Billions of dollars are being poured into building sophisticated artificial intelligence algorithms. But they could all be snatched away if even a tiny door is left open. Researchers have shown that given access to only an API, a way to remotely use software without having it on your computer, it's possible to reverse-engineer machine learning algorithms with up to 99% accuracy. In the real world, this would mean being able to steal AI products from companies like Microsoft and IBM, and use them for free. Small companies built around a single machine learning API could lose any competitive advantage.

With a little personal shopping assistance, Operator thinks Chinese citizens will pounce on American products sold through its conversational shopping app. The promise of becoming the guided commerce layer connecting China with the US has earned the two-year-old a 15 million series B round at a 100 million pre-money valuation. "We're making commerce borderless", Operator CEO Robin Chan told me. GGV Capital, which specializes in US-China startups, led the round and its partner Hans Tung will become a board observer. Tung praised Operator's "mass-market-first approach" and its understanding of "the value of creating a global company from the start" rather than trying to bolt China onto an app built for the US.

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

As I drift through the lobby of the Nautilus, a derelict spaceship I've found myself stranded on, the shipboard AI starts playing music. I see a terminal across from me in the room. I go to it, and Event[0], out now for PC, starts revealing itself to me. Developed by an independent team called Ocelot Society, Event[0] wants you to talk to it. The terminal has a real-time typing interface and a conversation partner in the form of that shipboard AI.

We eat, breathe and sleep artificial intelligence; it truly is running the world as we know it! Now, it's the turn of education; an industry that has been somewhat left behind in recent years. This however, is set to change. We've all read countless articles on how artificial intelligence is stealing our jobs, so surely something must be done to counteract this? Artificial intelligence and automation are now beginning to enter the workplace at a more graduate level and so it's about time that universities rethink what they're doing and how they're doing it; that is to equip graduates with the ability to work effectively alongside artificial intelligence.

What do a creative coder, a data visualist and an orchestra composer have in common? "Symphonologie: the Music of Business", which is described as a symphonic experience, was created by Accenture Strategy to combine human insight and artificial intelligence. The work had its debut inside the Louvre Pyramid in Paris on Tuesday, where it was performed by a 50-piece orchestra. The orchestral work harnessed algorithms that analyzed consumer sentiments on selected business topics, such as cyber security and the Internet of Things (IoT). The sentiments were then translated into melodic patterns that comprised the musical portion of the show.

With rising security challenges in the global commons, there is growing interest in the subject of "intelligent" weapons systems. This is especially so in the maritime realm, where recent studies have shown that precision-guided weaponry and networked systems are likely to play an increasingly important role. Even while accepting autonomous systems as the future of maritime warfare, however, many find the subject of "intelligent weapon systems" to be deeply contentious. A good point of departure for the discussion on autonomous combat systems is a recent report in the Chinese media about the development of a family of cruise missiles with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities. In August this year, a Chinese daily reported that China's aerospace industry was developing tactical missiles with inbuilt intelligence that would help seek out targets in combat.

In the first post of this series, I've written my thoughts about the rise of Artificial Intelligence, and how it will serve as an enabler for ever greater progress. In this one, I deal with its (hopefully) short-term implications. As we've seen, despite all current impressive technological advancements, jobs and professions that call for increased inventiveness and creativity, will remain under human control in the foreseeable future. Even more so for jobs where emotions and empathy play a great role. The same cannot be said for the kind of job, whether manual or mental, that requires little or no creativity.

For children with speech and language disorders, early-childhood intervention can make a great difference in their later academic and social success. But many such children--one study estimates 60 percent--go undiagnosed until kindergarten or even later. Researchers at the Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory at MIT and Massachusetts General Hospital's Institute of Health Professions hope to change that, with a computer system that can automatically screen young children for speech and language disorders and, potentially, even provide specific diagnoses. This week, at the Interspeech conference on speech processing, the researchers reported on an initial set of experiments with their system, which yielded promising results. "We're nowhere near finished with this work," says John Guttag, the Dugald C. Jackson Professor in Electrical Engineering and senior author on the new paper.

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