This week it became more clear than ever that the Apple-FBI fight was just the beginning of a new wave of encryption fights. Vibes announced that it would enable encryption by default for its 700 million users--and since it's a foreign company, Congress won't be able to do a thing about it. Oh, and that San Bernadino iPhone that caused all the fuss? Sounds like the FBI paid over a million bucks to a third party to access it. There were also hearings about encryption on Capitol Hill this week, though whatever legislation Congress does come up with would be much more informed if the Office of Technology Assessment hadn't been axed 20 years ago.

Editor's note: Digital Trends has partnered with WebVisions, the internationally recognized design, technology and user-experience conference, to help bring luminary Douglas Rushkoff to this year's event in Portland, Oregon. As part of our partnership, we're also pleased to feature select content from WebVisions' insightful blog, Word. This week, contributor Mark Wyner wonders how we go about teaching artificial intelligence right from wrong. Twitter has admitted that as many as 23 million (8.5 percent) of its user accounts are autonomous Twitterbots. Many are there to increase productivity, conduct research, or even have some fun.

A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live.

As the world celebrated Earth Day on Friday, a team led by an Indian-origin researcher has found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to protect the Earth's endangered animals and forests by outwitting poachers with technology. With support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Army Research Office, researchers are using AI and game theory to solve poaching, illegal logging and other problems worldwide, in collaboration with researchers and conservationists in the US, Singapore, the Netherlands and Malaysia. "This research is a step in demonstrating that AI can have a really significant positive impact on society and allow us to assist humanity in solving some of the major challenges we face," said Milind Tambe, professor of computer science and industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). "In most parks, ranger patrols are poorly planned, reactive rather than pro-active and habitual," said Fei Fang, PhD candidate from the University of Southern California (USC). Fang is part of an NSF-funded team at USC led by Tambe who is also director of the Teamcore Research Group on Agents and Multiagent Systems.

As the world celebrated Earth Day on Friday, a team led by an Indian-origin researcher has found a way to use artificial intelligence (AI) to protect the Earth's endangered animals and forests by outwitting poachers with technology. With support from the US National Science Foundation (NSF) and the US Army Research Office, researchers are using AI and game theory to solve poaching, illegal logging and other problems worldwide, in collaboration with researchers and conservationists in the US, Singapore, the Netherlands and Malaysia. "This research is a step in demonstrating that AI can have a really significant positive impact on society and allow us to assist humanity in solving some of the major challenges we face," said Milind Tambe, professor of computer science and industrial and systems engineering at the University of Southern California (USC). "In most parks, ranger patrols are poorly planned, reactive rather than pro-active and habitual," said Fei Fang, PhD candidate from the University of Southern California (USC). Fang is part of an NSF-funded team at USC led by Tambe who is also director of the Teamcore Research Group on Agents and Multiagent Systems.

A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live.

Robots are increasingly becoming more important. Not only are they being used in areas such as medicine, agriculture and manufacturing, they are now also capable of driving cars and piloting drones. However, their increasing use and expanding capabilities have significant implications. On 21 April Parliament's legal affairs committee held a hearing to discuss with experts the issues involved, such as safety, liability and risk management. More and more appliances are now able to operate interactively and autonomously to some extent.

Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion on all things Apple, Steve Wozniak has now waded into the debate about the firm's tax affairs. Apple's co-founder believes all companies, including the one he started with the late Steve Jobs and Ronald Wayne in 1976, should pay a 50 per cent tax rate as he did. Apple has been criticised over its tax affairs and accused of using tax shelters in order to protect its revenues. Never one to shy away from expressing his opinion on all things Apple, Steve Wozniak (pictured) has now waded into the debate about the firm's tax affairs. Apple's co-founder said he believes all companies, including the one he started in 1976, should pay a 50 per cent tax rate as he did In particular, the firm has been accused of using Ireland and Luxembourg to get tax breaks, allegations being investigated by the European Commission.

San Diego Brayan Valle was looking to buy some marijuana. When he reached out to a business associate of his uncle's, a drug connection, Valle became involved in a much more serious -- and novel -- offense. Rather than sell him the marijuana, the associate asked for Valle's help to smuggle drugs over the U.S.-Mexico border by drone. The case signals the first drone drug-smuggling seizure along the Southwest border. On Thursday, Valle, now 21, was sentenced to three years in prison for his role in operating the drone remote control and loading up 30 pounds of heroin dropped into a Calexico-area field on April 28.

There has been much discussion and debate about the definition of data science and the new rare breed of sexy bird called the data scientist. The Data Science Association defines "Data Science" as the scientific study of the creation, validation and transformation of data to create meaning; and the "Data Scientist" as a professional who uses scientific methods to liberate and create meaning from raw data. While these definitions may appear overbroad, think about the definitions of a lawyer or physician. A lawyer is a legal professional who can help prevent or solve legal issues and a physician is a health professional who can help prevent or cure health issues. Like the professionalization of law and medicine in the past hundred years, data science is at the very beginning of becoming a profession - with competency standards and a Data Science Code of Professional Conduct.