The internet was supposed to become an overwhelming democratizing force against illiberal administrations. It was supposed to open repressed citizens eyes, expose them to new democratic ideals and help them rise up against their authoritarian governments in declaring their basic human rights. It was supposed to be inherently resistant to centralized control. In fact, in many countries, the internet, the very thing that was supposed to smash down the walls of authoritarianism like a sledgehammer of liberty, has been instead been co-opted by those very regimes in order to push their own agendas while crushing dissent and opposition. And with the emergence of conversational AI -- the technology at the heart of services like Google's Allo and Jigsaw or Intel's Hack Harassment initiative -- these governments could have a new tool to further censor their citizens.

The apocalyptic future shown in sci-fi films--the ones where robots have gain consciousness and destroy humanity--is not one you need to worry about according to a report from the United States Department of Defense. The document, produced by JASON--an independent advisory group comprised of scientists and experts that brief the government on matters of science and technology--outlines trends in the field of artificial intelligence as it pertains to the U.S. military. According to the report, most computer scientists believe the possible threats posed by AI to be "at best uninformed" and those fears "do not align with the most rapidly advancing current research directions of AI as a field." It instead says these existential fears stem from a very particular--and small--part of the field of research called Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), which is defined as an AI that can successfully perform any intellectual task that a human can. The report argues we are unlikely to see the reality of an AGI come from the current artificial intelligence research and the concept "has high visibility, disproportionate to its size or present level of success."

Scientists have teamed up in a $27 million global initiative to ensure that artificial intelligence doesn't turn against humanity. The MIT Media Lab and the Berkman Klein Center for Internet and Society at Harvard University are spearheading the effort, serving as the founding institutions. As AI becomes increasingly integral in our everyday lives, the researchers say it is necessary to bridge the gap between humans and machines, while preventing the'plagues' of society from being adopted in the process. Scientists have teamed up in a $27 million global initiative to ensure that artificial intelligence doesn't turn against humanity. The initiative, known as the Ethics and Governance of Artificial Intelligence Fund, is backed with $27 million from the Knight Foundation, LinkedIn co-founder Reid Hoffman, the Omidyar Network, the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and Jim Pallotta, founder of the Raptor Group.

Are you ready to put your organization on a path of continuous improvement using the most valuable decision support techniques? Check out Microsoft Senior Program Manager Christian Berg's timely series of essays on how to become your organization's strategic advisor using Machine Learning and Power BI, available on the Community Blog. Each post takes on a different aspect of business intelligence, and includes a how-to section to get you started creating customized solutions for your team. Most analysis in the posts is done using the R language, but Christian tries to keep any scripts generic enough that anyone can apply them to their own data even without prior hands-on R experience. The posts also share examples of how businesses use these techniques today to drive deeper insights and better outcomes across a variety of scenarios and industries.

Elon Musk was right when he said that Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems and automation will eventually take over most human jobs and, in what can be seen as a first case in India where the country's software giant Infosys has "released" 8,000-9,000 employees in the past one year because of automation of lower-end jobs, which is confirmed by the company's human resources head Krishnamurthy Shankar in a statement to ET. Notably, these released employees are now working on more advanced projects, so its not that automation or AI has stole the human jobs but it actually transforming at least in this case of Infosys. Machine learning and Artificial Intelligence previously required expensive computing machines, but costs have now come down dramatically. As part of its Automation, Artificial Intelligence and machine learning adaptation drive, the company has been releasing about 2,000 people every quarter and also training them in special courses that will help them in their new assignments. In a research report, released by Infosys itself said that the majority -- 85 percent -- plan to train employees about the benefits and use of AI, and 80 percent of companies replacing roles with AI technologies will retrain or redeploy displaced employees. The report also predicts that organizations that have already deployed or have plans to deploy AI technologies expect to see a 39 percent average increase in revenue by 2020, alongside a 37 percent reduction in costs.

I don't want to tell data scientists and AI developers what to do in any given situation. I want to give scientists and engineers tools for thinking about problems. We surely can't predict all the problems and ethical issues in advance; we need to be the kind of people who can have effective discussions about these issues as we anticipate and discover them. What are some of the ethical questions that AI developers and researchers should be thinking about? Even though we're still in the earliest days of AI, we're already seeing important issues rise to the surface: issues about the kinds of people we want to be, and the kind of future we want to build.

Artificial intelligence is nowhere near the level of sentient robots or malicious intelligences in most Hollywood blockbusters but travel trend analysts consider them as pivotal for the industry -- specifically the possible obscurity of travel agents and other "middlemen." They are expected to be key disruptors in travel distribution worldwide. The portable computers in the form of smartphones make it easy for the processing power of "AI" travel applications such as GuestU and SnapTravel to perform their task of collecting immense amounts of personal data from their users. With your permission, they will collect and analyze your personal data to anticipate your needs while in vacation. According to According to MarketWatch, artificial intelligence in travel apps would substitute concierge services by anticipating all your possible needs while travelling.

Somewhere around 1973, I watched the movie, Westworld; a science fiction story set in 1983 (that was the future then), where a robot malfunction creates havoc and terror for unsuspecting vacationers at a futuristic, adult-themed amusement park. It was one of the earlier films dealing with the issue of where you draw the line between what is real and what is not, and what could possibly go wrong. In this case, one robot (played by Yul Brynner) becomes independent of the controls embedded in the technology, which turns out to be the equivalent of a virus that ultimate affects the entire robot population, and complete mayhem breaks out. If you watch any of the HBO series, a newer version of Westworld is now playing, expanding on the idea from the original movie, but taking it even further into the area of artificial intelligence by empowering the robots with an ability to understand, reason, learn, and engage with humans as though they too are human -- making it almost impossible to tell the difference. Let's jump into our reality and think about the prospect of a work-related version of Westworld, where computers armed with artificial intelligence or machine learning, take over the human role; because that's a real fear in the mind of many people, "when will they replace me with a computer?"

The organizer of a new Ypsilanti meetup series on artificial intelligence (AI) says he'll welcome questions ranging from how to make AI work for a new business idea to "Is'Terminator' going to happen?" The series starts Tuesday, Jan. 24, at SPARK East. Organizer Adam Sypniewski says he wants the meetups to be a fun place to share ideas, foster collaborations, and address any and all machine learning-based questions. "There is this vibrant startup culture in the Ann Arbor area," Sypniewski says. "I want to meet the people who have cool ideas out there. I want to introduce them to cool ideas and hopefully have something fun happen from this." Sypniewski is an Ann Arbor resident and AI developer for Deepgram, a San Francisco-based "speech search" company that uses AI to transcribe, spot keywords, and get insights from phone calls, video footage, and online media.