In the face of AI exerts repeatedly predicting the rise of sex robots, it's increasingly difficult to insist that such machines strictly belong to a far-off, dystopian future. But some robotics experts predict we'll soon be doing far more than having sexual intercourse with machines. Instead, we'll be making love to them--with all the accompanying romantic feelings. At this week's "Love and Sex with Robots" conference at Goldsmith University in London, David Levy, author of a book on human-robot love, predicted that human-robot marriages would be legal by 2050. Adrian Cheok, computing professor at City University London and director of the Mixed Reality Lab in Singapore, says the prediction is not so farfetched.

Will technology at last help us to feel richer in 2017? The prevailing concern for several years now has been that despite rising GDP most people are not feeling any richer, and some people attribute the success of populist politicians to this sense of resentment. But we will hear a lot more about the clutch of technologies that potentially can transform our living standards, and accordingly give a practical response to populism by showing that things can and will get better. The core set of these technologies goes under the umbrella term Artificial Intelligence. The New York Times Magazine has just run a piece by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, under the title "The Great A.I. Awakening", which sums up what is happening.

AI has been a hot topic for legal in blogging and thought leadership. Outlets like Legaltech news and Forbes have reported on the emerging use of AI in the legal industry and how it has helped many firms find success in the changing market of a client-demand based business model. The billable hour is beginning to put a strain on many firms, with clients evaluating legal services to meet their value-based, consultative needs. The Center for the Study of the Legal Profession at the Georgetown University Law Center and Thomson Reuters Peer Monitor 2016 Report addresses these trending changes in the industry, stating "What once was a seller's market has now clearly become a buyer's market, and the ramifications of that change are significant." This new buyers-mindset has been consistently evolving since 2008: "[The] market for law firm services has changed in significant and permanent ways. Clients who previously deferred to their outside firms on virtually all key decisions regarding the organization, staffing, scheduling, and pricing of legal matters are now, in most cases, in active control of all of those decisions."

A Queensland startup has celebrated a new deal with a major European customer after it perfected new deep learning technology that recognises images beyond simple shape and texture matching. TrademarkVision's deal with the European Union Intellectual Property Office this month comes after a successful beta test that saw around 1,000 trademark image searches conducted each day. The EUIPO becomes the first governmental agency to take up the technology, although the terms of the contract were not disclosed. In the past year, the company has been working on deep learning technology to take its software to the next level of intelligence, and the move has borne fruit in a spectacular way with the EU deal. "We've focused on machine learning techniques so the system can recognise objects in trademarks and logos much like humans do. Despite the wide variety of ways humans pictorially depict objects in logos, deep learning has helped to solve this semantic challenge in a quick and robust way," said TrademarkVision founder and chief executive Sandra Mau.

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BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Amazon has denied Bentonville authorities access to a murder suspect's Amazon Echo data. According to KFSM, James Andrew Bates, 31, is accused of murdering Victor Parris Collins, 47, in a hot tub back in 2015. Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone NY judge: US cannot make Apple provide iPhone data Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone The Amazon Echo is a personal assistant that collects voice data to help solve the user's problems. Police asked the retailer for access to the information the Echo collected to see if the device picked up any other audio from the night of the murder, The Information reported. Amazon did not turn over the information stored on the device, but they gave authorities Bates' account details and purchases, Engadget reported.

Tay, the Microsoft chatbot that pranksters trained to spew racist comments, has joined the likes of the Apple Watch and the fire-prone Samsung Galaxy Note 7 smartphone on MIT Technology Review's list of 2016's biggest technology failures. Tay had its day back in March, when it was touted as a millennial-minded AI agent that could learn more about the world through its conversations with users. It learned about human nature all too well: Mischief-makers fed its artificial mind with cuss words, racism, Nazi sentiments and conspiracy theories. Within 24 hours, Microsoft had to pull Tay offline. Other technological missteps were rated as fails because they didn't take off as expected, as was the case for Apple's smartwatch; or because they took off in flames, like the batteries in the Samsung phone.

Amazon's Echo devices and its virtual assistant are meant to help find answers by listening for your voice commands. However, police in Arkansas want to know if one of the gadgets overheard something that can help with a murder case. According to The Information, authorities in Bentonville issued a warrant for Amazon to hand over any audio or records from an Echo belonging to James Andrew Bates. Bates is set to go to trial for first-degree murder for the death of Victor Collins next year. Amazon declined to give police any of the information that the Echo logged on its servers, but it did hand over Bates' account details and purchases.

Welcome back from the long festive weekend. In the midst of all that egg-nog, present opening and family router troubleshooting, you might have missed Apple's first published AI research, the worst gadgets of the year, and the latest Chinese luxury smartphone that goes all-in on battery life. Sidestepping the rest of the bad news that 2016 managed to deliver, there were some stinkers when it came to this year's new gadgets. Smoking (then exploding) phones, plain racist app photo filters, excessively overpriced smartwatches and those dongles. It's all about object recognition. When Apple said it would publish its artificial intelligence research, we had a few questions: Would the company keep potential trade secrets close to the vest?

Samsung might be thankful that 2016 is over as the year hasn't been great from the company. From being sued globally for exploding Note 7s to a loss-making third quarter and news of the company expecting to split up, the year hasn't been a joyride. The company was earlier rumored to discontinue the Note series entirely following the Note 7 scandal, but the presence of a Note 8 device is becoming more evident every day. Dual Screen Display: Samsung is expected to move as far away from the Note 7 as possible. The Note 8 is expected to come with an outwardly folding dual display.