for these soldiers from second battalion, the parachute regiment, anything could be waiting behind this door. i have always wanted to join the army, ever since i can remember. there was nothing else i really wanted to do. experience in places like iraq and afghanistan has taught the british army that entering a building in a conflict zone can be extremely dangerous. i know i've got great faith in my team, because we're all highly—trained professionals. and basically trusting the man in front of me and behind me to do theirjob at a very high level. colchester in essex is home to the elite 16 air assault brigade, the british army's global response force, specially trained and equipped to deploy by parachute, helicopter and air landing — ready to be sent anywhere in the world at a moment's notice and able to perform a wide variety of roles, from warfighting... explosion ...to providing humanitarian assistance. as a result, the troops here, like the soldiers of 2 para, are constantly training. british military training adapts to new threats all of the time. this might look like a mannequin that's been repurposed as a target, but this target shoots back. gunfire alert beeps this is 16 air assault�*s new urban training facility. you don't know who indeed is inside those urban areas, whether it be an enemy threat, whether it be a different actor, whether it be civilian. so you need to be aware of all different eventualities. it integrates a host of technologies, including cameras, sensors and speakers which monitor and create environments designed to prepare these paratroopers for real world operations. this facility provides the integration of improvised ied explosions, different noises, dogs barking. it provides all of this realism that the soldiers would face in an urban environment on operations. so it's not only about going into a building knowing that there's going to be enemy threat inside there. it's what else is in there as well. this is called a figure 11 target. it's made of paper and wood, and it's been used by the army to hone soldiers�* marksmanship skills for decades. alert beeps called sim stryker, this sensor—laden smart target aims to crank up the pressure on troops that it comes up against — notjust by shooting back with small plastic bb. shot! it also simulates as much of the real world experience as possible, even including shouting and alerting the rest of its robotic team in different rooms to the threat posed by human troops training against it. this target is programmed to be able to detect noise and also detect movement. so when the individuals are moving into rooms, whether they're opening doors, if these targets hear anything like that, they become alert. when these targets are then alert, they will then speak to each other. when you're then coming into a room, they're already preprogrammed to know the likelihood of the entrance that you're going to come inside. and as soon as they detect that movement, they will then start to engage towards your direction. it does make the individuals going through the facility, make them think about their skills, their drills, their positioning, the fact that they can't just walk into a room, they have to consider that before coming in otherwise they will be engaged. enemy down! if troops are preparing for a deployment to a specific location, the sights, sounds and even smells that they might find on the ground can be recreated inside this space. all of the walls are modular and can be reconfigured and moved around to create a wide variety of different environments. instructors debrief the soldiers in a nearby control room, analysing their performance and data on the accuracy of their shots, all captured by cameras and sensors in the sim stryker and the training facility. centre of mass for those shots as well, in case they've got body armour... sim stryker and this training centre which is called a smart facility are the work of uk company agd. founded by military veterans, the tech they have designed has been informed by their own experience in the field. the physical aspect of this activity sets it apart from purely tech—based training solutions like virtual reality simulators. we really recognise that virtuality offers huge potential when it comes to training, delivery and exposure, but it's got to be applied properly. having people in headsets with gaming controllers, whilst it can be good for some things, we don't think it's actually representative of the soldier training in a physicalfacility. to change a magazine, for example. it's still a very dexterous skill that requires lots of practice. where we're taking it is being able to blend the virtual world and blend the physical world. so because we collect data inside of our facilities, we can use that data to provide a real—time virtual picture of everything that's happening inside of that facility. from that, we can start to introduce assets like drones, for instance. so it's bringing virtuality into the physical world, i suppose, is what we would do with it. but how do the soldiers themselves feel about being troops trained with the help of all of this tech? as a team leader, it gives you a lot to think about, there's a lot of options as you go through. you've got a lot to consider, with the layout, the best place to put your troops, not to put them at more risk. puts you on more of a perspective that there's going to be something firing back at you when you open that door. it's a good bit of kit, because it allows us to perform at a higher level. this sort of kit looks set to become a bigger part of military training. agd has a deal with the us army and is preparing to roll out more training facilities like this one with the british army as well. for the military, in training and in real—world operations, one thing is certain — recent events prove preparation is crucial, as you never know what threat could be around the next corner. now, on to the topic of ai, and what have your ai adventures been this week? if i'm honest, my social media feed these days seems to be full of exciting new business opportunities opened up by chatgpt and i'm worried it's getting a little overhyped. well, i've taken al to the place that i love the most and hate the most at the same time, the