The Delta variant of the coronavirus spread to more countries in recent weeks, and the total number of cases officially logged soared past half a million per day. The global number of deaths is now about two-thirds as high as it was at the peak of the previous wave, in April of this year. As the virus spreads, the potential rises for a vaccine-resistant strain to emerge. Meanwhile, in poorer countries, vaccines are scarce, and most populations are little protected (exhibit).

Rapid technological advances in digitization and data and analytics have been reshaping the business landscape, supercharging performance, and enabling the emergence of new business innovations and new forms of competition. At the same time, the technology itself continues to evolve, bringing new waves of advances in robotics, analytics, and artificial intelligence (AI), and especially machine learning. Together they amount to a step change in technical capabilities that could have profound implications for business, for the economy, and more broadly, for society. Some companies are gaining a competitive edge with their use of data and analytics, which can enable faster and larger-scale evidence-based decision making, insight generation, and process optimization. But there is room to catch up and to excel.

There is no universally agreed definition of AI. Broadly speaking, AI tends to refer to computing technologies that replicate or resemble processes and tasks associated with human intelligence, such as reasoning, sensory understanding, and interaction. AI technologies work in different ways, but most use large quantities of data to produce an output. For example, machine learning, a type of AI that has been particularly successful in recent years, works by learning and deriving its own rules from data and experience. At the moment, most health-related applications of AI are at the research or early trial stage and it is not yet clear how successful they will be in wider healthcare systems.

AI in healthcare is developing rapidly, with many applications currently in use or in development in the UK and worldwide. The Nuffield Council on Bioethics examines the current and potential applications of AI in healthcare, and the ethical issues arising from its use, in a new briefing note, Artificial Intelligence (AI) in healthcare and research, published today. There is much hope and excitement surrounding the use of AI in healthcare. It has the potential to make healthcare more efficient and patient-friendly; speed up and reduce errors in diagnosis; help patients manage symptoms or cope with chronic illness; and help avoid human bias and error. But there are some important questions to consider: who is responsible for the decisions made by AI systems?

Federal bureaucrats are raising concerns about distracted driving in semi-autonomous cars that don't require much input from the driver. And at least one expert is anticipating that, as the so-called'smart' cars get smarter, there will eventually be an increase in an unusual form of distracted driving: hanky-panky behind the wheel. "I am predicting that, once computers are doing the driving, there will be a lot more sex in cars," said Barrie Kirk of the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence. "That's one of several things people will do which will inhibit their ability to respond quickly when the computer says to the human, 'Take over."' CBC's Aaron Saltzman took Tesla's new autopilot feature out for a spin.

From safety issues to technical problems, there are many issues that need to be addressed before self-driving cars can hit the roads. But one, possibly unexpected, consequence of the autonomous cars is that they could give sex lives a boost. A Canadian expert believes people will have'a lot more sex in cars', once a computer takes over and this could be dangerous as the'drivers' won't be paying attention to the road. From safety issues to technical problems, there are many issues that need to be addressed before self-driving cars can hit the roads. Now a Canadian expert believes people will have'a lot more sex in cars', once a computer takes over and this could be dangerous as the'drivers' won't be paying attention to the road The claims were made by Barrie Kirk from the Canadian Automated Vehicles Centre of Excellence.