Mining has long navigated a delicate balance between established technologies and emerging innovation.

Like any industry, resource extraction must weigh costs against output. Although the sector has always contended with rigorous permitting and oversight, environmental standards have grown significantly stricter over recent decades.

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These regulatory frameworks often result in longer timelines, higher expenses, and increased pressure on project viability. Yet they have also driven innovation, cutting overhead costs and boosting yields..

At this year’s Web Summit, held in Vancouver from May 11 to 14, a number of new technologies were featured to decarbonize the industry and reduce long-term waste.

With fears about the strength of consumer spending running high due to tariffs, inflation and other economic pressures, retailers are working hard to sustain revenue growth. While some retailers are leaning into worker-led personalized experiences for shoppers, other retailers are focusing more on leveraging artificial intelligence to optimize the shopping experience.

Walmart is one of those retailers, adding new “super agents” that aims to save time and effort for both workers and shoppers. At its recent Retail Rewired innovation event, Walmart highlighted the launch of four “super agents,” which include Marty for sellers and suppliers, Sparky for shoppers, the Associate Agent and the Developer Agent.

With agents performing capabilities in the realm of payroll, paid time off, merchandising and finding the right products for any event, Walmart is consolidating its powerful, time-saving tools for the sake of a streamlined experience for multiple points of interaction with the company.

“Having a plethora of different agents can very quickly become confusing,” Suresh Kumar, chief technology officer for Walmart Global, said at the event.

The Associate Agent, for example, is “a single point of entry where any associate can find access to all of the agents we’ve built on the back end,” explained David Glick, senior vice president for Enterprise Business Solutions at Walmart. “As you speak to it more, as you work with it more, it’ll know more about you.”

The evolution comes alongside a broader shift for retail, an industry actively seeking to counteract cost concerns from consumers and the government, and Walmart isn’t alone in its push toward all things AI. Amazon’s Prime Day event over four days in July saw generative AI use jump 3,300% year over year, according to TechCrunch. Meanwhile, Google Cloud AI partnered with body care retailer Lush to visually identify projects without packaging, ultimately reducing the expense of training new hires.

Making digital twins of Walmart stores

Walmart is also all-in on physical and spatial AI, specifically digital twins (a virtual copy of any physical object or space — in Walmart’s case, their stores and clubs). Using digital twin technology powered by spatial AI, Walmart can “detect, diagnose and remediate issues up to two weeks in advance,” Brandon Ballard, group director for real estate at Walmart US, said at Retail Rewired. Using this technology comes with big savings, according to Ballard. “Last year, we cut all of our emergency alerts by 30% and we reduced our maintenance spend in refrigeration by 19% across Walmart US,” he added.

“At its core, retail is a physical business,” said Alex de Vigan, CEO and founder of Nfinite, which generates large-scale visual data for training spatial and physical AI models. “We’ve seen retailers use digital twins to reduce setup time for new promotions, reallocate labor more efficiently, and improve robotic picking accuracy, small gains that add up quickly when margins are…

Anker Innovations is recalling more than 1.1 million power banks after some users reported fires and explosions. 

The company said a problem could potentially make the lithium-ion battery within some of its Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks overheat “leading to melting of plastic components, smoke, and fire hazards.” 

The recall, announced Thursday, specifically applies to Anker PowerCore 10000 power banks bearing the model number “A1263” and certain serial numbers that were sold in the U.S., according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). 

The model number and serial number can be found on a label affixed to the bottom of the power bank.

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Sales of the recalled power banks occurred on Anker’s website, as well as Amazon, Newegg and Ebay, between June 2016 and December 2022. 

Anker said on its website that it issued the recall “out of an abundance of caution to ensure the safety of our customers.” 

There have been 19 instances of fires and explosions related to the battery issue, according to the CPSC recall notice.

Two incidents resulted in “minor burn injuries” that did not need medical attention. Property damage worth more than $60,700 arose out of 11 incidents. 

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Consumers “should immediately stop using the recalled power banks and contact Anker Innovations for instructions on receiving a free replacement power bank,” the CPSC notice said. They can register for the recall on a designated page on Anker’s website.

“If your unit is confirmed to be part of the recall, stop using it immediately,” Anker said on its website. “Even if it appears to function normally, there may still be a risk of overheating, fire, or other safety issues.” 

Owners of the recalled power banks will need to provide a photo “showing the model number, serial number, their name, the date of the photograph, and the word ‘recalled’ written on the power bank in permanent marker” to get a replacement, per the notice. They will have to provide proof that they safely disposed of the power banks as well. 

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Anker said the power banks must be disposed of at a “certified facility that accepts recalled lithium batteries” as they cannot be tossed in the trash or recycled normally.

Customers should check with their municipal household hazardous waste collection…