A solar-powered airplane finished crossing the United States on Saturday, landing in New York City after flying over the Statue of Liberty during its historic bid to circle the globe, the project team said. The spindly, single-seat experimental aircraft, dubbed Solar Impulse 2, arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport at about 4 a.m. local time after it took off about five hours beforehand at Lehigh Valley International Airport in Pennsylvania, the team reported on the airplane's website. Such a pleasure to land in New York! For the 14th time we celebrate sustainability," said the project's co-founder Andre Borschberg on Twitter after flying over the city and the Statue of Liberty during the 14th leg of the trip around the globe. The Swiss team flying the aircraft in a campaign to build support for clean energy technologies hopes eventually to complete its circumnavigation in Abu Dhabi, where the journey began in March 2015. The solar cr...
Prominent tech executives pledged $1bn (£659m) for OpenAI, to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to benefit humanity
The venture's backers include Tesla Motors and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, Paypal co-founder Peter Thiel, Indian tech giant Infosys and Amazon Web Services. Open AI says it expects its research - free from financial obligations - to focus on a "positivetelsa human impact". Scientists have warned that advances in AI could ultimately threaten humanity. Mr Musk recently told students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) that AI was humanity's "biggest existential threat". Last year, British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking told AI could potentially "re-design itself at an ever increasing rate", superseding humans by outpacing biological evolution. However, other experts have argued that the risk of AI posing any threat to humans remains remote. A statement on OpenAI's website said the venture aims "to advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need...