Kathryn Foley's nine-year-old daughter Helene is a regular on Roblox. Kathryn ensures her daughter avoids games where other players would talk to her, or friend requests. Ms Foley told BBC News: "I know I will absolutely be using the game blocking feature, and to see how long my daughter spends on particular games - and also if she is playing games I didn't know she played." Kirsty Solman has spoken with the BBC about how Roblox has helped her 13-year-old son Kyle - who has ADHD, autism and severe anxiety - with social interactions. She said: "These all sound fantastic especially the experience blocking, as a concern is the type of games our children are accessing."

"Step into my office," says Joanna Fang. OK, but to the untrained eye it's a kleptomaniac's hoard: rolls of Astroturf, mud and moss, wooden planks, violin bows, smashed keyboards, plastic boxes brimming with shoes, a full armory of axes and swords, a sand pit, a bamboo fence, rocks, half a bike, smashed iPhones, a boat's anchor chain, a grimy car door. "Never trust a clean foley stage," she says. Fang is a senior foley artist at Sony PlayStation. Her job is to put sound to video games.

This content can also be viewed on the site it originates from. The salvage yard at M. Maselli & Sons, in Petaluma, California, is made up of six acres of angle irons, block pulleys, doorplates, digging tools, motors, fencing, tubing, reels, spools, and rusted machinery. To the untrained eye, the place is a testament to the enduring power of American detritus, but to Foley artists--craftspeople who create custom sound effects for film, television, and video games--it's a trove of potential props. On a recent morning, Shelley Roden and John Roesch, Foley artists who work at Skywalker Sound, the postproduction audio division of Lucasfilm, stood in the parking lot, considering the sonic properties of an enormous industrial hopper. "I'm looking for a resonator, and I need more ka-chunkers," Roden, who is blond and in her late forties, said.

A Bruntwood prize for playwriting winner in 2017, and only just receiving its premiere now, it is a brilliant example of what the competition should be all about. As the play opens, St Grace's Convent is in trouble. The mother superior has died, the coffers are almost empty and morale is low. In desperation, Elizabeth, the new acting mother, brings in Mary – a council-funded robot who divides opinion among the sisters. But could she be the miracle they all need?

A figure sits alone on stage, dressed in comfy jumper and trousers, one leg crossed over the other. He slowly moves his hands and turns his head. But this sole performer in Uncanny Valley, by theatre company Rimini Protokoll, is not human. It is a lifelike animatronic model of the German writer Thomas Melle. The show's director, Stefan Kaegi, had seen animatronics used in museums, where he found there was not sufficient time for what he calls the "empathy mechanism" to kick in. But he wondered what would happen if the robot became a performer, "someone with whom we start to identify".

One of the stars of the working-out-from-home boom is struggling. Peloton won't go quietly though and is making some big changes. The company will replace the CEO and co-founder, John Foley, who will become executive chairman, with former Spotify COO Barry McCarthy reportedly set to step into his shoes. While Foley is sticking around, the company is cutting around 2,800 corporate positions -- these won't include Peloton's instructors who lead its live classes. The company said in a press release about the lay-offs that its "monthly membership will be complimentary for impacted team members for an additional 12 months."

Just days after a disastrous earnings report cut its stock in half, Peloton is expanding its hardware and subscription businesses, unveiling a $500 set-top-box with a camera that helps users with strength training. Known as the Peloton Guide, the device lets users access a library of strength training videos from their TV, while using a camera and artificial intelligence to correct people's form and posture, compared to the instructor. Fitness fanatics can use the $495 Peloton Guide with their own equipment, weights and accessories, which could be a problem for people who don't already own equipment. Shares dropped nearly 50 percent last week after the company lost $376 million on $805.2 million in revenue in its fiscal third-quarter, citing slowdowns in its hardware and subscription businesses. Peloton shares dropped nearly 50 percent last week after the company lost $376 million on $805.2 million in revenue in its fiscal third-quarter, citing slowdowns in its hardware and subscription businesses Peloton revenue grew 6 percent to $805.2 million from $757.9 million a year earlier, missing estimates for $810.7 million.

During a visit to Adelaide last week, chief scientist of Australia Dr Cathy Foley very kindly agreed to join a taped panel discussion at the Royal Institution of Australia about some of her favourite science topics – AI and machine learning, and quantum computing. Hosted by Adelaide journalist and broadcaster Tory Shepherd, a regular contributor to cosmosmagazine.com, the panel included Foley, Dr Johan Verjans and Dr Vikram Sharma. Verjans is a medical specialist who combines clinical and research work. Sharma is a quantum physicist and the founder and CEO of Canberra-based QuintessenceLabs, which is a world leader in the quantum cybersecurity industry. Foley is a physicist and Australia's ninth chief scientist; her three-year term began in January 2021.

The Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO) has announced partnerships with Microsoft, Hobart City Council, and Chemistry Australia to address -- and attempt to end -- Australia's plastics waste issue. Under its plastics mission, CSIRO will work with its partners to develop new solutions that use artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and camera sensors for plastics detection and waste monitoring in waterways. CSIRO senior principal research scientist Denise Hardesty said the goal would be to apply technology to the entire plastics supply chain to eliminate rubbish ending up in the environment. "Our research is helping to understand the extent of plastic pollution in Australia and globally, and how to reduce it," she said. "Rethinking plastic packaging is just one way of reducing waste, through better design, materials, and logistics. We can also transform the way we use, manufacture, and recycle plastics by creating new products and more value for plastics."

Think about your last online order. If you're a frequent online shopper and have created profiles for sites you visit often (*raises hand*), then you're probably familiar with customized recommendations. Based on your purchase history, location, and other factors, the website may suggest other items you might be interested in buying. And if you're on the site long enough, chatbots may appear asking if you have questions or need assistance locating something. These are just two examples of how artificial intelligence (AI) and automation have made the consumer experience easier and created ways to help businesses understand their buying patterns and what they need.