From Big Ben to Battersea Power Station, London's landmarks have been painstakingly recreated using tiny virtual bricks in Minecraft. Now, one of the capital's most disastrous events – the Great Fire of London – is about to be put on the pixelated map. The historic blaze of 1666, which gutted the medieval part of the city 350 years ago, will be portrayed using three different maps within the video game. The historic blaze of 1666, which gutted the medieval part of the city 350 years ago, will be portrayed using three different maps within the video game, Minecraft. Minecraft was created in 2009.

Consumers can look forward to a future increasingly defined by a global voice, and dominated by robots, the Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual and augmented reality (the last of which has become considerably more plausible since the release of Pokemon Go), according to a new trends report by Toronto-based non-profit innovation hub MaRS. Arguably more fascinating than the report's conclusion, however, is its methods: To determine the trends that will define tech's future, authors Farah Momen and Sue McGill calculated the startups that were receiving the most funding, then divided them into sectors. "By analyzing the capital raised over the past year, we can understand: a) which consumer and commerce verticals are seeing the most activity here in Canada (such as wearables and foodtech); and b) which specific, innovative consumer and enterprise business-to-business companies are gaining traction in the market," Momen and McGill wrote in a July 7 press release announcing the report. While ecommerce might be delivering a wider variety of products to consumers than ever before, the final purchase decision is still frequently influenced by their shopping experience, Momen and McGill write – and advancements in VR and AR have created new opportunities for companies to provide an immersive, unforgettable experience, with manufacturers such as Lexus and Volvo implementing virtual test-driving simulations, and Ikea adding an AR feature to its mobile app that lets viewers virtually place and view nearly 300 of the Swedish furniture giant's products in their homes. Sure, we all know about Alexa and Cortana, but more interesting to Momen and McGill is the role that digital shopping assistants could play in retail's future, with companies like Stitch Fix already delivering monthly boxes of curated items chosen by a combination of machine and human stylists.

The views expressed below are my own and do not reflect those of my employer or its clients. The underlying assumption is that the main objective of science and technology is to help solve the biggest challenges faced by humans, to name a few; climate change, cancer, incompetent rulers, etc. The objective is not necessarily the creation of maximum economic value (the two are not mutually exclusive in theory at least). The movement of science and technology is towards the shores of artificial intelligence (AI) coupled with the hope that it might unlock some of the biggest mysteries of our world. We can all agree that there is a lot of hype about AI.

Recruitment is a prime candidate for automation through artificial intelligence and machine learning, but what does this mean for the human side of hiring? The manual nature of many hiring processes has seen the recruitment sector jump to the front of the HR queue in terms of adopting artificial intelligence. Predictive recruitment analytics: are you ready for the future? Even though the market is still immature and uptake is at the earliest of stages, machine-learning software is making its presence felt. But how significant an impact is it likely to have on HR and recruitment over the next few years?

Slack's outstanding UX propelled the startup to unicorn status amidst a flurry of competitors, responsive design flourished and gave birth to a new era of mobile friendliness and device agnosticism, and the web as a whole experienced a shift in consciousness as sites became easier to use, apps became more intuitive to navigate, and services became all the more delightful and engaging to interact with. I am proud to say that the field has finally come of age and found itself. At long last, UX Evangelists, Digital Empaths, and Interaction Designers have risen to the highest echelons of the creative class to further the bleeding edge of technology, design, and user delight. With UX Evangelists like Tobias van Schneider, Jennifer Aldrich and Chase Buckley behind the wheel, we are steering towards a brighter future. A future where little big details bring about user delight at every corner, where device agnostic pixel perfection is the norm, and where simple day-to-day experiences engage, excite, and stimulate users in new and innovative ways. So where do you fit into all of this?

The ortho giant's purchase of French surgical robotics firm Medtech could give competitor Mazor Robotics a run for its money, according to one analyst. Zimmer Biomet has officially entered the surgical robotics market with its acquisition of a majority of shares in the French firm Medtech, maker of a robotics platform for neurological and spine procedures. The Warsaw, IN-based company, a leader in the musculoskeletal space, announced July 18 that it had purchased almost 59% of shares in Medtech and also intends to mount an all-cash simplified tender offer to acquire the remaining shares. Zimmer Biomet will continue to operate Medtech out of its current headquarters in Montepellier, France, which will also serve as a "center of excellence" for Zimmer Biomet's surgical robotics development efforts, according to a joint press release from the companies. With the Medtech acquisition, Zimmer Biomet gains the Rosa platform, which is currently used in 20 hospitals in Europe, North America, Asia, and the Middle East, according to the company's website.

When most people picture a drone, they probably either think of military-style behemoths or hobbyist quadcopters. But what if you couldn't tell a drone from something you expect to be in the sky, like a bird? That's the question raised after reports of what appears to be a bird-shaped unmanned aerial vehicle going down in Somalia. The alleged drone looks like it has a crudely welded metal body that would resemble a bird of prey if viewed from the ground. Pictures of the craft were shared on the Twitter account of someone who identifies himself as Adam A. Omar, who said the drone crashed in Mogadishu's Waabari district.

Artificial intelligence is usually associated with futuristic sci-fi movies and the rise of the machines against humanity. What many people don't realise is that it's commonplace today, and something you've probably not noticed has become a critical part of your life. The intelligence Facebook uses to make friends suggestions or how Google photos recognises faces and places are both examples of AI, and machine learning, in action. AI is also being used in organisations worldwide to augment and assist human employees to do their jobs better and smarter. In South Africa, Stellenbosch-based CLEVVA has developed an AI platform that enables companies to rapidly and easily deploy Virtual Advisors across every aspect of their businesses.

Both the bookies and the pollsters predicted the outcome of the European Referendum incorrectly, but do you know who got it right? According to analysis from Pheme, of the 291,000 tweets where a vote was expressed, leave votes outnumbered remain significantly – and that's not even Pheme's main aim. Named after the Greek goddess of fame and rumours, the project, which began in 2014, is designed to assess online rumours, to help journalists determine what's true and what's made up. "Professor Rob Procter (now at Warwick) and I were discussing the manual analysis his team did with the Guardian on analysing rumours circulating during the England riots in 2011 – for example, that the London Eye was on fire," says Kalina Bontcheva, Professor of Text Analytics at the University of Sheffield, who works on Pheme. "My background is in automatic text analysis, so we discussed how rumour analysis and detection can be automated or, at least, support be offered to decision makers to help them with the process."

One of the millennium development goals of the United Nations is to eradicate extreme poverty by 2030. That's a complex task, since poverty has many contributing factors. But one of the more significant is the 750 million people around the world who are unable to read and write, two-thirds of which are women. There are plenty of organizations that can help, provided they know where to place their resources. So identifying areas where literacy rates are low is an important challenge.