Amazon conference showcases robots and social uses of artificial intelligence

At Amazon's inaugural re:MARS conference, an autonomous mower on display cut straight lines in grass as it scooted back and forth across an artificial lawn on Thursday. The gray, cylindrical Terra robot by iRobot, maker of the Roomba vacuum, was one of many automated machines demonstrated at the event at Las Vegas's Aria resort. Another robot called Temi blasted pop music while, like a faithful pet, it followed a person around the spacious convention center. Thousands of tech fans descended on the Mojave desert for the conference, a public offshoot of Amazon Chairman Jeff Bezos' previous invitation-only MARS conferences (the acronym stands for "Machine Learning, Robotics, Automation and Space"). In dozens of breakout sessions, business leaders discussed the future of jobs, drones, and tools powered by Amazon's cloud platform in fields ranging from space exploration to health care.