In a recent project, we found which of 700000 property parcels in Adelaide, Australia, contain swimming pools. We used a combination of crowdsourcing and supervised machine learning in order to harness the inherent ability of humans to identify objects in imagery and the speed of machines, which can perform this task much faster than humans, once trained sufficiently. Our initial approach consisted of training a random forest classifier with a set of crowdsourced labels, then using the machine classifications to present to the crowd only the parcels that were likely to contain swimming pools. Since only a small percentage of the parcels actually contain pools, the efficiency gain of this approach is huge compared to a pure crowdsourcing campaign. At first glance, identifying a pool in a high-resolution satellite image might appear to be a simple task for a human and a machine alike.

In the back kitchen of Mountain View's newest pizzeria, Marta works tirelessly, spreading marinara sauce on uncooked pies. She doesn't complain, takes no breaks, and has never needed a sick day. Marta is one of two robots working at Zume Pizza, a secretive food delivery startup trying to make a more profitable pizza through machines. It's also created special delivery trucks that will finish cooking pizzas during the journey to hungry customers if approved by the Santa Clara County Department of Environmental Health. Right now Zume is only feeding people in Mountain View, California, but it has ambitions to dominate the 9.7 billion pizza delivery industry.

Cannes Lions this year saw the ad industry expanding its creative capabilities. Over 13,500 delegates from about 90 countries descended on Cannes again this year hoping for a Lion in one of 17 categories. With awards honoring work from design to creative data to radio, the ceremonies reflected a complex industry drawing on a broader range of creative disciplines than in the past, but also facing unprecedented challenges in making campaigns work across channels. "There's never been so many channels or points of interactions, or agencies working on various parts of that," said Keith Weed, chief marketing and communications officer at Unilever. "It's important to make sure the brand experience does not get fragmented."

As the automation of physical and knowledge work advances, many jobs will be redefined rather than eliminated--at least in the short term. The potential of artificial intelligence and advanced robotics to perform tasks once reserved for humans is no longer reserved for spectacular demonstrations by the likes of IBM's Watson, Rethink Robotics' Baxter, DeepMind, or Google's driverless car. Just head to an airport: automated check-in kiosks now dominate many airlines' ticketing areas. Pilots actively steer aircraft for just three to seven minutes of many flights, with autopilot guiding the rest of the journey. Passport-control processes at some airports can place more emphasis on scanning document bar codes than on observing incoming passengers.

Nine years and a few days ago, Apple released the iPhone, and the world was never the same. With the iPhone's decade mark in sight, the tech world is starting to get a little restless for the next big shift in computing, even as the iPhone itself starts to look a little boring. Smartphones have revolutionized everything from retail to banking to education. Depending on who you ask, the next big thing will be robots, or artificial intelligence, or virtual reality, or health-tracking devices, or self-driving cars, or any number of other trends. The bad news is that we probably won't another big, world-shaking product introduction like the iPhone any time soon.

A 2014 Gallup Poll puts a positive spin on the rise of Americans' satisfaction with our education system stating that 48% of Americans are satisfied. This is not something to be celebrated. Our education system needs an extensive overhaul. The standards put on all students do not measure a student's true knowledge. The type of testing mandated does not test to students' abilities but rather how well they know how to take a test. Teachers are leaving the profession in droves due to the immense work load, low pay, lack of support and insurmountable requirements to advance student performance.

A great trainer makes working out 10x more motivating, fun, and effective. That's why we created Vi--an evolving personal trainer who lives in bio-sensing earphones. Put Vi on and start a relationship with a friend for your fitness. Each day, Vi tracks you, gets smarter, and coaches you to real results. Vi will help you meet your weight goals, improve your running, cycling and training.

A burger-flipping robot invasion is headed to the Bay Area. A few years ago, startup Momentum Machines unveiled a robot that could churn out 400 burgers an hour, and now, Tech Insider reports, the company is creating a restaurant concept around it. The robot can slice toppings, grill a patty, assemble, and bag the burger without any help from humans. A Craigslist job ad says the restaurant will open at 680 Folsom St. in the SoMa (South of Market) neighborhood; the ad doesn't specifically mention robots, instead reading, "This location will feature the world-premiere of our proprietary and remarkable new advances in technology that enable the automatic creation of impossibly delicious burgers at prices everyone can afford." The restaurant will still need to employ a human for tasks such as payroll and taking out the trash, however.

A robot-powered burger joint is coming to San Francisco. In 2012, secretive robotics startup Momentum Machines debuted a machine that could crank out 400 made-to-order hamburgers in an hour. It's fully autonomous, meaning the robot can slice toppings, grill a patty, and assemble and bag the burger without any help from humans. Years of relative silence ensued, but in January, Hoodline's Brittany Hopkins learned that the San Francisco-based startup had applied for a building permit to convert a ground-floor retail space in the SoMa neighborhood into a restaurant. Now it looks like the restaurant is actually happening.

With search engine optimization (SEO) maintaining its presence as one of the most effective marketing techniques on the Internet, it's no wonder that over time, new technical changes in algorithms have made the task of ranking both sites and keywords more difficult to understand and execute. While this used to be an easy task that involved including keywords into the content of your website, Google has continually progressed its ranking technology to provide more quality results to its users. With the launch of RankBrain, Google's new algorithm solution, earlier this year, has it stepped into the field of artificial intelligence? One might think so, as RankBrain queries for so much more than the keywords of the past, taking SEO to the next level. Understanding RankBrain, boils down into recognizing that Google wants to provide users ranking content that is relevant. The way users are using Google to search has changed, as now it is seeing complete questions and more complicated keyword searches being inputted.