Defecating ducks, talking busts, and mechanised Christs -- Jessica Riskin on the wonderful history of automata, machines built to mimic the processes of intelligent life. How old are the fields of robotics and artificial intelligence? Many might trace their origins to the mid-twentieth century, and the work of people such as Alan Turing, who wrote about the possibility of machine intelligence in the '40s and '50s, or the MIT engineer Norbert Wiener, a founder of cybernetics. But these fields have prehistories -- traditions of machines that imitate living and intelligent processes -- stretching back centuries and, depending how you count, even millennia. The word "robot" made its first appearance in a 1920 play by the Czech writer Karel?apek entitled R.U.R., for Rossum's Universal Robots.

Last year, he told Wall Street analysts that eBay looks at the world through listings, which unlike the catalog approach (used by Amazon, for example), are transient. They come and go and don't have "link equity," he said, "and they're hard to attach content to." One eBay executive referred to the initiative as "make or break" for eBay. Expertmaker founder and CEO Lars Hard will join as Director of Data Science and will report to Menipaz. Prior to founding Expertmaker, Hard was involved in founding a variety of startups with a focus in advanced AI, machine learning, math and big data, including Lytics.ai and Dragonfire Research.

The famous inventor and computer scientist Ray Kurzweil has made some very bold predictions about the pace at which human technology is advancing toward the ultimate threshold. That threshold is known as "The Singularity." That epithet is a metaphor borrowed from physics terminology to express the point at which information technology--specifically artificial intelligence--becomes sufficiently advanced as to irreversibly alter the course of history on earth. While The Singularity may be a familiar cautionary tale told by renowned thinkers such as Bill Gates, Carl Sagan, and Stephen Hawking, and artistically explored through the famous sci-trope of sentient robots, e.g. But that depends on how you choose to define doom, specifically.

To do this, from eBay they have the initiative structured data, which today receives an important boost by the acquisition of Expertmaker, Sweden-based company specializing in based on Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and analysis of large volumes solutions. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. As the operation is complete, Expertmaker employees will be part of the structured product data and technology eBay, where the founder and CEO of Expertmaker, hard Lars, joins as team manager. By way of context, Expertmaker is a member of eBay since 2010, where he is helping eBay recently with the aforementioned initiative. Otherwise how could both companies share the benefits of the acquisition, which from eBay believe that innovation and significant experience Expertmaker allowed to develop a better product catalog that can take clients, noting that its technology, experience and engineers play an important role in advancing the initiative of structured eBay data, while from Expertmaker feel happy to join the team of eBay offering capabilities artificial intelligence, machine learning and optimization technology on a large scale to the aforementioned initiative.

Neural networks have shown they can turn a standard photo into a work of art, mimicking the style of a famous artist. A team of German researchers has developed a way to apply distinct styles to any given video, to transform everything from Star Wars to Ice Age into a moving Picasso. The researchers introduced a temporal constraint that'penalized' deviation between two frames, meaning it considers the flow of the original video to preserve smooth transitions. In order to improve the method's consistency over larger periods of time, they incorporate long term motion estimates. They also developed a multi-pass algorithm to work around the'artefacts' created during style transfer.

Having a positive attitude could be evolutionarily advantageous, researchers have found. They created a series of algorithms to model how simulated humans coped. It found those who survived were more content, and valued long term happiness more that short terms gains. Cornell researchers created a series of algorithms to model how simulated humans coped. It found those who valued long term happiness more that short terms gains fared best.

The NHS shares patient data with 1,500 outside organisations including Google and doesn't ask first because it is'not practical', it was revealed today. Private firms including computer giants and consultancy agencies are among those who are being supplied with the confidential records. Only this week the Royal Free NHS Trust in London revealed that it had passed on medical files of up to 1.6million patients to a Google subsidiary to develop an app. This included highly personal details such as whether patients had been diagnosed with HIV, suffered from depression or had ever undergone an abortion. Under Government rules drawn up in 2013, staff do not have to obtain patients' prior consent as long as the information does not include names and is being used to improve care.

A fleet of drones has taken to the night sky for the biggest aerial display of the gadgets over US soil. Sporting an array of LEDs, the aerial army of 100 drones twinkled in the twilight as they flashed red, blue and white over the Californian desert. The display took place in Palm Springs earlier this year and was organised by computer microchip giant Intel. Sporting an array of LEDs, the aerial army of 100 drones twinkled in the twilight as they flashed red, blue and white over the Californian desert. The display took place in Palm Springs earlier this year and was organised by computer microchip giant Intel.

A pair of glasses that is able to'read' text and convert it into speech allowing blind and visually impaired people has been tested by scientists. The device looks like a small camera attached to the side of a pair of glasses. Using OCR - optical character reading - technology, the camera and tiny computer it contains can read printed materials. A pair of glasses (pictured) that is able to'read' text and convert it into speech allowing blind and visually impaired people has been tested by scientists. It is activated by pointing it at an object and pressing a trigger button.

Welcome aboard the Starship Comet – a virtual spaceship in the smartphone game Cosmic Cadet, which asks players to complete six levels of interstellar challenges in 30 minutes. The game may look and feel like Angry Birds, but it is testing more than your ability to swipe and aim. It is a psychometric assessment, which its creators believe will revolutionise the recruitment industry. Measuring cognitive processes such as resilience and problem-solving, the game collects data on how job candidates instinctively respond to given situations, thereby helping employers gain a better understanding of how they would perform in the role and whether they are a good fit for the company. Cosmic Cadet is one of three games available for iPhone and Android users.