"Most companies would get a stage, and we'd have lights and music and everything else," joked Andy Rubin as he addressed a group of reporters. He was casually dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt with a coffee mug in one hand as he stood in a lobby-like room. The setup was located just a few feet from an adult-size slide and overlooked a farm of cubicles on one side and a cafeteria on the other. But a product launch it was. We were gathered at Playground Global -- a startup incubator that Rubin founded after he left Google -- for the unveiling of what is perhaps his most important creation since Android.

Chinese leading PC giant Lenovo Group Ltd will step up its efforts to develop artificial intelligence (AI) to boost its existing business as well as create new growth engine. The move is Lenovo's latest effort to revive its PC, smartphone and other hardware businesses through AI as it is faces mounting competition from HP Inc, Asustek Computer Inc, Acer Corp, among others. "AI has two important functions. The first is to use AI to add service to the existing equipment, which is like adding a pair of wings. The second is to create innovative AI equipment," said Rui Yong, chief technology officer of Lenovo.

With threats, bribes, diplomacy and sanctions, American presidents of both parties have sought for 25 years to try to halt, or at least slow, North Korea's quest for a nuclear arsenal -- to no avail. Though the brinksmanship of the last few weeks has subsided, President Trump still faces the prospect of a madman -- Kim Jong Un -- in control of a nuclear arsenal. What the United States and its allies must now do is find options between conventional war, or even nuclear holocaust, on the one hand, and appeasement on the other. The answer could be robotic, cyber, and space weapons -- if we have the will to deploy them. They already have been used for pinpoint strikes on terrorist leaders and insurgent forces in the Mideast.

Last year, the Japanese company SoftBank opened a cell phone store in Tokyo and staffed it entirely with sales associates named Pepper. This wasn't as hard as it sounds, since all the Peppers were robots. Humanoid robots, to be more precise, which SoftBank describes as "kindly, endearing, and surprising." Each Pepper is equipped with three multidirectional wheels, an anticollision system, multiple sensors, a pair of arms, and a chest-mounted tablet that allows customers to enter information. Pepper can "express his own emotions" and use a 3-D camera and two HD cameras "to identify movements and recognize the emotions on the faces of his interlocutors."

Responsible for the moment of truth in the customer-insurer relationship, the claims function has much to gain from AI. By layering these capabilities on top of each other, insurers can enable better outcomes, faster service and a better customer experience. Crucially, by using AI, claims leaders can empower and equip adjusters to add the valuable human touch to the claims process. However, that also means retraining and educating workers so they are equipped for new roles in which customer service is paramount. As outlined in the Accenture Technology Vision for Insurance 2017 report, AI isn't just relegated to back-office functions.

SITTING IN AN office in San Francisco, Igor Barani calls up some medical scans on his screen. He is the chief executive of Enlitic, one of a host of startups applying deep learning to medicine, starting with the analysis of images such as X-rays and CT scans. It is an obvious use of the technology. Deep learning is renowned for its superhuman prowess at certain forms of image recognition; there are large sets of labelled training data to crunch; and there is tremendous potential to make health care more accurate and efficient. Dr Barani (who used to be an oncologist) points to some CT scans of a patient's lungs, taken from three different angles.

The twenty-first century has ushered in a new age of data science and analytics. With the advent of automation, Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning (MI) companies are slowly adapting and changing their learning curve towards software analytics. Data-driven innovation forms a key pillar for the sources of growth in the 21st century. The confluence of several trends, including the increasing migration of socio-economic activities to the Internet and the decline in the cost of data collection, storage and processing, is leading to the generation and use of huge volumes of data -- commonly referred to as "Big Data". These large data sets are becoming a core asset in the economy, fostering new industries and ecosystems, processes and products and creating significant competitive advantages.

In 2012 the engineers working on Google's self-driving car realised they had a problem. Early testers had agreed to always watch the road in case of emergencies, but many didn't -- and it put them at serious risk. This is what's known as the handoff problem: how to alert and engage the distracted human when the computer falters. Bypass the issue by building a vehicle that operates entirely on its own. Over the next few years, several other makers of self-driving cars, companies like Ford, General Motors, and Volvo, de-emphasised or abandoned their efforts to crack the handoff problem, mirroring Google in their quest to go full robo.

Masters of Illusion Xavier Mortimer, Scott Pepper, Chris Randall, Joshua Jay, Murray SawChuck, Billy Kidd and Greg Gleason are the featured magicians in this new episode hosted by Dean Cain. Killjoys As the Killjoys plan to execute a high-risk theft on a well-armored convoy, Aneela (Hannah John-Kamen) is distracted by her own to find Delle Seyah (Mayko Nguyen). Guy's Family Road Trip The Fieris depart Flagstaff, Ariz., and enjoy a flight through the Grand Canyon before heading east on Route 66 and making a few stops before getting to Albuquerque. Dark Matter Former Raza crew member and now emperor Ryo (Alex Mallari Jr.) captures Two (Melissa O'Neil) and holds her hostage in a bid to force the crew of the ship to give up the Blink Drive. Three, Five and Six (Anthony Lemke, Jodelle Ferland, Roger Cross) are ready to deal, but Ryo's negotiating position is undermined by treachery among his own ranks in this new episode of the science-fiction series.

HARI SREENIVASAN: But first: As more and more shopping is done online, what will become of the 16 million Americans who work in the retail industry? Our economics correspondent, Paul Solman, takes a look. It's part of our series Making Sense, which airs Thursdays on the NewsHour. JENNIFER RICHTER, Former Regional Director, Macy's: This is a great, great, great basic black top. PAUL SOLMAN: This summer, Jennifer Richter opened her own clothing boutique online.