The ERL Emergency Robots 2017 (#ERLemergency2017) major tournament in Piombino, Italy, gathered 130 participants from 16 universities and companies from 8 European countries. Participating teams designed robots able to bring the first relief to survivors in disaster-response scenarios. The #ERLemergency2017 scenarios were inspired by the Fukushima 2011 nuclear accident. The robotics competition took place from 15-23 September 2017 at Enel's Torre del Sale, and saw sea, land and air robots collaborating. Some field repairs for team Raptors @ERLrobotleague #ERLemergency while teams Oubot and Raptors continue air and sea operations.

The UN has warned that robots could destabilise the world ahead of the opening of a headquarters in The Hague to monitor developments in artificial intelligence. From the risk of mass unemployment to the deployment of autonomous robotics by criminal organisations or rogue states, the new Centre for Artificial Intelligence and Robotics has been set the goal of second-guessing the possible threats. It is estimated that 30% of jobs in Britain are potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence, according to the consultancy firm PwC. In some sectors half the jobs could go. A recent study by the International Bar Association claimed robotics could force governments to legislate for quotas of human workers.

I look down and start gliding toward a dilapidated skate park below. Once I'm near the ground I pull my nose up and look level with the horizon. Spotting two trees, I race toward them, pass between them, then turn on a dime, skirting some shipping containers on my left. It's like every dream I've ever had about flying, but faster. I take off a pair of video goggles, and I see the shipping containers come into focus, this time directly in front of me, as my eyes adjust to the sunlight. This is my third "First Person View" flight with the Draco drone, and it's more exciting every time.

The success of last year's NES Classic Edition clearly took Nintendo by surprise. The company was completely incapable of meeting demand, leaving many people unable to buy what became the must-have gift of the holiday season. Now Nintendo has given its SNES the Classic Edition treatment and promises it's going to build way more than it did last year. Having grown up with the SNES (OK, we had a Sega Genesis and my best friend had SNES), it's easy to assume that everyone knows what it is and why people are so excited that it's back. After dominating the 8-bit era with the NES, Nintendo came late to the party with its sequel. The SNES launched in '90 in Japan, '91 in the US and '92 in the UK. The Genesis had a two-year head start in almost every country, but Nintendo's second-generation home console was worth the wait.

The £3,000 sex robot which was the star attraction at a big electronics fair in Austria this month, has broken down after a large number of visitors got overexcited. Samantha the Sex Doll had been showing off her'skills', which include reacting to touch, hugging and moaning - and remembering individuals she has'interacted' with, at the Arts Electronica Festival in Linz. However, Samantha's creators have now been forced to send her to be repaired, after visitors left the robot'heavily soiled' and with broken limbs. Broken: Samantha the Sex Robot has been sent for repair, after overexcited visitors at the Arts Electronica Festival in Linz, pictured, left the robot'heavily soiled' and with broken limbs Samantha is the latest development in a growing trend in Austria which has seen brothel customers preferring robots over sexual intercourse with a human. Samantha's developer Sergi Santos from Barcelona, Spain, described the way visitors approached the robot as'barbaric'.

The cybersecurity industry has always had a fortress mentality: Firewall the perimeter! But that mindset has failed--miserably, as each new headline-generating hack reminds us. Even if you do patch all your software, the way Equifax didn't, or you randomize all your passwords, the way most of us don't, bad actors are going to get past your heavily guarded gate, into your network. And once they do, they're free to go wild. Scott Rosenberg is an editor at Backchannel.

Digital transformation is not a buzzword anymore, it is a matter of survival. Smart technological start-ups disrupt established competitors and the whole industries. If your products, services, and experiences are not digitally enhanced, there is a big chance your business model will become obsolete by 2020. We elaborate on this topic in the following white paper. By 2020, digital will be the key revenue driver for 50% of the Global 2000 companies.

When a journalist approached me to help her get a copy of her personal data from Tinder, I knew this would be a good story. Judith Duportail had read my work researching the use of psychometrics during the US elections and the Brexit referendum. Duportail knew that Tinder computes a "desirability score" for their users: Tinder's CEO had told another journalist their score, emphasising how complex and advanced its algorithm supposedly was. Curiosity piqued, Duportail wondered whether Tinder would tell her, or any other user who asked, their score, and how it was computed. Any European company has in theory the obligation to disclose the personal data it holds about any individual who asks them Companies even have to disclose the "logic of the processing" of that data.

Taking place in Milan on November 9-10, Futureland is a two-day international tech event enabling the business community to stay ahead of the market through practical applications of emerging technologies: Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, Artificial Intelligence and Robotics. An international audience of 400 selected entrepreneurs, corporate executives, startups, investors, media and decision makers will explore new business opportunities in a variety of industries such as healthcare, automotive, industrial automation, media, gaming, sports and entertainment. Keynote speakers, panels, networking activities and experience areas will allow participants to understand how to truly develop game-changing products, services and processes for both enterprises and consumer markets.

Jeremy Corbyn will today hint at fresh taxes on firms that replace people with robots as he calls for a'new settlement between work and leisure'. The Labour leader will use his set piece party conference speech to say that, with automation due to destroy millions of jobs in the coming decades, the state needs to intervene to ensure the benefits are shared across society. 'We need urgently to face the challenge of automation; robotics that could make so much of contemporary work redundant,' he will say. 'That is a threat in the hands of the greedy but what an opportunity if it's managed in the interests of society as a whole. 'If planned and managed properly, accelerated technological change can be the gateway for a new settlement between work and leisure, a springboard for creativity and culture, making technology our servant and not our master at long last.' Labour has previously toyed with the idea of a'universal basic income', which would effectively see everyone put on benefits.