Human beings have a love-hate relationship with automation. Some of the time we love it, and the rest of the time we absolutely hate it -- without much daylight in between. We love DVRs, learning thermostats, and Dollar Shave Club. We hate subscriptions we don't want, memberships we don't use, and meaningless auto-reply emails. Some of the biggest names in tech are coming to TNW Conference in Amsterdam this May.

Every month, nearly 20% of the country gets a Social Security check. What if that number were 100%? What if the government gave everyone an income? Its popularity last peaked in the 1970s and now, after a relatively dormant few decades, it's making a comeback. Pilot projects have been announced in Finland, the Netherlands, and Canada.

There's a question at the heart of the Uncharted games that the latest title, released to great acclaim this month, tackles most directly: is the dashing lead protagonist, Nathan Drake, a hero or a thief? The continuing success of Naughty Dog's action-adventure series, along with the resurgent Tomb Raider games, shows that the "adventuring archaeologist" trope is a resilient one. The modern precursor of both Nathan Drake and Lara Croft is of course Indiana Jones, who retains a vice-like grip over the public imagination. But Jones represents an archetype that stretches back much further, of course; his true inspiration can be traced beyond the 1950s movie matinee serials and pulp comics that inspired George Lucas and Steven Spielberg, and toward the great colonial fantasies of King Solomon's Mines, The Lost World and the Boy's Own magazines. There are even older precedents: Egyptian literature from the first century CE introduces Setna – a prince who raids tombs in search of a magical book.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Self-driving cars are expected to usher in a new era of mobility, safety and convenience, but they could also lead to more traffic jams. The problem is that too many people will use the technology when it becomes widely available, according to transport researchers. Experts foresee robot cars chauffeuring children to school, dance class and baseball practice. The disabled and elderly will have new mobility. Self-driving cars will give commuters a new freedom as they travel to the office, but they could also lead to more vehicles on the road, according to transport experts.

In Little Britain, the world-weary character Carol Beer responds to all customer enquiries by clacking into her PC keyboard, glancing at the results shown on screen, and nasally intoning: "Computer says, 'no'". It does however severely underplay the current real-world situation. In reality the computer often says'no' these days without any need for a Carol Beer to input data or to even speak to the customer. Small computer programmes are used to cut out the middle-human. The chances are that if you were to apply for a loan or a credit card online today, behind the scenes a computer is working its way through an algorithm, whirring away in a split-second to decide whether your application will be successful by classifying you as'low risk' (computer says, 'yes') or as'high risk' (computer says, 'no').

Man Group is changing the focus of an Oxford University department it funds to machine learning. Investors have been urged to reject its pay plans later this month. City Talk: Barratt Developments sees strong market, Compass profit rises, Experian plans share buyback. Bank league tables can be a surprisingly thorny issue. Cut the right way, anyone can be number one.

Accenture has announced a new business unit in partnership with IPsoft focused on spurring adoption of artificial intelligence in the enterprise. The systems integration and outsourcing giant plans to use IPsoft's Amelia AI platform as the core of the new Accenture Amelia practice. Amelia is similar to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, but is touted as more expressive and capable of empathy than her AI peers. Accenture said it will develop a suite of go-to-market strategies and consulting services based off of the Amelia platform. As Accenture CTO Paul Daugherty explained, the point is to appeal to executives who "are overwhelmed by the plethora of technologies and many products that are advertising AI or Cognitive capabilities".

A company owned by Google has been given access to the healthcare data of up to 1.6 million patients from three hospitals run by a major London NHS Trust. DeepMind, the tech giant's London-based company most famous for its innovative use of artificial intelligence, is being provided with the patient information as part of an agreement with the Royal Free NHS trust, which runs the Barnet, Chase Farm and Royal Free hospitals. It includes information about people who are HIV-positive as well as details of drug overdoses, abortions and patient data from the last five years, according to a report by the New Scientist. DeepMind announced in February that it was developing a software in partnership with NHS hospitals to alert staff to patients at risk of deterioration and death through kidney failure. The technology, which is run through a smartphone app, has the support of Lord Darzi, a surgeon and former health minister who is director of the Institute of Global Health Innovation at Imperial College London.

Which will win out – robots or human beings? This is a highly topical question. The South Koreans, and many more millions of curious people worldwide, became obsessed with this issue when a match was played between a professional Go player named Lee Se-Dol, and AlphaGo, a computer programme developed by Google subsidiary DeepMind. The match resulted in a 4-1 victory for the machine over the Korean star player. Given that Go was one of the last bastions of the games world to hold out against the learning and analysis techniques employed by cutting-edge computers, this defeat basically symbolises the considerable progress made by deep learning.