It has to be said, the launch titles were not great. When the PlayStation 2 arrived in Japan on 4 March 2000, the first games early purchasers got to take home with them included a mahjong sim and a digital train set. The big-name titles, Street Fighter EX3 and Ridge Racer 5, were formulaic entries in tired legacy franchises. Meanwhile, Sega's Dreamcast machine, released a year earlier, was hosting innovative hits such as Shenmue, Crazy Taxi and Power Stone. Had Sony stumbled after its hugely successful and highly disruptive original PlayStation?

Chances are you either love or hate your car -- and soon the feeling could be mutual. Japanese automaker Honda will showcase a concept car at the Consumer Electronics Show next month that is capable of understanding the driver's emotions and developing emotions of its own, the company announced this week. The company provided few details as to how the technology will work or alter the driving experience. But we do know that the concept car, called the NeuV, is being touted as an automated electric vehicle that includes an "emotion engine." That's the name for artificial intelligence that Honda says will "enable machines to artificially generate their own emotions."

Companies have been trying to drum up enthusiasm for them for years, with little success. Pepper, a humanoid machine carrying the hopes of SoftBank Group Corp.'s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, was supposed to change that. Promoted as the first robot to be endowed with emotions, the company marketed Pepper aggressively after it was unveiled in 2014, promising the gadget was sophisticated enough for tasks usually handled by shop clerks, receptionists and translators. "It's not there to have a conversation," said Junichi Nishi, a municipal official in Fujieda, Shizuoka Prefecture, a city of about 140,000. "We use it primarily as a tablet," he said, referring to the touch screen attached to the robot's chest.

Companies have been trying to drum up enthusiasm for them for years, with little success. Pepper, a humanoid machine carrying the hopes of SoftBank Group Corp.'s billionaire founder Masayoshi Son, was supposed to change that. Promoted as the first robot to be endowed with emotions, the company marketed Pepper aggressively after it was unveiled in 2014, promising the gadget was sophisticated enough for tasks usually handled by shop clerks, receptionists and translators. "It's not there to have a conversation," said Junichi Nishi, a municipal government official in Fujieda, a city of about 140,000 in central Japan. "We use it primarily as a tablet," he said, referring to the touch screen attached to the robot's chest.

Human beings have an uneasy relationship with robots. We're fascinated by the prospect of intelligent machines. At the same time, we're wary of the existential threat they pose, one emboldened by decades of Hollywood tropes. In the near-term, robots are supposed to pose a threat to our livelihood, with automation promising to replace human workers while the steady march of artificial intelligence puts a machine behind every fast food counter, toll booth, and steering wheel. The palm-sized robot, from San Francisco-based company Anki, is both a harmless toy and a bold refutation of that uneasy relationship so loved by film and television.

Human beings have an uneasy relationship with robots. We're fascinated by the prospect of intelligent machines. At the same time, we're wary of the existential threat they pose, one emboldened by decades of Hollywood tropes. In the near-term, robots are supposed to pose a threat to our livelihood, with automation promising to replace human workers while the steady march of artificial intelligence puts a machine behind every fast food counter, toll booth, and steering wheel. The palm-sized robot, from San Francisco-based company Anki, is both a harmless toy and a bold refutation of that uneasy relationship so loved by film and television.

Kawasaki announced it is working on an artificial intelligence system that would allow a motorcycle to communicate with, and adapt to its rider. The AI would be able to converse with a rider and, using cloud computing and a motorcycle's electronics, adapt the bike's settings to the rider's needs and skills. The AI wouldn't just allow a motorcycle to talk to a rider; Kawasaki says the AI will use a technology called an "Emotion Engine" to interpret a rider's emotions and perhaps even develop its own personality. Kawasaki says the AI will allow a motorcycle to converse (??) with its rider while processing data from the internet (???????) and vehicle information (????). While this may sound like science fiction, the Emotion Engine is already being used in the real world.

It looks like it could be the child of Pixar favourites Wall-E and Eve, but the tiny robot developed by Anki is real enough to hold in the palm of your hand. Cozmo is a tiny robot equipped with a powerful brain and an'emotion engine,' allowing it to create an evolving bond with its human companions. The 180 robot reacts to your emotions and remembers the faces it's seen before, communicating through complex facial expressions and its own unique language. Cozmo is a tiny robot equipped with a powerful brain and an'emotion engine,' allowing it to create an evolving bond with its human companions. The 180 robot reacts to your emotions and remembers the faces it's seen before Cozmo has a powerful brain and an'emotion engine.

Pepper is finally coming to America. SoftBank said today that its chatty humanoid robot, unveiled with great fanfare by the company's founder and CEO Masayoshi Son two years ago, is expected to debut in the North American market later this year. SoftBank also announced that a new developer portal is now available to anyone interested in creating applications for the robot. And tomorrow at Google I/O, SoftBank engineers will take the stage, along with Pepper, to introduce a tool that they hope will entice more developers to build apps for the robot: an Android SDK. "We're so excited to see what the development community can bring on to our platform," Steve Carlin, vice president of marketing and business development for SoftBank Robotics America, told IEEE Spectrum, adding that "ultimately what is going to really power Pepper is the creativity of this community."