Farms of 3D printers are a potential solution to batch production, with some companies relying on numerous machines to 3D print a large group of parts at once. While they may increase output, print farms may also be labor intensive to operate. To demonstrate the overall utility of its cloud robotics platform, an Oregon startup called Tend.ai has deployed a robotic arm, artificial intelligence and cloud computing to create an automated print farm. Tend.ai has built what it suggests is a universal machine automation solution that combines a number of components into a cloud robotics platform. While the specific make and model of each piece of hardware is left up to the user, all one needs to get started with Tend.ai is a robotic arm, a webcam and a robotic gripper.

Additionally, the fraud detection and prevention programs that keep your bank account safe are also utilizing predictive analytics. The most sophisticated of these programs analyze your spending habits and compare each purchase against them. The purchases themselves also have fraudulence probability scores (a 1,000 online purchase paid to a company based in Timbuktu is more likely to be fraudulent than a 200 purchase at your local grocery store). If anything seems fishy, the bank sends you an alert to ensure your funds aren't compromised if fraud is, in fact, taking place.

We have been hearing predictions for decades of a takeover of the world by artificial intelligence. In 1957, Herbert A. Simon predicted that within 10 years a digital computer would be the world's chess champion. That didn't happen until 1996. And despite Marvin Minsky's 1970 prediction that "in from three to eight years we will have a machine with the general intelligence of an average human being," we still consider that a feat of science fiction. The pioneers of artificial intelligence were surely off on the timing, but they weren't wrong; AI is coming.

Snapbooks--the Thinking Ink Press take on chapbooks--are short books packed with page-turning stories. Join us at Kaleid Gallery in San Jose on Friday, June 24, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Marilyn and Anthony will read their work, and Keiko O'Leary will demonstrate and teach the art of hand-folding Instant Books from a single sheet of paper. You can also check out beautiful, original cover art created by local artist Sandi Billingsley for Thinking Ink Press. What: Launch party for Beyond the Fence and Sibling Rivalry When: Friday, June 24, 2016, from 7:00-9:00 p.m. Where: Kaleid Gallery 88 South Fourth Street, San Jose, CA, 95112, USA TEL: 1-408- 947-1785 Parking: Kaleid is located in downtown San Jose, on the street level of the Fourth Street parking garage (near the King Library). Garage parking costs 5 after 6:00 p.m. Street parking can be hard to find, but is free after 6:00 p.m. What Do I Need to Do?: Come to the party and bring friends!

This week, federal regulators rolled out new rules for unmanned flying vehicles, in a first step that helps pave the way for drones to start delivering packages to your door. But because of a federal no-fly zone, drones are prohibited in the D.C. area. So the nation's capital is finding a workaround. In a unanimous vote Thursday, the District of Columbia's city council gave the green light for an Estonian company to start testing its ground-based robot delivery technology right on the sidewalks. The move represents the first time ground-based drones have been approved for testing anywhere in the country, according to the company, Starship Technologies.

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your nebulous 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. Tend.ai makes "cloud robotics for machine tending" a reality. Our system uses artificial intelligence powered by cloud computing to read machines' displays and press machines' buttons just like a human would.

Violence is everywhere in video games, but sex is still strangely taboo. On the off chance that sexual content is featured in a game, it tends to be weird, completely isolated from the rest of the gameplay and devoid of intimacy. But who says sex in games can't also be richly rewarding and even educational? For Robert Yang, indie developer and educator at the New York University Game Center, sex in video games can be a good thing. Yang's games have gone viral for their sophisticated, but lighthearted, approach to what happens between consenting adults.

That's exactly what happened to 38-year-old Stéphanie Creignou, who unfortunately suffered injuries when the drone fell from the sky and crashed directly into her head. She's yet to get back to work, and as a result of her injuries, she was forced to cancel a vacation she had already planned with her husband. You can see it in the video footage captured by VTOL-X Drones, a professional drone provider that was, in an ironic turn of events, hired by event organizers to obtain aerial footage of the event. Drone operator Rosaire Turcotte is unsure of how he lost control of the drone or how the incident occurred. In an interview with VAT News, he attests that he has "zero explanation" and believes he "acted in the safest way possible."

Artificial intelligence may be the new face of medical diagnostics. For the first time, a flavor of A.I. called deep learning is being implemented in new ultrasound imaging equipment to aid in breast exams and help patients avoid unnecessary biopsies. A new feature in Samsung Medison's ultrasound system uses a deep-learning algorithm to make recommendations about whether a breast abnormality is benign or cancerous. The "S-Detect for Breast" feature is now included in an upgrade to the company's RS80A ultrasound system and is commercially available in parts of Europe, the Middle East and Korea and is pending FDA approval in the U.S., according to PR manager Doug Kim. Deep learning relies on large amounts of data to inform complex decision-making algorithms, has aided in everything from speech and image recognition software to pharmaceutical research.

Twitter is investing in machine learning with the 150 million acquisition of Magic Pony Technology, a London-based firm that developed machine learning techniques for visual processing. Calling machine learning "the core of everything we build at Twitter," CEO Jack Dorsey blogged that the buy builds on other investments his company has made: an acquisition of Madbits in July 2014 and Whetlab in June 2015. Machine learning makes it easier for Twitter users to create, share and discover "so that every time you open Twitter you're immersed in the most relevant news, stories, and events for you," he said. Magic Pony's team will join Twitter Cortex, a team of engineers, data scientists and machine learning researchers "dedicated to building a product in which people can easily find new experiences to share and participate in." Twitter has 310 monthly active users and 3,800 employees.