Very soon – by the end of the year, probably – you won't need to be on Facebook in order to talk to your friends on Facebook. Your Facebook avatar will dutifully wish people happy birthday, congratulate them on the new job, accept invitations, and send them jolly texts punctuated by your favourite emojis – all while you're asleep, or shopping, or undergoing major surgery. At an event called the TechCrunch Disrupt Hackathon held last weekend in New York, software developer Irene Chang unveiled a prototype artificial intelligence (AI) program called The Chat Bot Club, designed to take over all your Facebook Messenger communications when you can't be arsed dealing with them yourself. Chang's proof-of-concept is much more than a simple automated response system. Using IBM's powerful Watson natural language processing platform, The Chat Bot Club learns to imitate its user.

ECENT technological achievements and globalization have increased data acquisition capability in almost all corners of human activities, ranging from scientific and engineering endeavors such as genomics, medical imaging, remote sensing, economics and finance, and all the way to people's personal lives with the emergence of social media through the world wide web and mobile networks. The enormous growth of data creates daunting challenges, not only in finding out how to store and access the data, but more importantly, how to process and make sense of it. Also, since data collection is expensive, we are somehow obliged to make good use of the data at hand, so it is obvious that for further progress, the development of efficient algorithms for processing big data is very important. Big data is usually considered in terms of the number of observations n and the number of variables p measured on each observation. In many branches of science such as genetics and medical imaging, the number of variables is very large and is often much larger than the number of observations. This scenario is often denoted as p n.

While in Hollywood films hi-tech robots are portrayed as a threat, Chinese engineers might be able to change your mind. We take a closer look at the role artificial intelligence might play in the future RT LIVE http://rt.com/on-air Follow us on Twitter http://twitter.com/RT_com Follow us on Google http://plus.google.com/ RT (Russia Today) is a global news network broadcasting from Moscow and Washington studios.

Google it today and you'll see that the European Commission has turned up the heat in its long-running probe into anti-competitive behaviour by the web's most popular search engine. EC competition chief, Margrethe Vestager, issued formal objections alleging that Google abuses its dominant position in the market of "general internet search". In particular, the EC claims that Google artificially boosts its own products in returning Google comparison shopping results in its service "Google Shopping", even if those products aren't the best or cheapest – the "most relevant", as the Commission puts it – for consumers. Since taking office in November 2014, Vestager has made the Google inquiry a top priority, signalling a willingness to consider court battles and hefty fines if Google and other digital giants don't fall into line with European competition law. In this, she has displayed a distinct shift from her predecessor, Joaquín Almunia, whose multiple attempts to achieve private settlement with Google fell apart a year ago, before descending into a political and economic boxing match.

The Defense Department of the United States is reportedly seeking entrepreneurial Silicon Valley bigwigs to build out the future of defense with the help of artificial intelligence technology. Can artificial intelligence (AI) be used as a defense armor? Well, the Defense Department of the United States is reportedly seeking entrepreneurial Silicon Valley bigwigs to build out the future of defense with the help of AI technology. With the emergence of artificial intelligence, Washington has sought the expertise of Silicon Valley's technology leaders. In fact, U.S. Defense Secretary Ashton B. Carter visited the Valley for the fourth time to talk about the importance of incorporating artificial intelligence in America's warfare weapons, New York Times notes.

The computer screen in an autonomous prototype Continental Chrysler 300C sedan is seen during an event featuring numerous self-driving cars on Capitol Hill in Washington March 15, 2016. WASHINGTON -- Self-driving cars are expected to usher in a new era of mobility, safety and convenience. The problem, say transportation researchers, is that people will use them too much. Researchers believe the number of miles driven will skyrocket. It's less certain whether that will mean a corresponding surge in traffic congestion, but it's a clear possibility.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your dance-challenged Automaton bloggers. We'll also be posting a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next two months; here's what we have so far (send us your events!): Let us know if you have suggestions for next week, and enjoy today's videos. SNUMAX is a "multi-functional soft robot" developed by Seoul National University's Biorobotics Laboratory, which won the RoboSoft Grand Challenge this year. "Boomf is the noise a marshmallow makes when it falls through your letterbox and lands on your doormat."

LONDON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to the latest research study released by Technavio, the global industrial robotics market in the rubber and plastic industry is expected to record a CAGR of over 18% until 2020. This research report titled'Global Industrial Robotics Market in the Rubber and Plastic Industry 2016-2020', provides an in-depth analysis of market growth in terms of revenue and emerging market trends. To calculate the market size, the report considers the revenue generated primarily through the sales and services of various industrial robotics such as cartesian, articulated, and others for different applications in the rubber and plastic industry. "China accounted for about 25% of the overall production of plastics, followed by European countries that accounted for 20%. Key findings of this report show that the demand for plastics is anticipated to grow during the forecast period, and positively impact the market. Significant improvements in gripper technology, such as the development of Versaball by Empire Robotics for handling materials of any shape and size, is also slated to play a critical role in the expansion of robots in the rubber and plastic industry," said Bharath Kanniappan, one of Technavio's lead analysts for robotics research.

"Huge difference between a genuinely self-deprecating egoless comedic patter and one that is self-serving. And knowing you are very good at something and telling the world about it is not necessarily ego-driven - Roger Federer admits he is a great tennis player, Alan Partridge has no shame admitting his talents as a broadcaster. The world is a better place for both." "Whilst I totally disagree with requiring women to wear heels and make up, I have been encouraged not to wear heels by male colleagues who I tower over in flats. The comments have never been explicit but I think there is something of a double-standard going on.

Let's skip to the chase: Self-driving cars are going to be The Next Big Thing (tm). Here's how you can make big money from this revolution, no matter which carmaker or technology platform comes out on top. Since Alphabet started leading this futuristic idea out into the mainstream, the car industry itself has turned in that direction. Name a carmaker, and I bet the company has developed at least the embryo of a self-driving platform. You can already find traces of this upcoming revolution inside current cars, powering automatic parallel-parking systems or highway-speed autopilots.