An Associated Press investigation finds that Russian cyber spies exploiting a national vulnerability in cybersecurity are trying to break into the emails of scores of people working on military drone technology.

Uber uses a master algorithm to determine how much money its drivers make--and women are ending up with less. The gap: In a study released today of over 1.8 million drivers on the platform, women were found to earn $1.24 per hour less than men. Women also earned $130 less per week on average, in part because they tend to drive fewer hours. All of these are variables in the formula Uber uses to calculate driver wages, and the study showed they all tilted in men's favor (the study claims men earn $21.28 an hour, on average). Women also have higher turnover on the platform, and more experienced drivers tend to get higher pay.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is more than just robots. It's a set of tools and programs that makes software smarter in such a way that an outside observer thinks the output is generated by a human. We believe AI will be a significant driver in automation, having far-reaching implications in many industries, ranging from e-commerce to agriculture.

In theory, the only technology capable of hacking a system run by artificial intelligence is another, more powerful AI system. That's one reason why the U.S. Army incorporated a powerful AI capabilities into its drone systems that is expected to provide the ultimate cybersecurity -- at least, for now. "It's an arms race," said Walter O'Brien, CEO of Scorpion Computer Services, whose AI system runs and protects the Army's UAV operations. "Now I have an AI protecting the data center, and now the enemy would have to have an AI to attack my AI, and now it's which AI is smarter."

South Korea is deploying a fleet of drone-catching drones to bolster security at this month's 2018 Winter Olympics. Police will use the drones to drop nets on dangerous-looking unmanned aerial vehicles approaching the Olympics grounds in Pyeongchang. The Games, which start Friday, are expected to draw 35,000 spectators, with a host of world leaders including US Vice President Mike Pence set to attend. Officials are concerned that terrorists could use rogue flying machines to disrupt the two-week event by carrying bombs toward crowd members or athletes. South Korea is deploying a fleet of drone-catch drones to bolster its security at this month's 2018 Winter Olympics.

EHang has been talking about its 184 passenger drone for ages, but there's been a curious absence of footage showing manned flights. Thankfully, it's rectifying that situation: the company has posted a video showing the EHang 184 in action through a series of manned tests. The clip shows both single- and double-seat models going through the paces, including extreme conditions such as typhoon-level winds, intense maneuvers and high-altitude climbs. The vehicle does have controls (which are supposed to be simple), but the allure is that you can simply pick a flight path and have the drone do the heavy lifting. This is a heavily edited clip, of course, so it's only going to portray the EHang 184 in the best possible light.

By now, the form factor of a drone like this should be pretty familiar--four blades, a couple antennas, a whole pile of sensors, and a controller that links up with your phone to command the whole thing. The Air uses a collapsible form factor like the 1.6-pound Mavic Pro, but weighs just 15-ounces and is about the size of three or four iPhone 8 Plus devices stacked on top of one another. Unlike the Mavic Pro, however, the Air takes its commands via Wi-Fi instead of radio frequency. This may be something many consumers wouldn't even notice without looking at the spec sheet, but it does have an effect on the flight. Syncing it up, for instance, can be a little finicky if you're in the vicinity of other familiar Wi-Fi networks.

Police said up to 100 vehicles were involved in several accidents on Sunday due to the icy road conditions.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that a state House panel has advanced legislation that would give people the ability to stop drone flights near their homes and bar sex offenders from taking pictures of people with drones.

A little over a year ago, we wrote about some clumsy-looking but really very clever research from Vijay Kumar's lab at the University of Pennsylvania. That project showed how small drones with just protective cages and simple sensors can handle obstacles by simply running into them, bouncing around a bit, and then moving on. The idea is that you don't have to bother with complex sensors when hitting obstacles just doesn't matter, which bees figured out about a hundred million years ago. Over the past year, Yash Mulgaonkar, Anurag Makineni, and Luis Guerrero-Bonilla (all in Kumar's lab) have come up with a bunch of different ways in which smashing into obstacles can actually be a good and useful thing. From making maps to increased agility to (mostly) on purpose payload deployment, running into stuff and bouncing off again can somehow do it all.