Whether they are called manifestos or contracts, the documents published by political parties ahead of an election are rather less substantial than their many pages would suggest. They are full of best-case scenarios, undetailed proposals and dubious costings, and it is hard to picture the impact each party would have on the UK if they followed through with their pitches. So I've been feeding party literature into the political strategy video game Democracy 4, to see how these policies might play out. The results were … well, you'll see. Democracy 4 lets you play out your political fantasies (or nightmares) to see the impact of your choices and, ultimately, if you can get re-elected.

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. A Nobel Prize-winning economist is sounding the alarm about the future of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) careers amid the rapid development of artificial intelligence, arguing that many of the currently in-demand jobs could soon be obsolete. "The skills that are needed now -- to collect the data, collate it, develop it and use it to develop the next phase of AI, or more to the point, make AI more applicable for jobs -- will make the skills that are needed now obsolete because it will be doing the job," said Christopher Pissarides, a professor of economics at the London School of Economics, in a recent interview, according to a report from Time. "Despite the fact that you see growth, they're still not as numerous as might be required to have jobs for all those graduates coming out with STEM because that's what they want to do." The comments come as 2023 became a breakthrough year for AI technology, which has rapidly developed and gained increased mainstream applications.

An art-generating artificial intelligence (AI) is taking the internet by storm with the ability to produce fully rendered pieces of "original" artwork in seconds, images that would take professional artists weeks to accomplish. The application is called Stable Diffusion and it has been hailed as a way to "bring creativity to all" by Stability AI, the coders who designed it. The application can create artwork on demand, and all a user has to do is type in a description of what artwork they want before they are given a number of examples to choose from in seconds. The AI-generated art is created via a trawl of professional artwork and photographs that already exist on the internet. A sophisticated algorithm then rearranges this "big data" to create a multitude of new pieces of art that are related to the inputted text prompts.

Over the coming years, the technology company Amazon – like the other Cyber Valley partners from industry – will contribute € 1.25 million to setting up research groups in the Stuttgart and Tübingen region. The Max Planck Society, the federal state of Baden-Württemberg, the universities of Stuttgart and Tübingen as well as companies such as BMW, Bosch, Daimler, IAV, Porsche and ZF Friedrichshafen have joined forces in the collaboration project to drive forward research on intelligent systems and to create an environment for more successful start-ups. The first research groups planned as part of the initiative are currently being set up. "With Amazon joining the Cyber Valley, our idea to create a fruitful environment for business activities will gain momentum by expanding AI research in the Stuttgart and Tübingen area," indicated Martin Stratmann. "Only by bringing together world-class research and entrepreneurial spirit can we create the breeding ground for innovations that may prove to be technological breakthroughs in the future." Other Amazon projects also support the goal of turning Cyber Valley into a creative hotspot for scientific progress and economically successful innovation.

WASHINGTON – Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton spelled out their economic visions in high-profile speeches in Michigan this week. They delved into taxes and regulations, trade deals and job growth. Yet perhaps most notable about their speeches is what they left out. Mostly unmentioned were major challenges that have slowed the U.S. economy and made good-paying jobs harder to find, particularly in struggling pockets of the country. Automation and increasingly high-skilled jobs that require technological know-how that many people lack. They are problems that analysts say require a transformative vision.

U.S. Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton speaks at Futuramic Tool & Engineering in Warren, Michigan August 11, 2016. WASHINGTON -- Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton spelled out their economic visions in high-profile speeches in Michigan this week. They delved into taxes and regulations, trade deals and job growth. Mostly unmentioned were major challenges that have slowed the U.S. economy and made good-paying jobs harder to find, particularly in struggling pockets of the country. Automation and increasingly high-skilled jobs that require technological know-how that many people lack. They are problems that analysts say require a transformative vision.