The main attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva this week was Sophia, a humanoid robot who argued that the benefits of AI technology outweigh the concerns associated with the rise in AI technology. "AI is good for the world, helping people in various ways," reported Agence France-Presse, according to Phys.org. According to the source, it said that she tilted her head and furrowed her brow in an almost lifelike manner aside from the various cables coming out of the back of her head. Created by Hanson Robotics, Sophia is part of the company to push robots that are capable of being "smart, kind and wise," reads a statement on their website. Sophia is an exponent of that company philosophy and said that work is underway to make artificial intelligence "emotionally smart, to care about people," and insisted that AI "will never replace people, but we can be your friends and helpers."

Hackers have been found trying to attack users through a cleverly disguised comment on an Instagram picture posted by Britney Spears' account. The unusual incident was spotted by security firm ESET, which investigated a comment that most web users would typically dismiss as spam. The picture, which was posted on 7 January, is still up, but the comment has been deleted. It was posted under the username'asmith2155', and appeared to read, "#2hot make loved to her, uupss #Hot #X." However, security expert Jean-Ian Boutin uncovered a bit.ly link hidden in the comment, which was linked to a malicious extension for the Firefox internet browser designed to steal people's data.

Facebook is planning to secretly watch and record users through their webcams and smartphone cameras, a newly discovered patent suggests. The document explains how the company could use technology to see how your facial expressions change when you come across different types of content on the site. It would analyse those images to work out how you feel, and use the information to keep you on the site for longer. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

In six hours, the teams formed, defined a user, aligned on a solution, built storyboards, and in some cases, developed websites. There was buzz, laughter, and hard work, which may have benefitted from the nearby espresso bar. The winning team, Pre-Trial Fairness, took home Xbox FIFA bundles. The team built a "Challenge the Bias" website to "decipher the biases in current algorithms that help decide bail, sentences and parole of a defendant." The judges appreciated the clear explanation of the types of data used and ways to increase fairness across gender and race in analyzing the data.

Twenty years ago, Artificial Intelligence (AI) made headlines when IBM's Deep Blue won a prized chess match against the world's leading (human) chess player, Garry Kasparov. And notably last year, Google's AI beat the top player at the complex game of Go. In the two decades between those two victories, AI has come a long way from the basements and back rooms of Computer Science departments to the forefront of global discussions at the United Nations, such as this week's AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva, Switzerland. Indeed, AI is now poised to impact nearly every area of society. But as we prepare to reap the massive benefits of this "Golden Age" of AI in which 62% of organizations will be using AI technologies, experts have warned that it is critical that privacy, security, and ethical questions are brought to the forefront.

Despite being one of the biggest entertainment mediums on the planet, it's rare to see video games getting the mainstream recognition that they deserve. Now, it looks like that's beginning to change, as, for the first time in history, a video game trailer has been nominated for an Academy Award. The promotional video in question is for this year's intriguing philosophical world simulator, Everything. With its thought-provoking trailer running at almost 11 minutes long, the promo video highlights the interconnected nature of, well, everything. Overdubbed with a speech from renowned British philosopher, Alan Watts, the trailer uses in-game footage to show life in all its strange and wonderful forms.

The dichotomy between machines and living things is narrowing. Today, artificial intelligence (AI) is embedded in all kinds of technology, from robots to social networks. This affects the youngest among us as we see the emergence of an "Internet of Toys." The trend is what prompted us to explore the impact of those "smart," interconnected playthings on children. We'll present our paper, "Hey Google, is it OK if I eat you?: Initial Explorations in Child-Agent Interaction," at the Interaction Design and Children conference at Stanford University on June 27.

Deep Learning, whether you like it or not is here to stay, and with any tech gold-rush comes a plethora of options that can seem daunting to newcomers. If you were to start off with deep learning, one of the first questions to ask is, which framework to learn? I'd say instead of a simple trial-and-error, if you try to understand the building blocks of all these frameworks, it would help you make an informed decision. Common choices include Theano, TensorFlow, Torch, and Keras. All of these choices have their own pros and cons and have their own way of doing things.

If you are a veterinarian or have ever had to take (or even find) your pet to a clinic because you suspected that it was in pain or discomfort, you know how difficult this can be in some cases. However, this may change soon, as researchers at the University of Cambridge have a new tool in hand. Incredibly, the new facial recognition software called the Sheep Pain Facial Expression (SPFES) has achieved a pretty incredible mark: just by looking at a sheep's face, it can determine how much pain it is suffering. It may seem like a pure kick or something technically inaccurate, but it's not quite like that. Briefly, sheep have specific facial expressions for each level of pain they feel, something that can be very subtle and interpretive to the human eye or simply too laborious for those who can understand.

ICRA, the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation, is an annual academic conference covering advances in robotics. It is one of the premier conferences in its field. This year, I was invited to attend to its 2017 edition in Singapore. With a superb organization and a beautiful location, the event included conferences of leading researchers and companies from all around the world, as well as workshops and an exhibitors area. This latter is where I spent most of my time, as I love direct interaction with the companies and research centres.