Amid the disappointing performance of the iPhone X, Apple's assembler Foxconn (Hon Gai Precision Industry) has revealed that it is venturing into artificial intelligence and other opportunities. Foxconn announced Friday that it is pledging to dedicate around $342 million to make itself a key artificial intelligence player. The move is seen as the Taiwanese tech conglomerate's way of seeking for opportunities outside of mainly assembling smartphones, as per Nikkei Asian Review. "We will at least invest some 10 billion New Taiwan dollars ($342 million) over five years to recruit top talent and deploy artificial intelligence applications in all the manufacturing sites," Foxconn Chairman Terry Gou said. "It's likely that we could even pour in some $10 billion or more if we find the deployments are very successful or can really generate results."

UK-based legal AI company, Luminance, is to open an office in Singapore to meet increasing demand in the Asia-Pacific for doc review automation. The fast-growing legal AI venture said that this move follows winning several clients in Singapore and Australia. Luminance has also released Version 3.0 of its contract review technology and bagged UK law firm, Bird & Bird, as a new client. Bird & Bird would appear to be the second UK law firm to publicly announce it is using Luminance. The other is Slaughter and May, which owns a financial stake in the company. Although, it is understood several other UK firms are currently piloting the AI platform.

A humanoid robot named Kengoro, made by researchers at the University of Tokyo, is more limber than past humanoid bots. Its build allows the machine to do sit-ups, push-ups and back extensions, as well as play badminton and stand on its tippy-toes.

More than likely, many people have watched at least one inspirational speech from a TED platform. Whether it's on time management or public speaking or making profound discoveries, the short talks serve to spark inspiration and discussion. "This is something that benefits our community. It gives them a platform," said Knott, noting that TEDxTampaBay and TEDxUSF exist, but are not currently active. So when the opportunity came to host a local, independently-organized TEDx event on campus, she immediately mobilized.

Elon Musk has said that he wants to die on Mars -- after it's been colonized by his company SpaceX. He may not have the precise details yet, but Musk will figure out the mission in style: The SpaceX space suits are sleek and form-fitting, while his cherry red Tesla sports car will be aboard the maiden flight of the interplanetary Falcon Heavy rocket. Meanwhile, on Earth, he'll work on connecting our brains to computers through tiny electrodes, building underground networks of car sleds that function like a personal subway system, firing passenger trains through a vacuum tube at the speed of sound and replacing air travel with his Big Fucking Rocket (BFR) spaceship that gets passengers anywhere on the planet in under an hour. That's without mentioning his efforts to advance electric cars and solar energy. Or the fact that this week, he made $10 million in four days by selling promotional flamethrowers.

Japan has a new robot cafe where customers can enjoy coffee brewed and served by a robot barista. The robot named Sawyer debuted this week at Henna Cafe in Tokyo's downtown business and shopping district of Shibuya. The shop's name in Japanese means'strange cafe.' The single-armed robot scans a ticket purchased from a vending machine and greets the customer. Robot barista named'Sawyer' makes a coffee at Henn-na Cafe, meaning'Strange Cafe' in Japanese, in Tokyo, Friday, Feb. 2, 2018.

First published in 1873, the Shinano Mainichi Shimbun is one of Japan's oldest dailies. Headquartered in Nagano, northwest of Tokyo, it claims a morning-edition circulation of 487,000 copies and distribution to 61% of households in Nagano Prefecture. "The third-wave AI is set to become a trend of great relevance, and now is the time to make concerted efforts in improving the newspaper production workflow as well," says Hiroshi Misawa, the paper's managing director. The Shinmai, as it's known, plans to roll out the system in April for its cable TV news summary service, with an eye to speeding up news updates.

The anxiety about AI is very explicit today. Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk expressed their doubts that humanity will be able to control AI. Mark Zuckerberg brushed off these dire concerns and called them "irresponsible". The humanoid AI Sophia made headlines and raised a few eyebrows when the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia granted her citizenship. This discussion attracts massive public attention and has immediate and delayed consequences.

Artificial intelligence has increasingly been integrated into the weapons systems of the world's leading militaries, and at least one expert has said the futuristic technology may soon be the subject of a new Cold War. In a piece published Tuesday by The Conversation, North Dakota State University assistant professor Jeremy Straub argued that unlike the nuclear weapons that dominated much of the 21st century arms race between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, the use of cyberweapons and artificial intelligence largely remained "fair game," even as tensions again flared between the rivals. Both countries have invested heavily in developing new tools to wage war on this new front, but Russia particularly has sought to use it as an opportunity to upstage the more conventionally powerful U.S. Related: U.S. is losing to Russia and China in war for artificial intelligence, report says "Now, more than 30 years after the end of the Cold War, the U.S. and Russia have decommissioned tens of thousands of nuclear weapons. Any modern-day cold war would include cyberattacks and nuclear powers' involvement in allies' conflicts," wrote Straub, who was also associate director of the university's Institute for Cyber Security Education and Research, in his article. "It's already happening," he added.

Is there anything more satisfying than finder a quicker way to your destination? You might be in a car, or on foot, or you're building a software product or a company culture and suddenly--Jeez, that was easier. As transportation editor Alex Davies reported this week, companies building self-driving cars have found that it's important--necessary, even--to use remote drivers, sitting behind screens miles away, if they want to get their less-than-perfect tech on the road. Alex also took a look at Nuro, a brand new self-driving mini-truck startup that wants to deliver your snacks to you, so you never have to leave your block again. Sometimes, however, shortcuts are a bad idea.