Flying a drone for commercial purposes will no longer require a pilot's license, the Federal Aviation Administration announced in new rules released Tuesday. Drones flown in for-profit uses will no longer require a special permit so long as they weigh no more than 55 pounds, soar no higher than 400 feet and fly no closer than 400 feet from buildings or structures, the guidelines stipulate. Previous rules required commercial drone operators to have a pilot's license and apply for an FAA waiver – a tedious process believed to have steered many businesses to use drones without proper permission. The new regulation, which takes effect in August, will allow anyone over the age of 16 to fly a commercial drone so long as they apply for a remote pilot certificate, which requires passing an aeronautics test at an FAA-approved facility and undergoing a background check. That threshold is far lower than a pilot's license – a move likely to encourage greater commercial use of drones, industry experts predict.

The traditional definition of artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to execute tasks and solve problems in ways normally attributed to humans. Some tasks that we consider simple--recognizing an object in a photo, driving a car--are incredibly complex for AI. Machines can surpass us when it comes to things like playing chess, but those machines are limited by the manual nature of their programming; a 30 gadget can beat us at a board game, but it can't do--or learn to do--anything else. This is where machine learning comes in. Show millions of cat photos to a machine, and it will hone its algorithms to improve at recognizing pictures of cats.

In the future, will artificial intelligence be so sophisticated that it will be able to tell when someone is trying to deceive it? A Carnegie Mellon University professor and his team is working on technology that could move this idea from the realm of science fiction to reality. Their work -- rooted in game theory and machine learning -- is part of a larger push for more advanced AI. As AI becomes more commonplace in the technology we use every day, detractors and supporters are becoming more vocal about its potential risks and benefits. For some, smarter AI sets up a dangerous precedent for a future too reliant on machines to make decisions about everything from medical diagnoses to the operation of self-driving cars.

This week, the Federal Aviation Administration announced new rules regarding drone operation. Here are 5 things you need to know. A man flies a small drone presented by Japan's toy company Nikko Kyosho EGG at the International Tokyo Toy Show on June 9, 2016. WASHINGTON – New drone rules from the Federal Aviation Administration limit most small commercial drone operations to daylight hours and require operators to get certified every two years. The rules, made public Tuesday, mark the FAA's first attempt at a comprehensive plan to ensure the popular remote-controlled aircraft can safely share the skies with commercial craft.

In the not-too-distant future, Amazon could use a drone to deliver a package from a country warehouse all the way to … a nearby farm. And that, the government said on Tuesday, is about it. The Obama administration green-lit commercial drone flights but said it wasn't ready to let Google and Amazon launch automated drone delivery fleets out across urban areas. The regulations mark the government's first explicit efforts to define the commercial uses for the horde of small, plastic, buzzing aircraft that are invading America's skies. The Federal Aviation Administration said commercial drones are OK so long as the drone and its payload weigh less than 55lb, stay within unaided sight of the pilot and operators pass a test every two years.

Federal regulators just opened the skies to commercial drones, with guidelines that include more than a few caveats designed to encourage entrepreneurs while protecting everyone else. The FAA, which announced the rules today, hopes to facilitate innovative uses for the technology like bringing the Internet to remote areas while avoiding the idiocy of drones interfering with firefighting operations or delivering contraband to prisons. "We are taking a careful and deliberate approach that balances the need to deploy this new technology with the FAA's mission to protect public safety," says FAA chief Michael Huerta. The rules let anyone 16 or older who wants to make a business of flying a drone simply do so. In the past, pilots who hoped to make a buck with drones by, say, inspecting power lines, needed FAA permission, a process that could take months.

Artificial intelligence has gained serious traction within the technology community as a solution for complex problems, though in January 2015, Bill Gates observed robotics and artificial intelligence are entering a period of rapid advances. For example, Google, Apple, and Microsoft are competing to transform vehicle transport with self-driving vehicles. In manufacturing, autonomous production enables companies to adapt products to diverse consumer markets and many more. Unmanned drones provide sustained surveillance and swift attacks on targets, and small robots are used to disarm improvised explosive devices. The military is currently funding research to produce more autonomous and self-aware robots to diminish the need for human soldiers to risk their lives.

MUNICH, Germany (Reuters) - Europe's growing army of robot workers could be classed as "electronic persons" and their owners liable to paying social security for them if the European Union adopts a draft plan to address the realities of a new industrial revolution. Robots are being deployed in ever-greater numbers in factories and also taking on tasks such as personal care or surgery, raising fears over unemployment, wealth inequality and alienation. Their growing intelligence, pervasiveness and autonomy requires rethinking everything from taxation to legal liability, a draft European Parliament motion, dated May 31, suggests. Some robots are even taking on a human form. Visitors to the world's biggest travel show in March were greeted by a lifelike robot developed by Japan's Toshiba and were helped by another made by France's Aldebaran Robotics.

The world's smartest physicist claims that Aliens, Robots and Nuclear Wars are currently the 3 major threats to humanity and have the potential to destroy the world within 100 years. Stephen has already raised the red flag in the name of technology and believes that we underestimate the power of artificial intelligence. A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing it's goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble," said Hawking. He further explained that if machines become too clever, they'll develop the ability to engineer themselves and become far more smarter than us – their intelligence will exceed ours more than our exceeds that of snails. "If the government is covering up knowledge of aliens, they are doing a better job of it than they are doing anything else."

Ed Felten, deputy chief technology officer at the White House, said during the call that drones are becoming more advanced through the use of sensors and artificial intelligence that help them sense obstacles, making them a useful tool for government agencies to assess damage during emergencies. Felten added that drones are "still a nascent technology," so only state and local governments have passed privacy rules to govern the use of drones while the federal government considers broader regulation.