For the past year, Tara Hutchinson has been trying to figure out what will happen to a tall building made from thin steel beams when "the big one" hits. To do that, she has erected a six-story tower that rises like a lime-green finger from atop a shrub-covered hill on the outskirts of San Diego, California. Hundreds of strain gauges and accelerometers fill the building, so sensitive they can detect wind gusts pressing against the walls. Now, Hutchinson just needs an earthquake. In most of the world, this would be a problem.

Cisco is just wrapping up its annual CiscoLive customer event. This year's proceedings took over Las Vegas, occupying the Bellagio, Luxor, Mandalay Bay, and MGM Grand hotel. At least for this week, Cisco was bigger in Vegas than Wayne Newton, Steve Wynn and even Carrot Top. While digital transformation served as the main theme at CiscoLive, cybersecurity had a strong supporting role throughout the event. For example, of all of the technology and business initiatives at Cisco, CEO Chuck Robbins highlighted cybersecurity in his keynote presentation by bringing the GM of Cisco's cybersecurity business unit (David Goeckeler) on stage to describe his division's progress.

Although artificial intelligence has become commonplace--most smartphones contain some version of AI, such as speech recognition--the public still has a poor understanding of the technology. As a result, a diverse cast of critics, driven by fear of technology, opportunism, or ignorance, has jumped into the intellectual vacuum to warn policymakers that, sooner than we think, AI will produce a parade of horrible outcomes. Unfortunately, their voices have grown so loud that we are nearing a tipping point where their narratives may be accepted as truth, which would create a real risk that policymakers will decide to ratchet back the pace of progress. With the White House convening a discussion later this week on the social and economic implications of artificial intelligence technologies, to be followed just days later by the 25th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, Rob Atkinson rebuts these pervasive and pernicious myths in the Huffington Post.

New York University's Information Law Institute in collaboration with the White House is slated to host an extensive public symposium on Thursday, July 7 in a bid to focus on the near-term influence of AI (artificial intelligence) technologies across the economic and social systems. A brand-new series of workshops and an inter-agency working group that will delve into understanding more about the advantages and hazards of artificial intelligence was announced by the White House on May 3, 2016. There is a lot of excitement surrounding artificial intelligence and how to create computers that are capable of intelligent behavior. Following years of consistent but sluggish progress on making computers smarter at mundane tasks, a slew of developments in the research community and industry have recently sparked momentum and investment in the advancement of this work. The Social and Economic Implications of AI Technologies in the Near-Term will concentrate on problems of the next five to 10 years, particularly focusing on four themes; What impact AI will have on social inequality, ethics, healthcare and labor.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Michael Isman, a vice president in Booz Allen Hamilton's strategic innovation group, has said the firm expects the government and the commercial market to adopt automated interactive messaging technologies for customer service, Fedscoop reported Tuesday. Isman told Fedscoop reporter Samantha Ehlinger chatbots powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning, automated analytics and crowdsourcing tools could replace call centers in customer service delivery through the next five years. "The federal government is uniquely positioned and motivated to seize the opportunity and deliver on the promise for self-service," said Isman. "What we're trying to do is push our federal clients to actually move into these areas because not only does it simplify the interaction with citizens, it's actually a cost-reduction opportunity around these programs," he added. ExecutiveBiz reported Tuesday that Booz Allen will collaborate with Conversable to deliver automated interactive messaging tools and services for organizations' customer care efforts.

Brennan said during an event at the Brookings Institution think tank on Wednesday that the next president could order expanded drone attacks or remove the ban on waterboarding, but the final decisions are up to the director of CIA and their agency colleagues. He then said if the next president wanted to resume waterboarding "they'll have to find another director," but did not mention Trump by name.

FILE - In this July 8, 2016 file photo, police check a car after a snipers opened fire on police officers in Dallas on Thursday night. Dallas police were the first in the nation to use a robot to deliver and detonate a bomb to kill a suspect, but other law enforcement agencies are willing and able to follow suit, including some that even have trained for the day when they'd have to do so. The killing of Micah Johnson using a robot-delivered bomb ended a night of terror in which he shot 14 officers, killing five of them, and also wounded two civilians. FILE - In this July 8, 2016 file photo, police check a car after a snipers opened fire on police officers in Dallas on Thursday night. Dallas police were the first in the nation to use a robot to deliver and detonate a bomb to kill a suspect, but other law enforcement agencies are willing and able to follow suit, including some that even have trained for the day when they'd have to do so.

Space telescopes like Hubble has given astronomers a unique glimpse at the universe unhindered by the thick atmosphere of our planet that can blur our view. But hauling a huge telescope into space can be difficult, which makes it hard to build the bigger space telescopes needed to peer into the furthest reaches of space. This problem could be solved by a new telescope-constructing robot capable of assembling a space telescope while orbiting around Earth. Each folded'mode' would be stored in a cargo unit until it was ready to be attached to the central'hub' by the robot Researchers at the California Institute of Technology and Nasa's Jet Propulsion Lab (JPL) came up with the new concept, which uses a modular structure so each part of the telescope could be carried separately. When the Hubble Space Telescope first went into space in 1990, it promised to provide spectacular views and an unprecedented insight into the cosmos.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display