IMAGE: This is a maize field in Colombia. Farmers in Colombia's maize-growing region of Córdoba had seen it all: too much rain one year, a searing drought the next. Yields were down and their livelihoods hung in the balance. The situation called for a new approach. They needed information services that would help them decide what varieties to plant, when they should sow and how they should manage their crops.

Consider a refugee population coming from country C residing in host country B, with limited or no access to education. The trauma of conflict and displacement, coupled with the difficulty of integration within the host country puts refugee populations at a significant educational disadvantage, so it is worthwhile considering options that could "level the playing field" by providing improved access to education. There is hope that the vast amounts of Open Educational Resources (OER) that are freely available on the internet can play a role in this, in particular in combination with educational platforms like Kolibri. The Kolibri platform aims to provide access to learning opportunities for all and it is particularly suited for the refugee context as the runs-anywhere capabilities of the Kolibri applications allow it to be accessed in computer labs, in the classroom, from phones, and in informal learning centres. Our experience and work with partners like UNHCR have shown that in emergency and crisis contexts, a key bottleneck is the lack of sufficient educational content aligned to the learning goals of the project.

Fox News Flash top headlines for Oct. 15 are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com They can form swarms of hundreds of mini, precision-guided explosives, overwhelm radar or simply blanket an area with targeting sensors. They can paint or light up air, ground or sea targets for enemy fighters, missiles or armored vehicles, massively increasing warzone vulnerability. The can instantly emerge from behind mountains to fire missiles at Army convoys, infantry on the move or even mechanized armored columns.

One in three councils are using computer algorithms to help make decisions about benefit claims and other welfare issues, despite evidence emerging that some of the systems are unreliable. Companies including the US credit-rating businesses Experian and TransUnion, as well as the outsourcing specialist Capita and Palantir, a data-mining firm co-founded by the Trump-supporting billionaire Peter Thiel, are selling machine-learning packages to local authorities that are under pressure to save money. A Guardian investigation has established that 140 councils out of 408 have now invested in the software contracts, which can run into millions of pounds, more than double the previous estimates. The systems are being deployed to provide automated guidance on benefit claims, prevent child abuse and allocate school places. But concerns have been raised about privacy and data security, the ability of council officials to understand how some of the systems work, and the difficulty for citizens in challenging automated decisions.

The government has announced it will invest £133m in new technology for the NHS, including tools for arthritis and cancer diagnosis, as well as gene-based therapies for diseases including dementia. The fund will be spread across several different areas of treatment, including £50m ring-fenced for NHS diagnostics services and for supporting Centres of Excellence in digital pathology and imaging with artificial intelligence. Adult social care will receive £7.5m over eight years, which will fund research to improve care delivery. A project dedicated to developing new therapies for genetic mutations, including those linked to Parkinson's and cancer, will receive £30m over four years. A further £14m will also be spent on bioscience projects across the UK.

This is an updated version of a story that initially appeared in Interglobix Magazine, the publication for data centers, connectivity and lifestyle. The road to the self-driving car of the future is paved with hardware and data centers. Autonomous vehicles promise to be one of the transformational technologies of the 21st century, with the potential to remake much of our urban and economic landscape. But many questions remain about how the connected car of 2019 will evolve to meet the vision for the autonomous vehicles of the future, and tough issues to be resolved on multiple fronts – including technology, regulation and infrastructure. The long-term vision is to create networks of connected vehicles that "talk" to one another using vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communications over low-latency wireless connections, which can also allow vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) that enable robot cars to connect with traffic lights and parking meters.

AI "needs to span every battlefield system that we have, from our maneuver systems for our fire control systems to our sustainment systems to our soldier systems to our human resource systems and our enterprise systems." Gen. Matthew Easley, Director of the Army AI Task Force (AAITF), made these remarks at the 2019 AUSA Warriors Corner, which runs from October 14-16. "We need to be able to create an AI infrastructure for the Army" -- Brig. The US Army is looking to integrate AI into every facet of its operations. "We see AI as an enabling technology for all Army modernization priorities -- from future vertical lift to long range precision fires to soldier lethality," said Easley.

Omega Medical Imaging, manufactures of Artificial Intelligence Fluoroscopy/Cine (AIF/C) Imaging systems, just announced the Food and Drug Administration 510 (k) clearance of FluoroShield with their 2020 Cardiac Flat Panel Detector. The unique FluoroShield system allows for auto collimation during interventional fluoro or cine cases while maintaining a perspective of surrounding anatomy. The blended image incorporates a lower frequency refresh of the peripheral image area. This combined image (live fluoroscopy or cine of ROI background refreshed at a rate of once or twice per second) increases the quality of information presented during interventional procedures. Brian Fleming, President of Omega Medical Imaging states, "Until now products on the market have only been able to manage radiation to patients and staff. FluoroShield is the only system in the world that provides an actual reduction in dose. The impact of this groundbreaking solution for patients and healthcare providers is substantial. I am very grateful to be a part of a team that pushes the envelope in the development of safer healthcare solutions."

Whether it's dubious viral memes, gaffe-prone presidential debates, or surreal TikTok remixes, you could spend the rest of your life trying to watch all the video footage posted on YouTube in a single day. Researchers want to let artificial intelligence algorithms watch and make sense of it instead. A group from MIT and IBM developed an algorithm capable of accurately recognizing actions in videos while consuming a small fraction of the processing power previously required, potentially changing the economics of applying AI to large amounts of video. The method adapts an AI approach used to process still images to give it a crude concept of passing time. The work is a step towards having AI recognize what's happening in video, perhaps helping to tame the vast amounts now being generated.

The intensive fires in the Amazon, the rapid melting of glaciers and ice sheets, and continued loss of biodiversity all illustrate that our planet is changing at a dangerous pace. At the same time, we are entering a period of unprecedented technological change. Artificial intelligence (AI) in combination with sensor technology and robotics are likely to change the way we all perceive and respond to social and environmental changes. How can we ensure that applications of artificial intelligence help us address these urgent challenges? On Oct. 15, Princeton University joined representatives from U.S. and Swedish academia, Swedish government, Google, Ericsson, USAID, U.N. Development Programme and U.N. Global Pulse, to launch a project that will explore how applications of artificial intelligence can help accelerate innovations in line with targets set by the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals.