Google is running a pilot project in Israel that could use artificial intelligence to make traffic lights 10% to 20% more efficient for drivers. In a blog post touting the technology giant's current efforts in the field of environmentally sustainable solutions, Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai wrote: "We're finding ways to make routes more efficient, across an entire city, with early research into using artificial intelligence to optimize the efficiency of traffic lights. We've been piloting this research in Israel to predict traffic conditions and improve the timing of when traffic lights change. So far, we are seeing a 10%-20% reduction in fuel consumption and delay time at intersections. We're excited to expand these pilots to Rio de Janeiro and beyond."

It's been a long time worry that when AI gains a certain level of autonomy it will see no use for humans or even perceive them as a threat. A new study by Google's DeepMind lab may or may not ease those fears. There are two unmistakable sides to the debate concerning the future of artificial intelligence. The researchers at DeepMind have been working with two games to test whether neural networks are more likely to understand motivations to compete or cooperate. They hope that this research could lead to AI being better at working with other AI in situations that contain imperfect information.

Google Inc. is plotting to speed up machine learning with a new "federated learning" approach that sees training data spread across millions of individual Android devices. The approach is different from traditional machine learning techniques, where datasets are distributed across multiple cloud servers. It enables machine learning models to be trained from actual users' interactions with their Android devices, Google researchers Daniel Ramage and Brendan McMahan said in the company's research blog. The method also allows models to be trained faster, and with less power consumption than traditional methods. In addition, users can benefit immediately from any improvements made to the machine learning models.

It's been a long time worry that when AI gains a certain level of autonomy it will see no use for humans or even perceive them as a threat. A new study by Google's DeepMind lab may or may not ease those fears. There are two unmistakable sides to the debate concerning the future of artificial intelligence. The researchers at DeepMind have been working with two games to test whether neural networks are more likely to understand motivations to compete or cooperate. They hope that this research could lead to AI being better at working with other AI in situations that contain imperfect information.