When we were in the city of Danyang, China, we witnessed a real-life paradox. Danyang is best known for its explosive growth in optical lens manufacturing over the last decade, sprouting hundreds of factories with cleanrooms chock-full of gleaming, automated machinery. There is a lot that goes into manufacturing a lens, and this machinery performs the bulk of it: from lens curing, lens cleaning, to lens coating. As Stanford AI researchers and engineers wildly interested in Chinese manufacturing, we were impressed by this caliber of automation. But the paradox greeted us as soon as we walked into the rooms responsible for the most critical part of the entire process: quality control.

Kids with cerebral palsy (CP) can have limited movement (and therefore independence) throughout their lives. Some of them who experience the related set of neurological and movement disorders have what's called "crouch gait," which is characterized by excessive bending at the knee; up to 50 percent of people with cerebral palsy stop walking by adulthood. Researchers at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have been testing robotic leg exoskeletons that help kids with CP walk more easily. According to the researchers, six of the seven study participants showed improved knee extension and were able to walk with robotic assistance after just six trials. The exoskeletons are more than just a brace; they actively support a walking posture in kids with cerebral palsy without taking control away from the children themselves.

More than 100 of the world's top robotics experts wrote a letter to the United Nations recently calling for a ban on the development of "killer robots" and warning of a new arms race. But are their fears really justified? Entire regiments of unmanned tanks; drones that can spot an insurgent in a crowd of civilians; and weapons controlled by computerised "brains" that learn like we do, are all among the "smart" tech being unleashed by an arms industry many believe is now entering a "third revolution in warfare". "In every sphere of the battlefield - in the air, on the sea, under the sea or on the land - the military around the world are now demonstrating prototype autonomous weapons," says Toby Walsh, professor of artificial intelligence at Sydney's New South Wales University. "New technologies like deep learning are helping drive this revolution. The tech space is clearly leading the charge, and the military is playing catch-up."

Small convoys of partially driverless lorries will be tried out on major British roads by the end of next year, the government has announced. A contract has been awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to carry out the tests of vehicle "platoons". Up to three lorries will travel in formation, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle. But the head of the AA said platoons raised safety concerns. The TRL will begin trials of the technology on test tracks, but these trials are expected to move to major roads by the end of 2018.

How is computer security different in a high-performance computing (HPC) context from a typical IT context? On the surface, a tongue-in-cheek answer might be, "just the same, only faster." After all, HPC facilities are connected to networks the same way any other computer is, often run the same, typically Linux-based operating systems as are many other common computers, and have long been subject to many of the same styles of attacks, be they compromised credentials, system misconfiguration, or software flaws. Such attacks have ranged from the "wily hacker" who broke into U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) computing systems in the mid-1980s,42 to the "Stakkato" attacks against NCAR, DOE, and NSF-funded supercomputing centers in the mid-2000s,24,39 to the thousands of probes, scans, brute-force login attempts, and buffer overflow vulnerabilities that continue to plague high-performance computing facilities today. On the other hand, some HPC systems run highly exotic hardware and software stacks. In addition, HPC systems have very different purposes and modes of use than most general-purpose computing systems, of either the desktop or server variety. This fact means that aside from all of the normal reasons that any network-connected computer might be attacked, HPC computers have their own distinct systems, resources, and assets that an attacker might target, as well as their own distinctive attributes that make securing such systems somewhat distinct from securing other types of computing systems. The fact that computer security is context- and mission-dependent should not be surprising to security professionals--"security policy is a statement of what is, and what is not, allowed,"7--and each organization, will therefore have a somewhat distinctive security policy.

Tesla and SpaceX CEO, Elon Musk recently emphasized the threat Artificial Intelligence (AI) poses on the human race. In an open letter to the United Nations, Musk and other robotic experts, said artificial super intelligence would lead to "lethal autonomous weapons" that would bring the "third revolution in warfare". The letter was signed by 115 robotic experts who feel the need to raise the alarm on artificially intelligent robots – which they state, are a present danger and not necessarily a threat coming in the distant future. If you're not concerned about AI safety, you should be. The letter states that this Pandora's box will be hard to close, once it is opened.

The iPhone has been my primary smartphone for well over a decade, and therefore I've had Siri on my phone ever since its introduction in 2011. But I never really found a reason to use it. I've always felt self-conscious when talking to my phone -- I find people who use voice commands in public really annoying -- so I wanted to avoid doing it myself. I have Bluetooth in my car so I don't have to use my phone while driving, and when I'm at home, I have my trusty fingers instead. So I imagined that being forced to use Siri for a whole week was going to be a nightmare.

SpaceX is poised to fire off a fresh Falcon 9 rocket on Thursday, delivering a comically tiny payload for Taiwan's National Space Organization. At 1,047 pounds, the Formosat-5 Earth-observing satellite is almost light enough for a human to deadlift--but it'll launch atop a Falcon 9 rocket with 50 times more capacity. The overkill is thanks to a years-long delay, and SpaceX will take a substantial financial hit to make good on a contract it signed in 2010. Elon Musk's spaceflight company will attempt to launch the rocket from Vandenberg Air Force base in California during a 42-minute window opening at 11:51am PDT on Thursday. The satellite is bound for heliosynchronous orbit, where it will pass over Taiwan every two days for data retrieval. After the lightest single payload to ever hitch a ride on a Falcon 9 separates, the booster will fly back for a drone ship landing--hopefully to be reused in future, more economically viable missions.

This article was originally published at The Conversation. Arend Hintze is a renowned assistant professor of Integrative Biology and Computer Science from Michigan State University. By day, he work on artificial intelligence technologies, trying to bridge the gap between humanity and machine. But by night, he is haunted by the consequences of his research. When the critics rose voice against the ethical nature of AIs, and were dismissed by so called shallow AI researchers, he came forward and put on his views on the same. And honestly, it does make sense.

Police forces hold more than 20million mugshots and this risks undermining public confidence, a watchdog has warned. Professor Paul Wiles, the independent Biometrics Commissioner, said there was a real danger the number of facial recognition images stored would rocket. He said the lack of laws controlling the use of the crime-fighting technology risked damaging confidence in the UK's model of policing by consent. Forces store more than 20million pictures and videos, known as custody images, taken at police stations of people they have arrested or questioned. Professor Paul Wiles, the independent Biometrics Commissioner, said there was a real danger the number of facial recognition images stored would rocket.