Fox News senior national correspondent William La Jeunesse reports on proposed changes to California's electric bills on'Special Report.' Power saver programs are utility-sponsored demand response initiatives that help reduce electricity usage during periods of peak demand. These programs typically target central air conditioners (AC) and heat pumps, since cooling equipment drives spikes in summer energy demand. In exchange for incentives such as bill credits or rebates, participating homeowners allow the utility to temporarily adjust or cycle their HVAC systems on hot days. I recently received an email from Leah, an HVAC professional based in Rio Rancho, New Mexico.

"PonderNet tries to find a sweet spot between training prediction accuracy, computational cost, and generalisation." As humans, we think many times before speaking our thoughts out loud. But, can we expect the same from machines? Last week, Deepmind introduced PonderNet, a new algorithm that allows artificial neural networks to learn to think for a while before answering. Halting to think is something very familiar to humans.

Tech experts have long warned about the dark side of virtual assistant AI, from Alexa to Siri, but the masses haven't listened. Now Fox is kicking it up a notch with their upcoming drama, NeXt, about Artificial Intelligence that gets super personal while creating human misery. Creator and executive producer Manny Coto brought his cast, including John Slattery, to Television Critic's Association winter press tour in Pasadena to give a first look at the series coming to Fox this spring. The NeXt in the title refers to an artificial intelligence project that takes its programming to extremes as it seeks to wipe out the humans who want to thwart its goals. Coto told reporters that the series idea actually came from a creepy incident involving his son and their Amazon Alexa. "My son woke me up and said, 'Alexa started talking to me at three a.m." Unsettled, the showrunner said they never got to the bottom of why their Alexa went midnight rogue several times, but it got him thinking about what we're allowing into our homes.

There are lots of reasons why colonizing space seems compelling. The popular astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson argues that it would stimulate the economy and inspire the next generation of scientists. Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX, argues that "there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multiplanetary…to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen." And the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has conjectured that if humanity fails to colonize space within 100 years, we could face extinction. To be sure, humanity will eventually need to escape Earth to survive, since the sun will make the planet uninhabitable in about 1 billion years.

There are lots of reasons why colonizing space seems compelling. The popular astronomer Neil deGrasse Tyson argues that it would stimulate the economy and inspire the next generation of scientists. Elon Musk, who founded SpaceX, argues that "there is a strong humanitarian argument for making life multiplanetary…to safeguard the existence of humanity in the event that something catastrophic were to happen." And the late astrophysicist Stephen Hawking has conjectured that if humanity fails to colonize space within 100 years, we could face extinction. To be sure, humanity will eventually need to escape Earth to survive, since the sun will make the planet uninhabitable in about 1 billion years.

"Artificial intelligence" (AI) is an opaque term with no commonly agreed definition and a disputed scope. We routinely use it to represent a range of diverse technologies that have the power to bring disruptive changes around the world. Whether businesses understand the complexities or not, many are scrambling to incorporate "AI" into their practices and their branding. Given the current buzz around the term, surely it makes sense to capitalize on the interest. Why wouldn't you want people looking at your company to immediately think "AI"?

"Artificial intelligence" (AI) is an opaque term with no commonly agreed definition and a disputed scope. We routinely use it to represent a range of diverse technologies that have the power to bring disruptive changes around the world. Whether businesses understand the complexities or not, many are scrambling to incorporate "AI" into their practices and their branding. Given the current buzz around the term, surely it makes sense to capitalize on the interest. Why wouldn't you want people looking at your company to immediately think "AI"?

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Automation has become an incredibly hot topic in the tech world lately. It was the theme of the most popular items featured at the annual tech gadget conference, CES 2017, held earlier this month in Las Vegas. The show featured self-driving cars (which are also the main focus of all the biggest car shows in the country this year), robots, and Amazon's Echo, a voice assistant device that Amazon sold millions of during this past holiday season. More and more of our lives are becoming automated. In fact, most of my career coaching business is automated! Apps like Uber and Lyft make it possible to get a personal driver at your doorstep with the touch of a couple buttons.

People who text and drive may want to think twice, as there could soon be more than the police on their case. An AI-enhanced speed camera has been designed that will catch people on their phones and notify the authorities directly. The futuristic technology could be used to monitor behaviours including leaving suspicious packages, drivers distracted by mobile devices, and intruders trying to access secure locations. People who text and drive may want to think twice, as soon there could be more than the police on their case. Advanced algorithms reside inside cameras themselves, and information processing occurs instantaneously, rather than the information needing to be sent to the cloud to be processed.