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While digital innovation and new technology is developing at a faster pace than ever before, every industry is having to adapt to new process and ways of working all the time. Some businesses are embracing this, and many have even thrived or been created because of it, but the accounting industry generally has found it a challenge. Accountancy is an age old profession, traditionally very process-driven; thus bringing technologies like robotics and automation into the mix has not only changed what clients expect from the service they pay for, but also the way accountants work and what their core responsibilities are. Automation is no longer breaking news, yet many accountancy firms still have a way to go before they are making use of all efficiencies available to them. According to the ICAEW, 25 percent of all businesses are still using paper-based records showing that, even if accounting firms are aware of technological developments, they have not yet taken action to make use of them.

On Wednesday morning, Mark Kern sat down with his 12-year-old son to tell him the guild was breaking up. Kern had been involved with World of Warcraft from the very beginning--a game developer himself, he was the original team leader for the title when Blizzard Entertainment launched it in 2004--and was a steadfast player of WoW Classic, a throwback version of the game that launched in August. Over the weekend, an esports player for another Blizzard title, Hearthstone, had shouted a Hong Kong protest slogan on the game's official Taiwanese livestream; in response, Activision Blizzard suspended the player from high-level competitive play for a year and said it would not pay out his past winnings, claiming that he had violated rules barring acts that "offend[] a portion or group of the public." For Kern, who was born in Taiwan and spent time in Hong Kong, the studio he'd called home for nearly eight years had changed. He told his son that he had decided to cancel his WoW subscription, putting an end to their family tradition.

This University of Pennsylvania and Accenture hosted program focuses on how AI and advanced algorithms can improve patient outcomes and experience, reduce complexity and cost of care and capture novel high-value data. The event sessions will feature a wide range of speakers across the provider, life sciences and payer space as well as an in-depth look at the digital innovation at the University of Pennsylvania and the ongoing collaboration with Accenture. The event will close with a panel consisting of industry leaders discussing the opportunities and challenges in digital health followed by dedicated time for networking with other attendees.

California lawmakers have passed a bill that bans law enforcement from using facial recognition technology gathered by body cameras – in a bid to end privacy abuse. The bill, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom, will go into effect in 2020 and last for three years. The motion also prohibits cops from using biometric surveillance including other forms of identification that can be capture from body camera videos. California lawmakers have passed a bill that bans law enforcement from using facial recognition technology gathered by body cameras – in a bid to end privacy abuse. The bill is first of its kind in the US and recognizes that'the use of facial recognition and other biometric surveillance is the functional equivalent of requiring every person to show a personal photo identification card at all times in violation of recognized constitutional rights.

Like all new parents, I must sound like a kook when I babble along with my 9-month-old daughter. That's okay: It delights her. I sometimes ask her what she might mean as she offers some apparently affirming utterance and looks at me with her big blue eyes: Oh, you like it when daddy lifts you? Her vocalizations--the squeals and whoas and yah-wahs--can have surprising verve and a kind of ecological significance. My daughter's noises, scientists say, "catalyze" me to produce "simplified, more easily learnable language."

Oculus co-founder has designed a drone that is capable of seeking out its targets and ramming them head on in order to destroy them. In a video demonstration, Interceptor seeks out its opponent and charges at it 100 miles per hour, ultimately hurdling both of them to the ground. The company claims it is capable of neutralizing threats in any environment, day or night, and according to its creator, the device'almost always survives and returns to base.' Interceptor is the brainchild of Anduril, which was founded by Palmer Luckey who also co-founded Oculus - the Facebook owned company that designs virtual reality technology. 'The best way to kill fast drones piloted by hostile humans is with even faster drones piloted by AI!' said Luckey on Twitter. 'The United States cannot allow the skies of the world to turn into the Wild West, our ability to take out aerial threats in a matter of seconds is part of the solution.'

Beyond the current applications, computer vision tools are rapidly becoming commodified for lower-profile uses. Totvs Labs, a software vendor based in Mountain View, Calif., has started using computer vision recognition in its product testing, especially its cloud-based software, which needs to be frequently updated and therefore continuously tested. Typically, a senior quality assurance engineer would run a test by writing a script that puts the application through its paces, and each test case would take hours to create, said Vicente Goetten, the lab's executive director. If an application changed significantly because the framework and its underlying code needed updating, for example, thousands and thousands of test cases might have to be written, he explained. With the help of computer vision recognition, engineers can look at a website, desktop application or mobile app, rather than the underlying code, and see where they need to enter data or press buttons.

Siri has an awkward black counterpart. Google has announced Issa Rae as the new cameo voice of Google Assistant, following in the footsteps of John Legend. The new feature is available on any device with Google Assistant, including Google Home speakers, Smart Displays and on mobile for both Android and iOS. With the help of speech synthesis model WaveNet, you get to ask Issa just about anything you want. Let me break it down for you, thanks to Google's help: To switch to Issa's voice, simply say "Hey Google, talk like Issa," or go to your "Assistant voice" in Assistant Settings.

Amazon's Cloud Cam home security device regularly sends video clips to employees in Romania and India, who help "train" its AI algorithms, according to five current and former employees who spoke to Bloomberg. The workers review the clips in order to help the system distinguish pet from threat - benign movement from malignant intruder. Cloud Cam users have no idea they're being watched by human eyes. The Cloud Cam's terms and conditions say nothing about humans watching footage from their security cameras, and an Amazon representative insisted that the only clips reviewed by employees are submitted voluntarily, for "troubleshooting" purposes. Other than that, "only customers can view their clips," the spokeswoman told Bloomberg, insisting Amazon "take[s] privacy seriously."