tracking and measuring life under water an enormous task. New advances in satellite observation, open data and machine learning now allow us to process the massive amounts of data being produced. And they could not have come at a better time for protecting life under water, which is United Nations' Sustainable Development Goal No. 14 (SDG14). Last year was particularly challenging for most life underneath our world's oceans. Despite the dearth of bad news for the world's oceans, there is hope that 2017 can turn the tide for life under the sea thanks, in part, to machine learning.

A Northwestern University team developed a new computational model that performs at human levels on a standard intelligence test. This work is an important step toward making artificial intelligence systems that see and understand the world as humans do. "The model performs in the 75th percentile for American adults, making it better than average," said Northwestern Engineering's Ken Forbus. "The problems that are hard for people are also hard for the model, providing additional evidence that its operation is capturing some important properties of human cognition."The The platform has the ability to solve visual problems and understand sketches in order to give immediate, interactive feedback.

Cyber threats are an ever-present danger to global economies and are projected to surpass the trillion dollar mark in damages within the next year. As a result, the cybersecurity industry is investing heavily in machine learning in hopes of providing a more dynamic deterrent. ABI Research forecasts machine learning in cybersecurity will boost big data, intelligence, and analytics spending to $96 billion by 2021. "We are in the midst of an artificial intelligence security revolution," says Dimitrios Pavlakis, Industry Analyst at ABI Research. "This will drive machine learning solutions to soon emerge as the new norm beyond Security Information and Event Management, or SIEM, and ultimately displace a large portion of traditional AV, heuristics, and signature-based systems within the next five years."

Tax experts can find deductions that you might otherwise miss, but they're only human -- they can only find so many potential savings, let alone paint a larger picture of your finances. They're about to get a helping hand, though. IBM is partnering with H&R Block to make Watson a part of the tax filing process at locations across the US starting on February 6th. After you participate in an initial interview, the artificial intelligence will offer suggestions to Tax Pros (read: experts) looking for deductions, and illustrate the bigger picture for you on a dedicated client screen. Ideally, Watson's ability to understand context and intent will turn your statements into tangible data that leads to bigger tax breaks. This doesn't guarantee that Watson will find dramatic savings.