Intensified spying by American drones near Ukraine could lead to an escalation and Russia will respond proportionally to future intelligence-gathering operations, Moscow's defence chief has told his US counterpart. The comments came in a phone conversation on Wednesday between Sergei Shoigu and Pentagon boss Lloyd Austin after the United States accused a Russian Su-27 fighter jet of colliding with one of its Reaper surveillance drones, forcing it to crash into the Black Sea. Russia denied it deliberately brought the unmanned aerial vehicle down. "It was noted that flights by American strategic lethal drones by the Crimea coastline were provocative in nature and created pre-conditions for an escalation of the situation in the Black Sea zone," a defence ministry statement quoted Shoigu as saying. "[Russia] has no interest in such a development, but it will continue to respond proportionately to all provocations."

Nowhere could the application of machine learning prove more important -- nor more risky -- than in law enforcement and national security. In this article, I'll review this area and then cover six perplexing and pressing ethical quandaries that arise. Predictive policing introduces a scientific element to law enforcement decisions, such as whether to investigate or detain, how long to sentence, and whether to parole. In making such decisions, judges and officers take into consideration the probability a suspect or defendant will be convicted for a crime in the future -- which is commonly the dependent variable for a predictive policing model. These independent variables may include prior convictions, income level, employment status, family background, neighborhood, education level, and the behavior of family and friends.