The incredibly large, Nazca Lines of Peru has always been a mysterious wonder, a sight best viewed from the air. Located near Lima, these impressive geometric figures are etched on a coastal desert. Recently, a team of Japenese researchers have found 143 new figures using satellite photography, 3D imaging and artificial intelligence. They portray animal and human figures like camels, llamas, cats and snakes, while some are more abstract, appearing as geometric shapes. Already, images of a monkey, hummingbird, and spider are quite famous.

Jerome Pesenti leads the development of artificial intelligence at one of the world's most influential--and controversial--companies. As VP of artificial intelligence at Facebook, he oversees hundreds of scientists and engineers whose work shapes the company's direction and its impact on the wider world. AI is fundamentally important to Facebook. Algorithms that learn to grab and hold our attention help make the platform and its sister products, Instagram and WhatsApp, stickier and more addictive. And, despite some notable AI flops, like the personal assistant M, Facebook continues to use AI to build new features and products, from Instagram filters to augmented reality apps. Mark Zuckerberg has promised to deploy AI to help solve some of the company's biggest problems, by policing hate speech, fake news, and cyberbullying (an effort that has seen limited success so far).

The next time you get sick, your care may involve a form of the technology people use to navigate road trips or pick the right vacuum cleaner online. Artificial intelligence is spreading into health care, often as software or a computer program capable of learning from large amounts of data and making predictions to guide care or help patients. It already detects an eye disease tied to diabetes and does other behind-the-scenes work like helping doctors interpret MRI scans and other imaging tests for some forms of cancer. Now, parts of the health system are starting to use it directly with patients. During some clinic and telemedicine appointments, AI-powered software asks patients initial questions about their symptoms that physicians or nurses normally pose.

Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy isn't ready to invest in the hype around artificial intelligence just yet. Rather, he's set the Army's focus for the next two years on acquiring the cloud architecture that can serve as the foundation for AI in the future. Expect to see more action and discussion around cloud than on AI in the Army "because you've got to put the horse in front of the cart in order to pull it," McCarthy said Thursday at an AEI event. "Cloud has to happen to maximize AI," he said. But if you talk to the people in the financial industry who basically did it first, the online trading with writing in an algorithm that helps you make a decision on whether to buy a barrel of oil or not -- that's from cloud architecture.

Videos showing autonomous or self-driving vehicles weaving in and out of crossroads at speed without colliding suggest this technology will solve traffic problems. You almost never see pedestrians or cyclists in these videos. The reality is that they don't fit. The vision of autonomous traffic is either of a large convoy of vehicles just a metre apart moving along road corridors at 100km/h, or of vehicles in an urban setting where their sensors are picking up every pedestrian movement and slowing or stopping. In the first case, the vehicles form an impenetrable barrier to pedestrians or cyclists (who, like on a freeway, will probably be banned).

Inflammation is a hallmark of many health conditions, but quantifying how the underlying biology of inflammation contributes to specific diseases has been difficult. For the first time, UNC School of Medicine researchers and colleagues now report the development of a new technology to identify white blood cells called neutrophils that are primed to eject inflammatory DNA into the circulation via a process called NETosis. The findings, published in Scientific Reports, mark the first time scientists have used machine learning tools for rapid quantitative and qualitative cell analysis in basic science. "This new test will allow investigators to measure NETosis in different diseases and to test drugs that may inhibit or promote the process," said senior author Leslie Parise, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UNC Department of Biochemistry and Biophysics. When foreign invaders such as viruses or bacteria enter our bodies, white blood cells rush in to fight the invaders in various ways.

Prototype of the Force 12 Xplorer being tested near Victoria, British Columbia. It uses a rigid ... [ ] wingsail for propulsion. It's been a great year for Open Ocean Robotics, a British Columbia-based startup that makes solar-powered drones that can gather environmental data in real time and help address a multitude of issues. During 2019, Open Ocean Robotics won a most-promising startup award from the National Community for Angels, Incubators, and Accelerators; $100,000 in a Spring Impact Investor Challenge; and was a finalist in a New Ventures BC Competition, to name a few. So how do you follow that up for 2020?

When it comes to figuring out what accounting firms are going to do, the best approach is simple: Ask. That's the theory behind Accounting Today's annual "Year Ahead" report: Each year we survey accountants across the country -- this year almost 600 responded -- to ask them about their plans for the next 12 months in areas ranging from tax season to staffing to marketing to technology. To complement that, we reached out to a selection of top firm leaders to get their take on the major issues they're expecting to face in 2020, and their advice for their fellow practitioners. This year's panel comprises Tom Barry, managing partner of Los Angeles-based Green Hasson Janks; Avani Desai, president of Tampa, Florida-based Schellman & Co.; and Heidi LaMarca, CEO and managing partner of Atlanta-based Windham Brannon. What are the trends that accountants and firms should keep an eye out for in 2020?

Whether they are teaching multiplication facts with the video game Minecraft or exploring engineering concepts in a Lego-themed makerspace, educators in Pennsylvania's Montour School District always ask themselves, "Is this best for children?"--not just for today, but for the future students will face as adults. "Our entire school community, led by our superintendent and school board, really believes that they want what's best for children and that comes with understanding what is best for children now and in the future," explains Justin Aglio, Montour's director of K–4 academic achievement and K–12 innovation. "We know what we want our future to look like. We want a school where students are kind, where students are thinkers, where they have the advanced skills and strategies they need to achieve academically. You can't wish students will be kind five years from now, you have to design it."

A report by research firm IDC in September said global spending for AI systems will reach $97.9 billion in 2023, a staggering increase from the projected $37.5 billion that will be spent this year. That means the annual growth rate will be 28.4 percent over the next several years. That's not surprising as BigTech is primed to increase their monopoly status in the 2020s with AI leadership that will boost GDP via machine learning with the emergence of an automation economy. Over the last few years, we have seen an exponential upthrust in the number of platforms, applications, and tools based on machine learning and AI technologies. We are seeing greater mainstream impact of algorithms, and machine learning in regular jobs across a variety of industries.