The Republican National Convention already seems to have solidified its position as the most dramatic political event in recent memory -- and yes, that's saying a lot. From accusations of plagiarism to a speaker lineup that reads more like a who's who of reality television than the American political system, there's a lot to cover at the 2016 RNC. And at both the Washington Post and Buzzfeed, some of that coverage is coming from bots. While the two publications may seem like rather dissimilar outlets with disparate readerships, both seem to have recognized the value in utilizing bot technology to cover the highly buzzed-about convention. The Washington Post's bot will work with Twitter and Double Robotics, to provide a live stream of the goings-on in Cleveland by way of Periscope. Moreover, readers (or rather, viewers) will be able to ask questions about the convention through a Periscope chat.

Many people spend their childhood peering up into the vast expanse of the sky, dreaming of growing up to become an astronaut. But these dreams could be dashed as the idea of people venturing into space will one day become a distant memory, according to a report published today. Robots will eventually have enough capabilities to replace humans and other animals on space missions, experts have said. Robots will eventually have enough capabilities to replace humans and other animals on space missions, experts have said. Russia is planning to send robots to the ISS to do jobs that are too dangerous for astronauts.

A clash between European Union bureaucracy and artificial intelligence is a plot worthy of a cyberpunk thriller. It will take place in real life in 2018, once some European data protection laws, passed earlier this year, go into effect. And, though we might instinctively be tempted to endorse progress over regulation, the EU is on the side of the angels in this battle. The EU's General Data Protection Regulation and a separate directive contain provisions to protect people against decisions made automatically by algorithms. "The data subject shall have the right not to be subject to a decision based solely on automated processing, including profiling, which produces legal effects concerning him or her or similarly significantly affects him or her," is how the regulation puts it.

LONDON: As you're choking down your latest serving of Trump Clinton Brexit Racism Terrorism Wealth Gap Climate Change Casserole, you could use some good news. Let's start with The Inevitable, the new best-seller by Kevin Kelly, the founder of Wired magazine some 20 years ago and one of our wisest technological prognosticators. "This is the moment that folks in the future will look back at and say, 'Oh to have been alive and well back then!'" Kelly writes. "There has never been a better time with more opportunities, more openings, lower barriers, higher benefit/risk ratios, better returns, greater upside than now. In the mid-2010s, we're getting the first sneak peeks at a bouquet of technologies that can vastly improve the lives of most people on the planet and solve some of our hardest problems – even climate change.

As artificial intelligence and social robotics begin to replace tasks and jobs originally held by highly-trained humans we are entering the uncharted waters of the fourth industrial revolution, or "second machine age". The new machines are very much unlike their predecessors because of they are able to learn. They can thus evolve over time to become better and increase their performance. Optimists suggest that by taking over cognitive but labour-intensive chores the intelligent machines will free human workers to do more "creative" tasks; and by working side by side with us they will boost our imagination to achieve more, using their power for detail, ability to rapidly analyse massive data, and lack of psychological bias. But what is often missing from the current debate are the social and economic roles of companies as employers.

As headlines go, "Brexit leads to robot takeover" sounds like satire. It's up there with Brexit being "the opportunity to create a second Elizabethan Golden Age". Both have been written recently – but I would argue that the former may actually be true. Recessions force companies to make difficult choices to survive. One of the first places to cut costs is the wage bill.

After nearly four years of deployment, the Curiosity rover mission launched by NASA is reportedly making scientific decisions on its own with the help of AEGIS software. According to reports, the Martian explorer integrated with the Curiosity rover mission currently fetches few rock targets to collide with the laser on its ChemCam instrument with the assistance from AEGIS. Commenting on the discovery, a NASA spokesperson revealed that a new software upgrade codenamed as AEGIS enables the rover to make important decisions on its own. However, this transition happens when Mars is out of sync with Curiosity's platform at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and will deliver more data in less time. Furthermore, this is the first time a robot has been able to pick relevant science related targets on their own on any planetary mission.

BEIJING--Wang Peixin has seen the future, and he's sure it features robots serving up fried dumplings. On a recent day, a white robot wearing a flowered kerchief rolled across Mr. Wang's Together Restaurant, a plate of pork-and-water-chestnut dumplings upon its built-in tray. As it traveled, it played an upbeat pop tune. A trio of customers hummed along and whipped out their phones to film its journey. "Young people like to pursue what's new, and robots are a fashionable, modern style of service," said Mr. Wang, who owns the Together Restaurant in central Beijing.

NASA's Mars rover Curiosity now has the ability to decide what targets it wants to capture with a camera or hit with its laser all on its own. The space agency announced this week that using artificial intelligence (A.I.) software, developed by NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, the robotic rover is "frequently" choosing multiple targets per week all on its own. Most targets are still chosen by scientists curious about particular rocks or areas of soil they've seen in images that Curiosity has sent back to Earth, but the fact that the rover can make some of its own decisions about what to focus on adds a new, and important, capability to the mission. "This autonomy is particularly useful at times when getting the science team in the loop is difficult or impossible -- in the middle of a long drive, perhaps, or when the schedules of Earth, Mars and spacecraft activities lead to delays in sharing information between the planets," said NASA robotics engineer Tara Estlin, in a statement. Curiosity, which has been working on Mars since it landed in August 2012, has been searching for evidence that the Red Planet was ever capable of sustaining life – even in microbial form.

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