Californian researchers have established that an intimate caress of a humanoid robot can produce a physiological response in a human. They challenged volunteers with a robotic creature less than two feet high that possessed eyes, ears, torso, legs, arms and a voice – and a chat-up line rich in come-hither invitations. "Sometimes I'll ask you to touch my body and sometimes I'll ask you to point to my body," it told volunteers. It was found that a touch where the robot's buttocks or genitals would be produced a measurable response of arousal in the volunteer human, the scientists report. "Our work shows that robots are a new form of media that is particularly powerful. It shows that people respond to robots in a primitive, social way," said Jamy Li, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in California, who led the study.

Humans become aroused when touching robots in sensitive places, a new study has found. Far from seeing robots as just computers, humans can become physiologically aroused from touching a human-shaped robot in private places like their eyes and buttocks, the Stanford study found. The results could have huge consequences for the creation of robots in the future, such as ones that people live or even have sex with. It might also help people create "robot stand-ins", that allow people to touch others when actually being there isn't an option, the researchers said. Scientists have taken a leaf out of the script of The Martian by showing how easy it would be to grow your own veg on the Red Planet.

It might sound odd that Rwanda will have an established a drone network before the United States, but it makes sense for the country to deliver lifesaving cargo using drones. In developing nations, you often have to deal with unpaved -- or even lack of -- roads, heavy traffic, lack of access to transportation, among other things. With a drone network in place, a clinic can send a text message, and a drone could be there in 30 minutes if it's within 90 miles of the UAVs' homebase. That said, a startup called Flirtey recently made the first FAA-approved drone delivery in Nevada, so the industry is at least making some progress in the US. Rwanda plans to expand its drone network's capabilities to benefit the country's economy.

Facebook on Monday began using artificial intelligence to help people with visual impairments enjoy photos posted at the leading social network. Facebook introduced machine learning technology trained to recognize objects in pictures and then describe photos aloud. "As Facebook becomes an increasingly visual experience, we hope our new automatic alternative text technology will help the blind community experience Facebook the same way others enjoy it," said accessibility specialist Matt King. The feature was being tested on mobile devices powered by Apple iOS software and which have screen readers set to English. Facebook planned to expand the capability to devices with other kinds of operating systems and add more languages, according to King, who lost his vision as a US college student studying electrical engineering.

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Like projections about the effects of artificial intelligence, predictions about the impact of pervasive unemployment bifurcate in opposing directions. The darker scenarios involve rapid growth in income inequality that spurs riots and wars and mass migrations. The optimistic scenarios, which Diamandis considers more likely, depend on governments recognizing the necessity of redistributing wealth to some degree and perhaps implementing a minimum income for all citizens. If the most serious threat to both manufacturing and white-collar jobs comes not from China but from Silicon Valley, then much of political discourse shows the same local and linear thinking Diamandis wants to transcend.

In an effort to improve the social networking experience for users with visual impairments, Facebook has introduced a new feature in its iOS app to help them'see' photos. With the help of AI, the app automatically generates a description of each photo a user comes across. When they're using a screen reader on iOS, they'll be able to hear a list of items in the pictures, such as "Image may contain three people, smiling, outdoors." Get your company on stage at TNW Europe. The descriptions, called Automatic Alternative Text, are generated as image alt text.

Facebook today announced the launch of a feature called automatic alternative text. It's a big step forward in accessibility because it will allow people who use screen readers -- software that provides spoken descriptions of what's onscreen -- to receive summaries of what's contained in photos that people post on Facebook. Until this point, only the name of the person, the person's share text, and the word "photo" was declared by a screen reader's automated voice when a post with a photo appeared in the News Feed. Now, thanks to artificial intelligence (AI), certain people with disabilities will be able to get a better understanding of what their friends are trying to communicate. The new captions are short and at times so simple that they're poetic.

Throughout history, technological innovations have advanced and changed how people live, work and survive. First was the Agricultural Revolution, then Industrial Revolution, and now we are towards the end of the Digital Revolution. The Internet, mobile and smartphone industries are at the end of the technology adoption life cycle, having reached significant market penetration and maturity in developed nations. Scientists, researchers and pioneering venture capital investors are on the edge of creating the next major epoch in history, the Artificial Intelligence Revolution (or AIR, as an acronym). There are several factors contributing to the rise in advancements in Artificial Intelligence.

People love playing video games together, whether in the same room or remotely. I just saw a demonstration of how we might soon be able to play together in augmented reality, too. The demo was a treat because virtual reality and its cousin augmented reality--in which digital imagery is overlaid on your view of the real world--are still very isolating. You tend to use them while wearing a dopey-looking headset, and chances are that whatever digital imagery you're seeing, you're checking it out all alone. To start, we each picked one of four little avatars (all called Poly, short for "polygon") to hover near our shoulders; they looked like silvery robot heads glowing in different bright colors (mine was blue).