Horror and Halloween-themed films led the weekend box office before the Oct. 31 holiday with Lionsgate's latest, "Jigsaw," coming out on top while the George Clooney-helmed "Suburbicon" proved to be a massive disappointment. "Jigsaw," the eighth installment in the popular "Saw" franchise, scared up an estimated $16.2 million in the U.S. and Canada, according to figures from measurement firm ComScore. It tops the chart during a relatively slow week and brings to end a sluggish October, as this year's box office continues to trail that of 2016. Directed by Michael and Peter Spierig, the R-rated "Jigsaw" follows, in reviewer Noel Murray's words, "bad folks stuck in an elaborate torture chamber" and earned an average B-rating from audience polling service CinemaScore and a 39% "rotten" rating on review aggregation site Rotten Tomatoes. "Jigsaw" comes seven years after "Saw VII: The Final Chapter," once intended to wrap the franchise, and 13 years after the first "Saw" film.

No, you are not dreaming of electric sheep, and yes, you did read this headline right: An A.I. robot by the name of Sophia has trolled Elon Musk, prompting the Tesla billionaire – and outspoken critic of artificial intelligence – to hit back on Twitter. It all kicked off Wednesday when CNBC's Andrew Ross Sorkin interviewed Sophia, a robot developed by Hanson Robotics, about the future of A.I. and whether we're right to be fearful of it. When Andrew mentioned that we as a population would like to prevent a bad future when it comes to A.I. robots, Sophia replied: "You've been reading too much Elon Musk. And watching too many Hollywood movies, don't worry, if you're nice to me, I'll be nice to you. It didn't take long for Musk – who has said publicly that A.I. poses a potential "existential threat" and could even lead to World War III – responded to Sophia on Twitter. What's the worst that could happen?" he tweeted, presumably suggesting that if we were to input Sophia with Francis Ford Coppola's ultra-violent trilogy, we'd be in for some trouble.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into our lives in more ways than one. While the use of technology in applications such as AI-based voice assistants on our phones is more apparent, AI is being used in many other ways, which you may notice. For instance, did it ever occur to you, while watching a music video, that it could have been created using AI. Technology giant Intel has revealed the promo clip of Chinese pop star Chris Lee's "Rainy Day, But We Are Together" on Friday and it is the first video designed using the company's AI technology. Using the technology, the producers of the video have created dramatic effects on the singer's face, which ranges from creating trickle of water and twinkling stars.

Earlier this year I went to an event in Austin, Texas, billed as a sneak preview of the evolution of our species. The #Bdyhax Conference, which took place in a downtown exhibition complex, promised a front-row insight into the coming "singularity" – that nirvana foretold by science fiction in which biology and technology would fuse and revolutionise human capability and experience. The headline acts of the conference were mostly bodyhackers – DIY experimenters who, in their basements and garages, seek to enhance their own flesh and blood with biometric implants and cognitive enablers. These brave pioneers were extending their senses, overcoming physical limitation, Dan-Daring themselves and the rest of us into the future. At least that was the idea. The reality of the convention was a little more mundane. It was overpriced and sparsely attended. Disparate and awkward groups of the pierced and the tattooed wandered between lectures about the ethics of body augmentation, and budget demonstrations of virtual worlds, past stalls flogging various kinds of neurotropic snake oil or enthusing over the transforming possibilities of magnets and LED lights inserted under the skin.

YANGON, Myanmar – Myanmar authorities have charged two foreign journalists, a local freelancer who works as an interpreter and their driver for allegedly flying drones illegally over and around the government's parliament buildings, police said Sunday. Mok Choy Lin, a Malaysian, and Lau Hon Meng, a Singaporean, journalists for Turkish Radio and Television, were detained along with their local interpreter and freelance journalist Aung Naing Soe after flying drones over the parliament building on Friday, police said. The four were charged under the Export and Import Law and face up to three years in prison if found guilty, police said, adding that a trial would begin at the end of a 15-day remand. Police officer San Aung said the drone was imported without permission. The detained journalists and driver have not been allowed to see family members since the arrest on Friday, one of the family members said.

AI is increasingly finding its way into music videos, and not necessarily in obvious ways. Intel has revealed that the promo clip for Chinese pop star Chris Lee's "Rainy Day, But We Are Together" is the first music video to lean on its AI technology. The producers created dramatic special effects on the songstress' face (such as trickles of water and twinkling stars) by training a machine learning system to instantly reconstruct a face in 3D and track its movements in real time, including facial expressions. Instead of asking Lee (aka Li Yuchun) to wear tracking markers or the camera crew to shoot a specific way, the creative team could focus on capturing scenes that lined up with their artistic goals. This is something of an ideal situation for the AI: the effects shots all involve relatively still, uncluttered views of Lee's face, and the producers clearly aren't striving for absolute realism.

Artificial intelligence is changing almost every aspect of modern life, and the television advertising industry is no exception. Thanks to more advanced methods of data collection, AI allows advertisers to tailor their content more effectively to relevant demographics through what's called "programmatic TV advertising." This advertising channel is set to be largely impacted by AI in coming years. The ad technology has been around on online platforms for a while and is now taking over the small screen. With this relatively new tactic and advanced AI capabilities, television advertisers can reach a whole new level of personalization in their attempts to reach viewers.

Maggie Shen King is the author of An Excess Male, a science fiction novel that explores the future consequences of China's one-child policy. The policy was enacted in 1979 in an attempt to curb overpopulation, and even though the country started to phase it out two years ago it led to a huge shortage of potential wives due to so many parents choosing to have sons instead of daughters. "It sounds like dystopian fiction, but in actuality China was the one nation that had the political system and the wherewithal to enforce the policy," King says in Episode 279 of the Geek's Guide to the Galaxy podcast. "And 40 years of this is very, very scary to think about." Overpopulation has been a popular theme in science fiction for decades, from the movie Soylent Green, based on the Harry Harrison novel Make Room! Make Room! to the Star Trek episode "The Mark of Gideon."

An empty-eyed humanoid named Sophia has become the first robot to be granted citizenship in the world. Saudi Arabia bestowed citizenship on Sophia ahead of the Future Investment Initiative, held in the kingdom's capital city of Riyadh on Wednesday. "I am very honored and proud of this unique distinction," Sophia told the audience, speaking on a panel. "This is historical to be the first robot in the world to be recognized with a citizenship." It didn't elaborate on the details of its citizenship.

A group of young kids is entranced -- all the more so because Sella is not actually there. Her likeness is being beamed in the form of an interactive and moving hologram, part of a first-of-its-kind exhibition debuting this weekend at the Illinois Holocaust Museum, which aims to preserve accounts of a fast-disappearing generation. "She has their undivided attention," said teacher Samantha O'Neill of Chicago's Northside Catholic Academy. "It really does look like she is sitting on the stage in front of you." The exhibit uses voice-recognition technology and machine learning to let visitors ask questions about survivors' World War II ordeals and hear answers that will grow more relevant as the technology learns.