Autonomous cars have been a staple of science fiction for years, appearing in films like I, Robot, Demolition Man and Minority Report. Google is nearing the final stages of testing for its autonomous car programme, Tesla drivers can enjoy an'Autopilot' feature for hassle-free motorway driving, and Pittsburgh residents can hail an Uber that drives itself. But how do driverless cars work? When can we expect to try one out for ourselves? We answer all these questions, and more, below. The tech giant finally acknowledged the truth in rumours that it was building driverless technology in June, when Cook told Bloomberg that it was "a core technology that we view as very important". But he declined to give a steer on how the tech would manifest itself in Apple products. Yesterday he painted a clearer picture of its potential on a conference call following the company's quarterly results.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has the potential to cause harm but can it also make the world a better place? Much of the concern has to do with AI's capacity to displace vast segments of the workforce, increase unemployment and broaden the wealth divide. However, there's also a lot of excitement around the burgeoning technology's myriad possible applications for tackling issues related to education, poverty, health and climate change, to name a few. Montreal has established itself as a hub for AI research and development, but much of the work up until now has been focused on solving business challenges -- not taking on major societal or environmental problems. Xavier-Henri Hervé is executive director of the District 3 Innovation Center at Concordia.

I attended the first and largest of its kind, UN ITU XPRIZE Artificial Intelligence (AI) for Good Global Summit held 7-9 June 2017 in Geneva touching 300 plus million, influencing 1 billion, and meaningfully impacting 7.2 billion via more than 30 global media, social media, and television crews, including a documentary crew. If you have not done so already you want to get over to the summit website and view the rich collection of content there created by the top leaders and minds in AI, civil society, 21 UN organizations, governments, industry, academia, and media. Just a few of the notable speakers and participants were: Peter Norvig head of research at Google, Peter Lee Corporate Vice President of Microsoft AI and Research, Margaret Chan Director General of the World Health Organization (WHO), Pedro Domingos Professor of Computer Science and Engineering at the University of Washington, Jü rgen Schmidhuber, Scientific Director, Swiss AI Lab, IDSIA; Professor of AI, USI & SUPSI, Switzerland; President of NNAISENSE, Andy Chen Board Chair at IEEE Computer Society, and Vicki Hanson, President of ACM, and Distinguished Professor of Computing at the Rochester Institute of Technology. The Summit sought to speed the development of, and access to, AI solutions to address global challenges ranging from poverty, hunger, health and education to equality and environmental sustainability. In my last article, I challenged everyone including all in the business world to deliberately embrace AI in a way that results in good outcomes.

With no significant atmosphere or particles in the air to scatter sunlight, light on the moon is distributed much differently than it is here on Earth, giving rise to extreme dark patches offset by ultra-bright regions. This phenomenon, coupled with the presence of moon dust, presents a challenge for future lunar rovers and even human exploration, according to NASA. To work around this, scientists have created a'lunar sandbox' that simulates the conditions on the moon, allowing them to develop algorithms that can guide their robots safely around the environment. The Lunar lab is a 12-foot square sandbox in which researchers build the moon's terrain using statistically-generated features based on spacecraft observations. It contains eight tons of the human-made lunar soil simulant JSC-1A.

The US Secret Service is going to use drones with infrared cameras to boost security at Donald Trump's Bedminster golf club. President Trump is to enjoy what is being described as an'extended stay' at the property in New Jersey after a chaotic couple of weeks at the White House which has seen some of his head honchos ousted from government. While the agency refused to answer questions on the specifics of the unmanned aircraft, but hinted it could pave the way for them to be used on a more regular basis in security operations involving the President. President Donald Trump and first lady Melania Trump leave the US Women's Open Championship at Trump National Golf Club on July 16, 2017 in Bedminster, New Jersey As well as the cameras to look out for potential threats, the Secret Service said it was working to incorporate several of the airborne vehicles. Officials will have to warn residents in houses surrounding the Trump National Golf Course that drones will be monitoring the area.

Algorithms learned from data are increasingly used for deciding many aspects in our life: from movies we see, to prices we pay, or medicine we get. Yet there is growing evidence that decision making by inappropriately trained algorithms may unintentionally discriminate people. For example, in automated matching of candidate CVs with job descriptions, algorithms may capture and propagate ethnicity related biases. Several repairs for selected algorithms have already been proposed, but the underlying mechanisms how such discrimination happens from the computational perspective are not yet scientifically understood. We need to develop theoretical understanding how algorithms may become discriminatory, and establish fundamental machine learning principles for prevention. We need to analyze machine learning process as a whole to systematically explain the roots of discrimination occurrence, which will allow to devise global machine learning optimization criteria for guaranteed prevention, as opposed to pushing empirical constraints into existing algorithms case-by-case. As a result, the state-of-the-art will advance from heuristic repairing, to proactive and theoretically supported prevention. This is needed not only because law requires to protect vulnerable people. Penetration of big data initiatives will only increase, and computer science needs to provide solid explanations and accountability to the public, before public concerns lead to unnecessarily restrictive regulations against machine learning.

Previously, I looked at how Edinburgh's universities were leading the city's robotics and AI efforts, and in the process turning it into a destination for research and education in Europe. In this article I will be looking at the businesses side of the Scottish robotics landscape, and the ways that Scotland is embracing robotics and AI as an industry. One key area that Scottish robotics are thriving in is the maritime industry, specifically the development of autonomous underwater vehicles (AUVs). Scotland has a rich maritime history, and with the rise of a maritime robotics sector in Scotland, it looks like this tradition is still strong. In the manufacturing sector, Scottish companies are also increasingly eager to embrace robotics and automation, primarily as a way to cut costs, improve competitiveness, innovate new products and expand their global market share.

The sea and ocean environment has long been explored using some of the most sophisticated technology tools. Today's technologies make it child's play to explore natural environments under the sea. The American Goddard Space Flight Center, which belongs to NASA, relies on machine learning to track microscopic algal growth in oceans. The microalgae, which float on the water's surface, are largely responsible for producing oxygen, an element essential for supporting life. Many underwater observations rely on advanced detection technologies.

German authorities have launched a six-month trial of automatic facial recognition technology at a Berlin railway station. More than 200 people volunteered to have their names and two photos stored for the project at Suedkreuz station, where three cameras film an entrance and an escalator. While German authorities are optimistic about the programme, security experts say that there is a high potential for errors, which could allow criminals to slip through the system. Three cameras have been installed at Suedkreuz station that will film an entrance and an escalator. Footage will automatically be scanned by a computer programme, which will compare it with photos stored in a database.

German authorities have launched a six-month test of automatic facial recognition technology at a Berlin railway station, which the country's top security official says could be used to improve security in the future.