In The News

Financial Times: AI’s Rapid Advance Sparks Call for Code for Robots

John Thornhill September 22, 2017
The artificial intelligence, or AI, field has experienced great advances, with recent innovations enabling robots to become increasingly autonomous. Many AI inventions, such as Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s Siri, are benefiting society and quickly become routine for users. On the opposite end of the spectrum, the potential for robot-induced destruction is emerging. In August, two Chinese chat bots...

The Globe and Mail: China Used Research Mission to Test Trade Route Through Canada’s Northwest Passage

Robert Fife and Steven Chase September 13, 2017
China used a research icebreaker, the Snow Dragon, to check if Chinese cargo ships could rely on Canada’s Northwest Passage rather than the Panama Canal, reducing delivery time by 20 percent. The report came from Xinhau News Agency, which “also reported that China sent six merchant ships through Russia's Northeast Passage this summer as the world's second-largest economy hopes to take...

Wired: The Hard Consequences of Google’s Soft Power

Nitasha Tiku September 4, 2017
Google and parent company Alphabet resist being perceived as a global monopoly in need of additional regulation. Regulators around the globe struggle to keep up with the many high-tech firms that both provide an array of information and collect data on user behavior. The European Union fined Google €2.5 billion for prioritizing its comparison-shopping service in search engine results and expects...

EOS: USGS Library Cuts Would Harm Research, Education

Kimberly M. S. Cartier September 3, 2017
An austere US budget proposal targets education, research and programs that analyze climate change. “The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Library, home to one of the largest Earth and natural science collections in the world, faces a 52% funding decrease in the fiscal year (FY) 2018 federal budget proposed by President Donald Trump,” reports Kimberly M. S. Cartier for EOS Earth & Space Science...

Council on Foreign Relations: US Cyber Diplomacy Requires More Than an Office

David P. Fidler August 7, 2017
US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson has moved the Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, previously an office with a direct chain of command to the secretary of state, into the State Department’s Bureau of Economic and Business Affairs. The move may reflect administration-wide “marginalization of cyber issues in foreign policy,” writes David P. Fidler for the Council on Foreign Relations. “...

Associated Press: China’s Tech-Transfer Demands May Spark Pushback From US

August 2, 2017
China orchestrates special arrangements with foreign technology firm, requiring details on proprietary technology, blocking virtual private networks from devices in China, as well as applying strict search filters to discourage distribution of criticism of Chinese practices or information about the critics themselves. The Trump administration early on showed a willingness to overlook such...

MIT Technology Review: Biological Teleporter Could Speed Outbreak Response

Brian Alexander August 2, 2017
Synthetic Genomics Inc. linked a group of machines, including a DNA printer and robots, to transmit digital code and print viruses. The digital-to-biological converter, working with pre-loaded chemicals, is reported to have manufactured DNA of the flu virus. “Though still a prototype, instruments like it could one day broadcast biological information from sites of a disease outbreak to vaccine...