Technology around us will provide an "augmented intelligence" that will help humans to make smarter decisions, improve business models and solve problems that were previously intractable. "The ways in which we are able to interact with computers is going to make people a lot more efficient and more effective, and build digital models." This, says Richard Paris, senior data scientist at KPMG New Zealand, is the future of digital. We are increasingly seeing the digital world interact in our everyday lives, says Paris, who spoke at the inaugural KPMG Technology Series in Auckland. People interact with smartphones and these devices are becoming our intelligent assistants.

LifeJourney International has launched its Day of STEM initiative, aiming to show students what it actually means to have a career in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM), with the backing of some of the country's tech heavyweights. The program, Australia 2020, aims to push students towards a STEM-based career, but operates under the assumption that telling students to study STEM is not enough to incite interest. The online platform allows kids to explore what it is like to have a career in fields such as wireless technology, cybersecurity, drone delivery, financial services, and autonomous vehicles, with students mentored by Ian Hill, chief innovation officer at Westpac; Simone Bachmann, digital trust specialist, responsible for cyber innovation and culture at Australia Post; Gerard Tracey, wireless telecommunications expert at Telstra; Anastasia Cammaroto, CIO at BT Financial Group; Celeste Lowe, cyber risk director at Deloitte; Ita Farhat, chief of staff at AMP; Cara Walsh, digital experience expert from Queensland's RACQ; Martin Levins, consultant at Australian Council for Computers in Education; and others. The program is also backed by the likes of Australian Association of Mathematics Teachers, and the Australian Computer Society, as well as an education advisory board to ensure the content stays relevant to the Australian market. A Day in STEM is pushed out to teachers and run in the classroom, with 95,000 students already signed up to the program ahead of its September 5 launch.

It has spent a huge A 300,000 on Chip, a humanoid robot that will be used to carry out research into artificial intelligence for the bank. One of only three REEM robots from Spanish firm PAL Robotics, Chip aims to identify the opportunities and limitations of human-robot interaction, in the hope that the technology will one day become an integral part of improving banking services. Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, group executive, institutional banking and markets, CommBank, commented: "The development of robotics and artificial intelligence will affect all of us in the future. This research will help us better understand the impact social robotics will have on the lives of people, customers and industries across Australia." The bank's innovation lab in Sydney will be used as a testing environment for the research, allowing both students and academics from the country's technology universities to experiment with robotics.

Domino's and Flirtey have launched the first commercial drone delivery service, aiming to soon deliver pizza via remotely piloted aircraft (RPA) straight to a customer's front door. Although headquartered in Brisbane, Australia, Domino's has chosen to kick off the DRU Drone initiative in Auckland, New Zealand, as the country's current regulations allow businesses to utilise unmanned aircraft. The demonstration was conducted under Civil Aviation Rules Part 101 and marks a final step in Flirtey's approval process. Domino's said it then expects to be able to trial store-to-door drone deliveries from a selected Domino's New Zealand stores with flights to customer homes tabled for later this year. "We are planning a phased trial approach which is based on the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) granting approval, as both Domino's and Flirtey are learning what is possible with the drone delivery for our products, but this isn't a pie in the sky idea. It's about working with the regulators and Flirtey to make this a reality for our customers," Domino's Group CEO and managing director Don Meij, said.

The first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia has been'brought back to life' with ground-breaking 3D technology. Amy Johnson completed the journey from London to Darwin in 1930 - one of many record-breaking flights during her career. To mark 75 years since her death, experts have created a fully interactive digital 3D version of Ms Johnson, which can even walk and talk about her achievements. The first female pilot to fly solo from Britain to Australia has been'brought back to life' with ground-breaking 3D technology. 'Virtual Amy' will go display in the children's library within Hull Central Library as part of the Amy Johnson Festival.

Scientists have released incredible pictures of sunken light aircraft carrier USS Independence that were taken by underwater robots exploring the wreck. The historic ship, which served in World War II and was used in the atomic tests at Bikini Atoll in the Pacific, was intentionally sunk off California in 1951. The 622-foot-long Independence sits in 2,600 feet of water in the Greater Farallones National Maritime Sanctuary. Experts on the research vessel E/V Nautilus are using two Remotely Operated Vehicles (ROVs) to study the ship, which has been described as "amazingly intact" by National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) scientists. The robots' initial dive began on Monday and they have already sent back a number of eerie images from the wreck.

Naturalist Charles Darwin believed the expanse of open ocean in the Pacific was an'impassable barrier' that separated species living on its east and west coasts. This, he argued, accounted for the differences seen in animals on each side of the ocean in much the same way as a mountain range or a desert may split habitats and lead to different species evolving on either side. Now researchers have proved him correct after showing that coral living in the eastern tropical Pacific are completely isolated from the rest of the ocean. Researchers have simulated how coral larvae spread across the Pacific Ocean using computer simulations. While coral themselves are invertebrates that form large static reefs fixed in place by their hard exoskeletons, they can spread by producing swarms of larvae that can colonise new areas.

The hottest news last week came out of the Intel INTC Developer Forum (IDF) 2016. But Facebook's FB decision to open source its artificial intelligence (A.I.) research, Alphabet's GOOGL Duo and Oracle ORCL asking for a retrial in its case against Alphabet over Java also made headlines. This was a mega event where Intel talked about everything but PCs. The company seems to think that the next big thing driving chip growth for PCs is VR capabilities (since it's a computationally intensive exercise, it's a good way to sell its chips). To that end, it announced Project Alloy, a reference design for cordless headgear that merges the AR and VR worlds and runs on Microsoft's MSFT Windows Holographic OS.

The bank has paid A 300,000 for Chip, one of only three REEM robots from Spanish firm PAL Robotics in the world, according to the Australian. Chip is at the centre of a new two year academic partnership with University of Technology Sydney (UTS), the Australian Technology Network of Universities (ATN), and property development giant Stockland. Commbank's Sydney innovation lab will be used as a testing environment for students and academics of Australia's leading technology universities to conduct research and development in social robotics using Chip. Kelly Bayer Rosmarin, group executive, institutional banking and markets, CommBank, says: "The development of robotics and artificial intelligence will affect all of us in the future...This research will help us better understand the impact social robotics will have on the lives of people, customers and industries across Australia." In Japan robots have already started to make their way into bank branches.

Searching for a way to help children with autism, researcher Gail Alvares came up with a fairly simple equation. "We like games, we know that kids like games, so why don't we develop something that could become an additional part of therapy," she told Mashable Australia. As part of her work at the University of Western Australia and the Telethons Kids Institute, a medical research organisation based in Perth, Alvares is working on a video game project aimed at teaching kids with autism vital social skills. The game, currently dubbed Frankie and Friends, is intended to help such children begin to process social information -- an idea Alvares described in an article for ABC News. "One of the difficulties that some children with autism may experience is paying attention to social information with people," she explained.