U.S. stocks inched higher Tuesday in another cautious day of trading as investors kept an eye on central banks in the U.S. and Japan. Healthcare and household goods companies led the way, while energy companies slipped. Major market indexes were higher all day but returned most of those gains at the close of trading. They rose just enough to cancel out Monday's small losses. Drug companies helped healthcare stocks make modest gains, while Exxon Mobil fell on reports that it's being investigated by securities regulators.

If you believe everything you read, you are probably quite worried about the prospect of a superintelligent, killer AI. The Guardian, a British newspaper, warned recently that "we're like children playing with a bomb," and a recent Newsweek headline reads, "Artificial Intelligence Is Coming, and It Could Wipe Us Out." Numerous such headlines, fueled by comments from as the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, are strongly influenced by the work of one man: professor Nick Bostrom, author of the philosophical treatise Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies. Bostrom is an Oxford philosopher, but quantitative assessment of risks is the province of actuarial science. He may be dubbed the world's first prominent "actuarial philosopher," though the term seems an oxymoron given that philosophy is an arena for conceptual arguments, and risk assessment is a data-driven statistical exercise. So what do the data say?

Cancer is like a computer virus and can be'solved' by cracking the code, according to Microsoft. The computer software company says its researchers are using artificial intelligence in a new healthcare initiative to target cancerous cells and eliminate the disease. One of the projects within this new healthcare enterprise involves utilizing machine learning and natural language processing to help lead researchers sift through all the research data available and come up with a treatment plan for individual cancer patients. IBM is working on something similar using a program called Watson Oncology, which analyzes patient health info against research data. Other Microsoft healthcare initiatives involve computer vision in radiology to note the progress of tumors over time and a project which Microsoft refers to as its "moonshot" aims to program biology like we program computers using code.

US consumers are getting more comfortable using mobile devices to manage their health, a new study finds. Even in the face of privacy concerns, Americans are increasingly sharing medical information, sending photos to their doctors, using fitness or activity trackers, and using AI to become active players in their healthcare. Ketchum conducted an online survey of 2,000 smartphone-owning Americans earlier this year, and found close to 58 percent of this group uses their phone to communicate with a medical professional. Almost half of respondents have a fitness, health or medication-tracking app, and 83 percent of people who use fitness or workout apps do so at least once per week. Of course, not everyone loves health apps – about a quarter of survey respondents said health and fitness tracking apps have made them feel bad, with 21 percent ending use of the apps.

Salesforce (CRM), the Customer Success Platform and world's #1 CRM company, today unveiled Salesforce Einstein, bringing the power of artificial intelligence to every Salesforce user. With Salesforce Einstein, any company will be able to deliver more predictive and personalized customer experiences across sales, service, marketing, commerce and more. Salesforce Einstein is a breakthrough innovation that embeds advanced AI capabilities in the Salesforce Platform--in fields, objects, workflows, components and more--so everyone will be able to build AI-powered apps that get smarter with every interaction, using clicks or code. "With Salesforce Einstein, we are delivering the world's smartest CRM," said Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO, Salesforce. "Einstein is now every customer's data scientist, making it easy for everyone to take advantage of best-in-class AI capabilities in the context of their business."

A new press release reports, "Today Tractica announced the launch of its new Artificial Intelligence Advisory Service, a subscription-based market research and analysis suite that provides independent and objective market intelligence and strategy insights for companies engaged in the rapidly evolving artificial intelligence (AI) market. As part of the service, Tractica's global industry analyst team provides strategic and quantitative analysis focused on the market opportunity for AI technologies in enterprise, consumer, and government markets." Managing director Clint Wheelock commented, "Artificial intelligence technologies are already beginning to have a disruptive effect on established business models across virtually every industry, while simultaneously enabling new business processes that were not previously possible… Rapid advances in AI technologies like deep learning, machine learning, computer vision, and natural language processing (NLP) are being enabled by more powerful hardware, sophisticated algorithms, and a virtually limitless ocean of data to analyze and interpret." The release goes on, "As part of its Artificial Intelligence service, Tractica's industry analysts offer timely and actionable market insights, covering specific technology and industry sectors as well as overall market conditions and trends. Research reports include an in-depth examination of AI business models, use cases, technology issues, and key industry players in addition to detailed market sizing, segmentation, and forecasts. Tractica's Artificial Intelligence Advisory Service examines use cases and business models for the application of artificial intelligence technologies in enterprise, consumer, and government markets."

If you believe everything you read, you are probably quite worried about the prospect of a superintelligent, killer AI. The Guardian, a British newspaper, warned recently that "we're like children playing with a bomb," and a recent Newsweek headline reads, "Artificial Intelligence Is Coming, and It Could Wipe Us Out." Numerous such headlines, fueled by comments from as the likes of Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, are strongly influenced by the work of one man: professor Nick Bostrom, author of the philosophical treatise Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, and Strategies. Bostrom is an Oxford philosopher, but quantitative assessment of risks is the province of actuarial science. He may be dubbed the world's first prominent "actuarial philosopher," though the term seems an oxymoron given that philosophy is an arena for conceptual arguments, and risk assessment is a data-driven statistical exercise. So what do the data say?

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Bounding around like an excitable puppy, this amazing four legged robot can open doors and even climb over fences by itself. The Ghost Minitaur can be programmed with a series of different gaits from bounding, trotting, and walking to something called pronking – the kind of four-legged spring seen in gazelles. The miniature robot, which measures just 1.3 feet long (40cm) – about the same as a small dog – has a top speed when running of just 4.5 mph. The team behind the Minitaur are currently selling them for around 10,000 a go but they hope to reduce the price as demand increases. The developers have used a series of direct drive electric motors and some custom electronics to allow the robot to move in a range of different ways.

Emotions can be detected remotely using a device that emits wireless signals to help it measure heartbeat and breathing, say researchers at MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. The new device, named "EQ-Radio," is 87 percent accurate at detecting whether a person is excited, happy, angry or sad--all without on-body sensors or facial-recognition software. "We picture EQ-Radio being used in entertainment, consumer behavior, and healthcare," says the study's lead researcher, Mingmin Zhao. "For example," says Zhao, a graduate student, "smart homes could use information about your emotions to adjust the music or even suggest that you get some fresh air if you've been sad for a few days." Zhao adds that remote emotion monitoring could eventually be used to diagnose or track conditions like depression and anxiety."