Human rights and the fairness of trials endangered by uncontrolled use of AI in the English and Welsh legal system, warns the House of Lords. Stark new study from House of Lords’ Justice and Home Affairs Committee says too many Forces have raced into using advanced tech—and not just facial recognition—without proper supervision.
Last year over 100,000 mobile robots were shipped globally in 2021, Ash Sharma, Managing Director of Interact Analysis in a recent report. This is the first time this milestone has been reached, he says. The current labor shortage, coupled with strong e-commerce growth, has accelerated manufacturing and logistics companies’ plans to automate. This has caused sales in mobile robots to spiral, with nearly 70% more vehicles shipped than the year before and a 36% increase in revenues, which rose to nearly $3bn.
From 28 to 30 June, the thirteenth edition of the European Robotics Forum (ERF) will take place in Rotterdam. With about a thousand visitors, this will be the largest robotics event in Europe, where a diverse group of participants, from industry and science to government and end users, will exchange views on a wide range of topics.
Recently IDC has published the whitepaper Automation as a Force for Good – 6 Steps to Transform Theory into Practice. In this study authors Angela Salmeron and Neil Ward-Dutton discuss the role of automation in supporting companies with their ESG programs, given the trend that 47% of organizations are planning to introduce Robotic Process Automation (RPA) to the workplace in the next 18 months, 39% intend to implement other process automation technologies (including workflow automation), and 63% are planning to add task-focused apps on mobile devices.
Factmata, a UK based AI platform tackling online misinformation at scale, launches its new self-service tool to help future-proof the internet from the billion-dollar problem of harmful narratives and fake news. Factmata’s AI technology assesses the level of risk narratives pose to brands, identifies the influencers behind the narrative and enables organisations to monitor how those narratives emerge, grow and change over time.
A new drive system for flapping wing autonomous robots has been developed by a University of Bristol team, using a new method of electromechanical zipping that does away with the need for conventional motors and gears.
Everyone is fed up of hearing about the pandemic and the catastrophic impact it has had on the world. But the fact is, although statistics confirm Covid-19 is waning, the rise of new variants including Omicron means the virus is still very much present and working its way through the population, continuing to leave its destruction behind it.
This is the time for HR to step up and claim a more strategic role in the organization. Automation enables HR professionals to gain valuable time by freeing them from day to day routine tasks, making them a partner for the business. Adding technology like AI can even lead to HR better serving their internal customers. Rocking Robot discussed the opportunities for HR in automation with Hamish Taylor, who has an impressive track record in brand management.
Most businesses suffered, some businesses failed, but for those who survived the ravages of the pandemic, what lessons have been learned and, perhaps more importantly, what plans are now in place to make businesses more resilient moving forward? History is littered with pandemics; following bird flu & swine flu, and COVID-19 has arguably been the worst since the Spanish flu. But what next?
NICE and Nichols College collaborate to provide hands-on education designed to meet the rapid growth in demand for automation experts. They will form a Centre for Intelligent Process Automation (CIPA) to jointly expand the next generation of robotic process automation (RPA) developers.
