Parts of this essay by Andrew Smart are adapted from his book Beyond Zero And One (2015), published by OR Books. Machine intelligence is growing at an increasingly rapid pace. The leading minds on the cutting edge of AI research think that machines with human-level intelligence will likely be realized by the year 2100. Beyond this, artificial intelligences that far outstrip human intelligence would rapidly be created by the human-level AIs. This vastly superhuman AI will result from an "intelligence explosion."

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has just approved the first medical robot from Auris Surgical, a stealthy startup led by the co-founder of industry leader Intuitive Surgical, makers of the widely-used da Vinci robot. The teleoperated ARES robot (the acronym stands for Auris Robotic Endoscopy System), was cleared by the FDA at the end of May, and could now be used for diagnosing and treating patients. Auris, which describes itself only as a "technology company based in Silicon Valley," was previously thought to be working on a robotic microsurgical system designed to remove cataracts, and the company has in fact filed several patent applications along those lines. However, an investigation by IEEE Spectrum suggests that the company has greater ambitions, including, according to current and former employees, "building the next generation of surgical robots… capable of expanding the applicability of robotics to a broad spectrum of medical procedures." A close reading of recent patent applications filed by Auris scientists shows that the company is focusing on so-called endolumenal (or endoluminal) surgery.

United States will be an early leader in deploying autonomous vehicle technology, an effort that will eventually help put nearly 21 million self-driving cars on the world's roads by 2035, IHS Automotive predicts in a report released Tuesday.

Given the fact that a universal income – at anything but the stingiest level – would involve redistributing untold billions in taxation from rich to poor, this seems less like "socialism with an iPad", in McDonnell's phrase, and more like socialism plain and simple. Which is perhaps why Swiss voters gave the idea a gigantic raspberry in a referendum at the weekend. Experts are increasingly convinced that computers will soon be able to do many human jobs in less time and for less money – in other words, that the pace of technological change will outpace the labour market's ability to cope. The same factories in China that undercut the West with their low labour costs are already replacing those same workers with even cheaper robots; soon, middle-class professionals in Brighton or Boston could find that they are just as vulnerable to being given the P45 by their PC.

There is a new technology being tested for use on UK civilians en masse on our streets, millimetre microwave scanners. These electromagnetic radiation scanners, which use Ultra Wide Band (UWB) at 75-110 GHz, are able to be beamed at crowds to detect potential concealed weapons being carried by individuals. Using the same technology as the American airport TSA scanners, over which there has been much controversy in the level of detail these scanners reveal about an individual, MiRTLE, provided by Radio Physics Solutions (RPS) purports to use artificial intelligence (AI) to identify weapon shaped objects without the system revealing the human body image. Practically this would make sense, as a human operator seeing a crowd of people imaged by millimetre microwaves would not be able to effectively scan the crowd for weapon shaped objects or suicide vests. This technology is funded by us, to be used on us.

I'm Gwyn, your gift concierge, and I will help you pick the perfect gift." With this introduction, 1-800-Flowers.com is aligning the customer-centric traditions of its signature floral and gourmet gift delivery business with the emerging technology of the 21st century. GWYN, an acronym for Gifts When You Need, is an artificial intelligence (AI) engine based on the IBM Watson-powered Fluid Expert Personal Shopper (XPS) digital commerce platform, and her customer service skills add a new page to the Carle Place, New York-based gifting empire's playbook. On the surface, the concept is straightforward. GWYN (or more informally, Gwyn) is an online representative, or virtual concierge. She--and the AI definitely identifies as female--is designed to mimic natural language and assist customers in navigating through the products available at 1-800-Flowers.com. GWYN can make suggestions, answer questions and help complete a purchase. Of course, it's not easy to make tech look this effortless. To that end, she uses a rather intricate question analysis API. "We developed GYWN as another way to create a great customer experience," Dave Taiclet, president of 1-800-Flowers.com's Gourmet Food Group, told Retail Dive. "When people want to give a gift, there's a lot of ways they go about it.

Don't be surprised if you see a very large, very unusual drone flying through Nevada's skies. The state's Institute for Autonomous Systems has given China's EHang permission to test fly its passenger-toting 184 drone later this year. In addition to providing basic clearance, the move will also have the Institute create criteria that shows the airworthiness of the autonomous single-seater to the Federal Aviation Administration. It's not certain just where the 184 will fly, although it'll sometimes need restricted airspace. EHang won't just be flying in the empty desert, then.

Travis Kalanick, Founder and CEO of Uber, delivers a speech at the Institute of Directors Convention at the Royal Albert Hall, Central London, Britain, 03 October 2014. Uber may be increasing its testing of self-driving cars, but it still has plenty of work to do to keep its human drivers happy. The ride-sharing leader announced a host of new initiatives that are sure to please drivers, giving them more control over the rides they drive. The moves, which the company started rolling out this week, run the gamut in improving the Uber driving experience. One new feature allows Uber drivers to pause new requests from coming in while they are finishing a route, while a second lets drivers set a "driver destination," or letting a driver twice a day input where they want to go and matching them only with riders on that route.

One of the lesser-known projects being pursued by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the development of software that learns automatically to find patterns in scientific data. Now, the project could get its computer hardware from an oddly familiar source: the agency's former chief, Dan Goldin, who founded a startup making chips to do those kinds of tasks. The company, KnuEdge, has modeled its computer chip on the human brain in an attempt to better handle programs that fall under the umbrella of machine learning. The new chip could be plugged into data centers to teach itself such jobs as sorting images, understanding language, and following trends in streams of data. Goldin founded the company in 2005, keeping its operations secret until he revealed the new chip on Monday morning, along with voice recognition software that excels in noisy environments.

Cows and robots go together. Throw in facial recognition software, and it's the perfect trifecta. This is because cows are happier when they are not around people, since they identify humans as predators. Using facial recognition software to count a herd, or signal when a cow is sick or injured or not eating, is another way to keep humans out of the pastures as much as possible and keep cows happier and more productive. "No prey animal never wants to see a predator. The less they see the happier they are. A cow doesn't know what a robot is, so they aren't scared of it," said David Hunt, co-founder of Cainthus, a company digitizing agricultural practices, speaking at an Alltech conference in Lexington, Ky.