gym. if we're to believe the hype, ai chatbot chatgpt can write just about anything. so i've tasked it with making me an exercise plan, pitching it up against an actual workout app. both use al to determine what best exercises i should do given my height, weight, goals and injuries. the difference is that chatgpt is free, and works based on the likelihood of what word should follow another. so i wonder if what it creates will be any good? first up, the app. another round's ai—created regime is tweaked by a personal trainer, and there are videos to show you what to do. it will cost you 65 quid a month, though. and chatgpt has come out with a similar start. first ten minutes, well, a bit of a lightjog, some dynamic stretching for my arms. then i'm going to do a plank, a glute bridge, a bird dog, a side plank, some squats. it looks like a fairly similar workout, let's give them a go. so this is pretty similar to the sort of workout i do by myself, really. of course, neither of these methods actually have a trainer with you while you're doing the exercise, so you've got to just make sure you do it properly. both the app and the chatgpt version do focus on safety. right, what's next? dumbbell front rack squats, elbows under waist, lengths against upper chest. feet a bit wider than shoulders, toes slightly pointed out. the video of course helps. quick look at the video. let me see if i can do that. he's going very low. i wouldn't have thought i needed to do that, based on the text, so it's a good job there's a video. the first thing that comes to my attention during the chatgpt workout is that i have a whole list of exercises, most of which can just be done here on the mat. of course, the system doesn't know what equipment i've got access to. and if i don't know how to do any of those exercises, well, i'm going to have to search for videos online. and the very first one is a plank that i need to do for 30 seconds, then rest for 15 seconds, so i do need to set a timer. so what does a human personal trainer make of it? they're both decent workouts, however, this one, it does have a little bit more just ab and lower body based, whereas this one, you're going to get your upper body lower body and your core and your resistance as well, whereas this one is just body weight. and how about the issue of making sure you are doing things properly? i think the videos and explanations are really important. it's so easy to do something a little bit wrong and you're hitting the wrong muscle then. and you don't think people will be put off seeing a personal trainer from this kind of experience with chatgpt? i mean, you're not getting the full experience, though. you're not getting what you really need or want out of that. that's my double workout done, thankfully. i was actually pretty surprised by how good chatgpt was. as somebody who works out regularly, it gave me some ideas of something different to do. i did need to use my initiative to add in some weights, if i wanted to, but it did make me think about safety. the other app, though, gave me a proper workout. i felt like i was pushed to my limits. the thing is, obviously, you have to pay to sign up to it. so there is a cost and it is a different experience. chatgpt probably won't ever give me the same workout twice, which in some ways is good, but who knows? i could have got it to generate something i wouldn't have enjoyed. it did feel like it was more of a gamble. all in all, i feel like i've done two workouts. 0k, time for a look at this week's tech news. meta has been fined 1.2 billion euros and given five months to suspend its data flows between the eu and the us. regulators said the firm mishandled people's data while sending it to the us. meta says it will appeal the ruling. ultimately, whether meta changes or not is up to meta. that's the thing, this fine is minuscule compared to what it could be. when it starts getting percentages of revenue, that is when big companies will start toeing the line. the royal hospital for children in glasgow is trialing an augmented reality app that will give families and children with a cleft lip and palate an insight into surgeries. the app uses sd visuals created by glasgow's school of art to show parents what will happen the baby during the procedure. microsoft is introducing a personal artificial intelligence assistant to windows 11, the latest version of its operating system. windows copilot will live in the windows sidebar, and let users summarise files, get quick answers to questions and access settings. and whatsapp has announced an editing feature, allowing users to alter messages up to 15 minutes after they've been sent. previously the only way to correct a messaging mishap was to delete it and send a new one. i know that one all too well. the meta—owned platform says it will be available to all users in the coming weeks. 0ver1 billion people worldwide sufferfrom some sort of central nervous system disease. it's the number one factor for disability around the world. and yet, around one in five are misdiagnosed. the financial toll, the burden that the us alone has, i believe it is more than $800 billion a year on the economy. and so as life expectancy grows and people live longer, you are going to see more and more of this. this is an absolutely huge problem. a problem that neuralight is trying to solve. the start—up has created an artificially intelligent tool which it says could help understand and track the progression of alzheimer's, parkinson's, motor neurone disease and multiple sclerosis, much better than traditional methods. both my grandparents died with alzheimer's, so this is a very meaningful voyage and mission to transform the lives of people and their families who suffer from these terrible neurodegenerative diseases. is system uses a computer with a webcam, and that's it. we use standard video and enhance it with software to basically compensate for low frame rate and other limitations of standard video, and create a signature of both the disease and its progression. it looks how the eyes behave when shown specific stimuli and measures their characteristics over time. the goal: to precisely chart and ultimately diagnose disease much sooner than it is today, from years down to months. and