IBM was awarded the most patents in the US in 2016. IBM's efforts to match and surpass the human brain with computing technology helped push the company to the top of the 2016 list of patent awards. The US Patent and Trademark Office granted IBM 8,088 patents for the year, more than 2,700 of them stemming from artificial intelligence and cognitive computing work, IBM and IFI Claims said Monday. Next on the list was Samsung with 5,518 patents, Canon with 3,665, Qualcomm with 2,897 and Google with 2,835. In total, the USPTO granted 304,126 patents in 2016, 10 percent more than the year before, IFI Claims said.

The Government passed an "assault on freedom" while people were afraid and distracted, according to campaigners. Campaign group Liberty is requesting a High Court judicial review of the wide-ranging new spying tactics in the Investigatory Powers Act. That law was passed at the end of last year and gives spies – and a range of other organisations including the Food Standards Agency – the power to see anyone's entire internet history, alongside other unprecedented rules. The Liberty challenge will focus on bulk powers, which let intelligence agencies collect up huge amount of data in case it needs to be used in future, meaning that people not under investigation have their information watched. 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.

Amazon made an acquisition last year without getting it publicized. The electronic commerce giant did not spill the beans about the deal, but somehow some details managed to surface this Monday after the company showed off Alexa's growth and expansion at CES 2017 last week. According to multiple sources, the Seattle-headquartered company bought San Diego-based cybersecurity startup Harvest.ai in early 2016. The acquisition was made stealthily, so it wasn't made known until recently when investors and tipsters have come out to gush about the deal. If Harvest.ai investor Fred Wang is to be asked, the acquisition was made so Amazon could bolster cloud security for its patrons.

If 2016 seemed politically tumultuous, 2017 promises to be equally tumultuous on the technology front. The pace of change is accelerating at a dizzying rate, with profound implications for the way we work, play and communicate. So what are the big technology trends to watch out for in 2017? Cybersecurity will undoubtedly be the dominant theme of 2017, as all tech innovations could be undermined by data thefts, fraud and cyber propaganda. Forget Kim Kardashian, it's hacking that could break the internet - and much more besides.

When did electricity take over from steam in the UK? When did football replace cricket as the most popular sport? And what year did women start to become more frequently mentioned in the press? Specifically, a new paper by a team artificial intelligence researchers at the University of Bristol that used AIto analyse the news from 100 different British regional newspapers over the past 150 years. The team of academics, led by professor Nello Cristianini, collaborated closely with the company findmypast, which is digitising historical newspapers from the British Library as part of their British Newspaper Archive project.

Popular visions of artificial intelligence often focus on robots and the dystopian future they will create for humanity, but to understand the true impact of AI, its skeptics and detractors should look at the future of cybersecurity. The reason is simple: If we have any hope of winning the war on cybercrime, we have no choice but to rely on AI to supplement our human skills and experience. With the number and sophistication of cybercriminals continuing to grow, the technology industry has started to address this challenge through the use of AI. As with many new technologies, however, the good that AI can do is threatened by the misconceptions and hyperbole that surround it. For this reason, the technology industry must address these popular perceptions, and that starts with redefining AI as what it truly is: augmented intelligence.

President-elect Trump has met with leaders in technology in an effort to open lines of communication and discuss business after months of two-way criticism. It's no secret that Silicon Valley was largely in support of Hillary Clinton, who had aligned herself with the technology community, while over the last few years Mr. Trump has criticized Apple's iPhones, accused Facebook, Google, and Twitter of burying negative news about Democrats, and picked a fight with Jeff Bezos on Twitter insinuating his purchase of the Washington Post was for political influence to help Amazon's business. While this meeting simply serves to smooth over relations with the technology community, there is a longer conversation needed with President-elect Trump, who's presidency sits at a tipping point in technology. In the next four years we will see an explosion of AI technology that further delivers on the promise of driverless cars, intelligent robots, and other societal and job-impacting advancements. The conversation needed is how to, or more precisely, how not to regulate AI.

This is Essential Politics, our daily look at California political and government news. Rosey Grier, a legendary Los Angeles Rams player, says he's thinking about running for governor of California . Uber's effort to use self-driving cars on San Francisco streets without a permit inspires one legislator to take action . A former Los Angeles planning commissioner becomes the twelfth person to enter the race to replace Rep. Xavier Becerra. Rosey Grier, a legendary Los Angeles Rams player, says he's thinking about running for governor of California .

Software can now predict when people are most likely to try new things. Scientists analyzed purchasing data from over 280,000 shoppers and found that the more people purchase a product, the more likely they are to stick with it. However, it also found those who have recently switched brands are twice as likely to try a new one. Scientists analyzed purchasing data from over 280,000 shoppers and found that the more people purchase a product, the more likely they are to continue to do so. Researchers at the University of London designed an AI to predict when people are most likely to try new things - such as switching from one product to another.

An asteroid as big as a 10-story building has passed by Earth at a distance half that of the Moon, researchers have revealed. The asteroid, dubbed 2017 AG13, was only spotted only Saturday by the University of Arizona's Catalina Sky Survey. It is between 50 and 111 feet (15 to 34 meters) long, and when it passed by Earth, 2017 AG3 was moving at 9.9 miles per second (16 kilometers per second). Here, it is so close to Earth its text is almost unreadable. According to an asteroid-impact simulator called'Impact Earth!' by Purdue University, if a porous rock asteroid of 111 feet (34 meters) long hit Earth at a 45-degree angle, the simulator found, it would have exploded as an air burst.