Engineers at the EPFL Technology Institute in Switzerland have built a drone made with artificial feathers. It can fly at high speeds, make sharp turns and manoeuvre through tight spaces.

Retailers and technology firms are experimenting with chatbots, powered by a combination of machine learning, natural language processing, and live operators, to provide customer service, sales support, and other commerce-related functions. Chris Messina of Uber recently coined the term "conversational commerce" to describe this movement, which he defines as: The net result is that you and I will be talking to brands and companies over Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, Telegram, Slack, and elsewhere before year's end, and will find it normal. While messaging and voice interfaces are central components, they fit into a larger picture of increasing infusion of technology into our daily lives, which in turn is unlocking new potential for brand-to-consumer interaction. The fact is, technology overall is becoming more deeply woven into our lives, and the entire ecosystem is enjoying tighter cohesion through the increasing availability and sophistication of APIs. Smart companies are finding new and innovative touch points with consumers that are contextual, relevant, highly personal, and, yes, conversational.

Digital marketing optimization amounts to developing mechanisms which optimize the conversion of people using digital media to purchase products or services. The data coming from web sessions can be augmented with CRM matchings, from geographic positioning (from mobile data, IP address or other), from historical data and whatnot. Every industry and company has its own private stash of data and channels, it's in general difficult to describe a unique works-for-all approach. Technically this means a mixture of big-data techniques (Spark, MLLib, Hadoop…), R and Python coding, ML algorithms, dataviz through HTML/JS…and all of this together in a reusable, repeatable and collaborative workflow. This sounds like a daunting challenge but the good news is that the Dataiku platform makes it all really easy.

Self-driving Uber cars are making'dangerous and illegal' turns across bike lanes Forget buttons: BMW reveals its future cars could have... Facebook faces £100 million fine after EU accuses it of... The first robot-human marriage will take place before 2050,... Would YOU try it? Bizarre robot'lips' let you kiss... Forget buttons: BMW reveals its future cars could have... Facebook faces £100 million fine after EU accuses it of... The first robot-human marriage will take place before 2050,... Would YOU try it? Bizarre robot'lips' let you kiss...

A new study has shown human altruism is a trait that separates us from our primate cousins, making us unique. Europe's earliest humans were raw foodies: 1.2... Would YOU try it? Bizarre robot'lips' let you kiss... Sex robots could reveal your secret perversions: Handing... Climate change is causing Arctic lake ice cover to melt ONE... Europe's earliest humans were raw foodies: 1.2... Would YOU try it? Bizarre robot'lips' let you kiss... Sex robots could reveal your secret perversions: Handing... Climate change is causing Arctic lake ice cover to melt ONE... In the past, scientists suggested the roots of human altruism extend down at least as far as our common ancestor with chimpanzees.

There was the voice recognition software that struggled to understand women, the crime prediction algorithm that targeted black neighbourhoods and the online ad platform which was more likely to show men highly paid executive jobs. Concerns have been growing about AI's so-called "white guy problem" and now scientists have devised a way to test whether an algorithm is introducing gender or racial biases into decision-making. Mortiz Hardt, a senior research scientist at Google and a co-author of the paper, said: "Decisions based on machine learning can be both incredibly useful and have a profound impact on our lives ... Despite the need, a vetted methodology in machine learning for preventing this kind of discrimination based on sensitive attributes has been lacking." A beauty contest was judged by AI and the robots didn't like dark skin The paper was one of several on detecting discrimination by algorithms to be presented at the Neural Information Processing Systems (NIPS) conference in Barcelona this month, indicating a growing recognition of the problem. Nathan Srebro, a computer scientist at the Toyota Technological Institute at Chicago and co-author, said: "We are trying to enforce that you will not have inappropriate bias in the statistical prediction."

Privacy groups have filed a complaint about My Friend Cayla dolls to the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that they spy on children. Privacy groups have filed a complaint about My Friend Cayla dolls to the Federal Trade Commission, arguing that they spy on children. Tech toys have become popular holiday gifts. Many are interactive, some even claim educational benefits. But one such toy has privacy advocates very worried this year.

Virtual touch screen uses reflections to give the illusion of a floating display A camera tracks the driver's hand movements and registers input The system then offers tactile feedback to the user in the form of a pulse HoloActive Touch will be debuted at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas from the 5th to 8th of January A camera tracks the driver's hand movements and registers input The interface, dubbed HoloActive Touch, will allow users to alter settings and access music and other media in their vehicle without having to touch the controls. How safe is your fitness tracker? Hackers could steal your... BlackBerry sets its sights on self driving cars: Firm... The tiles that make buildings INVISIBLE: Smart... Will the iPhone 8 ditch glass for PLASTIC? How safe is your fitness tracker?

An expert has said we will marry robots before 2050, at a robot sex conference He also thinks sex with robots will be more enjoyable than with other humans Comments were made by Dr David Levy, author of'Love and Sex with Robots' Comments were made by Dr David Levy, author of'Love and Sex with Robots' Humans will marry robots in the next 35 years, according to a sex robot expert. Sex robots could reveal your secret perversions: Handing... Sex bots could KILL: Experts warn owners'risk... How safe is your fitness tracker? The $2500 holographic'girlfriend' that can double as a... Sex robots could reveal your secret perversions: Handing... Sex bots could KILL: Experts warn owners'risk... How safe is your fitness tracker? The $2500 holographic'girlfriend' that can double as a... Earlier this year a graphic designer created a life-like replica of actress Scarlett Johansson (pictured) which is not a sex robot but winks and giggles when people tell her she's cute. First human marriage to a robot will happen BEFORE 2050 by which time sexbots will be'more attractive than humans' First human marriage to a robot will happen BEFORE 2050 by which time sexbots will be'more attractive than humans' Girl shouts at her poor Grandpa over her iPhone appointment Group of killer whales prowl seas and attack shark Adorable Hamster gets Shot and pretends to be dead Baby'sings' Christmas carol - with a little help from daddy BMW driver tries to ram car off the road after slip lane mishap U.S. Ambassador attacker detained moments after slashing Woman riding motorbike is catapulted into air after collision Koala covered in burrs gets his fur groomed in adorable video Kung Fu truck driver gets revenge on man who stole his phone Hungarian-American actress Zsa Zsa Gabor dead at 99 Prisoner batters officer who finds him recording show on laptop Adorable baby pug takes his first bath and enjoys it SO MUCH Baby'sings' Christmas carol - with a little help from daddy U.S. Ambassador attacker detained moments after slashing Germany at war: Berlin on'significant' alert of second... Donald Trump wins Electoral College - as attempts to cause... Horror as Russian ambassador to Turkey is shot dead in art... 'I'm starving.

There's few of reasons why TechCrunch Disrupt (sign up here to get news about the next one) is so effective for startups. The combination of breaking news on stage and brand new companies in the Battlefield competition draws in the media and investors. And investors can easily walk a curated hall of new startups in Startup Alley, knowing that we have worked hard to bring the best and the brightest. And in theory you could get to see everything, because there aren't thousands upon thousands of people to plough through. With over 2,300 attendees in-person and more than 2.5M video views online, Disrupt London was our most watched European event ever.