Robots might not be stealing our jobs after all – at least, not if you're German. An analysis of more than 20 years of labour automation in Germany found no evidence that robots caused job losses in the country as a whole. Automation has changed the kinds of work people do, but hasn't taken jobs away permanently, says Jens Südekum at Heinrich Heine University Düsseldorf. Although there are plenty of reports that predict future job losses caused by automation, Südekum's study is only the second to look at how many jobs robots have already taken from us. The first – a US study published earlier this year – painted a much gloomier picture.

This free BTN event will be hosted by Anton Fishman (HR, OD, capability and culture specialist) and will look into the impact of AI and Deep Learning on organisations and the future of work, as part of our Fourth Industrial Revolution series. Anton Fishman, Director of Fishman & Partners, has 30 years' experience working with businesses to help clarify strategic direction, determine what leaders needs to do to deliver this, and ensure businesses have the talent and capability to make it happen. He has a particular interest in the enhancing the impact and reputation of HR functions and this has been the focus of his work in the last few years. In September 2016, Anton chaired an international conference on the impact of Social Robotics, AI and Deep learning on the future of work and chairs three more conferences on these themes this year. He now runs regular workshops and in-company briefing sessions on this topic in the UK and internationally.

For more than a year, "Blade Runner 2049" director Denis Villeneuve and star Ryan Gosling have been working under the cover of CIA-level stealthiness. On the film's Budapest set, copies of the script for the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott's 1982 sci-fi neo-noir classic were held so closely -- literally locked away in safes when not in use -- that many crew members never laid eyes on one. Actors would sign out their sides on the day they were shooting a scene and be required to sign them back in before going home, lest the merest hint of a spoiler leak. On a late-September afternoon, with the film's Oct. 6 release just days away, Villeneuve and Gosling sat in a windowless conference room in a hotel in downtown Los Angeles, preparing to finally let audiences in on their secret -- and wondering what they will make of it. "When you make a movie as a filmmaker, it's like you bring people in a boat and you say, 'We will discover America together,' " said Villeneuve, the French Canadian director of such films as 2015's crime thriller "Sicario" and the 2016 cerebral sci-fi hit "Arrival."

It also brought along a scientific theory that has, over-time, forged a vast following in the world of sci-fi theories and conspiracies. The theory that we might all be in a simulation and the world as we know it, is all a computer program. Scientists from the University of Oxford and the Hebrew University have published a paper in the Science Advances magazine that has proved that such a simulation is possible. They went one step further and addressed the complexity and feasibility of such a program existing. When studying computer simulations of quantum systems, the researchers Zohar Ringel and Dmitry Kovrizhin, found out that it might be possible for a computer program to simulate life and several quantum systems as we know it.

Airline passengers are suffering major disruption at airports around the world after a computer programme which handles passenger check in systems crashed. Queues formed at check-in desks worldwide this morning after the computer system used by more than 100 airlines crashed. Problems have been reported at London's Heathrow and Gatwick airports, as well as Charles de Gaulle Paris, Washington DC, Baltimore, Melbourne, Changi in Singapore, Johannesburg and Zurich. The check-in system which went down is run by Amadeus Altea, which services 64% of the Star Alliance flights, 75% of One World and 53% of the Sky Team, including BA, AirFrance, KLM and Lufthansa. The company behind the programme confirmed a'network issue' is causing the problems, but insisted'services are gradually being restored'.

The human brain is often used as model for computers, in terms of its functioning. While computing has been advancing at a rapid pace for the past few decades, it is still nowhere near the capabilities of the human brain, but a new microchip design could change that. A group of researchers from the United Kingdom and Germany have the model for a new microchip which will mimic the functionality of a nerve's synapse in the brain and combine that with the speed of modern processors using light waves to generate optical pulses. "Via a network of neurons and synapses the brain can process and store vast amounts of information simultaneously, using only a few tens of watts of power. Conventional computers can't come close to this sort of performance," Harish Bhaskaran, senior researcher from the University of Oxford and the corresponding author on the paper, said in a statement Wednesday.

EDT: In addition to the Gatwick Airport in south-east England, check-in systems at the Heathrow Airport have also gone down. A spokeswoman for the Heathrow Airport confirmed the news to the Telegraph. "A small number of airlines are currently experiencing intermittent issues with their check-in systems at airports around the world -- including at Heathrow," she said. "Passengers will still be able to check-in for their flight, although the process may take slightly longer than usual. We are working closely with our airlines to help resolve the issue as quickly as possible. We apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

In the episode we talk to two gents from Ireland's biggest trade union for production workers. An industry known for its automation increases not only planned for the future but also in the past. We are no longer screwing the caps on toothpaste tubes, robots in automation are doing it for us. Automation is not a new term, it doesn't always refer to a robot process but has been taking place for thousands of years. We no longer build our buildings the way the Ancient Egyptians shifted over 2 million rocks weighing over 3 tons each in a pyramid shape.

Thanks to a surprise event at Amazon's Seattle HQ yesterday, we got to see a whole host of new Alexa-powered devices. We played with the redesigned Echo, the all-new Echo Plus with smart hub, the cute Echo Spot and an overhauled Fire TV, giving consumers even more reason to buy into Amazon's ecosystem. While most of the event was dedicated to brand new Echos, the company also found time to update customers outside of the US on the status of the Echo Show. The good news is that the video-capable device is now available to pre-order in the UK and Germany for £199.99 and €219.99 respectively. The Echo Show is the first Echo with a touchscreen, and will deliver rotating views of your calendar appointments, to-do items, weather and a bunch of trending news stories.

RedCat Digital are working with one of the most innovative Data Science companies in the world to find a Senior Data Scientist to join the team. My client is an international business which offers Data Science as a service to various clients across the world, enabling users to build and deploy highly accurate machine learning models with unmatched levels of automation and ease. They are a true Data Science business which was founded by Data Scientists and only recruits the very best in the field, resulting in a highly skilled team containing three ex-number 1 Kaggle Grandmasters. The UK is seen as a high growth area for the business and although there is a small team currently based in London, they are looking to grow this significantly throughout 2017. In the UK they service a very diverse client base in terms of domain however their core focus still remains the insurance/banking sector.