After months of cancer treatment at the University of Tokyo Hospital, the patient – a woman in her 60s – was not getting much better. So the medical team plugged the woman's symptoms into IBM's Watson, the supercomputer that once famously trounced human champs in the TV quiz show Jeopardy! Watson rifled through its storehouse of oncology data and announced that she had a rare form of secondary leukemia. The team changed the treatment, and she was soon out of hospital. Watson spotted in minutes what could otherwise have taken weeks to diagnose, one doctor told The Japan Times. "It might be an exaggeration to say AI saved her life, but it surely gave us the data we needed in an extremely speedy fashion."

SOMEWHERE in California, Google is building a device that will usher in a new era for computing. It's a quantum computer, the largest ever made, designed to prove once and for all that machines exploiting exotic physics can outperform the world's top supercomputers. And New Scientist has learned it could be ready sooner than anyone expected – perhaps even by the end of next year. The quantum computing revolution has been a long time coming. In the 1980s, theorists realised that a computer based on quantum mechanics had the potential to vastly outperform ordinary, or classical, computers at certain tasks.

A typical nightmare scenario goes something like this: Robots first replace autoworkers on the assembly line. Then they move into white-collar jobs, writing articles, drafting legal documents and reading X-rays. Finally, the robots, growing ever smarter through machine learning and Big Data, displace even the most highly trained workers. Another scenario: Robots become so intelligent that they not only can beat people in chess and on Jeopardy!, but they also think faster, better and more analytically than any of us. Milind Tambe thinks these dystopian visions, so popular these days, miss the mark.

Call it artificial intelligence with a human touch. This week, two California universities separately announced new centers devoted to studying the ways in which AI can help humanity. USC's Viterbi School of Engineering and its School of Social Work said Wednesday that they had joined forces to launch the Center on Artificial Intelligence for Social Solutions. A day earlier, UC Berkeley unveiled its newly minted Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence. Then on Thursday, a Stanford-led initiative to study the future of artificial intelligence in the next century released a report detailing the effect artificial intelligence could have on urban life by 2030.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Hillary Clinton told federal agents and prosecutors that she did not recall receiving any emails that were too secretive to be handled by her private computer server and did not believe any of her devices had been hacked or compromised, according to FBI records released Friday. The former secretary of State reiterated earlier comments that she decided to use a single private email address to send personal and work correspondence as "a matter of convenience" and was not seeking to avoid having to comply with open records laws, according to an FBI summary of a three-hour interview with agents and prosecutors on July 2. The Democratic presidential nominee added that she relied on her staff -- three of her closest aides were responsible for the vast majority of her work-related correspondence -- and career diplomats to filter out secret information before it reached her unclassified email account. She pushed back when pressed by agents about specific emails containing classified material, saying she was not concerned that the information was sensitive or should have been deemed classified. During its investigation, the FBI determined that 110 emails contained material that should have been sent only on a classified system, even though they was not marked as such at the time. Another three emails included markings to indicate they contained classified information.

Elon Musk has revealed the firm is about to release a'major update' to the firm's autopilot software. He says the new system will radically improve the system's use of radar detectors. 'Major improvements to Autopilot coming with V8.0 and 8.1 software (std OTA update) primarily through advanced processing of radar signals,' he tweeted. The software update is set to be made available'within weeks', Musk said on Twitter, claiming it dramatically improves the use of radar data. The upgrade will enable the Model S P100D Ludicrous to accelerate from zero to 60 miles per hour in just 2.5 seconds, making it the world's third fastest production car, behind the LaFerrari and the Porsche 918 Spyder.

It is a bizarre concept that could mean you really do never need to leave your sofa. A new concept called Tridika is the ultimate home extension. The pod serves as part of a living room, until needed - when it detaches and turns into a driverless car. The Tridika pod serves as part of a living room, until needed - when it detaches and turns into a driverless car. 'It would serve as a means of transportation as well as extra space for your living quarters or office,' says Charles Bombardier of Imaginactive, who came up with the concept.