Media
Artificial intelligence and bots - News
IF you were to mention artificial intelligence (AI) or bots in a conversation about science with the average person, they would consider these to be more science fiction than accepted science. The average person would be painfully wrong, as these concepts have seen measured success in the past half-century. However, their expected impact on our lives has not met the demands of the general public who envision more than it is capable of just yet, but the science in support of it grows each day. Artificial intelligence by the cinematic definition is a complete conscious entity unnaturally created through science. Similarly, bots are defined in public opinion by characters such as the Nanny robot in the cartoon The Jetsons. Fundamentally, AI is the creation of a programme or machine that can exhibit a cognitive function or effectively think for itself.
Meet Zenbo: 599 AI robot can play with kids and look after elderly
It could finally be the home robot you've dreamed - capable of keeping the kids quiet and doing the shopping. Asus today revealed a Zenbo, a 599 home robot it hopes will help bring robotics into the home. Chairman Jonney Shih pledged the firm will'enable robotic computing for every household.' Asus chairman Jonney Shih pledged the firm will'enable robotic computing for every household.' The robot was unveiled at Computex 2016 alongside a new range of mobile phones.
How happy chatbots could become our new best friends
How do we stop intelligent machines from taking over the world and enslaving us all? That's the radical suggestion of Patrick Levy Rosenthal, founder and chief executive of Emoshape, a tech firm that has developed a computer chip that can synthesise 12 human emotions. "It's logical to conclude that autonomous machines made of electricity and metal will eventually see us as their main competitors for those resources, and try to take control," he says. This is the dystopian vision of artificial intelligence (AI) run amok that luminaries such as physicist Prof Stephen Hawking, and tech entrepreneurs Bill Gates and Elon Musk, worry about. But Mr Rosenthal believes this nightmare scenario will be avoided if we create machines that can empathise.
Review: Yuneec Typhoon H
At the top of the bustling consumer drone marketplace, two big names have been battling (sometimes litigiously) for dominance. DJI popularized drone flying as a hobby with its Phantom line, but lately, Yuneec has been whittling into DJI's marketshare with its competing Typhoon line. Both company's flagship quadcopters are equipped with excellent video cameras, both are accessibly priced, and both have autonomous and safety-minded features that make flying easy for inexperienced pilots. Hexacopter design offers added stability in flight. Automated flight modes and integrated camera/flight controls mean a single pilot can still do everything themselves.
Can 'Warcraft' break the curse of the video game movie?
Set mostly in the Earth-like world of Azeroth, Warcraft follows the premise set forth by Warcraft: Orcs and Humans, the franchise's first release for PC in late 1994. Having destroyed their own planet with dark magic, the Orcs attempt to take over the world of humans, setting off an epic clash of clans. What follows onscreen is a live action/CGI mashup visually reminiscent of Avatar that opts for a kinetic pace of nonstop battles over deep character study and plodding narrative. Jones wasn't originally attached to this Warcraft adaption -- Sam Raimi (The Evil Dead) was. But, having been a longtime fan, he jumped at the chance to pick up where Raimi left off and build a film that lets audiences decide who the good guys are. In advance of the film's US release June 10th, I sat down with Jones to talk about his love of PC gaming, how spaghetti Westerns informed Warcraft's battles and his early sci-fi and fantasy inspirations.
Mossberg: Can Apple win the next tech war?
Welcome to Mossberg, a weekly commentary and reviews column on The Verge and Recode by veteran tech journalist Walt Mossberg, now an Executive Editor at The Verge and Editor at Large of Recode. Fifteen years ago, when the time became ripe for post-PC devices that put a premium on integrating software and hardware, Apple was the best-positioned company to lead the charge -- and it did. The company's vertical integration, its attention to detail and innovation in both software and hardware, and its willingness to make big bets gave it an edge. And it used that edge to reel off its now-familiar string of game-changing products like the iPod, the iPhone, the MacBook Air, and the iPad. Now, the iPod is essentially gone, and the other products are in mature or maturing markets, with either pretty flat or dropping sales.