Alphabet's R&D subsidiary X has unveiled its next "moonshot project," as the company strives to improve ocean health through automatically tracking and logging the behavior of fish over time. The oceans constitute more than 70% of Earth's surface, and play a pivotal part in regulating the global climate. They also provides billions of people with food, with fish generally having a lower carbon footprint relative to land-based animals. But understanding what's going on underneath the oceans is key to protecting it, which is what Google's sister company is now setting out to achieve. Tidal, as the new project is called, is setting out to help preserve the ocean's ability to "support life and help feed humanity, sustainably," noted Tidal project lead Neil Davé, in a blog post.

This time, artificial intelligence is literally taking jobs. Documents obtained by The Verge show how Amazon used a computer system to automatically track and fire hundreds of fulfillment center employees between for failing to meet productivity quotas -- a grim glimpse of a future in which AI is your boss. While not every decision was made by a computer system, the documents -- including a signed letter by an Amazon attorney describing the system -- reveal how deeply automated the process really is. It's not clear whether Amazon is still using the system. "Amazon's system tracks the rates of each individual associate's productivity," reads the letter as quoted by The Verge, "and automatically generates any warnings or terminations regarding quality or productivity without input from supervisors." After this story ran, Amazon spokesperson Ashley Robinson reached out with a statement that pushed back against The Verge's reporting -- but failed to provide specific examples of inaccuracies.