ANN ARBOR, MICHIGAN – The Trump administration on Tuesday unveiled updated safety guidelines for self-driving cars aimed at clearing barriers for automakers and tech companies wanting to get test vehicles on the road. The new voluntary guidelines announced by U.S. Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao update policies issued last fall by the Obama administration, which were also largely voluntary. Chao emphasized that the guidelines aren't meant to force automakers to use certain technology or meet stringent requirements. Instead, they're designed to clarify what vehicle developers and states should consider as more test cars reach public roads. "We want to make sure those who are involved understand how important safety is," Chao said during a visit to an autonomous vehicle testing facility at the University of Michigan. "We also want to ensure that the innovation and the creativity of our country remain."

China will unveil a slate of policies, including tax cuts and setting up national artificial intelligence innovation centers, to beef up support for AI and clear legal risks, local media reported. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology is teaming up with other ministries and related departments to draft new policies to better cultivate the AI industry, Economic Information Daily reported on Thursday. Favorable tax policies will be rolled out to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises that are working on AI. More efforts will also be made to open government data and experiment with new ways to tap into data, the report said. Meanwhile, new policies will be unveiled to channel more resources into AI research, in the hope of advancing innovation capability.

Summary: With only slight tongue in cheek about the road ahead we report on the just passed House of Representative's new "Federal Automated Vehicle Policy" as well as similar policy just emerging in Germany. As a model of regulation on emerging AI technology we think they got this just about right. Just today (9/6/17) the US House of Representatives released its 116 page "Federal Automated Vehicles Policy". This still has to be reconciled and approved by the Senate but word is that shouldn't take long. Equally as interesting is that just two weeks ago the German federal government published its guidelines for Highly Automated Vehicles (HAV being the new name of choice for these vehicles).

A Ford Fusion development vehicle equipped with autonomous controls, seen at a test facility Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Mich. A Ford Fusion development vehicle equipped with autonomous controls, seen at a test facility Tuesday in Ann Arbor, Mich. The Department of Transportation released its revised guidelines on automated driving systems Tuesday, outlining its recommended -- but not mandatory -- best practices for companies developing self-driving cars. The first such guidelines released under the Trump administration, the Vision for Safety 2.0 scales back some of the recommendations outlined last year under President Obama. In a statement released Tuesday, Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao lauded the possibilities of automated driving systems, saying "we can look forward to a future with fewer traffic fatalities and increased mobility for all Americans."

MarHub is a new chatbot developed by students at the University of California-Berkeley's Haas School of Business to help asylum seekers through the complicated process of applying to become an official refugee – which can take up to 18 months – and to avoid using smugglers. Finding the right information for the asylum process isn't easy, and although most asylum seekers are in possession of a smartphone, a lot of the information is either missing or out of date. MarHub is designed to help with that, as it will walk the user through what they can expect and also how to present their case. MarHub is also expandable, so that new information or regulations can be quickly added to make it a hub of useful information. The concept of MarHub was born in late 2016, in response to the Hult Prize social enterprise challenge, which was focusing on refugees for 2017.

These are just a few of the latest military and security innovations from around the world on offer at the Defence and Security Equipment International Show (DSEI) in the U.K. this week. DSEI runs from Sept. 10 through Sept 15 at the Excel Center in London. The gigantic scale of biennial DSEI is often described as unrivalled. If you are a country looking to upgrade your military might then this "one stop shop" is the place to be. Pretty much anything you would need to defend your country in war – or to launch a war for that matter - is here in London at largest show of its kind on Earth.

Under those guidelines, automakers and technology companies will be asked to voluntarily submit safety assessments to the U.S. Department of Transportation, but they don't have to do it. And states are being advised to use a light regulatory hand. At a driverless-car test track in Ann Arbor, Mich., Transportation Secretary Elaine Chao painted a near future of greater safety, fewer deaths, higher productivity and more time spent with loved ones as robots increasingly take over the tasks of driving and commuters are freed for other activities. She unveiled a document titled "Vision for Safety 2.0" and delivered a speech that was strong on vision and light on regulation. "More than 35,000 people perish every year in vehicle crashes," she said -- 94% of those through driver error.

US legislation for self-driving cars first made its way to the House of Representatives this past July. The bipartisan SELF DRIVE Act passed the House vote on September the 6th, and will now need to go through the Senate. Odds are that we'll see autonomous cars on the road sooner rather than later, thanks to this bill and new voluntary guidance The US Department of Transportation and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). The governmental agencies released new guidelines on Tuesday that provide federal guidance for automated driving systems to both individual states and businesses. There are driver assist systems already in place that can help you swerve before you even realize you need to, of course.

Patrol ships are necessary to protect coastlines and fleets, but they're far from ideal right now. You need big, bulky vessels, and the human crews are either faced with the tedium of an uneventful trip (if they're lucky) or threats that a lone ship is ill-equipped to face. Rolls-Royce might have a better way: it just unveiled plans for an autonomous patrol ship that would eliminate many of these headaches, and would even be relatively eco-friendly. The ship will use a combination of artificial intelligence and sensors to get around instead of a crew, with modular systems letting it change roles between missions (for example, a drone launching pad). This should not only let it operate for long stretches (up to 100 days) without subjecting humans to risk or sheer boredom, but allows for a smaller design that's cheaper to run.

A majority of people are skeptical of the government adopting artificial intelligence tools to manage its citizen services, but more men than women say they are comfortable with the technological shift, according to a new survey. In a report published by Accenture, one-third of men said they trusted AI to manage their health care, while only 20 percent of women felt the same way. Though the gender gap was widest for health care, researchers found that in six different categories of citizen services, men trusted A.I. technology more than women did. The online survey was conducted by McGuire Research Services in January 2017 and included 500 people living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area. Though agencies have already begun delegating some of their repetitive tasks to artificial intelligence, the overall results show a sizable portion of the public distrusts the use of such tools in government services that directly involve citizens. Both genders felt roughly the same about using AI to register to vote, with 46 percent of men and 45 percent of women saying they trusted such government tools.