For those doubting the usefulness of drones, take a look at this incredible rescue, a world-first, in Australia. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@FantasticMrNate) shows us. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. For those doubting the usefulness of drones, take a look at this incredible rescue, a world-first, in Australia. Nathan Rousseau Smith (@FantasticMrNate) shows us.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is able to impact almost everything in much the same way electricity did in the early 1900s by replacing steam powered machines. For example, AI can transform FinTech, healthcare, logistics, search engines, etc. The obvious advantages of AI are that errors are reduced, repetitive one second human thought tasks are replaceable (e.g. is that a dog or cat in the photo), scalability and continuous operation. AI is also able to surpass human level capability such as quickly deriving insights from large volumes of data. The benefits to the user include more personalised service (e.g. more targeted advertising to increase sales) and feedback on user behaviour for R&D teams to develop new products/services or improve existing products/services.

Two teenage boys sucked out to sea by a rip tide have been saved from drowning by a in a world-first rescue in Australia. Monty Greenslade, 16 and Gabe Vidler, 17, were spotted struggling in rough surf off Lennox Head, New South Wales, at 10.30am AEST today by two teen girls. The pair were trapped amid 10ft waves and not easily accessible by boat, but were saved after a drone flew out and dropped an inflatable for them to cling on to. Footage shows the remote controlled aircraft fly above the teenagers before dropping an inflatable device which landed almost within arm's reach. Within 35 seconds of take-off the float had been dropped down to the boys, who hung on as waves pushed them back to shore where lifeguards took over.

At the tail end of 2017, Amazon announced that both its unlimited music service and Echo speaker would head to 28 more countries. This packaged expansion seems to be their theme in 2018, as the company stated both would be coming to Australia and New Zealand early in the new year. Today, it confirmed that Amazon Music Unlimited would launch in those countries on February 1st with Echoes on sale at select retailers early that month. While the rollout might be good for Australians and New Zealanders who want Echoes for themselves, it'll be harder for Amazon to wean them off other music streaming services, like Spotify, which has been available in Australia since 2012. At the least, Amazon Music Unlimited is priced competitively.

Early recognition of cardiac arrest is vitally important as the chance of survival decreases about 10 percent with each minute. In Denmark AI assistant Corti is listening in to phone calls to emergency services to help detect signs of a heart attack. With Corti implemented, the dispatcher gets a digital assistant that listens in on the conversation and helps to look for important signals in both verbal communication, as well as tone of voice and breathing patterns, while also considering other metadata. All the data provided during the emergency call is automatically analyzed by Corti and then compared to the millions of emergency calls – which Corti has already analysed –to find important patterns. As Corti's understanding of the incident increases, the assistant will try to predict the criticality of the patient's situation based on symptom descriptions and the signals gathered from voice and audio.

Brits can now ask their iThings to give them a brief update on what's happening in the world with the command: "Hey Siri, give me the news." Siri doesn't actually read the news, though, and instead will automatically play the latest podcast from a trusted source of your choice. I was treated to a 2-minute bulletin from BBC News when I said the magic words to Siri this morning, which also offered Sky News and LBC up as alternative sources. As Apple prepares Siri for life inside its HomePod smart speaker, it first added the news briefing feature to the beta version of iOS 11.2.5 -- limiting it to the States at that point, too, where The Washington Post, Fox News, NPR or CNN provide the updates. In a matter of weeks, however, it's now graduated out of beta to become a standard Siri feature in iOS 11, whilst rolling out to new territories.

Global consulting firm Accenture notes that stand-alone, AI-powered digital voice assistant devices are being used "for a range of consumer services such as playing music, turning the heat and lights on and off, and providing news, weather and sports scores." That's to be expected, of course - that's what they're for - but in an online survey of 21,000 consumers in 19 countries, Accenture discovered that digital virtual assistants are becoming "the central hub for home activities in Australia." Again, that's the whole point of digital assistants - they're meant to be the hub of your digital home, not just answering questions but helping you control your other connected devices, but naturally, it's always good to see this being confirmed by actual users. In addition, "three quarters (75%) of these owners said they use their smartphones less for entertainment, more than two thirds use them less for online purchasing and more than half for general information searches (71% and 55%, respectively)." David Sovie, global MD of Accenture's High Tech business said: "Digital voice assistant devices are challenging smartphones as the central hub for all activities in the home. "These low-cost devices deliver valuable and practical benefits and are relatively easy to use, and their rapidly growing popularity is one of the most striking trends in the high-tech industry." Accenture tells us its survey shows that "ownership levels of digital voice assistant devices in Australia are projected to increase more than five times this year, reaching 23% by the end of 2018 from 4% in 2017.

For years, marketers have talked about brands as having personalities. Now they have the tools to bring those brands to life – virtually at least. Rapid developments in artificial intelligence (AI) are being combined with Academy Award-winning animation skills to create virtual humans that are the closest yet to flesh and blood. And for brands, that offers the opportunity to put a very human-looking face on a corporate body. One of the latest iterations of these virtual humans comes from Auckland-based company, Soul Machines, whose co-founder and CEO, Mark Sagar's ground-breaking work in computer-generated faces on films, King Kong and Avatar, was recognised with consecutive Oscars.

Australian-based TrademarkVision developed a deep learning-based reverse visual search platform that protects your brand by identifying similar trademarks from around the world. Simply upload your image to the platform, and their image recognition technology will compare it against other trademarked logos – making it much easier to identify IP infringements than the previous time-consuming and costly text-based search process. "Our technology not only makes it easy for an entrepreneur with a new design to ensure it is unique, but also enables the largest of companies to monitor for infringement," explains Cameron Mitchell, the Chief Operations Officer of TrademarkVision. The young startup has already integrated their technology with the intellectual property departments in the EU, Australia, Chile and more. Most recently, they launched a visual search for industrial designs.

The biggest underwater eruption of the last century took place 600 miles (1,000km) off the coast of New Zealand, scientists have found. The discovery was made after an airline passenger saw a strange substance spreading across the Pacific Ocean in 2012. At the time, scientists identified the material as pumice, a volcanic substance which floats. However, it has taken six years for researchers to understand the scale of the eruption with the help of remotely-operated deep search robots. The findings have been described as a'scientific goldmine' and could increase our understanding of how magma rises from the earth's crust to the surface More than 80 per cent of the volcanoes on Earth are located on the sea-floor.