Speaking at the Meltdown Festival in London, the controversial computer programmer said that sources at Silicon Valley – which is regarded as the tech capital of the world – say they are close to creating an ultra-powerful AI. He adds people will shortly begin uploading their brains to machines, essentially giving them immortality. The 45-year old told festival goers via a video link from the Ecuadorian embassy: "I know from our sources deep inside the Silicon Valley institution[s] that they genuinely believe that they are going to produce AI that's so powerful, relatively soon, that people will have their brains digitised, uploaded to these AIs and live forever in simulation, therefore have eternal life."

The Pentagon has raised concerns about China's access to artificial-intelligence-based technology developed in the US, according to Reuters. The news agency says a leaked report proposes that export controls be updated to stop Chinese organisations being able to invest in some start-ups. It suggests the move is needed to prevent their advanced algorithms being repurposed for the military by Beijing. One expert said the report sounded credible. "Quite a few people in the US security establishment see China as a likely potential adversary," Prof Trevor Taylor, from the UK's Royal United Services Institute for Defence and Security Studies, told the BBC.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Is your organization moving fast enough to adopt AI technologies? Or are your competitors pulling ahead ahead of you?

My stomach sank the moment the young man stood up. I'd observed him from afar during the coffee breaks, and I knew the word'Theologian' was scrawled on the delegate badge pinned to his lapel, as if he'd been a last-minute addition the conference. He cleared his throat and asked the panel on stage how they'd solve the problem of selecting which moral codes we ought to program into artificially intelligent machines (AI). 'For example, masturbation is against my religious beliefs,' he said. 'So I wonder how we'd go about choosing which of our morals are important?'

It was not long ago that Artificial Intelligence (AI) was only in the realm of science fiction. Today, it has become a reality and is only growing more prominent in many different industries every day. This includes the internet as AI in search engine technology has been around for a few years. The algorithms used to rank pages have been affected considerably by AI already and that trend will continue into the foreseeable future. Currently, Google's RankBrain, an AI process used help set search engine rankings, is having a major impact which is only expected to expand.

Perhaps the most photographed individual at the AI for Global Good Summit in Geneva, Switzerland, last week was not a human but a humanoid called Sophia. Cyber protection: Have you received the data call? "As I get smarter, I hope to understand people better -- help you, work with you as a friend, to imagine and build a better future for us all," Sophia, an uncannily human-like robot, said in a Facebook Live interview. In that interview and onstage at the summit, her eyebrows lifted, she smiled gently, and her eyes lit up as she answered questions from the audience, with moments where only the glimpse of cords behind her face revealed that she is a machine. Hanson Robotics developed Sophia as part of its mission to "create genius machines that live and love," and work together with humans to build a "a smarter and better future."

WASHINGTON – The United States appears poised to heighten scrutiny of Chinese investment in Silicon Valley to better shield sensitive technologies seen as vital to U.S. national security, current and former U.S. officials have told Reuters. Of particular concern is China's interest in fields such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, which have increasingly attracted Chinese capital in recent years. The worry is that cutting-edge technologies developed in the United States could be used by China to bolster its military capabilities, and perhaps even push it ahead in strategic industries. The U.S. government is now looking to strengthen the role of the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS), the inter-agency committee that reviews foreign acquisitions of U.S. companies on national security grounds. An unreleased Pentagon report, viewed by Reuters, warns that China is skirting U.S. oversight and gaining access to sensitive technology through transactions that currently don't trigger CFIUS reviews. Such deals would include joint ventures, minority stakes and early-stage investments in start-ups.

Massive breaches in corporate and government security in the last few years mean that most organizations are now aware of the importance of cybersecurity training. However, there are some challenges in training cybersecurity professionals. Mike Moniz, president, founder and CEO of Circadence Corp., identifies two additional challenges. First, there's a shortage of qualified cybersecurity instructors. Second, it's difficult to truly reproduce real-life cybersecurity threats with the same sophistication and passion that hackers or nation states have when they commit a cybercrime.

Lyft casts itself as the softer, kinder alternative to Uber. But there's nothing gentle about the way the country's second-largest ride-hailing company is capitalizing on its chief rival's missteps. While Uber has been engulfed in months of turmoil, capped off Tuesday by the release of the findings of an investigation into workplace culture and news of founder Travis Kalanick's hiatus, Lyft has raised an additional $600 million in funding to fuel its expansion. It has announced a deal with Jaguar Land Rover to unveil a fleet of luxury vehicles, once Uber's forte, and announced self-driving car partnerships with General Motors and Google's parent company, Alphabet, which is suing Uber, accusing it of stealing trade secrets. And don't think for a second that Lyft wasn't giddy about the #DeleteUber campaign in January, when social media users lashed out at Uber for appearing to continue to offer service at John F. Kennedy Airport in New York during a taxi strike over President Trump's ban on travel from seven majority Muslim countries.