Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) completed a discrete acquisition, last fall, when it took over Sunnyvale California-based artificial-intelligence (AI) startup Orbeus Inc. Bloomberg cites sources that claim that Amazon has absorbed almost all of Orbeus' workforce in its own teams though the financial terms of the acquisition deal remain undisclosed. Orbeus is known for applying machine-learning tools on image processing. Prior to its takeover by Amazon, Orbeus had an AI tool under development that could use neural networks to identify, and categorize the content in various images. Its customers were mostly developers, who could purchase its image-processing application programming interface (API) called, ReKognition. The startup also designed an Android and iOS app called, PhotoTime which helps tag photos instantly.

This smart cutlery could be a dieter's worst nightmare, or the weight loss tool you've been dreaming about. Spün claims to be the world's most intelligent utensil, using a combination of image recognition and motion sensing technology to measure food as users eat it. The device, which has an interchangeable stainless steel spoon or fork head, weighs each mouthful of food to calculate the calories and nutrients being eaten. Spün (pictured) claims to be the world's most intelligent utensil that is capable of tracking the calories and nutrients in each mouthful. The information is logged in a smartphone app, which can help dieters set goals and monitor their progress.

The machines are now making machines of their own, and there's no assembly required. Researchers in the US have developed 3D-printed robots containing solid and liquid parts which only need to be connected to a motor and power supply before they can scuttle off. By laying down all the components as it goes, the 3D printer can produce the robot's rigid support, flexible components and fluid filled channels as it builds up the layers. Researchers at MIT have developed a 3D printing technique for producing hydraulic components. The method makes it possible to print robots with hydraulic parts, simplifying the production process so even a novice can print their own robot. So far the team at Massachusetts Institute of Technology has printed a range of components, as well as a fully-printed six-legged bug-bot which can scuttle away on its rubbery limbs, and a soft gripper for picking up objects.

If you put water on the stove and heat it up, it will at first just get hotter and hotter. You may then conclude that heating water results only in hotter water. But at some point everything changes – the water starts to boil, turning from hot liquid into steam. Automation, driven by technological progress, has been increasing inexorably for the past several decades. Two schools of economic thinking have for many years been engaged in a debate about the potential effects of automation on jobs, employment and human activity: will new technology spawn mass unemployment, as the robots take jobs away from humans?

The subjects in the team's 26 trial runs showed signs of arousal when Nao asked them to touch its intimate areas. They even touched those parts more quickly, as if they were uncomfortable doing so. However, Li told Mashable that "it isn't necessarily sexual arousal," not when the subjects reacted similarly when Nao asked them to touch its eye. They didn't get "turned on" when it asked them to touch its more accessible parts, like its hands. "One way I thought about it is, the robot is talking like a person, it looks like a person and has social cues like a person [gesturing, looking at the subjects]. It's as if the robot is a teaching figure and asking a person to touch them in each of these parts as a way to interact... there could have been some awkwardness."

A photo snapped by Opportunity Friday (April 1) shows the six-wheeled robot's tracks in the foreground and a Martian twister off in the distance, perhaps giving viewers the impression that the rover is in full retreat from a tornado. But Opportunity is not making a run for it. For one thing, the twister is a dust devil, not a true tornado of the type that can wreak havoc here on Earth. And with a top speed of just 0.1 mph (0.16 km/h) -- and a minimum 8-minute round-trip communication delay between Opportunity and its handlers -- fleeing is never really an option for the rover. So, the newly released image is just a nice, and fortuitously captured, tableau of the Red Planet's 14-mile-wide (22 km) Endeavour Crater.

Facebook and Google are two of Silicon Valley's leaders in artificial intelligence. They have both invested heavily in AI, hiring loads of top researchers to develop projects like the Facebook Messenger "smart" assistant M, or Google's in-the-works AI-powered chatbot. While Facebook and Google are duking it out in international competitions, the two companies are far from alone in their efforts to dominate the space. Welcome to the AI Conspiracy: The'Canadian Mafia' Behind Tech's Latest Craze As for the rest of Silicon Valley, research firm CB Insights recently published a report on the AI investments the tech industry is making.

Teams from both organizations will soon move into what used to be a Stelco office building that's located in the downtown core. "We're re-inventing Hamilton through healthcare," said Dino Trevisani, president of IBM Canada, who is himself originally from Hamilton. "We're going to make this a centre of excellence in Canada and for the world." Trevisani spoke at a well-attended event, held at Hamilton Health Sciences, to publicize the announcement. Significantly, researchers at the new collaboration centre will be the first in Canada to make extensive use of IBM's Watson artificial intelligence software for healthcare.

Nvidia chief executive Jen-Hsun Huang said that deep-learning artificial intelligence has become a new computing platform, and the company is dealing with hundreds of startups in the space that plan to take advantage of the platform. Speaking at the GPUTech conference in San Jose, California, Huang noted that 5 billion was invested last year in A.I. startups, and there are probably a thousand companies working on the technology for applications ranging from face recognition to self-driving cars. "Deep learning is not an industry," he said. "Deep learning is going to be in every industry. Deep learning is going to be in every application."

CHIPMAKER Intel has scooped up Yogitech, an Internet of Things (IoT) startup that focuses on boosting the security credentials of chips used in robots, self-driving cars and other autonomous devices. Yogitech was founded in Italy in 2000, and works on "functional security" for semiconductors, an unexciting yet core part of the IoT as it ensures that connected devices are secure and functioning correctly. This is particularly important in areas such as autonomous and connected cars, as robust systems where electronics can harvest data on driving performance are needed to keep the systems working accurately and in real time. Having this functionality assured creates faith in the use of IoT devices that require people to surrender some aspect of control or rely on a network of smart devices to work together without significant management needs. Yogitech's focus in the IoT arena has been on advanced driver assistance systems, and robotic and autonomous machines for industrial and automotive use where functional safety is vital.