Thune Seeks Answers from Elon Musk on Autopilot Technology Inquiry prompted after tragic death of driver using Tesla's autopilot mode July 14, 2016 WASHINGTON – U.S. Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.), chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, seeks answers from Elon Musk, chairman and chief executive officer at Tesla Motors, following the recent death of a driver while using the autopilot mode on a Tesla Model S. The autopilot feature allows the vehicle to automatically steer, change lanes, and manage speed. In Sen. Thune's letter to Musk, he seeks to determine whether the technology performed as intended and Tesla's actions to educate consumers on the benefits and limitations of the technology. The full text of the letter is below: Dear Mr. Musk: I write to you today regarding the recent news of a fatal crash involving a Tesla vehicle. I seek information regarding the actions Tesla Motors has taken thus far, as well as future actions planned in response to this accident. In particular, I am interested in the company's efforts to ensure the Autopilot technology was deployed safely in this instance.

Technology allowing a pre-programmed robot to shoot to kill, or a tank to fire at a target with no human involvement, might only be years away. And a new report from the UN warns of the dangers if terrorists got their hands on these kind of'killer robots'. The report, which was a result of a week-long meeting on such weapons, held in Geneva earlier this year, said swarms of autonomous weapons would be capable of carrying out attacks. As artificial intelligence advances, the possibility that machines could independently select and fire on targets is fast approaching. Fully autonomous weapons, also known as'killer robots,' are quickly moving from the realm of science fiction (like the plot of Terminator, pictured) toward reality Experts from dozens of countries gathered in Geneva earlier this year to consider the implications of'Lethal Autonomous Weapons Systems' (LAWS).

The U.S. National Science Foundation will spend more than US 400 million over the next seven years to fund next-generation wireless research in an effort to bring super-fast mobile service to the country. U.S. officials hope the investments, announced Friday, will speed up the county's move to next-generation 5G mobile service, potentially offering speeds of 10Gbps, and allow for a rapid expansion of the internet of things. The next-generation mobile services will enable self-driving cars, an "always on" IoT, smart cities, new virtual reality offerings, and video to aid police, firefighters, and emergency medical responders, said John Holdren assistant to President Barack Obama for science and technology. "Time and again, history has shown us that when we make sustained federal investments in fundamental academic research and in public-private partnerships ... we as a nation reap the benefits," Holdren said at an NSF event in Washinton, D.C., Friday. The NSF funding, part of a new White House Advanced Wireless Research Initiative, includes 50 million as part of a partnership with more than 20 mobile companies and trade groups to roll out advanced wireless testing sites in four U.S. cities.

Images have emerged of a strange drone shaped like a real bird that was found crashed in Somalia, leading to claims it was being used to spy on targets. The metal bird, which is shaped to mimic a large bird of prey with'feathered' wings, is reported to have been recovered in an area of the capital, Mogadishu. According to local reports, the unmanned vehicle, which has two propellers attached to its wings, may be a surveillance craft used by the Somali intelligence agency, NISA. The drone is reported to have crashed in Mogadishu, Somalia earlier this week. Low quality images show it to resemble a large bird of prey.

Today, the National Science Foundation (NSF) announced that it will invest more than 400 million over the next seven years to support fundamental wireless research and to develop platforms for advanced wireless research in support of the White House's Advanced Wireless Research Initiative. These investments will support the research community in experimenting with and testing novel technologies, applications and services capable of making wireless communication faster, smarter, more responsive and more robust. In the last decade, wireless usage across the U.S. has expanded dramatically, with nearly 350 million smartphones, connected tablets and wearable devices in use -- more than double the number from a decade ago -- carrying more than 100,000 times the traffic they supported in 2008. Experts anticipate as many as 200 billion connected devices globally by 2020. The need for ultra-high-speed, high-bandwidth and low-latency (rapid-response) wireless connectivity will only increase.

At least, that's what Google and so many business and tech journalists said when the search giant first faced antitrust complaints in Europe six years ago. And indeed, Microsoft had filed one of those complaints. It was also the money-weilding mastermind behind the Initiative for a Competitive Online Marketplace, a group that lobbied the European Union and helped others bring complaints against arch-rival Google. But all these years later, Microsoft has removed itself from the fight, reaching an agreement with Google that says both companies will drop all regulatory complaints against each other. And yet, Google's antitrust problems are only getting worse. Yesterday, the European Union announced a new round of antitrust charges against Google, this time pointing the finger at the company's advertising service, some of the most important tech in Google's moneymaking arsenal.

Do you remember the BBC Micro? Does the Sinclair ZX80 ring a bell? If you are under 30, I'm not surprised. If you're over 30, then perhaps these devices bring a nostalgic smile to your face as you remember a time when the microcomputer was king. The 1980s were, if nothing else, a decade of contrasts and change.

Singapore has announced a new partnership with Microsoft to create a digital government services platform that will shift towards conversational computing. Announcing the initiative at the World Cities Summit in the city-state on 12 July, Dr Vivian Balakrishnan, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister-In-Charge of the Smart Nation Initiative, said the new medium, conceptually referred to as "Conversations as a Platform" will use chatbots -- intelligent software programmes that simulate human behaviour. "I believe there are more intuitive ways for government services to be delivered to our citizens," Dr Balakrishnan said. The chatbots, which combine human language, artificial intelligence and machine learning, are envisioned to make public and business transactions simpler, more efficient, and more consistent. "Everybody expects responsive and personalised interactions in real time. The recent quantum improvement of natural language processing means that'conversations' will be the new medium," he said.

Since presidential campaigns have incorporated social media into their strategic messaging, it has become more challenging for journalists to cover the election in depth, because of the large amount of data generated by candidates and the public every day. Journalists tend to focus on single quotes or tweets rather than providing analysis and reporting on the aggregate of messages on social media. But single tweets may not give people a full appreciation for the style of campaigning or the substance of the rest of the tweets. In order to get a sense of what the candidates and public are actually saying and how candidates communicate over time, we have taken a computational approach to predict categories of candidate-produced tweets and posts (as described in a blog post introducing the Illuminating 2016 project). We have been working on a system that automatically classifies each message into a category based on what the message is trying to do: urge people to act, change their opinions through persuasion, inform them about some activity or event, honoring or mourning people or holidays, or on Twitter having a conversation with members of the public.

The Air Force by the end of 2016 will have a beta version of a website that serves as an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven contracting officer, according to a key official.Air Force Assistant Secretary for Acquisitions Camron Gorguinpour said Friday the project,… You must be logged in as a subscriber to view this page. Please log in below to access the content. If you are already a Defense Daily subscriber or registered user, login here.