The Supreme Court's conservative justices want to reduce government regulation of private industry. Of that they are certain. Unless the private industry is artificial intelligence or social media. On that, they need some time to think. This summer, the Supreme Court issued two decisions that will impact the future of A.I. regulation.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is sometimes referred to as a herald of the fourth industrial revolution. That revolution is already here. Whenever you say "Hey Siri" or glance at your phone in order to unlock it, you're using AI. Its current and potential applications are numerous, including medical diagnosis and predictive technologies that enhance user interactions. As chairwoman of the U.S. House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology, I am particularly interested in the potential for AI to accelerate innovation and discovery across the science and engineering disciplines.

Earlier this week, the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST) released a report outlining what it believes must happen for the U.S. to advance "industries of the future." Several of the committee's suggestions touched on the field of AI as it relates to federal, state, and private-sector partnerships, as well as departmental budgetary considerations. In particular, the report recommends that the U.S. grow nondefense federal investments in AI by 10 times over the next 10 years and for the federal government to create national AI "testbeds," expanding the National Science Foundation's (NSF) AI Institutes with at least one AI Institute in each state and creating a "National AI Consortia" to share capabilities, data, and resources. Loosely, PCAST -- which lives in the Office of Science and Technology -- provides advice to the president on science and technology policy. In the report, the committee argues the U.S. will need to boost AI R&D investments from $1 billion a year in 2020 to $10 billion a year by 2030 in order to remain competitive.

The SETI Institute, a Silicon Valley-based nonprofit that seeks to explore and explain the nature and origins of life in the universe, is gearing up to host the fifth iteration of its competitive, NASA-funded summer program, the Frontier Development Lab. FDL brings together a diverse cadre of researchers each year since its inception to rapidly leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning and advanced computing capabilities--all to ultimately help America's space agency accelerate its own research and discoveries. While SETI envelops the "search for extraterrestrial intelligence," its inside efforts touch a range of areas across space, science and beyond. But the 2020 program might run a little differently than those that came before. "Now, what's interesting is, we may--for the first time actually--undertake the program virtually because of the COVID-19 pandemic," Bill Diamond, president and CEO of the SETI Institute, told Nextgov recently. "All indications are that this is going to be with us through at least the early part of the summer, and it may preclude the in-person working system that normally is characterized by the FDL program."

Expeditionary Artificial Intelligence is the theme for the May 2020 research and experimentation week during which Private Industry, Academia, and Non-Government Organizations will collaborate on developing and demonstrating Machine and Deep Learning, sensor, networked all-domain Autonomous Systems, and other technologies. The May 2020 experiment will be co-hosted by The Sea Land Air Military Research initiative (SLAMR) and Joint Interagency Field Experimentation (JIFX) Program. The initial TechOp Day at the Naval Postgraduate School (NPS) was part of the laying the groundwork with Private Industry and other partners. This video was produced by NPS and can be watched at NPS' YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/user/NPSvideo.

SciTech Europa Quarterly attended the UN AI for Good global summit, where the topic of discussion was how Artificial Intelligence can be delivered for social change in various ways across the public and private sectors. We spoke to Neil Sahota, IBM Master Inventor and World Wide Business Development Leader in the IBM Watson Group; United Nations (UN) Artificial Intelligence (AI) subject matter expert; and Professor at UC Irvine, at the event about how Artificial Intelligence can be used to deliver social change to achieve to UN sustainable development goals. Artificial Intelligence is critical for delivering social change for the goal of sustainable development. The United Nations estimates that there is a $7 trillion shortfall every year trying to achieve the sustainable development goals. The goals are for a better society and a better world, so the question of how we bridge the shortfall is very important.

The U.S. Department of Defense's most advanced research and development arm is calling upon engineers and scientists to help develop robots capable of remotely repairing satellites in space. According to the The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which is a part of the U.S. Department of Defense, the organization hopes to develop and launch the sophisticated space bots into orbit within the next five years. Currently, says DARPA, about 400 satellites owned by the government and private industry in the U.S. are orbiting Earth with some more than 20,000 miles away making it service and maintenance all but impossible. The U.S. Department of Defense is calling upon engineers and scientists to help develop robots capable of remotely repairing satellites in space. 'With no prospects for assistance once in orbit, satellites destined for [geosynchronous equatorial orbit] today are loaded with backup systems and as much fuel as can be accommodated, adding to their complexity, weight and cost,' reads a release from DARPA.

News reports of May 20, 2018 have reported the government has embarked upon an ambitious defence project for incorporating artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance operational preparedness of the armed forces in a significant way. The project is to include equipping the military with unmanned tanks, vessels, aerial vehicles and robotic weaponry. The DRDO has been talking of preparing the military for robotic warfare for past several years but without much to show on ground other than few applications. DRDO's Centre for Artificial Intelligence & Robotics (CAIR) has developed a range of robots with varied applications, and is also developing: man portable Unmanned Ground Vehicle (UGV) for low intensity conflicts and surveillance in urban scenario; wall climbing and flapping wing robot; walking robot with four and six legs for logistics support; Network Traffic Analysis (NETRA) which can monitor internet traffic. But considering the pace at which developments are taking place, particularly in China in combining robotics and AI, our slow progress in this field is liable to leave us at huge asymmetric disadvantage.

Artificial intelligence brings tremendous opportunity for business and society. But it has also created fear that letting computers make decisions could cause serious problems that might need to be addressed sooner rather than later. Broadly speaking, AI refers to computers mimicking intelligent behavior, crunching big data to make judgments on everything from how to avoid car accidents to where the next crime might happen. If a computer consistently denies a loan to members of a certain sex or race, is that discrimination? Will regulators have the right to examine the algorithm that made the decision? Some big technology companies are seeking to set ethical standards through alliances with futurists, civil-rights activists and social scientists--which critics see as an effort to prevent regulation by government.

The contest invites private teams from around the world to build a robotic rover capable of roaming the lunar surface for at least 500 meters and then sending video, images and data back to Earth, among other feats. The idea behind the challenge is to urge private industry to develop new robotic and virtual-presence technology to reduce the cost of space exploration. "The Google Lunar X Prize calls on entrepreneurs, engineers and visionaries from around the world to return us to the lunar surface and explore this environment for the benefit of all humanity," said Peter Diamandis, chairman and CEO of the X Prize Foundation, a nonprofit prize-generating group. We look forward to bringing the historic private space race into every home and classroom." The X Prize Foundation staged a splashy event to announce the contest here at the Wired NextFest conference at the Los Angeles Convention Center. Diamandis, Google co-founder Larry Page and former astronaut Buzz Aldrin were all on hand to talk about the prize. The press conference also featured video commentary from Google co-founder Sergey Brin, Tesla Motors backer Elon Musk and filmmaker James Cameron, who applauded new private industry efforts in space exploration. "We're going back to the moon not because of a massive government program...This is Moon 2.0 with private industry...kick-starting the future of space exploration," Cameron said. The contest comes at a time when NASA is working on new spacecraft and technology to take man back to the moon within the next 12 years. At a recent artificial-intelligence conference, Peter Norvig, the former head of computation at NASA's Ames facility who is now Google's director of research, suggested that the space agency is taking the more expensive approach in trying to send astronauts to the moon and that it should focus on robotics. Page, who is a trustee of the X Prize Foundation, said that he and Google co-founder Brin were excited to fund the prize because they wanted to get kids around the world excited about engineering, math and science. "I gave a speech recently, saying that science has a serious marketing problem.