The ROCSAFE Project (Remotely Operated CBRNe Scene Assessment & Forensic Examination) has recently been funded by the European Union's Horizon 2020 programme. Led by Dr Michael Madden in NUI Galway, it will make advances in autonomous robotics, probabilistic reasoning, intelligent decision support, and miniaturised sensors, all of which will work together to gather forensic evidence in the event of a chemical, biological, radiation/nuclear or explosive (CBRNe) incident. ROCSAFE's overall goal is to fundamentally change how CBRNe events are assessed, and ensure the safety of crime scene investigators, by reducing the need for them to enter dangerous scenes to gather evidence. There are 13 partners in total involved in the project across Ireland, Italy, Portugal, Spain and Germany, along with a further group of advisory board members. There is more information at http://www.nuigalway.ie/remoteforensics/.

In 2001, when Jamie was diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukemia (CML), a cancer that starts inside the bone marrow, the disease had few effective cures. Fourteen years later, thanks to advances in cancer treatment, she is able to manage the disease and live a full life. Jamie is profiled in the PhRMA.org Yet many patients and their doctors wait for years before promising treatments become available. All too often, unforeseen side effects send researchers back to the drawing board, just when they thought they were close to bringing a new medication to market.

What does it mean to be intelligent? Why do humans perceive their environment the way they do? These are all questions that artificial intelligence will, over time, help scientists answer about the human experience. And Richard Sutton, a professor of computer sciences at the University of Alberta, has been a significant contributor to the discussion around the limits and promise of artificial intelligence. He is a respected voice on "reinforcement learning," or the fundamental process that allows AI software to respond to (and ultimately learn from) its environment.

When you look at the car parked outside your home, do you see a four-wheel device used to get you from A to B or a cognitive data platform with a social role to play? With its full array of on-board computers, motion sensors, GPS and cameras, a car is probably the most expensive piece of kit an average person owns – and yet it spends 95 per cent of the time idle. By 2020, it is estimated that nine out of 10 cars will have internet connectivity. Why should all this capability sit untapped just because the engine is off? When harnessed to IBM's cloud-based cognitive service, a line of parked cars has the potential to gather and disseminate information and be taught to act as a "citizen helper".

Details of the fallout from the Brexit vote may take months to become clear, but there are concerns the UK pulling out of the European Union could lead to the loss of many low skilled migrant workers. But this apparent loss could be technology's gain, according to the findings from one think-tank. According to a new report from the Resolution Foundation, shortfalls in the human workforce could lead to a surge in robots to take their place. A new report from a think-tank says shortfalls in the workforce post-Brexit could lead to a surge in robots to take their place. According to findings from the Resolution Foundation, low-skilled jobs in agriculture and the food industry currently carried out by large numbers of EU workers could be automated.

As card not present (CNP) transactions grow, online fraud is growing too, and with EMV migration in the US it is expected to grow even more. No wonder fraud is so high on merchants' list of concerns! Next to omnichannel, big data and cross-border, fraud was also one of the main keywords of the CNP EXPO 2016 edition. Amongst the top challenges in fighting fraud is the immense volumes and velocity of data generated by the big brands. This poses new, unique problems but it also creates opportunities to transform business and create competitive advantage.

Physical beauty is subjective and often difficult to define. But for the robot jury of Beauty.AI, an online competition billed as "the first international beauty contest judged by artificial intelligence," beauty is calculated by a set of complex algorithms that measure parameters like participants' facial symmetry and skin quality. The contest, launched in December, is an experiment by Youth Laboratories, an international team of data scientists and biogerontologists interested in developing anti-aging technologies. Its aim is to test and demonstrate how computers can learn to assess human attractiveness. The robot jury uses algorithms to analyze and rate participants' selfies submitted through the Beauty.AI app.

Many people think that the healthcare sector will greatly benefit from the Fourth Industrial Revolution. Professor Klaus Schwab, founder and executive Chairman of the World Economic Forum, describes this revolution as "a fusion of technologies that is blurring the lines between the physical, digital and biological spheres." Many of the discussions around technology and healthcare have, in broad terms, focused on the internet of things, telemedicine, personalized medicine, and robotics. But how exactly are these technologies going to be transformative? As the Chair of the Global Agenda Council on Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, I've been part of many discussions on the impacts of these technologies, both good and bad.

SAP, the 23.3 billion market leader in Enterprise application software has upped its game in India, by bringing into its campus in Whitefield, Bengaluru, the first batch of startups that are working on core technologies like artificial intelligence and cloud-based software. The new tenants at SAP Labs India campus will be housed at the "StartUp Studio" – a 75 seat incubation facility. Every year, the studio will take around 10 startups, provide them with technical expertise and support and give them access to the large base of SAP customers where appropriate. . The end goal of the Studio is to fine-tune the business of these startups and take them to their next stage of growth. "Startup innovations are happening in India and we recognise that we have to support the Startup Policy launched by the Prime Minister this year," says Bernd Leukert, Member of the Executive Board at SAP, Products and Innovation.

The Associated Press on Thursday announced that it is now covering Minor League Baseball games nationally using artificial intelligence and software from Automated Insights, and data from MLB Advanced Media (MLBAM), the official statistics provider for Minor League Baseball. Automatically generated stories cover games that AP Sports' human writers weren't reporting on or traveling to anyway, including: Triple-A, Double-A and Class A games, across 142 MLB-affiliated teams and 13 leagues. So if you're worried that technology is "stealing jobs" from promising sports writers, rest easy. According to the AP's deputy director of sports products, Barry Bedlan, the AP actually hired automation experts to develop, manage and integrate MiLB coverage. The move was not exactly unexpected, either.