Once considered the subject of our imagination, best left in the realm of science fiction, robots are now a growing technology that is rapidly changing our world. We have become accustomed to seeing them on our TV screens in cartoons such as The Jetsons (1962-1988) or in films such as Big Hero 6 (2014), Elysium (2013) or Robot and Frank (2012). Whether they are helping surgeons with keyhole surgery, manufacturing medicine or assisting the elderly, it is clear that robots have left the realm of science fiction and are a reality that may soon be coming to a home or health facility near us. There are clear benefits to using robots as seen by countries such as Japan where robots now help care for its ageing population. In the UK, which is also facing similar issues, NHS Western Isles and NHS Shetland for example have been trialling the use of a robot called'Giraff' in patients' homes.

Chatbots, Live video, and VR technology are all on the docket for Facebook's F8 developer conference, and you can watch the livestream here at 9:30am PST with Mark Zuckerberg's keynote starting at 10am. There'll also be more streamed sessions all day today and tomorrow. While Facebook is tight-lipped about exactly what will be revealed today, we've heard from sources some confirmed launches as well as a few rumors. Here's a few things to watch for: Messenger Chatbot APIs – Facebook will launch tools allowing developers to build automated response agents for Messenger, multiple sources confirm. This follows our scoop from February that Facebook had given some developers a Chat SDK for building bots. These bots could replace 1-800 numbers, providing customer service over chat, and use artificial intelligence to deliver ecommerce, news, content, and other experiences.

Facebook's F8 developer conference has kicked off, and the world of tech is waiting eagerly for some big announcements. There's been a steady stream of rumours about what Facebook co-founder and chief executive Mark Zuckerberg is going to unveil at the opening of the conference. Chatbots are believed to be one of the major new products, smart conversational programs built in to Facebook Messenger that can order pizzas, book taxis and reserve tickets. We're also expecting more details on its live video streaming tool, and possibly new plans for virtual reality (VR). Follow our liveblog below to keep up-to-date with all the latest news from the conference.

McKinsey analysts recently asked how traditional industries are now using machine learning to gather fresh business insights. With processing power so cheap, chewing through petabytes of data in order for machine learning to happen is no longer an activity restricted to science boffins or the cash-rich. No surprise then that the McKinsey list documents impressive examples in America. "This past spring, contenders for the US National Basketball Association championship relied on the analytics of Second Spectrum, a California machine-learning start-up. By digitizing the past few seasons' games, it has created predictive models that allow a coach to distinguish between, as CEO Rajiv Maheswaran puts it, "a bad shooter who takes good shots and a good shooter who takes bad shots"--and to adjust his decisions accordingly".

The robots are coming -- to help run your life or sell you stuff -- at an online texting service near you. In coming months, users of Facebook's Messenger app, Microsoft's Skype and Canada's Kik can expect to find new automated assistants offering information and services at a variety of businesses. These messaging "chatbots" are basically software that can conduct human-like conversation and do simple jobs once reserved for people. Google and other companies are reportedly working on similar ideas. In Asia, software butlers are already part of the landscape.

A keen-eyed new robot looks poised to snag an important everyday warehouse job. Kinema Systems, a startup based in Menlo Park, California, has developed a robot capable of breaking down pallets of boxes no matter what size or shape they are or how they are packed together. This is a routine job at thousands of large stores, warehouses, and shipping companies--the aftermath of goods making their way through the supply line to your front door. The new robot uses a simple suction system to grab boxes, but it needs state-of-the-art computer vision and machine learning to figure out how to grab them. The machine does not need to be programmed at all--instead, it automatically calibrates itself and teaches itself how to break boxes down.

Since Google's computer program AlphaGo won four out of five matches against South Korea's champion Go player, Japanese governmental officials are seriously wondering whether artificial intelligence (AI) is the way to rewrite Japan's blueprint for the future. There is precedent for programs beating humans. IBM's Deep Blue beat chess champion Gary Kasparov in 1997, and in 2012, computer programs beat professionals of Shogi, also known as Japanese chess. But the Japanese government has never been as shaken as this time. That's because Go, which is played on a grid of 19 horizontal lines and 19 vertical lines, is considered "the last bastion of human intelligence."

In the last couple of years, one of the most interesting application areas where machine learning has found traction is crime prediction. City police departments, across the globe, have been enthusiastically embracing the technological intervention that can improve crime analysis or its prevention rates. By focusing on crime prediction, police forces can not only focus on increasing optimization and efficiency in police force deployment but also prevent crimes. While we are far from the science fiction of Minority Report becoming a truth, various reports have suggested that implementation of these software has helped police departments in either preventing or accurately predicting crimes by approximately 10-15%. This is a significant number, given that we are talking about saving human lives at risk here.

PRINCETON – Last month, AlphaGo, a computer program specially designed to play the game Go, caused shockwaves among aficionados when it defeated Lee Sidol, one of the world's top-ranked professional players, winning a five-game tournament by a score of 4-1. Why, you may ask, is that news? Twenty years have passed since the IBM computer Deep Blue defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov, and we all know computers have improved since then. But Deep Blue won through sheer computing power, using its ability to calculate the outcomes of more moves to a deeper level than even a world champion can. Go is played on a far larger board (19 by 19 squares, compared to 8x8 for chess) and has more possible moves than there are atoms in the universe, so raw computing power was unlikely to beat a human with a strong intuitive sense of the best moves.

You don't have to be a Go champion to have artificial intelligence change your game. You get in your car, and your Apple iPhone tells what traffic looks like where you're going--before you ask. We're all on the road with Tesla's self-driving cars, which are redefining what "driving" means. The artificial intelligence calendar assistant Amy emails three of your friends to figure out a meeting time that works for everyone--and nails it. Thankfully, chatting with Amazon's Alexa is a lot more entertaining than, say, with Hal, the fictional artificial intelligence from the film 2001: A Space Odyssey.