Amazon have come under criticism for new packaging that cannot be recycled. The California-based company has angered environmentalists for three items used to mail purchases: an air pillow, bubble-lined plastic bag and standard plastic bag. All three are deemed single-use only, which means they can't be refashioned for another purpose - and, crucially, will not degrade naturally. This is despite growing pressure from politicians, such as former Prime Minister Theresa May, plus a host of multi-million pound retailers who've dumped wasteful packaging. In a statement, Amazon said: 'We value our customers' feedback about our packaging, both the positive comments and the negative, as in this instance.

NAGOYA – The approval rate for visa applications by nationals of countries such as Myanmar and Bangladesh to study at Japanese-language schools from April is sharply down from the same month last year, school operators in Japan said Wednesday. The plunge in the percentage of visas that were approved appears to reflect efforts to crack down on foreign nationals who enter the nation to work under the guise of being students. A survey by the Japanese Language School Association in Tokyo showed that student visas were granted to just 15 percent of applicants from Myanmar, down sharply from the 76 percent approval rate seen last year, and to 21 percent of Bangladeshi applicants, down from 61 percent. The success rate for Sri Lankan applicants was 21 percent, down from 50 percent. The survey drew responses from 327 of the 708 Japanese-language schools throughout the country and collected figures regarding applications for student resident status from April, when such applications peak with the start of the new academic year.

Last week, the New York Times published an investigation of One Concern, a platform designed to help cities and counties create disaster response plans. The company claimed to use a plethora of data from different sources to predict the way that earthquakes and floods would impact a city on a building-by-building basis with 85% accuracy, within 15 minutes of a disaster hitting a city. But the Times reports that San Francisco, one of the first cities that had signed on to use One Concern's platform, is ending its contract with the startup due to concerns about the accuracy of its predictions. The Times paints a picture of a slick interface (which was honored in Fast Company's 2018 Innovation by Design awards and 2019 World Changing Idea awards) that hid problems. The heat map-style interface is supposed to show city officials close to real-time predictions of damage after an earthquake or flood, as well as run simulations of future earthquakes and provide damage levels for each block, helping planners decide how to distribute resources to reach people who will be most in need of help.

Many find themselves impressed by machines that respond like humans or computers that perform feats of strategy and cognition mimicking human ingenuity. But for others, it also planted a seed of unease. This fear stems from the expected fear of job loss. As automation technology has been known to result in higher productivity, modern industries became increasingly dependent upon it and less reliant on human workers. This is widely evident in the marketing landscape wherein the digital and social media platforms continue to expand, and brands need to work twice as hard to get their message across their target audience.

Artificial intelligence solutions are now essential weapons in the insurers' battle against fraud. FREMONT, CA: The insurance industry is held responsible for a mass of sensitive data concerning both its customers and employees. Any data breach in an insurance firm could compromise the personal information of multiple users in no time. But insurers now have the option of attaining better cybersecurity posture by utilizing groundbreaking technologies available to them. Artificial Intelligence (AI) among those, is truly reforming insurance systems by making it more secure and enhancing the interaction between humans and machines.

Researchers at University of Washington and University of California, Los Angeles, have developed an artificial intelligence system that could help pathologists read biopsies more accurately, and lead to better detection and diagnosis of breast cancer. Doctors examine images of breast tissue biopsies to diagnose breast cancer. But the differences between cancerous and benign images can be difficult for the human eye to classify. This new algorithm helps interpret them -- and it does so nearly as accurately or better than an experienced pathologist, depending on the task. The research team published its results Aug. 9 in the journal JAMA Network Open.

The People's Republic of China, nonetheless, is already an AI powerhouse, and for America to maintain its edge - and to prevent U.S. tech from being used for exceedingly disturbing purposes - Washington should force U.S. companies to end cooperative AI projects in China. The West should be seriously concerned: whoever wins at AI will both dominate the global economy and field the most destructive conventional military force. Unfortunately, American companies are helping China's leaders in what many call - correctly - crimes against humanity. For instance, AI researchers from Microsoft, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, and Michigan State University gave keynote speeches at the Chinese Conference on Biometric Recognition in Xinjiang in August of last year on facial recognition, a social-control technology. Some of Google's research is in China.

According to the Automotive Council UK (ACUK) "… in the East Midlands and Yorkshire… Over a third of automotive manufacturers produce components. Read more: Mark Casci: Can cannabis save the high street? A quarter produce commercial vehicles, one fifth are aftermarket suppliers." In June 2017, the ACUK's report "Growing the Automotive Supply Chain: Local Vehicle Content Analysis" found "…cars manufactured in Britain are becoming more British…" A main reason quoted in the report was "the parts sourced by UK car manufacturers from UK first-tier suppliers has increased from 36 per cent in 2011, to 44 per cent in 2017." This is of course great news for the UK – but we would be foolish to ignore the advancements in technology, including artificial intelligence (AI) and how it has infiltrated a large part of our lives, domestically, commercially and politically.

And with the proliferation of an AI-driven society, the social and economic value of such technology is also on the rise. In turn, harnessing and leveraging such technology needs to extend beyond the interests of venture capitalists, investment groups and entrepreneurs -- and also be a priority on a geopolitical scale. When the global economy starts to feel the shift ushered in with mass-adoption of AI, the United States needs to be leading the charge as opposed to chasing the pack. If the U.S. is to compete on a global level, they'll face an arms race of sorts from a litany of nations that are already doubling-down on the massive advantages that come with national AI proficiency. In fact, 18 different countries have launched national AI strategies, with government funding ranging from $20 million to almost $2 billion.

When it comes to our health, especially in matters of life and death, the promise of artificial intelligence (AI) to improve outcomes is very intriguing. While there is still much to overcome to achieve AI-dependent health care, most notably data privacy concerns and fears of mismanaged care due to machine error and lack of human oversight, there is sufficient potential that governments, tech companies, and healthcare providers are willing to invest and test out AI-powered tools and solutions. Here are five of the AI advances in healthcare that appear to have the most potential. With an estimated value of $40 billion to healthcare, robots can analyze data from pre-op medical records to guide a surgeon's instrument during surgery, which can lead to a 21% reduction in a patient's hospital stay. Robot-assisted surgery is considered "minimally invasive" so patients won't need to heal from large incisions.