It's no secret now that esports are taking over both real and virtual worlds with a global audience nearing half a billion spectators. And esports industry statistics are earth-shattering, with annual growth rates as high as 20 per cent and revenues exceeding 1 billion USD per year. But what about the technology that makes the esports multiverse so compelling? This was the question explored by a recent AI for Good webinar as part of the Global Dialogue on Esports. Featuring expert panellists hailing from Singapore, Toronto, Manchester and more, the diversity of speakers and attendees demonstrated how esports is truly a global phenomenon.

Cars are becoming increasingly automated. Drivers already benefit from a wide range of advanced driver-assistance systems (ADAS), such as lane keeping, adaptive cruise control, collision warning, and blind spot warning, which are gradually becoming standard features on most vehicles. Today's automated systems are taking over an increasing amount of responsibility for the driving task. It is expected that soon, sensors will take the place of human impulse, and artificial intelligence will substitute for human intelligence. This process is defined through various level steps, from low levels of automation where the driver retains overall control of the vehicle in level 1, to a fully-autonomous system in level 5.

What does a fully autonomous, electric, high-performance race car have to do with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)? For starters, the vehicle, developed by Roborace, is providing a testing ground for new efforts to build public trust in how next-generation vehicles could improve road safety and reduce the 1.35 million annual road deaths worldwide (SDG 3.6). Increased use of autonomous, electric, connected vehicles could also reduce emissions, improve traffic flows -- and provide affordable, safe and sustainable transport systems to underdeveloped nations (SDG 11.2). But how do we go from race track to the road? A panel of experts – Bryn Balcombe, CSO at Roborace and Founder of the Autonomous Drivers Alliance; Lucas di Grassi, Formula-E World Champion and CEO at Roborace; and Fred Werner, Head of Strategic Engagement at ITU's Standardization Bureau – met at Web Summit 2019 to discuss how AI will make our roads safer, and how ITU is helping lead the charge.

Clearly, Roborace doesn't believe in bad luck. Last week, on Friday the 13th, the company chose to run its self-driving Robocar in front of a feverish crowd at England's Goodwood Festival of Speed. It was only the second time the team had demonstrated its futuristic vehicle publicly, following an unassisted lap in Paris roughly 13 months ago. There was no room for error. The absence of a human cockpit gives the car an unusually low profile.

The racing industry is on the fast track to driverless racecars, thanks to AI. At the center of this evolution is Roborace, the world's first autonomous racing competition. Conceived by renowned car designer Daniel Simon -- a former Bugatti designer who's gone on to create various cars for Hollywood -- the "Robocar" is designed, developed, and built by the Roborace organization. Teams compete by writing the software and developing deep neural networks that consume the sensor data to see, think, and act. The cars -- which are 4.8-meters-long -- can reach speeds of over 300 kilometers per hour.

Harambe, a gorilla, was described as "smart," "curious," "courageous," "magnificent." But it wasn't until last spring that Harambe became famous, too. On May 28th, a human boy, also curious and courageous, slipped through a fence at the Cincinnati Zoo and landed in the moat along the habitat that Harambe shared with two other gorillas. People at the fence above made whoops and cries and other noises of alarm. Harambe stood over the boy, as if to shield him from the hubbub, and then, grabbing one of his ankles, dragged him through the water like a doll across a playroom floor. For a moment, he took the child delicately by the waist and propped him on his legs, in a correct human stance. Then, as the whooping continued, he knocked the boy forward again, and dragged him halfway through the moat. Harambe was a seventeen-year-old silverback, an animal of terrific strength. When zookeepers failed to lure him from the boy, a member of their Dangerous Animal Response Team shot the gorilla dead.