Sometimes it helps me to write by thinking about how a radio broadcaster or television presenter would deliver the information, so I'm your host, Blake Montgomery. Today in tech news: questions hover over the automation of labor in the worker-strapped US healthcare system; and drones proliferate in a new conflict: India v Pakistan, both armed with nuclear weapons. Meanwhile, in contrast to a thoughtful and robust conversation, the US is taking the opposite tack. Legend has it that Alexander the Great was presented with a knot in a rope tying a cart to a stake. So complex were its twistings that no man had been able to untie it of the hundreds who had tried. Alexander silently drew his sword and sliced the knot in two.

Major retailers in the US are already using facial recognition cameras to spy on shoppers, a campaigning group has warned. The tech - usually associated with authoritative regimes like China - is being used both to identify shoplifters and serve'personalized' adverts. Caitlin Seeley George of anti-face recognition campaign group Fight for the Future told DailyMail.com Walgreens and Macy's are among the largest retailers to adopt the technology, deploying it in hundreds of stores across the country. And it is not just America - Britain is also adopting the tech.

Federated Learning is a relatively new and evolving machine learning technique that decentralizes the training of data from one central machine/ data center to multiple devices, including mobile phones. Federated Learning of Cohorts, or FloC for short, is a form of web tracking enabled through Federated Learning in which individuals are grouped into "cohorts" based on similar browsing behavior. Machine learning is a branch of Artificial Intelligence and computer science that leverages data and algorithms to make computers mimic human learning and decision making. Federated Learning takes advantage of edge computing principles, bringing computation and data storage closer to where it is needed. This principle allows for reduced response times, bandwidth conservation, and personalization, amongst other benefits.

Did you miss a session from the Future of Work Summit? San Francisco headquartered Databricks, a company that offers the capabilities of a data warehouse and data lake in a single "lakehouse" architecture, today announced its first industry-specific offering: Lakehouse for Retail. Designed specifically for enterprises dealing in the retail and consumer goods vertical, Databricks says Lakehouse for Retail is a fully integrated platform that aims to solve the most critical challenges retailers and their partners face while trying to leverage surging data volumes for AI and analytics projects. The solution, which is generally available as of today, has already seen early adoption from major retail enterprises including Walgreens, Columbia, H&M Group, Reckitt, Restaurant Brands International, 84.51, Co-Op Food, Gousto, and Acosta. "With hundreds of millions of prescriptions processed by Walgreens each year, Databricks' Lakehouse for Retail allows us to unify all of this data and store it in one place for a full range of analytics and ML workloads," said Luigi Guadagno, the VP of pharmacy and healthcare platform at Walgreens.

As of May 18, nearly 40% of the U.S. population had been fully vaccinated against COVID-19, with close to 50% having received at least one shot. But outreach remains a major challenge. McKinsey estimated in December that vaccine adoption would require "unprecedented" public and private action and incremental investment of about $10 billion. Highlighting the unevenness in the rollout, a lower percentage of African Americans had been vaccinated by March than of the general population in every state reporting statistics by race. The government at the local, state, and federal levels is involved in distributing and administering vaccines, as well as private-sector partners like pharmacy chains, grocers, and retailers.

Google is taking packages into the air to customers' homes. The first drone home deliveries of packages from Walgreens have started from Wing, the Alphabet subsidiary. Wing recently received an expanded Air Carrier Certificate from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing the first commercial air delivery service by drone directly to homes in the U.S. The FAA permissions are the first allowing multiple pilots to oversee multiple unmanned aircraft making commercial deliveries to the general public simultaneously. Collaborating with Federal Express and Virginia retailer Sugar Magnolia, Wing began delivering over-the-counter medication, gifts and snacks to residents of Christiansburg, Virginia. FedEx completed the first scheduled ecommerce drone delivery on Friday, essentially beginning the connection of retailers to last-mile drone delivery services.

After years of development, Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing is officially open for business. The company announced the beginning of service for residents of Christiansburg, Virginia, who will be able to order over-the-counter medication, snacks, and other small items and have them airlifted straight to their homes by a drone. Initially, Wing will deliver goods on behalf of three partner companies with FedEx, Walgreens, and Super Magnolia, a local Virginia grocery store chain. After years of preparation, Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing has officially begun operations in Christiansburg, Virginia The company made the announcement via a blog post on Medium and included a video showing how the delivery service will work. The FAA approved Alphabet's drone delivery program in March, and the company announced it's plans for'store to door' of more than 100 products in Virginia last September.

As of this afternoon, select residents of Christiansburg, Virginia can tap drones operated by Google parent company Alphabet's Wing for quick and easy deliveries of packages, over-the-counter medications, snacks, and gifts. The company today revealed that it's become the first to operate a commercial air delivery service directly to homes in the U.S., with the launch of a previously announced pilot involving FedEx Express, Walgreens, and local Virginia retailer Sugar Magnolia. From Walgreens, the first retail pharmacy to partner with Wing in the U.S., drone fleets will ferry over-the-counter medicines and other wellness items to folks' homes. And on the FedEx Express side, recipients living within designated Christiansburg zones who opt in will receive some shipments via drone, in customized boxes. Most orders within the four-mile radius of Wing's distribution facility are fulfilled within about 10 minutes, according to the company.

Walgreens is getting its wings. The pharmacy chain has teamed up with Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing to bring food and beverage, over-the-counter medication and other items to consumers. This'store to door' testing is set to begin next month in Virginia and will offer more than 100 products and pre-built'packs' for purchase in the Wing app. Walgreens has teamed up with Alphabet's drone delivery service Wing to bring food and beverage, over-the-counter medication and other items to consumers The partnership between Walgreens and Wing aims to further explore the future of health and wellness products and retail delivery through the air, offering product availability and home delivery minutes after placing orders via the Wing app. 'Walgreens continues to explore partnerships to transform and modernize our customer experience and we are proud to be the first retailer in the U.S. to offer an on-demand commercial drone delivery option with Wing,' said Vish Sankaran, chief innovation officer, Walgreens Boots Alliance, Inc., in a press release.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here. The technology is already making an impact across many industries. According to IDC, worldwide spending on AI systems is forecast to reach $35.8 billion in 2019 -- a 44% increase over 2018. For any company that hasn't started its AI journey -- it's time to get started. That's because AI is shaking up the customer experience, bringing users and brands closer together than ever before.