It's not exactly autonomous, but it works. Nissan believes the fastest way to get driverless cars on the road is to give them remote human support – and it's using NASA technology to do it. Nissan demonstrated its Seamless Autonomous Mobility (SAM) platform at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas last week, which incorporates a degree of teleoperation into the autonomous car system. Although vehicles will be able to drive themselves most of the time, human "mobility managers" can remotely take control in unexpected situations. "Autonomy systems are not simple, it is a very hard problem," says Maarten Sierhuis, director of Nissan's Research Center in Sunnyvale, California.

He is a German computer scientist and artist known for his work on machine learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI), artificial neural networks, digital physics, and low-complexity art. "We need to be super careful with artificial intelligence. It is potentially more dangerous than nukes." That was Elon Musk two years ago, on Twitter. What does it mean for a technology, when it faces serious doubts from a man who is passionate about creating a better world through innovation? Since its beginnings in the 1950s, artificial intelligence has been a favourite subject of science fiction. But now AI has entered the realm of fact: several studies predict that intelligent machines will have a big impact on how we work, how we move and even how wars are fought. Innovators and scientists around the world believe that now is the time to ensure that AI is beneficial above all for humans. And even if there are plausible reasons to be anxious about machines that could one day be more intelligent than we are, many scientists are ready to take up the challenge, as we explain in our feature on the following pages. Some people fret that artificial intelligence will end civilization as we know it. Others believe it can solve every problem.

Whenever one separates sociology and technology, one misses the point.

President-elect Trump has met with leaders in technology in an effort to open lines of communication and discuss business after months of two-way criticism. It's no secret that Silicon Valley was largely in support of Hillary Clinton, who had aligned herself with the technology community, while over the last few years Mr. Trump has criticized Apple's iPhones, accused Facebook, Google, and Twitter of burying negative news about Democrats, and picked a fight with Jeff Bezos on Twitter insinuating his purchase of the Washington Post was for political influence to help Amazon's business. While this meeting simply serves to smooth over relations with the technology community, there is a longer conversation needed with President-elect Trump, who's presidency sits at a tipping point in technology. In the next four years we will see an explosion of AI technology that further delivers on the promise of driverless cars, intelligent robots, and other societal and job-impacting advancements. The conversation needed is how to, or more precisely, how not to regulate AI.

HONG KONG: McDonald's Corp has agreed to sell the bulk of its China and Hong Kong business to state-backed conglomerate CITIC Ltd and Carlyle Group LP for up to $2.1 billion (Dh7.71 billion), seeking to expand rapidly without using much of its own capital. Zurich The Swiss National Bank expects a 2016 full-year profit of 24 billion francs (Dh86.68 billion; $23.6 billion), enabling it to shell out money to the federal government and municipalities. Foreign-currency holdings contributed more than 19 billion francs, and valuation gains on its gold holdings added 3.9 billion francs, the central bank said on Monday, citing an initial estimate. Last year's result is set to be the second-best in the Read More ... Tags: Corporate Enterprises Finance Sectors Banks Profits Financial institutions German automaker Volkswagen saw sales jump 16 percent in December for its namesake brand, propelled by a big increase in China, Volkswagen's biggest market. Global sales reported Monday rose to 567,900 from 487,700 despite the damage to the company's reputation from its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

Our lives are now heavily mediated by digital technology (music streaming, social media, e-banking etc). We are increasingly and often continuously online, open to engagement in a myriad of services and simultaneously open to cyberattack. We now need to defend against the lone wolf hacker, organised crime and terrorism, and nation states with well-funded advanced capabilities. The 2016 cyber message is clear – we have a big problem, it's going to get worse, and we need help. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a promising source of such help.

This is Essential Politics, our daily look at California political and government news. Rosey Grier, a legendary Los Angeles Rams player, says he's thinking about running for governor of California . Uber's effort to use self-driving cars on San Francisco streets without a permit inspires one legislator to take action . A former Los Angeles planning commissioner becomes the twelfth person to enter the race to replace Rep. Xavier Becerra. Rosey Grier, a legendary Los Angeles Rams player, says he's thinking about running for governor of California .

Nowadays, even your smallest company can generate huge sets of data. Fortunately for them, technology has kept up the pace and, with the dawn of Big Data, we are now able to store and analyze huge sets of digital information (read our previous article on The Cybersecurity Hydra and its Big Data nemesis here). What we must remember here is that, whereas this may appear to be a "Big Answer", there is an even Bigger Question at stake. Big Data is not about exploring and finding new sources of information, but rather it is about collecting and unveiling what is already there, using newly found methods -- much like a modern day archaeologist. The purpose: take out Small Data in the form of valuable insights based on the interpretation of these very data relics.

When it comes to artificial intelligence, forget the scary movies about rebellious robots or the dire warnings of a dystopian world of disconnected humanity imagined by some popular writers. AI promises, rather, to change our lives in profound ways we are just beginning to experience, according to a ground-breaking survey produced by Stanford University. Stanford is taking the long view of AI, with a project called One Hundred Study on Artificial Intelligence (AI100). The study, written by a panel of AI experts from multiple fields including healthcare, will continue as an ongoing activity, with periodic reports examining how AI will touch different aspects of daily life. The first of those reports, "Artificial Intelligence and Life in 2030," looks into the effects that AI advancements will have on a typical North American city a little more than a decade from now.

ZHEJIANG – A Chinese factory is hatching giant inflatable chickens resembling Donald Trump to usher in the Year of the Rooster. The five-meter (16-foot) fowls sport the distinctive golden mane of the U.S. president-elect and mimic his signature hand gestures with their tiny wings. Cartoon figures of animals from the Chinese zodiac are ubiquitous around Chinese New Year at the end of this month. The balloon factory is selling its presidential birds for as much as 14,400 yuan ($2,080) on Chinese shopping site Taobao for a 10-meter version. "I saw his image on the news and he has a lot of personality, and since Year of the Rooster is coming up I mixed these two elements together to make a Chinese chicken," factory owner Wei Qing said.