Pianists, surgeons, typists, gamers and baton-twirlers all learn to use their hands more skillfully as they ply their trade, but what about robots? Researchers at the University of Washington say they've developed a five-fingered robot hand that's more capable than ours, and can learn to handle objects better and better without human intervention. The ADROIT Manipulation Platform draws upon machine learning and real-world feedback to improve its performance, rather than relying on its programmers to specify its every move. "Such dynamic dexterous manipulation with free objects has never been demonstrated before even in simulation, let along the physical hardware results we have," Vikash Kumar, a UW doctoral student in computer science and engineering, told GeekWire in an email. Kumar and his colleagues discuss the project in a paper to be presented May 17 at the IEEE International Conference on Robotics and Automation.

On the Internet, "nobody knows you're a dog," as the old meme goes, and today, the same can increasingly be said of robots. There are already scheduling robots that are virtually indistinguishable from humans, and recently students at the Georgia Institute of Technology learned that "Jill Watson" -- a teaching assistant they had relied upon all semester -- was in fact artificially intelligent. "The world is full of online classes, and they're plagued with low retention rates," said Ashok Goel, a Georgia Tech professor who teaches a class entitled Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence. "One of the main reasons many students drop out is because they don't receive enough teaching support. We created Jill as a way to provide faster answers and feedback."

In the telemarketing space, it's not always easy to see the innovation that leads to better performance. For the consumer, the word doesn't always leave a happy impression. For the business user, the thought of receiving a call means another thing that takes away the focus from the day. But in reality, we want to be sold to when the offering is timely and relevant. Does telemarketing software offer this insight, or is it time for something bigger?

Banks are working to meet digital disruption head-on as they look to meet customer demands with technologies such as beacon technology and Artificial Intelligence. Citi Bank is deploying beacon technology across a number of its Smart Banking branches in Manhattan. The trial, which will see Bluetooth Smart Beacons give customers cardless entry into ATM lobbies after hours, comes as part of an on-going drive to bring in new technologies. Citi is hoping to use the technology from Gimblar to let customers use their iPhone or iWatch to access the bank even when it is not open. The bank has also recently launched a voice biometrics solution to verify a customer's identify within the first few seconds of call.

The world of cyber security is becoming increasingly more difficult for businesses looking to protect their assets. Attacks are becoming more sophisticated, with cyber criminals making use of ever advancing technologies. Even with modern machine driven security systems, it is becoming increasingly complex for businesses to differentiate between a genuine visitor and criminals attempting to breach or bring down their systems. With news that MIT has developed Artificial Intelligence (AI) capable of detecting 85% of cyber attacks - and still learning - does the future of cyber security lie with robots? Built by MIT's Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and the machine-learning startup PatternEx, this artificial intelligence platform known as AI2 will spark an interesting debate about the role of AI in protecting an organization from cyber attacks.

For anyone that thinks artificial intelligence (AI) belongs firmly in the future, it's worth taking a moment to remember that the technology has its roots squarely in the past; 60 years in the past to be precise. Six decades ago, delegates gathered at the first Dartmouth Conference to hear about an exciting new world of "artificial intelligence". It's said amongst IT historians that this was the first time the term was ever used. Today there are a lot of practical applications for AI but many people can't imagine a real world example that doesn't end with a group of crazy megalomaniac robots taking over the planet and wiping out humanity. But, as with many scientific advances, the reality is a lot simpler, modest and, dare we say, down-to-earth. Take Facebook's recent announcement about launching a range of chatbots.

Joi Ito/Flickr (CC)/Index VenturesSaul Klein (left) and Robin Klein (right.) Saul and Robin Klein are a father and son team who have invested in some of Europe's biggest technology startups. Saul Klein also cofounded LoveFilm and startup accelerator Seedcamp, and was one of Skype's original executives. Now the pair are joining forces for their own venture capital fund: LocalGlobe, which they say will invest in startups at the seed stage across Europe. So far the fund has announced investments in online mortgage advisor Trussle and also Estonian job search app Jobbatical. Business Insider met with the Kleins at LocalGlobe's office in London to talk about Europe's technology potential, whether we're in a tech bubble, overvalued startups, artificial intelligence and Brexit. Robin Klein: The number of new companies being formed just keeps growing and growing and growing. We think seed capital of a kind that we provide is just fundamental to this ecosystem. It's what we've done for years, it's what we think we know, what we think we're good at. But it's never going to meet the aspirations of thousands of founders who are creating great companies. Saul Klein: On the UK/Europe side, as my Dad said, we've both been involved in the industry now for [a long time.] I started doing this in October 1993, so well over 20 years since we put The Telegraph online. You add innovations, the first e-commerce transaction in the UK was 1995. I then went off to the US and spent 1995 to 2002 in the US so I saw the US bubble burst. I didn't see the UK bubble burst. But we did invest in about eight companies at the time, including lastminute.com. In the US when we saw the bubble burst there, our fortunate seed investment in the US was a company called Pyro Labs which was Blogger which got sold to Google before the IPO. The bottom line is that we've both lived and worked through at least three or four very significant cycles where things have been amazing then things have been terrible and'no tech company will ever get funded again,' 'no company will ever go public.' 'Everyone's crazy, what are they're thinking?' 'This whole internet thing is just these stupid kids.' 'It's going to go away.' We've seen here in Europe and in the US these very, very significant cycles where the sentiment, whether it's media sentiment, investor sentiment, public market sentiment, corporate sentiment, [they] have all gone through massive crashes.

Graduate recruitment at auditors and accountants could fall by as much as 50% by 2020 due to the impact of artificial intelligence, according to a top executive of "Big Four" accountant EY. Steve Varley, chairman and managing partner for the UK and Ireland at EY, told the Financial Times: "Over time our graduate needs are coming down." The "Big Four" -- EY, PwC, KPMG and Deloitte -- are between them one of the biggest graduate employers in the UK. Globally, the auditing and accounting industry is also one of the biggest graduate recruiters. If recruitment reduces, thousands of grads will have to find somewhere else to start their careers.

Software services major Infosys has launched an artificial intelligence platform'Mana' that will help clients drive automation and innovation. The company said that the platform, that brings machine learning together with'deep knowledge of an organisation', will enable businesses to continuously reinvent their system landscapes and lower maintenance cost of assets. Coupled with Aikido service offerings, Mana will help clients capture knowledge while delivering new and delightful experiences to their end users, it said. "Over the last 35 years, Infosys has maintained, operated and managed systems with global clients across every industry. Building on this deep experience, Infosys has recognised the need to bring artificial intelligence to the enterprise in a meaningful and purposeful way," Infosys CEO and Managing Director Vishal Sikka said at Infosys Confluence 2016.

Microsoft UK's chief envisioning officer Dave Choplin made some strong statements at an artificial intelligence conference last Thursday. Sam Shead of Business Insider wrote about Choplin's claim that AI is "the most important technology that anybody on the planet is working on today." Currently, most people's interactions with AI are limited to asking Cortana or Siri to help with simple tasks like scheduling appointments or making phone calls. Those small incremental improvements to our digital assistants might make AI seem like something other than the game changer that Choplin envisions. But as AI improves with advances in deep neural nets and machine learning algorithms, the technology stands the chance to amplify virtually everything in life.