Top executives from The Rockefeller Foundation and Salesforce discussed efforts to build an ethical framework for this powerful emerging technology. I spoke with top executives from The Rockefeller Foundation and Salesforce about efforts to regulate artificial intelligence, with the goal of building a solid ethical framework for the technology's growth.

This call for a better understanding of deep learning was the core of Ali Rahimi's Test-of-Time Award presentation at NIPS in December 2017. By comparing deep learning with alchemy, the goal of Ali was not to dismiss the entire field, but "to open a conversation". This goal has definitely been achieved and people are still debating whether our current practice of deep learning should be considered as alchemy, engineering or science. Seven months later, the machine learning community gathered again, this time in Stockholm for the International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML). With more than 5,000 participants and 629 papers published, it was one of the most important events regarding fundamental machine learning research.

From Star Trek to Harry Potter, invisibility cloaks are a popular theme in science fiction. And now researchers have developed a new technique that could turn the futuristic technology into a reality. The technique involves disrupting the way that light waves pass through opaque objects, and could lead to active camouflage. While researchers are yet to demonstrate it in practice, they are confident that experiments will soon confirm the idea. The concept involves shining a laser onto a material from above to pump it full of energy.