YVERDON-LES-BAINS, Switzerland/CHICAGO (Reuters) - In a field of sugar beet in Switzerland, a solar-powered robot that looks like a table on wheels scans the rows of crops with its camera, identifies weeds and zaps them with jets of blue liquid from its mechanical tentacles. Undergoing final tests before the liquid is replaced with weedkiller, the Swiss robot is one of new breed of AI weeders that investors say could disrupt the $100 billion pesticides and seeds industry by reducing the need for universal herbicides and the genetically modified (GM) crops that tolerate them. Dominated by companies such as Bayer, DowDuPont, BASF and Syngenta, the industry is bracing for the impact of digital agricultural technology and some firms are already adapting their business models. Herbicide sales are worth $26 billion a year and account for 46 percent of pesticides revenue overall while 90 percent of GM seeds have some herbicide tolerance built in, according to market researcher Phillips McDougall. "Some of the profit pools that are now in the hands of the big agrochemical companies will shift, partly to the farmer and partly to the equipment manufacturers," said Cedric Lecamp, who runs the $1 billion Pictet-Nutrition fund that invests in companies along the food supply chain.

Despite her rising profile internationally as a strong and hugely popular female voice in the technology sector, Dr Sue Black OBE is very modest for someone who has achieved a great deal of personal triumph while exploring what is important to herself. "It's a lot easier doing stuff you love than working in a job where you are not in control, yeah I work hard but at the same time it's a lot easier being charge of myself," she explains when asked about the numerous projects Black has wholeheartedly embraced, not least her campaign to Saving Bletchley Park, the birthplace of Alan Turing's Bombe machine, which led to her writing her debut book that has become the fasted crowdfunded book when published in 2016. Dr Black is a polite and enthusiastic person, and for the UK tech sector she is every bit the rock star it needs. Having received her OBE from The Queen last May, she has since been recognised by being inducted into Bima's Hall of Fame alongside the likes of Stephen Fry (co-incidentally one the highest profile champions of @savingbletchley), Dame Stephanie Shirley, Sir Jony Ive and Baroness Joanna Shields. "It's really nice to get recognition from organisations outside of academia who realise the potential of the work that I'm trying to do. I'm absolutely honoured and delighted to be recognised in this way because it means that the things that I really care about – other people really care about them as well and that is heart-warming for me that the change I am trying to make in the world is being recognised."

In a field of sugar beet in Switzerland, a solar-powered robot that looks like a table on wheels scans the rows of crops with its camera, identifies weeds and zaps them with jets of blue liquid from its mechanical tentacles. Undergoing final tests before the liquid is replaced with weedkiller, the Swiss robot is one of new breed of AI weeders that investors say could disrupt the $100billion pesticides and seeds industry by reducing the need for universal herbicides and the genetically modified (GM) crops that tolerate them. Dominated by companies such as Bayer, DowDuPont, BASF and Syngenta, the industry is bracing for the impact of digital agricultural technology and some firms are already adapting their business models. Herbicide sales are worth $26billion a year and account for 46 percent of pesticides revenue overall while 90 percent of GM seeds have some herbicide tolerance built in, according to market researcher Phillips McDougall. 'Some of the profit pools that are now in the hands of the big agrochemical companies will shift, partly to the farmer and partly to the equipment manufacturers,' said Cedric Lecamp, who runs the $1billion Pictet-Nutrition fund that invests in companies along the food supply chain.

ImpactAlpha, May 21 – Artificial intelligence has a big role to play in extending financial services to the next billion customers. A wonky new report highlights financial service providers in Africa that are wielding AI to lower costs, boost revenues and gain a competitive edge with low-income populations. The report from FIBR, a partnership of BFA consulting and MasterCard Foundation, makes the case that automation, machine learning, statistics and programming can help providers "micro-segment" customers and suit services to their finances. Artificial intelligence algorithms are only as good as their data, notes the report from the consulting firm BFA. "More diverse individuals -- including women, for example, or individuals from under-represented groups -- may identify sources of bias inherent in the data and processes that might have been missed otherwise."

Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a key part of the new technology mix in banks, according to a study by the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) for banking platform provider Temenos. You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid. This email address is already registered. You have exceeded the maximum character limit.

"The level of growth that AI stands to bring to the UAE's economy is unparalleled. The nation's leaders already understand the impact of this powerful technology, evidenced by the appointment of the first Minister of AI last year. While AI-led growth will be felt across a wide variety of industries, the financial services sector has the most to gain -- which isn't surprising, given that many of its jobs can be significantly augmented with AI and machine learning. In addition, Accenture reports have already shown that banking executives globally are taking action to transform their businesses through the use of AI," said Amr El Saadani, managing director of Accenture's Financial Services practice in the Middle East and Turkey. The report identifies five key strategies for policy makers to consider when looking to implement AI: growing the local talent pipeline using AI; advocating for a code of ethics for AI; becoming the global testbed for social AI; preparing the next generation of workers for the AI future; and minimising the impact of labour market dislocation.

Technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are fashioning how people interact with everything from food to healthcare -- and so, too, for religion. From electronic scriptures to robot priests, different faiths have absorbed new ideas from the world of technology to enhance mainstream religious practices. Other apps automatically adjust fasting times during the month of Ramadan, depending on the location of a device. In fact, Muslims are one of the most plugged-in religious communities due to the high concentration of young people aged between 16 and 30 across the Middle East and Asia. A survey by the Pew Research Center in 2017 showed that poorer Muslim-majority countries boast a large amount of people with smartphones.

The Gauteng department of infrastructure development has launched a programme using drones to monitor the progress of projects across the province. The initiative -- launched in Etwatwa‚ Ekurhuleni‚ on Monday -- uses drones in tandem with the nerve centre of the department‚ called Lutsinga Infrastructure House. It combines human intelligence‚ business intelligence and now also artificial intelligence to ensure that the entire value chain of project delivery is efficient and that projects are delivered in time‚ within cost and at the right quality. "It is possible for the public sector to be efficient and to be productive in what we do and that is exactly what we are demonstrating today. One of the things that we have looked at is that globally infrastructure performance is lagging behind other industries. Therefore over the past two years we've been working hard to introduce efficiencies across the value chain of development‚" said infrastructure development MEC Jacob Mamabolo.

EVERY DAY AROUND 10m people take an Uber. The company has made ride-hailing commonplace in more than 600 cities in 82 countries. But the Volvo XC90 picking its way through traffic on a wintry morning in Pittsburgh is no ordinary Uber. Climb into the back, and you will see a screen mounted between the front seats, showing a digital representation of the world around the car, with other vehicles, pedestrians and cyclists highlighted as clusters of blue dots. Tap the screen to say you are ready to leave, and the car starts to move.

When you look at the mammal that is Homo sapiens in the context of geological time, the approximately 200,000 years we have been around is a tiny, tiny amount of time -- less than 0.005 percent of Earth's existence. And yet, so significant has been our species' impact on the planet, that climatologists and geologists have named our era the Anthropocene epoch, because for the first time in the 4.1-billion-year history of life on Earth we humans, as a species, are changing what happens to and on the planet significantly, rather than simply being the observers and subjects of natural forces. In that 200,000 years since Homo sapiens first emerged in Africa and spread across the planet, we have evolved to become a "reasonably smart" apex primate at the top of the food chain in a closed system called planet Earth. You could argue that we're only "reasonably smart" because whilst we are sentient, have consciousness, self-awareness, intellectual capacity, language, moral reasoning, and the ability to create, we haven't yet figured out how to live without degrading our own environment through pollution, overpopulation, overexploitation of natural resources and species extinction. As we celebrate International Biological Diversity Day this month, it's worth taking stock of where humankind finds itself, and what the future holds for the species at the top of the food chain. Humankind's "reasonable smarts" come courtesy of what might be the most amazingly complex thing in the universe: the human brain.