i'm having a go of their demo test. first task — follow the red dot, you'll see itjumping on the screen and your task is simply to follow it. 0k. what we're actually measuring is the response time and the ability of your brain to calculate ahead of time where it needs to reach at the end. right, 0k. by digitally mapping the position of my face and features, it's able to precisely trace my eyes' micro movements, without the need to restrain my head in a fixed position. you're going to follow the dot to the other direction. the test is designed to be quick and painless, and accessible for people, even in remote parts of the world. but the company is some way from fda approval. it's looking for partners to validate its technology. how do you know that this, you know... that this works? that this works! yeah, so, there are over 750 papers published in the last 20—25 years, showing that there are deep correlations between ocular markers and the progression of these diseases. we have four trials that are ongoing now. all results we have coming in, specifically from parkinson's and als, are kind of mind—boggling. not only are we able to differentiate between healthy and sick patients but actually monitor and model the progression of the disease, showing different variants of the disease. while those trials are ongoing, my results are in. let's hope for the best. 187 is like 100 milliseconds below the average. seven out of 7, so i don't even have to pat you on the shoulder and say, don't worry. you're actually really good. eye tracking is just one technology being used to understand neurodegenerative diseases. video games and even vr experiences are all playing a part in helping diagnose the condition. so the symptoms for diseases like alzheimer's disease are really, really broad. it can affect things like how we are walking, your memory, your speech, your navigation, and it's different for everybody. so that makes it a real challenge, and it's really difficult to get a really objective measure of how people are doing over time. alzheimer's research uk's early detection of neurodegenerative diseases, eden project, uses wearables and other technologies. the question is whether technology can actually help us to become more objective about what we're seeing, and sort of improve the sensitivity with which we're measuring things. it's a question which could be answered in the not—too—distant future. now, for many people around the world, subtitles are vital. in fact, you might be using them on screen right now. but the problem is that, most of the time, there isn't a screen in front of us. well, actually, there is quite a lot at the time. but for people that are deaf or hard of hearing, sometimes when they're trying to follow a conversation, it can be challenging. but there are ways to get subtitles when you're out and about. for example, a new app, called xrai glass, can provide them, and importantly, put them right in front of your eyes, using a pair of smart glasses. so we've asked one woman, who's also an elite rugby player, to put them to the test. my name's jodie 0unsley. i'm 22 years old, a professional rugby player for exeter chiefs. i was born premature, and i became ill quite quickly, and then we soon discovered that i was profoundly deaf. the only information that was given was jodie probably won't be able to speak. she'll struggle in education, and herjob prospects will be bleak. of course, we now know that none of that is true. when i was 13 months old, i had a cochlear implant fitted on the right side. it's no cure, it's not normal hearing. itjust allows me to hear some sounds and mostly lip read. as i grew up, i learnt more about my deafness, as i grew up, i learnt and obviously, going through school, that's when i sort of faced challenges and struggled a little bit more. and then i discovered rugby when i was around 15. i actually wanted to give it a go when my younger brother started, but my parents wouldn't allow me to play, due to potential risks of my cochlear implant. 0ne being the processor, which is an electrical device on the ear that can break — but the bigger risk is, you know, the implant in the head, which is in the skull, and a really bad impact could potentially dislodge that. i thought, we'll take her, she'll have one session, not like it and that will be out of her system. so we came down here to sandal rugby club in wakefield, and she was too nervous to get out of the car. i was personally more worried about, what if i miss things on the pitch? what if the coaches don't really understand that i'm deaf, or, what if the players don't really know how to react? after some encouragement, she came out, had a session, went really well. couple of years later, here i am, you know, being a professional rugby player. at exeter chiefs, we have a whole range of different players from all over the world, and there's one player, called tricky, who has a very thick irish accent. and even, you know, my hearing team—mates struggle to understand her sometimes, never mind the deaf person! and there were one time we was just having a conversation, we were making a joke saying, "oh, if only you had live captions so that we could "understand what you were saying." and i kid you not, literally a couple of days later, i was scrolling through my phone on instagram and then the xrai glasses came up and i saw a reaction video. and i couldn't believe it — i messaged tricky, i was like, "can you believe this, there's actually subtitle glasses!" it was quite surreal. you get through your life and it is a struggle on a daily basis, but you just crack on. suddenly, to have these glasses, where i'm speaking to someone, and not having to solely concentrate on lip reading, i was able to almost relax a little bit more and just see the subtitles come above me. there's loads of different functions, but the one i mainly use is obviously live captions. so what's it been like now, watching me play professional rugby? exciting, it's been a rollercoasterjourney, really proud of what you've done in such a short space of time, and i think you've a lot to do yet as well. so how did you feel seeing me wear the xrai glasses for the first time? first time we tried them, it was quite emotional, really, because, you