As the threat of wildfire worsens in California and across the world, a growing number of federal agencies, nonprofit organizations and tech companies are racing to deploy new technology that will help combat flames from a whole new vantage point: outer space. New satellite missions backed by NASA, Google, SpaceX, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection and other groups were announced this week and promise to advance early wildfire detection and help reduce fire damage by monitoring Earth from above. Collectively, the roster of big names, billionaires, government groups and nongovernmental organizations reflects a considerable interest in using new technology to solve some of humanity's biggest problems. Fire weather days have increased in Western U.S. over the last 50 years, with some of the largest jumps in California, according to a new report by Climate Central, a nonprofit news outlet that reports on climate change. Among them is the Earth Fire Alliance, a global nonprofit coalition that recently unveiled its vision for a constellation of more than 50 satellites that will focus specifically on wildfires and their ecological effects.

Experts discuss what is at stake in the AI race between the United States and China, warning it could'dictate the future of humanity.' As artificial intelligence (AI) systems rapidly advance, the U.S. and China are both investing time and resources into developing the technology, but experts are divided on who controls the most advanced systems, who will be the front-runner to shape free speech and power in modern society. "The race between the U.S. and China, I think it's going to dictate the future of humanity," Dr. Michael Capps, the CEO of Diveplane, told Fox News Digital. "The Chinese government, Chinese military, and Chinese technology are all working in concert to win the AI race," he added. "In the United States, I would say that US technologists are working on it really hard, but not the government, and not the military. President Xi is 100% focused on it. Putin has said whoever wins the air race, wins World War III before it happens."

"The new space race at the geopolitical level is for computational power. Who can gather the most data and process that data the fastest? That is why both China and the US, frankly the EU as well, are spending a lot of money on quantum computers, incredibly fast supercomputers. And all of these things require chips," she explains.

Thankfully, in many cases, we live up to it. But our present digital reality is quite different, even sobering. Fighting terrorists for nearly 20 years after 9/11, we remained a flip-phone military in what is now a smartphone world. Infrastructure to support a robust digital force remains painfully absent. Consequently, service members lead personal lives digitally connected to almost everything and military lives connected to almost nothing.

"We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters" -Peter Thiel The closing quarter of the twentieth century was peak tech innovation in the United States. AT&T's Bell Labs invented the information age with the transistor and data networking, and many transformative technologies tangential to its core business: from solar cells to the Unix operating system to lasers.1 Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) brought about human-computer interaction with the initial computer mouse, as well as laser printing and Ethernet networking.2 In the 80's Pixar was born, creating the first ever computer-animated sequence in a feature film with novel computer-generated imagery (CGI).3,4 At the same time Gates and Allen were hacking at something special that soon revolutionized computing, as were Wozniak and Jobs.5,6 Amidst the heyday of invention in the world of bits, the "space race" brought about massive innovation and accomplishments in the world of atoms: government competition between the US and Russia put humans on the moon for the first time.

"We wanted flying cars, instead we got 140 characters" -Peter Thiel The closing quarter of the twentieth century was peak tech innovation in the United States. AT&T's Bell Labs invented the information age with the transistor and data networking, and many transformative technologies tangential to its core business: from solar cells to the Unix operating system to lasers.1 Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) brought about human-computer interaction with the initial computer mouse, as well as laser printing and Ethernet networking.2 In the 80's Pixar was born, creating the first ever computer-animated sequence in a feature film with novel computer-generated imagery (CGI).3,4 At the same time Gates and Allen were hacking at something special that soon revolutionized computing, as were Wozniak and Jobs.5,6 Amidst the heyday of invention in the world of bits, the "space race" brought about massive innovation and accomplishments in the world of atoms: government competition between the US and Russia put humans on the moon for the first time.

Elon Musk is a headline-maker, for sure. Perhaps that means that some of the technological magic of SpaceX is lost in the media vacuum. It's 50 years since man first landed on the moon, a crowning achievement of our species technologically and one of the most culturally defining moments of a century. In 1969, NASA landed human beings on a satellite that hangs in the sky with processing power 1,300 times smaller than that of a Nokia 3310. What on Earth – or off of it, for that matter – could we be capable of in 2019?

Breaking down the workforce options for AI developers to structure raw data for machine learning. While it may seem like artificial intelligence (AI) has hit the big time, a lot of work needs to be done before its potential really come to life. In our modern take on the 20th-century space race, AI developers are hard at work on the next big breakthrough that will solve a problem and establish their expertise in the market. It takes a lot of hard work for innovators to deliver on their vision for AI, and it's the data that serves as the lifeblood for advancement. One of the biggest challenges AI developers face today is how to process all the data that feeds into machine learning systems, a process that requires a reliable workforce with relevant domain expertise and high standards for quality.

Decades before anyone had built a rocket, earthlings had already argued in science fiction about who is more suited for space travel: humans or machines. Today, the debate drags on as private players like SpaceX and government agencies like NASA vie to send people to the moon, Mars and beyond. But such missions are costly, and human bodies remain sensitive to space's harsh conditions. Maybe robots would simply prove better, cheaper, faster. In Science Smackdown, we let experts argue the evidence.

After 15 years of diligently exploring the surface of Mars, the Opportunity rover finally succumbed to the elements and went offline Feb. 13. As obituaries and tributes to "Oppy" surfaced, fans caught a glimpse into the robot's final moments: the last picture it sent, its last words, the last-ditch attempts to revive it. Scientists wept as they said their final farewells. As employees swayed and embraced, mission control sent one final transmission to Oppy: Billie Holiday's 1944 recording of "I'll Be Seeing You." The muted, intimate timbre of Holiday's voice helped millions say goodbye to "the little robot who could": I'll find you in the morning sun, I'll be looking at the moon, But I'll be seeing you.