In this round up, we look at how other countries are rewarding cycling. We also look at developments with regards to Artificial Intelligence and the upcoming 5G.

Get paid for cycling to work!

In the Netherlands, employers can offer a tax-free allowance of $0.22 per kilometre if you cycle to work. So, that means you can stay healthy and get paid while at it. Lovely. In the United Kingdom, government offers companies a tax break to buy bikes and loan them to their employees. Similar schemes are currently in place in Belgium with France even planning to offer civil servants a $230 premium to ride to work. Cycling is environmentally friendly as it does not produce any air pollution. As such, switching from cars to bikes can save 1 kg of carbon emission for every 7km cycled, not to mention improving the health and fitness of the rider. If you are being paid for that, why not?

https://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/netherlands-cycling/index.html

Robots taking over fast foods restaurants

An artificially intelligent voice assistant is the newest employee of Good Times Burgers and Frozen Custard in Denver, United States of America. Without the possibility of fatigue, bathroom breaks, mood swings and compensation, the voice assistant is capable of taking orders at this drive through joint. It looks like this is the direction that Artificial Intelligence is taking us. In restaurants around the world, machines are now taking orders, preparing pizzas, mixing cocktails, flipping burgers and even cooking whole meals. Times are changing fast indeed.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/02/22/this-fast-food-drive-through-person-taking-your-order-might-not-be-person-all/?noredirect=on

The world’s first female AI news anchor

China’s Xinhua News Agency has unveiled the world’s first Artificial Intelligence news anchor named Xin Xiaomeng. She will make her debut during the upcoming Two Sessions political meetings in March. A robot which looks like a human being will be reading the news, that’s interesting. In November 2018, the first male news anchor, Qiu Hao debuted during the World Internet Conference. Another improved male anchor which can stand up and gesticulate has since been developed. It also has more natural mouth movements. Maybe fears that robots will take away our jobs in the near future are justified after all.

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/02/chinese-state-media-s-latest-innovation-is-an-ai-female-news-anchor

What will 5G be able to do?

With mobile phone key players Samsung and Huawei having already announced their upcoming 5G devices, everyone is curious to know what 5G will be able to do. Firstly, 5G is expected to have super fast internet speed going up to 100 times faster than 4G. Imagine that. With 5G, you will be able to download a full movie in a few seconds. In addition, 5G will generally use less power than 4G. This means it will lead to less carbon dioxide emissions. As if this is not enough, 5G will also allow us to monitor air quality in cities in real time thereby allowing officials to deal with air quality hazards much faster.  In short, 5G will improve our lives in a lot more ways and you can read up more on:

https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/01/here-s-how-5g-will-revolutionize-the-digital-world/