The EU's digital and competition chief has said that automated facial recognition breaches GDPR, as the technology fails to meet the regulation's requirement for consent. Margrethe Vestager, the European Commission's executive vice president for digital affairs, told reporters that "as it stands right now, GDPR would say'don't use it', because you cannot get consent," EURACTIV revealed today. GDPR classes information on a person's facial features as biometric data, which is labeled as "sensitive personal data." The use of such data is highly restricted, and typically requires consent from the subject -- unless the processing meets a range of exceptional circumstances. These exemptions include it being necessary for public security.

The health ministry, which is at the heart of the nation's ongoing battle with the coronavirus outbreak, is struggling to keep non-Japanese updated on the rapidly escalating situation in a timely manner, hampered by a dearth of staff proficient in foreign languages. As of Tuesday afternoon, the English version of the ministry's website made no mention of the COVID-19 infection anywhere prominent on its top page, relegating any coronavirus-related links to midpage or lower, with those all directing viewers to original press releases written exclusively in Japanese. "Since our main job has been to update our Japanese website, it has inevitably led to difficulties in providing English-language information in a timely way, so one option is to use machine translation for now," ministry official Takuma Kato said. The official said a future redesign of the English website to better highlight updates pertaining to the new virus is not guaranteed, citing the need to overcome technical difficulties. "Our ministry doesn't have a dedicated team of staff specializing in English-language communication in the first place, so the situation at the moment is that our Japanese staff has been utilizing what little resources they can find to deal with any English update," Kato said.

We see the growth of people analytics at first-hand at Insight222, where we are now working with over 60 global organisations to help them put people analytics at the centre of business. In tandem we have also created a digital learning academy with myHRfuture to upskill HR in digital and analytics. For the last six years I have collated and published a collection of the'best' articles of the preceding 12 months – see 2014, 2015, 2016 2017 and 2018, and following are my choices for the 50 best articles of 2019. Those who have read the previous annual collections may note that the number of articles that make the cut has steadily risen. This is partly down to my inability to prune down to 30 or 20 - although it was hard enough to get it down to 50! Mainly though this recognises the increased number, variety and quality of people analytics and data-driven HR material now being published, which is another indicator of progress in the field. I hope that the articles selected will act as a venerable resource library for those working, researching or interested in the people analytics space. That is certainly the intention. I have arranged the 50 articles into twelve topics: i) Driving business value, ii) the future of work, iii) the future of the HR function, iv) ethics and trust, v) employee experience, vi) strategic workforce planning, vii) ONA, viii) diversity and inclusion, ix) organisational culture, perspectives and case studies from people analytics leaders, x) retention, xi) assessment and xii) getting started, as well as highlighting a few of my own articles from 2019 at the end. I hope you enjoy the articles selected, and if you do, please subscribe to my weekly Digital HR Leaders newsletter. Ultimately, people analytics should be about creating value – for leaders, for managers and for the workforce. So, where better to start than with seven articles that collectively provide insights on how to create value and/or give examples of where organisations have created value from people analytics.

As artificial intelligence continues to mature, we are seeing a corresponding growth in sophistication for humanoid robots and the applications for digital human beings in many aspects of modern-day life. To help you see the possibilities, we have pulled together some of the best examples of humanoid robots and where you might see digital humans in your everyday life today. Even though the earliest form of humanoid was created by Leonardo Da Vinci in 1495 (a mechanical armored suit that could sit, stand and walk), today's humanoid robots are powered by artificial intelligence and can listen, talk, move and respond. They use sensors and actuators (motors that control movement) and have features that are modeled after human parts. Whether they are structurally similar to a male (called an Android) or a female (Gynoid), it's a challenge to create realistic robots that replicate human capabilities.

Top 10 Tech Trends for 2020, and Beyond

MUMBAI: Centre of Excellence (CoE) the country's first incubation centre for companies focussed on IP in Gaming, VFX, Artificial Intelligence, Computer Vision set up by Software Technology Park of India and backed by MeitY and The Government of Telangana was inaugurated on Monday. The CoE also signed memorandums of understanding (MoUs) with 5 partners TVAGA (Telangana VFX, Animation and Gaming Association), Hyderabad Angles, HYSEA, and IIIT- Hyderabad to provide resources like mentoring, technology support, infrastructure and funding. The start-ups will be mentored by a group of industry professionals and academics, led by the Chief Mentor, a Governing Council (GC) and Project Management Group (PMG). A total investment of 19.68 Crore will be spent over a period of 5 years in addition to existing infrastructure in the STPI facility. Start-ups on selectio will be assisted with a seed fund of Rs. 5 lakhs after due diligence by the PMG.

Deep learning is on the rise in the recycling industry, according to the new e-book, Harnessing the Potential of AI, from Tomra Sorting Recycling, a sensor-based sorting technology company with headquarters in Norway. Dispelling a common misconception about AI, this latest e-book chronicles the 30-year history and contributions AI has already made to the recycling industry, as well the bright future that lies ahead, according to a Tomra news release. "In the months and years to come, those in the recycling industry will hear much more about deep learning, a powerful component of artificial intelligence," says Daniel Bender, technical manager, deep learning for Tomra Sorting. "Deep learning shows the promise of providing solutions for the industry's most complex sorting challenges. Recycling operations at the forefront of using AI to sort material stand to gain a significant advantage over companies who do not."

This article is based on a presentation given by Emerj CEO Daniel Faggella in Geneva, at the 2019 New Shape Forum: Weapons Governance for the Geneva Disarmament Platform. To learn more about Emerj's AI presentations and speaking, visit our presentations page. There are many more AI applications than there are governments and militaries experimenting with AI. But the AI products that are becoming more commonplace in the business world do have their use in national security and defense efforts. It will take years to update physical weapons systems, such as tanks, planes, and missiles, with machine learning technology, but there are ways to weaponize artificial intelligence without mounting it on any weapons.

IESE Business School has launched a new Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative, a multidisciplinary project that will look at how artificial intelligence is impacting management, and prepare executives to put Al to use in their companies in an ethical and socially responsible way. Artificial intelligence, like electricity a century ago, is a general purpose technology that will touch every sphere of economic activity. That places new demands on managers to adapt to the changing competitive landscape, to transform their organizations, and to ensure that employees – and themselves -- have the skills required. IESE's new Artificial Intelligence and the Future of Management Initiative will meet those needs for research and education efforts by: "AI is as much a management challenge as it is a technological challenge," said Dean Franz Heukamp. "With this initiative we want to help current and future managers, as well as policy makers, face the challenges AI presents, enabling them to shape the ways AI is used and ensure that it's a force for good in society."

It can find information, give directions, send messages and is just one example of how artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming a bigger part of everyday life. Machines are getting smarter, but experts are divided as to when AI will move on from basic tasks to the scary stuff of science fiction, if it ever will. But some risks are more immediate as technology increasingly threatens to replace workers in some sectors. What are the benefits and risks when it comes to AI?