I'm interviewing Rob Nail, but I don't know who to make eye contact with, him or his toy robot. The white-and-aquamarine bot blinking at me innocently is named Wesley. He retails for 20,000, is Wall-E cute and is roughly the size of Nail's 19-month-old son. In fact, he's oblivious to all the strange stuff surrounding us: the Oculus Rift viewing station where, moments before, I rode a virtual roller coaster; the model airplanes hanging from the ceiling; and the other robot, which retails for 14,000 and which Nail once used to stream himself to a party. Instead of, you know, actually going.

TechCrunch is pleased to bring you Microsoft Accelerator's Machine Learning Demo Day this Thursday, June 2 from the Showbox SoDo in Seattle. The Microsoft Accelerator is an immersive three- to six-month program aimed at helping entrepreneurs get through the challenges of building a company, finding customers and scaling to global markets. There are seven accelerators located around the world, from Bangalore to Beijing, from Berlin to Tel-Aviv. While most of their programs have a focus on enterprise startups, this demo day in Seattle is for companies specifically leveraging machine learning. Investors and press will hear pitches from nine companies solving problems ranging from natural gas pipelines to on-demand medicine.

Computer companions for elderly people are'emotionally dangerous' and will never be good enough to take the place of real human contact, an artificial intelligence expert has warned. In December the University of Singapore introduced'Nadine' the world's most lifelike robot whose creators say will eventually provide childcare and offer friendship to lonely pensioners. More basic'care-bots' which simply show an image of a computerised face are already on the market for as little as 3,000. But Maggie Boden, professor of Cognitive Science at the University of Sussex, warned that machines would never be able to understand abstract ideas such as loyalty or hurt. "Computer companions worry me very much," Prof Boden told an audience at The Hay Literary Festival at Hay-on-Wye, Wales.

The latest robotic cockroach can jump more than five feet in the air, and flip itself over to continue scurrying. Using a new method for storing energy and a height-adjustable trigger, the robo-roach can achieve more ground than those which rely solely on crawling. Though the enhanced jumping capabilities have been built into a small package for the project, the concept has potential to be scaled up for much larger robotics systems. The bug crawls across a desk before opening its'wings' to jump high in the air. The JumpRoACH features a height-adjustable trigger, allowing it to jump between 1.1 and 1.62 meters (3.6 – 5.2 feet) JumpRoACH has six feet for crawling and can move at a speed of up to .62 meters (2 feet) per second.

It has taken me time to warm to the notion of robotics and Artificial Intelligence. But this year I have been working on a project which has created a need for me to hang out with IBM's NAO Robots, and immerse myself in the world of Artificial Intelligence, on a regular basis. And in doing so, I have collected my favourite use cases for organisations today. Dangerous and Dull Today in industries ranging from manufacturing, to mining, to the the aeronautics industry, there are tasks which, on one extreme are so dull and boring it is almost impossible to recruit resource to support, and on the other extreme, so dangerous that lives are regularly lost. Robots, infused with Artificial Intelligence (AI) are an awesome alternative to dull and dangerous .

Technicians of Tianjin Deepfar Ocean Technology Co., Ltd., tests a new developed Underwater Unmanned Vehicle which is named'White Shark Max' in water on March 28, 2016 in Tianjin, China. For the next three years, China will be ramping up the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) sector as it aims to establish a lucrative market that could be more than 100 billion yuan ( 15.26 billion). This, according to a statement released by the National Development and Reform Commission through its website last Monday. Based on the Central Government's three-year implementation plan for its "Internet Plus" artificial intelligence program, China will create platforms for fundamental AI resources and innovation, and work towards achieving breakthroughs on basic core technology, The plan is a collaborative effort of the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Cyberspace Administration of China. Through these efforts, China's artificial intelligence sector seeks to be at par with its global competitors by 2018.

Every year, the Taiwanese company takes to Taipei to unload a host of its wares and, in the process, steal the lion's share of the show's headlines. Well, 2016 is no different as ASUS has taken the wraps off a slew of devices including an ultraportable that's thinner than Apple's own MacBook, Surface-like 2-in-1 PCs, three new ZenFones, a charming robot assistant for the home and a me-too mobile VR headset. Don't fret if you whiled away the holiday weekend and need to get up to speed on day one of the show -- we've got you covered in the video above and the gallery below.

Just how worried should we be about killer robots? To go by the opinions of a highly regarded group of scholars, including Stephen Hawking, Max Tegmark, Franz Wilczek and Stuart Russell, we should be wary of the prospect of artificial intelligence rebelling against its makers. "One can imagine (AI) outsmarting financial markets, outinventing human researchers, outmanipulating human leaders, and developing weapons we cannot even understand," Hawking wrote in a 2014 article for The Independent. "Whereas the short-term impact of AI depends on who controls it, the long-term impact depends on whether it can be controlled at all." The fear that our irresponsible creations might bring about the end of humanity is a common one.

The idea that cognitive technology can transform the healthcare system in radical ways holds a special place in Matthew Howard's head. The UK Lead at IBM Watson Health has no doubts: "I consider it to be the most important development in healthcare analytics globally." And, using cognitive applications such IBM Watson to help augment the ability of the clinical scientific community, he says, is critical for meeting future life science demands. In fact, healthcare is a key strategic imperative to IBM. If you just look at some of the quotes by the company, they say very openly that Watson Health is their moon shot.

Over the years, researchers and companies have invented plenty of devices to help people with visual impairments avoid objects such as a desk or chair. Many of these gadgets used ultrasonic sensors to detect such hazards. Just to name a few, there was the discontinued Pathsounder (which hung around a person's neck), the cumbersome NavBelt (worn around the waist), and the wheeled GuideCane. However, there's another type of obstacle that lurks underfoot--slight depressions in the ground such as steps, curbs, or divots that can cause a person to stumble or a wheelchair to suddenly turn awry. "There's nothing in existence that we know of that detects non-protruding hazards," says Elaine Wong, an electrical engineer at Australia's University of Melbourne.