When most people worry about computers taking over the future, they are more likely than not reacting to the sort of sci-fi doomsday scenario they see in movies like "The Terminator" or "The Matrix." For those who are unfamiliar, the plot for such a scenario involves human beings building computers that become self-aware and decide immediately to overthrow and enslave us. In reality, the real threat from our highly mechanized and smart machine dependent-world is much more nuanced, and arguably not a threat at all, so much as the natural evolution of a marketplace that may have a profound impact on consumers – and the workforce that serves them. There is no question but that automation has made life easier for consumers. Why visit a bank with a teller when you can go to an ATM, and why go to an ATM (unless you need cash) if you can do everything you need to on your phone or laptop?

If and when we finally encounter aliens, they probably won't look like little green men, or spiny insectoids. It's likely they won't be biological creatures at all, but rather, advanced robots that outstrip our intelligence in every conceivable way. While scores of philosophers, scientists and futurists have prophesied the rise of artificial intelligence and the impending singularity, most have restricted their predictions to Earth. Fewer thinkers--outside the realm of science fiction, that is--have considered the notion that artificial intelligence is already out there, and has been for eons. Susan Schneider, a professor of philosophy at the University of Connecticut, is one who has.

Our most powerful 21st-century technologies – robotics, genetic engineering, and nanotech – are threatening to make humans an endangered species. From the moment I became involved in the creation of new technologies, their ethical dimensions have concerned me, but it was only in the autumn of 1998 that I became anxiously aware of how great are the dangers facing us in the 21st century. I can date the onset of my unease to the day I met Ray Kurzweil, the deservedly famous inventor of the first reading machine for the blind and many other amazing things. This article has been reproduced in a new format and may be missing content or contain faulty links. Contact wiredlabs@wired.com to report an issue. Ray and I were both speakers at George Gilder's Telecosm conference, and I encountered him by chance in the bar of the hotel after both our sessions were over. I was sitting with John Searle, a Berkeley philosopher who studies consciousness. While we were talking, Ray approached and a ...

The beloved trio of Top Gear presenters is long gone, but another pillar of the BBC's most popular show endures: spectacular stunts in exotic locales, with cars that drill dimples into your cheeks. That explains why even in the, let's just say mixed reviews of the new crew's first episode, no one complained about the American's star turn. In a 10-minute segment, new host Matt LeBlanc took the dirt-spitting Ariel Nomad for a run through the Moroccan desert, dodging "villains" riding motorcycles, flying drones, and doing whatever it is you do with a paramotor. The 47,000 Nomad is the off-road sibling to the bonkers Atom, so it obviously struck the Top Gear guys as something "we can have a lot of fun with," says series producer Alex Renton. He's been with the show for 11 years and got the top job for this, its 23rd season. Putting LeBlanc behind the wheel brought a dose of comedy to an already silly car and the 30-person "traveling circus" that descended on Northern Africa for three days in February.

At Mobile Marketing we're proud to help tech companies showcase their cutting-edge solutions, whether it's on our website, in our magazine or at our Mobile Marketing Summits. Giving a platform to companies that are breaking new ground in their market brings audiences one step closer to the ideas and developments that will shape tomorrow. In that spirit, our Innovation Lab feature takes a step beyond the world of apps, ads and handsets with slightly bigger screens, in order to share some of the tech world's innovative ideas. They might be interesting, disruptive or just outright strange, but these are the stories that have caught our eye over the past week. South Korean Trains Get Bluetooth Pregnancy Alarm Pregnant passengers on the Busan-Gimhae Light Rail service in Busan, South Korea can now use a Bluetooth system to alert other passengers, ensuring that they can get a seat during rush hour and other busy periods.

The Henn Na hotel, or "Weird Hotel", has opened. The news is in all of around the world. It is the first establishment where robots attend to guests. It costs 66 euros to stay the night surrounded by androids who, although cannot make the bed, do not ask for a wage and can work without a break seven days a week, 24 hours a day. Henn Na is a good example of robot fever in Japan.

And the process it uses to color them isn't what you might expect. We've seen before how artificial intelligence is already on its way to beating humans at playing Go and giving dating advice, but now it seems like there's another area that machines will soon take us over in: colorizing old photographs. Waseda University recently showed off some old Japanese photos that have been fully-colorized by AI that learned the colorization process through analyzing large data sets full of categorized photos. That's the really cool part: the AI is coloring photos based on previous photos that are similar to it. The AI will color it similarly to other birthday photos.

While Gupta might have been relieved that he was not taken to task by his stern coach at Prepathon, an online test prep startup founded in September 2015, what he didn't know was that the person he was chatting with on the Prepathon app was not his coach but a bot! Millennials -- those born between 1980 and 2000 -- are texting more and talking less. And millennials matter because they will account for 40% of all consumers in the US by 2020, as projected by Goldman Sachs. While Jaiswal might be content with one chatbot, others want multiple bots. Aarti Gill is one of them. The cofounder of FitCircle, a chat-based health and fitness platform, boasts 32,000 bot users.

Futurists and science fiction authors often give us overly grim visions of the future, especially when it comes to the Singularity and the risks of artificial superintelligence. Scifi novelist David Brin talked to us about why these dire predictions are often simplistic and unreasonable. Our civilisation faces no shortage of risks in the foreseeable future, from the devastating effects of climate change to the myriad number of technological hazards set to appear in the near future. Among these existential threats, perhaps none is more frightening than the prospect of artificial superintelligence. Its advent could knock us from our perch, forever delegating us to a secondary role, or worse, complete irrelevance.

NORTH CHARLESTON, SC--Saying it had been mulling over the "fun little side project" for a while, an Electroimpact Quadbot reportedly put in some extra work after hours at the Boeing assembly plant Wednesday to try out a few of its own original designs. "It's just something I like to tinker around with after I wrap up all my regular tasks for the day--plus, nobody here seems to mind since they were planning to throw out most of the scraps I use anyway," said the four-armed, 30,000-pound robot, adding that the uninterrupted quiet time allowed it to experiment with various techniques and contemplate design problems more clearly and creatively than it could during business hours. "It's a nice way to unwind after a 19-hour shift of drilling, applying sealant, and inserting fasteners into aft sections 47 and 48. Kind of helps me approach my craft in an unconventional way, you know?" The Quadbot added that it hadn't told any of its four identical coworkers about the project, instead preferring to surprise them once the prototype was fully functional.