In brief America's Pacific Northwest National Laboratory is looking into how AI technologies can be used to create a "Digital Police Officer" or "D-PO" in the future. Freedom-of-information requests filed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation show the US Department of Energy-funded lab envisions cops may one day be able to partner up with a virtual crime-fighting assistant. D-PO would be capable of, for instance, tapping into facial recognition systems to alert a police officer on patrol to a suspect nearby, and can even offer advice on how best to apprehend the suspect. The EFF warned against the plod teaming up with software like D-PO, citing concerns over inaccurate facial recognition matches and biased predictive policing policies. "The good news is that in the emails we obtained, one of the authors acknowledges in internal emails that elements like a D-PO taking over driving is a'long way off' and monitoring live drone feeds is'not a near-term capability,' the digital privacy-focused non-profit said. The national lab has also described how a separate virtual assistant, BITS, could provide US border and customs agents with visual data to help them crack down on narcotics trafficking. "The records EFF received do not indicate any official interest from CBP or the Department of Homeland Security.

Add Alphabet to the growing number of companies hoping that AI will solve food production problems. The Google parent brand's X lab has revealed that it's exploring ways machine learning could improve farming. While X hasn't focused on any specific solutions, lab leader Astro Teller told MIT … Read more: Alphabet's X lab explores using AI to improve food production

Add Alphabet to the growing number of companies hoping that AI will solve food production problems. The Google parent brand's X lab has revealed that it's exploring ways machine learning could improve farming. While X hasn't focused on any specific solutions, lab leader Astro Teller told MIT Technology Review that AI could be combined with drones and other robotics. It could help determine when to harvest crops, or adapt farms in areas where climate change makes forecasting difficult. You shouldn't expect any tangible results in the near future, although X has typically focused on projects where practical applications are at least on the horizon -- think Project Loon.