Artificial intelligence, including machine learning, presents exciting opportunities to transform the health and life sciences spaces. It offers tantalizing prospects for swifter, more accurate clinical decision making and amplified R&D capabilities. However, open issues around regulation and clinical relevance remain, causing both technology developers and potential investors to grapple with how to overcome today's barriers to adoption, compliance, and implementation. Over the past few years, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has been taking incremental steps to update its regulatory framework to keep up with the rapidly advancing digital health market. In 2017, the FDA released its Digital Health Innovation Action Plan to offer clarity about the agency's role in advancing safe and effective digital health technologies, and addressing key provisions of the 21st Century Cures Act.

FILE - In this June 4, 1942 file photo provided by the U.S. Navy shows the USS Yorktown listing heavily to port after being struck by Japanese bombers and torpedo planes in the Battle of Midway. Researchers scouring the world's oceans for sunken World War II ships are honing in on debris fields deep in the Pacific.(AP MIDWAY ATOLL, Northwestern Hawaiian Islands (AP) -- Deep-sea explorers scouring the world's oceans for sunken World War II ships are focusing on debris fields deep in the Pacific, in an area where one of the most decisive battles of the time took place. Hundreds of miles off Midway Atoll, nearly halfway between the United States and Japan, a research vessel is launching underwater robots miles into the abyss to look for warships from the famed Battle of Midway. Weeks of grid searches around the Northwestern Hawaiian Islands have already led the crew of the Petrel to one sunken warship, the Japanese ship the Kaga.

The turbulence of Brexit has left both UK and European startups alike wondering about the best path forward. From recruiting to acquiring investment to scaling into other parts of Europe, the challenges seem to be mounting. By December, who knows what will have happened on the Brexit landscape, such is the chaos. At Disrupt Berlin in December, we'll hear from investor Bindi Karia who has deep European ties, founder Glenn Shoosmith who's expanding his startup internationally and German-born but UK-domiciled VC Volker Hirsch on how to make the right decisions in the face of these obstacles. Bindi Karia works as a venture partner at a large london-based VC and has held positions in and around the tech industry for as long as she's been working.

Bosch is set to launch a new AI-based sensor system to the International Space Station that could change the way astronauts and ground crew monitor the ISS's continued healthy operation. The so-called "SoundSee" module will be roughly the size of a lunch box, and will make its way to the ISS via Northrop Grumman's forthcoming CRS-12 resupply mission, which is currently set for a November 2 launch. The SoundSee module combines microphones with machine learning to perform analysis of sounds it picks up from the station, which it can use to effectively establish a healthy baseline, and then continually use new audio data to compare in order to get advance notice of potential mechanical issues via changes that could signal problems. SoundSee will be mobile via installation on Astrobee, an autonomous floating cube-shaped robot that took its first totally self-guided flight in reduced gravity in June this year. Astrobee's roving role is a perfect way for Bosch's SoundSee tech, which it developed in partnership with Astrobotic and NASA, to work on and develop its autonomous sensing tech, which it will eventually use to provide info about how systems are currently performing on the ISS, and when specific systems might need maintenance or repairs -- ideally before it becomes an issue.

TOKYO: Last year, an anguished young farmer in Maharashtra's Amravati district flattened his entire cotton crop spread over three acres of land. What drove him to take the extreme step? His crop was damaged by the dreaded pink bollworm pest, a wily worm that eats away cotton bolls and causes extensive crop damage. Sadly, he is not the only cultivator in the state dealing with the problem. Thousands of farmers in Maharashtra have been grappling with the pink bollworm menace for several years despite switching to the genetically-altered BT seeds, which are supposed to resist the pest.

When Amazon debuted its automated convenience store in Seattle in early 2018, I was impressed with the consumer experience but also aware of the long-term ripple effects. At a time when the self-checkout machine market was expected to grow, due in part to labor shortages and lowered kiosk prices, Amazon leapfrogged over that technology and many others, such as mobile payments. They went from self-checkout to no-checkout. The company had, in effect, done the exact same thing that allowed it to dominate the e-commerce side of things: They made shopping easier. To use industry lingo, they reduced the friction of transactions.

The Canadian government is taking the lead in setting governance standards in the application of AI, prescribing a risk-based framework that can be a model for creating an AI-powered organization. The Directive on Automated Decision-Making classifies AI decisions based on the potential impact of their outcomes as well as on the sustainability of ecosystems. The directive makes it clear that AI is not a one-size fits all problem. If an automated decision is going to directly affect the rights, health and economic interests of individuals, communities and entities, the AI application needs to be managed by rules that match the potential harm it could cause. In many cases, these rules call for the intervention and review of the decision by humans to ensure appropriate oversight.

It's karaoke-rehearsal time at Knollwood Military Retirement Community, a 300-bed facility tucked away in a leafy corner of northwest Washington, D.C. Knollwood resident and retired U.S. Army Colonel Phil Soriano, 86, has hosted the facility's semi-monthly singalongs since their debut during a boozy snowstorm happy hour in 2016. For the late August 2019 show, he'll share emcee duties with a special guest: Stevie, a petite and personable figure who's been living at Knollwood for the last six weeks. Soriano wants to sing the crowd-pleasing hit "YMCA" while Stevie leads the crowd through the song's signature dance moves. But Stevie is a robot, and this is harder than it sounds. "We could try to make him dance," says Niamh Donnelly, the robot's lead AI engineer, though she sounds dubious. She enters commands on a laptop.

In essence, the Government Digital Service (GDS) helps government work better for everyone by leading digital transformation (1). In August 2019, Alison Pritchard was named Interim Director-General of the GDS (2), now that Kevin Cunnington has taken on a new role promoting government services around the world. Alison recently shared her journey in government so far and discussed what she looks forward to delivering over the coming months. Long before she joined any government department, Alison already had experience of meeting user needs and delivering more for less. Alison explains that she was given the chance to run the garden bar at the family pub at the age of eight.

Your data has value, but unlocking it for your own benefit is challenging. Understanding how valuable data are collected and approved for use can help you to get there. Two primary means for differentiating audiences by their data collection methods are site-authenticated data collection and people-based data collection, suggested a recent piece in BulletinHealthcare written by Justin Fadgen, chief corporate development officer for the firm. Site-authenticated data are sourced from individual authentication events, such as when a user completes an online form, and generally agrees to a privacy policy that includes a data use agreement. User data are then be combined with other data sources that add meaning, becoming the basis of advertising targeting for instance.