CannaBot is paving the way for patients to easily get connected to reliable MMJ info and businesses using the power of AI via Google Home, Amazon Alexa, Skype more.

In the race to adopt rapidly developing technologies, organisations run the risk of overlooking potential ethical implications. And that could produce unwelcome results, especially in artificial intelligence (AI) systems that employ machine learning. Machine learning is a subset of AI in which computer systems are taught to learn on their own. Algorithms allow the computer to analyse data to detect patterns and gain knowledge or abilities without having to be specifically programmed. It is this type of technology that empowers voice-enabled assistants such as Apple's Siri or the Google Assistant, among myriad other uses.

Can research psychologists use traditional measurement techniques to measure personality, group behavior, and other typical "psych things" on robots? And it turns out that many of the perceptions we form and biases we hold in creating first impressions also apply to the world of robots. Recent research suggests that we project personality characteristics on to robots based on physical characteristics, how they sound, and what function they serve. In general, when we anthropomorphize, or give human-like qualities to an inanimate objects, we feel emotionally closer to that machine. But this only works up to a point.

Coding boot camps are becoming almost as popular as college degrees: Code schools graduated more than 22,000 students in 2017 alone. The bet for many is that coding and computer programming will save their jobs from automation, and there's a resulting wave of emphasis on STEM skills. But while a basic understanding of computer science may always be valuable, it is not a future-proof skill. If people want a skill set that can adapt and ride the wave of workplace automation, they should look to -- the humanities. Having knowledge of human culture and history allows us to shape the direction of how technology is developed, identifying what problems it should solve and what real-world concerns should be considered throughout the process.

Machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) in industrial settings have certainly been getting a lot of buzz, but their adoption in process manufacturing has been limited, according to Oden Technologies (New York, NY). The company, which describes itself as a developer of intelligent industrial automation, hopes to change that dynamic with the introduction of the industry's first end-to-end ML and AI framework for manufacturing. A one-size-fits-all approach to ML and AI will never deliver on the full potential of those technologies, said Deepak Turaga, Vice President of Data Science at Oden Technologies, in a press release distributed today. The complexity and specificity of manufacturing processes have traditionally demanded heavily customized solutions developed by internal data science teams. Oden's approach is to "provide customers with the best-in-breed foundational ML and AI applications tailored for manufacturing, and the framework tools to easily extend and adapt them to their specific requirements and processes," said Turaga.

CARLO ROVELLI is the man who can spin hard physics into pure gold. The Order of Time is his third book. Like the first (Seven Brief Lessons on Physics), it has been an instant bestseller. In this state-of-the-art survey of what physicists thought and now think about the nature of time, Rovelli is both unsettling (time does not exist) and philosophical (the study of time "does nothing but return us to ourselves"). IT MAY not be a classic Christmas whodunnit, but The Beautiful Cure is a page-turner.

Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) and Westpac have teamed up to deploy 51 drones around Australia during the nation's beach-going months. The drones are intended to provide aerial vision and surveillance to help spot rips and swimmers in distress, and could in future drop buoyancy devices to swimmers, the pair said. Surf Life Saving Australia (SLSA) President Graham Ford said the drones will be "hugely beneficial". "There is no better time than now to welcome new technologies that can help us protect more Australians," he said. The drones will be located throughout the New South Wales and Queensland coasts; at St Kilda and Frankston in Victoria, as well as a mobile unit; Semaphore Beach and Christies Beach in South Australia; at Frederick Henry Bay in Tasmania; at Cottesloe, Fremantle, Meelup, Smiths Beach, Secret Harbour, City Beach, Trigg, and Mullaloo in Western Australia; and one unit in Darwin.

A robot named Moxi, designed to help nurses, has concluded its first real-world trial in a Texas hospital. Designed by Boston-based Diligent Robotics, the trial was designed to test a collaborative automation integration in a working hospital. Robots are widely seen as one potential tool to help relieve strain on healthcare workers like nurses. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, demand for nurses in the U.S. is set to grow from 2.7 million in 2014 to 3.2 million in 2024, an increase of 16 percent. Much of the growth will be driven by aging baby boomers who need additional care.

London's police will be testing out live facial recognition technology on Christmas shoppers today and tomorrow. The Metropolitan Police Service said the test, which will cover areas in Soho, Piccadilly Circus and Leicester Square, is part of its ongoing trial of the technology. When people pass through the area covered by the cameras, their images are streamed directly to the police facial recognition system database. This database contains a watch list of offenders wanted by the police and courts for various offences. The system measures the structure of each face, including distance between eyes, nose, mouth and jaw, to create facial data.

Microsoft's latest patent application shows the company has worked on a wearable band that would wrap around limbs or joints and use haptic feedback for therapeutic stimulation. Microsoft's wearable wouldn't count steps or measure heart rates, but rather is designed to alleviate symptoms of conditions that affect a person's ability to move or control limbs, such as tremors or stiff muscles caused by Parkinson's disease. The device would have many haptic actuators distributed across a band that can be adjusted in terms of each actuator's "duty cycle" in response to sensor data, according to the patent. That data could come from sensors on the wearable itself or a nearby tablet or phone that communicates with it over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. For example, Microsoft envisages that sensors in a stylus or a tablet could communicate with a wrist-worn therapeutic device in order to detect involuntary motion of the user when writing.