Dr. Jason Matheny, director of the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA), gave the first keynote at USGIF's Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Workshop Jan. 10 in Herndon, Va., with a strong articulation of why nearly 300 people were gathered for a day of presentations and discussion. "We're well past the point that it would've been possible for an agency of human analysts or 17 agencies of human analysts to have enough brains and eyeballs to perform their mission," Matheny said. "So finding some way of bringing machines to scale up and address our problems is a way of bridging the gap between the resources we have and the resources we need. It allows us to focus human brains and eyeballs on the problems where they're most needed." Machine learning (ML) progress accelerated in the last several years and has been especially celebrated in the case of deep learning, according to Matheny.

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 new computational model is built on CogSketch, an artificial intelligence platform previously developed in Forbus' laboratory.

Reporting from the Chinese Internet suggests that a second, even stealthier Sharp Sword began flying last year (with a stealthy engine). If flight testing with the prototypes goes as well as the initial flight tests did with the first airframe, the Sharp Sword could enter service as early as 2019-2020. Initially, it's believed that the Sharp Sword will be used for reconnaissance in areas with dense air defense networks, as well as tailing foreign warships. As the Chinese develops a familiarity with the Sharp Sword, it could be used for combat operations as a "first through the door" weapon against highly defended, high-value targets, as well as an aerial tanker for other drones and carrier aircraft (akin to plans for the U.S. MQ-25). There is even the possibility of carrier version for China's planned next generation of catapult equipped aircraft carriers.

The Green Bay Packers celebrate after Mason Crosby #2 kicked a last-second field goal to defeat the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at AT&T Stadium on January 15, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. It's fair to say that traditional polling has recently had its problems with accurate forecasts, and no wonder: simply reaching lots of people to get their predictions, let alone managing that data, has never been easy. Being called a human-computer hybrid or "'artificial' artificial intelligence," UNU is a digital'hive-mind' on a hot streak for the books, which has both investors and gamblers looking on. Based on input from user "swarms," the beta-stage interactive platform has correctly predicted some of the last year's most surprising and complicated outcomes, including Sunday's last-minute "instant classic" win for the Packers, who UNU favored for the Lombardi Trophy in August, ESPN reports. The platform was launched last June by Unanimous AI, an experientially well-heeled California start-up, and harnesses users' opinions (if not their advertising eyeballs) like other topical sites: by making it social.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is coming at us before we fully understand what it might mean. Established ways of doing things in areas like transport regulation, crime prevention and legal practice are being challenged by new technologies such as driverless cars, crime prediction software and "AI lawyers". The possible implications of AI innovations for law and public policy in New Zealand will be teased out in a new, ground-breaking Law Foundation study. The three-year multi-disciplinary project, supported by a $400,000 Law Foundation grant, is being run out of the University of Otago. Project team leader Associate Professor Colin Gavaghan of the Faculty of Law says that AI technologies – essentially, technologies that can learn and adapt for themselves – pose fascinating legal, practical and ethical challenges.

The Green Bay Packers celebrate after Mason Crosby #2 kicked a last-second field goal to defeat the Dallas Cowboys in the NFC Divisional Playoff Game at AT&T Stadium on January 15, 2017 in Arlington, Texas. It's fair to say that traditional polling has recently had its problems with accurate forecasts, and no wonder: simply reaching lots of people to get their predictions, let alone managing that data, has never been easy. Being called a human-computer hybrid or "'artificial' artificial intelligence," UNU is a digital'hive-mind' on a hot streak for the books, which has both investors and gamblers looking on. Based on input from user "swarms," the beta-stage interactive platform has correctly predicted some of the last year's most surprising and complicated outcomes, including Sunday's last-minute "instant classic" win for the Packers, who UNU favored for the Lombardi Trophy in August, ESPN reports. The platform was launched last June by Unanimous AI, an experientially well-heeled California start-up, and harnesses users' opinions (if not their advertising eyeballs) like other topical sites: by making it social.

Stealth bombers and armed drones launched airstrikes Wednesday night against two Islamic State encampments in northern Libya in an expansion of the air war there, according to the Pentagon. The attacks were authorized by President Obama two days before he leaves office and are a reminder of the continuing turmoil in the oil-rich nation where a U.S.-led air war helped insurgents overthrow strongman Moammar Kadafi in 2011. Islamic State militants in Libya have established what officials say is the group's largest and most powerful affiliate outside its core areas in Syria and Iraq, although its area of control has shrunk considerably over the last year. B-2 bombers targeted two desert camps about 30 miles southwest of Surt, a port city on the central Mediterranean coast that U.S.-backed Libyan forces recaptured last year from the militants. U.S. officials said dozens of militants had escaped from Surt to the desert camps.

Every year the US government spends $5 billion on cancer research. And yet more than 8 million people still die every year from the disease--despite the frequent refrain that a cure is just around the corner. Scientists today are exploring more promising new technologies than ever before: whole-genome sequencing, liquid biopsies, mRNA vaccines, AI-powered imaging analysis. But that doesn't necessarily mean they're more promising. No number of flashy new disruptors can fix cancer research's real problem: much of its data can't be trusted, because it was never validated.

There is little doubt that the web is the greatest gift that any intelligence agency could have ever asked for. Security agencies and commercial entities can easily collect information about users. Every internet user is being monitored. Shay Hershkovitz (@shayhersh) is chief strategy officer at Wikistrat and a political science professor at Tel Aviv University specializing in intelligence studies. Thankfully, you're still free to do as you like in the physical world, unencumbered by constant observation--right?

Swiss authorities have added another security measure for this year's World Economic Forum in Davos: anti-drone guns. Bloomberg has spotted local police preparing HP 47 Counter UAV Jammers to make sure no unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) gets too close to the venue, whether it's sent by a spy organization or just a nosy onlooker. That's the same jammer the German police used in Berlin when President Obama visited the country. The publication says authorities decided to bring in an anti-drone technology, because people with malicious intent could use UAVs to monitor security positions or even to launch attacks. "While drones have great potential, they have -- just as every new technology or aspect of the Fourth Industrial Revolution -- also a potential downside. The forum takes the safety and security of its participants seriously. It is therefore normal that we take any potential issue into account and prepare for it."