There are over 35 million households in the US with dogs and backyards, and it may be safe to say that not one of them enjoys cleaning up their pet's mess. A firm has designed a robot that finds, detects and automatically scoops up what your canine friend left behind. Called Beetl, this machine is equip with computer vision and front cameras to hunt down dog poop. Once the robot spots feces within your yard, it moves directly over it and uses a mechanical claw as a scoop. And the robot holds it in a sealed container for disposal. Bettl's sensors not only help it detect a mess, but also avoid obstacles and stay within a perimeter.

The rise of AI has made it possible for automated visual inspection systems to identify anomalies in manufactured products with high accuracy. If implemented successfully, these systems can greatly improve quality control and optimize costs. Although many manufacturers are trying to implement such systems into their workflow, very few have managed to reach full-scale production. The disconnect occurs because proof of concept solutions are put together in a controlled setting, largely by trial and error. However, when pushed into the real world with real-world constraints like variable environmental conditions, real-time requirements, and integrations with existing workflows, proof of concept often breaks down.

AI in medical imaging entered the consciousness of radiologists just a few years ago, notably peaking in 2016 when Geoffrey Hinton declared radiologists' time was up, swiftly followed by the first AI startups booking exhibiting booths at RSNA. Three years on, the sheer number and scale of AI-focussed offerings has gathered significant pace, so much so that this year a decision was made by the RSNA organising committee to move the ever-growing AI showcase to a new space located in the lower level of the North Hall. In some ways it made sense to offer a larger, dedicated show hall to this expanding field, and in others, not so much. With so many startups, wiggle room for booths was always going to be an issue, however integration of AI into the workflow was supposed to be a key theme this year, made distinctly futile by this purposeful and needless segregation. By moving the location, the show hall for AI startups was made more difficult to find, with many vendors verbalising how their natural booth footfall was not as substantial as last year when AI was upstairs next to the big-boy OEM players. One witty critic quipped that the only way to find it was to'follow the smell of burning VC money, down to the basement'.

While AIs are increasingly beating us mere mortals at many things, racing drones is something we still have the upper hand at. The Drone Racing League (DRL) orchestrated its first AI racing competitions this year, with the final of a four-part series held in Texas earlier this month. The races aim to advance the development and testing of fully autonomous drone technologies for real-world applications including disaster relief, search and rescue missions, and space exploration. The DRL RacerAI is the first autonomous drone designed to defeat a human in a physical sport. The drone features the NVIDIA Jetson AGX Xavier AI-at-the-edge compute platform in addition to four onboard stereoscopic cameras which enable the AI to detect and identify objects with twice the field of view as human pilots.

TALLINN, Dec 10 (Reuters) - Finland, which holds the rotating EU presidency until the end of the year, said on Tuesday it aims to teach 1% of all Europeans basic skills in artificial intelligence through a free online course it will now translate into all official EU languages. The European Union is pushing for wide deployment of artificial intelligence across the bloc, to help European companies catch up with rivals in Asia and the United States. "Our investment has three goals: we want to equip EU citizens with digital skills for the future, we wish to increase practical understanding of what artificial intelligence is, and by doing so, we want to give a boost to the digital leadership of Europe," said Finnish Minister of Employment Timo Harakka. "As our Presidency ends, we want to offer something concrete. It's about one of the most pressing challenges facing Europe and Finland today: how to develop our digital literacy," Harakka said in a statement. The course, conducted by the University of Helsinki and originally launched in 2018, already has enrolled more than 220,000 students from more than 110 countries.

Walmart is trying out self-driving shipments. Walmart is testing new ways to deliver your milk, eggs and bread using self-driving vehicles. The world's largest retailer said Tuesday it has teamed up with Nuro, a Mountain View, California-based autonomous vehicle startup, to pilot grocery deliveries in Houston. Nuro, founded in 2016, has already raised $1 billion in funding, according to Crunchbase. It has previously partnered with Domino's for pizza deliveries and Kroger for grocery deliveries.

In discussions of AI ethics, there's a lot of talk of designing "ethical" algorithms, those that produce behaviors we like. People have called for software that treats people fairly, that avoids violating privacy, that cedes to humanity decisions about who should live and die. But what about AI that benefits humans' morality, our own capacity to behave virtuously? That's the subject of a talk on "AI and Moral Self-Cultivation" given last week by Shannon Vallor, a philosopher at Santa Clara University who studies technology and ethics. The talk was part of a meeting on "Character, Social Connections and Flourishing in the 21st Century," hosted by Templeton World Charity Foundation, in Nassau, The Bahamas.

WASHINGTON – U.S. President Donald Trump has days to decide whether to impose tariffs on nearly $160 billion in Chinese consumer goods just weeks before Christmas, a move that could be unwelcome in both the United States and China. The White House's top economic and trade advisers, including Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer, Larry Kudlow, Peter Navarro, and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin are expected to meet in coming days with Trump over that decision, one person briefed on the situation said. There is still no clarity on what the decision will be. "They may very well go into effect. They may very well hold back. And the president's going to decide," the source said Monday afternoon.

The quest to understand what's happening inside the minds and brains of animals has taken neuroscientists down many surprising paths: from peering directly into living brains, to controlling neurons with bursts of light, to building intricate contraptions and virtual reality environments. In 2013, it took the neurobiologist Bob Datta and his colleagues at Harvard Medical School to a Best Buy down the street from their lab. At the electronics store, they found what they needed: an Xbox Kinect, a gaming device that senses a player's motions. The scientists wanted to monitor in exhaustive detail the body movements of the mice they were studying, but none of the usual laboratory techniques seemed up to the task. So Datta's group turned to the toy, using it to collect three-dimensional motor information from the animals as they explored their environment.

AI algorithm has been able to forecast the movement of the Apple stock price (AAPL) with an accuracy of up to 96%. The I Know First predictive AI algorithm has been able to forecast the movement of the Apple stock price (AAPL) with an accuracy of up to 96%, says an evaluation report released by the Tel Aviv-based company on July 23 2019. The assessment covers the forecasts for the period from January 1 until July 23 2019, with time horizons ranging from 3 days to 3 months. The algorithm, which was initially designed to help investors identify undervalued stocks, has demonstrated a consistent accuracy rate above 65%. Three-month forecasts have proven to be the most accurate ones, with demonstrating precision of nearly 100%.