Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Connecticut needs safeguards on state government's use of artificial intelligence including algorithms at child welfare and other agencies to prevent discrimination and increase transparency, an advisory panel to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights said Thursday. The Connecticut Advisory Committee to the federal commission called on state lawmakers to pass laws regulating such systems, which have sparked concerns in other parts of the country. The problem, critics say, is algorithms can use flawed data that can disproportionately identify minorities, low-income families, disabled people and other groups when agencies make decisions on removing children from homes, approving health, housing and other benefits, where to concentrate law enforcement and assigning children to schools, among other uses.

Creating an autonomous system to make scientific discoveries at a Nobel Prize level by 2050. With the system, AI would formulate hypotheses from enormous amounts of existing experimental data, and robots would conduct experiments to prove them. Achieving artificial hibernation technology by 2050, to help extend healthy human life spans.

"Self-driving cars are here," Dmitri Dolgov told the audience at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital event this week. It's a matter of how fast we can grow and how fast we can scale this technology in a responsible manner." Waymo's CTO is right: The outfit that started off as Google's self-driving car project is running a limited robotaxi service in the Phoenix metro area. Dolgov also told the audience that the company has tech yet to crack.) GM Cruise plans to launch a service this year. Uber is testing in Pittsburgh. Lyft and Aptiv have a limited self-driving service in Las Vegas. Nuro's delivery bots are hauling groceries around Texas and Arizona. May Mobility is running robo-shuttles in Detroit. So for the public sharing the roads with these things, a few long lurking questions are now more pressing than ever: How do we know these things are safe? And how can the companies that promise they are prove it to us? One thing is for sure: The way we certify human drivers ain't going ...

The AI revolution has the promise to unlock boundless potential for businesses: from better products and services, to faster innovation and unimaginable leaps in productivity. But, like all great technological advancements, AI also has the potential to create numerous economic, political and social challenges, depending upon how it is used and implemented. Because of that, the use of AI technology needs to be governed by clear rules of ethics -- defined at the outset of this new era, instead of later on, when abuses or ill-considered practices could be far more difficult to control. This is not the first time society has been at a crossroads where we face new technological powers that can serve great and worthy purposes or be abused to support some very bad ones. Yet one thing is clear and remains in our power: artificial intelligence, will never substitute for human wisdom or moral responsibility.

SAP has become the first European technology company to create an external artificial intelligence (AI) ethics advisory panel, with representatives from academia, politics and industry. The panel will ensure the adoption of the new AI guiding principles also announced by the vendor in collaboration with the AI steering committee at SAP, a group of SAP executives from development, strategy and human resources. "SAP considers the ethical use of data a core value," said Luka Mucic, chief financial officer and member of the Executive Board of SAP SE. "We want to create software that enables the intelligent enterprise and actually improves people's lives. Such principles will serve as the basis to make AI a technology that augments human talent." SAP's guiding principles highlight core values around transparency, integrity, quality and safety in the use of AI.

The Obama administration is moving in its waning days in office to set up closer coordination between companies developing autonomous-vehicle technology and regulators who will set rules for how self-driving cars and drones will operate on public roads and airways. The U.S. Department of Transportation said Wednesday it is setting up an advisory committee that will include leaders of major automotive and technology companies, including General Motors Co. Chief Executive Mary Barra as co-chairman and executives at Amazon.com Inc., Uber Technologies Inc., Alphabet Inc. and FedEx Corp. among the 25 members. Naming a large advisory group at a federal agency so late in an administration is somewhat unusual, but state and federal transportation officials believe questions around oversight and safety standards for self-driving cars will remain significant amid rapid advances in the technology. Still, several of the names on the list may draw extra attention from President-elect Donald Trump's incoming Republican administration. Mr. Trump has singled out GM for criticism of the company's decision to manufacture some cars in Mexico, putting Ms. Barra at the heart of debates over industrial and trade policies.

The Federal Aviation Administration is setting up an advisory committee, led by Intel CEO Brian Krzanich, to guide it on the integration of unmanned aircraft systems in the national airspace. The formation of the committee could link to plans by the FAA to finalize much-awaited rules for the commercial operation of drones, which will likely pave the way for the widespread use of the airborne devices for deliveries and other applications by companies like Amazon.com and Google. "By late spring, we plan to finalize Part 107, our small UAS rule, which will allow for routine commercial drone operations," FAA Administrator Michael Huerta said in a speech at a drone event on Wednesday. Huerta had said in January that the the rules would be finalized at the end of spring, but there has been skepticism as the process has been plagued by delays, including missing a September deadline mandated by the U.S. Congress. Members of the new drone advisory committee will include representatives from a variety of organizations with interests in drones, including manufacturers and operators, application service providers, pilots, the FAA, NASA, representatives of manned aviation and the Department of Defense.