Less than a week after the last drops of Hurricane Harvey fell, Houston is just beginning to assess the damage. At least 46 people have died. More than 30,000 houses are flooded and as many as a million vehicles waterlogged. Early estimates suggest the hurricane has inflicted $120 billion in damage on the region, making it the most expensive natural disaster in the country's history. "This is going to be a massive, massive cleanup process," Texas governor Greg Abbott told ABC's Good Morning America on Friday.

For drone users, Hurricane Harvey is likely to be the event that propelled unmanned aircraft to become an integral part of government and corporate disaster-recovery efforts. In the first six days after the storm hit, the Federal Aviation Administration issued more than 40 separate authorizations for emergency drone activities above flood-ravaged Houston and surrounding areas. They ranged from inspecting roadways to checking railroad tracks to assessing the condition of water plants, oil refineries and power lines. That total climbed above 70 last Friday and topped 100 by Sunday, including some flights prohibited under routine circumstances, according to people familiar with the details. Industry officials said all of the operations--except for a handful flown by media outlets--were conducted in conjunction with, or on behalf of, local, state or federal agencies.

While Microsoft and Google preach how society can be enhanced through artificial intelligence, not everyone is thinking about making the world a better place through Paxos algorithms for consensus protocols. Russian president Vladimir Putin spoke about the potential power of artificial intelligence to students on Friday, saying "the one who becomes the leader in this sphere will be the ruler of the world," according to Associated Press. He then said "it would be strongly undesirable if someone wins a monopolist position," indicating that Russia would cooperate with other countries in the development of AI. While Russia is seen as skilled in technological propaganda, it has little presence in mainstream AI research. Putin also envisioned a future for war where drones, ostensibly controlled by artificial intelligence, would fight proxy wars between countries.

"This will be the widest scale event that we've used drones for to date," said Justin Herndon, a spokesman for Allstate. Herndon says his company expects to conduct hundreds of drone flights per day after Harvey--thousands a week. Farmer's, another major property insurance company, is also planning to deploy drones for the same purpose. The drones that most insurance companies will use aren't huge; they fit in a medium-sized suitcase and are packed with high-resolution cameras that can take aerial images of roofs and property. It's not always safe for a person to walk on the roof of a severely damaged building, and some areas are often impossible to assess until other parts are repaired or special rigging is used.

An online pharmacy is planning to use drones to deliver the morning-after pill and Viagra following successful UK trials. MedExpress is in talks with the independent regulator for pharmacy services to dispatch medicines and the contraceptive nationwide. The company says the service will be particularly useful for people living in remote areas. They have offered assurances that the products will be delivered discreetly with purchases details blacked out on sales records and bank accounts. One challenge MedExpress faces is delivering medication safely and at temperatures that do not interfere with the drugs' effectiveness.

Amazon delivery drones could use Alexa to talk to customers - and even shout at them to get out of its way. The firm has been granted a patent for'speech interaction for unmanned aerial vehicles' that would allow drones to answer customer questions, prompt a person to move if in the way of a landing, and warn people passing by if the drone is in'a hazardous state.' A drawing in the patent even depicts a drone with a speech bubble that reads'Please stay away!' as it malfunctions near a person. A scenario in which an Amazon drone would speak to a person to indicate a hazardous condition. 'In some cases, the UAV may be in a potentially hazardous state, such as in a state where one or more propellers are powered and turning,' the patent reads Amazon delivery drones could come with'speech interaction' to talk to customers, according to a new patent.

Finally, a martian rover to call your own. A Polish team of engineers who first created a rover in a NASA contest that eventually led to Curiosity have revealed a remote control, backpack-sized version of their'land drone' designed to be used on Earth. The $1400 'Turtle Rover' has a robot arm that can be remotely controlled, a HD camera for livestreaming, and can have everything from GoPro's to laser mapping attachments added to it. The'Turtle Rover' land drone is built on NASA-inspired suspension and can conquer every terrain and even be submerged under water, making it possible for everyone from researchers to wildlife photographers to explore what might otherwise be inaccessible parts of Earth Its makers boast it can conquer every terrain and even be submerged under water, making it possible for everyone from researchers to wildlife photographers. ''The only real limit is your imagination' are not just empty marketing words we use,' Simon Dzwonczyk, CEO and mechanical designer of Kell Ideas, the maker of Turtle Rover, told DailyMail.com.

Property insurers are preparing to fly dozens of drones over homes and businesses to assess damage in the wake of Tropical Storm Harvey, the first widespread use of unmanned aircraft to size up catastrophe claims. Insurers have been testing drones and using them on a small scale since getting Federal Aviation Administration approval in 2015 to use the technology for U.S. inspections. Drones provide aerial images that can help insurance adjusters inspect buildings faster and more safely, executives say, part of a larger industry effort to speed up time-consuming claims. The storm presents the first opportunity for some of these insurers to test their new fleets on a large scale. Harvey, which made landfall in Texas last week and moved to Louisiana on Wednesday, is estimated to have caused up to $20 billion in insurable damage.

Tech companies are competing to develop the first viable passenger-carrying sky taxis, whether manned or pilotless, but how soon could these clever copters really be whizzing over our cities? And would you trust one? Dubai is racing to be the first to put drone taxis in the air. In June, its Roads and Transport Authority (RTA) signed an agreement with a German start-up Volocopter to test pilotless air taxis towards the end of this year. The firm has received 25m euros (£22m; $30m) from investors, including German motor manufacturer Daimler, to develop the 18-rotor craft capable of transporting two passengers at a time.

In a harrowing video shared by authorities, a man who was reportedly being pursued by police and swam out to sea to evade arrest found himself being stalked by a shark in the process. Drone footage shows the man swimming roughly a mile out from shore in Surf City, North Carolina, as the predator trails behind him. Zachary Kingsbury of Lynnwood, Washington was pulled over Wednesday during a traffic stop, at which time police observed "illegal contraband" in his vehicle, local ABC-affiliate WTVD reported Thursday. While being questioned, 20-year-old Kingsbury was able to temporarily evade police by foot before jumping into the ocean and swimming some 4,000 feet offshore. Video showing the man swimming out to sea while a shark stalked him a mere 60 feet away was posted by the Port City Daily, an online newspaper for the Cape Fear region.