Making dinner reservations can be stressful and time-consuming, but thankfully help may soon be on the way. From as early as next year ChatGPT will be able to call restaurants and make bookings, according to an AI expert. Aidan Meller, director of the Ai-Da robot project, thinks a big update to the popular AI is due in 2024. Mr Meller says that the chatbot will soon be able to take actions in the world, rather than just act as a text editor. The last update to ChatGPT, version 4, came in the Spring of this year and has raised hopes for big improvements in version 5. ChatGPT's next update could give it the ability to call up restaurants and make reservations on your behalf without any need for you to intervene While non-paying users still make do with version ChatGPT 3.5, version 4 brought improved memory and also enabled data-to-text functions.

It has been touted as an existential risk on a par with pandemics. But when it comes to artificial intelligence, at least one pioneer is not losing sleep over such worries. Prof Michael Wooldridge, who will be delivering this year's Royal Institution Christmas lectures, said he was more concerned AI could become the boss from hell, monitoring employees' every email, offering continual feedback and even – potentially – deciding who gets fired. "There are some prototypical examples of those tools that are available today. And I find that very, very disturbing," he said.

'Hidden numbers' have a profound effect on our lives - from online dating and falling in love to manipulating our decisions through targeted advertising and fake news. In this year's Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, Mathematician and author Hannah Fry will explore how maths, numbers and data patterns can help explain make sense of life's human experiences. She will also be asking the big ethical questions about the data (and trust) that we gift companies such as Netflix and Amazon and how they use this information to develop new unprecedented levels of control. 'I'd argue that maths is the most important idea that humans have ever had. It's the foundation of science,' said Dr Fry.

Dogs have a better understanding of how its owner is feeling than the other way around, according to experts. Researchers say that your dog's social skills make it more adept at reading your mood, with people often misunderstanding their pet's reactions. Studies suggest that a range of domesticated animals, including pets and livestock, posses far greater emotional intelligence than we may give them credit for. Dogs have a better understanding of how its owner is feeling than the other way around, according to experts. Researchers say that your pet pooch's social skills make it more adept at reading your mood (stock image) Begun by Michael Faraday in 1825, the Royal Institution's Christmas Lectures, are now broadcast on UK television every December and have formed part of the British Christmas tradition for generations. The Lectures have taken place every year since they began, stopping only from 1939 to 1942, when it was too dangerous for children to come into central London.