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"The smart building market was valued at USD 82.55 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 229.10 billion by 2026 at a CAGR of over 11.33% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Growing energy concerns, increasing government initiatives on smart infrastructure projects are driving the market's growth positively. Solutions, such as the Building Energy Management System, Infrastructure Management System, and Intelligent Security System, are being adopted for smart buildings. BEMS is integrated, computerized systems for monitoring and controlling energy-related building services plant and equipment, such as HVAC systems and lighting, among others"

Summary of a larger report, which is hyperinked in the article. Six summary paragraphs present these scenarios. In April 2020, an ambitious initiative called Positive AI Economic Futures was launched by Stuart Russell and Charles-Edouard Bouée, both members of the World Economic Forum's Global AI Council (GAIC). In a series of workshops and interviews, over 150 experts from a wide variety of backgrounds gathered virtually to discuss these challenges, as well as possible positive Artificial Intelligence visions and their implications for policymakers. The workshop attendees and interview participants, from science-fiction writers to economists and AI experts, attempted to articulate positive visions of a future where Artificial Intelligence can do most of what we currently call work.

"The leaders of Australia, the United States, and the United Kingdom announced last week the formation of a new trilateral security agreement called "AUKUS." The new security pact will oversee the development of a nuclear-powered submarine fleet in Australia and also focus on developing joint artificial intelligence, cyber warfare, and long-range strike capabilities."

"The wireless occupancy sensors market is expected to register a CAGR of 18.3% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). Energy-saving has been crucial for growth in any economy, as a result, the government is also coming with several policies to save energy, which will drive the market in the forecast period."

"The wired occupancy sensors market was valued at USD 2.15 billion in 2020 and is expected to reach USD 6.57 billion by 2026, at a CAGR of 7% over the forecast period 2021 - 2026. The increase in demand for the stable and high-accuracy sensor will drive the wired occupancy sensors market in the forecast period."

"The global energy management system market was valued at USD 8.2 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 19.91 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 16.2% over the forecast period (2021 - 2026). The increasing focus toward issues, such as managing energy consumption, optimizing the use for renewable energy sources, and reducing carbon footprint and greenhouse gas emissions, is creating a demand for EMS. Further, cloud services effectively minimize operational costs of software development and maintenance and direct the monetary costs, cost of time, and spent resources on maintaining the in-house IT professionals and infrastructure on gathering, storing, and analyzing energy data.​ Cloud services are an ongoing trend responsible for the growth of the market studied."

"The Building Automation Systems Market was valued at USD 60.31 billion in 2020 and expected to reach USD 112.93 billion by 2026 and grow at a CAGR of 11.02% over the forecast period (2021-2026). Building automation systems, otherwise known as building automation and control systems (BACS), are automated systems that integrate and connect different facility technologies, including HVAC, lighting, surveillance, and security, among others, through information flow to a monitoring point."

Assassination of Iran's top nuclear scientist appears to have been carried out by what the New York Times calls "a high-tech, computerized sharpshooter kitted out with artificial intelligence and multiple-camera eyes, operated via satellite and capable of firing 600 rounds a minute." This and unmanned drones might herald a more expansive and ongoing set of targeted killings by state entities but also by networks, organizations, or even individuals and perhaps complicate traditional forensics in connecting actors with actions.

Facebook is working on a new artificial intelligence (AI)-based system that can analyse your lives through first-person videos, recording what they see, do, and hear to assist you with daily tasks. The system is hoping to solve research challenges in 'egocentric perception' (the perception of direction or position of oneself based on visual information). Facebook AI has developed five benchmark challenges centred on first-person visual experience - episodic memory, forecasting, hand and object manipulation, audio-visual "diarization," and social interaction. On the upside, a robotic assistant could be introduced to a person via a series of videos and be able to provide a personalized presence. I would assume that if the robot could have constant access to first-person videos it could continue to learn. On the downside, even more data mining.

A very interesting but lengthy read. The report describes a system for using foresight to develop EU R&I policy, which includes: - a set of future scenarios for different World Regions, - a mechanism for signposting relevant trends and - a process for assessing policy options combining standard policy assessment mechanisms with future scenarios. The regional scenarios include: ● China ● Japan, South Korea & Taiwan ● ASEAN ● India & its Neighbours ● Australia & New Zealand ● Russia & Central Asia ● The Middle East & North Africa ● Sub-Saharan Africa ● Central & South America ● United States, Canada & Mexico

The engineering profession won't be exempt from COVID-19 job fallout, but the effects will be temporary. More engineers will be needed than ever before when the world returns to a semblance of normalcy, said Andy Moss, president and owner of M Force Staffing, a Knoxville, Tenn., technical recruiting firm specializing in engineering and manufacturing job placement. "There was already a lack of technical talent before we went into this," Moss says. "This is a horrible situation, but when we come back from it we're going to ramp right back up into the problems we had before. We're not producing enough technical talent to fill the jobs we have." The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics projects employment growth for engineers, with nearly 140,000 new jobs expected for engineers from 2016 to 2026. Mechanical engineers were second only to civil engineers in terms of projected new jobs over that time period: civil engineers with 32,200 additional jobs projected and mechanical with 25,300. Industrial, with 25,100 jobs, and electrical, with 16,200, followed behind.

As artificial intelligence tools become more specialized, Moss has one big warning to today's students: stay away from any job AI can take. That doesn't include engineering, though, where there will probably be more jobs created due to the growth of AI, he says. "You'll still have things in engineering design and other aspects of technical work and engineering that a computer just can't do, even if they can think faster than a human."

Indeed, the era of big data and data analytics has arrived and is already underway in many places (medicine, materials, and elsewhere).16-19 Schools of data science have emerged at many universities.20 Past knowledge and existing data allow us to use algorithms in order to attempt to recognize patterns identifying future corrosion performance. The hope is that these approaches are helpful for predicting not only corrosion performance but failures, too.4 Such approaches are logical as long as existing data cover a wide range of possibilities and there are no required extrapolations into sparsely populated data spaces.

The weeding machine is a beast at almost 10,000 pounds. It boasts no fewer than eight independently-aimed 150-watt lasers, typically used for metal cutting, that can fire 20 times per second. They're guided by 12 high-resolution cameras connected to AI systems that can recognize good crops from bad weeds. The Laserweeder drives itself with computer vision, finding the furrows in the fields, positioning itself with GPS, and searching for obstacles with LIDAR. It drives 5 miles/hour and can clear 15-20 acres in a day.