Iraq built an armed robotic vehicle, according to Baghdad Post, and it could be used to take back a town occupied by ISIS. Based on Defense One's translation of the story, the robot is car-sized and tank-like, equipped with an automatic machine gun and a rocket launcher. It also has four cameras to be able to show operators its field of view, since it's controlled using a laptop from a kilometer away. That distance means its operators still have to be on the battlefield, but at least they can stay hidden and safe while the machine does its job. It's not exactly clear who built this vehicle nicknamed "Alrobot" (that's Arabic for robot).

In 2011, a supercomputer won 1 million on Jeopardy! In 2016, that same supercomputer is tackling a challenge quantified not in millions of dollars but in millions of cancer patients. The goal is to use Watson's natural language processing to mine the medical literature and a patient's records to provide treatment advice. And this month the Watson computer system is drastically expanding its reach--from one hospital in Thailand to six in India and a planned 21 more in China. This instantiation of Watson, dubbed Watson for Oncology, is an artificial intelligence system that has access to millions of pages of medical textbooks and journal articles.

The hottest news last week came out of the Intel INTC Developer Forum (IDF) 2016. But Facebook's FB decision to open source its artificial intelligence (A.I.) research, Alphabet's GOOGL Duo and Oracle ORCL asking for a retrial in its case against Alphabet over Java also made headlines. This was a mega event where Intel talked about everything but PCs. The company seems to think that the next big thing driving chip growth for PCs is VR capabilities (since it's a computationally intensive exercise, it's a good way to sell its chips). To that end, it announced Project Alloy, a reference design for cordless headgear that merges the AR and VR worlds and runs on Microsoft's MSFT Windows Holographic OS.

With the use of education chatbots, Prepathon CEO Allwin Agnel explained that the artificial intelligence-driven education technology bots are able to execute precise and detailed tasks that can improve or alter educational experiences by facilitating personalized learning. As the equity gap in American education continues, Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates has been urging educators, investors and tech companies to be more open in investing time and money in artificial intelligence-driven education technology programs. Gates believed that these AI-based EdTech platforms could personalize and revolutionize school learning experience while eliminating the equity gap. With that said, Gates is reportedly excited about the evolving field of personalized learning and artificial intelligence tutor bots. According to Venture Beat, the world's richest man will also like the Mumbai-based company called Prepathon as it opted to create bots with specialized single concentration and purpose.

China is building its next-generation cruise missiles using "high-level artificial intelligence" to make them suitable for specific combat situations. A senior missile designer has claimed that Chinese engineers have been studying the use of artificial intelligence in missiles for years and are now pushing ahead to turn it into reality. Wang Changqing, director of the general design department of the Third Academy of the China Aerospace Science and Industry Corp, told the state-run China Daily that flexible and modular design for future weapons was the need of the hour. A modular missile system is flexible and multifunctional, and enables manufacturers to cut down on the development and storage costs, a senior researcher at the Beijing Hiwing Scientific and Technological Information Institute, told the paper on condition of anonymity. Terming the plans to develop the modular cruise missiles a "promising approach", he added that such weapons also prolong the operational range and duration of a mission.

On Sunday, the Japanese prime minister turned up at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games dressed up as Mario, the eponymous hero of the popular video game series created in 1985. Who is Mario and how did he come by his global appeal? Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe appeared as the Nintendo game character Super Mario at the Olympics closing ceremonies to promote the 2020 Tokyo games. Mario Brothers is the best-selling video franchise of all time, with more than 490 million units sold since 1995, according to research firm NPD. There are more than 100 games, for various gaming systems, ranging from Donkey Kong to Super Mario Kart, in which Mario is the primary character, and many more in which he makes appearances.

The sacred Olympic flame can surely be trusted to stay lit in the care of Godzilla -- a famous Japanese character in the form of a giant, fire-breathing monster. There's literally a game called "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games," so when Shinzo Abe appeared as Mario, he left many fans wondering where exactly Sonic was. Hopefully Tokyo will take advantage of this beautiful opportunity and give Sonic the attention he deserves. If you think the real 2020 Olympics are gonna be cool wait till you see Mario and Sonic at the Tokyo games. I'm just saying Mario and Sonic at Tokyo 2020 SEGA, you have the Miku license I'M JUST SAYIN' If Tokyo 2020 isn't just a huge recreation of Mario and Sonic at the Olympic Games, I'm going to be thoroughly disappointed Can Mario please be the icon of the 2020 Olympics? And then Mario's face is literally the logo of Mario and Sonic 2020 games

Cancer, the single most feared diagnosis imaginable, is being tackled by some of the biggest companies in the world using the most formidable weapon: à la artificial intelligence. In fact, the milestones we have hit in past two years in diagnosing rare forms of cancer using clinical data, has stumped the scientific community. At the University of Tokyo's Institute of Medical Science, IBM's Watson matched a patients' symptoms against 20 million clinical oncology studied. In the western world, Google and Amazon are helping scientists analyze genetic data. Both, Google Genomics and Amazon Web Services, are offering analytical functions of the cloud to help scientists make sense of genomics data.

BT and Ticketmaster are more than just global leaders in their industries – they are example enterprise organisations already implementing artificial intelligence technology like Natural Language Process, Digital Assistants and Text Analytics into their strategies to improve customer support, experience and business growth. With the news of Google's DeepMind machine learning system and IBM's breakthrough artificial (AI) imitation of brain neurons, it's easy to assume that AI is still designated to hi-tech facilities with scientists in white lab coats and robots rolling past – and business leaders are not exempt from this belief. Although common rebuffs about artificial intelligence claim'there aren't many use cases in the space', AI within enterprise businesses is already available and being implemented – perhaps just not on the same scale or format of what we see in media today (ie the all-robot staff at the Henn-na Hotel in Japan). "We've identified 191 discrete use cases where artificial intelligence is being used today, or will be used in the near future," notes Clint Wheelock, CEO, managing director of Tractica, a market intelligence firm focused on human interaction with technology. "These use cases span 27 different industries and range from well-known applications like algorithmic trading or static image recognition to more specialized emerging areas such as emotion recognition or processing of healthcare patient data."

Silicon Valley, or the Greater Bay Area, is the 18th largest economy in the world, more than half the size of Canada's economy and bigger than Switzerland, Saudi Arabia or Turkey. This is because the region has become the world leader in research and development of emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, robotics, software and virtual reality. "Software is eating the world," said Silicon Valley investor Marc Andreessen famously in 2011. It was controversial but prescient. Five years later, software-driven machines and drones perform surgery, write news stories, compose music, translate, analyze, wage war, guard, listen, speak and entertain.