Future First Technologies has completed a $2.35 million call-out to investors to improve its AI-powered road maintenance systems. The company reached out to sophisticated and institutional investors for the capital raise in order to further integrate technology from Australian AI firm EagleSoft into its Asset Vision business while also expanding its sales capacity. Future First acquired EagleSoft in June which coincided with the startup winning a contract to analyse over 5,000 kilometres of road in regional Victoria. EagleSoft uses AI to analyse footage from vehicle and drone-mounted cameras to check for defects in road network assets. It's the kind of tech that Future First is hoping will propel its Intelligent Asset Management platform.

The Founder of Camile Thai Kitchen examines the ways in which 2020 has accelerated the adoption of new technology and how his business will implement such innovations in the near-future. This year has presented huge challenges for our whole sector. At Camile Thai Kitchen we have found that one silver lining has been the accelerated focus and adoption of new technologies. The companies that win with technology are those that can successfully utilise the right combination of solutions that optimise operations and improve the customer experience. For us, a combination of kitchen robotics, cloud kitchens and drones is a winning formula that makes the most sense in terms of being able to adapt to future customer demand and trends.

Gagarin Capital led the round of funding, which included investment from Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC, and some business angels. The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in spaces where conditions can be carefully controlled, iFarm promises to produce food that is fresher while reducing environmental impact. As companies rethink logistics and the environment in the wake of the pandemic, self-contained urban farms hold growing appeal. "The main advantage of indoor farms is that you can be growing all year round, wherever you are," said iFarm cofounder and CEO Max Chizhov.

Fox News Flash top headlines are here. Check out what's clicking on Foxnews.com. Maybe it will take out missiles beyond the earth's atmosphere, incinerate targets well beyond the horizon with high-powered laser weapons and instantly stop a multi-faceted series of incoming attacks all at the same time? Perhaps it will use AI-empowered algorithms to launch a large fleet of networked surface, air and undersea drones, able to launch coordinated attacks at long ranges? All of these capabilities, advanced well beyond the current state-of-the-art into a new generation of maritime warfare weapons, are likely to figure prominently in the Navy's current conceptual work on a new generation of destroyers to emerge more than a decade from now – the Future Surface Combatant.

Skyqraft, a Swedish startup using AI and drones for electricity power-line inspection, has picked up $505,000 in early backing. Leading the round is "startup generator" and investor Antler, with participation from a number of angels including Claes Ekström and Tomas Kåberger. Founded in March 2019 and launched that September, Skyqraft provides what it calls "smart" infrastructure inspections for power-lines. It uses unmanned airplanes, combined with AI, to gather images and detect risk automatically. This is in contrast to the status quo, where power-lines are typically inspected by teams of people and helicopters, which isn't idea on a number of fronts. "Power-line inspections most importantly are not environmentally friendly, very costly and unsafe with the use of helicopters and people," Skyqraft co-founder and CMO Sakina Turabali tells TechCrunch.

Microsoft is blending Indigenous knowledge with AI to protect parts of Kakadu National Park. The tech behemoth partnered with the CSIRO and Indigenous rangers at the World Heritage-listed park to restore native wildlife using artificial intelligence (AI). Located in the Northern Territory, Kakadu is jointly managed by Parks Australia and traditional Indigenous owners. Its wetlands are home to protected Australian species such as magpie geese, which are considered by traditional custodians as a major indicator of'healthy country'. But the introduction of a weed called para grass has seen the reduction of native plants and has removed habitats for the magpie geese. Michael Douglas, leader of NESP Northern Australia Environmental Resources Hub, explained that para grass was planted in the area during the late 1960s before Kakadu was a national park, used as buffalo and cattle feed.

It covers more than two-thirds of our planet and makes up more than half of our body composition. It sparks life, grows food, and has the power to carve through mountains and shape the earth. Water is one of humanity's most precious resources, and we must do everything we can to conserve its natural balance. We've seen evidence of climate change causing worsening droughts around the world, with an impact on farmland and a decrease in crop yields. Due to expanding urbanisation causing water to deviate from its natural path, we've also seen the onset of rapid, unnatural flooding.

National Grid has turned to artificial intelligence to help it maintain the wires and pylons that transmit electricity from power stations to homes and businesses across the UK. The firm has been using six drones for the past two years to help inspect its 7,200 miles of overhead lines around England and Wales. Equipped with high-res still, video and infrared cameras, the drones are deployed to assess the steelwork, wear and corrosion, and faults such as damaged conductors. Artificial Intelligence has various definitions, but in general it means a program that uses data to build a model of some aspect of the world. This model is then used to make informed decisions and predictions about future events.

Alphabet's "moonshot factory" X is tackling the world's food problems. X head Astro Teller recently revealed details about the effort at MIT Technology Review's EmTech Digital event, where he explained that machine learning is being explored as a potential boon to farming, essentially bringing an AI twist to agriculture. The project is still in its early stages, though. X, formerly known as Google X, is behind Project Loon and other ambitious, often futuristic projects. According to Teller, the team has been exploring the potential use of AI in agriculture, though he didn't provide specifics on any given potential approach, of which machine learning is one.

The unmanned aerial vehicle will use sensors to map and understand the sea ice formations. It uses a DJI Matrice 600 Pro hexacopter, with a "sensor pod" containing an extremely high-resolution DSLR camera, a five-band multispectral sensor generally marketed for crop monitoring, and a radar to measure ice thickness. The drone will fly over a given path but it will also use a machine learning algorithm that will help the operators know where the polar bears are. The AI will hopefully learn how to track polar bears and help the researchers learn more about how global warming is affecting their population.