Developed by Minderoo Foundation, the'Global Plastic Watch' tool uses advanced satellite data technology and machine learning to create a near-real-time, high resolution map of plastic pollution. The tool aims to help authorities better manage plastic leakage into the marine environment, and is said to provide the largest ever open source dataset of plastic waste across dozens of countries. Global Plastic Watch uses remote sensing satellite imagery from the European Space Agency and a novel machine learning model created in collaboration with digital product agency Earthrise Media. The tool can determine the size and scale of land-based plastic waste sites, which fuel the growing issue of plastic pollution in the world's rivers and oceans. By using the data, governments, industry and communities can evaluate and monitor the risk of land-based plastic waste sites as well as prioritise investment in solutions, Minderoo Foundation said.

The Gradient Institute, with support from Minderoo Foundation, recently released a report on the growing risk of Artificial Intelligence (AI) to business along with open source software for companies to combat the risk. Here, Bill Simpson-Young who is CEO of Gradient Institute and former CSIRO, talks about the dangers of Artificial Intelligence for business. What are the dangers of Artificial Intelligence we need to be aware of for business? AI used by businesses can have many benefits to businesses and their customers such as being able to perform actions for the customer at great speed and customised specifically for that customer. For example, every time you use a map app on your phone, the speed, accuracy, and relevance for you is made possible by AI. AI is also used in deciding your news feed, whether you get matched for a job opening and whether you are successful with a loan application.

Earlier this year, the independent research organisation of which I am the Director, London-based Ada Lovelace Institute, hosted a panel at the world's largest AI conference, CogX, called The Ethics Panel to End All Ethics Panels. The title referenced both a tongue-in-cheek effort at self-promotion, and a very real need to put to bed the seemingly endless offering of panels, think-pieces, and government reports preoccupied with ruminating on the abstract ethical questions posed by AI and new data-driven technologies. We had grown impatient with conceptual debates and high-level principles. And we were not alone. It supersedes the two waves that came before it: the first wave, defined by principles and dominated by philosophers, and the second wave, led by computer scientists and geared towards technical fixes.