In the original "Austin Powers" film, the character Dr. Evil asked for "sharks with frickin' laser beams attached to their heads" in order to kill Austin Powers. While this scene is ridiculous and funny, the concept of using "laser beams" as a weapon is not new. However, with the rise in technology of robotics and AI, The Drive reports that the US government has been working on the'weapons of the future', which seem to be energy-directed weapons such as laser beams. All the microelectronics and iPhones and so forth, were starting to be drilled and the touch screens were being scribed, and all this whole industrial space opened up, and the reason was that these fiber lasers were very efficient at converting electrical power to optical power. The beam quality that came out of the fiber-laser, meaning the ability for that beam to be focusable, to provide a high-intensity spot to do things, like melt metal and drill holes, the beam quality was very high.

According to EuroNews, there is a fascinating project being undertaken right now, which is that scientists are using satellites and AI technology to map every single tree on Earth. Scientists have mapped 1.8 billion individual tree canopies across millions of kilometres of the Sahel and Sahara regions of West Africa. It is the first time ever that trees have been mapped in detail over such a large area. So how was it possible? They employed neural networks which are able to recognise objects, like trees, based on their shapes and colours. To train it, the AI system was shown satellite images where trees had been manually traced.