At least four people have been killed in a Russian drone and missile attack on the Ukrainian capital. Timur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said the attack at dawn on Saturday took place in the city's centrally located Shevchenkivskyi district. "Stay in shelters," said Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, in a post on Telegram on Saturday morning. He had warned of a "ballistic missile threat" against the capital hours earlier and said air defences were in operation around the city. Windows were shattered in Shevchenkivskyi district, including those at the entrance of the Lukianivska metro station, which was closed down, according to the mayor.

Three people have been killed in Kyiv overnight, according to the head of the Ukrainian military. Explosions were heard across the Ukrainian capital as air raid sirens sounded and air defence crews responded to a Russian ballistic missile attack. Ukraine has continued its drone attacks against Russian oil infrastructure, hitting depots in the Tula and Kaluga regions south of Moscow overnight. Images said to depict the burning depots have been shared online as Kaluga's regional governor claimed several drones had been shot down. The governors of Russia's Bryansk and Smolensk regions reported that air defence units had shot down a total of 14 Ukrainian drones with no reports of casualties.

As part of an ongoing investigation into X, the European Commission has requested documents from the company related to how its recommendation systems work. The European Union's regulatory arm is particularly interested in any recent changes to the algorithm. The EC said it asked X to provide the information by February 15 as it steps up the Digital Services Act (DSA) probe. On top of that, regulators asked for access to certain APIs that X provides so it can conduct "direct fact-finding on content moderation and virality of accounts." The Commission has also slapped X with a retention order.

UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer has signed a 100-year partnership agreement with Ukraine to provide support across various sectors, including healthcare and military technology, while pledging to provide security guarantees if an end to Russia's war comes. During Starmer's first visit to Kyiv since becoming prime minister, the British leader told a news conference on Thursday that the United Kingdom would examine "the practical ways to get a just and lasting peace … that guarantees your security, your independence and your right to choose your own future". "We will work with you and all of our allies on steps that would be robust enough to guarantee Ukraine's security," Starmer said. "Those conversations will continue for many months ahead." While Starmer was speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at the presidential palace, loud blasts and air raid sirens were heard over Kyiv as air defence systems took aim at a Russian drone attack. The British leader said the Russian attack served as a reminder of the situation on the ground.

The Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence's 2024 Fall Symposium Series was held at Westin Arlington Gateway, Arlington, Virginia, November 7-9, 2024. There were seven symposia in the fall program: AI Trustworthiness and Risk Assessment for Challenging Contexts (ATRACC), Artificial Intelligence for Aging in Place, Integrated Approaches to Computational Scientific Discovery, Large Language Models for Knowledge Graph and Ontology Engineering (LLMs for KG and OE), Machine Intelligence for Equitable Global Health (MI4EGH), Unifying Representations for Robot Application Development, Using AI to Build Secure and Resilient Agricultural Systems: Leveraging AI to mitigate Cyber, Climatic and Economic Threats in Food, Agricultural, and Water (FAW) Systems. This report contains summaries of the workshops, which were submitted by some, but not all, of the workshop chairs. The rapid embrace of AI-based critical systems introduces new dimensions of errors that induce increased levels of risk, limiting trustworthiness. Thus, AI-based critical systems must be assessed across many dimensions by different parties (researchers, developers, regulators, customers, insurance companies, end-users, etc.) for different reasons. Assessment of trustworthiness should be made at both the full system level and at the level of individual AI components. The focus of this symposium was on AI trustworthiness broadly and methods that help provide bounds for fairness, reproducibility, reliability, and accountability in the context of quantifying AI-system risk, spanning the entire AI lifecycle from theoretical research formulations all the way to system implementation, deployment, and operation. This first AAAI symposium on AI Trustworthiness and Risk Assessment in Challenging Contexts was triggered by two initiatives on responsible and trustworthy AI that came together thanks to encouragement given by AAAI: an international community (mostly European and Asia-South Pacific) around AI trustworthiness assessment for critical systems, already gathered at the AITA SSS Symposium in 2023; and a US-based community around University of West Florida, gathered about the question of AI risk assessment in challenging contexts e.g., for security or defense applications.

Businesses in all sectors want to gain a competitive advantage through artificial intelligence (AI), and senior executives are tasked with ensuring their organizations have the rules and regulations in place to use new technologies safely and effectively. Keith Woolley, chief digital and information officer at the University of Bristol, is a digital leader helping his organization, one of the UK's leading academic institutions, embrace AI across campus. Also: AI transformation is a double-edged sword. Here's how to avoid the risks Bristol is a pioneer in emerging technologies, including being home to Isambard-AI, the UK's fastest supercomputer. However, the propagation of AI tools across the organization is not just led by senior executives overseeing world-leading research activities.

Following a series of blatantly false summaries of headlines and severe backlash from journalists and newsrooms, Apple has paused its AI-generated news summary push notifications...for now. "With the latest beta software releases of iOS 18.3, iPadOS 18.3, and macOS Sequoia 15.3, Notification summaries for the News & Entertainment category will be temporarily unavailable," an Apple spokesperson told Mashable via email. The Apple Intelligence feature, which was introduced in 2024, really kicked off with the release of iOS 18.2, and launched in the UK on Dec. 11, was supposed to sum up news headlines in short push alerts. These are delivered to Apple devices compatible with iOS 18.1 and later including the latest iPhone 16 and 16 Plus. In December, BBC News accused Apple's AI of sending a false push notification attributed to the news outlet reporting that Luigi Mangione, arrested for the murder of UnitedHealthcare chief executive Brian Thompson, had died by suicide.

Keir Starmer this week announced a 50-point plan that aims to give the UK world leader status in artificial intelligence and grow the economy by as much as 47bn a year over a decade. The multibillion-pound investment, which seeks to create a 20-fold increase in the amount of AI computing power under public control by 2030, has been framed as a gamechanger for businesses and public organisations. The reaction to the announcement has been mixed, given it is far from clear that the much-hyped potential of AI will result in the level of economic benefit forecast. Many are concerned that the technology could lead to widespread job cuts, while others fear a destruction in the value and growth of the creative industries after learning of proposals to make it easier for AI companies to mine artistic works for data, for no cost. Despite such concerns, for many in the world of business the AI revolution is already here and transforming their industries.

Hosted by Ben Byford, The Machine Ethics Podcast brings together interviews with academics, authors, business leaders, designers and engineers on the subject of autonomous algorithms, artificial intelligence, machine learning, and technology's impact on society. Karin Rudolph is the founder of Collective Intelligence, a Bristol-based consultancy specialising in AI ethics and governance. Collective Intelligence provides training and resources to help organisations implement ethical AI practices and robust governance. Karin is a regular speaker at universities and conferences and an active member of the tech community in the South West of England. This podcast was created and is run by Ben Byford and collaborators.

Shaun Murphy misses out on a maximum 147 break as he secures a place in the semi-finals of the Masters with a superb 6-2 victory over Neil Robertson at Alexandra Palace.