Yesterday, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration's new drone rules went into effect. While many drone enthusiasts were pleased to see some long-awaited progress on this front, the folks at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), a privacy advocacy organization in Washington, D.C., don't count in that group. They've been wrangling in court with the FAA over the lack of privacy safeguards in the new regulations--an issue that has dogged drone regulation for years. EPIC's lawyers contend that the FAA hasn't lived up to the mandate Congress set for it back in 2012 to create "comprehensive" regulations for the use of small drones. After all, how comprehensive can any set of drone regulations be if they ignore privacy issues? When EPIC first petitioned the courts back in February, the judge's response was that such objections were premature, given that the FAA had merely presented proposed regulations, not final ones.

There is no question that, by their very nature, artificial intelligence (AI) systems are more complex than traditional software systems where the parameters were built in and largely understandable. It was relatively clear how the older rules-based expert systems made decisions. In contrast, machine learning allows AI systems to continually adjust and improve based on experience. Now different outcomes are more likely to originate from obscure changes in how variables are weighted in computer models. This has led some critics to claim that this complexity will result in systemic "algorithmic bias" that enables government and corporate abuse.

The study involved a self-learning artificial intelligence system, GloVe. It has the ability to read and interpret online text. "We replicate these using a widely used, purely statistical machine-learning model--namely, the GloVe word embedding--trained on a corpus of text from the Web," reads the study. But when researchers offered GloVe a list of white and black-sounding names, the robot went absolutely racist! The intelligent system identified names that are common among white people as "pleasant", while African-American names were categorized as "unpleasant" words. "Our results indicate that language itself contains recoverable and accurate imprints of our historic biases," the researchers told RNS.

Global law firm Reed Smith has teamed up with UK-based legal AI company, RAVN Systems, in further proof of the growing demand for AI technology in the legal sector. So far the US-based firm has completed a successful pilot of RAVN's cognitive engine, which is primarily used for analysing documents and extracting key information, often at far higher speeds and levels of accuracy than teams of junior lawyers and paralegals could normally achieve. The 1,700-lawyer firm will now start using the RAVN cognitive engine in actual client work. This latest partnering between a major law firm and an AI company is further proof of the growing demand and interest in the legal community for AI applications. Other law firms that RAVN publicly acknowledges it works with, or has recently worked with, include: BLP, Dentons, CMS and DLA Piper.

Maryland's Office of the Public Defender has asked the Baltimore Police Department to stop filming citizens from the sky until the public is briefed on the program and defense attorneys are given access to the footage. The public defender also wants to know how evidence gathered by the recently disclosed aerial surveillance program has been stored, accessed and used in the prosecution of criminal defendants. The office said the program should be shelved until there are "in-depth conversations" about how it works, and police should stop analyzing footage unless they have "prior judicial authorization in the form of a search warrant or equivalent court order." Baltimore Deputy Public Defender Natalie Finegar made those requests in letters delivered Monday to Police Commissioner Kevin Davis and Baltimore State's Attorney Marilyn J. Mosby. "We are requesting that this surveillance program be suspended until such time as public hearings can be held and a clear avenue of discovery and access to data by defense attorneys is established," Finegar wrote to Davis.

Facebook created an "empathy lab" where engineers can test products using accessibility tools such as braille readers or eye tracking devices. In the 1980s and 1990s, there was a standard view of how we would interact with a personal computer: we were sitting at a desk, with a monitor, a keyboard and a mouse. Today, computing is very different. We still use desktops, but we also have laptops, tablet computers, smart phones, and some of us even have wearable computers such as the Apple Watch. And that "we" includes people with disabilities, who are a part of this rich, flexible world of computing but access it differently.

The following is a Guest Post written by Zeev Fisher, CEO of Pekama, the legal project management company. From Microsoft to Google, from Facebook to smaller players like Telegram, there are many companies making bots that will talk to you and provide useful information, or guide you through a process. When I talk to lawyers about bots, I can see right away how the sceptical expressions that I normally encounter when talking about technology transform into true horror. 'A robot that will write to our clients? That won't happen,' they say.

NAIROBI – Japanese and African leaders on Sunday pledged to fight terrorism and emphasized the importance of rule-based maritime order as they wrapped up a Japan-led international conference on the continent's development. In the Nairobi Declaration adopted at the Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD), the leaders also agreed to promote investment in infrastructure that leads to job creation in the fast-growing region. The sixth TICAD, convened in the Kenyan capital, Nairobi, was held outside Japan for the first time, as Tokyo seeks to strengthen its economic and political presence in the continent amid China's increasing influence. In the declaration, the leaders said they will seek to maintain maritime order based on rules, and strengthen security and safety at sea by international and regional cooperation in accordance with international law. The reference to maritime security comes as tensions remain high in the South China and East China seas amid China's growing assertiveness.

This is a Guest Post written by pricing expert, Richard Burcher, Managing Director of Validatum about how to avoid the trap of seeing efficiency combined with hourly billing result in margin erosion, and instead to use AI to increase productivity and boost law firm income. The article was written ahead of a Validatum conference this summer at the offices of CMS Cameron McKenna in London and the survey data below is from that audience. We have been thinking about AI from a pricing perspective for some time, so earlier this week we picked up that theme for the latest bi-monthly Validatum Pricing Forum. We were a little surprised (pleasantly) at the numbers (35) given what we thought was the relatively niche title of the session: 'The perfect pricing storm; artificial intelligence and hourly billing.' We took the opportunity to poll the audience with several live on-screen and anonymous questions, the results for which took us by surprise.

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