Ford announced an investment in artificial-intelligence company Argo AI to foster development of its self-driving car technology.
Ford has already been testing self-driving car technology.
Ford announced today a $1 billion investment in machine-learning startup Argo AI. Through the agreement, Argo AI will work exclusively for Ford on the software brains to enable self-driving.
Ford previously announced it will offer a self-driving car by 2021 , although it would likely be limited to urban environments and be used by ride-hailing services as a kind of robo-taxi.
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania-based Argo AI is a new company dedicated to developing a software system to guide self-driving cars. CEO Bryan Salesky said of the investment that it would allow Argo AI to recruit the kind of talent needed to develop these systems.
Ford CEO Mark Fields said, «For accounting purposes, Argo AI will be a subsidiary of Ford, but have a lot of independence. Its sole focus over the next five years will be developing self-driving software for Ford vehicles. »
Self-driving, or autonomous, cars use sensors, GPS and onboard computing power to recognize their environments and take passengers to destinations. Almost every major automaker is developing this technology, while the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration has been supporting it as a means of reducing the 32,500 fatalities that occur on US roads every year.
Ford Chief Technical Officer Raj Nair pointed out that Ford will concentrate on building the hardware platform, the physical car, and use its expertise to develop toward large-scale manufacturing. Argo AI will focus on the software side.
Fields also said that Argo AI will look into licensing its technology to other automakers at a later date.
Ford and Argo AI announce an investment in self-driving cars. From right to left, Argo AI’s Peter Rander and Bryan Salesky, and Ford’s Mark Fields and Raj Nair.

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The way independently-created games are making their way to Valve’s Steam service is about to undergo a big change. According to a…
The way independently-created games are making their way to Valve’s Steam service is about to undergo a big change. According to a post on its official blog , Valve will be replacing Steam Greenlight with a new and very different service called Steam Direct, starting this spring.
Steam Greenlight debuted in the summer of 2012 and provided a pathway for independent developers to make their way onto the enormous Steam marketplace. The service allowed developers to submit their games for approval by the community. Users vote on the titles they like and in turn help Valve decide which games actually become available on Steam.
Steam Direct kicks the doors wide open on that idea. To put a game on Steam through the Direct initiative, no voting or popularity contests are required. Valve says in its post that developers will fill out a set of digital paperwork «similar to the process of applying for a bank account. » Then they’ll pay a «recoupable application fee» that Valve says hasn’t been set but will be somewhere between $100 and $5,000, depending on the feedback the company gets from active and prospective developers.
Games are being added to Steam at a faster pace than ever. More games have been added to Steam overall in 2016 than in any other single year, accounting for 38% of all games currently on the service. It’s already tough to dig through the piles of junk games to find good ones, even with Greenlight supposedly helping to filter them. If Valve sets the Steam Direct fee too low, it could make the problem even worse. On the other hand, setting the fee too high may push out developers with smaller budgets or in developing countries. Communities have also used Greenlight as an excuse and method to harass developers , and developers in turn have used game keys to bribe their way into pledges from gamers.
Valve is a game company beloved by many gamers, but its reputation for taking care of the services has suffered in recent years—digging around in places like the Steam subreddit reveals countless stories of disappointment by users and developers alike. Steam Direct has the potential to improve on the idea started by Greenlight, but Valve will need to devote time and energy to making it work rather than just putting up a kiosk in their already-cluttered store and hoping everything works out.

© Source: http://techreport.com/news/31426/steam-greenlight-will-metamorphose-into-steam-direct
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The LG Watch Sport, which features LTE as well as WiFi connectivity, is one of the first smartwatches to support Android Wear 2.0.
On Feb. 8, Google announced the rollout of its long-awaited wearable operating system, Android Wear 2.0. Google also announced it had partnered with LG to develop the first two Android Wear 2.0 devices, the LG Watch Style and the LG Watch Sport. While both devices include a number of useful features, the LG Watch Sport is the more sophisticated option of the pair, offering wireless connectivity over LTE networks. So this slide show will focus on the Sport model. In addition, the LG Watch Sport features a 1.4-inch round display, is certified for water- and dust-resistance and comes with near-field communication technology for mobile payment applications It supports Google’s mobile apps including Google Play and can exchange data with Android and Apple iOS devices. In the following slides, eWEEK will talk about the LG Watch Sport’s features and explain why both Google and LG believe it will be a fine competitor to the market leader Apple Watch. Read on to learn more about LG Watch Sport.

