Intel, Dell, and Rolls-Royce have created a digital tool to preserve and clone the voices of people with motor neuron disease (MND), also known as ALS before they lose their ability to speak. The companies worked with the Motor Neurone Disease Association to produce the I Will Always Be Me storybook and machine learning process to generate a voice model of the person with MND who reads it. The I Will Always Be Me story written by Jill Twiss incorporates crucial phrases into its thousand-word length. Once a user reads it aloud, the audio recording is processed and transformed into a voice model capable of synthesizing the reader's voice to say whatever they wish through the kind of accessibility devices made famous by Dr. Stephen Hawking. The idea is to give the 80% of people with MND who lose the ability to speak to still have their own voice.

For years, Artificial Intelligence (AI) was an idea adapted into science fiction movies. The advancement of technology over the years has made the impact of AI on workspaces a reality. Today, it's an integral part of organizations and the way we work. AI can improve several processes in modern organizations. It betters business processes and everything else that makes humans ineffective today.

Engineering giant Rolls-Royce has made an ethical artificial intelligence (AI) 'breakthrough', which it believes could contribute to gaining society's trust in the technology on the path to'Industry 5.0'. The firm has unveiled a workable, peer-reviewed AI ethics framework, which is a method that any organization can use to ensure the decisions it takes to use AI in critical and non-critical applications are ethical. The framework, which has been reviewed by several big tech firms -- as well as experts in the automotive, pharmaceutical, academic, and government sectors -- will be published under Creative Commons license this year. The framework includes a step-by-step process for ensuring the outcomes of AI algorithms can be trusted. A five-layer checking system focuses on the outputs of algorithms, not the algorithms themselves, which are constantly changing.

Twelve candidates are divided into three teams and given the task of assembling a box. Twelve Rolls Royce employees stand around them, one assigned to each candidate, taking notes. The box is a prop, and the test has nothing to do with programming or repairing the robots that make engine parts here. "We are looking at what they say, we are looking at what they do, we are looking at the body language of how they are interacting," says Lorin Sodell, the plant manager. This story is part of the The New Economy podcast series.

Two movies presented their visions of flying cars, Ridley Scott's "Blade Runner" and Luc Besson's "The Fifth Element". In the 1980's and 90's such type of vehicles looked as pure science fiction, but today's drone technology make them perceived as achievable. The difference between a helicopter and a drone is that the first is manned and the last unmanned. Drones started small; often used as toy, flying camera or military version. Of course, it was only a matter of time, until companies built larger drones to transport humans, too.

Rolls Royce has revealed its plans for making autonomous naval vessels which will be capable of surveilling the waters for 100 days at a go with a range of 3,500 miles at maximum speeds of more than 25 knots. "Rolls-Royce is seeing interest from major navies in autonomous, rather than remote controlled, ships. Such ships offer a way to deliver increased operational capability, reduce the risk to crew and cut both operating and build costs…Over the next 10 years or so, Rolls-Royce expects to see the introduction of medium sized unmanned platforms, particularly in leading navies, as the concept of mixed manned and unmanned fleets develops. With our experience and capabilities we expect to lead the field," Benjamin Thorp, Rolls-Royce, General Manager Naval Electrics, Automation and Control, stated in the press release. The self-navigating ship will be capable of navigating entirely without a human crew and will not be affected by human issues such as tedium.

Automation seems to be the future, with top tech firms racing to dominate drone delivery by land, sea and air. The world's first unmanned ghost ships could take to the seas by the end of the decade, but they also pose unique problems that will need to be overcome. In an article for The Conversation, Christian Matthews, head of maritime technology at Liverpool John Moores University, explains the challenges ahead. Norway-based Yara has revealed its plans to develop the world's first all-electric and autonomous container ship that is predicted to remove 747 tons (678 tonnes) of carbon dioxide from the air by reducing diesel-powered truck haulage by 40,000 journeys a year Researchers have developed the world's first autonomous, zero-emissions cargo ship, The Yara Birkeland. Developed by agriculture company Yara International ASA and high-technology systems firm Kongsberg Gruppen, will be capable of autonomous mooring and route planning.

Autonomous ships will likely be on the water before 2020 and frequently used within 15 years, according to Oskar Levander, Vice President of Innovation, Engineering, and Technology at Rolls Royce. The marine branch of Rolls Royce is joining Advanced Autonomous Waterborne Applications in Finland to continue to develop the technology necessary to complete this transition. While most current shipping vessels are able to run purely off GPS, they still have crews aboard to ensure nothing goes awry. Autonomous or remote controlled ships would take away the need for shipping companies to hire crews. Shipping companies are creating more advanced technology and claim there aren't enough people familiar with the developments to run their ships.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella keeps saying that Microsoft's Azure cloud platform makes it easier for firms to exploit machine learning (ML). But how far is this marketing message borne out by the services available on Azure? Azure's suite of machine-learning offerings is fairly comprehensive, targeting everything from companies seeking simple, on-demand services through to those looking to train their own models using in-house data scientists. Every platform-as-a-service (PaaS) machine learning-related product and service that Microsoft offers is part of the Cortana Intelligence Suite. This bundles Microsoft's analytics and ML-focused offerings with Microsoft cloud-based data stores, capable of holding the vast amount of data needed to train machine learning models.

The world of autonomous vehicles just got a more luxurious, after Rolls-Royce unveiled a driverless super car of the future. It has dubbed its futuristic car, which looks like it could have come straight out of Batman's cave, the Rolls-Royce 103EX. The vehicle will be six metres long, with a canopy roof, covered wheels and a curved body. The six metre-long vehicle, dubbed the Rolls-Royce 103EX, has a canopy roof, covered wheels and a curved body. The front seat is replaced with a sofa-style body.