Musk Donates $10 Million to Keep AI From Going Rogue

The Future of Life Institute on Monday announced 37 winners of grant funding provided by Elon Musk and the Open Philanthropy Project. Musk contributed $10 million toward the effort. A total of $7 million will be awarded to fund the research teams for up to three years, with many of the projects beginning in September. Another $4 million is available to support research grants for areas that emerge as most promising. The teams will focus on the common goal of keeping artificial intelligence beneficial to humanity.

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Rick Perry and the Texas vs. California Tech War

A couple of weeks ago, I was waiting to do a CNBC slot on the Apple Watch in Asia -- the entire smartwatch class is having a lot of issues -- and I ran into Rick Perry, former governor of Texas, as he was coming out of the studio I was about to enter. For some reason, I thought he was going to be a typical entitled stuck-up jerk, like a lot of folks in his position are, but he wasn't. We started chatting about technology and jobs, and how he'd been focused as governor on getting tech companies to move to Texas from California.

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Microsoft Anchors Minecraft Strategy to Education

Microsoft wants to find ways to assist the pioneering teachers who have taught pupils through the sandbox construction game Minecraft. The company earlier this week launched its Minecraft in Education initiative to turn the pioneers into pillars. There was puzzlement over Microsoft's end game last September, when it purchased Mojang, the studio behind the multiplatform hit, in a $2.5 billion bet. Many thought Minecraft was at or near its peak. It turns out Microsoft has some novel plans for the game.

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The Tour de France's Tech Transformation

The 102nd running of the longest sporting event in the world, the Tour de France, begins Saturday. The race first took place in 1903, and it has continued every year since, except during WWI and WWII. In the 112 years since that first race, the technology utilized by the riders has changed dramatically. Today, the racers ride bikes with frames made of advanced carbon fiber. They have a total of 22 gears to help climb mountains and sprint to the finish line, and they can communicate with their team managers over race radios.

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FBI Hunts SF Bay Area Fiber-Optic Cable Cutters

The United States Federal Bureau of Investigation for the past year has been on the hunt for people slashing fiber-optic cables throughout the San Francisco Bay Area. The FBI called for the public's assistance in June, after 10 attacks had taken place. The 11th occurred on Tuesday, when someone severed cables used by Wave Broadband. Tuesday's attack knocked out service to customers in Alameda County, Sacramento and the San Francisco area, said FBI special agent Greg Wuthrich.

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New Android Malware Sprouting Like Weeds

Information stored on an Android smartphone or tablet is vulnerable to almost 4,900 new malware files each day, according to a new G Data SecurityLabs report. Cybercriminals' interest in the Android operating system has grown, the firm's Q1 2015 Mobile Malware Report revealed. "The report suggests that Android devices are becoming a bigger target for the bad guys and more profitable than in previous years," said Andy Hayter, security evangelist for G Data. The number of new malware samples in the first quarter increased 6.4 percent.

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5 Things the Apple App Store Could Do Better

I haven't been thrilled with app discovery on the App Store for years, and while Apple has been tweaking things to make it better, it's pretty easy to enter the iOS App Store, look around, and come to the conclusion that only an infinitesimal fraction of 1.5 million apps must be worthy of showing off -- and unfortunately, Disney's "Palace Pets in Whisker Haven" is one of them. Which raises the question: Are there really great apps that never see the light of day hiding out in the App Store, waiting for their chance to get recognized and shine?

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