Netflix's darkly addictive sci-fi series Black Mirror claims to show the'twisted, high-tech' of the near-future, but several technologies featured in the drama-filled episodes can already be found in our lives today. These include killer robot dogs, a social credit rating system and autonomous pizza delivery. In one of the most memorable recent episodes, 'The Entire History of You,' a contact lens featured a built-in camera that allowed humans to re-watch their memories. The concept is less futuristic than you might think, because Google may be already working on a similar device, while a startup is set to unleash a VR application that enables you to relive your experiences in a digital world, and Snapchat has released a device to capture memories. And let us not forget the second episode in the third series, when an augmented reality tester dies in both the natural and digital worlds.

China is using artificial intelligence to'improve' its court system by recommending laws, drafting documents and alerting'perceived human errors' in rulings. Judges must now consult the AI on every case by law, Beijing's Supreme Court said in an update on the system published this week, and if they go against its recommendation they must submit a written explanation for why. The AI has also been connected to police databases and China's Orwellian social credit system, handing it the power to punish people - for example by automatically putting a thief's property up for sale online. Beijing has hailed the new technology for making'a significant contribution to the judicial advancement of human civilisation' - while critics say it risks creating a world in which man is ruled by machine. China has plugged artificial intelligence into its'smart court' system - allowing it to make rulings, draft laws, and charge people with crimes (pictured, a Chinese court during Covid) China has been developing a'smart court' system since at least 2016, when Chief Justice Qiang Zhou called for technology to be used to improve the'fairness, efficiency, and credibility' of the judicial system.

A new report has claimed the Chinese government is now implementing cutting edge artificial intelligence to monitor the minds of dozens of Communist party officials. Researchers in China claimed to have developed software that can acutely analyze facial expressions and brain waves to monitor if subjects were attentive to "thought and political education." China's stringent police state has been radically upscaled over the past decade, using big data, machine learning, face recognition technology and artificial intelligence to build what many have labelled the world's most complex digital dictatorship. According to the Hefei Comprehensive National Science Centre, the high-tech development would be used to "further solidify their confidence and determination to be grateful to the party, listen to the party and follow the party." In a short clip, a subject was seen looking at screen at a kiosk, scrolling through exercises promoting party policy.

The US and EU are talking up the significance of their new pact on artificial intelligence, but a closer inspection indicates the two sides still have precious little common when it comes to regulating the technology – except a desire to take the moral high ground against China. The long-awaited agreement was reached when the Trade and Technology Council met for the first time on 29 September in Pittsburgh, with Brussels and Washington vowing to make sure AI systems are "innovative and trustworthy" and "respect universal human rights and shared democratic values". The EU and US will "seek to develop a mutual understanding on the principles underlining trustworthy and responsible AI," the agreement says. But exactly what this means in practice remains to be fleshed out. While both sides said they have noted each other's domestic regulatory proposals on AI, there is no mention of coordinating their approaches.

How to Unplug from the World-Gobbling Machine One year ago, on March 19, 2020, I took a walk in my neighborhood park, seeking to clear my mind. The governor had declared a state of emergency 11 days ago in response to the WHO's pronouncement of a global coronavirus pandemic. In the week that followed, I voluntarily transferred my counseling practice to video-only sessions, doing my part to participate in the "two weeks to flatten the curve" campaign that had spread virally via social media and other means of internet delivery. After all, "We're all in this together," I thought. But during my first week of teletherapy sessions, a new, involuntary form of curve-flattening had begun to sweep the country, starting in the California Bay Area, in imitation of the Chinese and Italian lockdowns. Earlier that day the California Governor had extended this lockdown to cover the entire state by executive decree. It seemed only a matter of time before the Oregon Governor would follow suit (she did ...

The Artificial Intelligence (AI) can be best described as a combination of algorithms embedded into an automated machine which will enable them have same level of "thinking intelligence" as that of human beings. It is deemed as one of the most important revolution in technology since computing was invented. The artificial intelligence is being projected change everything (and is doing in many industries). There is no one definition accepted by all experts of what artificial intelligence means . First, because it is a new, changing and experimental science.

Elon Musk believes the era of fighter jets is over and future warfare will be carried out by autonomous drones. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO made the prediction while speaking with US Air Force Lt. Gen. John Thompson at the Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Florida on Friday. 'Drone warfare is where the future will be. It's not that I want the future to be – it's just, this is what the future will be,' the billionaire said. Musk also believes that Lockheed Martin's F-35 fighter jet, is the Pentagon's most expensive weapons system, should have a competitor – and specifically a'drone fighter plane', according to CNBC.

This blog post is adapted from our June 10 response to the National Institute of Standards and Technology's (NIST) request for information (RFI) 2019-08818: Developing a Federal AI Standards Engagement Plan. This RFI was released in response to an Executive Order directing NIST to create a plan for the development of a set of standards for the acceptable use of AI technologies. Given the wide adoption of AI technologies and the lag in commensurate laws and regulations, this post aims to help NIST by highlighting the current state, plans, challenges, and opportunities in ethics and AI. In 2016 the European Union (EU) created the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) that would expand protections around EU citizens' personal data beginning in 2018. Meanwhile, China has extensively integrated AI technologies into their government and social structure via the China Social Credit System.

The US is trailing behind in the world's artificial intelligence arms race, a new report warns. The National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence explained China and Russia are ahead of the game and using this technology in their military operations to undermine US superiority. The US group urges officials to developed AI-powered security and defense technologies before the US falls victim to increased cyberattacks, disinformation campaigns and the erosion of individual privacy and civil liberties. The interim report was released on Tuesday, with the final report set to be out sometime next year. This document is set to be handed to the US Secretary of Defense next year and includes key steps the government can take to position the US in the top spot.

Samantha Hoffman is an analyst of Chinese security issues at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute (Aspi). She recently published a paper entitled Engineering Global Consent: The Chinese Communist Party's Data-Driven Power Expansion. Internet pioneers heralded a time when information would be set free, giving people everywhere unfiltered access to the world's knowledge and bringing about the decline of authoritarian regimes… that's not really happened has it? Bill Clinton said that, for China, controlling free speech online would be like "nailing Jell-O to the wall". I wish he had been right.