Energy

The second largest economy of the Arab world is quietly switching from oil to Artificial Intelligence. In a world first, the UAE on Thursday appointed a minister of Artificial Intelligence, which is also the first such acknowledgement by the Arab world that these indeed are the technologies that are going to shape economies around us. Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama, 27, will spearhead UAE's ambition to be at the forefront of the global technological revolution, which will see it planning to build homes on the planet Mars by 2117. The UAE plans to have a fully functioning city of 600,000 people on Mars. "We aspire in the coming century to develop science, technology and our youth's passion for knowledge," tweeted Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al Maktoum, the country's vice president and prime minister, when he announced the project -- known as "Mars 2117" -- earlier this year.

From Fukushima in Japan to Sellafield in the UK, the world is home to a number of sites that are contaminated with radioactive waste and require clean-up. The current techniques available to do this are expensive and time consuming – but a new'super hero' robot could help to cut both costs and time. The robot, called Avexis, is designed to fit through a 100mm access port in the flooded reactors at the Fukushima site, to locate and analyse melted fuel. Many areas around Fukushima are still being decontaminated, 58,000 people are still displaced from their homes and the local food industries have been crippled. Its designers hope that the robot will be ready to deploy at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant by February 2018.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos has'christened' the company's new wind farm by smashing a bottle of champagne while standing on top of a 300ft (90m) turbine. Footage of the stunt, which appears to have been recorded using a drone, gives a sweeping look of the new Texan wind farm which is currently Amazon's largest renewable energy project. The 53-year-old multi-billionaire flaunted the bottle-smashing video on Twitter - further shaping his new macho appearance which is a far cry from his nerdy look when he started Amazon in the mid-90s. Bezos' macho appearance is a far cry from his nerdy look when he started Amazon in the mid-90s. At the time, he was running it from a garage at a house he had rented in Seattle.

Last year the UAE got a Minister of Happiness, and now, in another world first, the country has a Minister of Artificial Intelligence – an acknowledgement by the Emirates that these are the technologies that are going to change the world around us, and quickly. H.H. Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice President of the UAE and ruler of Dubai, announced a full cabinet reshuffle today, and as part of that 27-year-old Omar Bin Sultan Al Olama has been announced as the Minister of AI. Al Olama has been working as the Deputy Director of the Future Department for just over a year now, and he has been on the Executive Committee of the World Government Summit since 2014. He has a BBA from the American University of Dubai, and a diploma of excellence and project management from the American University in Sharjah. Well, they plan to use AI to not only streamline costs, but to also bolster education and a desire to learn; to reduce accidents on the roads; and to create savings in the energy industry.

The number jobs in artificial intelligence (AI) in the UK has risen dramatically in the last three years, according to Indeed. Since 2014, the number of available AI roles in Britain has increased by 485% - representing a significant spike in demand for employees with the appropriate skills for the job. Yet Indeed's data also reveals there are over two times as many AI jobs available than there are suitable applicants, with a ratio of 2.3 roles available per candidate searching in the last quarter. Interest in AI roles has risen more steadily by 178% in the past three and a half years, not quite high enough to meet the fivefold surge in postings. The popularity of software in innovations including smart home devices and customer service chat bots demonstrate how the industry is developing at pace.

Roberta doesn't have a last name, a face, or arms. She is the first piece of robotic software to work in the Norwegian company's treasury department, part of Statoil's push toward automation, robotics and artificial intelligence, said Mr. Kjøllesdal, acting head of internal treasury. Finance executives at companies including Nokia Corp. NOK -0.26%, Royal Dutch Shell PLC and Orange SA ORAN -0.62% are developing their own Robertas. Two thirds of large global companies expect to automate some or most of their finance-department tasks over the next two to three years, according to new research by The Hackett Group Inc. Hackett's report is based on benchmark and performance studies at hundreds of large global companies. These new technologies are designed to cut costs, liberate workers from time-consuming, repetitive tasks, and in many cases reduce finance- and treasury-department employee numbers.

Many years ago, during my first assignment at (super) major oil company, I was in charge of significant decisions for wells drilled in an onshore gas field. Each of these wells were drilled quickly, on average taking 5–7 days. The geology was well known, the reservoirs were, generally speaking, economic and the operational risks from drilling were rather low and manageable. Despite the apparent homogeneity (nothing in geology is truly homogeneous) of the regional geology of this field, operations geologists (such as myself), had to do some very manual work. As we approached the reservoir section for each well, I was required to confirm we were approaching the reservoir based on data obtained while drilling.

Mike Brooks proposes the use of machine learning software to improve plant reliability and to reduce unplanned downtime. There is a significant need to carry out failure prevention using data-driven truths instead of guesstimates, evidenced by the fact that a combination of mechanical and process induced breakdowns account for up to 10% of the worldwide $1.4 trillion manufacturing market, according to a 2012 report from The McKinsey Global Institute. While companies have spent millions trying to address this issue and ultimately avoid unplanned downtime, only recently have they been able to address wear and age-based failures. Current techniques are not able to detect problems early enough and lack insight into the reasons behind the seemingly random failures that cause over 80% of unplanned downtime. This is where using machine learning software to cast a'wider net' around machines can capture process induced failures.

Robots have become central to the cleaning-up operation at Japan's Fukushima nuclear power plant, six years after the tsunami that triggered the nuclear meltdown.

The camera on the new Pixel 2 is packed full of great hardware, software and machine learning (ML), so all you need to do is point and shoot to take amazing photos and videos. One of the technologies that helps you take great photos is HDR, which makes it possible to get excellent photos of scenes with a large range of brightness levels, from dimly lit landscapes to a very sunny sky. HDR produces beautiful images, and we've evolved the algorithm that powers it over the past year to use the Pixel 2's application processor efficiently, and enable you to take multiple pictures in sequence by intelligently processing HDR in the background. In parallel, we've also been working on creating hardware capabilities that enable significantly greater computing power--beyond existing hardware--to bring HDR to third-party photography applications. To expand the reach of HDR, handle the most challenging imaging and ML applications, and deliver lower-latency and even more power-efficient HDR processing, we've created Pixel Visual Core.