When Japanese mobile phone company SoftBank offered 1000 of its emotionally intelligent Pepper robots for the consumer market last summer, the entire run sold out in under a minute. At CES this year, SoftBank announced that IBM would be bringing Watson's artificial intelligence to Pepper, a bid to ready the robot for broad adoption in the home. Now SoftBank is planning to branch into the U.S. At Google IO today, the company announced that it's opening up a new developer portal and adding SDK Android Studio to enable the development of custom applications for Pepper, continuing to evolve it's capabilities ahead of its U.S. launch, which it's planning later this year. "We'll also be announcing the opening of SoftBank's U.S. office, headquartered in San Francisco, which will be driving the efforts surrounding the launch of Pepper in the U.S.," a company spokesman told me. Today's announcement came along with a demonstration of Pepper's functionality and features for developers.

The Galaxy S8 may come with a curved screen like the one on this, the Galaxy S7 Edge. The Galaxy S8 is shaping up to be perhaps the most important smartphone Samsung has ever developed, and rumours about the details of its specs continue to emerge. According to The Wall Street Journal the home button may be removed from the front of the smartphone and moved to the back, freeing up space for the screen -- something that Samsung's Chinese rival Huawei did on its P9 smartphone last year. The paper reports that the device, which is expected to be launched later this month, will come with a curved screen as standard, a feature Samsung debuted on its Galaxy S6 Edge and which has proved popular with customers. The S8 will also feature a Samsung-developed voice-powered digital assistant which will apparently be called Bixby, in an attempt to rival Apple's Siri and Google Now.

It's very likely that you'll see Google Assistant on new Android devices beyond the Pixel line, but when... and what about the device you already have? The AI helper might be coming sooner than you think. Google has inadvertently given beta testers an alpha release of its Android search app that enables Assistant support on non-Pixel hardware. It's not working for everyone, but people carrying everything from the Nexus 6P to Alcatel's Idol 4S say they've had success. The software has introductory messages that are clearly targeted at people who previously didn't have Assistant, so it's not an accidental inclusion.

Major smartphone makers are following Apple and Google into the smartphone trend of 2017: artificial intelligence. LG's G6 could feature Google Assistant, Samsung said its Galaxy S8 will feature its own AI assistant, and Huawei's Mate 9 is the first phone with Amazon's Alexa. The Chinese conglomerate has been especially vocal about AI in their smartphones--unusual for top smartphone makers, who are normally secretive about their latest devices. Huawei said they will have an AI-focused "Superphone" in 2020--just a year before their goal to be the world's top smartphone maker. The Chinese tech giant has been sitting at No. 3 since last year, behind Samsung and Apple.

Ever since rumors about the Samsung Galaxy S8 surfaced, there have been substantial reports hinting at the launch of a new smart assistant by Samsung. This new AI-powered voice assistant is said to be a strong competitor against Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Google's Google Assistant. This week, there's new proof that the South Korea giant could be introducing its rumored Bixby assistant with its upcoming flagship phones. SamMobile recently spotted a new trademark filing by Apple's biggest rival company. The application is apparently for the logo of its new AI assistant. Based on the document, the logo resembles not only the letter "B," but also the number "8" -- fueling speculations that Bixby is debuting with the Galaxy S8 and the larger Galaxy S8 Plus.

Major smartphone makers are following Apple and Google into the smartphone trend of 2017: artificial intelligence. LG's G6 could feature Google Assistant, Samsung said its Galaxy S8 will feature its own AI assistant, and Huawei's Mate 9 is the first phone with Amazon's Alexa. The Chinese conglomerate has been especially vocal about AI in their smartphones--unusual for top smartphone makers, who are normally secretive about their latest devices. Huawei said they will have an AI-focused "Superphone" in 2020--just a year before their goal to be the world's top smartphone maker. The Chinese tech giant has been sitting at No. 3 since last year, behind Samsung and Apple.

Newly released Galaxy S8 renders are the clearest images we have of Samsung's upcoming flagship yet. The renders are based on factory CAD files according to habitual leaker Steve Hemmerstoffer and appear to confirm much of what has already been leaked in the last six months. The most notable change is the display size relative to the chassis, which, again, backs up previous leaks. The S8 will minimise its screen to body ratio, scrapping the home button and move the finger-print scanner to the back of the device in an oddly high position. That means a 5.8-inch and 6.2-inch display within a slightly thicker profile than the S7 frame.

As Samsung's unveiling of its make or break Galaxy S8 approaches, the firm's official cases for the handset appear to have leaked online. The leather cases, complete with a Samsung logo, show the S8 will have a fingerprint sensor on the rear - backing previous claims it will have no home button but an'infinity screen' on the front. It also reveals the firm may have added a button just for its new Siri-killer smart AI, called Bixby. The leather cases, complete with a Samsung logo, show the S8 will have a fingerprint sensor on the rear - fitting with previous claims it will have no home button but an'infinity screen' on the front. Bixby could be used for a wide variety of functions in a similar way to Apple's Siri.

We are on the verge of a very fast rate of technological change. If you think the Internet and mobile communications have changed the world, just wait. Coming years will be even more disruptive and amazing. When most people ponder technology they default to thoughts about compute power and its limitations. In 1965 Gordon Moore, the cofounder of Intel theorized that processing power should be capable of doubling every 18-24 months.

Robots are taking increasingly bigger roles in life and business – moving well beyond manufacturing and into transportation, education, medicine and care for the elderly. But ethics and law haven't caught up. Dr. Kate Darling, a pioneer in the fields, is helping quicken the pace. A leading expert in robot ethics, she is a researcher at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Media Lab where she investigates social robotics and conducts experimental studies on human-robot interaction. Darling explores the emotional connection between people and life-like inventions, seeking to influence technology design and policy direction.