Even the smartest of intruders would struggle to slip past this security guard. Armed with lasers and infrared cameras, a new security robot is promising to take over the tedious task of patrolling buildings. RAMSEE can provide round-the-clock monitoring of an area by scanning its environment as it trundles through rooms, looking for motion, along with signs of fire, smoke and gas leaks. Lidar is a remote sensing technology that measures distance by shooting a laser at a target and analysing the light that is reflected back. The technology was developed in the early 1960s and uses laser imaging with radar technology that can calculate distances. It was first used in meteorology to measure clouds by the National Center for Atmospheric Research.

Machine Learning is one of the most exciting fields in the world. Every week we discover something new, something amazing, something revolutionary. It's incredible, but it can also be overwhelming. That's why we created This Week in Machine Learning! Each week we publish a curated list of Machine Learning stories as a resource to help you keep pace with all these exciting developments.

Google is extending its push into artificial intelligence with a new European research centre dedicated to advancing the technology. Based in Zurich, the team will focus on three areas - machine learning, natural language understanding and computer perception. Emmanuel Mogenet, who will head the unit, said much of the research would be on teaching machines common sense. There was, he said, "no limit on how big I grow the team". "We are very ambitious in terms of growth. The only limiting factor will be talent," he told journalists gathered in Zurich to hear more about Google's AI plans.

Driverless trucks will be safer and cheaper than their human-controlled counterparts, but that doesn't mean America's 3.5 million professional truck drivers are giving up to the machines without a fight. Across the US, truckers collectively haul more than 10bn tons of freight each year, but it's a tough job – the hours are long and lonely, the pay is low and the lifestyle is sedentary. "Picture the taxi drivers around the world acting in response to Uber," says Andy Stern, the former former president of the Service Employees International Union, referring to protests and violence that erupted in many cities as the 62.5bn Silicon Valley on-demand ride-hailing firm challenged conventional, regulated taxis. "Truck drivers will follow a similar pattern," says Stern. "There will be disruption in different places. You can imagine people ringing state capitals with their trucks."

Navid Khonsari wants to make honest video games. Not just games that say something about the world, but games that draw on real events and bring a documentary approach to an interactive experience. "The 1979 Iranian Revolution is a defining moment in the twentieth century," he says. "The rifts it started define what the Middle East is now and what the West is. The moral decisions: who do you protect, who don't you protect?"

Google's Zurich offices will now be home to a dedicated machine learning team. Google Translate, Google Photo Search, Google Smart Reply -- it made its name in search, but Google is becoming a global powerhouse in machine learning, and it's not stopping any time soon. The company that calls Mountain View, California, home is now getting a firmer foothold in Europe, announcing the opening of a new Google Research group, based out of the company's Zurich offices. The research group will be dedicated to machine learning (ML) and exploring how computer intelligence can be used to replicate processes performed quickly by the human brain. Think image recognition, understanding natural language and creating neural networks that can learn tasks and improve over time.

Whether you're reading this article on a smartphone, tablet or laptop, chances are the device in front of you contains components from at least six countries spanning three or more continents. Its sleek exterior belies the complicated and intricate set of internal parts that only a global supply chain can provide. Over the past century, finished products made in a single country have become increasingly hard to find as globalization -- weighted a term as it is -- has stretched supply chains to the ends of the Earth. Now, anything from planes, trains and automobiles to computers, cellphones and appliances can trace its hundreds of pieces to nearly as many companies around the world. And its assembly might take place in a different country still.

Opining about the future of AI at the recent Brilliant Minds event at Symposium Stockholm, Google Executive Chairman Eric Schmidt rejected warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the dangers of AI, saying, "In the case of Stephen Hawking, although a brilliant man, he's not a computer scientist. Elon is also a brilliant man, though he too is a physicist, not a computer scientist." This absurd dismissal of Musk and Hawking was in response to an absurd question about "the possibility of an artificial superintelligence trying to destroy mankind in the near future." Schmidt went on to say, "It's a movie. The state of the earth currently does not support any of these scenarios."

Artificial intelligence (AI) is here. If you are reading this post, some kind of AI has decided it's worth your while. On social media, algorithms learn to know you intimately. They study what you like and compare your interests to a huge pool of users. And almost magically, platforms like Instagram then shows you a selection of photographs you find surprisingly pretty.

Google announced this morning it's opening a dedicated machine learning research center in Europe, which will be based in its Zurich office. The center will focus on the development of products and research in the areas of Machine Intelligence. Specifically, says Google, it will research ways to improve machine learning infrastructure as well as how to put it into practical use. Researchers will also work with linguists to advance Natural Language Understanding – machines' ability to understand and process human language. Google's Zurich office was already home to a lot of activity in this area, the company notes.