We live in a time when it's never been easier or less expensive to sequence a plant's complete genome. But knowing all a plant's genes is not the same thing as knowing what all those genes do. Michigan State experts in plant biology and computer science plan to close that gap with the help of artificial intelligence and a new $1.4 million grant from the National Science Foundation. Ultimately, the goal is to help farmers grow crops with genes that give their plants the best chance to withstand threats such as drought and disease. To get to that point, though, researchers still need to reveal the fundamental role of many of the genes found in plants.

Four trends on the Gartner, Inc. Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2021 are driving near-term artificial intelligence (AI) innovation. These trends include responsible AI; small and wide data approaches; operationalization of AI platforms; and efficient use of data, model and compute resources. "AI innovation is happening at a rapid pace, with an above-average number of technologies on the Hype Cycle reaching mainstream adoption within two to five years," said Shubhangi Vashisth, senior principal research analyst at Gartner. "Innovations including edge AI, computer vision, decision intelligence and machine learning are all poised to have a transformational impact on the market in coming years." The AI market remains in an evolutionary state, with a high percentage of AI innovations appearing on the upward-sloping Innovation Trigger (see Figure 1).

The automatic identification of complex features in images has already become a reality thanks to artificial neural networks. Some examples of software exploiting this technique are Facebook's automatic tagging system, Google's image search engine and the animal and plant recognition system used by iNaturalist. We know that these networks are inspired by the human brain, but their working mechanism is still mysterious. New research, conducted by SISSA in association with the Technical University of Munich and published for the 33rd Annual NeurIPS Conference, proposes a new approach for studying deep neural networks and sheds new light on the image elaboration processes that these networks are able to carry out. Similar to what happens in the visual system, neural networks used for automatic image recognition analyse the content progressively, through a chain of processing stages.

The M500, Motorola Solutions' AI-enabled in-car video system for law enforcement, introduces advanced analytics to drive operational efficiency, safety and transparency for law enforcement and citizens. The M500, Motorola Solutions' AI-enabled in-car video system for law enforcement, introduces advanced analytics to drive operational efficiency, safety and transparency for law enforcement and citizens. CHICAGO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Motorola Solutions today introduced the first AI-enabled in-car video system for law enforcement, the M500. The solution is bringing more powerful capabilities to the police vehicle to enhance awareness and safety while building trust and transparency throughout communities. The M500 features new backseat passenger analytics which automatically start the in-car camera recording as soon as an individual enters the back of a police car.

Business owners and families have a new option designed to save them money on emergency room visits. Save time and money when you get sick! Interested customers are invited to sign up on the website: DocInAPock.com Imagine if every time when you or your family member felt sick before you spend hundreds of dollars going to the emergency room or Urgent Care or even a telemedicine service, you could just open an app on your phone to understand what is going on, based on your symptoms, that's Dock in a Pock! Containing over 30 MILLION pages of medical research documents, Dock in a Pock is bringing back the house call.

What if media were optimized to benefit people? This thought-provoking question is at the core of Harmony Labs' mission. A nonprofit organization headquartered in New York City, Harmony Labs strives to better understand the impact of media on society, and build communities and tools to reform and transform media systems. As Brian Wanieswki, Executive Director at Harmony Labs puts it: "The media systems that we have now, for better or worse, have become outrage machines and sorting machines that put people into groups of like minds. The business incentive structures of these systems are such that the more outrage there is, the more profit there is. Political events across the world in recent years have borne out what these media systems produce, and it's really pretty toxic, and pretty hard to get anything done within. There are all kinds of natural divisions between people, but these media systems tend to reinforce these divisions. So, the first question that we're asking is, What's the scope of this problem? And then, What can we do to solve it?"

For investors looking to invest in booming fields in the tech trade, artificial intelligence (AI) stocks are a viable play. Namely, the stock market today is home to various AI firms that employ the tech in a vast array of industries. This would be the case as the use cases for the tech continues to grow day by day. After all, not only does AI help organizations with computational issues, but the tech is constantly improving via machine learning. As a result, investors would be keeping an eye on emerging names in the field.

In the world of robotic startups, acquisition is often as good an outcome as any. And when it comes to robotic tractor startups, you could do worse than being acquired by John Deere. The agricultural technology giant announced today that it's set to acquire Bear Flag Robotics for $250 million. The Bay Area-based firm, which specializes in autonomous farming heavy machinery, was founded in 2017. They first crossed our radar the following year, as a member of YC's Winter 2018 cohort.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming the way we live, work, travel, and do business. The expertise of British AI companies, some of the world's most innovative, contributes significantly to this increase in global economic growth and productivity. Recently, Tech Nation, the leading growth platform for UK tech companies, released data on the growth of the AI tech ecosystem in the UK. According to this new data, the UK is now home to over 1,300 AI companies, up from 180 companies in 2011, representing a 600% increase. AI companies are scaling across all regions of the UK, with 50% of the top scaling AI companies being outside of London with Cambridge and Edinburgh being major hubs. Furthermore, Venture Capital investment into UK AI companies also rocketed from $120 million in 2010 to $3.4 billion in 2020.

After launching it in Go stores and then bringing it to larger Fresh supermarkets, Amazon's cashierless "Just Walk Out" tech will soon arrive in two Whole Foods locations. The service, which lets you pick up goods from shelves and (yep) just walk out, is coming to new stores in Washington DC and Sherman Oaks, California next year, the company announced. "By collaborating with Amazon to introduce Just Walk Out shopping at these two Whole Foods Market stores, our customers will be able to... save time by skipping the checkout line," said Whole Foods co-founder John Mackey. As we've detailed previously, Just Walk Out uses computer vision, sensors and AI to let you walk into a store, sign in with an app, fill up your bags and leave without the need to join a checkout line. On top of using the tech in its own Go and Fresh stores, Amazon signed a deal last year to license its technology to third-party retailers.