It doesn't look like a place to make groundbreaking discoveries that change the trajectory of society. But in these simulated, claustrophobic corridors, Demis Hassabis thinks he can lay the foundations for software that's smart enough to solve humanity's biggest problems. "Our goal's very big," says Hassabis, whose level-headed manner can mask the audacity of his ideas. He leads a team of roughly 200 computer scientists and neuroscientists at Google's DeepMind, the London-based group behind the AlphaGo software that defeated the world champion at Go in a five-game series earlier this month, setting a milestone in computing.

Are you too lazy to open the door or switch on a light? Let Windows 10 and its Cortana voice-activated digital assistant do the job for you. Microsoft's vision is to make home automation a breeze in Windows 10, and the company featured several related Internet-of-things announcements at its ongoing Build conference. Windows 10 will work with a wider range of devices and appliances by integrating new Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) protocols, scheduled to be released in 2017. Additionally, Cortana will allow users to easily automate tasks using a Windows PC, mobile device, Xbox console or Raspberry Pi 3. Users will be able to program "actions" so Cortana can be used to switch on lights, air conditioning or even unlock cars.

Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella is pushing developers to create virtual assistants and intelligent chatbots to help users do everything from managing their calendars to booking hotel reservations. To that end, Microsoft has published a new Bot Framework, which makes it easier to build chatbots using either C# or Node.js. Working with the tools isn't so easy that anyone could do it, but they can help reduce some of the difficulties of conversing with a computer. It was one of the main announcements from Nadella's keynote address at Microsoft's Build developer conference Wednesday. In a session following the keynote, Microsoft Senior Research Development Engineer Dan Driscoll revealed an interesting point in favor of creating intelligent bots as an interface for a service: The bots let developers meet users where they are without having to worry about what platform those people are on.

Are you too lazy to open the door or switch on a light? Let Windows 10 and its Cortana voice-activated digital assistant do the job for you. Microsoft's vision is to make home automation a breeze in Windows 10, and the company featured several related Internet-of-things announcements at its ongoing Build conference. Windows 10 will work with a wider range of devices and appliances by integrating new Open Connectivity Foundation (OCF) protocols, scheduled to be released in 2017. Additionally, Cortana will allow users to easily automate tasks using a Windows PC, mobile device, Xbox console or Raspberry Pi 3. Users will be able to program "actions" so Cortana can be used to switch on lights, air conditioning or even unlock cars.

In a paper in Harvard Business Review, Kellogg School of Management professor Robert Wolcott illustrates the problems that Netflix founder Reed Hastings had in 1997 in building a platform. Hastings had always wanted to provide on-demand video, but the technology infrastructure just wasn't there when he needed it. So he started by building a DVDs-by-mail business -- while he plotted a long-term strategy for today's platform. According to Wolcott, Uber has a strategic intent of providing self-driving cars, but while the technology evolves it is managing with human drivers. It has built a platform that enables rapid evolution as technologies, consumer behaviors, and regulations change.

Sean Gallup / GettyDon't worry, the machines are your friend. It used to be the case that you had to program a computer so that it knew how to do things. Now computers can learn from experience. The breakthrough is called "machine learning." It's unimaginably important for understanding where technology is going, and where society is going with it.

With the recent rapid advances in machine learning has come a renaissance for neural networks -- computer software that solves problems a little bit like a human brain, by employing a complex process of pattern-matching distributed across many virtual nodes, or "neurons." Modern compute power has enabled neural networks to recognize images, speech, and faces, as well as to pilot self-driving cars, and win at Go and Jeopardy. Most computer scientists think that is only the beginning of what will ultimately be possible. Unfortunately, the hardware we use to train and run neural networks looks almost nothing like their architecture. That means it can take days or even weeks to train a neural network to solve a problem -- even on a compute cluster -- and then require a large amount of power to solve the problem once they're trained.

If you want to see some of the stuff that Tay tweeted, head over here.

How can Artificial Intelligence (AI) help companies operate in the 21st century? How might it impact organisations and employees? AI has been around for years, but now it seems that it is taking the business world by storm. According to software startup advisor Steve Ardire, it will fundamentally reshape organisations. "Human capital will start to shift from mundane tasks and transactions to higher-order and creative work.

With its Colonial-era street patterns, icy winters, notoriously aggressive drivers and high-tech talent, the Boston region would seem the perfect place to test self-driving cars and ensure they can handle anything thrown at them. But the area, and indeed the entire Northeast, has no law outlining how the technology should be driven and tested. And lawmakers who want to respond are being spurned by leaders of the fast-growing industry, who would rather have no rules than a patchwork of state laws getting in their way. "I'm hoping that the New England states will make it possible for us to do this work right at home very soon," said Daniela Rus, a professor who directs the artificial intelligence laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which has partnered with Toyota to advance autonomous driving. "We have more flexibility testing our algorithms and self-driving vehicles in Singapore than we do here.