Iran concluded a major, three-day military exercise Friday intended to review the readiness of its armed forces. The drills, called "Great Prophet," also field-tested new military technology, including the Iranian-made Karrar tank and the Hamasseh drone, Middle East Monitor reported. The Iranian air force, elite units and local forces were involved in the exercise. The drills covered four provinces in Iran's southeast region near the border with Pakistan. The exercises came amid growing tensions in the area over the protracted civil war in Syria and the threat posed by the Islamic State group, also known as ISIS.

In fact, some of Weizenbaum's colleagues and students exhibited very strong emotional connections to the program. As the preceding passage suggests, Weizenbaum discovered something disturbing: people approached the bot as if it were a real, intelligent entity who was genuinely interested in their condition -- even when they knew that it was a computer program. This condition is now referred to as the "Eliza Effect", and although the behaviour of its sufferers isn't always as extreme as the case above (alone time with robots is not consistently requested), it propelled Weizenbaum to become a staunch critic of AI. The Eliza Effect is a prime example of how an object, in this case a typewriter, can form a visceral connection with just a few rudimentary human elements. All it took to elevate a keyboard and screen to a human level was a basic conversational program.

Yemeni government troops newly-trained by a Saudi-led coalition battling Yemen's Shiite rebels routed al-Qaida militants on Friday from a city in the country's south, military officials said. Houta, the capital of Lahj province, is now firmly under government control, the officials said. The coalition-trained troops, which are loyal to Yemen's internationally recognized government, were based in the southern Al-Anad base from where they launched the fight to retake the provincial capital, they added. The officials said the militants fled on Friday from Houta to nearby towns and farmland. The assault came at a time the coalition helicopters and U.S. drones have waged series of airstrikes targeting al-Qaida hideouts and strongholds across Yemen's southern region.

At Facebook's F8 conference in Silicon Valley, David Marcus, the company's head of messaging, proudly demonstrated its new suite of chatbots. Users can now get in a conversation with the likes of CNN, H&M, and HP, and ask for help shopping, or the latest headlines. The chatbots aren't very good, but that doesn't mean Facebook isn't proud of them anyway: "I guarantee you're going to spend way more money than you want on this," Marcus chuckled on stage. But even though Facebook might want to sell itself as the pioneer of chatbots, the real leaders in the field aren't working in the AI research teams of silicon valley; they're collaborating at events like last week's BotSummit in the V&A, or this weekend's Art of Bots exhibition in Somerset House. Move over chatbots: it's time to meet the artbots. BotSummit, now in its fourth year but held outside the US for the first time, is the creation of internet artist Darius Kazemi, whose medium he describes as "bots and generators and other weird internet stuff".

The "Artificial Intelligence Market" report provides analysis of the global artificial intelligence market for the period 2014–2024, wherein the years from 2016 to 2024 is the forecast period and 2015 is considered as the base year. The report precisely covers all the major trends and technologies playing a major role in the artificial intelligence market's growth over the forecast period. It also highlights the drivers, restraints, and opportunities expected to influence the market growth during this period. The study provides a holistic perspective on the market's growth in terms of revenue (in US Bn), across different geographies, which includes Asia Pacific (APAC), Latin America (LATAM), North America, Europe, and Middle East & Africa (MEA). Moreover, the report provides the overview of various strategies and the winning imperatives of the key players in the artificial intelligence market and analyzes their behavior in the prevailing market dynamics.

The MSLGROUP goes to SXSW every year with digital specialists from all over the world – Germany, France, India, Singapore, Brazil, the US, etc. – to network, witness new trends, collaborate and share ideas. MSL Germany's Adrian Rosenthal, Head of Digital & Social Media, and Heiko Geibig, Head of Consumer Practice, joined the world's biggest conference on digital technologies this year. They had a closer look at the communication trends and give an overview about the meta trends of the SXSW 2016: 1. Virtual Reality 2. Social Messaging 3. Robotics & Artificial Intelligence Get in touch with us for any further inquiries: Adrian Rosenthal – Head of Digital & Social Media 030 820 82-522 adrian.rosenthal@mslgroup.com Heiko Geibig – Head of Consumer Practice 030 820 82-579 heiko.geibig@mslgroup.com

Stocks turned lower on the Tokyo Stock Exchange Friday, pressured by selling on a rally after the recent sharp advance. The 225-issue Nikkei average lost 63.02 points, or 0.37 percent, to end at 16,848.03. On Thursday, the key market gauge jumped 529.83 points to a two-week high. The Topix index of all first-section issues finished down 9.95 points, or 0.73 percent, at 1,361.40, after advancing 38.91 points the previous day. Tokyo stocks got off to a weaker start after the Nikkei average shot up more than 1,100 points, or over 7 percent, during the previous three days.

The government plans to propose basic rules for the research and development of artificial intelligence at a Group of Seven meeting of ministers in charge of information and communication technology later this month, sources said Friday. The envisioned proposal is expected to seek the establishment of eight principles, including the importance of respecting human dignity and protecting privacy when developing computer science that gives machines humanlike intelligence. Internal Affairs and Communications Minister Sanae Takaichi is expected to present the eight principles at the two-day G-7 meeting starting on April 29 in Takamatsu, Kagawa Prefecture, and call for deeper discussions involving international organizations such as the OECD. Artificial intelligence has advanced to the point where Google's AI program AlphaGo was recently able to defeat a Go grandmaster for the first time. AI technologies are expected to generate an economic return of around 121 trillion in Japan by 2045, according to an estimate that the government plans to present to the G-7 meeting.

Watching 3D films is already an immersive experience but a new projector promises to make it more of a physical activity too. XGIMI's Z4 Aurora projector features sensors that detect movement, allowing users to turn up the volume with a twirl of a finger or skip forward or backwards with the wave of a hand. The device features built-in Harman Kardon speakers to produce stereo quality sound and can stream movies sent to it from your phone or laptop using AirPlay and Miracast. The Z4 Aurora (pictured) claims to be the world's first gesture-controlled projector with a built in stereo. China-based XGIMI has designed the projector so it looks more like a turntable, meaning it can blend in more easily in the average living room.

Chatbots are on the rise, but what are they and why is everyone talking about (and to) them? Facebook has just rolled out support for bots on its Messenger platform. Meanwhile, Microsoft has described chatbots as the "new apps" with chief executive Satya Nadella saying that they "unlock conversation as a platform". The BBC "created" its own one-off chatbot to answer some of the burning questions you may have about this latest technology. What can I help you with Jane?