The above scenario may not be the stuff of sci-fi blockbusters, but in its own waypoints to an exciting shift in the relationship between citizens and governments. To some degree, we are already seeing this transformation taking shape--government agencies using machines to crunch data, say, or to improve citizen outreach programs. In our daily lives, meanwhile, AI makes countless decisions on our behalf-- though these are rarely more urgent than what to watch on Netflix tonight. The idea that a smart network might, without prompting, take decisive action in order to save human lives, however, is potentially a very big deal. This might be a way off, but the prospect of AI-enhanced government has led to what one observer describes as "a global race among nations," with several Gulf countries--particularly Saudi Arabia and the UAE-- very much in the running.

For Misha Awad, the process of boarding a plane to Japan and then going through immigration brought with it a range of emotions -- shock, nervousness, bureaucracy-induced tedium and even amusement. While moving to a new country is a major step in anyone's life, Awad's case had an extra layer to it, as it was also the culmination of a long wait to return to Japan. A student at the Inter-University Center for Japanese Language Studies (IUC) in Yokohama, she and many fellow members of her program were finally able to enter the country in mid-March, having previously had their hopes dashed at the end of November, when their permission to enter Japan was canceled just days before they were supposed to fly due to tightened restrictions following the discovery of the omicron variant . "Knowing for sure I had made it to the gates, I don't need any of these papers (for immigration) anymore, I'm actually here -- that was kind of just mind-blowing," she said. Following the easing of Japan's strict border controls on March 1, which have been in place for most of the pandemic, at least some foreign students have been able to arrive in time for Friday's start of the academic year.

In a high-tech lab on Johns Hopkins University's Homewood campus in Baltimore, engineers have been building a robot that may be able to stitch back together the broken vessels in your belly and at some point maybe your brain, no doctor needed. The robot has a high-tech camera on one arm and a high-tech sewing machine on a second arm. "It's like park assist in a car," said Axel Krieger, an assistant professor of mechanical engineering in Hopkins' Whiting School of Engineering. This kind of suturing is performed more than a million times a year in surgeries around the country, said Krieger, part of a team developing the robot and senior author on a recent paper describing the technology in science robotics. The goal is to develop in the next several years a robot that makes the intricate and delicate work of suturing more consistent.

Personal transportation in a world void of human drivers will presumably be much safer, right? That's great, but it also means that a lot of people are going to be without jobs. Insurance companies won't need nearly as many claims adjusters, the DMV won't need to be nearly as large as it is today, police forces could be greatly reduced and as morbid as it sounds, hospitals won't need as many doctors (in 2012, motor vehicle collisions sent nearly 7,000 Americans to the ER each day). With fewer people dying in auto accidents, there won't be nearly as many organ donations, meaning that some sick people who might have survived thanks to a transplant won't live as long. It's a seemingly endless chain reaction of cause and effect.

In 2014 researchers at the MIT Media Lab designed an experiment called Moral Machine. The idea was to create a game-like platform that would crowdsource people's decisions on how self-driving cars should prioritize lives in different variations of the "trolley problem." In the process, the data generated would provide insight into the collective ethical priorities of different cultures. The researchers never predicted the experiment's viral reception. Four years after the platform went live, millions of people in 233 countries and territories have logged 40 million decisions, making it one of the largest studies ever done on global moral preferences.

Don't fall behind when it comes to applying machine learning in your facility. Employing analytics with the mass of data collected in your facility can help you cut costs across the board. There are five steps key to getting the most out of machine learning, according to Ash Awad, Chief Market Officer at McKinstry, a design, build, operate and maintain firm. Follow this blueprint to optimize your building through data analytics. Related: Machine Learning 101: Is Predictive Analytics Possible in Your Facility?

Onscreen: Can driverless vehicles make ethical choices? News video: An Uber autonomous vehicle was driving about 40 mph when it struck a pedestrian. Onscreen: Consider the "Trolley Problem." Botnivik: And you have to decide whether you're gonna pull the switch and move it onto other tracks. And let 5 people die?

When a semi-autonomous car crashes and harms someone, how are blame and causal responsibility distributed across the human and machine drivers? In this article, we consider cases in which a pedestrian was hit and killed by a car being operated under shared control of a primary and a secondary driver. We find that when only one driver makes an error, that driver receives the blame and is considered causally responsible for the harm, regardless of whether that driver is a machine or a human. However, when both drivers make errors in cases of shared control between a human and a machine, the blame and responsibility attributed to the machine is reduced. This finding portends a public under-reaction to the malfunctioning AI components of semi-autonomous cars and therefore has a direct policy implication: a bottom-up regulatory scheme (which operates through tort law that is adjudicated through the jury system) could fail to properly regulate the safety of shared-control vehicles; instead, a top-down scheme (enacted through federal laws) may be called for.

As a result of this incident, Uber has stopped all self-driving vehicle tests in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto and the greater Phoenix area. "Our hearts go out to the victim's family. We are fully cooperating with local authorities in their investigation of this incident," said Uber in a statement. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi echoed the sentiment on Twitter, saying that the authorities were trying to figure out what happened. We're thinking of the victim's family as we work with local law enforcement to understand what happened.

Arabic comics have in recent years grown into a thriving creative movement. BEIRUT--A computer scientist at the American University of Beirut is using artificial intelligence to classify the content of Arabic comics, applying the computer-based science to this cutting-edge art form in the Arab world. Artificial-intelligence specialists are always trying to stretch the capabilities of computer brainpower. If artificial intelligence can be used to play the ancient Chinese board game Go, or the American TV quiz game Jeopardy, then Arabic comics are also fair game. "I try to look for unusual applications for artificial intelligence and machine learning," explained Mariette Awad, the associate professor in the department of electrical and computer engineering at the American University of Beirut who is leading the project.