Robot Academy is an online platform that provides free-to-use undergraduate-level learning resources for robotics and robotic vision. The content was developed for two 6-week Massively Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that Corke taught in 2015 and 2016. This content is now available as individual lessons (over 200 videos, each less than 10 minutes long) or in masterclasses (collections of videos, around 1 hour in duration, previously a MOOC lecture). Unlike a MOOC, all lessons are available all the time. While the content is typically designed for undergraduate-level students, around 20% of the lessons require no more than general knowledge.

Google's AI boutique, DeepMind, known for dispelling human delusions of intellectual superiority by soundly beating the world's top Go players with computer code, has found that instilling its software agents with something like imagination helps them learn better. In two papers published this week – "Imagination-Augmented Agents for Deep Reinforcement Learning" and "Learning model-based planning from scratch" – the AI biz's brain boffins, based in Britain, describe novel techniques for improving deep reinforcement learning through what can generously be described as imaginative planning. Reinforcement learning is a form of machine learning. It involves a software agent that learns by interacting with a specific environment, usually through trial and error. Deep learning is a form of machine that involves algorithms inspired by the human brain, called neural networks.

More than six years after the core meltdowns triggered by March 2011 mega-quake and tsunami, Tokyo Electric said Saturday that the robot probing reactor 3 at the defunct Fukushima No. 1 power plant had likely spotted fuel debris for the first time at the bottom of its primary containment vessel. Some of the debris looks like rocks and sand, and was accompanied by scaffolding and other objects from the reactor that had formed a pile about a meter high. On Friday, Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings Inc. announced that the same robot had found what appeared to be melted fuel at the bottom of the pressure vessel, which holds the core. On Saturday, images released by the utility showed black, lava-like objects discovered by the so-called mini sunfish robot. "It's natural to assume that the debris melted and dropped," said a Tepco official who briefed reporters.

What is thought to be one of Britain's first robots now lives in an army surplus store in Leeds.

Elon Musk and other panellists talk AI and answer the question: "If we succeed in building human-level Artificial general intelligence (AGI), then what are the likely outcomes? What would we like to happen?" Credit: Thanks to the Future of Life Institute for sharing. How to slow it down 14:04.

Around 47% of the AI companies acquired since 2012 have had VC backing. Corporate giants like Google, IBM, Yahoo, Intel, Apple, and Salesforce are competing in the race to acquire private AI companies, with Ford, Samsung, GE, and Uber emerging as new entrants. Over 250 private companies using AI algorithms across different verticals have been acquired since 2012, with 37 acquisitions taking place in Q1'17 alone. That quarter also saw one of the largest M&A deals: Ford's acquisition of Argo AI for $1B. Baidu has been particularly aggressive in its AI acquisitions in 2017, with 3 M&A deals so far this year, including its acquisition of Amazon Alexa Fund-backed Kitt.ai this quarter.

I realized that my sixth sense was failing when I stopped noticing the magnetic fields of my laptop. In fall 2012, I implanted a rare earth magnet in my right ring finger. Magnets were one of the most accessible forms of DIY biohacking, a niche subculture riding the start of a massive mainstream publicity wave. My colleague Ben Popper got one while writing a biohacking feature, and it sounded like magic. When I first got it, I wasn't disappointed.

Fujitsu EMEIA CTO Dr Joseph Reger looks at how Artificial Intelligence is proliferating at an uncontrollable pace, arguing that businesses can no longer ignore the impact it is having. Discussions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) have proliferated and will continue to over the next year. Businesses are beginning to see its value in a wide range of sectors, while a different report is released every day that instils a fear that AI will replace workers' jobs. Simply put there is no hiding the explosion of AI and its applications; in the UK, Durham police have begun trialling a system that will classify suspects as low, medium or high risk and help officers review their sentence. As AI, automation and machine learning push the boundaries in almost every single industry, businesses will have to embrace the technology and understand that it is a force for good.

On This Day – also known as Facebook Memories – is one of the social network's most divisive features. For some, it's a fun daily reminder of something silly, important or embarrassing that you or somebody close to you considered worthy of being published online. It can even put you back in touch with old friends. For others, however, it can resurface unpleasant memories, such as pictures of lost friends or posts about relationships that broke down in difficult circumstances. Here's how to control what you see on Facebook Memories.

The robots are coming for Wall Street's jobs, and McKinsey & Co has an idea of exactly what jobs they are coming for. The consultancy has published a report, titled Cognitive Technologies in Capital Markets, examining the areas of corporate and investment banking that are ripe for automation via machine learning, artificial intelligence, and natural language processing tools. These tech buzzwords have become commonplace on Wall Street, but essentially they all do something very similar: mimic human intelligence. According to McKinsey, these technologies are "moving center stage" and could have a sizeable impact on 60% of bank jobs, with 30% of activities for this group "technically automatable."This "The application of cognitive technologies to capital markets functions can reduce budgets and free up capacity for teams to focus on higher-value activities such as research, idea generation and client relationship management," the report said.