Drones have already shown that they can reliably deliver vital shipments of blood across Rwanda, drop off prescriptions to senior citizens in Florida, and help quarantining families stay safe with contactless deliveries. Now they're going to be buzzing through the skies of rural North Carolina thanks to a novel delivery service devised by drug-maker Merck and drone-maker Volansi. The plan is simple: use Volansi's 7-foot long "Gemini" quadcopter to ferry packages of cold chain medicines -- such as vaccines, glaucoma treatments, insulin, and asthma inhalers -- from Merck's Wilson, NC drug lab to the nine regional hospitals that make up Vidant Healthplex-Wilson. This medical network serves more than 1.4 million people across 29 counties in eastern North Carolina. "We've seen the world's supply chain strained like never before from the impact of Coronavirus," said Hannan Parvizian, CEO of Volansi, said in a press statement.

Investor demand for innovative emerging companies remains strong with Australian AI tech startup Tiliter completing a $7.5 million capital raise, led by Investec Emerging Companies (IEC). Eleanor Venture, a tech investment syndicate for angel investors, and New York's Cornell University also participated in the funding round. Tiliter is a leading artificial intelligence (AI) provider whose technology uses computer vision to recognise products without barcodes. Its technology automatically identifies items, such as fresh produce, without the need for barcodes, packaging, and price stickers, making it easier for shoppers to manage during self-checkout. Tiliter is currently focused on the Supermarket vertical and its camera and software system uses AI to pre-select items and remove the need for manual entry, with over 99% accuracy and in under one second.

French energy company Total has developed a tool to determine solar energy's potential of rooftops. Partnering with Google Cloud, the tool will help popularise the deployment of solar energy panels in households. The tool Solar Mapper uses artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm to extract data from satellite images. AI helps facilitates sharper and quicker estimation of solar energy potential than present tools, the company said in an official statement. The tool will also guide households to understand what technology would need to be installed depending on solar energy requirements.

RS21, an industry leader in developing interactive, big data analytics and visualization products and an Inc. 500 fastest-growing company, welcomes Michelle Archuleta, Ph.D. as its Director of Data Science. Dr. Archuleta is an entrepreneur, inventor and practitioner of artificial intelligence (AI) with 15 years of experience. She has 6 pending patents and has published in top reviewed scientific journals with a focus in the fields of systems biology, computational biology and utilizing applied mathematics and machine learning. "I'm excited to use AI for good and tackle high impact projects at RS21," said Dr. Archuleta. "I am looking forward to collaborating with the data science team, UX/UI design experts and developers to identify those'aha' moments that lead to new knowledge, a better path forward, and ultimately, make a difference in people's lives."

KODA, the artificial intelligence (AI) robotic dog company dedicated to helping people live better lives with robotic companions, announced today the pre-launch of its first model, the KODA.Unlike other robot dogs on the market, KODA is designed to be functional from pragmatic and emotional perspectives. KODA is a social robot. This is in part why KODA gave it a head. When a KODA cocks its ear to its owner's voice and runs over to be close, the consumer will know it's because KODA heard and understood them. KODA's blockchain-enabled decentralized AI infrastructure allows the robot dog to serve a multitude of purposes.

OTTAWA, Oct. 14, 2020 /CNW/ - Her Excellency the Right Honourable Julie Payette, Governor General of Canada, will be joined by Mr. Jean-François Gagné, Founder and CEO of Element AI. Their conversation will take place live on Thursday, October 15, 2020, at 1:30 p.m. EDT (French) and 2:30 p.m. EDT (English). Their conversation, entitled "Artificial Intelligence (AI): What it is and isn't" will focus on the roles that AI is expected to play in the near future in Canada and around the world. Mr. Gagné will also answer questions from Canadians from across the country. In addition to being the founder of Element AI, Mr. Gagné is an outspoken advocate of AI for Good and is actively involved in guiding AI's impact on business, people and society.

General Trading Company announced that about 98% of the profits made were due to its unique artificial intelligence technology. "An important advantage of General Trading Company compared to other capital management companies active in the financial markets is the complete use of algorithmic trading and artificial intelligence," says Alex Amartiefio, CEO and one of the co-founders of General Trading Company in London. General Trading is not alone and many other companies in various markets are trying to use artificial intelligence and trading algorithms; but the stunning results of this company has attracted a lot of attention. General Trading Company was registered in January 2019 and has raised its capital to 1 billion pounds in nine months. Amartiefio believes that the company's success is not just an accident rather the result of years of experience among the company's founders and managers.

In a new perspective piece "Transparency and reproducibility in artificial intelligence" published this week in the journal Nature, an international group of scientists including CUNY Graduate School of Public Health and Health Policy (CUNY SPH) Associate Professor Levi Waldron raised concerns about the lack of transparency in publication of artificial intelligence algorithms for health applications. The authors raise concerns about a recent publication in which a group including Google Health reported using artificial intelligence to diagnose breast cancer from mammogram images more accurately than expert human radiologists. The authors contend that restrictive data access procedures, lack of published computer code, and unreported model parameters make it impractically difficult for any other researchers to confirm or extend this work. The piece also highlights tensions over what are appropriate measures to protect patient privacy while allowing the broader research community to contribute methodology and to correct potential errors that could set back progress to the detriment of other patients. "This back-and-forth is one high-profile example of the current state of struggles over who controls data that has played out for decades in the biomedical sciences and other fields," says Professor Waldron.

NEW YORK, Oct. 13, 2020--According to Deloitte's "2020 State of AI in the Enterprise, 3rd Edition" study, 83% of respondents believe that artificial intelligence (AI) will be very or critically important to their business success in the next two years, but only 47% feel they have a high level of skill in selecting AI technologies and suppliers. As AI becomes more widely available and crucial to market leadership, organizations need to swiftly apply AI within their businesses. To help solve for rapid AI integration, Deloitte today announced its CortexAI platform. An award-winning solution already in market and proven in client engagements by Deloitte audit and tax clients, CortexAI is now being expanded to Deloitte consulting and risk and financial advisory clients. CortexAI brings together Deloitte's unique expertise with the power of an AI platform to rapidly develop and deploy scalable, applied AI solutions that drive impact and enable companies to garner fast results and return on investment.

After years of working with the world's leading direct-to-consumer brands, we see that it is easy to scale the number of interactions but still very hard to scale the quality of these interactions to drive efficient growth,