The Great Elephant Census, conducted in 2014 and 2015, counted more than 350,000* elephants across 18 African countries. Human observers in small planes flew some 294,000 kilometers during more than 1,500 hours to systematically count the animals. Could a future census be managed locally, using unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs, a.k.a. Although surveying the large animals in their individual reserves is a smaller job than the Great Elephant Census, such surveys cost managers substantial time and money. A Swiss research team recently tested a new approach to wildlife surveys.

South Korean consumer electronics giant LG Electronics Inc. is turning to the University of Toronto to build its artificial-intelligence muscle, as the university hopes to build a better reputation in applying its sought-after research in the real world. As first reported by The Globe and Mail in June, LG has been planning to develop an AI presence in Toronto since at least last year, posting job listings for a "Toronto AI lab" and sending a delegation to Canada's largest university. In an interview, LG's global president and chief technology officer, I.P. Park, confirmed the multinational manufacturer will establish both a five-year, multimillion-dollar research partnership with U of T and build an AI lab on its campus's southern border as soon as this fall. LG is the latest in a string of global giants, among them Fujitsu Laboratories and Huawei Technologies, to partner with the university for research. Mr. Park said the company is thrilled to tap U of T's foundational expertise in AI – in particular its prowess in the discipline and development of deep learning, led by professor emeritus Geoffrey Hinton.

A multitude of brain disorders have debilitating impacts on the quality of life of a large patient populace, accounting for 30% of the global burden of disease (1). Most patients with brain disorders are unamenable to any form of treatment when first- and second-line interventions are ineffective (2, 3). Neuromodulation technologies can help millions of patients who suffer from such brain disorders. Deep brain stimulation (DBS) has proven highly effective in treating Parkinson's disease and obsessive-compulsive disorder (4) and shows great potential for other conditions, such as depression (5). However, being a surgical procedure, the deployment of DBS is limited by the potential for complications (6).

Google Glass can help children with autism read facial expressions to assess people's emotions, a new study has revealed. Children with the developmental disorder often fail to recognise basic facial emotions, which makes social interactions and developing friendships difficult. Researchers used the internet-connected eyewear, which includes a small head-mounted display positioned above the wearer's right-eye to display notifications. Researchers paired Google Glass with smartphone software designed to read facial expressions captured by the camera on the front of the eyewear and provide social cues to the wearer on the display. The project, known as Superpower Glass, taught the children to recognise the emotions conveyed in people's facial expressions.

Apple has become the world's first publicly traded company to be valued at $1 trillion - 42 years after Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak began the firm in a Silicon Valley garage. The stock rose nearly 3 percent following a strong third-quarter earnings report earlier this week, briefly hitting a session high of $207.05 in midday trading before falling back below $207. This briefly pushed Apple over the historic trillion dollar mark. Apple chief executive officer Steve Jobs stands in front of a photo of himself, right, and Steve Wozniak, left, during an Apple event in San Francisco in 2011. Apple's stock market value is greater than the combined capitalization of Exxon Mobil, Procter & Gamble and AT&T. It now accounts for 4 percent of the S&P 500.

With technological advancements and Big Data, businesses are building more complex techniques and algorithms to identify risks. Using Machine Learning techniques, businesses are able to build Customer Risk Profiling models which enable the identification of likelihood and probability of customers being a risk. Machine learning, is beginning to create new avenues in the lending market. Machine Learning is an extension of artificial intelligence, that enables computers or robots with the ability to learn, analyze and predict, using algorithms that iteratively learn from data. It empowers the system to learn and adapt itself.

Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology researchers havedeveloped a new way to predict how a plant will grow, based on two-dimensional and three-dimensional images. Researchers at the Skolkovo Institute of Science and Technology (Skoltech) in Russia have developed a method for predicting increasing biomass of a plant using two-dimensional (2D) and three-dimensional (3D) images, which they say will improve the efficiency of precision farming. The research team initially measured plant growth in an artificial soil-free system with a 3D camera, and established the relationship between growth in total biomass and the expansion of the total surface area of a plant's leaves. They then measured the increase in total leaf area with a 2D camera and built a dynamic plant growth model based on the data. Using both 2D and 3D cameras eliminates time-consuming multi-parameter calculations.

Of all corporate functions, sales by its very nature is surely the most people-focused. While it may no longer involve quite as much face-to-face interaction as it once did, selling has remained emphatically a job for people rather than machines. However, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine-learning are already starting to make major inroads into the sales process, adding an extra dimension to everything from marketing automation to customer relationship management. According to Salesforce Research, high-performing teams are at least twice as likely to be using intelligent sales technologies such as artificial intelligence, sentiment analysis, next-step analysis and deep-learning. So, what further changes in the sales environment can we expect to see over the coming years?

In our Artificial Intelligence (AI) in the Workplace article series we are considering the potential positive impacts that AI could have on the workplace and the possible amendments required to Irish employment law to allow these to happen. In our opening article in the series we identified gender inequality as an Irish employment law issue requiring urgent attention and an issue that could be helped by the clever use and application of AI. In this article, we focus on how AI can help employers promote gender equality including; gender pay gap reporting, encouraging gender diversity and fostering collaborative workplaces. Mandatory gender pay gap reporting is fast approaching in Ireland, with two separate pieces of legislation on the issue currently working their way through the legislative process. On 26 June 2018 the Cabinet approved the General Scheme of the Gender Pay Gap Information Bill.

Google may be developing a special version of its search engine that would allow certain information to disappear in China. It would not be the first time a company has done so – and it would not even be the first time Google has done so. The decision has turned fresh attention to China's internet censorship regime, so wide-ranging that it has been labelled the "Great Firewall" and so powerful that it has allowed the government to ban people from using a single letter. The suggestion that China could be partnering with the regime has been attacked by human rights campaigners and others, who suggested that Google relenting on censorship would be a "dark day", in the words of Amnesty International. It would not be the first of such days, as Google would follow a whole host of companies including LinkedIn that already censor their users as the price of operating in China.