Computers and the Internet: Listening to Girls' Voices – Dorothy Ellen Wilcox concludes that "instead of socializing adolescent girls toward docility, non-hierarchical technology like the Internet may provide a discourse for development of higher-level cognitive skills and the ability to unmask inequities in power and politics."

Theoretical physicist and cosmologist Stephen Hawking has repeatedly warned of the dangers posed by out-of-control artificial intelligence (AI). But on Wednesday, as the professor opened the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (CFI) at the University of Cambridge, he remarked on its potential to bring positive change – if developed correctly. "Success in creating AI could be the biggest event in the history of our civilisation. But it could also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks," Dr. Hawking said at the launch, according to a University of Cambridge press release. Representing a collaboration between the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial College London, and the University of California, Berkeley, the CFI will bring together a multidisciplinary team of researchers, as well as tech leaders and policy makers, to ensure that societies can "make the best of the opportunities of artificial intelligence," as its website states.

Developers of artificial intelligence (A.I.) now have an added incentive to pursue their work: $5 million dollars. The prize money was announced at the annual TED conference Wednesday, in a joint initiative between tech giant IBM and X Prize, the company behind the world's first private space race to reach the moon. Motivating the backers of this competition is, among other things, a desire to demonstrate the potential benefits to mankind of advances in A.I., but many skeptics have yet to be convinced. "Personally, I am sick and tired of the dystopian conversation around artificial intelligence," said X Prize founder Peter Diamandis when unveiling the prize. The competition challenges teams to "develop and demonstrate how humans can collaborate with powerful cognitive technologies to tackle some of the world's grand challenges," according to an X Prize statement.

From little robots that vacuum the floor to Google's self-driving cars, we are beginning to experience what an "intelligent" robot might be capable of. Yet there is still so much more that needs to be learned about actual human intelligence and how to replicate that in computers and robots. Selmer Bringsjord, a professor of computer science and cognitive science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy, N.Y., recently led an experiment with three programmable NAO Robots in hopes of showing that these humanoid machines can be self-aware. This was, in part, in response to an open challenge leveled by Luciano Floridi, a noted professor of philosophy at the University of Oxford. "Floridi's challenge, which we refer to as'KG4,' requires that a robot have a form of genuine self-understanding ... a human-level justification/proof to accompany the behavior, in which the robot employ a correlated to the personal pronoun'I,' and the inputs have to come in natural language, in real time," says Dr. Bringsjord in an e-mail.

If all goes as planned, this June in Pomona Calif., 25 humanoid robots built by different companies will make their way through an obstacle course meant to resemble a disaster area. Started in 2012, the annual contest is hosted by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon's high-tech research unit. DARPA had previously selected eleven companies as finalists. On Thursday, the agency announced the final 14. Gill Pratt, a program manager of the Robotics Challenge, told LiveScience that the participants will have one hour to finish the course, which involvesfirst driving a vehicle to a simulated disaster zone and walking about 30 feet through a field of obstacles. After that the robots must close a valve, do some wiring, cut a hole through a wall, climb stairs, and exit the building, according to the report.

A report on the future of technology in the workplace predicts that as many as 47 percent of US jobs are at risk in coming years due to increasing computerization, and that one of the best hopes for keeping people employed may come from a dedicated effort to improve a lagging American education system. The study, released in February, is part of a series co-produced by the Oxford Martin School at the University of Oxford and Citigroup that explores the most pressing global challenges of the 21st century. Michael Osborne, Citi Global Perspectives and Solutions project partner and Oxford Associate Professor of Machine Learning, has spoken in recent interviews about his part of the study, examining the characteristics of 702 occupations in the US. According to the report, food service jobs face 87 percent of risk of being replaced by robo burger chefs and counter help. The nearly 4 million Americans who work in the transportation industry are at risk from autonomous cars and trucks; up to 75 percent of jobs could be computerized in coming decades.

Fully autonomous weapons, or "killer robots," have come under scrutiny at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. It is the first time the annual meeting has considered the subject, and it was discussed amid a general flurry of interest in the world of artificial intelligence. While there was a focus on many of the benefits human society can enjoy as the field of robotics advances, one hour-long panel session Thursday considered the darker side: "What if robots go to war?" The idea of rogue robots causing havoc is nothing new: science fiction has depicted such apocalyptic scenarios for decades. But scientists, experts, and various organizations have in recent years begun to take the threat seriously.

"I get lost in your eyes," you say? Researchers are working on ways to find you and save the resulting image for posterity – or for a criminal investigation. Scientists have found that photo portraits of an individual can yield images of the photographer or people standing close to the photographer. These additional images appear as reflections in the eyes of the photo's subject. Even though enhancements of the reflected images appear blurry, they carry enough detail to allow others to identify the people reflected in the subject's eyes.

News of Watson has been quiet since it beat its human competitors on "Jeopardy!," On Tuesday, IBM unveiled its latest developments. IBM is opening a Watson world headquarters in New York City. Watson's new digs take up an entire Manhattan block, and with 600 employees and $1 billion in funding from IBM, the New York headquarters will become the center of Watson's development. "IBM is opening its doors to area developers and entrepreneurs, hosting industry workshops, seminars and networking opportunities to build enthusiasm and awareness among the New York City start up community," IBM said in a statement.

Little Theater has a tiny orchestra pit, with room for only a handful of players, and a modest budget. So when it mounts a big musical like "Beauty and the Beast," it brings in an electronic ringer. A laptop computer, loaded with a program called OrchEXTRA, serves as a "virtual orchestra," from strings to woodwinds, drums to horns, giving the music such a rich sound that audience members may wonder how a full Broadway orchestra fits into the tiny pit. "As far as sound quality, these things are great," says Dorian Boyd, the sound designer/technician for Little Theater, referring to OrchEXTRA. Virtual orchestras are much better than the early systems of just a few years ago, he says, which could sound like "video game music."