America's return to manned spaceflight moved a step closer today as US astronauts installed a new'parking space' on the International Space Station. The two Americans, Jeffrey Williams and Kate Rubins, hooked up the docking port in just a few hours. SpaceX delivered this new gateway last month, packed in the trunk of a Dragon cargo capsule. NASA describes the gear as'a metaphorical gateway to a future' that will allow a new generation of US spacecraft - the first since the space shuttle program ended in 2011 - to carry astronauts to the space station. US astronaut Kate Rubins works on the docking port of the International Space Station.The adaptors will work with Boeing's CST-100 Starliner and SpaceX's Crew Dragon, two spaceships under construction that are planned to ferry astronauts to the space station.

Okay, they didn't literally run for any hills. But the EFF wrote a very panicked blog post warning of the dangers to come if an AI trained to hack wasn't parented properly. The histrionic post made a few headlines, but missed the point of the competition entirely. If the AI playing Def Con's all-machine Capture The Flag had feelings, they would've been very hurt indeed. The seven different AI agents were projects of teams that hailed from around the world, coming together to compete for a 2 million purse.

China is planning to use artificial intelligence (AI) technology to build the next generation cruise missiles that will be tailor-made for specific combat situations, media reported on Friday. The multi-functional missiles will aid to future combat missions that will require weapons to be both cost-efficient and flexible. "We plan to adopt a'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions and their specific requirements," Wang Changqing of the China Aerospace and Industry Corp told China Daily newspaper. Changqing added that for future combat, modular design based on AI will be a good solution. "Our future cruise missiles will have a very high level of artificial intelligence and automation," he was quoted as saying.

You can get a pretty good idea of a country's wealth by seeing how much it shines at night -- just compare the intense brightness of China and South Korea to the dark mass of North Korea that's sandwiched between them. But nighttime lights don't tell you which neighborhoods or villages within a large region are merely poor and which are home to people living in abject poverty. That's the level of detail policymakers need when they decide where to deploy their economic development programs. You could get that detail by sending legions of survey-takers into crowded slums and sparsely populated rural areas. But that would be hugely time-consuming and cost tens of millions of dollars or more.

Ohio's toll road, a heavily traveled connector between the East Coast and Chicago, is moving closer to allowing the testing of self-driving vehicles. Testing is likely to begin within 12 months, and possibly before the end of the year, the Ohio Turnpike's executive director told The Associated Press. Officials overseeing the roadway have spent more than a year looking at the possibilities, said Randy Cole, the turnpike's director. Vehicles drive along the Ohio Turnpike in Strongsville, Ohio: Officials plan to allow self driving cars to use the route before the end of the year in a bid to teach them how to drive in bad weather. As autonomous vehicle technology improves, it's easy to imagine a world where these vehicles have no need for a human operator which would have a huge impact on those who driving for a living.

It is fairly straight-forward to build chatbots that send reminders, ask (and record) basic information, and answer common questions. For example, the US government tracks veterans who are receiving chemotherapy and recovering at home. Particular inputs to an automated system can trigger human support systems to get more involved. This can be a useful way of generating training data but that training data is a byproduct of the real goal, which is to help individual, caregivers, and healthcare providers to give the best care possible. AI doctors are unlikely to replace doctors anytime soon–neither the technology nor society are ready for that.

WHEN Germany occupied Poland during the second world war, a young Pole was scratching a living under false papers as a car mechanic. The man, Stanislaw Lem, who was to become one of world's most famous science fiction writers, used to "mend" German vehicles so they would break down. The habit never left him. With Summa Technologiae, his masterwork of non-fiction which has been translated into English for the first time, Lem has taken Western civilisation for a spin – with spectacular consequences. The book will be a fabulous shock to those who know only his science fiction, such as Solaris or The Cyberiad.

The Chinese military is looking to adapt its technology with the belief that future combat missions will require weapons to be both cost-efficient and flexible. They will also be based on a modular design, which will allow the missiles to be configured in regards to what mission they will be carrying out. "We plan to adopt a'plug and play' approach in the development of new cruise missiles, which will enable our military commanders to tailor-make missiles in accordance with combat conditions and their specific requirements," Wang Changqing of the China Aerospace and Industry Corp told China Daily newspaper. He added that Chinese engineers had been researching the use of artificial intelligence in cruise missiles for a number of years and that the country was the world leader in this field. However, he did not produce any evidence to back up his claims.

Rubins and Williams plan to conduct a spacewalk on Friday, Aug. 19, 2016, to install a new docking port that will enable the future arrival of U.S. commercial crew spacecraft. MELBOURNE, Fla. -- Astronauts ventured out Friday to install a ring on the International Space Station to receive astronauts in commercial spaceships expected to launch from Florida within the next 18 months. Expedition 48 commander Jeff Williams and flight engineer Kate Rubins hooked up the docking port in just a few hours. The port is slated for Boeing and SpaceX capsules now being developed under NASA's Commercial Crew Program. Friday's success paved the way for future spaceships.

This fall, an unusual vessel will begin sea trials off the coast of California. The 51-foot-long Boeing Echo Voyager will have no crew. It will glide underwater for days or weeks, quietly collecting data from the ocean floor to send back to crews on ships or on land. Ever since the start of the war in Afghanistan in 2001, the U.S. military has relied more and more on flying drones to take on dangerous air missions. But increasingly, drones are taking to the sea as well.