One day in the spring of 2017, at the department of clinical psychology at Babes-Bolyai University, Romania, a robot stood on a table facing a child. The robot was a half-metre tall humanoid in brightly coloured plastic, like a toy. Its round eyes lit up as it spoke, its voice childlike. Across the table sat a young boy in a Pokémon T-shirt, playing a game where he had to figure out which object the lit-up eyes are looking at. Over the table-top between the pair was a horizontal display, showing two digital items, a flower and a tree.

Automatica 2018 was all about smart automation and robotics for a fast-changing industry. I visited Automatica in Munich, the leading exhibition for smart automation and robotics in Europe. This year, the trade fair had 890 exhibitors and more than 46.000 visitors. These are my main takeaways. For successful automation, robots must become more flexible, easier to train and set up, and the need for complicated, custom-made jigs or magazines must be reduced.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and related technologies will generate as many jobs in the U.K. as they displace over the next 20 years, according to analysis published Tuesday by audit firm PwC. The research states that while AI could displace roughly 7 million jobs in the country, it could also create 7.2 million jobs, resulting in a modest net boost of around 200,000 jobs. The impact of AI on individual sectors is set to vary, however. In the health and social work sector, PwC said that the number of people employed could rise by almost 1 million, while jobs in manufacturing could fall by roughly 25 percent, a net loss of almost 700,000 roles. "Major new technologies, from steam engines to computers, displace some existing jobs but also generate large productivity gains," John Hawksworth, PwC's chief economist, said in a press release.

"Falsehood flies, and the truth comes limping after it," wrote Jonathan Swift over 200 years ago. If that was the case back then, before telephones and radio, let alone Twitter and Instagram, imagine how much bigger the problem is now. In fact, it's so big that "fake news" has become a hot topic for those on both sides of the political spectrum. Gartner has gone as far as predicting that by 2022, we will consume more lies than truth. But if technology has exacerbated the situation, there's hope that it may also offer remedies.

Thousands of scientists who specialise in artificial intelligence (AI) have declared that they will not participate in the development or manufacture of robots that can identify and attack people without human oversight. Demis Hassabis at Google DeepMind and Elon Musk at the US rocket company SpaceX are among more than 2,400 signatories to the pledge which intends to deter military firms and nations from building lethal autonomous weapon systems, also known as Laws. The move is the latest from concerned scientists and organisations to highlight the dangers of handing over life and death decisions to AI-enhanced machines. It follows calls for a preemptive ban on technology that campaigners believe could usher in a new generation of weapons of mass destruction. Orchestrated by the Boston-based organisation, The Future of Life Institute, the pledge calls on governments to agree norms, laws and regulations that stigmatise and effectively outlaw the development of killer robots.

LONDON, UK: Following the awards ceremony, heldat the Insurance AI and Analytics USA Summit, Chicago, the three winners of the Insurance Nexus AI Pioneers Awards have been announced. The awards were held to showcase and celebrate those companies and individuals who have made the most impact in insurance AI innovation over the past year, with entrants nominated, and voted for, by the industry. The volume of responses was outstanding, with 3,000 votes cast across the three categories. There were three categories of awards: Underwriting Application of the year (recognizes the most exceptional business case on underwriting over the past 12 months), Customer Experience Application (recognizes the most exceptional business case on customer experience over the past 12 months) and Claims Application (recognizes the most exceptional business case on claims over the past 12 months). 'We were thrilled with how the industry engaged with us on the AI Pioneers awards.

Can I get a diagnosis? AI [artificial intelligence] is handling it now? You mean I just go online and see the results of my tests and read the diagnosis and pick up my drugs outside my front door? As AI creeps and crawls into the realm of medical diagnosis and treatment, and as it spreads under the banner of "more precise care for the patient," remember that AI embeds false data more firmly than any human doctor can. Once it's in there, how do you get rid of it?

The majority of robots are white. Do a Google image search for "robot" and see for yourself: The whiteness is overwhelming. There are some understandable reasons for this; for example, when we asked several different companies why their social home robots were white, the answer was simply because white most conveniently fits in with other home decor. But a new study suggests that the color white can also be a social cue that results in a perception of race, especially if it's presented in an anthropomorphic context, such as being the color of the outer shell of a humanoid robot. In addition, the same issue applies to robots that are black in color, according to the study.

Toby discusses his early dreams of building thinking machines inspired by science fiction - and covers AI Ethics and current to near term applicability in intelligent systems. Toby Walsh is a leading researcher in Artificial Intelligence. He was recently named in the inaugural Knowledge Nation 100, the one hundred "rock stars" of Australia's digital revolution. He is Guest Professor at TU Berlin, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence at UNSW and leads the Algorithmic Decision Theory group at Data61, Australia's Centre of Excellence for ICT Research. He has been elected a fellow of the Australian Academy of Science, and has won the prestigious Humboldt research award as well as the 2016 NSW Premier's Prize for Excellence in Engineering and ICT.

These would enter through a combustion chamber and would inspect damage and remove any debris. The second "snake" would deposit a patch repair that would sit temporarily until the engine was ready for full repair. No schedule is placed on when the crawling robots will be available, but already in development is a "remote boreblending robot" to fix damage to compressor blades in the engine that Rolls-Royce said engineers should be using within two years. These would be bolted-on to an engine by a low-skilled worker and control then handed to a skilled worker remotely based at the Rolls-Royce aircraft center in Derby, England. The unit carries out a 3D scan to remotely assess the problem, before being retooled to allow the repair to take place.