The problem is that if robot labor is cheaper and more reliable than human labor, why bother with the latter? The payback period for industrial robots (the time it takes for their extra costs to be paid off) is falling sharply. For a welding robot to be used in a Chinese factory, for example, the period has fallen from 5.3 years in 2010, to 1.7 years in 2015, say analysts from Citi. By 2017, they say it could be as low as 1.3 years. And more robots in factories equals fewer jobs for humans.

Throughout recorded history, humans have reigned unchallenged as Earth's dominant species. Turkeys, heretofore harmless creatures, have been exploding in size, swelling from an average 13.2lb (6kg) in 1929 to over 30lb today. On the rock-solid scientific assumption that present trends will persist, The Economist calculates that turkeys will be as big as humans in just 150 years. Within 6,000 years, turkeys will dwarf the entire planet. Scientists claim that the rapid growth of turkeys is the result of innovations in poultry farming, such as selective breeding and artificial insemination.

When you boil it down, catching a criminal as they race around a city is nothing more than a very complex game theory problem. But rather than being able to run down 10 streets to evade detection, they can drive, get a bus, catch the subway or sprint down 100,000 streets. A computer can crunch those numbers, but not fast enough or efficiently enough for it to be any good. With Fujitsu's system, you can tell it how many officers you've got and it'll tell you where to put roadblocks and concentrate your manpower. One of the reasons that the system is now a lot faster is thanks to a partnership with Japan's University of Electro-Communications.

If imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, Sony and Microsoft may be a bit embarrassed by Tuesday's reveal by China's Fuze Entertainment. The Fuze Tomahawk F1 is an Android-based game console that features the design of the PS4 hardware along with a controller that's eerily reminiscent of the Xbox One wireless controller. The console's operating system also bears a striking resemblance to the PlayStation Network. Fuze Entertainment is a new venture formed by former employees of Tencent, Huawei and Nvidia, according the ZhugeEX blog. In China, cheaper Android-based mini-systems that are designed to be family-centric entertainment machines capable of streaming TV shows or playing games is preferred over dedicated game systems in the burgeoning console market.

IBM and SK Holdings C&C, a South Korean IT services company, are planning to bring IBM's Watson cognitive technology language services to South Korean banking. The alliance, which includes training Watson to understand Korean, is designed to "dramatically accelerate" the adoption of cognitive computing throughout the region, giving South Korea-based developers a set of localised APIs and services they can use to help create their own applications and build new businesses. David Kenny, general manager, IBM Watson, says: "The South Korean marketplace is moving quickly to embrace the disruptive opportunities from next generation technology. Our strategic alliance with SK Holdings C&C will put cognitive services in the hands of more businesses and developers." SK Holdings C&C will run Watson and IBM Bluemix from its Pangyo Cloud Center, in support of universities, developers, and local businesses, across "diverse" industries including banking.

More and more, 67-year-old Washington resident Lon Coleman feels like he's wandering through a fog. He walks into the living room and forgets why, or makes a phone call only to blank on whose number he dialed. An author of three books who once wrote up to five poems a day, now the lines that spring to his mind often slip away as soon as he puts pencil to paper. Sometimes the fog clears, and when his memory comes back, "it's amazing," he says. "Sometimes it doesn't, I have to admit."

The tube is out back, 11 feet in diameter, 60 feet long, the unfinished end spiraling into wide ribbons of steel--like a gigantic Pillsbury dough container with its seams gaping open. Behind the tube is a big blue tent known as the robot school, where autonomous welders wheel or crawl along, making the tubes airtight. The goal is to put tracks and electromagnets inside the tube and vacuum the air out. Ultimately, capsules will scream through the center of such a tube at 700 miles per hour on a cushion of air--a way to get from A to B faster and more efficiently than planes or trains. The first public tests of this concept, albeit on an open-air track, will take place in North Las Vegas this week.

Most of us have struggled to prise the lid off a jar of jam or been frustrated by the tricky safety caps on bottles of pills, but now there is robotic help at hand - literally. Engineers have developed a machine with two highly dexterous arms that are capable of unscrewing even the trickiest of lids. The talents of the RE2 Robotics High Dexterous Manipulation System extend even to tying knots, opening zips, making balloon animals and cutting snowflakes out of folded paper. A pair of robotic arms developed by engineers at RE2 Robotics is so dexterous it can unscrew the lids of jars (pictured) and even use a pair of scissors to cut out shapes from folded paper. Yet despite its handiness around the home, the robot is additionally capable of lifting three times its own weight, and the company behind it said it could be used to dismantle unexploded bombs.

Graduate recruitment at auditors and accountants could fall by as much as 50% by 2020 due to the impact of artificial intelligence, according to a top executive of "Big Four" accountant EY. Steve Varley, chairman and managing partner for the UK and Ireland at EY, told the Financial Times: "Over time our graduate needs are coming down." The "Big Four" -- EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte -- are between them one of the biggest graduate employers in the UK. Globally, the auditing and accounting industry is also one of the biggest graduate recruiters. If recruitment reduces, thousands of grads will have to find somewhere else to start their careers.

Software services major Infosys has launched an artificial intelligence platform'Mana' that will help clients drive automation and innovation. The company said that the platform, that brings machine learning together with'deep knowledge of an organisation', will enable businesses to continuously reinvent their system landscapes and lower maintenance cost of assets. Coupled with Aikido service offerings, Mana will help clients capture knowledge while delivering new and delightful experiences to their end users, it said. "Over the last 35 years, Infosys has maintained, operated and managed systems with global clients across every industry. Building on this deep experience, Infosys has recognised the need to bring artificial intelligence to the enterprise in a meaningful and purposeful way," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Vishal Sikka said at Infosys Confluence 2016.