David Marcus, who heads Facebook's Messenger platform, tells Jefferson Graham how automated chat bots can improve the shopping and customer service experience, on #TalkingTech. SAN FRANCISCO -- Clicking a buy button on a website is so 20th century. Now the next big thing is conversing with a computerized robot. Used by 900 million people, Messenger has a major new look and mission, thanks to former PayPal chief David Marcus, who left the payment giant in 2014 to transform Facebook's hugely popular Messenger app. This week, Marcus unveiled the next big move for Messenger.

Here's a point that's difficult to argue: Bacon is delicious. The fatty pig product is a favorite food for breakfast or otherwise among many (looking at you, hipsters). Housewares retailer Ginny's recently released an interactive map dubbed the "50 States of Bacon," which uses Instagram data to show which states enjoy bacon the most – and least. According to the map, based in part on an analysis of more than 33,000 Instagram photos in the U.S. featuring the tag #bacon, Hawaii loves it the least, while Nebraskans are the most bacon-obsessed. See your state's amount of bacon love by clicking here.

Five years ago, Ian Burkhart was left paralysed from the chest down after a diving accident. Today, he can pick up a coffee cup, swipe a credit card and even play air guitar - all by using the power of thought. The 24-year-old is the first person to be implanted with a brain chip that reads his mind, decodes the signals from his nerves and then uses the information to make muscles move. The milestone, reported in the journal Nature, spells hope for millions of paralysed people including victims of strokes. The doctors and engineers behind the breakthrough said: 'We think the sky is the limit.'

Nick Annetta, right, of Battelle, watches as Ian Burkhart, 24, plays a guitar video game using his paralyzed hand. A computer chip in Burkhart s brain reads his thoughts, decodes them, then sends signals to a sleeve on his arm, that allows him to move his hand. Six years ago, while swimming in the ocean surf, 24-year-old Ian Burkhart lost the ability to control his hands and legs. He dove under the surf, and the waves shoved him into a sandbar. But today, thanks to a computer chip implanted into the motor cortex of his brain that decodes his brain activity, he can move his fingers again.

Millions of people in the last year or so have bought microphones so that Amazon.com AMZN 1.58 % could listen in on them at home. And I just got more, built into new speakers called the Tap and the Echo Dot. Some day, Amazon could be embedded in appliances, listening all over your house. Why would you want that?

Salesforce's acquisition of an artificial intelligence startup this week will ultimately help customers wring more value from the data they've been collecting for years, according to Salesforce president and chief operating officer Keith Block. The business software giant bought MetaMind, a Palo Alto, Calif.-based company that sells natural language processing, computer vision, and database prediction tools, for an undisclosed amount. Computers running the appropriate software can use MetaMind's products to sift through reams of data and adapt its actions going forward based on what it learns. Late last year, Salesforce bought MinHash to bring AI to its marketing services; Microsoft msft bought fellow AI company SwiftKey; Intel intc bought Saffron AI; and IBM ibm simply can't stop talking about Watson, its cognitive computing (IBM-speak for AI) service. Additionally, Amazon is said to have bought Orbeus, although it hasn't publicly confirmed the acquisition.

Between the 25 heroes at launch, the five factions, three competitive modes, and nine story episodes, players that pick up Battleborn should have plenty to accomplish. While teaming up with up to five players, Battleborn heroes work to earn loot, level up through three types of progression, and save the last star from slipping into the void. It is no secret that Battleborn players will be able to take up arms against each other in the game's competitive modes; Incursion, Meltdown, and Capture. However, Battleborn also offers co-operative players a chance to do their part. Nine story missions, and another five post-launch, are infinitely repeatable for loot, experience, and accolades.

Toyota toyof will expand the footprint of its artificial intelligence and robotics research center by adding a third facility in Ann Arbor, Mich. Gill Pratt, CEO of the Toyota Research Institute, made the announcement on Thursday during his keynote speech at Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference in San Jose. The Ann Arbor facility will be located near the University of Michigan, where it will fund research in artificial intelligence, robotics, and materials science. Last year, the world's largest automaker said it would invest 1 billion over the next five years in a research center for artificial intelligence to be based in Palo Alto, Calif. The institute aims to bridge the gap between research in AI and robotics in order to bring this technology to market.

The impending western Sydney Zoo plans to use drones, robots, augmented reality, and whatever innovative technology that an upcoming hackathon at Western Sydney University will dream up. The hackathon is expected to attract more than academics and scientists, but also start-ups, business and industry professionals, and engineers. The partnership between the new zoo and the university could disrupt any current norm of what a zoo experience entails. Using Levi Stadium, the home of the 49ers, deep in the heart of Silicon Valley as the high-tech model, Don Wright, the manager of the university's Launch Pad program, believes that a visit to the new zoo should be "one of the most technologically advanced wildlife experiences in the world." First, they are considering the overall user experience from the moment visitors arrive at the zoo. "There is lots of focus on reducing queues, getting food to people faster, and using real-time data through the whole facility to deliver a better experience."

Yuuta Banda poses for a photo with OriHime, his robot avatar. When Yuuta Banda was just four years old, he suffered a car accident that left him paralyzed, connected to a respiratory machine, and confined to bed for life. But almost two decades later, he's been able to experience different places, and even find a job thanks to OriHime, his robot avatar. "At first I couldn't understand what was so great about OriHime, but I gradually learned through using it that [the robot] afforded people with a sense of presence," Banda told me in an email. "I felt a greater sense of satisfaction as I spoke with people in different places to me through the robot."