Firefighters undergo rigorous training before responding to their first call but they still aren't superhuman. In a burning building there's a difference between what someone can sense in the surroundings and all the environmental data around him. Researchers at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) and the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) are working to fill that gap with an artificial intelligence system that can collect relevant information from the environment and relay it back to firefighters in real time. AUDREY -- or, the Assistant for Understanding Data through Reasoning, Extraction, and sYnthesis -- is integrated with the Internet of Things, which lets the system connect to wearable sensors and head-mounted displays on each firefighter, communicating data about temperatures, hazardous gases, and even GPS locations from one team member to another. "When first responders are connected to all these sensors, the AUDREY agent becomes their guardian angel," Edward Chow, manager of JPL's Civil Program Office and program manager for AUDREY, said in a press release.

Automation will undoubtedly transform the workforce, the economy, and society as a whole. Robotics, sophisticated "AI" software, and other technologies will cause lasting and profound changes in the future. But that's no reason to ignore the problems we're facing right now. In fact, the best way to ensure that we have a more equitable economy tomorrow is by fighting for one today. Two recent commentaries addressed the "robot question."

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

But then getting a robot in charge would be a lot like voting for a president. Some people would agree with it, some wouldn't. Maybe every four years we'd have another vote, and the candidates would be both people and robots, and sometimes a robot would win, sometimes a person.

Based on the disturbing number of successful data breaches over the past few years, it's pretty evident that organizations are being overwhelmed by the growing number of threats. However, a new breed of security solution has sprung up, offering to apply machine learning to enterprise security. These tools deliver the ability to analyze networks, learn about them, detect anomalies and protect enterprises from threats. So, is machine learning the answer to today's cybersecurity challenges? Industry analysts and companies offering these products say they're seeing increased demand, and the early reaction from users is positive.

The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched a program that will create the technology to make new generations of artificial intelligence (AI) systems "explainable." DARPA'S Explainable AI (XAI) program aims to create new machine learning methods to produce more explainable models and combine them with explanation techniques. And why the need to understand AI? That's because explainable AI -- especially explainable machine learning -- will be essential if future American warfighters are to understand, appropriately trust and effectively manage an emerging generation of AI "partners" such as battlefield robots and machines. XAI is vital because continued advances in AI promise to produce autonomous systems that will perceive, learn, decide and act on their own. The effectiveness of these AI systems, however, is limited by the machine's current inability to explain their decisions and actions to human users.

A machine intelligence system, dubbed Emma AI, is starting a fund that hopes to outsmart the humans and computers that make a living trading stocks. Shaunak Khire, Emma's creator, claims his system differs from current finance computing -- high-frequency trading and "quant" data science -- because its system of neural nets takes into account a more complex set of factors affecting stocks, like management changes or monetary policy in Europe, that other programs miss. "This is not algorithmic trading," he said. "This is literally replication of an analyst." I hope they put a fleece on the AI. For some reason "Emma will start trading stocks from pharma giant GSK and Tesla along with U.S. Treasury bonds," which seems like sort of a limited coverage universe for this robot analyst, but everyone's got to start somewhere.

Apple CEO Tim Cook was the subject of an in-depth interview published over the weekend in The Washington Post in which he talked about a wide range of issues, including augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI), the future of the iPhone, and the company's North Star. In the interview, Cook dismissed the idea of the iPhone accounting for two-thirds of Apple's revenues being problematic, calling the smartphone's dominance a privilege and expressing his belief that one day, every person on earth will own a smartphone. Cook also defended the company's progress in AI technology, pointing to the expanding capabilities of Siri, the digital assistant that Apple launched in 2011. Apple is opening up Siri to third-party developers so the technology can be used by other applications -- such as Uber or Lyft, as Cook pointed out -- to help users complete tasks faster and more efficiently. Earlier this month, the company reportedly bought Turi, a Seattle-based startup company and the latest purchase in a string of acquisitions aimed at bolstering its machine learning and AI capabilities.

CyberLaunch, the leading accelerator for information security and machine learning startups, today announced its inaugural'Demo Day,' for Thursday, Aug. 25, at Atlanta Tech Village. Accredited investors, entrepreneurs and media are invited to attend a private viewing of the accelerators' first seven startups. Demo Day attendees will have the opportunity to meet with each startup founder, network with investors and executives from the corporate community, and get to know some of CyberLaunch's 140 mentors. The event will also include a Startup Showcase, featuring 20 additional startups, and a panel on information security and machine learning, consisting of global industry experts. "Information security and machine learning are two tech industries poised for exponential growth in the coming years," said Christopher Klaus, CyberLaunch co-founder and serial entrepreneur.

The NASA-designed agent collects data on temperatures, gases and other vital signals - then crunches the stats to guide firefighters when they are tackling a blaze. Mark James, from NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, said: "Because of all this data the sensor sees, firefighters won't run into the next room where the floor will collapse." The system uses sensors mounted on the firefighters' clothes - monitoring their GPS position, the heat level in surrounding areas, and whether any dangerous gases or chemicals are around. Audrey stands for Assistant for Understanding Data through Reasoning, Extraction, and sYnthesis. It is backed by the US Department of Homeland Security, and could also be used by police officers and other first responders. It has been in development for nine months and will be tested in the field next year.