Google's robotics arm, Boston Dynamics, has released a video of a new version of its Atlas robot. The video shows the upgraded robot opening doors, picking up boxes and taking an eerily human-like stroll in the woods. The video also shows Boston Dynamics employees shoving and knocking over the robot, which can pick itself up off the floor. While the Atlas robot may not boost the quarterly earnings of Google parent Alphabet for a while, it appears to be the next step for robotics, according to Max Wolff, chief economist at Manhattan Venture Partners. "My guess is early on we're going to see defense use, law enforcement use, hazardous waste use and some surgical and medical equipment use," Wolff said on CNBC's Tech Bet.

In response to questions about Tay, a Microsoft spokesperson issued the following statement: "The AI chatbot Tay is a machine learning project, designed for human engagement". People could chat with Tay at Twitter and other messaging platforms, and even send the software digital photos for comment. Tay is essentially one central program that anyone can chat with using Twitter, Kick or GroupMe. After Twitter users were able to convince Tay, the name of Microsoft's chatbot available via text, Twitter and Kik, to spit out offensive and racist comments, it appears Microsoft is giving it a break. The TayTweets account, which was meant to mimic the language habits of a social media-frequenting millennial, arrived on Twitter with the ability to learn from interactions with other members of the Twittervierse.

My (expanded) talking points from a presentation I gave at the Re.Work Investing in Deep Learning dinner in London on 1st December 2015. Keep up to date with AI news through my newsletter on tech, research and venture. It's my belief that artificial intelligence is one of the most exciting and transformative opportunities of our time. Consumers worldwide carry 2 billion smartphones, they're increasingly addicted to these devices and 40% of the world is online (KPCB). This means we're creating new data assets that never existed before (user behavior, preferences, interests, knowledge, connections).

New lip-reading technology developed at the University of East Anglia could help in solving crimes and provide communication assistance for people with hearing and speech impairments. The visual speech recognition technology, created by Dr Helen L. Bear and Prof Richard Harvey of UEA's School of Computing Sciences, can be applied "any place where the audio isn't good enough to determine what people are saying," Dr Bear said. Dr Bear, whose findings will be presented at the International Conference on Acoustics, Speech and Signal Processing (ICASSP) in Shanghai on March 25, said unique problems with determining speech arise when sound isn't available – such as on CCTV footage – or if the audio is inadequate and there aren't clues to give the context of a conversation. The sounds '/p/,' '/b/,' and '/m/' all look similar on the lips, but now the machine lip-reading classification technology can differentiate between the sounds for a more accurate translation. Dr Bear said: "We are still learning the science of visual speech and what it is people need to know to create a fool-proof recognition model for lip-reading, but this classification system improves upon previous lip-reading methods by using a novel training method for the classifiers. "Potentially, a robust lip-reading system could be applied in a number of situations, from criminal investigations to entertainment.

CAMBRIDGE, United States, March 19 (Xinhua) -- Google's computer program AlphaGo stunned the world this week by defeating a top professional player at Go, a board game that has trillions of possible moves and often requires players' intuition. "The AlphaGo success shows again that this is a golden era for the development of intelligent software that can be as intelligent or more intelligent than humans in narrow domains of intelligence," Tomaso Poggio, professor of Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), told Xinhua. While many people around the world witnessed the achievement accomplished by artificial intelligence (AI) with excitement, some also expressed a renewed wariness over the technology and wonder: It is a boon or a bane for mankind? AI, a field that has existed for more than 50 years, grows along with the development of cognitive science and neuroscience. Poggio regards the subject of intelligence as the greatest one in science, because it has to do with the question of how human brain works and what is the mind.

Tyrell: The light that burns twice as bright burns half as long - and you have burned so very, very brightly, Roy. Look at you: you're the Prodigal Son; you're quite a prize! Tyrell: Also extraordinary things; revel in your time. There are lessons to learn from Microsoft's most recent public demonstration of AI. First background: Microsoft launched a demonstration of their AI prowess by turning on "Tay", an AI designed to converse with, learn from and mimic the speech patterns of humans.

Science fiction authors have long contemplated the development of artificial intelligence. Typically, it is imagined as an application for military technology or some high-minded academic pursuit. However, in our real world, artificial intelligence may emerge for a much more pedestrian reason. Libreri argued that it's essential for VR to make human characters more believable. Sony Computer Entertainment announced a price and release date for its Playstation VR at the conference.

Wonder Woman can still draw a crowd. After this weekend's debut of the long-awaited Wonder Woman (played by actress Gal Gadot) the WonderCon panel "She's Finally Here! Wonder Woman: Her Fandom's Perspective," was packed to the gills (some attendees started waiting 30 minutes before the scheduled time) with people ready to discuss the new Diana Prince. And if the stakes weren't high enough for this character, just read at what the panel was previously labeled in the paper WonderCon program, "Wonder Woman: Will She Finally Be Done Right?" Moderated by Jessica Tseang, the lineup featured Steven L. Sears (executive producer, writer "Xena: Warrior Princess"), Lisa Klink ("Star Trek Voyager," "Roswell"), Barbra Dillon (managing editor of Fanboy Comics), Eric Diaz (writer for Nerdist, Topless Robot), Michael Fitzgerald Troy ("Going Gaga!," "Adele #1," Prism Comics) and Drew Johnson (who worked with Greg Rucka on DC's "Wonder Woman"). So what did this panel of experts think about "Batman v Superman's" new Wonder Woman? See more of Entertainment's top stories on Facebook Here's what the pop culture experts had to say.

The six astronauts at the International Space Station got an early Easter treat this weekend with the arrival of a supply ship full of fresh food and experiments. Instead of the usual bunny, Saturday's delivery came via a swan -- Orbital ATK's Cygnus capsule, named after the swan constellation. The cargo carrier rocketed away from Cape Canaveral on Tuesday night. NASA astronaut Timothy Kopra used the station's big robot arm to grab the capsule, as the two craft soared 250 miles above the Indian Ocean. Four hours later, the capsule was bolted firmly to the complex.

Google built its empire by establishing itself as a monolith of search. Now, it intends to build another by doing the opposite: fragmenting its efforts to secure a multitude of "smaller" victories, each of them worth billions. Leveraging its colossal reserves and analytic prowess, Google is becoming, in effect, the largest healthcare startup incubator in history -- so who are these leading analytic minds at the helm of this effort? They're actually not minds at all, but advanced computers that can make decisions based on technology called "machine learning." While that particular development may sound a bit uncanny, the truth is far more heartening than scary.