Deep neural networks are easily fooled by small perturbations known as adversarial attacks. Adversarial Training (AT) is a technique aimed at learning features robust to such attacks and is widely regarded as a very effective defense. However, the computational cost of such training can be prohibitive as the network size and input dimensions grow. Inspired by the relationship between robustness and curvature, we propose a novel regularizer which incorporates first and second order information via a quadratic approximation to the adversarial loss. The worst case quadratic loss is approximated via an iterative scheme. It is shown that using only a single iteration in our regularizer achieves stronger robustness than prior gradient and curvature regularization schemes, avoids gradient obfuscation, and, with additional iterations, achieves strong robustness with significantly lower training time than AT. Further, it retains the interesting facet of AT that networks learn features which are well-aligned with human perception. We demonstrate experimentally that our method produces higher quality human-interpretable features than other geometric regularization techniques. These robust features are then used to provide human-friendly explanations to model predictions.

For fans of video games, next week is huge. On Tuesday, the Electronic Entertainment Expo opens its doors at the Los Angeles Convention Center, hosting the biggest event of the year for video games. Players will hear a lot of news about what games are on the horizon, as well as other details about how the future of their favorite hobby will change over the next several months and beyond. If you're an E3 veteran, or this is your first time hearing about this confab, we're here to break it all down: The developers and publishers use E3 as their venue to reveal the hottest video games (as well as video game hardware) expected this holiday shopping season and next year. The first one was held in 1995, and has been held most years in Los Angeles (minus a brief stint in Atlanta).

E3, the video game industry trade show, is dead. Long live E3 the consumer-facing show. Faced with an adapt-or-die situation the ESA's chosen to adapt, inviting 15,000 members of the public to attend the 2017 Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles next week. Maybe we'll see you there. For the rest of you, the next week will pass as usual, in a flurry of game announcements, demos, and trailers--and Microsoft's grand reveal of Xbox's Project Scorpio console.

Earlier this month, Microsoft did something console manufacturers haven't done for many years. It announced key details of its forthcoming Project Scorpio console – an update to the Xbox One – via a set of exclusive features on the video game news site, Eurogamer. In the modern games industry the strict control of information, especially regarding hardware, has become something of a corporate obsession. To cede control of a major revelation – in this case the technical specifications of a forthcoming machine – was a fascinating, but intelligent move. It added a sense of impartiality and validity to all the specs and stats that came out of the reveal, lending the information some real authority that would have been missing from an official press release. It let gamers start processing the meaning of the machine for themselves.

Comcast is introducing its new wireless service, Xfinity Mobile, later this year. Xfinity Mobile is trying to personalize wireless. How do you feel about Comcast as your wireless carrier? Comcast customers will soon have that option. The cable TV powerhouse spilled the beans on Xfinity Mobile, a new service launching mid-year that leverages Wi-Fi, as well as Verizon's 4G LTE cellular network.

If video game consoles were cars, Microsoft's Xbox division just revealed its Ferrari. The tech giant revealed the first details of Project Scorpio -- a high-end model of its Xbox One video game console launching during the Christmas holiday season -- in a report published Thursday to games website Eurogamer. Eurogamer says they traveled to Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, Wash., to get a first look at Scorpio as well as talk to the console's top creators. According to tech specs revealed in the report, Scorpio will boast an improved processors (31% faster than Xbox One), and more memory compared to its chief rival, Sony's PlayStation 4 Pro, launched last holiday. Scorpio will also support 4K Ultra HD Blu-ray discs, and runs its own custom-built graphics processing unit.

The PlayStation 4 Pro has just one problem, but it's a doozy: I can't show you why it exists. Sony's souped-up $399 super-console, due Nov. 10, is all about making things faster, or prettier, or both. But one of its chief attractions, 4K graphics (or let's call them "4K-ish"), needs an "ultra high definition" 4K television to shine -- a format with roughly four times the visual fidelity of today's mere "high def" 1080p displays. The 43-incher I bought with those features to run the PS4 Pro unit Sony sent over set me back in the vicinity of $800. And it's conveying to someone why they'd want to drop that kind of dinero on this console that's the trick.

This year's E3 may be over, but we'll feel the ripples for months. Here's a rundown of some of the heavily scrutinized industry trade show's biggest events and takeaways. It'll need more in the years to come, but for E3 2016 at least, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild seems like the knockout punch so many have been hoping for. The action-adventure game, which stars longtime series hero Link, transpires for the first time in an open world festooned with objectives, unique biomes and completely new-to-the-series activities. You can cook, (manually) jump, climb nearly anything and go anywhere you like in a painterly multifaceted playground as vast as any yet seen. It's a full rethink of the Zelda formula, reformulated from the footings up, and crafted so that players of the Wii U version won't feel left behind by the "NX" version when the game ships for both Wii U and Nintendo's forthcoming platform reboot next March.

Microsoft made some big announcements about the future of the Xbox gaming platform this week at the annual E3 conference. Among the top headlines were two new pieces of hardware: A slimmer version of the company's current console called the Xbox One S, as well as a turbocharged "Project Scorpio" model coming next year. TIME sat down with Xbox Chief Phil Spencer to talk about the company's future gaming plans. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Project Scorpio is designed to run games at 4K, the latest and greatest television resolution.

At the 2016 E3 conference, USA TODAY's Brett Molina speaks to CEO of Insomniac Games, Ted Price, about a new Spiderman game unvielded for the Playstation 4. Shawn Layden, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment America and Chairman of SIE Worldwide Studios, speaks on stage during the PlayStation E3 2016 Press Conference at The Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, California. Even before the doors opened to the Electronic Entertainment Expo, the video game industry dazzled game players. Press events from Microsoft, Sony and other video game publishers on Sunday and Monday offered a peek into the future of the video game industry. Here are 10 announcements -- in no particular order -- that generated the most buzz during E3 2016. It's more than a year away from making its debut, but Project Scorpio certainly carries a lot of potential.