SAN DIEGO – The U.S. military is beginning tests of the world's largest unmanned surface vessel -- a self-driving, 132-foot (40-meter) ship designed to travel thousands of miles (kilometers) at sea without a single crew member on board. The so-called Sea Hunter has the potential to revolutionize not only the military's maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. Military officials showed off the ship in San Diego on Monday before it set sail to a nearby naval base where the testing will be conducted. The sleek, futuristic-looking steel-gray vessel was docked at a maritime terminal in the heart of San Diego's shipbuilding district, where TV crews filmed the robotic craft. No media access was given to the inside of the vessel.

The military is starting tests on the world's largest unmanned surface vessel -- a self-driving, 132-foot ship designed to travel thousands of miles out at sea without a single crew member on board. The so-called "Sea Hunter" has the potential to revolutionize not only the military's maritime operations but commercial shipping, according to military officials. Military officials showed off the ship in San Diego on Monday before it set off to a nearby Naval base where the testing will be conducted. The sleek, futuristic-looking steel-gray vessel was docked at a maritime terminal in the heart of San Diego's shipbuilding district, where TV crews filmed the robotic craft. No media access was given to the inside of the vessel.

China's state-run media has accused internet giant Baidu of putting profits before people following the death of a 21-year-old student who used its search engine to seek out ineffective treatment for cancer. Wei Zexi, from Shaanxi province, died on 12 April after undergoing expensive experimental treatment that he had learned about through the search engine of Baidu, China's answer to Google. On Monday, amid growing public anger, the Communist party's official mouthpiece, the People's Daily, attacked Baidu for allegedly promoting potentially dubious medical treatments in its search results in exchange for money. "There have been hospitals making profits at the cost of killing patients who were directed by false advertisements paid at a higher rank in search results," the newspaper claimed, adding: "With great power comes great responsibility... profit considerations shall not be placed over social responsibility." According to reports in the Chinese media, Wei died of synovial sarcoma, a rare form of soft tissue cancer that can affect a person's legs, arms or torso.

"You'll have learning machines that sense we're under attack," Work stated on Monday. "We already have it in the Aegis combat system. Work assured the conference that the US government would never allow Artificial Intelligence to have the power to fire nuclear missiles in any offensive capacity. "Machines [are] taking over from humans key decisions of when to launch both offensive and defensive missiles… In the next decade it's going to become clear when and where we will delegate authority to machines. We will delegate [some] authority to machines," Work explained.

If you were picturing a not-so-distant future populated by ever-helpful artificial intelligence eager to kowtow to your every whim in a split second--well, think again. "I need another day," said the AI developed within algorithm editor Grasshopper to create a dress for the New York socialite Lisa Maria Falcone to wear to tonight's Met Gala. Designer Zaldy Goco, Robert de Saint Phalle of Conduit Projects (an interdisciplinary design and consulting studio), and computational designers Nicholas Jacobson and Jared Friedman all looked on in dismay. But much like the other minds behind the red carpet confections on display tonight, AI does not like to be pushed. To use logic, computation, generative algorithms, and mathematical optimization--or, simply, its artificially intelligent brain--to solve for the meticulous coding and arrangement of thousands of mirrors in 24 sizes and four colorways atop a flat grid of patterned pieces.

Arjun Pratap is founder and Chief Executive Officer at EdGE Networks. Fueled by the vision to build innovative, future-focused HR technology solutions – which re-engineer Human Resource Management to positively impact business outcomes – Arjun leads EdGE Networks to be a disruptor in the skill development space. Prior to EdGE Networks, Arjun worked with organizations such as SpeedERA Networks and Akamai Technologies, where he was responsible for building their India and international businesses. He also headed the sales function at Dexler Information Solutions to provide strategic direction in building the company. Arjun holds a post graduate degree in Information Systems and International Business, from The University of Sydney, Australia.

Kim Kardashian West probably spoke for far more of her fellow Met Gala attendees on Monday than would care to admit it when she synopsized the look she was going for to an E! Entertainment reporter as, "Blingy, sexy robot." The theme of this year's gala, and the soon-to-open exhibition it's celebrating, is Manus x Machina: Fashion in an Age of Technology, and Kardashian West rose to the occasion with a body-hugging Balmain gown, silver in color and intricate of design. Husband Kanye also busted out the Balmain – in the form of a bedazzled-to-encrusted denim jacket worn with a pair of jeans with a gaping hole in the left knee. Others enlisting in the robot chic Balmain army for the evening included Jourdan Dunn, Cindy Crawford and Met Gala first-timer Kylie Jenner. Zayn Malik was one of the few men to do the robot thing, opting for a custom black Versace suit with molded metal arms that could have been borrowed from a suit of armor but for the Swarovski crystal and Versace Medusa head details. And while we're not sure who made the geometric silver patchwork and mirror-covered pantsuit beauty entrepreneur Julie Macklowe wore, it definitely gets our vote for most enthusiastic embrace of the cyber chic aesthetic (and an honorable mention for touching off a flurry of social media posts that paired her picture with C-3PO's).

Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have developed a new artificially intelligent system that crowdsources plots for interactive stories, which are popular in video games and let players choose different branching story options. With potentially limitless crowdsourced plot points, the system could allow for more creative stories and an easier method for interactive narrative generation. Current AI models for games have a limited number of scenarios, no matter what a player chooses. They depend on a dataset already programmed into a model by experts. Using the Georgia Tech approach, one might imagine a Star Wars game using online fan fiction to let the AI system generate countless paths for a player to take.

SAN FRANCSICO--Neural networks--artificial intelligence processing systems inspired by the human brain--are a hot topic in technology, as large companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft are developing them and putting them into use. Most neural network technology in place today runs on graphics processing units (GPUs) from Nvidia Corp. and others. EDA and intellectual property vendor Cadence Design Systems Inc. stepped into the fray on on Monday (May 2), rolling out a new version of its Tensilica Vision processing core optimized specifically for vision/deep learning applications. "Everybody is spending a lot of time developing a lot of research and producing a lot of technology," said Pulin Desai, director of product marketing for Cadence's Imaging/Vision Group, in an interview with EE Times. "The market is very hot. Maybe it's hot because everything is being run on GPUs."

Currently at this time, all participants are in a listen-only mode. Later, we will conduct the question-and-answer session and instructions will follow at that time. Also, as a reminder, this conference call is being recorded. I would now like to turn the call over to your host to Richard Morin. Thank you, and good evening, everyone. Earlier today, we issued a news release announcing Cognex's earnings for the first quarter of 2016, and we've also filed our quarterly report on Form 10-Q. For those of you who have not yet seen these materials, both are available on our website at www.cognex.com. They contain highly detailed information about our financial results. During tonight's call, we may use a non-GAAP financial measure, if we believe it is useful to investors, or if we believe it will help investors better understand our results or business trends. For your reference, you can see a reconciliation of certain items from GAAP to non-GAAP in Exhibit 2 of the earnings release. I'd like to emphasize that any forward-looking statements we made in the earnings release or any that we may make during this call are based upon information that we believe to be true as of today. Things often change and actual results may differ materially from those projected or anticipated. You should refer to the company's SEC filings, including our most recent Form 10-K, for a detailed list of these risk factors. Now, I'll turn the call over to Cognex's Chairman, Dr. Bob Shillman.