The UK has a shot at leading the world in artificial intelligence and robotics governance, if not for Brexit. Britain's impending exit from the EU has cast doubts over crucial legal provisions for AI and robots, according to the results of an inquiry by the British parliament published today (Oct. To date, companies that stand to benefit from AI developments have so far been the ones leading the development of ethical guidelines around AI and robotics. Governments have been left behind, although the White House has also released its own, long awaited report on AI's impact today. The Science and Technology Committee of the House of Commons, the British parliament's lower chamber, published its report after six months of gathering evidence from academics, companies like Google DeepMind and Microsoft, and experts on AI and robotics in general.

Artificial intelligence continues to have its moment in the spotlight, with a surge of interest in startups and efforts from huge tech companies to push the boundaries of how we might best use machine learning, computer vision and other areas of AI in the future. The latest development on that front comes from China's Huawei, which today announced that it would form a research partnership with UC Berkeley focused on AI, and fund it to the initial tune of 1 million. The alliance, between Huawei's Noah's Ark Laboratory and Berkeley Artificial Intelligence Research (BAIR), is being billed as a "strategic partnership into basic research", and it will cover areas like deep learning, reinforcement learning, machine learning, natural language processing and computer vision. "The two parties believe that this strategic partnership will fuel the advancement of AI technology and create completely new experiences for people, thus contributing greatly to society at large," Huawei notes. Some of these areas of AI you will have heard a lot about already.

How do most referral processes begin again? "Hey, Fred, may I ask you a question? Did you find value in our conversation today? If so, I strive to bring value to others in the same way, so would you be willing to give me the names of 3 people you feel could benefit as well?" That script is in every referral textbook.

Science fiction is slowly becoming science fact, claims science and technology committee. The UK is not well prepared for how artificial intelligence (AI) and robots will fundamentally reshape the way people live and work, lawmakers have warned in a report. The Science and Technology Committee urged the government to establish a commission for examining the social, ethical and legal implications of recent and potential developments in AI and robots. The committee's interim chairwoman Tania Mathias said: "At present, 'AI machines' have narrow and specific roles, such as in voice-recognition or playing the board game'Go'. "But science fiction is slowly becoming science fact, and robotics and AI look destined to play an increasing role in our lives over the coming decades." The report cited driverless cars, supercomputers that help with medical diagnoses, and intelligent tutoring systems as examples of areas where AI is transforming day to day life, raising questions on the transparency of AI decision-making and privacy. It also noted that the government's leadership in AI has been lacking even though UK-startups and universities have made huge contributions to the field from a technological point of view. Mathias said: "Some major technology companies – including Google and Amazon – have recently come together to form the'Partnership on AI'.

This meet-up is the annual Technology Conference for North Carolina's professionals in Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, and Information Management. It will feature exhibits and educational sessions from industry thought leaders, looking at innovation, trends, and best practices in information governance, workflow, Big Data analytics, artificial intelligence, and enterprise content management (ECM). Doculabs VP and Practice Leader Joe Shepley will be speaking on the topic "Information Capture Advancements and Artificial Intelligence in Banking, Healthcare, and Manufacturing." His focus will be on Doculabs' work consulting for clients in each of these industries and how they are using information management and ECM to improve their business processes.

Artificial intelligence experts are divided over the threat of superintelligent computers. One group argues that even though these machines may be decades or centuries away, the scale of the catastrophe they could cause is so great, we should take action now to prevent them from taking over the world and killing everyone. Another group dismisses the fear of superintelligent computers as speculative and premature, and prefers to focus on existing and near-future AI. In fact, though, these two sides may have more common ground than they think. It's not necessary to choose between focusing on long-term and short-term AI threats, when there are actions we can take now to simultaneously address both.

Washington: I read the news. Barely a day goes by when I don't read about some advance in cyborg technology. There's the Stanford engineer who's just invented a way to safely transfer energy to biomechanical implants. A University of California-San Francisco team won a grant to build brain implants to fight depression and PTSD. There's a man who can hear colours, thanks to a mechanical implant.

Under President Obama's leadership, America continues to be the world's most innovative country, with the greatest potential to develop the industries of the future and harness science and technology to help address important challenges. Over the past 8 years, President Obama has relentlessly focused on building U.S. capacity in science and technology. This Thursday, President Obama will host the White House Frontiers Conference in Pittsburgh to imagine the Nation and the world in 50 years and beyond, and to explore America's potential to advance towards the frontiers that will make the world healthier, more prosperous, more equitable, and more secure. Today, to ready the United States for a future in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a growing role, the White House is releasing a report on future directions and considerations for AI called Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence. This report surveys the current state of AI, its existing and potential applications, and the questions that progress in AI raise for society and public policy.

A UK parliamentary committee has urged the government to act proactively -- and to act now -- to tackle "a host of social, ethical and legal questions" arising from the rise of autonomous technologies such as artificial intelligence. "While it is too soon to set down sector-wide regulations for this nascent field, it is vital that careful scrutiny of the ethical, legal and societal dimensions of artificially intelligent systems begins now," says the committee. "Not only would this help to ensure that the UK remains focused on developing'socially beneficial' AI systems, it would also represent an important step towards fostering public dialogue about, and trust in, such systems over time." The committee kicked off an enquiry into AI and robotics this March, going on to take 67 written submissions and hear from 12 witnesses in person, in addition to visiting Google DeepMind's London office. Publishing its report into robotics and AI today, the Science and Technology committee flags up several issues that it says need "serious, ongoing consideration" -- including: "[W]itnesses were clear that the ethical and legal matters raised by AI deserved attention now and that suitable governance frameworks were needed," it notes in the report.

After publishing my recent article, Must-read Articles on Artificial Intelligence, in which I've shared my thoughts and concerns about AI, some have asked for more.