A snake-like robot that measures 26 feet (8 metres) and is covered in short brush-like hairs has been built by Japanese scientists to help during large-scale disasters. The bizarre machine can climb over walls and rubble and is designed to reach people trapped in hard-to-reach places after earthquakes and tsunamis. The innovative creation is the first snake-shaped robot in the world that can move with its camera-mounted front tip off the floor, which it does by firing a jet of air. A snake-like robot (pictured) that measures 26 feet (8 metres) and is covered in short brush-like hairs has been built to probe disaster zones by Japanese scientists. The robot was designed to assist and respond to crises around the world.

When Jeff Bezos first launched Amazon.com in 1994, he gave himself a 30% chance of success -- slightly better than the 1 in 10 odds for Internet start-ups. That's actually a very liberating expectation, expecting to fail," he said to Time magazine when it named him Person of the Year in 2000. By then, sales had ticked past $1 billion, but the company had yet to turn a profit. Some analysts remained skeptical that Bezos could deliver on his plan to sell everything and anything. But two decades after its launch, Amazon has conquered online retail, racking up $136 billion in sales in 2016.

Today's guest is Sean Lane, CEO of CrossChx, and we have a great chat about artificial intelligence. President Trump met with Juan Manuel the President of Columbia yesterday and held a joint news conference. The President emphasized counter drug trafficking in partnership with Columbia. Other key points include the President's claims that illegal border crossings in the U.S. are down 73%, he wants the U.S. to work with South American countries on the Venezuelan problem, and also promised that MS-13 gang members will be gone from the U.S. soon. President Trump also took to Twitter today as he tweeted, "this is the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!" and "with all of the illegal acts that took place in the Clinton campaign & Obama Administration, there was never a special counsel!" The tweets were in response to Wednesday's news that the Department of Justice appointment former FBI Director Robert Mueller as special counsel to investigate Russian interference in the U.S. presidential election.

A convenience store with a modern twist has launched in China. Moby Mart is an unmanned self-driving store which runs on solar power and is able to drive to your area at the touch of a button. Customers scan the goods themselves to purchase their shopping all without meeting a single person. Moby Mart is open to the public 24 hours a day and can automatically restock goods. New technology also allows users of the app to call a Moby to their area in order to buy items. While there are also plans to have drones installed on the top of shops to deliver goods to customers.

Tallinn, Estonia - Things are bad on the small island nation of Berylia after a diplomatic row with Crimsonia, its bigger neighbour and rival. There are street protests by the Crimsonian minority in Berylia, which then suffers a wave of cyber-attacks that make it lose control of its drones and its only international airbase. Crimsonia is blamed for the cyberoffensive even though there's no hard proof. Crippled by the attacks, Berylia, a new member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), weighs its options. One of them is to invoke Article 5 and take the military alliance to war against Crimsonia.

Uber has been rocked by a steady stream of scandals and negative publicity in recent years, including revelations of questionable spy programs, a high-stakes technology lawsuit, claims of sexual harassment and discrimination and embarrassing leaks about executive conduct. The PR disasters culminated in CEO Travis Kalanick taking an indefinite leave of absence this week and promises of bold reform that largely ignored the ride-hailing company's strained relationship with drivers. Here is a timeline of some of the most consequential controversies. Uber CEO Travis Kalanick faced backlash for a sexist joke about his increasing desirability, telling an Esquire reporter: "We call that Boob-er." Uber faced accusations that it booked thousands of fake rides from its competitor Lyft in an effort to cut into its profits and services.

As such, it was only natural for them to decide to enroll in the Japanese language and culture course that Makati Science High School has been offering ninth- and 10th-graders over the past few years. "My reason for joining the nihongo (Japanese-language) class was initially for anime. But halfway through, I realized I can use it to be able to experience going to Japan," 16-year-old Franza, who took the elective course for two years starting in 2015, said in a recent interview. Chee, who is a year younger than Franza, said, "One of my life goals (includes) watching anime without subtitles. The Filipino Department of Education started offering the Japanese language and culture program to high school students in 2009, together with Spanish and French, to prepare young Filipinos for both local and international opportunities that would require communicative competence in a second foreign language, after English. Mandarin Chinese and German have subsequently been added. The foreign language programs are offered in selected schools across the country, with Japanese taught in 38 schools, mostly in Manila. So far, more than 3,000 students, nearly all avid viewers of Japanese anime, have enrolled in the Japanese program while in grades nine and 10. "We have to recognize the fact that the globe is getting smaller and smaller," Education Secretary Leonor Briones said of the program's relevance. Many students want to go on to further their studies, both at the undergraduate and graduate levels, and Japan is one of the preferred overseas destinations, given the availability of many scholarships to study there, the secretary said. "So it helps if they take lessons.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the most important technology we're developing this decade. Broadly, AI is the ability of a computer to understand your question, search its vast memory banks, and give you the best, most accurate, answer. AI is the ability of a computer to process a vast amount of information for you, make decisions, and take (and/or advise you to take) appropriate action. You may know early versions of AI as Siri on your iPhone, or IBM's Watson supercomputer. Watson made headlines back in 2011 by winning Jeopardy, and now it's helping doctors treat cancer patients by processing massive amounts of clinical data and cross-referencing thousands of individual cases and medical outcomes.

Mumbai-based Wellthy Therapeutics, a digital therapeutics company that uses artificial intelligence (AI) and patient centric design to improve patient outcomes for all healthcare stakeholders in diabetes care, announced results from a pilot designed to evaluate the feasibility and scalability of an artificial intelligence led lifestyle intervention to improve self-management of people living with type 2 diabetes as a supporting tool to existing care in India. The results were featured via an oral presentation at the American Diabetes Association (ADA) 77th Scientific Sessions, taking place at the San Diego Convention Centre in San Diego, California. The pilot results suggest that continuity of care between physician appointments for people with type 2 diabetes can be achieved with positive outcomes in a clinically significant, scalable and affordable way through this program. Participants that completed the pilot on average dropped their average blood sugar levels (HbA1c) by 0.59%. Amongst the participants that completed and dropped their HbA1c, the average drop observed was even higher at 1.04%.

Alibaba is redefining China's online shopping experience by embedding artificial intelligence (AI) throughout its core e-commerce operations. Technology has made shopping easy for customers who leverage AI to search for products, said Jim Erickson and Susan Wang in an article on Alizila.com. Thanks to smart search engines, consumers are now introduced to several goods and services that they were not previously aware of. Alibaba has also introduced customer-service chatbots that can resolve consumer complaints without requiring human intervention. While previously orders were delivered in days, they now reach consumers in a matter of few hours.