What is consciousness, and how does it emerge from inanimate matter? After all, the atoms that constitute the brain -- the birthplace of consciousness -- are the same as the atoms that make up the chair you are currently sitting on. Why are we sentient and self-aware even though a multitude of inanimate objects around us are not? At what point do physical entities -- neurons, in this case -- give rise to something as abstract as consciousness? These are the questions that have, for the better part of the last two decades, occupied some of the greatest minds in physics, cognitive science and neuroscience. A team of scientists in France and Canada has now come up with an intriguing solution to the problem of consciousness.

Artificial Lawyer spent 12 happy hours at the Legal Geek Conference on Brick Lane in East London yesterday and can confirm to those who might be wondering, that yes, this was the best legal tech event of the year. The success of the event was very much driven by an entrepreneur himself, Jimmy Vestbirk, who created Legal Geek and set the tone from the get-go, with a great Truman Brewery space for the event and mandatory high fives to the attendees sitting on either side. There was also a no ties policy and that deserves a special commendation. What set this event apart from others was that the speakers were the real thing. They were the founders and/or senior staff members of the legal AI companies everyone else is talking about.

The major-party presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have spent decades in the public eye as key figures of American culture. Their portraits have covered magazines, newspapers and websites for decades. The major-party presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, have spent decades in the public eye as key figures of American culture. Their portraits have covered magazines, newspapers and websites. Photos: A visual history of virtual reality headsets (it ain't always pretty) p In these heady days of tech innovation it's easy to lose track of what's … A centuries-old Yemeni city stands alongside the gleaming towers of Hong Kong as one of the world's most beautiful architectural views, writes Jonathan Glancey.

The Royal Navy is planning to step up its use of AI to improve maritime defence, beginning with STARTLE, which is AI software that can can spot potential threats. At a briefing titled "Artificial Intelligence in Royal Navy Warships" hosted by non-profit TechUK, Blighty's navy announced it was keen to explore the potential of using machine-learning to improve operational capability in its fighting units under Project NELSON. Developed by Roke Manor Research, the company claims it is the first supplier to integrate AI software into a Defence Science and Technology Laboratory-sponsored maritime combat system demonstrator. Mike Hook, lead software architect on STARTLE at Roke, told The Register: "It's hard to implement new technology in warships because it has so much proprietary software. But integrating STARTLE will give it new data to do trials with."

In the aftermath of the Brexit vote to leave, one of the Tweets that caught my eye was from founder and CEO of analyst firm HfS Research Phil Fersht (@pfersht), which simply said, "at least the British can stop worrying about robots taking their jobs. Just get rid of the jobs altogether…" While that may not be amusing as it plays out against our globalized economy, it demonstrates how this topic has taken hold of so many of us. About a year ago, I was asked to sit on a panel at the annual Constellation Research Connected Enterprise called "The Robots Are Here! The Future of HR Tech," to debate whether we're entering a dystopian existence where humans are the bottleneck to productivity and innovation or a world of augmented humanity and digital humanization. It's a fact that major economic shifts have led to both marginalization, the downside, and great opportunity, clearly the upside.

Much of today's hype around artificial intelligence (AI) is concentrated in a few areas: enabling futuristic applications like self-driving cars, helping conversational interfaces like chatbots come to life, and making business more efficient and predictable. But in this episode of "Behind The Numbers," we focus on how AI is being used to spur creativity in areas like art, music and storytelling. The podcast kicks off with a new intro song--at least for this episode. The song, titled "Daddy's Car," is unique because it was generated by AI from Sony's Computer Science Research Lab in Paris and arranged by a human composer, Benoît Carré. Much of the track is generated from suite of Sony's AI tools called Flow Machines, which is trained from around 13,000 existing compositions across a variety of styles.

The European Space Agency (Esa) is getting ready to put a probe on Mars. Its Schiaparelli robot will attempt the risky descent to the surface in the coming hours, after a 500 million km journey from Earth. The touchdown is regarded as a dress rehearsal for a much more important venture in four years' time when Esa will bid to place a very expensive rover on the planet. This six-wheeled vehicle will drill beneath the surface to search for life. Getting the smaller Schiaparelli robot down ought to be the simpler affair.

Because there's no good way to answer this ethical dilemma. If there is no other choice, will a driverless car crash into a group of children running across the street or divert and potentially harm the driver? The answer, save the life of the passenger, according to Mercedes-Benz's manager of driver assistance systems and active safety. Editor's note: After this article went life, Daimler, Mercedes-Benz's parent company, had several things they'd like to add. First, it says the company is focused "on completely avoiding dilemma situations" and has never made an official decision on the topic.

British AI talent is about to be given a boost after Founders Factory, a company specialising in growing startups, announced today that it will receive a "multimillion pound" investment from a top Chinese private equity firm. CSC Group is one of China's largest private equity firms, specialises in tech investment, and has previously pumped 400m into AngelList, an US startup accelerator. Now, the firm is turning its attention to the UK. CSC has agreed to a five-year deal with Founders Factory to invest in and scale five AI startups and co-create two new companies every year. "The partnership will build a bridge between AI talent in Europe and China; giving Founders Factory startups access to the Chinese market and Chinese talent the opportunity to enter the European tech ecosystem," Founders Factory said.

Analysis Research in AI is expanding quickly, and the UK and US governments have begun to notice. Official reports about the new technology and future strategies were dropped by both governments this month. Blighty's Science and Technology Committee released Robotics and Artificial Intelligence, while the White House delivered Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence and National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan. The titles of the British and American reports provide a clue as to how both governments are responding. There is no "preparing" or "strategic plan" in the UK's reports.