With our recent move to a larger headquarters, we've been researching office and workplace environmental trends. Now the 2020s are up and running, it may be a good time to for you to also update your office environment for the new decade. Founders at startups, business leaders, human resources managers and team managers are all responsible for building a company that people want to work for, and that can thrive and grow in an uncertain climate. The literal foundations of a successful business are the office space that any company takes to house its workforce, with many choices to make along the way. If you work from home or for an all-digital business, then the virtual office space also needs to be an amenable place.

A study conducted in 2018, entitled "The chatbots observatory", interviewed several hundred human resources managers about their perception of chatbots. The results of this study, conducted by a natural language processing editor, Do You Dream Up, have just been published. They are compared with the results of another study from the same observatory that interviewed commercials. While chatbots are in vogue, and most salespeople (72%) know what a chatbot is and are aware of the capabilities of this tool, human resources professionals still struggle to keep up with new technologies, with only 22% of them able to define what a chatbot is. However, those who have already heard about it, even vaguely, believe that chatbots will become widespread in human resources.

The head of Google and parent company Alphabet has called for artificial intelligence (AI) to be regulated. Writing in the Financial Times, Sundar Pichai said it was "too important not to" impose regulation but argued for "a sensible approach". He said that individual areas of AI development, like self-driving cars and health tech, required tailored rules. Last week it was revealed that the European Commission is considering a five-year ban on facial recognition. Earlier this month, the White House published its own proposed regulatory principles and urged Europe to "avoid heavy-handed innovation-killing models".

Google's chief executive called Monday for a balanced approach to regulating artificial intelligence, telling a European audience that the technology brings benefits but also "negative consequences." Sundar Pichai's comments come as lawmakers and governments seriously consider putting limits on how artificial intelligence is used. "There is no question in my mind that artificial intelligence needs to be regulated. The question is how best to approach this," Pichai said, according to a transcript of his speech at a Brussel-based think tank. He noted that there's an important role for governments to play and that as the European Union and the U.S. start drawing up their own approaches to regulation, "international alignment" of any eventual rules will be critical.

What happens when the sensor-imbued city acquires the ability to see – almost as if it had eyes? Ahead of the 2019 Shenzhen Biennale of Urbanism\Architecture (UABB), titled "Urban Interactions," ArchDaily is working with the curators of the "Eyes of the City" section at the Biennial to stimulate a discussion on how new technologies – and Artificial Intelligence in particular – might impact architecture and urban life. Here you can read the "Eyes of the City" curatorial statement by Carlo Ratti, the Politecnico di Torino and SCUT. Technologies of the virtual realm present an opportunity to rethink the experience of space, society, and culture. They give us the possibility to engage with the city of the future, shaping the built environment of the 21st century.

In August of 2018, the Federal Minister of Justice approved the Drager Drug Test 5000 as the Approved Drug Screening Equipment (ADSE) for all Canadian police services. The device itself is costly ($6,000 per device, and $60 per swab) and has to be used under ideal conditions for proper analysis, according to experts. The device tests for commonly used drugs in oral fluids including THC, which is the major psychoactive component in cannabis. Although the device may excel at identifying presence of THC, it does not address the issue of impairment specially when studies do not support a strong correlation between THC levels and impairment. Currently, there's an urgent demand for a device to assist Canadian police officers in their drug impairment investigations which is where PredictMedix is likely to fill an unmet need.

Soft Robotics Inc., a pioneer in robotic grasping, announced today that it has raised $23 million in an oversubscribed Series B funding round. The round was co-led by Calibrate Ventures and Material Impact and included existing investors Honeywell, Hyperplane, Scale, Tekfen Ventures, and Yamaha. FANUC Corp., the world's largest industrial robot manufacturer, joined this round as a new investor in Soft Robotics. Soft Robotics previously announced a strategic partnership with FANUC to integrate Soft Robotics' mGrip adaptable gripper system with any FANUC robot through the deployment of a new controller. The combined product was introduced at IREX in Tokyo in December 2019.

Alphabet and Google CEO, Sundar Pichai, is the latest tech giant kingpin to make a public call for AI to be regulated while simultaneously encouraging lawmakers towards a dilute enabling framework that does not put any hard limits on what can be done with AI technologies. In an op-ed published in today's Financial Times, Pichai makes a headline-grabbing call for artificial intelligence to be regulated. But his pitch injects a suggestive undercurrent that puffs up the risk for humanity of not letting technologists get on with business as usual and apply AI at population-scale -- with the Google chief claiming: "AI has the potential to improve billions of lives, and the biggest risk may be failing to do so" -- thereby seeking to frame'no hard limits' as actually the safest option for humanity. Simultaneously the pitch downplays any negatives that might cloud the greater good that Pichai implies AI will unlock -- presenting "potential negative consequences" as simply the inevitable and necessary price of technological progress. It's all about managing the level of risk, is the leading suggestion, rather than questioning outright whether the use of a hugely risk-laden technology such as facial recognition should actually be viable in a democratic society.

The UAE continues to places great importance to protecting the environment and promoting a green economy, placing sustainability at the forefront of its strategic priorities. This is in line with the UAE Vision 2021, which aims to build a sustainable environment, and a diversified and sustainable competitive economy that ensures a secure future for generations to come. Under the guidance of its wise leadership, the UAE has made great progress towards sustainability, driven by significant achievements in the adoption of advanced technologies to create a new reality and to build a leading global model for sustainable development. The UAE has recognised the importance of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as the cornerstone for achieving sustainability goals, at a time when this advanced technology is expected to contribute to the growth of the country's GDP by 35% until 2031, while also reducing government expenditures by 50% annually, cutting down the number of paper transactions and saving millions of work hours annually. The aim of the UAE Strategy for Artificial Intelligence 2031 is to improve government performance, accelerate the pace of achievements, and to create innovative and productive work environments that ensure high levels of productivity.

Tech these days is often accused of encouraging forms of addiction, but emerging "cyborg" technology may offer an answer for treating the opioid epidemic. Embedding microchips in the brains of addicts could help to, essentially, rewire them. He's among millions of people in America affected by what has become a national plague that kills hundreds each day. He hopes, though, that the computer chip in his brain can break him from addiction's hold. His dependence took hold after he dislocated his shoulder when he was 15.