Apple's unprecedented decision to throw 1 billion into a Chinese ride-hailing firm last week may seem like a head-scratcher. And why not invest that money here in the United States? But this move was no accident. Not only is it a sign of Apple's growing interest in transportation -- a rapidly changing industry, thanks to groundbreaking technologies such as automation -- but it is also a bet on a country that wants to zip past the United States in the development of the cars of the future. China has moved with surprising speed to prepare for the next generation of automotive technology.

There's a question at the heart of the Uncharted games that the latest title, released to great acclaim this month, tackles most directly: is the dashing lead protagonist, Nathan Drake, a hero or a thief? The continuing success of Naughty Dog's action-adventure series, along with the resurgent Tomb Raider games, shows that the "adventuring archaeologist" trope is a resilient one. The modern precursor of both Nathan Drake and Lara Croft is of course Indiana Jones, who retains a vice-like grip over the public imagination. But Jones represents an archetype that stretches back much further, of course; his true inspiration can be traced beyond the 1950s movie matinee serials and pulp comics that inspired George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and toward the great colonial fantasies of King Solomon's Mines, The Lost World and the Boy's Own magazines. There are even older precedents: Egyptian literature from the first century CE introduces Setna – a prince who raids tombs in search of a magical book.

Self-driving cars are expected to usher in a new era of mobility, safety and convenience, but they could also lead to more traffic jams. The problem is that too many people will use the technology when it becomes widely available, according to transport researchers. Experts foresee robot cars chauffeuring children to school, dance class and baseball practice. The disabled and elderly will have new mobility. Self-driving cars will give commuters a new freedom as they travel to the office, but they could also lead to more vehicles on the road, according to transport experts.

Video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about making its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is one area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Asahi newspaper reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is an area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is an area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is one area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Yi-Jian Wu, Founder & CEO of Yuanqu Tech in China, talks about how NVIDIA Tesla GPUs are being used to train their interactive educational robot for children. Call the robot's name and the speech-controlled robot is able to tell jokes, answer educational questions, teach English and act as a patient tutor for a child. Watch more scientists and researchers share how accelerated computing is benefiting their work at http://nvda.ly/X7WpH

Which will win out – robots or human beings? This is a highly topical question. The South Koreans, and many more millions of curious people worldwide, became obsessed with this issue when a match was played between a professional Go player named Lee Se-Dol, and AlphaGo, a computer programme developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind. The match resulted in a 4-1 victory for the machine over the Korean star player. Given that Go was one of the last bastions of the games world to hold out against the learning and analysis techniques employed by cutting-edge computers, this defeat basically symbolises the considerable progress made by deep learning.

I'm a fan of Valiant Comics, but I'll admit the one series I've never gotten into is Rai. I just never quite got it. With the new 4001 A.D. event going on, I got a chance to read the return of Rai today and I was pleasantly surprised. Rai #13 gives you the feeling that you are at the beginning of a great science fiction epic. It opens establishing the world of New Japan as it floats over the Earth.