Artificial intelligence has already become a part of our everyday lives through AI-assisted services like Siri. But Al has its own hobbies too, including the mind-whirling game of poker. Scholars at Carnegie Mellon University have developed an AI system named Libratus that will wage a poker battle (with a $200,000 pot) against four of the best human pros out there. In a tournament called "Brains Vs. Artificial Intelligence: Upping the Ante," Libratus and the humans will play matches of Heads-Up No-Limit Texas Hold'em beginning on Jan. 11 at the Rivers Casino in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, the university announced in a press release. A total of 120,000 hands will be played during the 20-day tournament.

WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger users are being tricked into sending out a message by a scam. The hoax claims that people need to send out a message otherwise theyl'l be forced to pay for each one they send to their friends in future. If they don't copy and paste the post then the apps will presume that they are not an "avid user" and so will move towards charging them, the post claims. But it's entirely untrue and neither Facebook or WhatsApp is moving to charging for messages. Both are expected to remain entirely free – which they need to do, since Facebook's business model is capturing information on its users and then using that to charge advertisers for marketing.

It's pretty impossible for humanoid robots to not look creepy, even if it's a familiar face, like Albert Einstein. Hanson Robots unleashed its miniature robot dubbed Professor Einstein at CES this week. It's a 14.5" Wi-Fi-connected robot geared toward educating and entertaining its users with the likeness of the late genius Albert Einstein. The robot pairs and interacts with an accompanying iOS and Android app called the Stein-O-Matic, used to teach science and play games, but can also act sort of like a Amazon Alexa or Google Home by reciting facts, solving problems and giving current weather updates. SEE ALSO: Vinci smart headphones have a friggin' screen on them Hanson Robots teamed up with toy inventor Andy Rifkin as its CTO to create the gaming app that has an IQ level which increases the more you interact with Professor Einstein. While ditching the screen has been a tech trend widely recognized at the largest consumer electronics show in the world this year, Hanson Robots is putting a familiar face to its technology, though we have to admit it's still a little creepy, and that's OK. The robots produced by Hanson Robots are eerily lifelike, and produce a wide range of facial expressions and gestures -- Professor Einstein has over 50. "Our end goal is to make AI very smart and to relate with people well, so by giving it a humanlike form it means that we can teach it more what it means to be human," CEO and founder David Hanson tells Mashable. "It can physically explore the world the way that a baby would, and it can socially explore; learn from people." Hanson Robots breaks down its strategy into three areas: extremely humanlike robots, consumer robots (like Professor Einstein) and its cloud AI, called Mind Cloud, intended to learn from the interactions it has with humans. For people who are a little creeped out by an AI that's learning in their home, Hanson ensured us that its AI is programmed to not learn about your personal life. It's not learning about all the people around the world, but what it is doing is learning from those interaction to generalize, said Hanson. "Your individual robot becomes your personal companion, but the Mind Cloud just sort of generally gets smarter from all those interactions.

Like a corporation, robots will soon be able to hold value. "We see with bitcoin and cryptocurrencies situations where the technology allows one person to control one-fifth of an asset," the Bloq founder explained, referring to a multi-signature transaction protocol where three out of five private key holders must sign off for a transaction to be executed. "What if the asset-holders were robot shareholders in a corporation or property? And Bitcoin helps with that. Cryptocurrency startups are building autonomous agents right now."

For its CES 2017 presentation, Toyota is inviting people to imagine a future where artificial intelligence makes cars less robotic and more human. A fast emerging trend from this year's tech extravaganza is the use by carmakers of Artificial Intelligence (AI) as a way of accelerating the development of autonomous vehicles. If a car can learn from its errors and from its owner, it will be able to navigate spaces and terrains without mapping and will be able to make the right decision if a familiar route suddenly changes. Toyota's Concept-i car can conceivably do all of those things, but it will do so in a way that still makes the driver feel like they're in complete control. "At Toyota, we recognise that the important question isn't whether future vehicles will be equipped with automated or connected technologies," said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations for Toyota.

After two days of media-only events, the Consumer Electronic Show officially began with thousands of innovative gadgets from both well known names and emerging brands. Smart assistants have so far been a major theme of the show, but the first day also brought video-recording glasses, adorable robots, and lots of virtual reality. Depending on Olly's mood, its face will light up in different colors. It also swivels around on its base to look at you when you're speaking to create a more personal experience, the Olly team told Dailymail.com Among the many devices on display today was the'emotional' Olly smart assistant.

A month ago, I tried A/B testing to see how different "treatments" or input parameters might result in longer sleep for our twins -- and of course by proxy, us. Through this, I found that sleep patterns were fairly erratic and didn't find much that correlated strongly to increased sleep. As time went on, they started more largely on their own naturally. However, now that they have reached four months, they've begun the apparently common but rarely discussed sleep regression phase. I once again found myself desperate for more sleep.

Among the monstrous number of announcements to come out of CES this week a major battle is emerging in the smart home arena. The potential of IoT has never been in question, though the role of smart homes is one which is yet to wow the mass market. The idea is great, but market penetration has been slow. IoT light bulbs, or smart fridges have been around for quite a while, but uptake has not been exceptional. With the introduction of personal assistants as part of the smart home hub, the tide is slowly beginning to turn however.

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Artificial intelligence, or AI, seems to be the most buzzed-about topic in technology lately. It's helping display the right ads within your social network, recommend the next product to buy from your favorite online retailer, and--soon--direct your autonomous car around town. In other words, every Fortune 500 executive should be thinking about how best to use AI within his or her own company. Baidu chief scientist Andrew Ng, speaking at a Fortune Brainstorm Tech dinner at The Bellagio in Las Vegas, believes CEOs should go further. "You need a chief AI officer," Ng told Fortune assistant managing editor Adam Lashinsky. "If you have a lot of data and you want to create value from that data one of the things you might consider is building up an AI team."