At Wander cafe in Auckland's Wynyard Quarter, someone at the next table is listening to Sean Gourley while he is being interviewed about artificial intelligence. After eavesdropping on the chat they get up, walk over to Gourley's table and tell him how scared they are. Gourley says most people think there is a 1% chance of war between China and the United States, but in his universe it is looking more like 50%. US defence and intelligence clients account for a large portion of the business Gourley's San Francisco-based artificial intelligence (AI) company, PrimerAI, does – and right now business is booming. READ MORE: * Keeping up with the machines, new supercomputer will be NZ's most powerful for AI * Kiwis need to think about what they want from the age of AI, report says * 'Google should not be in the business of war', says employee after it drops Pentagon AI contract * While artificial intelligence is tipped to be'as significant as electricity', it's not coming for your job, yet ...

A radio transmission between several Russian soldiers in Ukraine in early March, captured from an unencrypted channel, reveals panicked and confused comrades retreating after coming under artillery fire. "Vostok, I am Sneg 02. On the highway we have to turn left, fuck," one of the soldiers says in Russian using code names meaning "East" and "Snow 02." No need to move further. Later, a third soldier tries to make contact with another codenamed "South 95": "Yug 95, do you have contact with a senior? The third Russian soldier continues, becoming increasingly agitated: "Get on the radio.

In a 2016 address to propaganda cadres and state-run media personnel, Chinese President Xi Jinping expressed dreams of instilling a new international media order "wherever the readers are, wherever the viewers are; that is where propaganda reports must extend their tentacles." As Xinhua News, China's largest state-run news agency, equips itself with "Media Brain," an artificial intelligence (AI) newsroom to assist all stages of reporting, these "tentacles" of propaganda may extend faster. Bringing AI to newsrooms can improve accuracy, enhance data analysis, and increase efficiency. According to a video released by Xinhua in January, the AI newsroom will do everything "from finding leads to news gathering, editing, distribution, and, finally, feedback analysis." Last week, Xinhua announced an update to Media Brain called "MAGIC," which will use machine generated content (MGC) for "fast-speed news production" and can automatically generate a news video in as fast as 10 seconds.

Mark Zuckerberg told the US Congress this week that Facebook will increasingly rely on artificial intelligence to catch hate speech spread on the platform. "I am optimistic that over a five-to-10-year period we will have AI tools that can get into some of the linguistic nuances of different types of content to be more accurate," said the Facebook CEO, who was called to testify after the scandal around Cambridge Analytica's misappropriation of personal data belonging to millions of users. Facebook already employs 15,000 human moderators to screen and remove offensive content, and it plans to hire another 5,000 by the end of this year, Zuckerberg said. But right now, those moderators can only react to posts Facebook users have flagged. Using AI to identify potentially offending material would make it faster and easier to remove.

Elon Musk, the billionaire entrepreneur and CEO of Tesla and SpaceX, delivers a warning about artificial intelligence in the new documentary Do You Trust This Computer?, directed by Chris Paine (Who Killed the Electric Car?). Musk himself appears in the film, where he observes, "AI doesn't have to be evil to destroy humanity. But if AI has a goal, and humanity just happens to be in the way, if will destroy us as a mater of course without even thinking about it." Musk also was among those, like Westworld creator Jonathan Nolan, who attended the film's premiere Thursday at the Regency Theater in Westwood. Before the film, which explores both the promise and the dangers of AI, Musk said, "It's a very important subject that will affect our lives in ways we can't even imagine -- some scary, some good."

Fake news of the future will be much more sophisticated thanks to artificial intelligence, according to a CIA consultant. Efforts to influence consumers and voters through the spread of disinformation have been primitive compared to what is to come, he warns. Intelligent machines will be used to generate millions of stories, each personally tailored to suit the beliefs and interests of the recipient. Fake news from Russia, disseminated on Facebook, is already believed to have influenced the outcome of a US presidential election and perhaps also Brexit. The predictions suggest that this may just be the tip of the iceberg, with fake news set to become a regular part of online life.

By now, we've grown accustomed to our devices listening to us. Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa, Bixby, Cortana, and every other disembodied virtual taskrabbit has been hearing our commands--and who knows what else--for years. But, with its last two smart hub devices, Amazon has pushed one step beyond the microphone, asking users to install cameras in their homes. Yesterday, with the announcement of the Echo Show, Amazon reaffirmed its plan to have Alexa see you in addition to hear you. It's a small step forward in terms of usability, but a major can of worms when it comes to our security and privacy.