Brown University researchers have developed a new image analysis technique to distinguish two key cancer cell types associated with tumor progression. The approach could help in pre-clinical screening of cancer drugs and shed light on a cellular metamorphosis that is associated with more malignant and drug-resistant cancers. The epithelial-mesenchymal transition, or EMT, is a process by which more docile epithelial cells transform into more aggressive mesenchymal cells. Tumors with higher numbers of mesenchymal cells are often more malignant and more resistant to drug therapies. The new technique combines microscopic imaging with a machine learning algorithm to better identify and distinguish between the two cell types in laboratory samples.

Some soft robots can wriggle into tight spots and swim like a real octopus. These ones developed by a team from the École polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), however, are also capable of doing something more: they can help with the physical rehabilitation of people recovering from injuries and illnesses. The EPFL team have created a number of flexible, reconfigurable machines that can mimic human muscles' movement. They're made of silicon and rubber -- though the team also made a variant using a thick paper shell -- and they can be controlled by manipulating how much air they have inside. One of the medical devices they created with their soft robots is a belt that keeps patients upright and controls their movements during rehabilitation exercises.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2016 and beyond. Gideon Hyde, co-founder of Market Gravity, proposition design consultancy, shares his thoughts on this emerging technology and explains how businesses can embrace AI to enhance their offerings, meet consumer demand for speed, personalisation and convenience, and launch new products and services to stand out in the competitive marketplace. Gideon Hyde is co-founder and CEO of Market Gravity, which has offices in London, Edinburgh and New York. It works with big businesses, including Boots, Barclaycard, HSBC, Aegon, Standard Life, RWE npower and The AA, to help them realise their innovation capabilities and release the start up within. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks.

More and more, chatbots are entering the B2C world without consumers even realizing it's happening. But are we waiting for some big, wow-worthy, famous, life-changing chatbot in order for the concept to become mainstream? Chatbots are clearly not yet dinner table discussion topics. "There is no doubt that chatbots will become a critical onramp for brands to connect with customers," said Jake Bennett, CTO at POP. "Chatbots [are] giving brands a direct communication channel and storefront inside the apps that users already use every day. A recent study by Ovum reported that 53 percent of American and German respondents prefer chatting with businesses through chat apps, like Facebook Messenger, rather than speaking by phone with the business.

Conversational UIs (CUI) have been gaining rapid prominence this year. If web applications enabled new user conveniences (like self-service travel booking and e-commerce) in the 1990s, Mobile apps opened up different set of conveniences since 2007 (like GPS navigation, ride hailing, and messengers). Over the past two years, CUIs like Amazon Alexa have begun to enable another interaction mode that has the potential to unlock new set user conveniences and use cases like never before. Conversational UIs include both text based and voice based UIs. The focus of this blog post is on voice based UI.

The first episode of HBO's Westworld heavily implied that a terrified robot was being raped -- and not for the first time either. Dolores (Evan Rachel Wood), a 30-year-old automaton that thinks it's a 30-year-old woman, cries and begs and screams. But there are people who go in for this sort of thing. Porn sharing communities often call rape-themed videos "struggle porn" or hide behind neologisms like "painal." The ones that focus on robots are more forward than that because there is no crime implied.

Rather than viewing these advances as threats to job security, we can look at them as opportunities for AI to fill in critical gaps in existing service providers, such as mental healthcare professionals. But what if artificial intelligence could bring quality and affordable mental health support to anyone with an internet connection? This is X2AI's mission, a startup that's built Tess AI to provide quality mental healthcare to anyone, regardless of income or location. Thanks to these psychologists we are able to offer behavioral health services directly to large employers or employer health plans, as the psychologists can take care of parts of the treatment and ensure to stand-by whenever additional human intervention is required.

Artificial intelligence is learning to take on an increasing number of sophisticated tasks. Google Deepmind's AI is now able to imitate human speech, and just this past August IBM's Watson successfully diagnosed a rare case of leukemia. Rather than viewing these advances as threats to job security, we can look at them as opportunities for AI to fill in critical gaps in existing service providers, such as mental healthcare professionals. In the US alone, nearly eight percent of the population suffers from depression (that's about one in every 13 American adults), and yet about 45 percent of this population does not seek professional care due to the costs. There are many barriers to getting quality mental healthcare, from searching for a provider who's within your insurance network to screening multiple potential therapists in order to find someone you feel comfortable speaking with.

Uber's Pittsburgh Experiment, featuring semi-autonomous vehicles, is up and running. If only its fleet could distinguish the proper path down a one-way street. And Google is reporting smashing results for its autonomous vehicle program. This is a public service alert for all you Yinzers out there: Get off the road; you're in danger. While we're at it, to unemployed tech bros desperate to get a foot in the Silicon Valley door: Don't take a gig as a Google autonomous vehicle test driver.

A new artificial intelligence-powered virtual assistant that helps people on the Autism spectrum organize their lives and stay employed will be available in iOS and Android app stores next month, according to Identifor CEO Cuong Do. Do was one of more than a dozen speakers at the Intelligent Assistants Conference, a two-day event held Sept. 12-13 at the Palace Hotel in San Francisco. Called Companion, the app includes a virtual assistant named Abby. Abby is designed to identify an individual's interests and needs and to support a person on the Autism spectrum throughout the day. The virtual assistant uses artificial intelligence to learn the routines of users and keep their work, school, and social life on track.