Loneliness is a distressing personal experience and a growing social issue. Social robots could alleviate the pain of loneliness, particularly for those who lack in-person interaction. This paper investigated how the effect of loneliness on the anthropomorphism of social robots differs by robot appearance, and how it influences purchase intention. Participants viewed a video of one of the three robots (machine-like, animal-like, and human-like) moving and interacting with a human counterpart. Bootstrapped multiple regression results revealed that although the unique effect of animal-likeness on anthropomorphism compared to human-likeness was higher, lonely individuals' tendency to anthropomorphize the animal-like robot was lower than that of the human-like robot. This moderating effect remained significant after covariates were included. Bootstrapped mediation analysis showed that anthropomorphism had both a positive direct effect on purchase intent and a positive indirect effect mediated by likability. Our results suggest that lonely individuals' tendency of anthropomorphizing social robots should not be summarized into one unified inclination. Moreover, by extending the effect of loneliness on anthropomorphism to likability and purchase intent, this current study explored the potential of social robots to be adopted as companions of lonely individuals in their real life. Lastly, we discuss the practical implications of the current study for designing social robots.

Robot revolution to transform human workplaces Feature 18 April 2017 Over the last few months, the idea that a robotic revolution is just around the corner has become commonplace Nick Ismail Robots and artificial intelligence is set to intrude into many of the spheres of our lives – driverless cars are about be tested on Manchester roads, self-driving delivery robots are being trialled in London while a New York firm has developed a robot which can lay six times as many bricks in a day as its human counterpart A recent report from The International Bar Association, a global organisation for lawyers, said Governments could be forced to legislate for quotas of human workers, traditional working practices would be transformed over the coming years and that legal frameworks regulating employment and safety were becoming rapidly outdated. A third of graduate level jobs around the world may eventually be replaced by machines or software, the report said. See also: Robots: better saved for Sci-Fi believe UK consumers An estimate by PWC earlier this year said that 10 million UK workers were at high risk of being replaced by robots over the next 15 years. In some sectors half the jobs could go, it warned. The speed with which change is occurring and the broadness of impact being brought about by AI and robotics is incredible.

The year 2021 is important because even with the time left one can expect greater presence and visibility of digital influencers not just coming up but'competing' with their human counterparts in brand promotion through advanced technologies such as artificial intelligence. Just like, social media influencers, beauty influencers, influencers who are involved with the promotion of AI products and services are known as AI influencers in 2021. With the cutting-edge competition in brand promotion activities, the influencers, in general, are gaining increasing attention in the artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem. Before citing the factors responsible for this development, let it be conveyed that the influencers are so-called because of the ability to influence potential buyers of products and/or services by promoting the items on social media. But there is a lot of fluidity about who the influencers are and how they act. There is, in other words, no unanimously accepted criterion/criteria of'influencer' and it very much remains an evolving concept and process.

Robotic vehicles including unmanned ground, air, and sea vehicles, robotics and automation, intelligent control systems, intelligent manufacturing, intelligent transportation systems, weapon systems are some of the wonder deployments of robotics that have caught the attention of businesses. Robotic products under development include collaborating with intelligent systems to control complex systems of systems that serve as decision tools for human decision-makers, and autonomous intelligent robots and vehicles for military and civil applications. Robots are helpful to make repetitive activities much easier, for instance, assembly lines in a factory or collecting large amounts of mundane data, can be boring. Multiple pieces of research have connected mundane tasks associated with negative behaviours and lethargy, thus impacting production capabilities. This holds especially true for rule-based duties that require continuous attention, leaving the manual workforce tired and agitated.

A robot has been trained to prepare and cook an omelette from breaking the egg to presenting it on a plate to the diner by a team of engineers. Researchers from the University of Cambridge worked with domestic appliance firm Beko to train the machine to create the best omelette for the majority of tastes. The team say cooking is an interesting problem for roboticists as'humans can never be totally objective when it comes to food' or how it should taste. They used machine learning data from a study of volunteers and their reaction to different omelettes cooked in a variety of ways in order to train the robot. The omelette, made by the robotic chef'general tasted great – much better than expected' according to the research team who tested the resulting dish.

Looking to extend its industry leading security capabilities, Blue Prism announced a partnership with SailPoint, a market leader in enterprise identity management. This partnership gives enterprises added visibility and transparency into governing digital workers, resulting in improved compliance reporting, full automation lifecycle management and better security. The integration of Blue Prism's connected-RPA platform with SailPoint helps organizations maintain and control credentials of digital workers, including those that meet defined Separation of Duties (SoD) policies. By maintaining these credentials and granting access through SailPoint, digital workers can execute systems-based tasks, just as their human counterparts do, securely and at scale. This ability to disable or delete credentials quickly and accurately, while monitoring and auditing access, gives enterprises improved compliance reporting and full lifecycle management and security.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly useful for central banks. While it may be used only in low-level roles today, technological advances and cost savings will likely embed AI deeper and deeper into core central bank functions. Maybe each central bank will have their own AI engine, maybe a future'BoB' (the Bank of England Bot). What will be the impact of BoB and its counterparts? BoB could today, or soon, help with many central bank tasks, such as information gathering, data analysis, forecasting, risk management, financial supervision, and monetary policy analysis. The technology is mostly here; what prevents adoption are cultural, political, and legal factors.

The potential applications of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) in construction are vast, and for early adopters, these technologies are already helping to make jobsites safer, more efficient and more productive. Requests for information, open issues and change orders are standard in the construction industry. Machine learning is like a smart assistant that can scrutinize this mountain of data, learn from it and then alert project managers about the critical items that need their attention. This type of AI is also being used to track the real-time interactions of workers, machinery and objects on the jobsite and alert supervisors of potential safety issues, construction errors and productivity issues. What are some of the top benefits of using AI and machine learning in the construction industry?

In spite of recovering major ground after the Great Recession, the construction industry is still facing troubling skilled labor shortages, with a lack of qualified candidates stepping up to take over the positions once held by industry veterans nearing retirement age. The construction industry lost 2.3 million jobs between 2006-2011, and today there are a million fewer residential construction jobs than before 2006, according to Tradesmen International. The Bureau of Labor Statistics Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey shows nearly 200,000 unfilled construction industry jobs nationwide. This gap between available positions and skilled workers ready to fill them puts added pressure on developers, contractors and owners. Even in the face of a worker shortage, construction is booming.

The global construction industry has grown by only one per cent per year over the past few decades. Compare this with a growth rate of 3.6% in manufacturing, and 2.8% for the whole world economy. Productivity, or the total economic output per worker, has remained flat in construction. In comparison, productivity has grown 1,500% in retail, manufacturing, and agriculture since 1945. One of the reasons for this is that construction is one of the most under-digitized industries in the world and is slow to adopt new technologies (McKinsey, 2017).