In the last few months alone, astronomers have alerted the world to several'close shaves' as asteroids of varying sizes whizzed past Earth. While the objects have all flown by at a safe distance, there are still hundreds of thousands that have yet to be identified, causing many people to wonder, 'what if?' Using data from NASA observations of near-Earth objects, a new study has revealed the terrifying scenarios that would take place if a massive space-rock were to slam into a major US city – causing millions of deaths, and injuries for hundreds of miles around. In February, a 328-foot wide object dubbed 2013FK safely passed by Earth, and is set to come around again in 2021. If an asteroid the size of 2013FK were to slam into New York City, there would be more than 2.5 million casualties, according to the study Researchers analyzed more than 36,000 close approaches from NASA's near-Earth object (NEO) database to find out the largest – and closest – to pass by in recent times. The InsuranceQuotes team used an impact calculator to determine the energy of the NEOs, and then converted this into megatons of TNT.

Microsoft has built a special customised version of Windows 10 for the Chinese government. The operating system is available to consumers in China, but the country's government hasn't been overly keen on Windows. It placed a ban on Windows 8 for government use in the aftermath of Edward Snowden's NSA spying revelations, and partnered with Canonical in 2013 in an ultimately doomed effort to create a Windows alternative called Kylin. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

The UK will ban people from flying into the country with large electronic devices by Saturday. The Department for Transport said that it will implement the ban on laptops and tablets from a range of countries this week. Any large gadgets flying from a range of affected countries will have to be put into the luggage hold, and can't be taken onto the plane. Airlines are being told to implement the rules "over the coming days and no later than 25 March", a DfT spokesperson said. Passengers "should go to the airport with the expectation that the measures are already in effect", she said.

NEW HAVEN – The idea of a tax on robots was raised last May in a draft report to the European Parliament prepared by MEP Mady Delvaux from the Committee on Legal Affairs. Emphasizing how robots could boost inequality, the report proposed that there might be a "need to introduce corporate reporting requirements on the extent and proportion of the contribution of robotics and AI to the economic results of a company for the purpose of taxation and social security contributions." The public reaction to Delvaux's proposal has been overwhelmingly negative, with the notable exception of Bill Gates, who endorsed it. But we should not dismiss the idea out of hand. In just the past year, we have seen the proliferation of devices such as Google Home and Amazon Echo Dot (Alexa), which replace some aspects of household help. Likewise, the Delphi and nuTonomy driverless taxi services in Singapore have started to replace taxi drivers.

Technology's unrelentingly advance is transforming work and the workplace. McKinsey Global Institute (MGI), using data from U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics and the Occupational Information Network (O*Net), examined automation's potential effect on the workplace by looking at over 2,000 activities comprising more than 800 occupations. MGI's intriguing results tell an important story about the change that leaders must look for, manage and guide. MGI quantified the time spent on specific activities comprising a range of work and analyzed the feasibility of automating them. The automation potential of various types of work depends on technical feasibility, the availability of skills that automation may replace, cost to automate relative to human wages, and considerations of social-acceptance and regulation.

Experts say robots will be able to do'most jobs' within 30 years. That kind of prediction makes current international trade spats seem paltry in comparison to the brewing demise of humanity's jobs market. China's Changying Precision Technology recently replaced 90% of its employees with robotics systems and saw a boost in productivity in doing so. Japan even has a hotel run by robots. When it comes to the implications of the impending Johnny 5 era, Mady Delvaux is one of the European Parliament's most vocal MEPs.

DARPA is working on a new machine learning technology that could let a future artificial intelligence grow up, learning from its experiences over the entirety of its unnatural life. Essentially, DARPA wants to turn every interaction the A.I. has into an opportunity to collect data. The Lifetime Learning Machines (L2M) initiative's goal wouldn't be surveillance, though that's certainly a concern, but rather improving artificial intelligence by exposing it to new data and experiences and letting it learn from them -- just like a biological brain. The project's leaders call this a "new computing paradigm" that could supplant classical A.I. coding, in which knowledge and behaviors must all be specified in advance. Though the four-year program to let A.I.s become "responsive and adaptive collaborators" with humans is still just getting started, the machine learning goals for its contributors are clear: to allow A.I.s to learn from incidental experiences.

Stocks sank deeper into negative territory on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Wednesday, with investor sentiment hurt by an overnight sell-off on Wall Street and the yen's sharp appreciation against the dollar. The 225-issue Nikkei average tumbled 414.50 The key price indicator suffered the biggest closing loss since Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election in November last year. On Tuesday, the Nikkei average shed 65.71 points. The Topix index of all first-section issues closed down 33.22 points, or 2.12 percent, at 1,530.20, after losing 2.43 points the previous day.

Machine learning is increasingly being seen as the solution, dealing - or at least appearing to deal - with a number of the problems organizations are having implementing their cybersecurity initiatives. Former Department of Defense Chief Information Officer, Terry Halvorsen, believes that'within the next 18-months, AI will become a key factor in helping human analysts make decisions about what to do.' This point of view is being reinforced by significant investment in the field by the world's largest technology companies. MIT has been experimenting with it for some years, while IBM is training its AI-based Watson in security protocols and has now made it available to customers. Amazon also recently acquired AI-based cyber-security company Harvest.ai,

We are at the cusp of the next industrial revolution--or maybe it's in full swing already. Artificial intelligence, Internet of Things, cloud computing, smartphones, and a slew of other technologies that were unknown or sci-fi before the turn of the century are redefining and disrupting different aspects of life as we know it today. As with every industrial revolution, most of the changes overcoming our lives are pleasant. These are just some of the advantages brought by these technologies. But the same trends drag in tow some less appreciated disruptions, namely the upheaval of the socio-economic landscape.