The computer virus that spread rapidly across the world is still making its way to more companies and countries – but is gradually slowing down. The software doesn't appear to be vulnerable to the same "kill switch" that stopped the similar Wannacry virus just weeks ago, however, and so is likely to continue to travel around the world. The attack appeared to have started in Ukraine and then made its way across Europe, hitting companies including the world's biggest advertising company in Britain and Danish international Maersk. It then continued to spread, arriving in the US and then in Asia. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

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Or is it a remotely operated quadrotor conducting surveillance or preparing to drop a deadly payload? Human observers won't have to guess--or keep their eyes glued to computer monitors--now that there's superhuman artificial intelligence capable of distinguishing drones from those other flying objects. Automated watchfulness, thanks to machine learning, has given police and other agencies tasked with maintaining security an important countermeasure to help them keep pace with swarms of new drones taking to the skies. The security challenge has only grown over the past few years: Millions of people have bought consumer drones and sometimes flown them into off limits areas where they pose a hazard to crowds on the ground or larger aircraft in the sky. Off-the-shelf drones have also become affordable and dangerous weapons for the Islamic State and other militant groups in war-torn regions such as Iraq and Syria.

Malware and cyber attacks have been something that we have been dealing with for decades, and it seems that the more sophisticated our technology gets, the more sophisticated the attacks get as well. In a post on Microsoft's blog (via Engadget), the company has revealed that with the upcoming Windows Fall Creators Update, they will be introducing AI to their Windows Defender Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) system, which should in theory be better and more efficient at protecting users from attacks. That being said, since ATP is currently a feature only available for enterprise users, only enterprise users will be receiving this feature first. Read more about ai, malware, Microsoft, Security, Windows and Windows 10.

Alphabet Inc.'s most successful product -- the Google search engine -- may now be its most problematic. On Tuesday, the European Commission's top antitrust regulator levied a $2.7-billion fine against Alphabet and Google for the way the search engine handles requests for information about products. Specifically, Commissioner Margrethe Vestager said that Google skewed its results to bury links to rival companies' comparison shopping sites while prominently featuring its own service, Google Shopping. Google responded that it's simply trying to give users what they want and denied "favoring ourselves, or any particular site or seller." It has a lot at stake: Google has integrated many different offerings into its search engine, including its mapping and travel services.

In the first part of my blog, I looked in more detail at the question of how "human" the so-called artificial intelligence (AI) is, and that creativity is not a distinguishing feature to us humans, since machines have already become quite creative themselves. But it is difficult to say whether it is a good or bad for computers to be creative – and, thus, to be somehow human. Perhaps a comparison involving human beings can help. When do we trust a person? When we are familiar with his/her views and values, and we've found him/her to be reliable.

Too often the answer to this question resembles the plot of a sci-fi thriller. People worry that developments in A.I. will bring about the "singularity" -- that point in history when A.I. surpasses human intelligence, leading to an unimaginable revolution in human affairs. Or they wonder whether instead of our controlling artificial intelligence, it will control us, turning us, in effect, into cyborgs. These are interesting issues to contemplate, but they are not pressing. They concern situations that may not arise for hundreds of years, if ever.

There are certain places you'd expect the developers of a well-known military shooter to look for inspiration. What you perhaps don't expect is for the team behind the latest Call of Duty title to count among their influences an elegiac cooperative indie game about the meaning of life. You don't expect them to play Journey. But according to Michael Condrey, co-founder of Sledgehammer Games, the San Francisco studio behind Call of Duty: WWII, that's exactly what they did. The next instalment of Activision's military behemoth takes the action back to the second world war, returning to the origins of the series.

Artificial intelligence (AI) can transform the productivity and GDP potential of the UK landscape. But, we need to invest in the different types of AI technology to make that happen. Our research shows that the main contributor to the UK's economic gains between 2017 and 2030 will come from consumer product enhancements stimulating consumer demand (8.4%). This is because AI will drive a greater choice of products, with increased personalisation and make those products more affordable over time. Labour productivity improvements will also drive GDP gains as firms seek to "augment" the productivity of their labour force with AI technologies and to automate some tasks and roles.

HM Revenue & Customs is planning a series of trials on the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in some of its processes, with an emphasis on customer contact and casework. Interim chief digital and transformation officer Mike Potter (pictured) referred to the plans in a presentation to the Public Sector Show in London yesterday. He said the department plans to launch the trials in the near future as part of a move towards robotic automation and "taking the graft out of people's jobs to focus on higher value work". Potter declined to provide details of the trials, saying there is a need to talk with staff before making more information public. But he said the department is exploring areas it thinks is more viable, and his presentation included a slide dividing early use cases into three groups: contact handling, to direct people to the right places without human intervention; casework, with AI being used to augment decision-making; and helping customers through effective self-service. These are part of a broader effort for HMRC to use its data more intelligently and to supplement its processes with machine learning.