Apple appears to be broadcasting eerie footage from inside of its own headquarters, hours before one of its biggest events in years. Tim Cook and other senior Apple staff are set to take to the stage in Apple's own Steve Jobs Theater later today, announcing the company's new products. Unlike previous events, it will not be releasing hardware or software, but instead showing off new subscription services that allow people access to films, TV and news. That event is set to be livestreamed through Apple's own website. And that video appears to have already begun: with strange footage from inside the theatre itself.

Many rumours have been circulating for Apple's'Show Time' event on 25 March, chief among them a new TV service and a premium news subscription. But a new report now suggests there may also be a gaming subscription service, allowing people to pay one flat fee and get access to a variety of games on their iPhones and iPads. The service could rival Google's recently announced Stadia platform as well as being part of Apple's broader plan to make more money from streaming service subscriptions. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

Apple is about to take to the stage in California and unveil its latest product. But there will be no moment where a laptop is pulled from an envelope or a phone from a pocket. Because its latest product in one sense doesn't exist physically at all. Instead, its newest announcements will be a series of services: subscription platforms that allow people to sign up to watch TV and films, read the news, and play games. We'll tell you what's true. You can form your own view.

Apple has unveiled the "Apple Card", a fully titanium credit card that is powered by the iPhone. The new release is an extension of Apple Pay, the company said, which allows people to pay with their device by adding their card into it. But they now be able to be issued their credit card by Apple, too. Though the card is largely virtual, people getting one will also be sent a physical card. It will be made of titanium and have the owner's name etched into it, Apple said.

Yes, Apple's new video-streaming service is set to be unveiled later today -- we'll be reporting from the frontlines in San Francisco at 10am PT/1pm ET. Meanwhile, you might have missed Honda's plans for EV cycles, Overwatch changes are actually having an effect on toxic players and we put NVIDIA's RTX ray tracing to the test. Honda is having fun with electric cars, but what about the motorcycle? Don't worry, you'll get your fix soon. The automaker has unveiled prototypes for both the CR Electric dirt bike (above) and the Benly Electric delivery scooter, offering a peek at how it will approach emissions-free transportation on two wheels.

At its streaming service event in Cupertino on Monday, Apple announced that in addition to more than 300 magazine titles (including TechCrunch) as part of its newly revealed News app, the company will also include subscriptions to the LA Times and Wall Street Journal. What's more, users will get access to the entire digital newsstand for $9.99 a year. Given that users would have to shell out more than $8,000 annually to acquire these magazines individually, that's a pretty good deal. Another interesting feature included in News is the app's recommendation engine. Unlike the recommendation algorithms you'd find on other streaming services like Netflix, News's feature runs on the device itself, rather than remotely on Apple's servers.

The history of AI is often told as the story of machines getting smarter over time. What's lost is the human element in the narrative, how intelligent machines are designed, trained, and powered by human minds and bodies. In this six-part series, we explore that human history of AI--how innovators, thinkers, workers, and sometimes hucksters have created algorithms that can replicate human thought and behavior (or at least appear to). While it can be exciting to be swept up by the idea of super-intelligent computers that have no need for human input, the true history of smart machines shows that our AI is only as good as we are. On 14 February 1946, journalists gathered at the Moore School of Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania to witness a public demonstration of one of the world's first general-purpose electronic digital computers: the Electronic Numerical Integrator and Computer (ENIAC).

GITAI is a robotics startup with offices in Japan and the United States that's developing tech to put humanoid telepresence robots in space to take over for astronauts. Today, GITAI is announcing a joint research agreement with JAXA (the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency) to see what it takes for robots to be useful in orbit, with the goal of substantially reducing the amount of money spent sending food and air up to those demanding humans on the International Space Station. It's also worth noting that GITAI has some new hires, including folks from the famous (and somewhat mysterious) Japanese bipedal robot company SCHAFT. A quick reminder about SCHAFT: The company was founded by members of the JSK Laboratory at the University of Tokyo in order to build a robot to compete in the DARPA Robotics Challenge Trials in 2013. SCHAFT won the DRC Trials by a substantial margin, scoring 27 points out of a possible 32, 7 more points than the second place team (IHMC).

"Becoming a software company is really hard," said Vijay Gurbaxani, founding director of the Center for Digital Transformation at the University of California, Irvine. However, failing to become a software company could be detrimental to the outlook of any business. It's important for enterprises to focus on making software work for their benefit, not against it, he said in the opening remarks at the Road to Reinvention conference. The wave of improvements in machine learning during the last few years have been amazing, but it's also opening a new era of relations between humans and software that cannot be ignored, Gurbaxani explained. "New knowledge is no longer going to be restricted to humans conceiving of theories," he said.

This copy is for your personal non-commercial use only. To order presentation-ready copies of Toronto Star content for distribution to colleagues, clients or customers, or inquire about permissions/licensing, please go to: www.TorontoStarReprints.com The University of Toronto has received its largest ever donation, a $100-million gift to further the school's research on artificial intelligence. The donation from the Gerald Schwartz and Heather Reisman Foundation will in part go to a new 750,000-square-foot complex to be built at the northeast corner of College St. and Queen's Park starting this fall, school President Meric Gertler announced at a Monday news conference. The money will also help launch the Schwartz-Reisman Institute for Technology and Society. Gertler said the gift will help spark Canadian innovation and examine how technology shapes people's lives.