It's my first day "mindfiling," and I guess that's the sort of maturity you'd expect from a healthy 28-year-old considering his mortality. Mindfiling is a practice from the techno-religious faith movement Terasem, which celebrates personal cyberconsciousness. Its motto is "life is purposeful, death is optional, God is technological, love is essential." Mindfiling is a central daily act of uploading data about yourself to be stored until the resulting model of your mind and consciousness can be reconstructed and uploaded into an artificial body. It may be an act best understood in light of Ray Kurzweil's 2005 book The Singularity Is Near, in which he predicted A.I. would replicate and even outstrip human intelligence by the 2020s.

UK and EU governments are throwing themselves on the proverbial tram track that is AI ethical standards. The European Commission (EC) has already drafted some laws to regulate the use of AI, but reports suggest it'll take up to a year to actually get them in place. Right now, we're amid the crossfire in the AI badlands. The law is seemingly being pushed aside while new AI applications are established all over, wholly unregulated. According to Reuters (via AI News), two lawmakers involved with the EU's proceedings said the debate is tied up on whether facial recognition should be banned, and over who has the right to preside over the rules, and keep the AI in check.It's a similar situation in the US where there is still no federal regulation of artifical intelligency, but there is reportedly some US AI regulation "on the horizon." It will apparently take a different form, however, where the detailed framework the EC has proposed is exchanged for an agency-by-agency approach.The previous draft from the European Commission established some classifications for AI, depending on the level of risk that each system might pose to us as a species. These range from 'limited risk systems' such as chatbots and spam filters, right up to those of 'unacceptable risk'—i.e. anything exploitative, manipulative, or that might "conduct real-time biometric authentication in public spaces for law enforcement."That all sounds very Orwellian, but when we've got DeepMind training AIs to control nuclear fusion, you'd think facial recognition would be the least of our worries.'High risk' AI systems will be required to undergo heavy vetting, and be on some tight reigns in order to operate within the law. Regulations could include anything from human oversight, to mandatory risk management systems, or government registration. Any system deemed high risk will likely require some intense record keeping and logging, in case anything goes awry, and potentially for full disclosure of such records transparency to users.It seems at least that video game AI is poised for inclusion in the limited risk category, but who knows whether that will get bumped up a rung once everyone bails on reality, and makes the exodus into the metaverse.

There's a strand of thinking, from sci-fi films to Stephen Hawking that suggests artificial intelligence (AI) could spell doom for humans. But conservationists are increasingly turning to AI as an innovative tech solution to tackle the biodiversity crisis and mitigate climate change. From camera trap and satellite images to audio recordings, the report notes: "AI can learn how to identify which photos out of thousands contain rare species; or pinpoint an animal call out of hours of field recordings – hugely reducing the manual labour required to collect vital conservation data." AI is helping to protect species as diverse as humpback whales, koalas and snow leopards, supporting the work of scientists, researchers and rangers in vital tasks, from anti-poaching patrols to monitoring species. With machine learning (ML) computer systems that use algorithms and models to learn, understand and adapt, AI is often able to do the job of hundreds of people, getting faster, cheaper and more effective results.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and robots often seem like fun science fiction, but in fact already affect our daily lives. For example, services like Google and Amazon help us find what we want by using AI. Every aspect of how Facebook works is based on AI and Machine Learning (ML). The reason your phone is so useful is it is full of AI -- sensing, acting, and learning about you. All these tools not only make us smarter, their intelligence is based partly on what they learn both from us and about us when we use them.

When most people think about the longevity of their professions, they tend to think that, one day, robots will probably replace them. Blockchain, AI, and numerous other disruptive technologies are on the rise, so the amount of human labor required for a task is going to continually diminish. That being said, in order to properly consider one's future, one should look at both the threats and opportunities. In fact, the latter may even provide contingency plans to the former. Let's start by dealing with fear using our robot example.

Rules governing the use of artificial intelligence across the EU will likely take over a year to be agreed upon. Last year, the European Commission drafted AI laws. While the US and China are set to dominate AI development with their vast resources, economic might, and light-touch regulation, European rivals – including the UK and EU members – believe they can lead in ethical standards. In the draft of the EU regulations, companies that are found guilty of AI misuse face a fine of €30 million or six percent of their global turnover (whichever is greater). The risk of such fines has been criticised as driving investments away from Europe. The EU's draft AI regulation classifies systems into three risk categories: Unacceptable risk systems will face a blanket ban from deployment in the EU while limited risk will require minimal oversight.

Can humanity, which flourished when it was Homo Sapiens and move to the top of the chain, be dominated in the future by more advanced beings it has built? According to Yuval Noah Harari, it is possible to understand artificial intelligence through 2 concepts. To him, intelligence is our problem-solving ability. Our consciousness means our ability to feel things. In artificial intelligence, the intelligence part is done, but the consciousness part is missing.

In the not too distant past, many were convinced that Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Learning (ML) would not substantially change the practice of law. The legal profession was considered to be -- by its very nature -- requiring specialist skills and nuanced judgment that only humans could provide and would therefore be immune to the disruptive changes brought about by the digital transformation. However, the application of ML technology in the legal sector is now increasingly mainstream, particularly as a tool to save time for lawyers and provide a richer analysis of ever-larger datasets to aid legal decision-making in judicial systems throughout the world. One key area of ML application in judicial systems is in "predictive justice". This involves using ML algorithms that perform a probabilistic analysis of any given particular legal dispute using case law precedents.

With help from machine learning software, computer scientists may have unmasked the identity of Q, the founder of the QAnon movement. In a sprawling report published on Saturday, The New York Times shared the findings of two independent teams of forensic linguists who claim they've identified Paul Furber, a South African software developer who was one of the first to draw attention to the conspiracy theory, as the original writer behind Q. They say Arizona congressional candidate Ron Watkins also wrote under the pseudonym, first by collaborating with Furber and then later taking over the account when it eventually moved to post on his father's 8chan message board. The two teams of Swiss and French researchers used different methodologies to come to the same conclusion. The Swiss one, made up of two researchers from startup OrphAnalytics, used software to break down Q's missives into patterns of three-character sequences.

Artificial intelligence in Human Resources is the greatest, right? It can screen thousands of applications in nanoseconds and narrow the field just to the types of people with whom you've had success in the past, right? It won't know whether an applicant is a man or a woman, good-looking or homely, or white, Black, or Latino, so it will protect you against discrimination claims. We-ell, AI can be great, but it isn't perfect. If you're using AI to perform hiring functions -- and especially if you're using it for other HR functions, such as promotion decisions, performance management, or discipline and discharge -- you'll need to be careful.