MIT lent credibility to the idea that big tech could police its own use of artificial intelligence at a time when the industry faced increasing criticism and calls for legal regulation…Meanwhile, corporations have tried to shift the discussion to focus on voluntary "ethical principles," "responsible practices," and technical adjustments or "safeguards" framed in terms of "bias" and "fairness" (e.g., requiring or encouraging police to adopt "unbiased" or "fair" facial recognition).

Intelligence company Kneron tested out a number of facial recognition systems used in payments and banking. It found many could be fooled by photographs or masks. However, not Apple's FaceID, reported Fortune. Kneron conducted the experiments to learn about the technology's limitations while developing its own facial recognition technology. The company, which is led backed by high-profile investors including Qualcomm and Sequoia Capital, is creating what it calls "Edge AI," an artificial intelligence tool that does the job of recognizing individual entirely on devices rather than though cloud-based services. Kneron also noted that its experiments could not fool some facial recognition applications, notably Apple's iPhone X.

A patent granted to Apple today references a robot that could autonomously carry a power cord to an electric car (via AppleInsider). The patent, dubbed "Charging System" is about a "mobile charging device may be used to move a battery or a power cord to a target device." The device could attach a power cord to the vehicle, couple a connector, or use a wireless power transfer element. Sensors embedded in the vehicle would help the robot find the power port. It may be desirable to transfer power between a source of power and equipment that requires power.

Now, it may be more of a reality than previously thought. Public information about company leadership can make an email or social media phishing attack more convincing, especially as hackers automate data collection on a targeted company using ML to emulate both the timing of communications and writing style. When will Siri be smart enough to step in and protect us?::cough:: Is that even on Apple's radar? The technical journalist's job is to know the strengths and weaknesses of each platform and to educate the user about them. New iPad Pro has both strengths and weaknesses.

Apple's running battle with Amazon Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google Home, has a lot going on behind the scenes. Greg Joswiak, vice president of iOS, iPad, and iPhone Marketing, and executive Alex Acero gave Wired a peek behind the curtains, and it's interesting as can be. The trouble with taking the long view is dealing with the perception you're falling behind. That's been Apple's dilemma with AI in general and Siri specifically. While Amazon built a platform designed around training its users, Apple has been building Siri to be a service that can truly understand us, and vice versa.

As artificial intelligence systems improve, voice assistants like Siri make take a more active role in protecting our computers and our online activity. John Martellaro and Kelly Guimont join Jeff Gamet to look at how Siri may play a bigger part in our personal cyber security, and whether or not that's something we want. As artificial intelligence systems improve, voice assistants like Siri make take a more active role in protecting our computers and our online activity.

Apple has another tool to help make Siri smarter thanks to its recent purchase of Lattice Data. The company specializes in artificial intelligence and dark data, which ultimately could turn out to be as cool as it sounds. Apple's Lattice Data purchase means Siri is getting smarter Sources speaking with TechCrunch spilled the beans on the deal, which reportedly cost Apple around US$200 million. Apple offered up its usual noncommittal confirmation saying, "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." The technology Lattice Data created aids with artificial intelligence by finding the structure in dark data, or data that otherwise doesn't seem connected.

Inventec has reportedly scored a deal to build Apple's Amazon Echo-like Siri speaker device. Apple hasn't confirmed its personal assistant appliance is a real thing yet, but evidence keeps surfacing that seems to support it's on the way. The latest report comes via Taiwan's Economic Daily News. According to their supply chain sources, Inventec is either assembling components or building the entire device. The company builds Apple's AirPods, so a working relationship is already in place.

We write here a lot of about small drones. Amazon wants to deliver packages with drones. Drones have taken breathtaking aerial views of Apple Park. But what happens when one of the larger drones accidentally slams into a human being? Time for the automotive crash-test dummies to step up and tell the story!

Supercomputers, the internet and Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents are coming into full bloom. The future is evolving quickly away from GUI and touch-based methods to AI and voice control. The implications for our personal computing experience are immense, and it all starts with the fundamentals of the education of our children. It may start like this, but Star Trek's Lt. Commander Data is the ultimate goal. One of my strong interests is computer-aided learning.