Since the outset of the pandemic, organizations have been increasingly launching initiatives aimed at automating business processes, turning to technologies such as robotic process automation (RPA) in efforts to reduce costs, speed up tasks, and improve accuracy of core business operations. Some leading organizations, however, are not stopping there. Seeking to push their automation agendas forward, they are embracing a move toward broader "intelligent automation" (IA), a strategy that weaves capabilities such as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) into standard RPA to enhance its functionality. In addition to RPA, AI, and ML, intelligent automation strategies can also incorporate a mix of technologies such as natural language processing, chatbots, and others that complement each other, says Lakshmanan Chidambaram, president of Americas strategic verticals at global IT consulting firm Tech Mahindra. "These technologies together allow us to automate business processes to a larger extent, when compared to simple RPA automations," Chidambaram says.

Sheema Khan is the author of Of Hockey and Hijab: Reflections of a Canadian Muslim Woman. The warning signs had been there all along. An assault on a 15-year-old boy; death threats against the man's own parents; a police safety bulletin warning of his gun stash and desire to kill a cop; violent attacks against his spouse; a weapons complaint to the RCMP; fear by neighbours and relatives of his sociopathic behaviour; rampant alcoholism. As an in-depth Globe feature reported, the nation's worst mass shooter "was the kind of man who made people nervous, bragged about knowing how to dispose of bodies and built miniature coffins as a hobby." As we wait for the launch of a public inquiry, there are so many questions about the horrible incident in Nova Scotia.

For all their stunning frequency, school shootings remain a confounding horror. Not only is there little consensus on how to stop them--with suggestions ranging from restricting gun access to arming teachers--but there's even less certainty about why a student would open fire on his classmates. Now, some scientists are starting to explore if artificial intelligence (AI) could help find answers. The idea is that algorithms might be able to better analyze data related to school shootings, and perhaps even identify patterns in student language or behavior that could foreshadow school violence. The research is still in its early stages, and the prospect of using machines to predict who might become a school shooter raises privacy issues and other ethical questions associated with any kind of profiling, particularly since the process would involve children.

Just days after a gunman shot and killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida in February, Shreya Nallapati, a 17-year old high school senior from Highlands Ranch, Colorado, declared "a technological revolution against mass shootings, specifically in schools." Fed up with the lack of action being taken by government officials and leaders to end mass shootings, Nallapati decided to take what she knew best-- technology -- and apply it in a way that would make a lasting impact. "I was tired of people posting condolences on Facebook and then forgetting about the incident," Nallapati explains. "I want to use my knowledge of artificial intelligence to bring people together to solve a problem that is prevailing in society." Nallapati put a call out to her network of young women technologists, the Aspirations in Computing community, to join the effort.