Microsoft has officially made Project Malmo, its Minecraft-based artificial intelligence research platform, available to all through Github. The open-source system was previously only available to a small group of researchers. The system, which had until now only been open to a small group of computer scientists in private preview, is primarily designed to help researchers develop sophisticated, more general artificial intelligence, or AI, that can do things like learn, hold conversations, make decisions and complete complex tasks. Minecraft may seem an odd choice for studying artificial intelligence, but Microsoft notes that researchers involved in the private preview were keen on its "endless possibilities for collaboration and exploration" as an ideal testing ground for AI research. In addition, Microsoft notes that the public launch heralds the arrival of new tools to the platform, like the ability to run experiments at a much faster pace (called overclocking), that should be a boon to researchers.

There's nothing quite like a cold pint of beer to remind you that everything will be alright with the world - but what about a hoppy, alcoholic beverage that's been finely brewed by a booze-obsessed artificial intelligence? That's what the IntelligentX Brewing Company is offering with its new AI Beer. Yes, a brewery has designed a series of algorithms that actively improve its beer recipes over time - in fact, the company's Pale, Amber, Black and Golden varieties have been tweaked 11 times since the AI went live. So does an AI make a bottle of beer better? IntelligentX says it's all about using an online feedback system that uses questions ranked from one to 10 to determine customer responses to its products.

Just the sight of a juicy, red strawberry on a bright green stalk conjures up English summertime, Wimbledon and afternoon tea. And the market for British strawberries is growing. But if rules on who can come and work in the UK change following the vote to leave the European Union, who is going to pick them? To pick a ripe strawberry, you don't just yank it. The pickers at Langdon Manor Farm in Kent are astonishingly quick at it.

P.S. Send any tips to data@diamandis.com, What it is: British programmer Joshua Browder is a modern-day Robin Hood after a chatbot he programmed to challenge parking tickets has helped thousands of users appeal some 3 million worth of citations. DoNotPay asks you several questions about your violation and, if you might have a case, auto-generates an appeal for you to file. Business Insider reports that the bot has appealed over 250,000 parking tickets in London and New York with a 64% success rate. Why it's important: This Browder-built bot proves that AI-enabled chatbots aren't just for convenience -- they can also be used for social good.

From Harry Potter and Romeo and Juliet to the stories of Oedipus and Icarus, almost every tale told conforms to one of just six plots, researchers have claimed. A major new analysis of over 1,700 stories identified the core plots'which form the building blocks of complex narratives'. Researchers used complex data-mining to locate words linked to positive or negative emotion in each story to reveal the set of arcs. A major new analysis of over 1,700 stories identified the core plots'which form the building blocks of complex narratives'. Shown, the plot of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, which researchers found has the'rise, fall rise' plot.

Google's artificial intelligence division, DeepMind, has teamed up with a hospital in England on a research project that could lead to detecting vision loss and other eye problems sooner, Popular Mechanics writes. The article says the project calls for giving DeepMind's computer more than a million anonymous eye scans to let it learn patterns and make predictions. DeepMind's idea is to train AI to detect early signs of age-related macular degeneration as well as vision loss related to diabetes.

Scientists are closer to creating a computer with emotions. Researchers in Russia are expected to reveal an emotional computer within a year and a half, which will be able to think like a person and build up trust, its creators say. The system, called'Virtual Actor', is being created by the National Research Nuclear University in Moscow. Computers are machines used for practical reasons, without any emotion involved. The AI, called'Virtual Actor', is expected to be online within the next year and a half.

Project Malmö is a platform for Artificial Intelligence experimentation and research built on top of Minecraft. We aim to inspire a new generation of research into challenging new problems presented by this unique environment. Launch Minecraft with our Mod installed. This is also available in the readme.html in the release zip. If you want to build from source then see the build instructions for your OS: Windows, Linux, MacOSX.

As the convoy traveled down Interstate 69, regular Michigan motorists might have not believed they were driving next to the future of warfare. But for all their humdrum khaki looks, these were platooning, semi-autonomous army trucks, moving as one organism. Late last month, the army dropped these four beta trucks into real Michigan traffic, with human drivers aboard as backups. Over seven miles, the vehicles used cameras and LIDAR to watch the road. They used dedicated short-range radio, also known as vehicle-to-vehicle communication, to chat with each other and even with infrastructure Michigan's DOT installed for the purpose, getting advance notice of things like changing speed limits and closed lanes ahead.

In this still image from video provided by NBC DFW, police officers salute their fallen peers outside Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where several officers were transported after shootings at a protest late Thursday, July 7, 2016. Five Dallas police officers were fatally shot and seven others wounded during a protest over the deaths of black men killed by police this week in Louisiana and Minnesota. It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. In this still image from video provided by NBC DFW, police officers salute their fallen peers outside Parkland Memorial Hospital in Dallas, where several officers were transported after shootings at a protest late Thursday, July 7, 2016. Five Dallas police officers were fatally shot and seven others wounded during a protest over the deaths of black men killed by police this week in Louisiana and Minnesota. It was the deadliest day for U.S. law enforcement since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. John Fife hands a police officer guarding Jack Evans Police Headquarters a rose in Dallas on Friday July 8, 2016. Snipers opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas during protests over two recent fatal police shootings of black men. Investigators leave the home of Micah Xavier Johnson in the Dallas suburb of Mesquite, Texas, Friday, July 8, 2016. A Texas law enforcement official identified Johnson, 25, as the sniper who opened fire on police officers in the heart of Dallas during protests over two recent fatal police shootings of black men. Dallas police respond after shots were fired during a protest over recent fatal shootings by police in Louisiana and Minnesota, Thursday, July 7, 2016, in Dallas. Snipers opened fire on police officers during protests; several officers were killed, police said.