It's a topic that has been explored countless times in the annuls of science fiction...human dominance subsumed by ever more intelligent machines. Mankind, in an attempt to create the ultimate simple life where most tasks are carried out by untiring automatons, inadvertently creates its own ironic extinction. The signs are everywhere...Google's Self-Driving Car, fully-automated factories, and of course human-like robots (replicants?) These machines/cyborgs or whatever you decide to classify them as have been developing at a rapid pace within a timescale that is minute compared to the entire history of computing. Some may (hopefully misguidedly) suggest that we are headed towards a Technology Singularity where we've created artificial intelligence (AI) so powerful that it is capable of not only self-improvement of its own faculties but full replication in an endless array of iterations more intelligent than its previous versions.

These "20 percent time" efforts have resulted in Google News, Gmail and AdSense, but it can be difficult for Googlers to find spare time for such projects. Meanwhile, successful examples of Google employees who have parted ways with the company include Pinterest co-founder Ben Silbermann and Instagram co-founder Kevin Systrom. Area 120 reportedly will have a space inside one of the tech giant's San Francisco offices, and teams at Google can apply to join it full time for several months by pitching a business plan. These employees will then have a chance to establish a new company with Google as an investor. Google also has increased its focus on entrepreneurial efforts by splitting its core search engine business away from its new parent entity Alphabet, which nurtures moonshot projects like the Google self-driving car and acquisitions like smart thermostat maker Nest. Alphabet also houses startup funding efforts Google Ventures and Google Capital.

The U.S. government believes the Internet of things (IoT) has enormous economic potential across all industries. Its machine-to-machine technologies can reduce automobile-related injuries, usher in an era of precise weather forecasting and automate all types of processes. But what impact will IoT have on jobs? Will it create more than it destroys? And what happens to all the data devices generate?

One night in late July 2014, a journalist from the Chinese newspaper Southern Weekly interviewed a 17-year-old Chinese girl named XiaoIce (pronounced Shao-ice). The journalist, Liu Jun, conducted the interview online, through the popular social networking platform Weibo. LJ: So many people make fun of you and insult you, why don't you get mad? LJ: What if your father leaves you one day unattended? XiaoIce: Don't try to stir up trouble, what do you want?

Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) is riding on a free wave of notoriety since the start of this year. The firm continues to lead an industry in transition away from internal combustion engines and toward all electric power. Most of the media attention lately comes from the introduction of the "affordable" Tesla Model 3. That car won't even begin delivery until late next year but over 400k people have paid 1000 each just to get in line to buy one. One of the features that will be available on the Model 3 is Autopilot. Tesla gets a lot of attention for its Autopilot feature that provides properly equipped Model S and Model X SUVs with self-driving abilities on highways.

It took 400 million years for the first life to appear on Earth. It took seven minutes for the system to create one of its' own kind. This is the beginning of HOUND project - a game, where you are able to create living things - eating, breathing, struggling for survival in the name of natural selection. If you ever had a fantasy of following Dr. Frankensteins' footsteps or playing God in basically any way, possible, this game is for you! Minimalistic open world sandbox, HOUND projects' "system" provides you with abilities to Manipulate artificial intelligence directly - it takes millions of years for living things to evolve on Earth.

Professor Toby Walsh, Professor of Artificial Intelligence at the University of New South Wales will be giving a lecture on the future of robotics tomorrow at UCT. Professor Walsh is currently on the Executive Council of the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and an advocate of the'Campaign to Stop Killer Robots'. He is also Editor-in-Chief for the Journal of Artificial Intelligence Research. John Maytham speaks to Professor Walsh to find out more about the lecture he will be delivering, and the interesting subject of artificial intelligence. AI is trying to build computers to do things that we would normally think of as intelligent and its starting to pervade our lives. He says artificial intelligence is starting to take over more aspects of the things humans do.

It's an exciting time to be involved the customer service and communications space. There are more ways to interact with a brand than ever before (email, Twitter, even Snapchat), but one of the most new and exciting advancements is chatbots. "Chat bots are computer programs that mimic conversation with people using artificial intelligence. They can transform the way you interact with the internet from a series of self-initiated tasks to a quasi-conversation." In the customer service space, chatbots are using the growing power of artificial intelligence to allow customers to interact with a brand as they would with a customer service representative.

A team of computer scientists may have developed a surprising way to curb wildlife poaching. Funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF), a team of computer scientists at the University of Southern California (USC) have developed a model for "green security games" that use game theory to protect wildlife from poachers. Game theory uses mathematical equations "to predict the behavior of adversaries and plan optimal approaches for containment," explains NSF, which would allow park rangers to patrol parks and wildlife sanctuaries more effectively. "In most parks, ranger patrols are poorly planned, reactive rather than pro-active and habitual," Fei Fang, a Ph.D. candidate in the computer science department at USC and a researcher involved with the project, tells NSF. "We need to provide actual patrol routes that can be practically followed."

On the 15th March 2016, an artificially intelligent (AI) software programme called AlphaGo, defeated the world champion of an ancient board game called Go. The game is immensely complex, with a total combination of possible moves numbering several hundred orders of magnitude more than the number of atoms in the universe. Winning the series four-to-one, AlphaGo's victory was emphatic. It also showcased significant advances in AI's ability to recognise obscure patterns, learn new ones and adapt strategies to changing circumstances. Yet, just two weeks after AlphaGo's impressive victory, a new chatbot called Tay, exposed a darker side to AI. Designed to engage in friendly conversation with people online and assist them with Microsoft services, Tay's unique design feature was that "she" learns from her online interactions.