Yeah, the way Americans move is in a state of serious flux. And Wednesday morning, the woman expected to pilot the country through these swirling currents will sit in a Senate meeting room and answer a few questions about them. If you care about moving places (anywhere, anytime), it might be worth tuning in at 10:15 am EST to watch the confirmation hearing of Elaine Chao, president-elect Donald Trump's pick for secretary of transportation. Chao is a veteran of three administrations (Reagan, Bush I, and Bush II), and has worked at the DOT before. She is, especially compared to other Trump picks, non-controversial.

A stunning video released by the Department of Defense shows a swarm of micro-drones being released by fighter jets. The demonstration of the Perdix micro-UAV swarm was held at China Lake, Calif. on Oct. 26, 2016. Three F/A-18's were deployed to launch the swarm of tiny drones, according to the Department of Defense. The drones, which have a wingspan of 12 inches, can operate autonomously and share a distributed brain, the BBC reports, and could be used for surveillance. In the Department of Defense video, the drones can also be seen flying through the air like a swarm of high-tech bees.

Understanding the complex and increasingly data-intensive world around us relies on the construction of robust empirical models, i.e., representations of real, complex systems that enable decision makers to predict behaviors and answer "what-if" questions. Today, construction of complex empirical models is largely a manual process requiring a team of subject matter experts and data scientists. With ever more data becoming available via improved sensing and open sources, the opportunity exists to build models to speed scientific discovery, enhance Department of Defense/Intelligence Community's intelligence, and improve United States Government logistics and workforce management, but capitalizing on this opportunity is fundamentally limited by the availability of data scientists. The Data-Driven Discovery of Models (D3M) program aims to develop automated model discovery systems that enable users with subject matter expertise but no data science background to create empirical models of real, complex processes. This capability will enable subject matter experts to create empirical models without the need for data scientists, and will increase the productivity of expert data scientists via automation.

The micro-drones use collective decision-making to execute missions. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. The micro-drones use collective decision-making to execute missions.

In today's data-rich world, companies, governments and individuals want to analyze anything and everything they can get their hands on – and the World Wide Web has loads of information. At present, the most easily indexed material from the web is text. But as much as 89 to 96 percent of the content on the internet is actually something else – images, video, audio, in all thousands of different kinds of nontextual data types. A map showing hotbeds of dark web activity related to illegal products. Tor - short for The Onion Router - is a seething matrix of encrypted websites that allows users to surf beneath the everyday internet with complete anonymity. It uses numerous layers of security and encryption to render users anonymous online.

The skies over the United States were a little more crowded than usual following a test by the Department of Defense that sent more than 100 drones scattering across the sky, according to a report from the BBC. A total of 103 of the miniature, unmanned flying vehicles were released from a trio of Three F/A-18 Super Hornets, a popular Navy fighter aircraft. Called Perdix drones, the flyers have a wingspan of just 12 inches and move entirely autonomously--no human control required. Footage of the devices in action from October 2016, taken from Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, was recently released by the Department of Defense. In it, the drones can be seen being released into the sky and swarming together, making use of the collective brain that controls them.

The MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University will serve as the founding anchor institutions for a new initiative aimed at bridging the gap between the humanities, the social sciences, and computing by addressing the global challenges of artificial intelligence (AI) from a multidisciplinary perspective. "Artificial intelligence agents will impact every part of our lives in every society on Earth. Technology and commerce will see to that," says Alberto Ibargüen, president and CEO of the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, which is among those supporting the initiative. Initially funded with $27 million from the Knight Foundation; LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman; the Omidyar Network; the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; and Jim Pallotta, founder of the Raptor Group, the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund's mission is to catalyze global research that advances AI for the public interest, with an emphasis on applied research and education. The fund will also seek to advance public understanding of AI. "AI's rapid development brings along a lot of tough challenges," explains Joi Ito, director of the MIT Media Lab.

Our work focused on how, in the coming age where big data and machine learning algorithms enable you to learn and infer stuff about individuals that are profoundly invasive, marketers – and companies in general – will need to openly explore where their ethical boundaries lay. Before we get into it, I have a confession: AI ethics makes my brain hurt. The issues and questions are that big. Never mind corporate behavior; people, governments, policies and global geopolitics will all evolve differently depending on how we answer those questions. My brain is hurting right now. But if you're a marketer planning to use AI, you're going to hurt a lot more than your brain if you don't start examining the ethical questions.

Matthew Peterson is a pretty inspirational guy. As a dyslexic child he found math class difficult, so as an adult he resolved to totally change the way math is taught. After completing his studies in biology, electrical engineering, and Chinese language and literature at the University of California, Irvine, Peterson co-founded the nonprofit MIND Research Institute and set about developing "Spatial Temporal (ST) Math," a computer game-based method of teaching that doesn't rely on language as a medium. Instead it uses spatial-temporal reasoning--the ability to move stuff around in your mind and work out how it fits together. Proponents point to recent findings in neuroscience and education research--showing that early music training can enhance spatial-temporal reasoning, for example--as justification for this shift.

As we go into 2017 the incipient'technologisation' or'IT-isation', if you'll excuse the terms, of our lives is gathering pace and becoming much plainer to see. AI and deep learning are worth calling out for particular attention. In research consultancy Gartner's'Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2007' survey,[4] Gartner Vice-President and Fellow David Cearley said "over the next 10 years, virtually every app, application and service will incorporate some level of AI. This will form a long-term trend that will continually evolve and expand the application of AI and machine learning for apps and services." Deep learning, a machine learning technique, is emerging as AI's'killer app' enabler.