An ancient Japanese temple has hired the help of a £700,000 (Y100 million) robot to deliver the teachings of Buddhism. The android, dubbed Kannon, is based on the traditional Buddhist deity of mercy and is designed to attract young people. The robo-deity provided its first sermon at Kyoto's Kodaiji temple, which opened in 1619, on Saturday. The android is a the result of a collaboration between the zen temple and Hiroshi Ishiguro, professor of intelligent robotics at Osaka University. Only Kannon's head, neck shoulders and hands are covered in a skin-like material made from silicone.

We may not have robots like C-3PO from "Star Wars" or Rosie from "The Jetsons," but there's no denying that the machines we do have are getting smarter. But are business leaders taking advantage of their capabilities? It's easy to imagine adopting AI in some indefinite future, but the technology already has the capacity to improve your ROI -- provided you actually implement it. While AI is making waves across industries, the logistics space stands to benefit more than most. According to a report from DHL and IBM, "the network-based nature of [logistics] provides a natural framework for implementing and scaling AI." It's no surprise, then, that companies are already experimenting with AI implementation, achieving small wins that help set the stage for much bigger ones. Small wins are key because they help test theories, establish best practices, and achieve buy-in from key stakeholders.

The concept of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Machine Intelligence is no more an unknown or unexplored concept to us and all the thanks go to Siri, Alexa, Cortana, and Google Assistant for being live examples. Even though these assistants evolved recently, but AI was there for quite some time. Right from filtering our mailboxes to AI-powered chatbots or AI enabled recommendations; we were always surrounded by Artificial Intelligence. AI has also impacted various fields, like aiding in synthesizing new chemicals, medical diagnoses, identifying the faces of criminals in a huge crowd, self- driving cars, and even creating new works of art. Even though there is a lot of debate and discussion going on about the future of AI but for now Artificial Intelligence is here to stay.

The future is foldable, according to just about every major smartphone company. Two of the world's biggest phone brands have unveiled bendy phones in recent days, proclaiming them a change comparable with the first ever smartphones and the future of handsets. At first glance, they look like a normal phone – but they are actually folded in the middle, and unfolding them makes the screen twice as big. The handsets rely on a range of technologies that have only just become available, making 2019 the first time companies like Samsung have been able to make the phones available to the public. Chief among those innovations is flexible displays, which allow the handsets to bend in the middle and fold over.

Xinhua has been experimenting with AI-driven journalism in recent years, including a robot reporter whose attempt to imitate a human went slightly awry. Jia Jia, a Chinese-manufactured robot who resembles a young woman dressed in historical clothing, interviewed AI expert and Wired magazine co-founder Kevin Kelly at an event in Hefei in 2017. Xinhua, which broadcast the chat live, billed Jia Jia as a special reporter. Jia Jia, however, clearly had hard time responding naturally to many of the questions posed by Kelly, sometimes taking up to 10 seconds to answer and restricting herself to one- or two-word answers that didn't always make sense. Earlier in 2017, a 1.2-meter tall robot called "Inspire" served as an intern reporter for Xinhua during that year's Two Sessions meetings.

Multilateral solutions remain the best way to address threats to international peace and security. This is true when we talk about the situation in Syria, Libya, Yemen or the Middle East peace process.

Artificial intelligence, or AI, has been part of the world as long as fiction has. In the 1950s, when computers first entered our technology, the genre of AI exploded into the fiction representation we have today. However, we have very real AI in our homes as well, such as Amazon's Alexa or other corporate chatbots. They don't entirely resemble fictional AI, but are they similar enough? The further we reach in technology, the more we blend the boundaries between science and science fiction.

By 2025 the automotive AI sector could be creating as much as $26.5 billion in annual revenue. The sector is clearly booming, particularly in Israel, which has become a hotbed of talent. Ottopia is one Israeli start-up that has just closed $3 million in seed funding from investors. Unlike, some autonomous driving companies, it believes there's still a need for humans in the self-driving process. "We tackle the most difficult 1% of AV performance with a remote human operator. A remote human is called whenever and wherever the AV isn't sure what to do on the road. The trigger could also come from passengers in the AV," Says Co-founder and CEO of Ottopia, Amit Rosenzweig.

Draw a few lines on top of a photo of a face – the shape of an eyebrow, say –and an AI can turn your sketch into a realistic edit, with no artistic skills required. Created by Youngjoo Jo and Jongyoul Park at the Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute in South Korea, the face-editing program is more advanced than simple retouching apps – it lets you change hairstyles, add smiles, and even insert earrings. It can also convincingly complete a picture of a face that is partially obscured, editing out objects like sunglasses.

As a result, its manufacturing line in Israel will be closed. Some of the 20 workers in Israel have been offered to relocate to its new global headquarters in Arizona, while Airobotics said it planned to expand its U.S. staff.