Google's gumdrop-shaped autonomous car looks like something you'd see in a Pixar movie, a cute and cuddly machine that makes the future look fun--until it ambushes you in a crosswalk, traps you like a fly in a web, and whisks you away. That horrific scenario comes to mind reading Google's recently approved patent for what amounts to slathering its cars in glue. To be fair, this has less to do with collecting humans than protecting them. Autonomous vehicles absolutely will reduce collisions and fatalities, but even the most ardent advocates concede one of them eventually will hit a pedestrian. Google engineers believe coating the front of a car with adhesive could prevent someone from bouncing onto the windshield, sliding under the wheels, or flying into the air and landing in the road.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said on Alphabet's Q1 earnings call: "In the long run, we will evolve in computing from a mobile-first to an AI-first world". This has prompted various speculation on what an AI-first world will look like. Pichai envisages that it will include "assistive" search, "especially on mobile," suggesting that artificial intelligence (AI) will be the platform for on-demand services accessed from any device – including smartphones. Dave Coplin, chief envisioning officer at Microsoft UK spoke at the AI Summit in London. He believes that AI first (AI as a platform) will "change how people relate to tech and to each other."

Spring may finally have arrived for artificial intelligence, Google executives said Friday. Speaking at the Google I/O developers conference in Mountain View, executives said that artificial intelligence and machine learning have advanced to the point where they are proving genuinely useful, through such technologies as speech recognition and language translation. But there remains great room for improvement. "We've seen extraordinary results in fields that hadn't really moved the needle for many years," said John Giannandrea, vice president of engineering for Google. "I think we're in an AI spring right now."

Lawyers, doctors and accountants may be redundant in 20 years after scientists have claimed their jobs will be taken over by robots . A study into the future of human employment has predicted a surge in machine-led work such as robotic counsellors, body part makers and virtual lawyers. This is bad news for those in the profession, who could see themselves out of a job due to highly-skilled artificial intelligence. The worrying research suggests that humans will be replaced because robots are able to produce better results. A report compiled by professor of management practice at London Business School, Lynda Gratton, and futurologist David A. Smith, looked at different sector jobs.

Google executives talk about the company's future in artificial intelligence. Whenever we talk about artificial intelligence, someone inevitably mentions Skynet, the destructive machine system in the Terminator movies. But we shouldn't be worried about a dystopian rise of the robots. Because we're so far away from anything that would even resemble that scenario, he said Friday at Google's I/O developer conference near the company's HQ in Mountain View, California. "I think researchers in the field don't really put much thought into that," he said.

This week's gaming news is only suitable for the comically rich. Preorder tickets to the Assassin's Creed film for 1,200, preorder OmniBus and get a real bus, and Croteam announced Talos Principle 2. Okay, that last one is fine for not-so-rich people too, as long as pondering philosophy won't throw you into an existential crisis. It's time for another iteration of "Raise money for The International," with Valve's special guest: The Compendium. For the unaware: The International is Valve's big annual Dota 2 tournament, and The Compendium is a Dota 2 item that ties into viewing the tournament in a few major ways, gives players some items, and--key to the whole thing--helps fund the prize pool for the winning teams. Last year's prize pool topped 18 million.

The rise of artificial intelligence could have a more anticlimactic outcome than most doomsday films would have you expect. Rather than being violently wiped out by robotic beings, humankind may become'eternally useless' due to the increasing capabilities of AI. This is according to bestselling author Yuval Noah Harari, who explores bleak future of humanity and'the rise of the useless class' in his upcoming novel Homo Deus: A Brief History of Tomorrow. The rise of artificial intelligence could have a more anticlimactic outcome than most doomsday films would have you expect. Rather than being violently wiped out by robotic beings, the increasing capabilities of AI may instead render humankind'eternally useless.'

YOU may not know it yet, but you're getting a new secretary. Someone to tackle the drudgery of everyday life like booking restaurants, checking the weather and responding to your messages. And the tech world is locked in a battle to build it for you. Google is the latest company to throw its hat into the ring. Last week, at its annual keynote event Google I/O, the firm revealed its new artificially intelligent assistant.

From movie shoots to search-and-rescue operations to your neighborhood park, drones are everywhere. This week, the Federal Aviation Administration released data revealing the exact whereabouts of the country's registered drones. Among the findings: Los Angeles County is the drone capital of America, with 12,250 registered drones. In second place is Arizona's Maricopa County, home to a number of Phoenix-based aerial photography companies. Looking at the data from a per capita perspective, Hinsdale County, Colorado wins out, with 5.2 drones for every 1,000 people.

We are very excited with all the positive feedback about BigML's latest release. It was a huge milestone to announce WhizzML, the very first domain-specific language for automating Machine Learning workflows, implementing high-level Machine Learning algorithms, and sharing them with others is now publicly available. Thanks to everyone who attended. For those who couldn't make it, we'll publish the video recording soon. More that ever, BigML is committed to its mission to make Machine Learning beautifully simple for everyone.