In a first for mechanical man, scientists have revealed that humans get aroused by touching robots. Researchers at Stanford University studying the physiological impact of human-on-bot contact found that "touching areas perceived as private made the skin more moist." The team of scientists programmed a two-foot-tall robot -- part Michelin Man, part Wall-E -- to command four female and six male subjects to touch various parts of its body. Study participants wore finger sensors to measure arousal and reaction time. When asked to touch a neutral, easily accessible part of the body such as the hand, there was no marked response.

The annual Data Science Bowl hosted by Booz Allen Hamilton and Kaggle is based on the premise that crowdsourced solutions can be used to solve some of our world's most complex problems. This year, the focus was on heart health – an issue of critical importance worldwide. In the U.S. alone, one person is diagnosed with heart disease every 43 seconds. It typically takes 20 minutes to have an MRI analyzed and a diagnosis delivered. However, this year's Bowl managed to create an algorithm that allows your doctor to receive your results and prognosis in real-time.

AI or Artificial Intelligence recently made global news when an AI program beat a human opponent at GO (a Chinese board game). This win underscores the significant progress made in machine learning and the ability of a computer to model human logic. The game is so complex that up until this point experts had thought that it would take ten more years before a computer could beat humans at GO. Unbeknownst to many, Google is behind DeepMind, the company which built the AlphaGo computer program that won the game. Google is very public about their devotion to using machine learning in their products and services. With access to vast resources of data to draw upon, Google has become one of the biggest corporate sponsors of AI, investing heavily in it for videos, speech, translation and search.

Microsoft today announced that its Microsoft Translator app for iOS devices can now translate text and images from one language to another even when you're offline. The app already supported this functionality on Android, and the competing Google Translate for Android could work offline, too. But in this case, Microsoft has beat Google to the punch -- Google Translate currently works offline only on Android. "Until now, iPhone users needed an Internet connection if they wanted to translate on their mobile devices. Now, by downloading the Microsoft Translator app and the needed offline language packs, iOS users can get near online-quality translations even when they are not connected to the Internet. This means no expensive roaming charges or not being able to communicate when a data connection is spotty or unavailable," the Microsoft Translator team wrote in a blog post.

Microsoft today announced that its Microsoft Translator app for iOS devices can now translate text and images from one language to another even when you're offline. The app already supported this functionality on Android, and the competing Google Translate for Android could work offline, too. But in this case, Microsoft has beat Google to the punch -- Google Translate currently works offline only on Android. "Until now, iPhone users needed an Internet connection if they wanted to translate on their mobile devices. Now, by downloading the Microsoft Translator app and the needed offline language packs, iOS users can get near online-quality translations even when they are not connected to the Internet. This means no expensive roaming charges or not being able to communicate when a data connection is spotty or unavailable," the Microsoft Translator team wrote in a blog post.

Google is bringing its self-driving vehicles to Phoenix to see how the SUVs perform in Arizona's sweltering summer. Four of Google's self-driving vehicles are being driven around Phoenix this week, mapping portions of the metro area ahead of letting the cars loose. Google officials say they will begin having the cars drive in Chandler. "I'm honored that Google selected Chandler as the first city in Arizona to continue testing its self-driving cars project," said Chandler Mayor Jay Tibshraeny in a statement. "Google is a perfect fit; adding to our growing list of technology companies doing business in Chandler.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced the Messenger Platform at the F8 summit in San Francisco last year. This year he's expected to announce a "chat bot" store on Messenger. That is the question on many lips ahead of Facebook's annual software developer conference next week in San Francisco. Analysts expect Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to open up Messenger's platform to "chatbots" and launch an online store for them. TechCrunch reported Thursday that Facebook will help software developers build "chatbots."

As a data scientist and ex-statistician, I violate these rules (especially #1 - #3) almost daily. Indeed, that's part of what makes data science different from statistical science. Some theoretical research should be performed about the maximum yield obtainable with non-kosher estimates. This article compares model-free confidence intervals with classic ones. The difference is very small even when the number of observations is as low as 50.

WIRED Health 2016 takes place on 29 April in London. IBM's Watson supercomputer is perhaps best known for winning the gameshow Jeopardy, but its expertise is now being applied to healthcare Kyu Rhee will be speaking at WIRED Health 2016 on 29 April in London. From helping humans live longer to understanding the brain, WIRED Health will hear from the innovators transforming this critical sector. You might know IBM's Watson best for its victory on US game show Jeopardy!, or perhaps for its cookery prowess, or even the campaign to elect it to the US presidency. But IBM hopes that its supercomputer can also change the way doctors diagnose their patients, putting vast quantities of data at a physician's fingertips.

If you're the kind of person who really likes chatting with the mail carrier, Dispatch won't be your favorite startup. That's because the four-person South San Francisco company is working on technology that could replace postal workers, Instacart couriers, UPS and FedEx drivers, or anyone else who gets paid to bring you stuff. Instead, you might be dealing with a 3-foot-tall, 150-pound, battery-powered roving robot that looks like a little dumpster on wheels. Called Carry, the device uses artificial intelligence, five cameras and a laser to navigate on sidewalks around pedestrians, flaming hoverboards and any other obstacles to get packages to your door. The only places you'll find Carry today are on two California college campuses, where it's still being tested.