Kara Frederick, tech director at the Heritage Foundation, discusses the need for regulations on artificial intelligence as lawmakers and tech titans discuss the potential risks. Robots run by artificial intelligence have the potential to attack the United Kingdom's National Health Service (NHS) and cause a disruption on the scale of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to a cybersecurity expert. Ian Hogarth, who works on the U.K.'s AI task force that was formed to help protect against the risks of AI, says that the growing technology is capable of an attack that could cripple the country's NHS or even carry out a "biological attack," according to a report in the Daily Star. Hogarth noted that AI technology continues to improve at a rapid pace, something he warned would lower barriers to "perpetrating some kind of cyber attack or cyber crime." A photo shows a sign of the London Ambulance Service of NHS in London.

Cognitive scientist and AI expert Gary Marcus advocates for the formation of an international body to govern emerging artificial intelligence technologies. The world needs a United Nations-like agency to regulate rapidly advancing artificial intelligence technology, particularly since governments are starting to pass laws that put varying demands on AI companies. "Right now, we have 37 countries that passed laws about artificial intelligence last year, each of them doing their own thing," said Gary Marcus, who hosts the AI-themed podcast, "Humans vs Machines with Gary Marcus." "But there's no coordination between what all of these countries are doing." Without a shared regulatory body, AI companies might be forced to modify their software and offer different versions from country to country -- or even state to state -- to comply with each unique law, according to Marcus.

Cyber crime, according to the National Crime Agency (NCA) Cyber Crime Assessment 2016 report, accounted for 53 per cent of all crimes in 2015. Cameron Brown, an independent cyber defence adviser, who has conducted research into emerging trends in cyber-crime offending, warns that opportunities to earn a living through cyber crime "will propel the disenfranchised and those in lower income bands to pursue a life of crime given the low risk and potential high yields". Mr Brown insists that cyber crime will continue to grow into a highly lucrative and well organised enterprise, seeking competitive advantage with the aid of sophisticated cyber operations. Operations that include research and development, with cyber criminals becoming increasingly innovative as far as the threats they can leverage are concerned. Jamie Saunders, director of the NCA National Cyber Crime Unit, argues that "senior members of UK business must think seriously about ways they can improve their defences and help law enforcement in the fight against cyber crime".

IT security company Webroot, in its Quarterly Threat Trends Survey, pointed out that 86% of security professionals are concerned that artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) could be used against them. History tells us that for every game-changing innovation, there are numerous ways to exploit and misuse them. AI and ML provide many benefits, but there are also unintended consequences on society. We dive into the shadowy world of weaponized AI and ML to find out how we can prevent cyber attacks. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of human intelligence that computer systems and machines process.

CYBERATTACKS from nation-states may have hogged the limelight, but the startling truth is that most cyber attacks are driven by organised criminal gangs targeting profits. With such attacks becoming more frequent, more sophisticated - and more damaging to a company's customers and other stakeholders - the traditional "moat-and-firewall" security measures are no longer enough, said Lee Hui Li, IBM Asia-Pacific vice-president for global business partners. Artificial intelligence technologies and increased collaboration between the public and private sectors will be crucial in the war against cyber crime. "Like a human immune system, today's cybersecurity defences need to find those attacks that will eventually breach a perimeter, quarantine and remediate them, across an organisation's data, applications, mobile and end-point devices," she said. Noting that many organisations use up to 50 security products from some 80 vendors, she added: "Non-integrated, point-product security solutions are insufficient."

"Very little skill" is required to become a cyber criminal, according to a new report. Research from the National Crime Agency (NCA) claims that free "off-the-shelf" hacking tools, online tutorials and video guides are making it increasingly easy for young people become involved in cyber crime. The report also says that, while financial gain is a key incentive for some offenders, it isn't always key, with many instead motivated by a "sense of accomplishment" and building a reputation. The average age of the young offenders involved in the study was 17, and the NCA says they're "unlikely" to commit more traditional crimes, such as theft, fraud and sexual offences. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

Today with the growth of the internet of things there is a surge in usage of fast internet, smartphones, portable devices, smart TV, smart wearable and connected cars among retail consumers. This indicates the rise of connected consumers. This has made the huge impact in the retail landscape and the retail experience is evolving from multi-channel to Omni-channel. The connected consumer requires connected retail. Omni-channel retailing means establishing a presence on many channels and platforms (i.e. Physical stores remain the foundation of retailing, evidenced by the fact that - in the internet era, 90% of retail sales still take place in physical stores. According to eMarketer, the total retail sales in the US topped 4.53 trillion in 2013, of this brick-and-mortar sales still command a vast majority of the retail market nearly 4.27 trillion. According to A.T. Kearney, 95 percent of all retail sales are captured by retailers with a brick-and-mortar presence in total retail. Two-thirds of consumers who purchase online use the store before or after the transaction. The role of the brick & mortar store is changing, NOT going away. Stores remain at the heart of retailers' relationships with consumers, even in today's "Omni Channel" world where online and physical sales appear to rule. According to a report, When it comes to product trial and tests, respondents indicate a clear preference for physical stores. Despite the growing popularity of e-commerce and digital retailing are capturing headlines in news media and inspiring spirited debates (blah, blah..) retailers plan how best to invest for future success, including a plan to build an another planet. The e-commerce retail market share is only 263 billion. It is only 5.8% of the market share. Small basket, single channel, ineffective delivery, can't see, can't feel or try made it as a hard business model. Is pure play e-commerce is an unprofitable business model? Investment on e-commerce is "river of no returns"? Are we nearing the end of the e-commerce bubble? Is M-commerce the future of retail? Drop out, make an app, go viral and make money?

The UK's National Crime Agency recently warned that businesses and law enforcement agencies are losing the'cyber arms race." One of the key threats was found to be fraud, with 700,000 cases contributing to the 2.46 million'cyber incidents' of 2015. Of real concern was the NCA finding that cyber criminals remain one step ahead in terms of technical capabilities – but that is beginning to change. The UK government has pledged to spend 1.9 billion on cyber defences over the next five years, with businesses and law enforcement setting up networks and shared threat intelligence in order to fight evolving and increasing cyber threats. There is also a renewed focus on the technologies used to fight cyber crime, with one company deploying machine learning and behavioural analytics in the fight against fraud. British company Featurespace uses adaptive behavioural analytics and real-time machine learning in order to detect fraud in the financial services sector.

IBM wants its Watson computer system to learn how to fight cyber crime and it's asking eight leading universities, including three in Canada, for help. Watson -- IBM's question answering computer system -- was originally designed to compete (and win) on the television quiz show Jeopardy, but the technology has since been used on other problem-solving projects. Now IBM is launching Watson for Cyber Security -- a cloud-based version of their cognitive technology -- that will be trained over the next year to examine threats of cyber crime. Caleb Barlow, vice-president of IBM Security, said it is becoming increasingly difficult for security staff to deal with the growing number of cyber threats. "Your average enterprise is dealing with 200,000 incidents a day that they've got to dig through. Human beings simply cannot look at all of that data," he said.