You submitted your questions about artificial intelligence and robotics, and we put them – and some of our own – to The Conversation's experts. It is 100% plausible that we'll have human-like artificial intelligence. I say this even though the human brain is the most complex system in the universe that we know of. But there are also no physical laws we know of that would prevent us reproducing or exceeding its capabilities. Popular AI from Issac Asimov to Steven Spielberg is plausible. What the question doesn't address is: when will it be plausible? Most AI researchers (including me) see little or no evidence of it coming anytime soon. Progress on the major AI challenges is slow, if real.

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

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN – When U.S. drones obliterated a car carrying Taliban leader Mullah Akhtar Mansour last month, it was the kind of targeted killing that unmanned aircraft are best known for. But 15 years after a drone first fired missiles in combat, the U.S. military's drone program has expanded far beyond specific strikes to become an everyday part of the war machine. Now, from control booths in the United States and bases around the Middle East, Afghanistan and parts of Africa, drone crews are flying surveillance missions and providing close air support for troops on the ground. "In the wars we fight, this is the future," said drone pilot Lieutenant Shaw, as he stood in a hangar at the air force's drone base in the southern Afghan city of Kandahar. Crews spoke to Reuters on condition that only their first names and rank be used to identify them.

The fast-growing global drone industry has not sat back waiting for government policy to be hammered out before pouring investment and effort into opening up this all-new hardware and computing market. A growing ecosystem of drone software and hardware vendors is already catering to a long list of clients in agriculture, land management, energy, and construction. Many of the vendors are smallish private companies and startups -- although large defense-focused companies and industrial conglomerates are beginning to invest in drone technology, too. In a report from BI Intelligence, we take a deep dive into the various levels of the growing global industry for commercial drones, or unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). This 32-page report provides forecasts for the business opportunity in commercial drone technology, looks at advances and persistent barriers, highlights the top business-to-business markets in terms of applications and end users, and provides an exclusive list of dozens of notable companies already active in the space.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos talks with The Verge's Walt Mossberg about the "gigantic" potential of artificial intelligence to change everything from shopping to self-driving cars. Bezos also discusses his purchase of the Washington Post in 2013, which he says is transforming from a local to a global institution. He explains why he opposes both Peter Thiel's campaign against Gawker Media and Donald Trump's attempts to "freeze or chill" press scrutiny. Plus: Why Bezos's other company, Blue Origin, is trying to lower the cost of entrepreneurship in space.

There's no really delicate way to say this, so I'm just going to do it: The vast majority of people have no idea what they're talking about when they talk about drone law. I've noticed this in comment threads on Facebook, on Twitter, on comment threads on Reddit, in bar conversations, etc. If you've engaged in one of these misinformed debates, though, I forgive you: It's not your fault. If you're looking for a simple answer to the question posed in the headline, I'm sorry, I can't give you one. But what I can give you is an exhaustive guide to drone law in the United States. In order to have any idea what's legal to do with a drone and what's not legal to do with a drone, it's necessary to have paid close attention to the FAA's actions over the last three years or so. Some conversations with actual lawyers help, as well.

The U.S. spends 270 billion on incarceration each year, has a prison population of about 2.2 million and an incarceration rate that's spiked 220 percent since the 1980s. But with the advent of data science, White House officials are asking experts for help. On Tuesday, June 7, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy's Lynn Overmann, who also leads the White House Police Data Initiative, stressed the severity of the nation's incarceration crisis while asking a crowd of data scientists and artificial intelligence specialists for aid. "We have built a system that is too large, and too unfair and too costly -- in every sense of the word -- and we need to start to change it," Obermann said, speaking at a Computing Community Consortium public workshop. She argued that the U.S., a country that has the highest amount incarcerated citizens in the world, is in need of systematic reforms with both data tools to process alleged offenders and at the policy level to ensure fair and measured sentences.

Even a high-tech factory floor will still have a place for people, says Simon Jacobson, vice president of research at Gartner Inc. IT -0.15 % Human workers give manufacturers flexibility, allowing companies to reap the benefits of automation while preserving the ability to fill special orders. To have that kind of potential with an end-to-end automated system would require repeated reprogramming, adding cost and time, Mr. Jacobson says. By contrast, keeping people as an integral part of the process, working in modular assembly cells, for example, makes it easy to tweak production according to demand. "The trick is to automate with the human, not automate the human, or automate the human out of the job," says Mr. Jacobson. To be those people in the still often physically demanding environment of high-tech manufacturing, however, isn't easy.

In a blog post titled "Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence," Deputy U.S. CTO Ed Felten announced the creation of the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Subcommittee and a series of workshops to encourage public discourse about the emerging technology. "There are tremendous opportunities and an array of considerations across the Federal Government in privacy, security, regulation, law, and research and development to be taken into account when effectively integrating this technology into both government and private-sector activities," wrote Felten. Related: Google's newly launched Magenta Project aims to create art with artificial intelligence Open to the public, the workshops are co-hosted by the White House Office of Science and Technology and National Economic Council with academic and non-profit organizations across the country. The goal is to "identify challenges and opportunities" related to AI, which will lead to a public report by the subcommittee later this year. The first event was co-hosted by the University of Washington's School of Law in Seattle on May 24 and considered AI as applied to law and governance.

Should Politicians be Replaced by Artificial Intelligence?