April Blackburn, CIO of the Florida Department of Transportation, discussed the opportunities for cognitive analytics and connected devices across the state's IT systems. The agency is already plotting the course for a tech-centric strategic plan and is involved in data sharing with private industry to improve transit in the state. Eyragon Eidam is the assistant news editor for Government Technology magazine, and covers legislation, social media and public safety. He can be reached at eeidam@erepublic.com.

A Tesla Model S electric vehicle is shown in San Francisco, California, U.S., April 7, 2016. How much do we really know about what so-called self-driving vehicles can and cannot do? The fatal traffic accident involving a Tesla Motors car that crashed while using its Autopilot feature offers a stark reminder that such drivers are in uncharted territory--and of the steep cost of that uncertainty. The sensor systems that enable Tesla's hands-free driving are the result of decades of advances in computer vision and machine learning. Yet the failure of Autopilot -- built into 70,000 Tesla vehicles worldwide since October 2014 -- to help avoid the May 7 collision that killed the car's sole occupant demonstrates how far the technology has to go before fully autonomous vehicles can truly arrive.

Deftr, legal tech company, and Y Combinator Fellowship recipient, today announced the launch of the first AI-powered tool that helps professionals diagram intricate corporate structures. The new product reads text as it is typed in real time, then automatically turns that text into a shareable, interactive graphic illustrating a corporate structure or transaction. Named for the dynamic tax ledger used by the Ottoman Empire, Deftr helps legal and professional service firms focus on high-level, strategic work by leveraging artificial intelligence to automate manual work. From tax law and IRS guidance to corporate structuring and financial regulations, we enable users to navigate legal complexity and understand its practical consequences intuitively, simply, and cheaply. For hundreds of years the Swiss watch had been considered to be the most accurate, trust-worthy and well-designed way of telling the time – the best way to convey that crucial information to a wearer.

The Air Force wants white papers that describe new ways quantum computing could help achieve its mission, according to an amended Broad Agency Announcement posted Friday. Eventually, the government could provide a test-bed where a contractor might install, develop and test a quantum computing system, according to the announcement. Last year, the Air Force announced it had about 40 million available to fund research into, and the eventual maintenance and installation of a quantum system -- a branch of emerging computing technology that relies on the mechanics of atomic particles to process complex equations. The Air Force Research Laboratory's Information Directorate, which focuses on processes such as signal processing, networking technology, cyber research and supercomputing, is collecting those white papers. Many problems that stump traditional computers can be re-framed as "optimization problems," the solicitation says; one of quantum computing's potential benefits is its ability to quickly find the optimum solution to a multidimensional problem, given certain constraints.

DALLAS/HOUSTON/LOS ANGELES/WASHINGTON – When Dallas police improvised a bomb-carrying robot to kill a sniper, they also kicked off an ethical debate about technology's use as a crime-fighting weapon. In what appears to be an unprecedented tactic, police rigged a bomb-disposal robot to kill an armed suspect in the fatal shootings of five officers in Dallas. While there doesn't appear to be any hard data on the subject, security experts and law enforcement officials said they couldn't recall another time when police deployed a robot with lethal intent. The strategy opens a new chapter in the escalating use of remote-controlled and semi-autonomous devices to fight crime and protect lives. It also raises new questions over when it's appropriate to dispatch a robot to kill dangerous suspects instead of continuing to negotiate their surrender.

Dallas police respond after shots were fired during a protest over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Dallas. Snipers opened fire on police officers during protests; several officers were killed, police said. Dallas police respond after shots were fired during a protest over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Dallas. Snipers opened fire on police officers during protests; several officers were killed, police said. When Dallas police used a bomb-carrying robot to kill a sniper, they also kicked off an ethical debate about technology's use as a crime-fighting weapon.

The use of a robot by Dallas police to kill a gunman after he'd shot a number of police officers appears to have been the first time U.S. law enforcement intentionally used a robot lethally, experts said. Dallas officials said Friday that officers decided to use a bomb-disposal robot jury-rigged with C-4 explosives after negotiating with the suspect for several hours and then exchanging gunfire with him.

For more than 30 years, Gibbs has advised on and developed product and service marketing for many businesses and he has consulted, lectured, and authored numerous articles and books. So the UK has just given itself a national headache. Whether you think the Brexit was the right decision or a dangerous and unmitigated screw-up (as I do), the consequences of the referendum will be non-trivial and take years to complete. But the mechanics of the UK exiting the European Union aside, the question of how people now feel about the Brexit is interesting. Are they awash in jubilation or has buyer's remorse set in?

This week, self-driving Tesla had a fatal crash. Other than that – a lot about robots, can AI create an art, cloning animals and more! Ray Kurzweil and people like him believe the Singularity is just behind the corner and promise the new perfect world. They are very optimistic about the future. But sometimes you should listen to the other side to better understand the problem or vision.

After sniper fire struck 12 police officers at a rally in downtown Dallas, killing five, police cornered a single suspect in a parking garage. After a prolonged exchange of gunfire and a five-hour-long standoff, police made what experts say was an unprecedented decision: to send in a police robot, jury-rigged with a bomb. "We saw no other option but to use our bomb robot and place a device on its extension for it to detonate where the suspect was," Dallas Police Chief David Brown told a news conference Friday. "Other options would have exposed our officers to grave danger. The suspect is deceased as a result of detonating the bomb."