Classifier evasion consists in finding for a given instance $x$ the nearest instance $x'$ such that the classifier predictions of $x$ and $x'$ are different. We present two novel algorithms for systematically computing evasions for tree ensembles such as boosted trees and random forests. Our first algorithm uses a Mixed Integer Linear Program solver and finds the optimal evading instance under an expressive set of constraints. Our second algorithm trades off optimality for speed by using symbolic prediction, a novel algorithm for fast finite differences on tree ensembles. On a digit recognition task, we demonstrate that both gradient boosted trees and random forests are extremely susceptible to evasions. Finally, we harden a boosted tree model without loss of predictive accuracy by augmenting the training set of each boosting round with evading instances, a technique we call adversarial boosting.

The recent media frenzy about artificial intelligence (AI) has been unavoidable. This vision has perhaps come a step closer with the arrival of IBM Watsoni and Richard Susskind's latest book, The Future of the Professionsii, which predicts an internet society with greater virtual interaction with professional services such as doctors, teachers, accountants, architects and lawyers. In reality, is AI many years away from making any real impact in the legal sector? And should law firms see this technical advancement as an opportunity or threat? Broadly speaking, AI is the theory and development of computer systems which will perform tasks that normally require human intelligence.

One-fifth of the films and television shows offered in the European Union by on-demand providers like Netflix, iTunes and Amazon would have to be Europe-made under new proposals issued Wednesday. The quota would match one that already exists for TV networks in European countries and aims to protect the film industry, culture and national languages of the EU's 28 states in an increasingly globalized world dominated by programs in English and from the U.S. The proposal, however, is not popular in the industry and was immediately criticized by some. "Cultural quotas are outdated and unnecessary -- video-on-demand providers are already investing heavily into European local content," said James Waterworth, vice president of Europe operations for the CCIA computer and Internet industry association. Officials from the European Commission, the EU executive branch that made the proposal Wednesday, noted that Netflix's library is already made up of 21% European content, while other providers have up to 30%. "These percentages are not going to represent a major effort," said Guenther Oettinger, the commissioner responsible for Europe's digital market. "We are providing a certain degree of security for the European film industry."

A little-known extremist cleric was chosen Wednesday to be the new leader of the Afghan Taliban, just days after a U.S. drone strike killed his predecessor. But within hours of the Taliban's announcement that the group's council of leaders had unanimously selected Mullah Haibatullah Akhundzada, opposition to him emerged -- a sign that rifts within the insurgency could widen and possibly drive the Taliban further from peace talks with the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban called on all Muslims to support Akhundzada as a matter of religious obligation and declared three days of official mourning for Mullah Mohammed Akhtar Mansour, who was slain Saturday by a U.S. drone in Pakistan. The announcement came as a suicide bomber struck a minibus carrying court employees in Kabul, killing at least 11 people, an official said. The Taliban promptly claimed responsibility for the attack.

FILE - In this Thursday, March 8, 2012, file photo, Clarium Capital President Peter Thiel speaks during his keynote speech at the StartOut LGBT Entrepreneurship Awards in San Francisco. Billionaire tech investor Thiel has been secretly funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media for publishing a sex tape, according to reports in Forbes and The New York Times. FILE - In this Monday, March 21, 2016, file photo, Hulk Hogan, whose given name is Terry Bollea, left, looks on in court moments after a jury returned its decision in St. Petersburg, Fla. Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel has been secretly funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media for publishing a sex tape, according to reports in Forbes and The New York Times. Here's some biographical information on billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel, who has been secretly funding Hulk Hogan's lawsuit against Gawker Media, according to published reports: COMPANY CONNECTIONS: Thiel co-founded PayPal in 1998 and was its chairman and CEO. PayPal was sold to eBay in 2002 for 1.5 billion.

Golan Levin, an associate professor of art at Carnegie Mellon University, suggested. I was looking at a satellite image of the school's campus in Pittsburgh, embedded in the home page of Levin's latest online project, Terrapattern. "What you should immediately see are all the most tennis-court-ish patches of Allegheny County," he said. With gratifying speed, the right-hand side of my screen filled with dozens and dozens of tennis courts--solo or in pairs or in clusters of six, white on green, purple on green, green on red. A confusingly painted parking lot ended up in the mix, too.

A new report from the Government Accountability Office found that federal agencies waste money by maintaining rather than updating outdated computer systems. WASHINGTON -- The government is squandering its technology budget maintaining museum-ready computer systems in critical areas from nuclear weapons to Social Security. In a report released Wednesday, nonpartisan congressional investigators found that about three-fourths of the 80 billion budget goes to keep aging technology running, and the increasing cost is shortchanging modernization. The White House has been pushing to replace workhorse systems that date back more than 50 years in some cases. But the government is expected to spend 7 billion less on modernization in 2017 than in 2010, said the Government Accountability Office.

"Given an example of presence and absence of a specific concept, computers would use storage to memorize examples exactly as they appear from a shallow learning concept – classic memorization," Dreyer said. Humans adjust neural weighting to solve for current and future examples, so we don't have to see a future example to know what something is. If you show a computer a picture of a bunch of oranges and then show it an apple, the computer wouldn't know what the apple was because it hadn't seen it before. Humans exploit deep learning by classifying new objects, recognizing faces, and recognizing language, Dreyer said. We see examples every day of facial recognition technology (for example, used by Facebook and Twitter).

What do you think of when you hear the word "technology"? Do you think of jet planes and laboratory equipment and underwater farming? Or do you think of smartphones and machine-learning algorithms? When a grave-faced announcer on CNBC says "technology stocks are down today," we all know he means Facebook and Apple, not Boeing and Pfizer. To Thiel, this signals a deeper problem in the American economy, a shrinkage in our belief of what's possible, a pessimism about what is really likely to get better. Our definition of what technology is has narrowed, and he thinks that narrowing is no accident. "Technology gets defined as'that which is changing fast,'" he says. "If the other things are not defined as'technology,' we filter them out and we don't even look at them." He founded PayPal and Palantir, was one of the earliest investors in Facebook, and now sits atop a fortune estimated in the billions. We spoke in his sleek, floor-to-ceiling-windowed apartment overlooking Manhattan -- a palace built atop the riches of the IT revolution.

Recently esteemed M I T physicist, Max Tegmark, and science philosophy professor, from Oxford university, Nick Bostrom, joined forces to address the United Nations. They were there with the sole purpose of addressing their concerns over the dangers of Artificial Intelligence.