This article has been reposted from Robohub.org Flying robots perform 100th show on Broadway, using new localization technology and algorithms designed and created by Verity Studios of Zurich in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil for their new show PARAMOUR. Since April, a troupe of eight flying machines has been performing in a Cirque du Soleil Broadway show called PARAMOUR. This group of quadcopters has completed its first 100 shows in front of a live theater audience, without a single incident. Given the string of recent safety incidents with drones (there's more), this begs the question: How was this accomplished? The Paramour quadcopters were designed and created by Verity Studios of Zurich and were transformed into flying lampshades in collaboration with Cirque du Soleil.

This video also provides an effective explanation of "The AI Effect", a term coined by John McCarthy to describe why people do not recognise the artificial intelligence that is with us today. Also see Part 2 - The Future of AI https://youtu.be/kQMQZjpUPh4

Estimates suggest that by the year 2020 we will have 20 billion devices connected to the Internet. Industries are shifting, lines are blurring, and markets are changing all as a result of a technology and digital-centric approach to commerce and business. In this podcast, Cliff Justice, Partner in KPMG's Innovation and Enterprise Solutions group, sits down with Stan Lepeak to discuss: The convergence of robotic process automation (RPA), machine learning, cognitive computing, artificial intelligence, and advanced analytics are driving unparalleled business model transformation. To learn more visit KPMG's Digital Labor website: www.kpmg.com/us/digitallabor. To discover more, read Embracing the Cognitive Era.

"I think it's really cool, that people have gotten computer systems to learn to play games -- either against people or the same kinds of games that people play. The programs can do very well and their playing is actually very human-like. "The more recent example that's getting a lot of press is the Atari video game-playing program. They actually created a learning system that you can plug into a 1980s-era video game and it figures out how to play. On average, across a wide variety of games, it plays about as well as a really strong human video game player.

I understand the urge to create conflict in order to tell a story. However, I grow tired of reading predictions that machines will someday replace lawyers. As I have said often, machines and computers and AI, Oh My, will act as augmenters for real lawyers, and real lawyers will continue to offer legal advice, and to represent clients. This argument could have been made with any technological invention. Did the invention of the telephone replace lawyers or legal assistants?

AI, it has already started changing what businesses can do. From self-driving cars to intuitive automatic vacuum cleaners to self-propelled lawn mowers that know the difference between overgrown grass and carefully maintained flower gardens, tasks that once took up so much of your time will soon become the responsibilities of intelligent tools. Not only will your home life change, but also the businesses that provide services soon are to be replaced (or drastically altered) by artificial intelligence. Landscaping, industrial cleaning, marketing and everything in between will soon have to find a way to coexist with the newest wave of technology. Until these machines become reality, however, AI is limited to its ability to corral and interrupt massive swatches of data.

Let's face it, mobile apps have become an overflowing bin of disparate digital objects. A million apps that do mostly the same thing, some better and some worse. Some are one-off campaign apps, and others are struggling businesses barely able to ride through the sea of sameness. Every app has its own user interface, its own rules, and its own way of interpreting how to filter an image or track your run while draining the life out of our precious smart devices. ComScore did a study and found that the average American devotes about half their app time to a single app.

GWEN IFILL: Now: developing technology that can better identify your own emotions. At a time when people are concerned about what data can track and how it can be sold, it is an advance that clearly raises concerns. But it may also yield some important benefits. The "NewsHour"'s April Brown takes a look, part of our weekly series on the Leading Edge of science and technology. DAN MCDUFF, Director of Research, Affectiva: You can control the movements of BB-8, the little droid, based on how your facial expressions are changing.

Intel has released its mid-year diversity numbers, which show only slight changes from late 2015 despite the tech company's 300 million to drastically change the makeup of its workforce. The company that arguably started and dominated the intelligent devices market for decades now finds itself in the role of an underdog, just as we're entering an era when the number of smart, computing-capable, connected things is exploding all around us. But that's exactly the position that Silicon Valley stalwart Intel finds itself in on the eve of its big annual Intel Developer Forum (IDF), being held in San Francisco this week. Intel's long-term strength, of course, has been providing the vast majority of the computing brains (the CPU) for the PC market. After several years of declining PC shipments, however, that legacy advantage has turned into a disadvantage, even despite signs that commercial PC shipments could be on the rebound.

But then getting a robot in charge would be a lot like voting for a president. Some people would agree with it, some wouldn't. Maybe every four years we'd have another vote, and the candidates would be both people and robots, and sometimes a robot would win, sometimes a person.