The technology industry is facing up to the world-shaking ramifications of artificial intelligence. There is now a recognition that AI will disrupt how societies operate, from education and employment to how data will be collected about people. Machine learning, a form of advanced pattern recognition that enables machines to make judgments by analysing large volumes of data, could greatly supplement human thought. But such soaring capabilities have stirred almost Frankenstein-like fears about whether developers can control their creations. Failures of autonomous systems -- like the death last yearof a US motorist in a partially self-driving car from Tesla Motors -- have led to a focus on safety, says Stuart Russell, a professor of computer science and AI expert at the University of California, Berkeley.

The Defense Department is likely within 18 months of introducing autonomous cybersecurity tools that will be capable of augmenting human analysts by predicting threats, including insider activity, and dynamically isolating parts of the network that may come under attack, the department's outgoing chief information officer said Thursday. Terry Halvorsen, speaking to reporters during his last media roundtable before retiring at the end of the month, said as the department continues deployment of its 12 Joint Regional Security Stacks--a $1.6 billion effort to eliminate hundreds of disparate firewalls with centrally managed commercial security appliances and network monitoring tools--the next major step will be the deployment and testing of AI-based security applications. "Given the volume [of attacks] and where I see the threat moving it will be impossible for humans by themselves to keep pace. We can and we're very close to being able to put more autonomy into the security tools, and we will get to the point within the next 18 months where AI is becoming a key factor in augmenting the human analyst in making those decisions about what to do," Halvorsen said. Halvorsen recently hosted a special meeting of the Five Eyes alliance (Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States), plus Germany, Japan, and NATO, at which AI-based cybersecurity was discussed in detail. "This is very real inside the department.

Internet access is increasingly being recognized as a necessity like food, water, and shelter -- and Google doesn't want to leave anybody out. Before leaving office, President Barack Obama supported the notion that the internet should be easily accesible, while Canada's government went as far as officially declaring broadband connections "necessary to the quality of life" of its citizens. SEE ALSO: Google's Waymo self-driving platform shows big improvements That's why Google has been hard at work on a project to connect people living in underserved rural and remote regions with the rest of the world online. Project Loon, which first launched in 2013 as part of the Google X (now just X), has been sending smart balloons up into the stratosphere for four years now with the aim of creating a floating, balloon-powered LTE network. Today, Project Loon's top brass announced a major breakthrough.

Although artificial intelligence (as a set of technologies, not in the sense of mimicking human intelligence) is here since a long time in many forms and ways, it's a term that quite some people, certainly IT vendors, don't like to use that much anymore – but artificial intelligence is real, for your business too. Instead of talking about artificial intelligence (AI) many describe the current wave of AI innovation and acceleration with – admittedly somewhat differently positioned – terms and concepts such as cognitive computing or focus on several real-life applications of artificial intelligence that often start with words such as "smart", "intelligent", "predictive" and, indeed, "cognitive", depending on the exact application – and vendor. Despite the term issues, artificial intelligence is essential for and in, among others, information management, medicine/healthcare, data analysis, digital transformation, security (cybersecurity and others), various consumer applications, scientific advances, FinTech, predictive systems and so much more. There are many reasons why several vendors doubt using the term artificial intelligence for AI solutions/innovations and often package them in another term (trust us, we've been there). Artificial intelligence (AI) is a term that has somewhat of a negative connotation in general perception but also in the perception of technology leaders and firms. One major issue is that artificial intelligence – which is really a broad concept/reality, covering many technologies and realities – has become like a thing we talk about and also seem to need to have an opinion/feeling about, with thanks to, among others, popular culture.

As advancements in Quantum Computing and Artificial Intelligence are always popular media topics, I thought it'd be interesting to take a look at how the two are converging and what such a convergence might mean for cybersecurity. Today's traditional computers operate by processing information as "bits." A bit can be either a "1" or a "0." Even massive data-crunching super computers such as the US Department of Energy's Titan Cray XK7 operate in this fashion. These computers explore potential solutions to problems in a methodical, sequential manner.

