Microsoft announced AI for Earth back in July as a way of demonstrating how artificial intelligence can help the planet. Under the program, Microsoft is awarding grants to research organisations that develop compelling ideas to protect elements of the environment. The most promising concepts, which use AI to push the boundaries of their research, are granted AI and cloud computing resources on Microsoft's Azure platform. The EU Oceans Award is available to European-based research groups that are looking at ways of protecting the oceans. Oceans and the habitats they harbour require massive amounts of computing power to accurately model.

OK, sure, there are self-driving cars on California roads today. General Motors' Cruise has Chevrolet Bolts zipping around San Francisco; Google self-driving spinoff Waymo has got Chrysler Pacifica motoring about Mountain View; secretive startup Zoox has black Toyota Highlanders mixing it up along San Francisco's Embarcadero. But all these vehicles, however capable, have a decidedly un-futuristic feature: There's a human in the driver's seat, ready to grab control in case the robot goes rogue. California's Department of Motor Vehicles requires that safety driver to be there. But if autonomous technology is ever going to deliver on its promises, the human has got to go.

On a tropical island that marks the southern tip of China, a computer program called Lengpudashi is playing one-on-one poker against a dozen people at once, and it's absolutely crushing them. Lengpudashi, which means "cold poker master" in Mandarin, is using a new artificial-intelligence technique to outbet and outbluff its opponents in a two-player version of Texas hold'em. The venue for the tournament is a modern-looking technology park in Haikou, capital of the island of Hainan. Outside, modern high-rises loom over aging neighborhoods. Those gathered to play the machine include several poker champs, some well-known Chinese investors, entrepreneurs, and CEOs, and even the odd television celebrity. The games are being broadcast online, and millions are watching. The event symbolizes a growing sense of excitement and enthusiasm for artificial intelligence in China, but there's also a problem. Lengpudashi wasn't made in Hainan, Beijing, or Shanghai; it was built in Pittsburgh, U.S.A.

Conservationists use data collecting technologies and artificial intelligence to turn whale watching into scientific research, gathering photos of whale encounters from citizen scientists to help protect the mammals. After centuries of whaling and habitat destruction, saving whales is one of modern science's great ambitions. Researchers are turning to technology like artificial intelligence (AI), cloud computing and crowd sourced data to better understand and protect these magnificent, mysterious creatures. Increasingly, research biologists use digital technologies to help track, document and analyze animal populations and their migrations. The technology even enables weekend whale watchers to become citizen scientists in whale tracking.

Contaminated water might have leaked from the damaged Fukushima nuclear reactors after erroneous settings on water gauges lowered groundwater levels nearby, according to the plant operator. Tokyo Electric Power (TEPCO) said the settings on six of the dozens of wells around the reactors were 70 centimetres (three feet) below the requirement. Groundwater at one well briefly sank below the contaminated water inside in May, possibly causing radioactive water to leak into the soil. An underwater robot has captured images inside Japan's crippled Fukushima nuclear plant. The marine robot, is on a mission to study damage and find resources inside the devastated plant.

Jefferson Graham reviews the new GoPro Hero6 camera from a seaplane above San Francisco and an ice cream museum, where the shots are steadier than with previous models on TalkingTech. LOS ANGELES -- The tech shopping season is now started. Apple kicked it off with the release of two new iPhones last week. Wednesday, Amazon joined in with new and lower-priced Echo/Alexa speakers. Thursday, GoPro showed off the latest in a line of Hero cameras, the Hero6, and Friday saw the release of Nintendo's highly coveted Super SNES Classic video game system.

It only seems like the world was wrapping its head around the on-demand model for mobility and now the autonomous and self driving car technology is making the future a present reality. Both these sea change events have caught the traditional automotive manufacturers completely off guard and has forced them to buy their way into this highly, niche/technical growth market that will power the future of the automotive/mobility industry. To start with, what are the skill sets that employers are looking in engineers to help define and power self driving car technology. Figure 2. Top Core Computer Science Skills and % of Time Cited in Self Driving Car Technology Job Descriptions Figure 3. Top Computer Science Related Skills and % of Time Cited in Self Driving Car Technology Job Descriptions Inspection of Figures 1–3 illustrate the highly technical nature of skills needed to interpret the physical world, distill it into a digitally interpretable entity and react to it with an always changing "policy" (reinforcement learning speak) all in real time to enable self driving cars to navigate the world safely. Machine Learning, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and techniques within the field, notably deep learning, computer vision and robotics typically involve years of study to master the field resulting with many engineers holding advanced degrees.

More people now live in cities than at any other time in history, and their number is predicted to increase: 66% of the world's population will live in urban areas by 2050. To house all these people, innovators are developing solutions for smaller, more efficient, and environmentally sustainable abodes that incorporate digital technologies. The house of the future is small and smart. Jeff Wilson founded Kasita, based in Austin, Texas, after spending a year living in a 33-square-foot converted dumpster to experience the challenges of (very) small living for himself. Kasita's homes combine design minimalism with smart home technology that makes new housing efficient to run, inexpensive to own, simple to maintain, and quick to install (in as little as a day).

I look down and start gliding toward a dilapidated skate park below. Once I'm near the ground I pull my nose up and look level with the horizon. Spotting two trees, I race toward them, pass between them, then turn on a dime, skirting some shipping containers on my left. It's like every dream I've ever had about flying, but faster. I take off a pair of video goggles, and I see the shipping containers come into focus, this time directly in front of me, as my eyes adjust to the sunlight. This is my third "First Person View" flight with the Draco drone, and it's more exciting every time.

Join IBM November 1 at 21st Cloud Expo at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Santa Clara, CA, and learn how IBM Watson can bring cognitive services and AI to intelligent, unmanned systems. In this session we will build a chatbot powered by IBM Watson, connect it to third-party APIs, and share best practices of chatbots co-existing with humans. Cognitive analysis impacts today's systems with unparalleled ability that were previously available only to manned, back-end operations. Thanks to cloud processing, IBM Watson can bring cognitive services and AI to intelligent, unmanned systems. Imagine a robot vacuum that becomes your personal assistant that knows everything and can respond to your emotions and verbal commands!