As any commuter can tell you, everyday driving is often tedious, and being a passenger can be doubly so. Now imagine combining the worst of both worlds: a driver's need to focus on blisteringly dull traffic while simply being a passenger most of the time. That mix is the next step in autonomous vehicles, coming to a forecourt near you soon. The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) uses a six-level classification scheme for vehicle autonomy. Level 0 is no automation.

Imagine you're an evil genius in the style of a James Bond villain. You've got a hundred million dollars or so burning a hole in your pocket, and you're looking to cause some destruction. You want to know your options. Greg Allen (@Gregory_C_Allen) is a George Leadership Fellow at Harvard Kennedy School and Harvard Business School. He previously worked on space and robotics issues at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy.

There are a lot of conspiracy theories about robots taking over our jobs or killing the humanity. In fact, famous physicist Professor Stephan Hawking agrees with researchers who claim AI robots will leave humanity ''Utterly Defenceless.'' Now, researchers at IOActive, a cyber security company has revealed that [Pdf] programs which "bring them (robots) to life" carry critical vulnerabilities which can be used by threat actors for negative purposes. The development of artificial intelligence (AI) robots is on the rise. Last year, IBM developed Ross – World's first AI lawyer and plans are to license it for being utilized in domains like bankruptcy, restructuring and creditors' rights team.

Abu Khayr al-Masri was killed in Syria on Thursday. Abdullah Muhammad Rajab Abd Al-Rahman, better known by his alias Abu Khayr al-Masri, a 59-year-old Egyptian and a longtime top member of al-Qaida, was killed in an American drone strike in Syria, the terrorist group confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The al-Qaida statement said he died in a "treacherous" drone strike it described as a "new crime by America and the crusader coalition," according to Reuters. A Hellfire missile fired by a CIA drone struck the car carrying Abu Khayr al-Masri in Idlib, Syria, on Sunday, Reuters reported. The attack was also reported by CNN, The New York Times, and The Guardian.

Symantec has announced the formation of a new venture arm, Symantec Ventures, to help cybersecurity startups make the transition from ideas to profits. On Thursday, the antivirus software provider said Symantec Ventures will not only provide funding to startups, but will aim to "help the startup community reduce expenses and accelerate time to market." Entrepreneurs tapped by the new venture capital arm will be given not only cash but access to Symantec technology including the Integrated Cyber Defense Platform for enterprises and the Digital Safety Platform for consumers, depending on the focus of the startup. The cybersecurity firm has also promised startups access to threat intelligence data which can be used for product testing, validation, machine learning algorithm training and AI system creation. "This kind of data can be expensive and sometimes impossible for a startup to obtain access," Symantec notes.

Use of Machine Learning (ML) is a hot topic in cybersecurity, one which will undoubtedly shape the industry for years to come. To see evidence of this we'd have to look no further than the booths at this most recent RSA Security Conference, where ML was promised as a solution for corporate cybersecurity problems. But why exactly will ML play such a prominent role, and how could it prove useful? Oddly enough the answer comes from the recent victory of ML in a game of poker. A competition took place in Pittsburgh last month that matched top poker players against a Machine Learning system called Libratus.

Upskilling is hard and even though this is the case, the last few years have seen a big increase in the number of people teaching themselves to code, or brushing up on their data science skills, in order to better position themselves and their companies for the future. Managers and employees in almost every industry, and even the Prime Minister, has recognised that to keep pace with a rapidly evolving world, they need to develop new skills tailored to emerging technologies. So what are the skills really needed in the next few years? Artificial Intelligence (AI) can give meaning to data patterns in minutes; humans can take days. Already big in corporate firms, the harnessing of AI to cut down on tasks is growing in popularity and is already a part of daily life for many people.

As excitement (and panic) about the opportunities and threats of emerging technologies spreads into boardrooms across the world, it is worth considering that it is not just the technologies themselves which are disruptive. Indeed the bursting of the tech bubble in 2000 taught us that the technologies themselves are vulnerable to issues of scaling and adoption. Furthermore, of the key emerging technologies we have identified: 3D Printing, Advanced Robotics, Artificial Intelligence, Internet of Things and Virtual Reality, some of them have been around in some shape or form for some time. What is different now to 2000, and means the impact of technology is truly disruptive on a large and wide scale, is that we now have the business model enablers to drive the technology through a business. These business model enablers mean we now have access to the funding, platforms, processing power, software, and data to turn the technology into useful, scalable solutions.

Scientists have begun actively preparing for the end of the world. A group of experts met in the Arizona desert to discuss potential nightmare scenarios that could take place in the future and how humanity might handle them, Bloomberg reported Thursday. Funded by Tesla co-founder Elon Musk and Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn, the meeting was comprised of 40 scientists, policy analysts and cyber security experts. The group was tasked with coming up with increasingly likely "doomsday scenarios." "There is huge potential for AI (artificial intelligence) to transform so many aspects of our society in so many ways. At the same time, there are rough edges and potential downsides, like any technology," Eric Horvitz, an artificial intelligence scientist and the co-organizer of the meeting, told Bloomberg.

Artificial intelligence is slowly infiltrating every aspect of our world, from business, to education, to the government, to our homes. While the rise of AI has made life more efficient in many ways, it's not immune to the occasional blunder. Humans aren't perfect, and neither are machines. Related: Is Your Startup Ready for Artificial Intelligence? While AI is meant to solve our problems, it sometimes creates new ones.