This week’s list of top data news highlights covers September 9, 2023 to September 15, 2023 and includes articles on delivering food via autonomous drones and using an AI system to create a new soda flavor.
1. Improving Legal Research
LexisNexis, a U.S.-based legal technology company, is developing an AI-powered tool that can help lawyers generate legal briefs and find citations. The tool will improve upon past models by including sources with its answers, allowing users to verify the information.
2. Unveiling Accessible Robotaxis
General Motors, a U.S.-based automaker, has unveiled a wheelchair-accessible autonomous vehicle. The company will start a pilot test of the vehicle next year.
3. Analyzing Football Games
Amazon Prime Video has added on-screen graphics to its Thursday Night Football broadcasts to help fans understand game activity better. The company is using an AI system to determine and display information during games, such as player routes, the probability of a successful field goal, and more.
4. Surveying Dangerous Buildings
The U.K.’s largest charity for heritage conservation has partnered with England’s public body for historic environment, U.K.-based civil engineering company BAM Nuttall, and University College London to survey two Cold War weapons testing sites in Suffolk. The team will use Boston Dynamics’ Spot the robot dog to collect data on the buildings’ size and geometry.
5. Detecting Wildfires
The Washington Department of Natural Resources has installed AI-powered cameras that can detect wildfires, alert first responders, and transmit images of topographical maps with data on nearby water sources and wind activity. Officials can use the cameras to monitor remote locations for wildfires more efficiently.
6. Tracking Environmental Data
Yosemite National Park in California has launched a dashboard to track environmental data in the park. Visitors can use the dashboard to view information on bird populations, rockfalls, wildfires, forest composition, and more.
7. Generating Product Listings
Amazon has launched an AI-powered tool that can generate product listings. Sellers can submit keywords about their product and receive a title, bullet points, and a description.
8. Delivering Food
Israeli drone delivery company Flytrex has partnered with U.S.-based restaurant chains such as Papa Johns, Freddy’s Frozen Custard and Steakburgers, and Little Caesars, to deliver food using an autonomous drone in Texas and North Carolina. Restaurants can put the orders in a bag and the drones will retrieve them with dropdown wires, fly to the delivery location, and lower the order to the ground.
9. Inventing New Beverages
Coca-Cola has launched a new drink, known as Y3000, designed to taste like the future. The company used an AI system to analyze data on flavors people associate with the future and used AI-generated images for the drink’s packaging.
10. Updating Online Shopping Experiences
Amazon has updated the search engine on its e-commerce platform. Shoppers can now submit text with images in queries, input pictures from any source to search for a product, and use an augmented reality feature to view tabletop products, such as toasters, in their surrounding environment.
Image credit: Flickr user Allen
