Language is becoming the new main user interface (UI) layer in an increasingly rich ecosystem of conversations that includes people to people, people to their personal digital assistant, people to bots and in the future – even personal digital assistant to bot! Microsoft also recently announced that it would be making its bot framework available to all. This adds weight to its belief that new technologies should be available to everyone, regardless of their circumstances. Dr Hon finds this incredibly meaningful, as anyone, not just the wealthy, can have their own personal assistant to make their lives more productive. It was a meeting of minds between Buck Song, an advocate of smart, sustainable cities, and Dr. Hon, a believer in the industrial application of Big Data. Dr. Hon has been with Microsoft since 1995, joining Microsoft Research Asia in 2004.

BEIJING--An auto startup backed by internet giant Tencent Holdings Ltd. TCEHY 0.52 % plans to start selling premium electric cars globally by 2020, joining other Chinese car makers in taking aim at an increasingly crowded luxury market. Four month-old Future Mobility Corp. seeks eventually to sell several hundred thousand fully electric, highly automated, China-built vehicles a year. The company is also backed by Chinese luxury-car dealer Harmony New Energy Auto and Foxconn Technology Group, 2354 1.89 % which assembles iPhones for Apple Inc. AAPL 0.31 % Apple has been working on its own autonomous electric car. Deep-pocketed tech companies have backed a wave of new auto companies in China, where a drive to cut fuel consumption and pioneer the auto industry of the future has encouraged startups. Analysts, citing increasing competition and uncertainty over a subsidy-fueled boom in electric vehicles, question how such ambitions can be turned into reality.

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

With the rapid pace of technological innovation, the need for greater market responsiveness, and the rising cost of labor in nearly all economies, many companies are revisiting age-old manufacturing strategies. They recognize there is a growing need to introduce innovative products faster to meet customer demands while maintaining aggressive cost and quality objectives. Traditional manufacturing approaches can no longer keep pace with this dynamic new consumer-driven age. Meeting these demands will instead require a complete reinvention to how we approach manufacturing, and this reinvention will need to unfold on a scale that amounts to a new industrial revolution. Welcome to the era of digital manufacturing, which can be defined simply as the growing application and impact of digital connectivity linking automation, workers and decision-makers.

With machine learning and AI being the hottest trend in tech, eBay is also bolstering its efforts with the acquisition of Israel-based advanced analytics startup SalesPredict. And its not just efforts-bolstering thats happening, this could well be eBay's attempt to become more like Amazon and automate processes within the company. SalesPredict is the second addition to the carousel of machine learning powered analytics startups acquired by eBay in the recent past. It follows in the footsteps of Expertmaker, another startup that specializes in providing intelligent solutions powered by artificial intelligence, machine learning and big data analytics. SalesPredict, in a similar manner, provides a software platform that monitors individuals' buying preferences and tries to predict consumer behavior for online shopping.

When a police robot is used to kill, one has to ask if we are at a tipping point. The dangerous events in Dallas, in which 12 policemen were shot, made it seem permissible to repurpose a robot to apply lethal force. When an armed suspect refused to surrender, a Remotec robot armed with plastic explosives was dispatched to kill him. This wasn't Robocop and it didn't operate autonomously. It was a bomb disposal robot remotely controlled by police officers.

Singapore is looking to tap artificial intelligence technology to enable more natural and simpler interactions with its e-government services. Led by industry regulator Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore (IDA), the new initiative would see the use of Microsoft's "conversations as a platform" pitch to explore opportunities in developing the country's next-generation government services based on "conversational computing". According to Singapore's Minister for Foreign Affairs and Minister-in-Charge of Smart Nation Vivian Balakrishnan, IDA and Microsoft would co-develop "chatbots" to support selected public services. These intelligence software tools would assume the role of digital representatives, simulating human behaviour, and enable interactions that were more user-friendly and consistent, said the minister, who announced the new initiative at this week's World Cities Summit. New proof-of-concepts would be built to integrate conversational intelligence into public services, with efforts focused on making these more "anticipatory" and engaging for the general public.

Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. on Tuesday unveiled a robot that can operate in the presence of flammable gases, such as after a gas leak following a disaster. A joint project with Chiba Institute of Technology, the Sakura No. 2 is the country's first mobile inspection unit that can operate in the presence of high concentrations of explosive gases such as methane and hydrogen. There is an increasing need for an inspection robot that is not a fire hazard as Japan steers toward becoming a hydrogen-based society, said Ken Onishi, a senior engineer in charge of the project for Mitsubishi Heavy. "There was a debate over whether to develop robots that can operate near hydrogen gas, as doing so requires an extremely high level of technology," Onishi said. "As we may encounter accidents such as collisions involving hydrogen cars or a truck loaded with hydrogen tanks rolling over inside a road tunnel, we decided to develop a robot that can deal with such situations."

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

Today eBay announced it will acquire SalesPredict, an Israel-based company that leverages advanced analytics to predict customer buying behavior and sales conversion. SalesPredict is eBay's latest acquisition that will support its artificial intelligence, machine learning and data science efforts. It follows eBay's recent acquisition of Expertmaker, in order to further bolster our structured data efforts. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Upon the close of the transaction, a number of SalesPredict's employees will join eBay's structured data organization, working from eBay's Israeli Development Center in Netanya.