know, potentially it's a life—changing piece of tech for you to use. and in your sports side of things, fine margins is a big issue. so if it can just give you that edge in understanding analysis, it's going to be a real benefit to you. we have a software, they upload the training footage or game footage, and then our coaching team will do like a voiceover. obviously you can't see the face, so you just hear the voiceover whilst watching training back. so, there's a couple of really good single shots here from both nash and pops, in terms of getting your feet in close, you tackle height being really positive and a good solid shoulder shot with a good rap. so that's quite difficult for me to pick up sound without being able to lip read. so i feel like i'm focusing more on trying to listen what my coach is saying, rather than focusing on the footage. but obviously with the xrai glasses, i can put the glasses on and obviously watch training as normal. but as my coach is speaking, obviously i get live captions as well. that might sound so simple and so little, but that's like a massive thing for me �*cause then obviously i can focus on the rugby and not focus on what i'm missing. i think people think that you have to do drastic things to make it easierfor notjust deaf people, but anyone with a disability. it's just little tweaks and just that openness and honesty. and yeah, my teammates have just been brilliant and supportive really. it's so exciting to even see xrai glasses, to see where it is now. they're pretty much at the start of the journey and it's already amazing. so to even think about where they could be in a couple of years' time, it's — it's quite scary but also really exciting to think about. how brilliant is that? now, the xrai glass app is only available on android at the moment. the iphone version is coming soon. and some exciting news aboutjodie — it'sjust been announced that she's going to be starring in the bbc�*s gladiators series — she's going to be called fury. wouldn't have argued with her before i knew that, won't be arguing with her now. thanks for watching, we'll see you soon. bye— bye. hello there. storm betty is bearing down upon us through the rest of the night and the start of the weekend. second named storm this month, and giving a lot of wet weather and windy weather, particularly for the western side of the uk. so heavy rain, potentially some really nasty thunderstorms across central and eastern areas being warned off could give some likely disruption, as well as the unusually windy weather which could bring down the odd small tree — not great news for those under canvas either, those winds are more akin to autumn. so there are warnings out — quite widespread warnings. more details on the website, but those gusts of wind could reach 40—50mph inland, as well. as i say, there's a potential for some really torrential thunderstorms, impactful weather — because it's so muggy and warm, that's also giving energy to these storms. now getting towards morning, that rain is slow—moving across scotland and northern ireland. it only slowly creeps its way northwards. the winds starting to abate a little bit, pushing showers ever eastwards. and look, for northern ireland, parts of scotland, it's just shower after shower, but longer spells of rain for some. before the event moves out of the way, that's storm betty, we could have a month's worth of rain in some areas. but, given some sunshine through the day, particularly for the likes of eastern scotland, north—east england with an offshore wind, it might feel warmer than it did on friday. and then, as we go through the evening and overnight, the showers ease off further, the winds gradually decreasing — so we could have some mist and fog in southern areas in particular by sunday morning. and it will feel a little less oppressive, we're losing that humidity, so a little bit more comfortable for sleeping saturday night, rather than the remainder of this night. sunday sees fewer showers — we will keep them in northern and western areas. there'll still be 1—2 getting into eastern areas, but there should be fewer showers on sunday for many parts. so perhaps the drier half of the weekend, still feeling quite warm — it is august, after all. and, with high pressure close to the south as we move into next week, we should see some more warmth here. but the lower pressure further north will maintain the risks of showers — on monday, you can see some longer spells of rain coming in. well, it is an area of the uk where we haven't seen as much rain, but nevertheless east of the grampians best of the drier, brighter weather — 25—26 further south. so, some warmth and some drier weather as we move into next week — but, just for the remainder of the night, storm betty still with us. there are numerous warnings — more details on the website. live from washington, this is bbc news. bracing for impact: hurricane hilary heads towards mexico and the us southwest. a tale of two wildfires: canada works on evacuations while officials in hawaii face more questions over their handling of the response. plus: a special report from ethiopia's tigray region, where the bbc is told that 11100 people have starved to death. hello. i'm caitriona perry. we want to start the programme with three weather events thousands of miles apart, involving fire and water and disrupting the lives of local communities. in a moment, we'll have the latest on the evacuations in canada where a town of some 20,000 people is scrambling to safety. then we'll focus on the aftermath of the hawaii wildfires and new questions over how the blazes started in the first place. but we start in california, where, for the first time ever, a tropical storm could hit the southern part of the state. right now, hurricane hilary is a category 4 storm. it's expected to make landfall in mexico in the state of baja california, seen here, on saturday. it will likely then downgrade to a tropical storm before hitting southern california, with san diego and los angeles in the path. you can see preparations are already under way there, including working to shore up hillsides. officials are worried about landslides and major flooding. the last tropical storm to hit california was in 1939, over 80 years ago.