Building on earlier work which teaches computers to recognise emotions and expressions in human faces, the system is able to detect the distinct parts of a sheep's face and compare it with a standardised measurement tool developed by veterinarians for diagnosing pain. Their results will be presented today (1 June) at the 12th IEEE International Conference on Automatic Face and Gesture Recognition in Washington, DC. Severe pain in sheep is associated with conditions such as foot rot, an extremely painful and contagious condition which causes the foot to rot away; or mastitis, an inflammation of the udder in ewes caused by injury or bacterial infection. Both of these conditions are common in large flocks, and early detection will lead to faster treatment and pain relief. Reliable and efficient pain assessment would also help with early diagnosis.

Recent research suggests that most consumers are getting over their fears of using artificial intelligence (AI) for services, including banking transactions. Access this e-guide with 6 key articles on cloud security and learn how to protect your organisation and its data on the cloud. You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid. This email address is already registered.

The idea of a fully automated grocery store with no human employees might sound strange (or very appealing, depending on just how much you hate interacting with people), and now, Shanghai residents can visit one for themselves. The Swedish company Wheelys is testing a mobile grocery store with no staff -- and it can drive itself. In order to shop at Moby, you first have to download an app to your phone. That's what gets you through the door, which is otherwise kept locked. You then walk through the store -- which is very small, fitting a maximum of four people at once -- and place your purchases into a smart basket.

A surprising new method for catching out online fraudsters has been uncovered by researchers studying computer mouse movements. Cognitive scientists created AI software that can spot when a person is lying thanks to changes in the way they move their onscreen pointer, with 95 per cent accuracy. The findings could be used as an additional security step to detect criminal activity when we provide sensitive information over the internet. Cognitive scientists who measured the mouse movements of a group of 40 participants of a computerised quiz have found that their AI software can spot a liar with 95 per cent accuracy. The researchers found that fake answers produced a different style of movement to people who were answering truthfully, particularly in unexpected questions which required additional thinking or research to answer.

Advanced 3D printed bionic hands for child amputees could be available in Britain on the NHS following a world first trial. Thanks to pioneering technology, better and more affordable prosthetics are on the horizon which would transform the lives of young patients. The current options available free on the NHS – which include plastic moulded limbs with hooks – are branded'medieval' or'prehistoric' by many. Robotic hands with multi-grip functionality are available privately, but the price tag of £3,000 to £60,000 ($4,696 to $93,930) makes them too expensive for most. But that all that could change now 3D printing has brought the cost of high tech arms to under £5,000.

Following on from my interview with Avi Ben Ezra about AI and the future of Chatbots, I took the opportunity to ask Henri Ben Ezra about the more practical side of the use of chatbots, with a focus on where we are now. Henri is the CEO of Snatchbot, a company that facilitates you in creating your own chatbot for free. Firstly, chatbots have become a cost-effective way for businesses to connect with prospective customers. If you are a business and have online sales, you really must have a chatbot. Conversational commerce is going to completely automate the online sales process.

Harry Chiang is a Financial Analyst at I Know First. "The big paradox here is that people think technology will lead to banking becoming more and more automated and less and less personalized, but what we've seen coming through here is the view that technology will actually help banking become a lot more personalized." Over the past few years, news articles have casually floated the term'Artificial Intelligence' around at an increasing rate. It's one of those buzzwords that somehow finds its way in to every tech-related conversation. Even the least tech-savvy person has a vague notion of what it is. The problem is, some of the more tech-savvy person don't have a much clearer notion of what it is either. The definition of AI ranges and has vague boundaries.

When Lewis Hamilton looked to his future in Formula One in 2012 and decided to leave McLaren, the team with whom he had grown up and won his first world championship, it was roundly questioned at the time. After securing two further titles for Mercedes, the move was regarded as inspired but predicting what is round the corner in motor racing has never been easy and, with F1 having just begun the process of reinvention under its new owners, the future is very much on the agenda. Many sports have faced new challenges and opportunities because of the extraordinary changes technological advances have wrought in the past two decades. But that is true of F1 perhaps more than most, having stuck with a long outdated model that has increasingly failed to engage with a younger audience. If F1 and motor racing in general are to survive, doing so is crucial and it seems it is at the crossroads between the virtual world and the real that it is most likely to happen.

Not too long ago, robots were considered a possible but surreal feature of a distant future. But take stock for a moment and it's clear that artificial intelligence and machine learning has already pervaded our lives. From high-frequency trading in financial markets to customised playlists on Spotify, machines are able to receive, process and act upon data intelligently. Machine learning and artificial intelligence are at the forefront of drastic change, and the world's largest technology companies, from Google and Amazon to Dyson, are focussed on harnessing artificial intelligence to revolutionise business and consumer services. Recognising its sea-change capabilities, the British Government is also committed to advancing artificial intelligence, predicting it could add £654 billion to the UK economy by 2035.

AI systems continue to get increasingly powerful, but still need far too much hand-holding by their human masters. New research from DeepMind and OpenAI suggests a mere nudge here and there at the outset can be enough to help artificial intelligence accomplish tricky tasks. The team set up a series of experiments in which human participants were given two short clips of an AI's approach to a task. They were then asked to make a snap judgement about which clip appeared to show more promising progress – but without the AI being aware of the desired outcome of the task. One scenario involved the AI learning to play Space Invaders, another involved a virtual robot learning to do backflips.