Humanoid robot'Pepper' will soon be taking orders in Pizza Hut locations across Asia. MasterCard announced this week that it is teaming up with SoftBanks Robotics and Pizza Hut Asia to launch a new commerce app for the customer service bot. Pepper will be able to make recommendations and complete transactions, and is expected to begin employment by the end of this year. Humanoid robot'Pepper' will soon be taking orders in Pizza Huts in Asia. MasterCard announced this week that it is teaming up with SoftBanks Robotics and Pizza Hut Asia to launch a new commerce app for the bot.

While most of us know how old we are from our birthday, there are some - like those who are orphaned at a young age - who have no idea when they were born. But now a new technique may make it possible to determine a person's age with a simple blood test. A team from Insilico Medicine in Baltimore, USA, have used artificial intelligence to create programmes that can predict a person's age from chemicals in their blood. In research published in the journal Aging, they explain how deep learning algorithms have allowed them to estimate someones age within a 10 year time frame with 83.5 per cent accuracy. By looking at biomarkers in the blood, such as glucose, urea, red blood cell count and the protein albumin, the Deep Neural Network was able to work out the age of who it came from.

The personal data of nearly 70,000 OKCupid users has been put online for anyone to see – not by hackers, but researchers. The group scraped information from the dating site and uploaded a paper discussing their findings to an online forum that encourages researchers to share raw social science data. Although no first names were released, other information such as sexual turn-ons, orientation, user names and location were - giving enough clues to figure out their real identities. Personal data of nearly 70,000 OKCupid users has been leaked – not by hackers, but researchers. The information scraped about the site's members was username, age, gender, religious astrology, number of photos and more – a total of 36 variables.

A human-sized robot is being developed in preparation for missions to the red planet. Experts will seek to improve the physical and computational abilities of the 6ft-tall (1.8 metre) machine Valkyrie. Researchers will work to give Valkyrie a much more sophisticated set of skills, enabling it to better understand and respond to its surroundings. The'superhero robot' is being designed by Nasa to help astronauts on a mission to Mars is named Valkyrie. It is 6ft-tall and weighs 275lbs.

Scientists believe eerily lifelike robots will walk among us in just 20 years. Stuart Russell, vice chair of the World Economic Forum Council says the more a robot resembles a human, the more disturbing it will be to the general population. Stuart Russell, vice chair of the World Economic Forum Council says the more a robot resembles a human, the more uncomfortable or repulsed people become. The British scientist made the comments during the Milken Institute's panel titled'Artificial Intelligence: Friend or Foe?' 'We're just not equipped in our basic brain apparatus to see something that's perfectly humanoid and not treat it as a human being,' he said. 'So in some sense, a humanoid robot is lying to us using the lower levels of our brain we don't get to control.' Russell's viewpoint echoes a theory known as the'Uncanny Valley', a term coined by Japanese professor of robotics, Masahiro Mori.

Recent films depicting human-machine romance could soon be a reality, as more people are becoming comfortable with the idea of dating robots. Researchers have found that one in four young people in the UK would happily date a robot - as long as it looked like a real-life human being. These findings are part of a survey that asked the public to imagine the world in 2036, which also included questions on microchip implants and meal replacement pills. Researchers found that one in four young people would happily date a robot that looked like a real-life human being. These findings are part of a survey about the world's possibilities in 20 years, which also included topics on microchip implants and pill form dinners Researchers found that one in found young people would happily date a robot that looked like a real-life human being.

Although the idea of living forever seems to be rooted firmly in the realms of science fiction, it may not be the futuristic pipe dream once thought. Ray Kurzweil, an author who describes himself as a futurist and works on Google's machine learning project, predicts that by 2029, humans will be extending their lives considerably or even indefinitely. He also believes the human brain could be enhanced by tiny robotic implants that connect to cloud-based computer networks to give us'God-like' abilities. Ray Kurzweil (pictured), who describes himself as a futurist and works on Google's machine learning project, predicts that by 2029, humans will be extending their lives considerably or even indefinitely. He also believes the brain could be enhanced by implants that connect to cloud-based networks to give us'God-like' abilities However, he admitted computers won't take over us until they learn to love and laugh.

With the next series of Game of Thrones set to hit our screens this month anxious fans may be wondering which one of their favourite characters is next on the hit list. The first five of the series have not been an easy watch, with the writers killing off key characters just when their luck starts to change and as audiences warmed to them. But researchers have developed a computer algorithm aimed at predicting the next character to die in the hit series. Students in Germany have developed a GoT-related computer algorithm which uses available data from the internet to predict the next character to die. By trawling the internet for data and clues, a team of computer scientists have created a model which crunches the numbers to work out which characters are most likely to die in the upcoming sixth series.

If you have ever tried your hand at lip-reading in a noisy environment, you'll know it isn't easy. Now, researchers have invented a machine that can tell the difference between sounds that look the same on the lips to give anyone the ability to decipher what's being said. It is hoped the new technology could help people with hearing and speech impairments communicate more easily and even help solve crimes. Researchers have invented a machine that can tell the difference between sounds that look the same on the lips to give anyone the ability to decipher what's being said. The visual speech recognition technology, can be applied'any place where the audio isn't good enough to determine what people are saying,' according to Helen Bear, who created the machine alongside Richard Harvey at the University of East Anglia (UEA).

If you have ever dreamed of becoming a graffiti artist like Banksy, a robotic spray could help you cheat your way to greatness. The prototype gadget attaches to a can of paint and helps a novice replicate a photograph on a large canvas or wall. The invention could spawn a graffiti revolution, but is more likely to be used to create digital characters for films, for example. A robotic spray can is able to help a novice replicate a photograph on a large canvas or wall. This image shows the'target' photograph, top inset, simulated image (bottom inset) and finished painting, main Scientists from the ETH Zurich, Disney Research Zurich, Dartmouth College and Columbia University came up with the smart spray can and have demoed its artistic abilities in an impressive video.