Preventative medicine is all the rage. It can cut long-term healthcare costs, help patients avoid painful procedures, and overall drives longer, better quality lives. So when does preventative medicine make the move from yearly checkups and traditional tests like mammograms and colonoscopies to something more high tech? We may be standing at that turning point right now. Several new AI tools are currently being introduced that have the potential to detect future heart attack risks or even prioritize and direct emergency calls based on the likelihood the patient is having a cardiac event.

Alex Honnold has his own verb. "To honnold"--usually written as "honnolding"--is to stand in some high, precarious place with your back to the wall, looking straight into the abyss. The verb was inspired by photographs of Honnold in precisely that position on Thank God Ledge, located 1,800 feet off the deck in Yosemite National Park. Honnold side-shuffled across this narrow sill of stone, heels to the wall, toes touching the void, when, in 2008, he became the first rock climber ever to scale the sheer granite face of Half Dome alone and without a rope. Had he lost his balance, he would have fallen for 10 long seconds to his death on the ground far below. Honnold is history's greatest ever climber in the free solo style, meaning he ascends without a rope or protective equipment of any kind. Above about 50 feet, any fall would likely be lethal, which means that, on epic days of soloing, he might spend 12 or more hours in the Death Zone. On the hardest parts of some climbing routes, his fingers will have no more contact with the rock than most people have with the touchscreens of their phones, while his toes press down on edges as thin as sticks of gum. Just watching a video of Honnold climbing will trigger some degree of vertigo, heart palpitations, or nausea in most people, and that's if they can watch them at all. Even Honnold has said that his palms sweat when he watches himself on film. All of this has made Honnold the most famous climber in the world.

Are we really committed to prohibiting chemical weapons, or only committed if no one is upset, only committed if no one complains, only committed if no one is put out?

Key Points: – Chatbots will save businesses more than $8 billion per year by 2022, a huge increase from the $20 million estimated for this year. In banking, this will climb to 90% in 2022. A new study releases this week by UK-based Juniper Research supports our prediction that chatbots will redefine the customer service industry, with healthcare and banking industries expected to benefit the most. The new report titled "Chatbots: Retail, eCommerce, Banking & Healthcare 2017-2022," estimates that chatbots will help businesses save more than $8 billion per year by 2022, which is a huge increase from the $20 million estimated for this year. Call centers and customer service departments should already be investing in these new conversational technologies if they want to stay competitive and cost-effective as companies across industries grow their investment in building chatbots to help service customers faster, across any channel, device or platform, 24 7. Advancements in technology continue to transform customer service interactions.

By Jeremy Kahn Babylon Healthcare Services Ltd., the fast-growing mobile medical consultation service, said its artificial intelligence software, in tests, can assess common conditions more accurately than human doctors. London-based Babylon's AI correctly answered 81 percent of diagnostic questions designed to mimic those trainee doctors must answer as part of the Royal College of General Practitioner's exam that must be passed to become a qualified GP doctor in the U.K. The exam is graded on a curve, but over the past five years, the average score trainees needed to pass was 72 percent. Babylon demonstrated this technology publicly for the first time in a live test at an event at London's Royal College of Physicians Wednesday. The company said it would publish the results of its tests online. It's made the AI tool available for free through its app and website in some parts of the U.K., including London, as well as Rwanda. Because the technology has not been approved by regulators, Babylon calls the software's answers "health information" not "diagnoses."

Babylon Health founder Ali Parsa presenting the results of his AI-powered medical information software, which took a standard doctor's exam. The lights were dimmed in an auditorium packed with doctors on Wednesday night at London's Royal College of Physicians. They were there to find out how AI might fundamentally change the way they work. On stage Dr. Mobasher Butt, a director at digital healthcare startup Babylon Health, stood before a podium to read out the results of an exam taken by his company's carefully trained AI doctor. The average passmark for the MRCGP exam, which trainee general practitioners take to test their ability to diagnose, has been 72% over the past five years.

Parsa said the results demonstrated that Babylon's AI could help bring healthcare to millions of people who have no access to even basic services. "Even in the richest nations, primary care is becoming increasingly unaffordable and inconvenient, often with waiting times that make it not readily accessible," he said. "Babylon's latest artificial intelligence capabilities show that it is possible for anyone, irrespective of their geography, wealth or circumstances, to have free access to health advice that is on-par with top-rated practicing clinicians." Babylon is one of a number of start-ups tapping into the promise of AI to help patients and doctors sift through symptoms to come up with a diagnosis. Others available in the UK include Ada and Your.MD.

Babylon Health founder Ali Parsa presenting the results of his AI-powered medical information software, which took a standard doctor's exam. The lights were dimmed in an auditorium packed with doctors on Wednesday night at London's Royal College of Physicians. They were there to find out how AI might fundamentally change the way they work. On stage Dr. Mobasher Butt, a director at digital healthcare startup Babylon Health, stood before a podium to read out the results of an exam taken by his company's carefully trained AI doctor. The average passmark for the MRCGP exam, which trainee general practitioners take to test their ability to diagnose, has been 72% over the past five years.

"Predatory" payments in hugely popular computer games like Fortnite and Hearthstone are equivalent to gambling but are unregulated and could lead young people to addiction and financial difficulty, experts are warning. In the wake of gaming addiction being recognised by the World Health Organisation, psychologists have drawn attention to what they describe as the "increasing similarity of gaming and gambling" in what has rapidly grown into a multi-billion-pound entertainment sector. They single out a type of in-game micropayment known as "loot boxes", where players buy a random reward, potentially including rare characters or powerful weapons. In an editorial published on Thursday in the journal Addiction, Dr Daniel King and Professor Paul Delfabbro, of the University of Adelaide, said: "These schemes may entice some players with access to credit cards to spend more money than they can afford." Younger players in particular are "less equipped" to reign in their spending, the pair warned. In Fortnite, the wildly popular survival shoot-'em-up which has a free to play version, players can access a campaign to play alongside friends and use the game's "V-Buck" currency to buy quirky llama loot piñatas, which give a random reward. Coins can be bought with real money or won more slowly through the game. More expensive llamas, such as the Legendary Troll Loot Truck Lllama, cost at least £10 in V-bucks but include 20 items.

It has played football with former U.S. President Barack Obama and danced for German leader Angela Merkel, but Honda's ASIMO robot may have reached the end of the line. Launched in 2000, the humanoid machine resembling a shrunken spaceman has become arguably Japan's most famous robot, wheeled out to impress visiting politicians over the years. But Honda said Thursday it may scrap future generations of ASIMO, now on its seventh iteration. "We will still continue research into humanoid robots, but our future robots may not be named ASIMO," Honda spokesman Hajime Kaneko said. The comment came after NHK reported that the carmaker had terminated ASIMO and dissolved the team making it.