On the morning of September 1, just before a routine pre-flight ignition test, a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket exploded. In an instant, the 277 foot-tall space vehicle and its 200 million satellite cargo disappeared into a ball of flames. SpaceX has been fairly mum with details on what went wrong last month on Launch Complex 40 at Cape Canaveral. But, considering it is SpaceX's second launch failure in 15 months, the explosion is a more tangible measure of the company's future than its highly-publicized (and hypothetical) plan to settle Mars. On Friday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the problem may have been operational--rather than a manufacturing or design flaw of the rocket itself.

The study said robots could replace humans in data input roles. "That is a current burden in shared-service arrangements, such as those in local government, where legacy systems may not be interoperable," it said. "Robotic process automation now provides a software alternative."

Swarms of robo-spiders building 3D-printed spacecraft in orbit could be closer than you think. Aerospace firms have penned a deal which will see them develop and test robots capable of manufacturing components in space. The first steps of the Nasa-backed venture will see a machine launched into orbit to test if it can print and assemble trusses - the wire frame scaffold for supporting solar panels, antennae, sensors and all other parts of a working spacecraft. But the ultimate sci-fi vision of the project is a fleet of robots capable of printing huge structures, essentially knitting them together by 3D-printing them. Aerospace firms have penned a deal which will see them develop and test robots capable of manufacturing components in space.

Further, we are happy to see the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) involved in all three White House documents. Creating the NIST cybersecurity framework, the great scientists at NIST clearly have their eye on the power and future of AI and Machine Learning platforms. Indeed, and in the nick of time, the NIST published Statement 800-160 entitled "Systems Security Engineering: Considerations for a Multidisciplinary Approach in the Engineering of Trustworthy Secure Systems," which will require manufacturers of IoT devices to consider building them to be "cyber secure by design" first before rushing them to market. We feel that by and between the NIST and the Big 5 mentioned above, considerate, ethical, and secure AI and Machine Learning platforms will be reasonably assured.

Those interested in legal services and technology need to keep their eye on developments in artificial intelligence (AI). In the course of preparing a national US strategy, a committee of the National Science and Technology Council has drafted a report, Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence, which is worth reading as a crib to the latest issues. This is much better written than you might expect from a committee (or, indeed, machine) authorship. The report eschews fanciful speculation about the future and is largely concerned with what it terms'narrow AI' 'which addresses specific application areas such as strategic games, language translation, self-driving vehicles and imagine recognition'. In particular, it looks at'machine learning' which it distinguishes from older'expert system' approaches. Machine learning is concerned to analyse bodies of data and'derive a rule or procedure that explains the data or can predict future data'.

Stephen Lamm, a supervisor with the ID fraud unit of the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, looks through photos in a facial recognition system in 2009 in Raleigh, N.C. Stephen Lamm, a supervisor with the ID fraud unit of the North Carolina Department of Motor Vehicles, looks through photos in a facial recognition system in 2009 in Raleigh, N.C. Nearly half of all American adults have been entered into law enforcement facial recognition databases, according to a recent report from Georgetown University's law school. But there are many problems with the accuracy of the technology that could have an impact on a lot of innocent people. There's a good chance your driver's license photo is in one of these databases.

For the past few years, the drumbeat of think pieces about automation taking your job–yes,your job–has gotten both louder and more incessant. Smart people like the folks at Oxford Martin and Gartner forecast more and more jobs being gobbled up by our mechanical overlords and President Obama made a passing reference in his otherwise upbeat final State of the Union address. But technological unemployment has been around forever; you can actually go back to the ancient Greeks here or the famous example of English luddites throwing their shoes into weaving machines they felt were destroying the textile industry (fun fact: those shoes were called "sabots" and yes, that's where the word "sabotage" comes from). The point is, societies have forever dealt with technological unemployment. But even as automation continues–and make no mistake, it absolutely will–don't buy into the Chicken Littles who say your job–yes, your job–is next. Automation isn't coming to take your job.

If you want a vision of what naval battles could look like in the near future, you just got it. DARPA has tested a parasailing radar array (part of its Towed Airborne Lift of Naval Systems project, or TALONS) using its robotic ACTUV boat as a nest. The array flew up to 1,000 feet, where its sensors were far more effective than they'd be at ship level. Its surface tracking radar had six times the range, and even a handheld radio covered three times its usual distance. The combination could lead to unmanned warships that not only travel for months on end, but can easily detect potential threats before they're in firing range.

These days there's no shortage of things to keep you awake at night, wherever you stand on the political spectrum. For others it's the prospect of Brexit being thwarted. For others still, it's whether the Chinese economy will hold up, what the outcome of the US presidential election will be or the risk of artificial intelligence taking over your job. So what's the best way to handle the inevitable anxiety that goes hand-in-hand with all that uncertainty? Will Borrell studied that anxiety up close after the Brexit vote in the UK earlier this year.

As workers across the country increasingly worry about robots taking their jobs, one group is helping to educate the workforce and serve as a fulcrum for solutions around the issue. WorkingNation, a nonprofit project that launched in September, aims to inform people about the changing landscape of employment due to the rise in automation. It's also giving a platform to and connecting groups that have proposed solutions to help workers facing a shifting job market, Art Bilger, the venture capitalist behind the organization, told The Huffington Post. "We've watched the Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders movements build: There are millions of people in pain, and it's about jobs and the economy. It's fear looking down the road," Bilger said.