The military has for the first time fired a high-powered electromagnetic projectile from a ground artillery piece, raising Pentagon hopes for arming both the U.S. Army and Navy with advanced technological weaponry, Popular Mechanics reported Tuesday. The tungsten projectile, known as the Hypervelocity Projectile, can reach Mach 3 or over 2,300 miles per hour when fired, faster than any round in service. It potentially could even reach supersonic speeds. Already a historic piece of firepower when fired from an Army howitzer, the projectile was developed for an even more powerful, high-tech piece of Navy weaponry that previously existed only in science-fiction - the railgun. The railgun abandons traditional gunpowder-based firearms for what's essentially a large, overpowered electrical circuit.

Olivia is patient and tireless, with soft brown eyes and a gentle bedside manner. She wears the light blue scrubs and fob watch of an NHS nurse, which in fact she is. But Olivia is also a robot, a virtual avatar accessed on a smartphone app. Currently on trial with the groups responsible for Vanguard in NHS Dudley Clinical Commissioning Group in the West Midlands, the NHS service for non-emergency calls, Olivia will check your symptoms, give advice on treatment and help schedule an appointment, whether that's in English, Spanish or Dutch; she speaks all three, as well as Czech and Japanese. Is it the same as talking to a live nurse?

Many industry experts consider Google to have made the most progress on the road towards fully autonomous driving, but at this year's CES, Microsoft is revealing its own plans for putting drivers in the passenger seat. The company, best-known for the Windows PC operating system, is partnering with five firms including insurance company Swiss Re on what it's billing as a "collective vision of safe and secure end-to-end mobility." And it's one where artificial intelligence takes a front seat. Specifically, AI bots will make real-time connections between traffic situations and pedestrian density via the current suite of sensing tools used in vehicles, from car-to-car (V2V) and car-to-infrastructure (V2I) communication, to radar, camera and LIDAR systems to optimise driver safety and engagement. What's more, the same tech will use information gathered from a driver's personal preferences and daily routine.

If artificial intelligence has its way, discounting could disappear, thanks to software that tells retailers exactly what and how many products to buy, and when to put them on sale to sell them at full price. Online shopping could become a conversation, where the shopper describes the dress of their dreams, and, in seconds, an AI-powered search engine tracks down the closest match. Designers, merchandisers and buyers could all work alongside AI, to predict what customers want to wear, before they even know themselves. In the last few years, a trifecta of cheap, ubiquitous, powerful computing; big data; and the development of deep learning have triggered a revolution in artificial intelligence. The computing devices that now fill our everyday lives generate large data sets, which "deep learning" algorithms analyse to find trends, make predictions and perform specific tasks, such as identifying specific objects in an image.

In the 1990s, fashion's relationship with robots was the stuff of fantasy. On the runway of Alexander McQueen's imaginative Spring/Summer 1999 show, two robotic arms spray-painted a white dress worn by Shalom Harlow. Today, the industry's relationship with automation is much more practical. In the distribution centres of e-commerce giants like the Yoox Net-a-Porter Group and Amazon (which, in 2012, paid $775 million to acquire Kiva Systems, a manufacturer of robotic fulfilment systems used by Gap, Gilt Groupe and Saks 5th Avenue) software-controlled robots routinely navigate giant warehouses, picking and transporting inventory faster and more accurately than humans, enabling services like same-day delivery. "Automated storage and retrieval systems provide high storage density as well as inventory accuracy and management, yet require a smaller footprint," explains Steve Crease, director of operations at Yoox Net-a-Porter Group, which uses ASRS to deliver its "key service level" of same-day delivery.

Now the device works as a waiter of sorts, letting you place a takeout order from any of Amazon's affiliated Restaurants. There are some limitations: You need to be an Amazon Prime member and you can't order anything new -- it'll only let you reorder something you've already had. In effect, you tell the bot what you want by saying "Alexa, order sushi from Amazon Restaurants." It'll pull up your history and suggest restaurants or cuisine types, then list off meals that you've ordered before. After you pick one, it'll place the order and have it sent to your default address. Amazon was likely forced to do it that way to avoid making the process overly complicated, given that takeout orders are hard even for a human.

A Japanese insurance company is replacing its staff with an artificial intelligence system. The move, which will see more than 30 people sacked to make way for the computer, is being seen as one of the clearest examples of the coming changes that robots and machines will bring to the workplace. Japan hopes that by introducing more robots into its workforce it can address the problem of its shrinking and rapidly ageing population. And the company itself – Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance – claims that the investment in the robot will start paying off after two years. 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. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

The UK's National Health Service (NHS) is to begin trialing a chatbot app for dispensing medical advice, with the aim of reducing the burden on its 111 non-emergency helpline. The 111 service went live in 2013, and serves as the first port of call for urgent advice in cases where it's likely overkill to scream for an ambulance right away -- if you've misread a prescription and taken more pills than you should've, for example. The AI-powered app could become another alternative, questioning users about their medical matter and symptoms before suggesting the best course of action. The NHS is developing the app with Babylon Health, one of the new breed of paid, doctor on-demand services. It's actually being adapted from Babylon's existing mobile app, which features a chatbot-like symptom questionnaire users interact with before being connected with a general practitioner (GP) via video call.

BMW plans to deploy 40 self-driving vehicles for tests in the US and Europe by the second half of this year. The German car manufacturer made the announcement jointly with Intel and the Israeli-based auto firm Mobileye at CES in Las Vegas. The BMW 7 Series will be used as the platform for Intel processor and Mobileye computer vision technology during the trials. BMW plans to deploy 40 self-driving vehicles for tests in the US and Europe. BMW will be responsible for driving control, safety and the production of the car platform.

Twitter has confirmed that it is about to kill Vine. The company announced late last year that it was going to end the popular video sharing app, in a controversial move. Now the owner has confirmed that will happen on 17 January. At that point, Vine will become "Vine Camera", an app meant for taking videos. It will still be possible to record the app's looping videos from that app, but the community and people's accounts will be removed.