Robotic systems and unmanned vehicles are playing an ever-growing role in the US military - but don't expect to see Terminator-style droids striding across the battlefield just yet. A top Pentagon official on Wednesday gave a tantalizing peek into several projects that not long ago were the stuff of science fiction, including missile-dodging satellites, self-flying F-16 fighters and robot naval fleets. Though the Pentagon is not planning to build devices that can kill without human input, Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert Work hinted that could change if enemies with fewer qualms create such machines. 'We might be going up against a competitor that is more willing to delegate authority to machines than we are, and as that competition unfolds we will have to make decisions on how we best can compete,' he said. Work, who helps lead Pentagon efforts to ensure the US military keeps its technological edge, described several initiatives, including one dubbed'Loyal Wingman' that would see the Air Force convert an F-16 warplane into a semi-autonomous and unmanned fighter that flies alongside a manned F-35 jet.

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

David Shing, or simply'Shingy,' is well-known in technology circles. And for good reason, he's AOL's energetic and up-beat'Digital Prophet' – oft jetting around the world to talk about the future of technology. But how long will Shingy's (and other similar roles) survive? Not all that long perhaps, if McCann's hiring of an artificially intelligent creative director in its Japanese office is anything to go by. This year's edition of TNW Conference in Amsterdam includes some of the biggest names in tech.

On Leap Day this year, Dr Sue Black was sitting on the sofa when her partner presented her with a puzzle. It was his laptop screen, which showed an Enigma machine simulator containing an encrypted message asking her to marry him. On Leap Day this year, Dr Sue Black was sitting on the sofa when her partner presented her with a puzzle. Dr Black, author and computer scientist, is well known for founding the high profile campaign to save Bletchley Park, the central site for Britain's codebreakers during World War Two. She is a senior research associate at University College London.

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Volvo's North American CEO, Lex Kerssemakers, lost his cool as the automaker's semi-autonomous prototype sporadically refused to drive itself during a press event at the Los Angeles Auto Show. "It can't find the lane markings!" Kerssemakers griped to Mayor Eric Garcetti, who was at the wheel. "You need to paint the bloody roads here!" Shoddy infrastructure has become a roadblock to the development of self-driving cars, vexing engineers and adding time and cost.

CIOs believe industry convergence is the biggest trend on the horizon. Lines between industries are blurring, and new opportunities and threats are emerging, according to IBM's "The CIO Point of View." One of the greatest convergences is between technology giants and healthcare. As a trends analyst, I talk to many stakeholders, including leaders from technology giants, all of whom have designs on the future of health. While healthcare is trying to come up with standards, tech giants are creating their own ecosystems in health.

Facebook launched a concierge service called M through its Messenger app in 2015. M can purchase items, get gifts delivered, book restaurants, and make travel arrangements for the user. There is an element of the Mechanical Turk about it at the moment as it is powered by a combination of AI and real-life people. Siri has been around for a few years but has been upgraded in that time. It's now capable of showing the user specific photos he or she has taken, ordering things via ecommerce apps and giving directions.

Russian combat engineers arrived Thursday in Syria on a mission to clear mines in the ancient town of Palmyra, the military said. The Defense Ministry said the sapper units were airlifted to Syria with an array of equipment, including state-of-the art robotic devices, to defuse mines at the 2,000-year-old archaeological site. Russian television stations showed Il-76 transport planes carrying the engineers landing before dawn at the Russian air base in Syria. Sunday's recapture of Palmyra by Syrian troops under the cover of Russian airstrikes was an important victory over Islamic State extremists who operated a 10-month reign of terror there. Lt. Gen. Sergei Rudskoi of the military's General Staff said that Russian military advisers had helped plan and direct the Syrian army's operation to recapture Palmyra.

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

SAN FRANCISCO – Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella kicked off the company's Build developers conference with a vision of the future filled with chatbots, machine learning and artificial intelligence. "Bots are the new apps," said Nadella during a nearly three-hour keynote here that sketched a vision for the way humans will interact with machines. That's the world you're going to get to see in the years to come." Onstage demos hammered home those ideas. One involved a smartphone conversing with digital assistant Cortana about planning a trip to Ireland, which soon found Cortana bringing in a Westin Hotels chatbot that booked a room based on the contents of the chat.