In midtown Manhattan on March 4, Google's managing director for Israel, Barak Regev, was addressing a conference promoting the Israeli tech industry when a member of the audience stood up in protest. "I am a Google Cloud software engineer, and I refuse to build technology that powers genocide, apartheid, or surveillance," shouted the protester, wearing an orange t-shirt emblazoned with a white Google logo. The Google worker, a 23-year-old software engineer named Eddie Hatfield, was booed by the audience and quickly bundled out of the room, a video of the event shows. After a pause, Regev addressed the act of protest. "One of the privileges of working in a company which represents democratic values is giving space for different opinions," he told the crowd.

People quickly become convinced that a human-like robot is capable of independent thoughts and emotions, a new study has found. This occurs when a robot appears to act on its own beliefs and desires, rather than on what it is programmed to do. Researchers from the Italian Institute of Technology probed the response of study participants to an anthropomorphic robot called iCub. The participants completed a questionnaire before and after interacting with iCub, that was programmed to act either like a robot or in a more friendly manner. It was found that those exposed to the robot programmed to act more like a human were more likely to rate the robot's actions as intentional.

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning … To identify sentience, or consciousness, or even intelligence, we're going to have to work out what …

Minimum qualifications: BA/BS degree in Computer Science or related technical field or equivalent practical experience. 2 years of work or educational experience in Machine Learning or Artificial Intelligence. 1 year of relevant work experience, including software development. Experience with one or more general purpose programming languages including but not limited to: Java, C/C or Python. Preferred qualifications: MS or PhD degree in Computer Science, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, or related technical field. About the job Google's software engineers develop the next-generation technologies that change how billions of users connect, explore, and interact with information and one another. Our products need to handle information at massive scale, and extend well beyond web search.