AI research needs to be done in the open - Google chair

Research on machine learning and artificial intelligence needs to be done in the open and not by military research labs, Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google's parent Alphabet has said. Mr Schmidt was speaking at the RSA Conference in San Francisco on Wednesday. Some 40,000 security professionals have been attending the event this week. Security threats discussed at hundreds of sessions include the Russian hacking of the Democratic National Committee in advance of the US presidential election last year, as well as threats to business, to government and to internet-connected devices. In conversation with journalist Gideon Lewis-Kraus, Mr Schmidt said machine learning capabilities, which allow computers to learn without being programmed, needed to be done in the open and not by military research labs.