In the soundstage where Johnny Carson and Jay Leno spent four decades filming "The Tonight Show," a former Washington State computer science student named Seagull is pursuing a South Korean teenager with a very big gun. Hundreds of mostly millennial fans in the renamed, sold-out Blizzard Arena put down their Doritos and roar for the combat between these six-player teams, eventually rising in ecstasy when the Dallas Fuel earn an unexpected point against the powerhouse Seoul Dynasty. He plays video games for a minimum $50,000 salary, health benefits, a retirement savings plan and a chunk of $3.5 million in prize money. Esports history was made Wednesday night with the debut of the Overwatch League, the first attempt to present elite computer gaming within a traditional North American sports structure comparable to the NBA or NFL. The league's 12 franchises represent cities from Shanghai to London, and they build teamwork and stress player development while competing on a weekly schedule stretching into summer.

Jefferson Graham reports from CES 2018, where this year, with hot new robots from LG and Sony, it looks like robots are poised to finally go mainstream. LAS VEGAS -- When LG, one of the world's largest corporations, brings a home robot to CES and places it smack dab in the middle of its mammoth booth here, you know something is up. So what if the debut of the South Korean giant's CLOi fell flat at a press conference? Early technology can be spotty, especially here where on-stage demos often can go south. Perhaps LG is early--very early, in wanting to bring robots to your homes alongside TVs, appliances and mobile phones.

It's time to take on artificial intelligence (AI) in our "How to Speak Like a Data Center Geek" series. Because even though it's been around for six decades, AI has rarely been hotter. In Equinix's 2018 predictions, we forecast an imminent AI breakthrough into the mainstream. As fast as it's moving, AI isn't approaching the dark vision presented by popular culture (HAL 9000, meet The Matrix) or the expectations of more optimistic thinkers who say it will usher in a new era of human civilization … yet. But who knows what's ahead?

OurCrowd, an Israeli equity crowdfunding platform, launched on Thursday a $100 million global fund to finance early-stage companies focused on artificial intelligence (AI), deep-learning, Internet of Things (IoT) and robotics.

The year 2017 was a seminal year for the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Suddenly, everyone everywhere was talking about AI, what it means, and how it will affect human societies and economies. Jobs, warfare, healthcare, film-making, even art--no area of human enterprise seemed to be immune from discussions of the coming machine onslaught. Overall, there were three very important outcomes for the field of AI in 2017. First, technologically, the single most important breakthrough in 2017 was the development of Google Deep Mind's AlphaGo Zero. AlphaGo Zero built on the earlier astonishing success of the AlphaGo program, which mastered the game of Go--an East Asian game widely believed to be significantly more complex than chess.

Ben Gurion, the main international airport in Israel, is one of the most protected airports in the world. It is known for its multilayered security. On the way from the office to the airport, you get caught in the lens of airport cameras. The road curves several kilometers to the terminal, and when you are driving, the security system has enough time to analyze your identity. In case of any signs of danger, you will be intercepted.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - Russia's defense ministry said on Thursday it was investigating which country produced explosives used in recent drone attacks on Russian bases in Syria, RIA news agency cited the ministry as saying.

Sony Corp. relaunched the Aibo on Thursday, with fans expressing excitement at the second unleashing of the digital robot dog. The gadget's revival is not just a simple product relaunch but a symbol of Sony's recent resurgence as it vies to play a leading role in the robot market expected to bloom in the coming years, analysts said. "It's been about a year and half since we started developing the new Aibo . . . the day where we can provide it to new owners with confidence has finally come," said Izumi Kawanishi, who oversees Sony's artificial intelligence and robotics group, at a promotional event held at Sony's headquarters in Tokyo. New owners who received their Aibos at the event did not hesitate to show their joy. "I was very happy to finally get my Aibo," said an owner who only identified himself as Yamashita.

Jan. 11 – China's artificial intelligence industry will begin to turn a profit with three to five years and a more conventional industrial layout will emerge, Xinhua News Agency cited Liu Qingfeng, chairman of iFlytek Co, as saying at the CES global technology event in Las Vegas, US. Liu expects AI to replace many human jobs over the next decade but does not expect robots to become self-aware during the next 30 years. "Firstly, I think AI technology is truly coming to applications now. Secondly, there are hundreds of companies globally looking to cooperate with iFlytek and the opportunity for the company's industrial ecology to expand overseas is also ripe," Liu said, explaining the reasons for his firm's participation. The technology is capable of displaying translations between English and Chinese simultaneously as a presenter speaks. The English content was accurate, while the Chinese translation demonstrated relative fluency, Xinhua reported.

On the heels of billions of yuan of investment burrowed into China's artificial intelligence scene, China's state news agency has announced that it is rebuilding its newsroom to emphasize human-machine collaboration. There are already elements of this in quite a few newsrooms but this is the first announcement (I've seen) of a large news org rearranging itself around AI…. https://t.co/oK7pZbj158 Xinhua News Agency president Cai Mingzhao said Xinhua will build a "new kind of newsroom based on information technology and featuring human-machine collaboration." The agency has also introduced the "Media Brain" platform to integrate cloud computing, the Internet of Things, AI and more into news production, with potential applications "from finding leads, to news gathering, editing, distribution and finally feedback analysis." The agency's announcement was sparse on details, but it's the latest component of a deep push into AI by China.