When speaking of the Department of Defense's artificial intelligence research and development, a panel of academics and the Pentagon's top A.I. officials agreed the effort is underfunded and understaffed. The threat, however, is ever-present and adversaries are devoting significant amounts of money and personnel to develop A.I., Air Force Lt. Gen. John Shanahan, the director of the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, told USNI News after a panel discussion Tuesday at The Promise and The Risk Of the A.I. Revolution conference, hosted by the U.S. Naval Institute at the U.S. Naval Academy. "At its core, we are in a strategic competition," Shanahan said. "We're in a strategic competition against a peer adversary -- not near-peer -- but peer." Russia and China are devoting vast amounts of resources to develop A.I. capabilities, Shanahan said.

Among those presenting at last week's World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, was Mary "Missy" Cummings, a Duke professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Materials Science whose areas of expertise include artificial intelligence. Duke Today asked Cummings, who has presented before at the forum, about this year's event. Q: How, if at all, was the mood at Davos different this year than in previous years in which you have attended? CUMMINGS: Interestingly I did not see any real difference in the overall mood over last year, but (President) Trump's presence certainly created a buzz that was not as palpable as last year. Q: What were the 3 major points that you made during your presentation this year?

Artificial intelligence is everywhere and it's here to stay. Most aspects of our lives are now touched by artificial intelligence in one way or another, from deciding what books or flights to buy online to whether our job applications are successful, whether we receive a bank loan, and even what treatment we receive for cancer. We may have things better than ever – but we've also never faced such world-changing challenges. That's why Future Now asked 50 experts – scientists, technologists, business leaders and entrepreneurs – to name what they saw as the key challenges in their area. The range of different responses demonstrate the richness and complexity of the modern world. Inspired by these responses, over the next month we will be publishing a series of feature articles and videos that take an in-depth look at the biggest challenges we face today.

Federal regulators just opened the skies to commercial drones, with guidelines that include more than a few caveats designed to encourage entrepreneurs while protecting everyone else. The FAA, which announced the rules today, hopes to facilitate innovative uses for the technology like bringing the Internet to remote areas while avoiding the idiocy of drones interfering with firefighting operations or delivering contraband to prisons. "We are taking a careful and deliberate approach that balances the need to deploy this new technology with the FAA's mission to protect public safety," says FAA chief Michael Huerta. The rules let anyone 16 or older who wants to make a business of flying a drone simply do so. In the past, pilots who hoped to make a buck with drones by, say, inspecting power lines, needed FAA permission, a process that could take months.

In 2001, the White House concluded that it was legal to use armed drones to kill senior al-Qaeda leaders. Within weeks of the 9/11 attacks, then-US President George W Bush signed off on an order which authorised the Central Intelligency Agency (CIA) to capture and kill al-Qaeda operatives. For some, drones are the greatest weapon ever to be developed by the CIA; for others, they present a constant, deadly and terrifying threat. I thought it was the coolest damn thing in the world. I was like'Oh man, I get to play a video game all day!'