Next week, five teens from Palestine will head to Panama to compete in one of the world's largest youth robotics competitions. To win--and then teach STEM to their peers displaced by the Israel-Hamas war. For the entirety of the past year, as the teenage roboticists of Team Palestine have been working on their latest project, their homeland has been engulfed in Israel's war with Hamas . Earlier this month, that all changed. With a fragile ceasefire in place, Israeli forces began to pull back from parts of Gaza, and the teens put the final touches on the project they hope will bring them victory: a robot that can maneuver through a series of simulated challenges based on the effects of climate change.

Robotic technology has the potential to revolutionize the field of neurology by providing new methods for diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation of neurological disorders. In recent years, there has been an increasing interest in the development of robotics applications for neurology, driven by advances in sensing, actuation, and control systems. This review paper provides a comprehensive overview of the recent advancements in robotics technology for neurology, with a focus on three main areas: diagnosis, treatment, and rehabilitation. In the area of diagnosis, robotics has been used for developing new imaging techniques and tools for more accurate and non-invasive mapping of brain structures and functions. For treatment, robotics has been used for developing minimally invasive surgical procedures, including stereotactic and endoscopic approaches, as well as for the delivery of therapeutic agents to specific targets in the brain. In rehabilitation, robotics has been used for developing assistive devices and platforms for motor and cognitive training of patients with neurological disorders. The paper also discusses the challenges and limitations of current robotics technology for neurology, including the need for more reliable and precise sensing and actuation systems, the development of better control algorithms, and the ethical implications of robotic interventions in the human brain. Finally, the paper outlines future directions and opportunities for robotics applications in neurology, including the integration of robotics with other emerging technologies, such as neuroprosthetics, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality. Overall, this review highlights the potential of robotics technology to transform the field of neurology and improve the lives of patients with neurological disorders.

It's Game Developers Conference week, which means one of two things for those working in the industry: either they're jetlagged in some hotel bar in San Francisco spending $10 a beer; or they're at home, avoiding Twitter to lessen the Fomo. GDC has long been the nexus of the games industry, a place where indie developers get their games signed and funded, coders and artists and sound designers share the techniques of their craft, and juicy development stories are overheard in the convention centre's corridors. But GDC has long been regarded by some as increasingly elitist. To its credit, it partners with plenty of different organisations to offer scholarships and sponsorships to underrepresented devs, but a regular ticket costs $1,521, and an all-access pass is $2,204. Then there's the cost of attending, which is even more prohibitive thanks to San Francisco's ever-rising prices.

One reason is that blockchain's use of a decentralized ledger offers insight into the workings of AI systems and the provenance of the data these platforms may be using. As a result, transactions can be facilitated with a high level of trust while maintaining solid data integrity. Not only that, but the use of blockchain systems to store and distribute AI-centric operational models can help in the creation of an audit trail, which in turn allows for enhanced data security. Furthermore, the combination of AI and blockchain, at least on paper, seems to be extremely potent, one that is capable of improving virtually every industry within which it is implemented. For example, the combination has the potential to enhance today's existing food supply chain logistics, healthcare record-sharing ecosystems, media royalty distribution platforms and financial security systems. That said, while there are a lot of projects out there touting the use of these technologies, what benefits do they realistically offer, especially since many AI experts believe that the technology is still in its relative infancy?

Jessamine Chan's debut novel, The School for Good Mothers, is not a domestic manual on keeping house. Nor is it the sort of slog that might make tidying look like an appealing alternative. Yet as I read it over the course of one snowy evening, I repeatedly put it down to complete household tasks normally ignored until morning. Every last sock met its match. This book is a horror story so potent it will fill even the most diligent parent with an itchy impulse to panic-clean, to straighten up, to act like someone's watching.

Ubisoft has fired Ashraf Ismail, the former creative director of Assassin's Creed Valhalla, in the wake of misconduct allegations. Ismail stepped down from his role on the game in June, though he remained with the company. A fan publicly accused him of taking advantage of his position and lying about his marital status while seeking a relationship with her. "Following an investigation by an external firm, it was determined that Ashraf's employment with Ubisoft had to be terminated," the company told employees at its Montreal office, where the latest game in the franchise is in development, according to Kotaku. "We cannot provide any details about this confidential investigation."

I asked to join one of Ismail's Suhoor sessions and when I arrived I was prompted by the island's owner to join voice chat. I entered mid-conversation to hear other Muslims in different parts of the world criticizing the game's localization of Sahara, a desert camel who visits players to sell them rugs and speaks in broken English. Players brought food -- their own islands' native fruits -- to eat alongside Ismail's real-life meal in his Western European time zone. Some of the visitors removed their shoes from their characters' feet and placed them on a tarp near the entrance before walking to the table. Ismail mentioned to me beforehand that people sometimes brought gifts, so I grabbed something from my house's storage upon receiving the invite and dropped it on the ground somewhere it could be found later.

It's unsuto hear cats mentioned in a presentation about machine learning. But they actually have more in common than you would think. Ismail Elouafiq, a Data Scientist at SVT has drawn a genius association between machine learning systems. Nevertheless, Ismail's talk at Nordic Data Science and Machine Learning Summit is a great overview of a common problem that occurs in machine learning – machine learning antipatterns. "Imagine you are working in a cat hospital", starts Ismail, and you admitted 132 cats which are victims of jumping off the window.

Language is a tool, and just like any tool, it has equal capacity to inflict both good and bad on the world. Language is a beautiful, human thing; the connective tissue that transfers culture, knowledge and critical information across borders and generations. It's that second function -- the divisive one -- that inspired developer Rami Ismail and voice actor Sarah Elmaleh to produce a conference for game creators that removes language as a barrier to entry. Gamedev.world is billed as the first truly global online games conference, with plans to host 48 hours of expert panels and live Q&A sessions on Twitch, YouTube and Mixer, translated in real-time into English, Japanese, Spanish, Portuguese, Russian, Arabic and Simplified Chinese. It's all scheduled to take place later this year. "If games can be played by anyone, and made by anyone, we want to make sure everyone feels like they truly belong here," Ismail told Engadget.

Finance Minister Asad Umar recently spoke in the National Assembly about amendments to the Finance Bill and hinted at using data and AI to identify tax evaders. "Algorithms are now very advanced. Global tax collection agencies don't rely solely on traditional methods for collection, they use modern technology," he said. "We want to use anonymised data to run algorithms which will help us identify tax evaders." But what algorithms was Umar referring to and how do they work?