Whether it's done consciously or subconsciously, racial discrimination continues to have a serious, measurable impact on the choices our society makes about criminal justice, law enforcement, hiring and financial lending. It might be tempting, then, to feel encouraged as more and more companies and government agencies turn to seemingly dispassionate technologies for help with some of these complicated decisions, which are often influenced by bias. Rather than relying on human judgment alone, organizations are increasingly asking algorithms to weigh in on questions that have profound social ramifications, like whether to recruit someone for a job, give them a loan, identify them as a suspect in a crime, send them to prison or grant them parole. But an increasing body of research and criticism suggests that algorithms and artificial intelligence aren't necessarily a panacea for ending prejudice, and they can have disproportionate impacts on groups that are already socially disadvantaged, particularly people of color. Instead of offering a workaround for human biases, the tools we designed to help us predict the future may be dooming us to repeat the past by replicating and even amplifying societal inequalities that already exist.

The House of Lords Select Committee on artificial intelligence (AI) has called for academia, industry, technologists and the general public to have their say on the ethical, social and economic impact of advances in AI. You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid. This email address is already registered. You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

We expect scary predictions about the technological future from philosophers and science fiction writers, not famous technologists. Elon Musk, though, turns out to have an imagination just as dark as that of Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick, who created the sentient and ultimately homicidal computer HAL 9000 in "2001: A Space Odyssey." Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, HyperLoop, Solar City and other companies, spoke to the National Governors Association last week on a variety of technology topics. When he got to artificial intelligence, the field of programming computers to replace humans in tasks such as decision making and speech recognition, his words turned apocalyptic. He called artificial intelligence, or AI, a "fundamental risk to the existence of human civilization."

As part of CBR's Tech Express series, Editor Ellie Burns sits down with Barry Shteiman from Exabeam to find out about User and Entity Behaviour Analytics. BS: UEBA stands for User and Entity Behaviour Analytics and it's an analytics-led threat detection technology. UEBA uses machine learning and data science to gain an understanding of how Users (humans) and Entities (machines) within an environment typically behave. As every IT environment is an interconnected web of humans and machines, UEBA helps to identify normal and abnormal behavior for both groups to provide complete visibility. Then, by looking for risky, anomalous activity that deviates from normal behaviour, UEBA helps identify cyber threats.

In this April 26, 2016 photo, a visitor takes a photo of a LeEco LeSEE self-driving electric concept car at the Beijing International Automotive Exhibition in Beijing. China's government announced Thursday, July 21, 2017, a goal of transforming the country into a global leader in artificial intelligence in just over a decade, putting additional political support behind growing investment by Chinese companies in developing self-driving cars and other advances.

A husband and wife team believe they have the solution to one of the biggest hurdles to drone package delivery. By law in the U.S., a dedicated pilot must maintain a line of sight to the vehicle in order to ensure safe operation. This setup is untenable for the large-scale rollout of drone fleets, such as those planned by Amazon to handle customer deliveries in urban areas, or for public service missions involving scanning for forest fires, search and rescue operations, or shark surveillance. Lou Glaab, an aerospace technologist and NASA researcher, and his wife, Trish Glaab, a software engineer, have developed a system that they believe solves the problem. Safe2Ditch is a package of software algorithms and logic that resides within the vehicle either as in a small separate flight computer or an integrated mode in an autopilot. In the event of a mechanical failure, or a drained battery, Safe2Ditch will enable the vehicle to land safely, mitigating the risk of injury to people in urban and suburban areas.

If Beijing has its way, the future of artificial intelligence will be made in China. The country laid out a development plan on Thursday to become the world leader in A.I. by 2030, aiming to surpass its rivals technologically and build a domestic industry worth almost $150 billion. Released by the State Council, the policy is a statement of intent from the top rungs of China's government: The world's second-largest economy will be investing heavily to ensure its companies, government and military leap to the front of the pack in a technology many think will one day form the basis of computing. The plan comes with China preparing a multibillion-dollar national investment initiative to support "moonshot" projects, start-ups and academic research in A.I., according to two professors who consulted with the government about the effort. The United States, meanwhile, has cut back on science funding.

India has traditionally been two steps behind other major powers when it comes to acknowledging the strategic importance of emerging technologies. China's attention to artificial intelligence (AI) based technologies and machine learning in the US, according to a recent Reuters report, has the US quite concerned. China has been heavily investing in American AI start-ups, alarming the US government enough for it to seriously consider strengthening its existing strategic foreign investment regulatory mechanism – the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS). The CFIUS was most recently by the Obama administration to block Chinese acquisitions of American chip manufacturing companies. China's focus on AI research and development is a calculated move clearly manifested in the intensity of its domestic investments.

WASHINGTON – Police have received reports that two of the Burundi teenagers listed as missing after an international robotics competition have been seen crossing the border into Canada. The whereabouts of their fellow team members remains unknown and the search for all the teens remains ongoing, but Metropolitan Police spokeswoman Aquita Brown stressed that police have no indication of foul play in their disappearance. The teens seen crossing into Canada were 16-year-old Don Ingabire and 17-year-old Audrey Mwamikazi, Brown said. Police tweeted missing person fliers Wednesday asking for help finding the teens, who had last been seen at the FIRST Global Challenge around the time of Tuesday's final matches. The missing team members include two 17-year-old girls and four males ranging in age from 16 to 18.

Seen from overhead, this large body of water with cascading waterfalls might appear to be a remote lake. But the recently captured drone footage actually shows a flooded industrial rock quarry just south of Burlington, Wisconsin. Heavy rains in the area have caused the area's Fox River to crest above normal levels. By July 13, the river had reached a historic high of 16.5 feet. Several hundred people have been evacuated from their homes, mudslides have sprung up in the area, and the National Guard has been deployed to assist in disaster aid.