Who let the dog out? Sony rolled out a much cuter -- and more sophisticated -- Aibo robot dog on Tuesday, and it came off acting and moving a lot more like a real canine. The Japanese electronics giant retired the original Aibo in 2006 and went back to the lab to develop a 2.0 version. The one displayed at CES 2018 here has a new design that features expressive LED eyes and a vastly expanded range of movement, and is able to learn new tricks through real-world training. It is currently available only in Japan, but for roughly $1,760 and perhaps a little web magic, you can be the coolest person at the neighborhood dog park.

Today an increasing number of workers are veering off the time-honored career path of joining an employer, rising through the ranks and staying for decades. Some are freelancing by choice, relishing the opportunity to set their own schedules, choose their assignments and work independently. Others have turned to contingent work out of economic necessity. Freelancing has long been commonplace in professions ranging from writing, editing and design to many skilled trades, real estate appraisal and even fitness training. Statistics do not always provide a clear picture of the contingent workforce because of the variety of working arrangements that are possible.

The Liberal Democratic Party wants to legalize professional gaming tournaments, joining a groundswell that started last summer amid speculation that video games will become an Olympic medal sport by 2024. Arcane laws meant to stop illegal gambling have prevented paid video game tournaments in the country, stunting the domestic market even as esports has become a multibillion-dollar global industry. Over the past few months, negotiations between four esports groups and the consumer protection agency have yielded a workaround to exempt professional gamers from the rules. Takeo Kawamura, a lawmaker from Prime Minister Shinzo Abe's LDP, said the ruling party might be willing to go further, by amending laws to ensure people's rights to earn a living playing games. The goal, he said, is to remove impediments and make it possible to win Olympic medals someday.

By December, more than 6,985 stores closed across the US, according to retail think-tank Fung Global Retail & Technology. It also beats the previous all-time high of 6,163 store closings that took place during the 2008 financial crisis, according to estimates by Credit Suisse. The reality is that many stores are closing for the same reason they've always closed -- they simply don't meet the needs and demands of customers. But at a time when consumers are empowered with choice and market conditions are increasingly volatile, new technologies can help brands and retailers drive valuable business efficiencies, and improve the overall customer experience and value proposition. "The biggest upside to technology in fashion will be the ability to offer consistency, and being able to personalise the customer's shopping patterns," said Robert Burke, chief executive of retail consultancy firm Robert Burke Associates.

WASHINGTON – As bad as President Donald Trump describes U.S.-Pakistani ties today, they can get far worse. Over 16 years that included hundreds of deadly U.S. drone strikes, Osama bin Laden's killing on Pakistani soil and accusations Pakistan helps insurgents that kill Americans, the reluctant allies never reached one point of no return: Pakistan closing the air routes to Afghanistan. It could also be tantamount to Pakistan going to war with the United States. Even if such a step is seen as unlikely by most officials and observers, Pakistan's ability to shape the destiny of America's longest war is a reminder of how much leverage the country maintains at a time Trump is suspending hundreds of millions of dollars in military assistance. "There's some suggestion that we have all of the cards in our hands," said Richard Olson, a former U.S. ambassador to Pakistan.

CANBERRA – A flying drone has dropped a flotation device to two teens caught in a riptide in heavy seas off the Australian coast in what officials describe as a world-first rescue. Monty Greenslade and Gabe Vidler got into trouble on Thursday at Lennox Head, 750 kilometers (470 miles) north of Sydney. They were about a kilometer (0.6 mile) from lifeguards who were about to start training with the new drones, equipped with a camera, rescue gear and six rotors. After a friend raised the alert, lifeguard Jai Sheridan said he piloted the drone to the swimmers and dropped a rescue pod minutes faster than lifeguards could have reached the pair by conventional means. "I was able to launch it, fly it to the location, and drop the pod all in about one to two minutes. On a normal day, that would have taken our lifeguards a few minutes longer to reach the members of the public," Sheridan said in a statement.

These Indian subsistence farmers know just what to do: Pull out their smartphones and take their picture. The farmers then upload the images with GPS locations to a cloud-based artificial intelligence (AI) app named Plantix. The app identifies the crop type in the image and spits out a diagnosis of a disease, pest or nutrient deficiency. Plantix also aids farmers by recommending targeted biological or chemical treatments for ailing plants, reducing the volume of agrochemicals in groundwater and waterways that can result from overuse or incorrect application of herbicides and pesticides. "Nearly every household in India has a smartphone, and many want to see how Plantix works," says Srikanth Rupavatharam, a digital agriculture scientist with the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics (ICRISAT) in Hyderabad, India, which is collaborating with Plantix's developer to adapt the tool for Telugu and Hindi languages.

London, Jan 18 (PTI) An artificially-intelligent'robot scientist' has helped identify a common toothpaste ingredient that can fight strains of malaria parasite that have grown resistant currently-used drugs. Malaria kills over half a million people each year, predominantly in Africa and south-east Asia. While a number of medicines are used to treat the disease, malaria parasites are growing increasingly resistant to these drugs, raising the spectre of untreatable malaria in the future. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, employed the robot scientist'Eve' in a high-throughput screen and discovered that triclosan, an ingredient found in many toothpastes, may help the fight against drug-resistance. When used in toothpaste, triclosan prevents the build-up of plaque bacteria by inhibiting the action of an enzyme known as enoyl reductase (ENR), which is involved in the production of fatty acids.

After a chequered history of six decades, artificial intelligence (AI) is not only back in the news, but making headlines for never-seen-before developments--a case in point being Sophia becoming the first robot citizen of Saudi Arabia. There is a strong technology tailwind to thank for the advances in AI. Computing power is expanding rapidly, even as its cost comes down. Connected devices and the internet of things (IoT) are spewing massive quantities of data for consumption by advanced analytics solutions. Further, the Open Source movement is fuelling AI-led innovation.

Rokid, a Chinese startup that makes an AI voice assistant and smart devices, just raised a Series B extension round led by Temasek Holdings, with participation from Credit Suisse, IDG Capital and CDIB Capital. The size of the round was not released, but a source familiar with the deal told TechCrunch that it is $100 million. The company's previous funding was its Series B round, which was announced in November 2016. Founder and chief executive officer Mingming Zhu says Rokid raised a Series B instead of a C round because the company, which is based in Hangzhou, China with research centers in Beijing and San Francisco that develop its proprietary natural language processing, image processing, face recognition and robotics technology, is still in its early stages. Rokid wants to focus on gathering more resources and bringing in strategic investors like Temasek Holdings before moving on to a Series C.