In the 21st century the world still faces many geographical challenges including climate change, disease outbreaks, natural disasters and a growing scarcity of vital resources such as water, food and land. Overcoming these problems is dependent on our ability to chart these issues and analyse them spatially. This comes at a time when we're increasingly able to produce millions of data points from connected devices – the internet of things (IoT) – such as mobiles, drones, satellites, vehicles and social media, combined with more affordable, powerful cloud computing and machine-learning. Technologists realise the potential for smart mapping has never been greater. "If you think about it, there isn't an area that isn't touched by location, from responses to hurricanes and typhoons, wars, international health scares or utility outages," explains Stuart Bonthrone, managing director of Esri UK, a world leader in mapping and spatial analytics software.

Samsung Electronics Co. Ltd., the Korean-based electronics giant, will open a new artificial-intelligence center in Cambridge, England, as the company seeks to benefit from cutting-edge academic research into the technology. Andrew Blake, a pioneering researcher in the development of systems that enable computers to interpret visual data, and a former director of Microsoft Corp.'s Cambridge Research Lab, will head the new Samsung AI center, the company said Tuesday. The center may hire as many as 150 AI experts, bringing the total number of people Samsung has working on research and development in the U.K. to 400 "in the near future," the company said. U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May said Samsung's new lab would create high-paying, high-skilled jobs. "It is a vote of confidence in the U.K. as a world leader in artificial-intelligence," she said. Samsung said it selected Cambridge because the University of Cambridge is world-renowned for its work on machine-learning and because the city already had a number of other prominent AI research labs, including Microsoft's.

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.

Nothing short of a concerted effort by the government, and the public and private sectors, will be enough if the UK is to be a world leader of artificial intelligence, argues Mike Rebeiro, head of digital and innovation at law firm Macfarlanes. As part of its Industrial Strategy unveiled last November, the government identified artificial intelligence (AI) as one of its four'Grand Challenges' facing the UK. Baillie Gifford to leverage AI for...

AI, blockchain, and just an overall rise in technologies across the planet are changing the way traditional industries are doing business. The wide world of auto insurance is no exception, with disruptive technology from insurtech propelling the industry forward. From apps that allow agents to quickly process applications on the go, to AI being used to navigate the vast amount data involved in insurance forms, budding technologies are at the forefront of changing how consumers interact with the services that protect them against disasters and other life-changing events. It's happening, Join 15k digital minds to shape what's next for your business In an industry that is built on data, it is surprising to see how long it is taking AI to find its way into the field. Regardless of using it for anything big, AI can just help with the tedious parts surrounding the paperwork and claims verification process.

Articles about technology and the future of transportation rarely used to get far without mentioning jetpacks: a staple of science fiction from the 1920s onwards, the jetpack became a reality in the 1960s in the shape of devices such as the Bell Rocket Belt. But despite many similar efforts, the skies over our cities remain stubbornly free of jetpack-toting commuters. For a novel form of transport to make a material difference to our lives, several key requirements must be satisfied. Obviously the new technology must work safely, and operate within an appropriate regulatory framework. But public acceptance and solid business models are also vital if a new idea is to move from R&D lab to testbed to early adoption, and eventually into mainstream usage.

Use of big data continued to evolve on all fronts during the past year, including software, hardware, financing and regulation. Some of the big themes included the wider use of artificial intelligence, preparations for impending new European regulation, IPOs of big data companies, the use of data fabric and the increasing popularity of R language. All of these will continue to shape big data well into 2018. This year saw a boom in artificial intelligence thanks to emerging deep-learning technology and techniques that provide better and faster results derived from machine learning. AI is becoming omnipresent not only as a business tool in almost every industry but also in day-to- day activities such are tagging friends in photos or providing reminders when shopping online.

Summary: Researchers in Synthetic Neuro Biology are proposing to solve the AGI problem by building a brain in the laboratory. This is not science fiction. They are virtually at the door of this capability. Increasingly these researchers are presenting at major AGI conferences. If you step outside of all the noise around AI and the hundreds or even thousands of startups trying to add AI to your car, house, city, toaster, or dog you can start trying to figure out where all this is going.

Electronics giant Samsung is opening a new artificial intelligence research lab in Cambridge and plans to create 150 new jobs. The Korean company's UK division says the move will strengthen its capabilities in the field and allow it to explore the potential of'user-centric' AI. Samsung already has a Cambridge office at St John's Innovation Centre, but the location of the AI research lab, named the Samsung AI Centre, Cambridge, or SAIC-Cambridge for short, is being kept under wraps. The company has recruited an AI big hitter to lead the project in the form of Professor Andrew Blake, a pioneer in the development of the theory and algorithms that can make it possible for computers to behave as seeing machines, and former director of Microsoft Research in Cambridge. Samsung says the new institute will open up opportunities for fundamental research in artificial intelligence and enables greater cooperation with the UK's academic community on the development of advanced technologies. The of Internet of Things (IoT) devices embedded with AI will generate a vast array of data that can provide fascinating insights about our lives, analysing complex usage patterns and seamlessly enabling us to take advantage of intelligent services optimised for our own personal preferences and behaviours.

How cool is thar: this week we have a Deloitte event on artificial intelligence which starts with Gary Kasparov and ends with DJ #Hardwell.