The annual trade show CES (Consumer Electronics Show) is a deluge of smart appliances, many of which do things totally unnecessary--case in point, the talking A.I.-powered toilet--but there are some products that legitimately excite the masses and prove to be of real-world use. A Beijing startup named Forward X is hoping its self-driving robot suitcase belongs in the latter camp. Having made its debut at the Las Vegas trade show to positive coverage, the Ovis is ready to hit the global market with a crowdfunding campaign that starts today. The company foresees most of its initial customers to be Americans, which explains why the marketing effort is mostly centered around its NorCal office. But a week ago, I got the chance to meet company founder Nicholas Chee for a demonstration in Hong Kong.

Samsung Electronics today announced the opening of the artificial intelligence (AI) Center in Russia, which will be located in the --White Square-- business center in Moscow. The Center will help the company strengthen its leadership in the field of AI and explore the broad capabilities of user-oriented AI. The new Center--s main research areas will be computer vision and basic algorithms for AI platform. The Center will also expand the field of AI for key areas such as robotics, intelligent driving assistance, as well as those for future projects by Samsung. The Samsung AI Center in Russia will be led by Professor Dmitry Vetrov of the Higher School of Economics (HSE).

The developers of PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds haven't been shy about accusing Epic Games of riding their bandwagon with Fortnite, and now they're taking legal action. We've asked Epic for comment, but it's safe to say the situation is... complicated. There's little doubt that Fortnite's mode was designed in response to PUBG's success. Fortnite was initially unveiled as a single-player game (the Save the World mode), but it tacked on Battle Royale in September 2017, about half a year after PUBG reached Steam's Early Access. And it's hard to deny certain similarities beyond just the basic concept of 100 players forced to gather resources and fight in an ever-shrinking safe zone.

Humans will come to love robots like they are'family' rather than fear them as the enemy, according to a leading Oxford University scholar. Sir Nigel Shadbolt says we are entering an age where AI will act as a carers for the elderly and a friend for lonely children. He claims that fears robots will turn on people and destroy humanity are unfounded. Robots will become beloved members of the family, not the enemy of humanity, claims leading Oxford University scholar. Sir Nigel, a professor of computer science at Oxford University, made the comments at the Hay Festival in Wales.

A cross-party group of lawmakers on Tuesday unveiled a draft version of what would become Japan's first-ever law defining the government's responsibility to systematically promote Japanese language education both at home and abroad. The drafting of the bill comes as Japan experiences a continued increase in non-Japanese residents, including under categories such as technical intern trainees, students, and highly skilled professionals, but at the same time lacks a unified policy as to how to teach them Japanese. The group hopes to submit the bill to the fall session of the Diet for possible enactment, Liberal Democratic Party lawmaker Hiroshi Hase, secretary-general of the group, told The Japan Times. Whether the bill will be passed through the Diet and how big of an impact it will create remains to be seen, with its effectiveness likely hinging on how much funding it receives from the government. The draft bill does not specify any numerical targets for fiscal spending nor set a deadline for the government to meet the ultimate goal advocated in the legislation.

The makers of Fortnite, one of the world's most popular video games, have been accused of copying rival title PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (PUBG). The studio behind PUBG has asked a court in South Korea to determine whether Epic Games copied its intellectual property. Fortnite and PUBG have both attracted millions of gamers with their huge "last player standing" online battles. Epic Games has not yet commented on the lawsuit. PUBG was first released in March 2017.

An Audi A8 in testing mode works on refining a suite of semi-autonomous driver-assist features that allow drivers to hand over some tasks to the automobile, though they must check in with the steering wheel often to keep the system active. Car companies battling for their share of $2 trillion in annual global auto sales increasingly lean on shiny tech that takes over some of the driving from humans. Boasting names such as Autopilot, Super Cruise and ProPilot Assist, these systems -- whose radar and cameras are the building blocks of self-driving cars -- are part of a growing effort by manufacturers to woo with computing power rather than horsepower. But on the heels of two Teslas that crashed while on Autopilot, automakers find themselves increasingly torn between hyping the tech and warning owners about its limitations. Nissan's ProPILOT Assist technology, which is paving the way for future fully autonomous vehicles, is aimed at reducing the hassle of stop-and-go driving by helping control acceleration, braking and steering during single-lane highway driving. But drivers must constantly oversee the system, Nissan says.

SEOUL--People don't want robots just to work for them. They want robots to talk and play with them, too. Look at the recent Winter Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea, for an example of this work-and-play dynamic. More than 30 robots from a startup called FutureRobot were on hand at the games to answer visitors' questions in Korean, Chinese, English, or Japanese. With a friendly avatar face and a large touchscreen on a cylindrical body, the robots offered directions to different sporting venues, provided schedules for every event, and more.

China may have ambitious plans for space exploration and research, but it wants to take the route of cooperation. The country's ambassador to the United Nations said Monday the future China Space Station (CSS) would be open to cooperation and utilization by all U.N. member-countries. "CSS belongs not only to China, but also to the world. All countries, regardless of their size and level of development, can participate in the cooperation on an equal footing," Shi Zhongjun said, according to a report by China's official Xinhua news agency. "Through the vehicle of CSS, we would like to build up a model of sincere mutual beneficial cooperation among countries in the peaceful exploration and use of outer space," he added.

Spider silk transformed into fiber for tissue reconstruction; paper that conducts electricity; renewable diesel fuel; and new techniques for regenerating aging or diseased skin. These are just a handful of examples from a new database of over 1,300 new technologies currently making their way through Israeli Technology Transfer Organizations [TTOs] associated with universities, research institutes, and medical institutions. The new searchable database is designed as a layer in Start-Up Nation Finder, a free-to-use innovation discovery platform from Start-Up Nation Central (SNC), an Israeli non-profit that connects businesses, governments, and organizations around the world to Israeli innovation. The new TTO layer gives users the ability to look over the horizon at emerging technologies in drug discovery, advanced materials science, gene sequencing, robotics, and other fields, through cataloguing the patents, companies, and researchers that are registered at 16 TTOs in Israel. SNC combined data from the TTOs themselves, the Israel Technology Transfer Network, and its own data from Start-Up Nation Finder.