I got my double espresso, going to my office to check on my emails, messages, new data charts on my screen walls, remote and close friends pics, and bills to pay... Happy to see you again. What would you like to do today? Taras: You know: pay the bills, scan the news, check on new friends and past foes pics, my investments, finish my double espresso, take Buddy for a run. Then see what wify and kids want to do for the rest of the day when they wake up. Cortana: I took care of the phones, gas, electrical, internet and all the entertainment bills last night.

A robot that can decide whether or not to inflict pain has been built by roboticist and artist Alexander Reben from the University of Berkeley, California. The basic machine is capable of pricking a finger but is programmed not to do so every time it can. Mr Reben has nicknamed it "The First Law" after a set of rules devised by sci-fi author Isaac Asimov. He said he hoped it would further debate about Artificial Intelligence. "The real concern about AI is that it gets out of control," he said.

Since Alan Turing, the father of AI, first proposed it in a 1950 paper, the Turing Test, which measures whether a computer can fool a human into thinking it's real, has been a classic measure of whether an artificial intelligence system is successful. And, according to a new paperreleased Monday that will be presented in June at the annual conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (CVPR) in Las Vegas, MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has now crossed a new threshold: Passing the Turing Test for sound. How the'PayPal Mafia' redefined success in Silicon Valley A decade ago, the PayPal Mafia played a major role in revitalizing the tech industry in Silicon Valley. The story behind this group of leaders proves that their success is more than just luck. Back in December, MIT researchers created an AI system that passed the Turing Test for vision by fooling humans into thinking that characters were written by humans rather than a machine.

In the garden of London's Victoria & Albert Museum stands the Elytra Filament Pavilion, a 2,000-square-foot canopy named for--and designed after--a beetle's elytron, the insect's fibrous, double-layered forewings. In the months ahead, the structure will adapt and grow in response to the people who visit it. By looks alone, the pavilion is imposing. But its engineering is even more impressive. The modules weigh just 99 pounds apiece, putting the entire structure in the neighborhood of 5,400 pounds--or about the same weight as just 21 square feet of the museum's stone facade.

SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - A housing boom in China's wannabe "Silicon Valley" of Shenzhen risks undermining the city's tech boom as young professionals consider moving out to avoid the highest residential prices in the country. In the space of four decades, Shenzhen has transformed itself from a fishing village into a manufacturing center and now a tech hub - attracting top firms and young talent in sectors including technology, advertising and design. But a property frenzy, which has driven prices up by 580 percent in the past 10 years, is beginning to weigh on the city's competitiveness, tech firms, professionals, industry groups and officials say, just as it strives to develop new economic drivers and pull away from old-economy manufacturing. The tech hub has drawn some of China's top names including internet giant Tencent and telecoms firm Huawei, plus emerging new leaders such as DJI, the world's biggest commercial drone maker, and gene mapping company BGI. If these firms and those that are part of the tech-hub's ecosystem of startups struggle to attract talent because of high housing costs, they could start to doubt if Shenzhen is the right location for their operations.

SANAA, YEMEN – Yemeni security officials say a suspected U.S. drone has killed three alleged al-Qaida fighters in an airstrike in the central Shabwa province. The officials said Monday that the overnight attack hit the men's vehicle as they were traveling near the town of Haban. The officials also say that in the onetime al-Qaida stronghold of Mukalla, on Yemen's southern coast, Emirati and other troops from the Saudi-led coalition who are primarily fighting Yemen's anti-government Shiite rebels conducted raids on homes seeking al-Qaida operatives. They say some 150 were detained. Activists close to al-Qaida say the men were being tortured in prisons run by Emirati forces.

Despite the increasing amount of time people spend on their smartphones, the app market is in a lull. Facebook, Snapchat, Uber and other big-name apps get heaps of downloads. But most everyone else is seeing demand level off. That's why appmakers are excited about Apple's expected announcement at its Worldwide Developer's Conference on Monday that apps may integrate with virtual assistant Siri. This would allow developers to build software allowing iPhone users to, say, talk to Siri to request a ride, order their meals or shop.

Apple is set to unveil a new and improved Siri, the personal digital assistant, and widen its reach, to Mac computers and third-party apps. Apple will stage the Worldwide Developer's Conference at the Bill Graham Auditorium in San Francisco (Photo: Jefferson Graham) LOS ANGELES -- Monday, Apple gives a sneak peak at changes to its mobile IOS operating system and features for the Apple Watch and Apple TV. The event is WWDC, Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference, which attracts over 5,000 folks who make apps and software for Apple devices to hear the latest about where Apple is headed. USA TODAY will be covering WWDC, with reporters Edward C. Baig, Marco della Cava, Jon Swartz and myself, so be sure to stick with us for the latest. The keynote starts at 10 a.m.

A tree familiar to players of the computer game "Minecraft" could also be the tallest tree in the tropics, conservationists have found. Researchers spotted the enormous yellow meranti (Shorea faguetiana), extending 293.6 feet (89.5 meters) above the forest floor, on the northern part of the island of Borneo, where they were conducting reconnaissance flights to assess local biodiversity. Their discovery was described in an announcement published online June 8 by the University of Cambridge. "Yellow meranti" is also one of the sapling "species" available to Minecraft users in the game's "Forestry" modification pack, and it grows into a mahogany tree. But while Minecraft users can spawn an infinite number of trees and plant them in any biome, in the real world, the yellow meranti is threatened by habitat loss and is classified as endangered by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN.)

Although it tends look to the sky, Israel Aerospace Industries (IAI) came back down to Earth to develop RoBattle, an unmanned ground vehicle (UGV) that may soon be tasked with the type of risky missions typically assigned to foot soldiers. IAI's UGV is built to be maneuverable, dynamic, and tough. Six wheels with independent suspension enable RoBattle to scale obstacles, such as rubble and small walls, to access areas that would typically be out of reach for other robots. A modular robotic kit allows the machine to be modified and adapted with remote vehicle control, navigation, and real time mapping abilities, depending on its operational needs. RoBattle can operate independently or as support unit for convoy protection, decoy, ambush, attack, intelligence, surveillance, or armed reconnaissance, according to IAI.