On this week's Tech Tent - your weekly status update on the technology business - we have three stories reflecting our current anxieties about the nature of our digital world. We'll discuss the biggest cybersecurity threat of the moment, the use of bots in the fight to get the upper hand on social media during the US elections and the ongoing debate about the risks of artificial intelligence. This week, producer Jat Gill and I attended a demo by security firm Sophos which left us both rather scared. James Lyne from the firm played a bad guy launching an attack on a company, while two colleagues played the increasingly confused system administrators trying to work out what was going on as chaos engulfed the network. We then heard that the principle weapon in the attackers' armoury was now ransomware.

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"We need you to get out there and -- for once in your life -- focus your indiscriminate rage in a useful direction." Oliver's urging of viewers to exercise their civic rights came during the Federal Communication Commission's public comment period for the pending Net Neutrality rules in 2014, which would have a profound impact on the future development of the Internet. Within hours of the TV show host's rant, the FCC's capacity to accept public comments online crashed, highlighting just how ill-prepared the system was to handle any meaningful level of civic participation. The FCC's comment consideration schedule for Net Neutrality rules consequently was seriously delayed. Six hundred staff lawyers at the Commission subsequently spent nearly nine months to gather, divvy up, read, and categorize what eventually totaled 4 million public responses to the proposed rules, costing taxpayers an estimated 4 million.

Anki is probably better known for its OVERDRIVE set of AI-powered racing car robots. But a few months ago, the company revealed a different, less competitive, and more educational product: Cozmo. Now the robot truck with a personality is being made available for everyone to purchase, whether for fun, for learning, or simply for mucking around with advanced technologies in a playful form. Because more than just a toy, the Cozmo robot is artificial intelligence, computer vision, and development platform rolled into one, made friendly, and made more affordable. Cozmo is part child s toy and part tinkerer s toy, with both audiences being served well.

If you have questions about these projects, let us know and we'll try to get more details from the researchers. As a reminder, we'll return to normal Video Friday next week, so if you have video suggestions for us, send us an email or reach us on Twitter or Facebook.

This post is by Joseph Sirosh, Corporate Vice President of the Data Group at Microsoft. We are only 6 days away from PASS Summit 2016 (@sqlpass) which kicks off next Wednesday, October 26th, in Seattle. SQL PASS Summit (#SQLSummit, #sqlpass) is the world's largest and most intensive technical training conference for Microsoft SQL Server (@SQLServer) and BI professionals. But more than that, it's a conference – planned and presented by the SQL Server community for the SQL Server community (#sqlfamily). It has the most technical sessions, the largest number of attendees, the best networking, and the highest-rated sessions and speakers of any SQL Server event in the world.

Aurora Flight Sciences' Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automantion System (ALIAS), is mounted in the co-pilot seat of a Cessena Caravan aircraft which is preparing for take-off at Manassas Airport in Manassas, Va., Monday, Oct. 17. Government and industry are working together on a robot-like autopilot system that could eliminate the need for a second human pilot in the cockpit. But inside the cockpit, in the right seat, a robot with spindly metal tubes and rods for arms and legs and a claw hand grasping the throttle, was doing the flying. In the left seat, a human pilot tapped commands to his mute colleague using an electronic tablet. The demonstration was part of a Defense Department and industry collaboration that is attempting to replace the second human pilot in two-person flight crews with robot co-pilots that never tire, get bored, feel stressed out or become distracted.

There is a reason that Google and Yahoo were some of the earliest users of Big Data: they needed it the most to sift through the massive quantities of consumer data in order to make advertising dollars. Without Big Data, the search engines could not configure their algorithms for posting ads directly targeted at prospects. They needed to know someone just searched for "best restaurant in town" to then get ads visible for those very restaurants. However,another function was needed is joining the Big Data world with Mobility solutions: Artificial Intelligence. AI is crafting itself as an essential piece of technology by forming solutions from a wide range of data across the web and in various formats from Maps, to visual items, GEO-spacial information and subject matter expertise.

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John Dyer, Executive Director of Communications and Educational Technology at DTS, talks about the advancements of artificial intelligence and the theological and ethical implications of future development in this science.