America's national security organizations have begun applying AI to more quickly and effectively produce intelligence assessments. Speaking at the GovernmentCIO Media & Research AI: National Security virtual event, Director of the National Security Agency (NSA) Research Directorate Mark Segal discussed how these new capacities are assisting intelligence analysts in better processing and sorting large quantities of often complex and disparate information. In outlining the NSA's research priorities, Segal noted that both AI and machine-learning capacities already showed promise for better organizing the large pools of variable data their analysts sort through in producing regular assessments. "One of the challenges that we have found AI to be particularly useful for is looking through the sheer amount of data that's created every day on this planet. Our analysts are looking at some of this data trying to understand it, and understand what its implications are for national security. The amount of data that we have to sort is going up pretty dramatically, but the number of people that we have who are actually looking at this data is pretty constant. So we're constantly looking for tools and technologies to help our analysts more effectively go through huge piles of data," Segal said.

In a rehearsal room at London's Young Vic theater last week, three dramatists were arguing with an artificial intelligence about how to write a play. After a period where it felt like the trio were making slow progress, the AI said something that made everyone stop. "If you want a computer to write a play, go and buy one. It won't need any empathy, it won't need any understanding," it said. "The computer will write a play that is for itself. It will be a play that will bore you to death."

In perinatal medicine, fetal weight is a sort of Goldilocks problem: it has to be just right. If the fetus is too small, it may not be developing properly; too large and the mother faces much greater risks in childbirth. The trouble is, there is no way to directly measure fetal weight. Instead, doctors must rely on estimates that are calculated using a formula that includes the fetus's head and abdominal circumference, and the length of the femur. Unfortunately, this formula isn't always as accurate as doctors would like.

With plans for brand new megacities, allowing women to drive and foreign-run cinemas, Saudi Arabia's Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman is on a charm offensive trying to promote his country as an international investment destination. The strategy aims at luring foreign money to help the world's biggest oil exporter create a new economy away from oil dependency in order to prevent future instability. On Wednesday, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) said Riyadh's break-even oil price for 2018 is likely to be around $88 a barrel. North Sea Brent is currently trading down around $74 a barrel. And although the oil price is up considerably from 2014, the director of the IMF's Middle East department Jihad Azour said the focus in Saudi needs to remain on economic and social reforms.

On Wednesday, video-game company Blizzard Entertainment launched the inaugural season of its competitive Overwatch League, the first major test of its dedicated esports broadcast facility in Burbank since it opened last year. Blizzard Arena Los Angeles is a roughly 450-seat, 50,000-square-foot, three-studio facility housed in the Burbank Studios, former home of "The Tonight Show." From January until June this year, Blizzard will host the Overwatch League, or OWL, the company's push for an esports organization modeled after traditional sports. Twelve permanent teams representing national and international cities will face each other in regular-season matches, then the best teams will later compete in playoffs to determine the first-ever OWL champion. Along with competing for their share of a $3.5-million prize pool, each player who has a spot on any of the team's rosters is guaranteed a minimum $50,000 salary, health benefits and a retirement plan.

In the soundstage where Johnny Carson and Jay Leno spent four decades filming "The Tonight Show," a former Washington State computer science student named Seagull is pursuing a South Korean teenager with a very big gun. Hundreds of mostly millennial fans in the renamed, sold-out Blizzard Arena put down their Doritos and roar for the combat between these six-player teams, eventually rising in ecstasy when the Dallas Fuel earn an unexpected point against the powerhouse Seoul Dynasty. He plays video games for a minimum $50,000 salary, health benefits, a retirement savings plan and a chunk of $3.5 million in prize money. Esports history was made Wednesday night with the debut of the Overwatch League, the first attempt to present elite computer gaming within a traditional North American sports structure comparable to the NBA or NFL. The league's 12 franchises represent cities from Shanghai to London, and they build teamwork and stress player development while competing on a weekly schedule stretching into summer.