DARPA's'robot pilot' kit is one-step closer to transforming military planes and helicopters into autonomous flying machines. Called Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), the Pentagon's research agency announced that the technology has now completed Phase 2 of development. During testing, the kit was successful in ground and flight demonstrations and showed it is capable of quickly tailoring to new platforms. DARPA's drop-in, removable'robot pilot' kit (pictured) is closer to reality. Called Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automation System (ALIAS), the Pentagon's researcher agency announced the technology has completed Phase 2 of development For example, an array of cameras allows the robot to see all the cockpit instruments and read the gauges.

It was a good year for imaginative military innovations. From "Star Wars"-style speeders to an inescapable surveillance drone, many of the futuristic advances seem straight out of science fiction or Hollywood blockbusters. Remember those speeder bikes in "Return of the Jedi" that raced through the air? The US military may get to zoom around the battlespace on a type of real-life version in the not-so-distant future. Malloy Aeronautics and SURVICE Engineering Company teamed up to further develop Malloy's Hoverbike for the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

Working in the field of big data and AI means that I see the leading edge advances that come with it. It also means routinely getting freaked out when you think too closely about the possibilities and implications of those advances and where they might be taking us. Manufacturing are the first places we see robots and automation eliminating human jobs, but it's hard to think of an industry that will be left unaffected as robots and AI become more affordable and widespread. It's estimated that between 35 and 50 percent of jobs that exist today are at risk of being lost to automation. Repetitive, blue collar type jobs might be first, but even professionals -- including paralegals, diagnosticians, and customer service representatives -- will be at risk.

It's hard to bet against the continued rise of automation, robots, and artificial intelligence (AI), all of which are already having major impacts on how we work, learn, shop, and play. But being able to predict that robotics and AI will change our lives is a lot easier than predicting how they will change our lives. In a recent forecast for 2017 and beyond, for instance, analyst firm IDC said we can expect to continue seeing robotic and AI technologies keep growing more affordable, more capable, and easier to use. The Obama White House said it expects the same, but also warns in a new report that "growth will not be costless" and could harm workers lacking the skills to compete in an AI-driven economy. How the incoming administration plans to address such issues is also uncertain. While President-elect Donald Trump's campaign promised to revive U.S. manufacturing and spend $1 trillion on the nation's infrastructure, he has also tapped Hardee's/Carl's Jr. chief Andrew Puzder -- who supports the use of automation to save on employment costs -- as secretary of the U.S. Department of Labor.

Apple was the first to introduce a digital assistant when it acquired Siri and baked it into the OS. The makers of Siri went on to create Viv, a realisation of their original vision for Siri. Viv was acquired by Samsung this year. Despite the initial head start with Siri, Apple lost ground over the subsequent years by being very secretive about its research. As Apple employees were not allowed to publish research, the best talent was not attracted to the company.

Some commentators said it was just a publicity stunt. But the notion began to seem less far-fetched when Google revealed its own drone-based delivery effort in 2014, something it calls Project Wing. And in the early months of 2016, DHL actually integrated drones into its logistics network, albeit in an extremely limited way--delivering packages to a single mountaintop in Germany that is difficult to access by car in winter. "It started to get momentum after serious players came in," says Parimal Kopardekar, NASA's senior engineer for air transportation systems, who has been researching ways to work these buzzing little contraptions into an air traffic control system created for full-size aircraft. "We need to accommodate drones."

Life in the UK will undergo "radical" change in the 2020s due to Brexit, population changes and jobs being taken by robots, a think tank has predicted. The Institute for Public Policy Research (IPPR) said there would be a Brexit "aftershock" and that the UK's exit from the EU would be "the firing gun on a decade of disruption". It identified wide-ranging factors that would "reshape how we live and work". The government has promised to "forge a new role" for the UK in the world. In its report, the IPPR, a centre-left think tank, said Brexit would be one of the major "disruptive forces" in the years ahead, saying the vote had delivered a "profound shock" to the UK's political and economic order which was likely to set the country on a path of permanently lower growth and living standards.

Apple has been doomed for decades, if the steady stream of headlines about the company, its stock price, and its product lineup are to be believed. If The Macalope has taught us anything, it's that the Apple deathwatch business is a brisk (and bizarre) one. The truth is much more complex. But by any measure, 2016 was a particularly tough year for Apple. The company endured a bitter legal fight with the FBI, saw its first revenue decline in more than a decade, and faced backlash over hardware tweaks in its upgraded flagship products: the iPhone 7's lack of a 3.5mm audio jack and the overhauled MacBook Pro's less-than-pro specs for a decidedly pro price.

You're sitting at home minding your own business when you get a call from your credit card's fraud detection unit asking if you've just made a purchase at a department store in your city. It wasn't you who bought expensive electronics using your credit card – in fact, it's been in your pocket all afternoon. So how did the bank know to flag this single purchase as most likely fraudulent? Credit card companies have a vested interest in identifying financial transactions that are illegitimate and criminal in nature. According to the Federal Reserve Payments Study, Americans used credit cards to pay for 26.2 billion purchases in 2012.

Kengo Kyogoku borrows about ¥122,000 ($1,035) per month in addition to a scholarship and a part-time job, because his mother can't afford to pay his college fees at the prestigious Waseda University in Tokyo. "The amount is huge," said Kyogoku, a sophomore of communications and computer engineering. "I get depressed when I think about it. I wonder if I will have to pay it back forever. But I have no choice."