If you could construct a sexual partner that was faithful, beautiful, and responsive to your every wish, would you? It's a question Aimee van Wynsberghe, co-founder of the Foundation for Responsible Robotics, thinks a lot about. In July 2017, she and fellow ethicist Noel Sharkey published a report (pdf), Our Sexual Future with Robots, that delved into the state of the robot sex industry and its future. Quartz met van Wynsberghe, a professor of robotics and ethics at the Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, on a trip to London in a busy café, just before she headed to the Science Museum's Robots exhibition, to discuss how close humanity is to sex and even love with robots, and the risks involved. The interview is edited and condensed for clarity. Quartz: Your report mainly deals with "precursors" to sex robots. How are the dolls and devices that already exist connected to possible robots of the future?

It's almost scary to think that the world as we know it may well be run by Artificial Intelligence (AI) one day. While the risk of an imminent AI disruption of the labour market may sound like a fantasy, those with the most advanced AI technologies at hand think that AI is an imminent threat. They say an Industry 4.0 or cyber physical systems (CPS) revolution is coming whether we like it or not. AI in the labour market means the use of intelligent software to optimise the delivery of services by humans. However, in a recent meeting with U.S. governors, business magnate Elon Musk warned: "AI is a fundamental existential risk for human civilisation and I don't think people fully appreciate that … [AI] is the scariest problem."

FILE - In this file photo dated May 17, 2017, file photo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai delivers the keynote address for the Google I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif. Pichai has canceled an internal town hall meant to address gender discrimination on Thursday, Aug. 10, after employee questions for management began to leak online from the company's internal messaging service.

Former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick has been sued by a major investor claiming he fraudulently concealed serious issues with the company, and sought power over the ride-for-hire firm "for his own selfish ends". According to a complaint filed by Benchmark Capital Partners in a Delaware court, Mr Kalanick - who stepped down as CEO of the company earlier this year - "fraudulently obtained control" of seats on Uber's board of directors by covering up "gross mismanagement and other misconduct." The examples listed offer a neat summation of the scandals and legal fights that have beset the Silicon Valley giant and links Mr Kalanick to all of them, arguing that he was aware of encroaching trouble but did not disclose that to investors. They include: a now-fired executive who sought to obtain the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in India; a controversial program known was "Greyball," first revealed by the New York Times, that was used to elude municipal officials in cities where Uber operated; a "pervasive culture of gender discrimination and sexual harassment" that has illuminated overarching issues with sexism in the tech industry and helped precipitate Mr Kalanick's departure; and an ongoing lawsuit in which Waymo, the self-driving car division of Google, claims Uber stole trade secrets. By seeking to create three new board seats despite those corporate conflagrations, the lawsuit alleges that Mr Kalanick retained his leverage over the board of directors and guaranteed himself "an outsized role in Uber's strategic direction even if forced to resign as CEO".

Travis Kalanick is being sued by one of Uber's largest investors, Benchmark Capital, which accuses the former chief executive of engaging in fraud in order to "increase his power over Uber for his own selfish ends". The Benchmark complaint exposes an ugly battle for power at the top of the nearly $70bn startup, which has been buffeted from crisis to crisis all year and is still searching for a replacement for Kalanick. The suit, filed on Thursday in Delaware Chancery court and first revealed by Axios, seeks to remove Kalanick from Uber's board of directors and bar him from interfering with Uber's business affairs. It demands redress for the alleged "fraud, breaches of fiduciary duty, and breaches of contractual obligations" perpetrated by Kalanick. The former CEO has hit back at the lawsuit, saying through a spokesperson that the case against him was "completely without merit and riddled with lies and false allegations".

AI and machine learning algorithms are marketed as unbiased, objective tools. They are opaque mechanisms of bureaucracy and decisionmaking in which old-fashioned racist, sexist, and classist biases are hidden behind sophisticated technology, usually without a system of appeal. As their influence increases in society, we face a choice. Do we ignore their pernicious effects, or do we understand, regulate, and control the biases they exert? If we want them to represent transparent fairness, freedom, and consistency in an efficient, cost-saving manner, we must hold them accountable somehow.

Uber co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick is being sued for fraud by Benchmark Capital, one of the ride-hailing giant's earliest investors. In a suit filed Thursday in Delaware Chancery Court, the Menlo Park venture capital firm alleges that Kalanick breached his fiduciary duty and contractual obligations by stacking the company's board with allies to shield his conduct from redress. The suit, which names both Kalanick and Uber, contends this was done to "clear the path for his eventual return as CEO -- all to the detriment of Uber's stockholders, employees, driver-partners, and customers." Kalanick stepped down as Uber's CEO in June after a series of controversies, including a lawsuit by Google's self-driving-car subsidiary, Waymo, alleging theft of trade secrets; another lawsuit by a woman in India who alleged Uber obtained her medical records after she was raped by one of the company's drivers; and widespread allegations of sexual harassment at the firm. Benchmark cited all three cases in its suit as examples of Kalanick's mismanagement.

A viral app that added Asian, Black, Caucasian and Indian filters to people's selfies has removed them after being accused of racism. The update which launched yesterday was met with backlash - with many people criticising it for propagating racial stereotypes. The filters drew comparison with'blackface' and'yellowface' - when white people wear make up to appear to be from a different ethnic group. The filters drew comparison with'blackface' and'yellowface' - when white people wear make up to appear to be from a different ethnic group. The app uses Artificial Intelligence to transform faces.

Data released by West Midlands Fire Service appears to show the city of Birmingham has too many fire stations, with 15 compared with neighbouring Solihull's two. The service's online map of attendance times shows many parts of Solihull, a suburban and rural area, have to wait much longer for firefighters to arrive. Even on the basis of relative population sizes, Solihull looks under-served. You forgot to provide an Email Address. This email address doesn't appear to be valid.