Republican Senator Jeff Flake of Arizona revealed on Wednesday that he intends to introduce a resolution to roll back privacy rules that restrict what internet service providers can do with customer data, according to a report from Politico. Flake said he intended to eliminate the Broadband Consumer Privacy Rules by using the Congressional Review Act, which allows Congress to undo rules set by federal agencies with a simple majority vote. The rules that Flake is taking aim at were first passed by the FCC in October 2016 and were aimed at giving consumers more control over their data by requiring internet service providers to ask for permission before using sensitive information. "We like to say it makes [consumers] the king or queen of their information," Dallas Harris, a policy fellow at open internet advocacy group Public Knowledge, told International Business Times. "The way the order does that is by saying, 'Okay internet service provider, if you would like to use sensitive information, you have to ask your consumers first.' The order defines sensitive information as information regarding a user's finances, health, information from children, precise geolocation data, web browsing history, and app usage history. It also includes any unencrypted message content that may be accessible to the service provider. Information deemed to be non-sensitive can be collected by default requires an option to opt-out. Internet service providers oppose the rules and lobbied for the FCC to undo them --a very real possibility under the leadership of Ajit Pai, who was appointed to the head of the FCC by President Donald Trump. Commissioner Pai opposed the rules when they were passed last year, arguing at the time, "if the FCC truly believes that these new rules are necessary to protect consumer privacy, then the government now must move forward to ensure uniform regulation of all companies in the Internet ecosystem at the new baseline the FCC has set." Pai's argument is essentially that if the FCC wants to make handing over consumer data require an opt-in for ISPs, it should for edge providers like Facebook and Google as well. It's unlikely Pai would extend the rules as he suggested, but he could modify them. "The agency is free to change its mind" on the ruling, Harris explained, "It just can't do so in an arbitrary and capricious manner...they can't just willy-nilly with no reason decide to rescind them." Doing so would require opening the rules up to public comment and would require the agency to change the rules based on new facts. Pai and the FCC also have the option to make changes by reviewing petitions for reconsideration, which allows the commission to change a rule without opening the process up to public comment. Both options are preferable to using the Congressional Review Act, which Harris calls "entirely too blunt of an instrument" to handle such a rule. "There really is no benefit to using the CRA here.

FRANKFURT (Reuters) - European lawmakers called on Thursday for EU-wide legislation to regulate the rise of robots, including an ethical framework for their development and deployment and the establishment of liability for the actions of robots including self-driving cars.

On Jan. 20, the drone war entered its third Administration. Over the inaugural weekend, American drones fired missiles at suspected Al Qaeda fighters in Yemen, killing five people. The drone war, that is, the popular, unmanned-vehicle term for America's strategy of targeted killing, is an outgrowth of President George W. Bush's war on terror, a vestigial organ that became the centerpiece for the Obama administration's eight years of low-intensity warfare. With much of American national security strategy poised to change under the new Trump administration, it's worth taking a step back to examine what, exactly, the United States hoped to do with its drones. The United States is, it's worth noting, at war.

Marine Le Pen is on course to be the next president of France, according to one fund manager's big-data analysis. Arun Kant, chief executive and chief investment officer at Singapore-based investing firm Leonie Hill Capital, told CNBC he expected the right-wing populist to prevail thanks to his firm's proprietary artificial intelligence (AI) system's analysis of troves of data. His analysis -- which he said incorporates inputs such as social and traditional media discussions, polling, economics and demographics -- predicts that Le Pen will "walk over" her opponents in the first electoral test and then prove most forecasters wrong and steal the lead in the second ballot, Kant said. The French vote is split into two phases, with the top two candidates from the April 23 round due to face each other in a second run-off on May 7. In the running alongside 48-year old Le Pen are former economy minister and independent candidate Emmanuel Macron, conservative ex-prime minister Francois Fillon and socialist Benoit Hamon. Kant's AI program predicts that Le Pen would take 28 percent of the vote in the first round, he said, which would best 16.4 percent for Fillon, and 19 to 20 percent for Macron.

With the robotics industry rapidly growing, MEPs have warned that rules are needed to'guarantee a standard level of safety and security.' In a resolution voted today, MEPs are asking the EU Commission to enforce regulatory standards for robotics, and have stressed that the key issue lies with self-driving cars. They have suggested that a European agency for robotics and artificial intelligence should be set up, to supply public authorities with technical, ethical and regulatory expertise. They also asked for specific legal status for robots as'electronic persons' in the long run, in order to establish who is liable if they cause damage. MEPs have warned that robots need to be fitted with'kill switches' to prevent a Terminator-style uprising against humans If a robot unlawfully kills someone in the heat of battle, who is liable for the death?