Pedestrians walk along a sidewalk in Tokyo. Japan is responding to a government campaign to get the country's chronically overworked populace to leave the office by 3 p.m. on the last Friday of every month and go spend some cash. They call it Premium Friday. Japanese companies have long been known for their widespread practice of overtime, with employees toiling late into the night after the official end of the business day. Japanese drone startup Blue Innovation has offered a technological solution, a special drone called T-Frend designed to reduce overtime by flying around the office after hours, playing loud music and taking pictures of any staff who are still working and reporting them to management.

It was his unique teaching style that got me and a bunch of my friends hooked to this topic and field – his enthusiasm towards the material, the intuitive examples that he gives…,

Imagine you work for a UK bicycle manufacturer. As you assemble the bicycles, you sandblast the joints in the frame before painting them. You hold the frame against the sandblaster in a sealed box, holding it in place with industrial-strength gloves. But imagine if a robotic arm could do that job for you, one that you take straight out of a box and set up in a few hours, if not minutes? It then holds the frame in the sandblaster, relieving you of the task.

NEW DELHI: Want to go online! Now a computer will help create your website using artificial intelligence, with negligible human intervention. Builder, a software created by engineer.ai, The best part is that the cost of this is nearly one-third of what a normal web developer may charge you, and even the timing is near real-time, claims Sachin Dev Duggal, co-founder of Engineer.ai Human-assisted AI can provide users with a range of customisation for their products.

Videos of a model-less fashion show in Saudi Arabia have caused a social media stir with people ridiculing it online. The "ghost fashion show" which took place Wednesday replaced the usual six-foot-tall fashion models with flying robots. Clothes and accessories from top designers including Dolce & Gabbana sailed down the runway hanging from a drone, reported the New Arab. The event organizers said this was the first time a drone was used for a fashion show in the kingdom, while Twitter rebranded it as "fashion for ghosts." The audiences were restricted to females and there was a strict social media ban.

Globe Telecom is the leading full service telecommunications company in the Philippines, serving the needs of consumers and businesses across an entire suite of products and services including mobile, fixed, broadband, data connections, internet and managed services. Accounting for more than 50% of the Philippines' mobile revenues, Globe Telecom leads the mobile market, while also generating one-third of the country's fixed broadband revenues and enterprise data connections. To enhance customer experience for its 60 million customers, Globe Telecom looked into the use of machine learning to deliver real-time targeted marketing and optimised products and services, while maintaining compliance with the latest industry data regulations in the country. According to Chief Technology and Information Officer and Chief Strategy Officer of Globe Telecom Mr Gil Genio, the company strives to enable its customers to live a digital lifestyle that is supported by its robust and pervasive mobile network. Given the increasing number of Internet of Things (IoT) devices, Globe Telecom's mobile data volumes grew by 66% in 2017, reaching 600 petabytes (PB).

Above: Demonstrating how to use virtual reality integrated with meetings and collaboration tools in the workplace. Artificial intelligence (AI), digital assistants, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) will play a significant role in the future workplace, allowing employees new user experiences and more productivity in team collaboration. These emerging technologies also help organisations to communicate with their customers more efficiently and increase sales revenue. "For workers, meetings are the most tense and time-consuming sessions, but innovative technologies will enable stakeholders to have new experiences at meetings, allowing collaborative work efficiently," said Sandeep Mehra, managing director for collaboration sales at Cisco Systems. He said Cisco makes affordable, open and simple usage a part of its collaborative platform serving the changing work environment, where mobile has become a major tool and multi-generational workers can work together.

Singapore has set up a council to advise its government on developing and using artificial intelligence. "The advisory council will assist the Government to develop ethics standards and reference governance frameworks, issue advisory guidelines, practical guidance and codes of practice for voluntary adoption by businesses," said Minister for Communications and Information S. Iswaran at the opening ceremony of the Innovfest Unbound conference yesterday. The council, being set up by the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA), will work with the ethics boards of businesses. It also seeks to educate the private capital community to include ethics considerations in their AI-related investment decisions. The council will consist of AI users, representatives from technology companies, and others who will provide social and consumer perspectives.

The world could fall behind China when it comes to developing artificial intelligence (AI), the former president of the European Commission warned Monday. Jose Manuel Barroso, now non-executive chairman at Goldman Sachs International, told CNBC's Arjun Kharpal that Beijing is getting on with development in AI. "The Chinese are not only making statements, they are investing money," he said at the AI Deep Dive in partnership with Feedzai at Money2020. Barroso added that his sentiment was not negative toward China and that, in the main, Chinese-led science would benefit the world. The Goldman employee said Europe, in particular, "should not be naive" and must defend itself by ensuring that more money is committed to AI development. He said there was evidence that this was happening with European countries that are net contributors to Brussels being asked to provide 100 billion euros ($117 billion) over the next seven years to scientific research.

Sonos has revealed the Beam, a speaker that sits under your TV. The company's pitch is that the device is really three different things all packed into one box: not only a soundbar, but also a music player and a smart assistant, as well. And in fact it is more than one smart assistant, with Sonos announcing at the same event that Siri will now be able to talk to Alexa, and that Google Assistant will also eventually be coming to its speakers. But another important point is that box all of that is crammed into is much smaller than its other devices. Until now, its only TV speakers have been the Playbase and the Playbar, which either sit beneath or in front of the television and sweep all the way in front of it.