A century ago, more than 60,000 tigers roamed the wild. Today, the worldwide estimate has dwindled to around 3,200. Poaching is one of the main drivers of this precipitous drop. Whether killed for skins, medicine or trophy hunting, humans have pushed tigers to near-extinction. The same applies to other large animal species like elephants and rhinoceros that play unique and crucial roles in the ecosystems where they live.

Wearing black headsets with tentacle-like sensors stretched over their foreheads, the competitors stare at cubes floating on computer screens as their small white drones prepare for takeoff. Some struggle to move even a few feet, while others zip confidently across the finish line. The competition -- billed as the world's first drone race involving a brain-controlled interface -- involved 16 pilots using willpower to drive drones through a 10-yard dash over an indoor basketball court at the University of Florida this past weekend. The Associated Press was there to record the event, which organizers hope to make an annual inter-collegiate spectacle, involving ever-more dynamic moves and challenges and a trophy that puts the brain on a pedestal. "With events like this, we're popularizing the use of BCI instead of it being stuck in the research lab," said Chris Crawford, a PhD student in human-centered computing.

Wearing black headsets with tentacle-like sensors stretched over their foreheads, the competitors stare at cubes floating on computer screens as their small white drones prepare for takeoff. Some struggle to move even a few feet, while others zip confidently across the finish line. Competitors in the Florida race use specially programmed headbands to monitor their brainwaves - moving the drone when they will it to happen. The EEG headset is calibrated to identify the electrical activity associated with particular thoughts in each wearer's brain -- recording, for example, where neurons fire when the wearer imagines pushing a chair across the floor. Programmers write code to translate these'imaginary motion' signals into commands that computers send to the drones.

SEOUL--Humanity has fallen to artificial intelligence in checkers, chess, and, last month, Go, the complex ancient Chinese board game. But some of the world's biggest nerds are confident that machines will meet their Waterloo on the pixelated battlefields of the computer strategy game StarCraft. A key reason: Unlike machines, humans are good at lying. StarCraft, created in 1998, is one of the world's most popular computer game franchises. It pits three races against one another: the humanlike Terrans, the slimy insectoid Zerg and a mystical race with psionic powers called the Protoss.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. stock jumped upwards of 30 percent to 3.41 at the start of trading Friday, bolstered by the news that AMD is working on processors for three new gaming consoles. Amid declining PC sales, AMD has turned to the video game industry to reverse slumping revenue. At the market's close Thursday, AMD's stock sat at 2.62, but after-hours trading saw a jump of 24 percent based on what analysts called a strong first quarter. Leading the charge was the potential 1.8 billion revenue from three semicustom processor "wins" for new consoles. The revenue would be spread out over the next three to four years, AMD CEO Lisa Su said on an earnings call Thursday.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc. stock jumped upwards of 30 percent to 3.41 at the start of trading Friday, bolstered by the news that AMD is working on processors for three new gaming consoles. Amid declining PC sales, AMD has turned to the video game industry to reverse slumping revenue. At the market's close Thursday, AMD's stock sat at 2.62, but after-hours trading saw a jump of 24 percent based on what analysts called a strong first quarter. Leading the charge was the potential 1.8 billion revenue from three semi-custom processor "wins" for new consoles. The revenue would be spread out over the next three to four years, AMD CEO Lisa Su said on an earnings call Thursday.

Lots of activity among tech stocks Friday, as several companies' shares are on the move. Revenue and earnings were down for the tech giant during the third quarter, as it continues its push toward mobile and cloud computing. Microsoft reported earnings of 47 cents a share, down 25% year-over-year. All those investments in self-driving cars and broadband Internet are costing the tech giant. Operating losses from the division behind Alphabet's "moonshots" widened to more than 800 million.

A Buddhist temple on the outskirts of Beijing has decided to ditch traditional ways and use technology to attract followers. Longquan temple has developed a robot monk that can chant Buddhist mantras, move via voice command, and hold a simple conversation. Named Xian'er, the 2ft-tall (60cm) robot resembles a cartoon-like novice monk in yellow robes with a shaven head, holding a touchscreen on its chest. Longquan temple says it has developed a robot monk that can chant Buddhist mantras, move via voice command, and hold a simple conversation. Named Xian'er (pictured), the 2ft-tall (60cm) robot resembles a cartoon-like novice monk in yellow robes with a shaven head, holding a touch screen on its chest Xian'er can hold a conversation by answering around 20 simple questions about Buddhism and daily life, listed on its screen, and perform seven types of motions on its wheels.

Not long ago, almost every blockbuster film release was accompanied by a tie-in video game. Just look back to the noughties superhero films; from Batman Begins to Iron Man 2, each one had a playable port, and most of them were awful. Nowadays, it's done less and less, with few straight film-to-game adaptations being made, yet more game-to-films (such as Warcraft) hitting cinemas. Thankfully, Insomniac has gone the completely bonkers route and made a game based on a film based on a game. Ratchet and Clank is thus a reimagining of the original tale, giving us a new-but-so-not-new story of how a Lombax and a defected robot became friends and saved the universe from Chairman Drek.

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