© Source: http://www.eweek.com/mobile/slideshows/lg-watch-sport-designed-to-take-advantage-of-android-wear-2.0.html
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Cisco’s 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report reveals a dramatic rise in spam volume as well as an increase in server vulnerabilities.
Security breaches aren’t just a nuisance. They can also have real financial impact on the organizations that are exploited. That’s one of the many high-level findings from the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR). The massive 110-page report provides insights from Cisco’s own research efforts as well as a survey that received responses from 3,000 IT executives from around the world. Among the reports’ findings is that spam volumes rose is 2016, accounting for about 65 percent of total email volume that Cisco monitors with its platforms. Just because an email is identified as spam, doesn’t however necessarily mean that it’s malicious. In fact only 8 percent of spam was found to be malicious, according to Cisco. Also of note is the fact that client-side vulnerabilities declined by 8 percent, while server vulnerabilities grew by 34 percent year-over-year as attackers shifted their focus. The survey portion of Cisco’s report reveals a direct correlation between attacks and business impact, with 29 percent of organizations losing revenue as the result of an attack. This slide show takes a look at more findings from the Cisco 2017 Annual Cybersecurity Report (ACR).

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Ordinary citizens with no connection to terrorism are caught up in surveillance by the US, but have little right to redress, Dublin’s Commercial Court heard on Friday 10th February. US attorney, Ashley Gorski, who specialises in US surveillance for the American Civil Liberties Union …
Ordinary citizens with no connection to terrorism are caught up in surveillance by the US, but have little right to redress, Dublin’s Commercial Court heard on Friday 10 th February.
US attorney, Ashley Gorski, who specialises in US surveillance for the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU), told the court that US surveillance law allows “extraordinary access” to the private data of non-US citizens.
Gorski was speaking on the 4 th day of a three week hearing into the legality of data transfers between the EU and the US brought by the Irish Data Protection Commissioner, following an original complaint by Austrian lawyer, Max Schrems against Facebook.
The case, which will test the legality of legal agreements — known as Standard Contractual Clauses (SCCs) — which allow data transfers between the EU and the US, has potentially huge implications for US-EU privacy rights.
Gorski, told the court that the American government claims “broad authority” to acquire communications and data of non-US people located abroad.
The vast majority of those subject to US surveillance have “no viable avenue” to get “meaningful “ redress for violation of their rights resulting from such surveillance, she said.
The US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act 1978 (FISA) and presidential Executive Order 12333, allows the US government “extraordinary access” to the private communications and data of US and non-US persons around the world, Gorski said.
The case stems from a complaint by in June 2013 by Schrems to the Irish Data Protection Commissioner (DPC), following the Snowden disclosures on US warrantless surveillance programmes including Prism .
Shcrems alleged that Facebook Ireland’s transfer of his personal data to the US was unlawful.
Ireland’s Data Protection Commissioner, Helen Dixon , has formed a “provisional” view that there are “deficiencies” over the rights of EU citizens to access remedies under US law for any breach of their data protection rights.
The court has been asked to decide whether to make a referral to the European Court of Justice (CJEU) to decide whether SCCs are legally valid and provide adequate protection for the rights of EU citizens.
The huge potential implications of the case for EU-US trade and privacy rights are underlined by the US government’s involvement in litigation in the Irish courts.
It will argue “significantly enhanced” protections have been put in place in recent years to ensure privacy rights of EU citizens are not at risk from transatlantic data flows.
The US government claims that any finding by the Irish or European courts that the safeguards are inadequate could have “sweeping” commercial ramifications for data flows and risk undermining international co-operation to confront “common threats.”
The Irish High Court ruled in favour Schrems in June 2014, in a judgement which included a determination that the US was engaged in “mass and indiscriminate surveillance.”
The case caused shockwaves when the European Court of Justice ruled that the legal agreement used to govern data transfers between the EU and the US, Safe Harbour, was invalid in October 2015.
Facebook Ireland switched from the Safe Harbour to Standard Contractual Clauses following the ruling, prompting Schrems to file a revised complaint over the legality of SCCs.
The Irish Data Protection Commissioner, brought the current case after both the Irish High Court and the European Court of Justice, ordered her investigate Schrems’ complaint.
She decided she could not complete her investigation without a ruling from the CJEU on the validity of three European Commission decisions of 2001, 2004 and 2010 approving the SCCs.
The case continues.

© Source: http://www.computerweekly.com/news/450412774/Ordinary-citizens-with-no-terror-links-caught-by-US-surveillance-court-hears
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