On this week's Slate Culture Gabfest, the critics discuss the new Disney film Moana, about a Pacific Island princess on a standard Disney journey, and whether the movie is new and exciting or if its feminist stance makes it predictable. Then, the critics are joined by Gilmore Girls completist Seth Stevenson to talk about the series' return to Netflix, which premiered over Thanksgiving weekend after nine years. How has the show changed, and was the revival a success? Last, the critics discuss Nathan Heller's New Yorker piece, "If Animals Have Rights, Should Robots?" They dig into the intricacies of his argument and debate whether robots can ever achieve the consciousness of animals.

It's no secret that "Power Rangers" is a departure from the original TV series, and the latest concept art for the movie's new Alpha 5 is further proof. Even fans who thought the updated looks for Rita, the Rangers' suits and the Zords were adequate mental preparation for any other redesigns were likely surprised by Alpha's new design. To borrow some words from Alpha: "Ay yi yi yi yi." Revealed by IGN, this new take on the Power Ranger ally is more than a bit of a departure from the character's original look. In the TV series, Alpha was Zordon's panicky but devoted robotic assistant who served as the Rangers' adviser and friend. While the new Alpha retains the gold saucer-shaped helmet as well as the red body, not much else is recognizable.

Today's Web--characterized by social media and user-generated content--is a powerful, open medium that gives everyone a voice. Unfortunately, some use their voices to bully or harass other users. Social media platforms, online bulletin boards, blog sites, media companies, and anyone else who opens up posts to comments, struggle to identify and deter online harassment. So Intel has joined with a number of other organizations to create Hack Harassment--a collaborative effort to reduce the prevalence and severity of online harassment through increasing awareness and accountability, advancing anti-harassment technology solutions, and effecting change for individuals and communities. Online harassment is a large and growing problem.

TV series "Humans" shows robots taking over simple human tasks Photo: Channel 4 Over the last decade, the types and definitions of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have ranged across a wide spectrum. A future of smart homes and smart cars, driven by AI, is no longer a distant reality. This future poses questions to businesses; principal among them is how businesses can adapt to AI. The practical impact on companies, and their workforces, is an increasingly pressing issue around the boardroom. The International Federation of Robots (yes, a real thing, not a Star Wars coalition) reported last year that robot sales in 2014 increased by 29% – the biggest increase ever recorded within a year, and this trend is expected to continue.

Behind the scenes, AI engines in the form of smart algorithms "work" on stock exchanges, offer up suggestions for books and films on Amazon and Netflix and even write the odd article. But AI does not have the greatest public image - often due to sci-fi films that display dystopian visions of robots taking over the world. Hal is perhaps the most famous AI turned bad. Created by Arthur C Clarke for the book and film 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hal stands for Heuristically Programmed Algorithmic Computer. A recent survey of business and technology professionals and found that 58% of them are researching AI, but only 12% are using AI systems.

This year has been a pivotal one for artificial intelligence, which has gone from an abstract and esoteric concept understood primarily through it's portrayal in sci-fi movies such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and the Terminator series (no wonder it's typically regarded as malevolent) to the centre-piece of todays zeitgeist as the singularity (the point when artificial intelligence becomes indistinguishable from human) draws near. Hyper personalisation and proactive intelligence have become expectations of software in 2016, and the big players in mobile and digital are striving for this through AI. The result is that we're tipping into another fundamental paradigm shift akin to the explosion of mobile. Let's take a look at some of the best of AI in 2016 and what we can expect in 2017 and beyond for industry, creativity and humanity. Greek mythology talks about mechanical humans, robots and artificial intelligences and it was all the way back in 1951 that the first AI capable of playing chess was shown off courtesy of the university of Manchester.

This has been one of the most intriguing questions in science fiction and philosophy since the advent of machines. With modern technology such questions are no longer bound to creative conjecture, machine learning is all around us. From deciding which movie you might want to watch next on Netflix to predicting stock market trends, machine learning has a profound impact on how data is understood in the modern era. This tutorial aims to give an accessible introduction to how to use machine learning techniques for your own projects and datasets. In just 20 minutes, you will learn how to use Python to apply different machine learning techniques, from decision trees to deep neural networks, to a sample dataset.

Google's image recognition software, which uses artificial neural networks to simulate an actual human brain, is very capable of dreaming . When Google engineers fed photos of random objects to a network taught to identify images of animals, the network "dreamed" of disturbingly distorted dogs and other hybrid creatures, set against a kaleidoscopic backdrop of clouds and mountains. Shortly after publishing the outcome of their experiments, Google developers made the code for the "DeepDream" software public, enabling anyone to feed images into the machine and see what comes out. Fear and Loathing, which stars Johnny Depp as a drug-using hedonist, is basically just one long acid trip. Now that none of us are going to get any sleep tonight, here's a two-minute clip from the movie that was fed through the software:

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While Amazon has been furiously releasing updates to keep Alexa abreast of current events (and holiday shopping deals), Apple has been content to keep most of their Siri updates limited to major OS releases. That'll change with the iTunes release of The Secret Life of Pets, which marks the first time Apple's virtual assistant has been used to promote a movie release or partnered with a major movie studio. As 9to5Mac notes, the promotional stunt for The Secret Life of Pets gives Siri 15 somewhat humorous canned responses to the question "What do my pets do when I'm not at home?" When Engadget tried the gimmick, Siri responded with: "I don't know, but the dog just asked me for a walking route to the nearest park." And: "I don't know, but the cat just asked me about the five day forecast for the living room sunny spot." Those answers might be cute, but they're also not quite as smart as say: having Siri pull up your Nest cam highlights or launching your treat cam app.