Ukraine is adding little-known incendiary weapons to its armoury in its battle to fend off the ongoing Russian invasion, including "fire-spitting" drones reminiscent of dragons. On Wednesday, Ukraine's Defence Ministry posted videos on the social media platform X showing a Ukrainian drone raining down what appeared to be fire – but was molten metal – on forested positions presumed to be hiding Russian units. "A'dragon drone' in the direction of Kharkiv", the post from the ministry read, referring to Ukraine's second-largest city, which has been the target of repeated Russian bombing. Analysts say the weapon is a new and innovative introduction of an age-old weapon into the strategy of a Ukrainian military that has shown its growing proficiency in using small drones. Here's what to know about the new "dragon drones": Dragon drones carry a substance called thermite.

The Chinese army has debuted its latest weapon: a gun-toting robotic dog. The mechanical canine, which has an automatic rifle on its back, was front and centre of recent joint military drills with Cambodia, according to footage from the state broadcaster CCTV. The dog was backed up by a similarly-armed quadcopter in the drills, which saw the machines paired with human soldiers in dry runs for urban assaults. "It can serve as a new member in our urban combat operations, replacing our human members to conduct reconnaissance and identify enemy and strike the target," Chen Wei, a Chinese soldier, said in the video. While they may be technologically advanced, the killer robots are hardly sleek pieces of military hardware; both dog and drone appear to be off-the-shelf pieces of consumer technology with a conventional rifle bolted on top.

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On August 9, at least a dozen explosions rocked a Russian military base in Crimea. Russia's defence ministry avoided assigning blame – saying the "detonation of several aviation ammunition stores" caused the blast – while, for its part, Ukraine's military played it coy. It did not claim responsibility for the damaged combat planes, nor for a subsequent drone strike on the navy headquarters in the Russian-occupied area. Instead, Ukraine's defence ministry mockingly warned on Twitter about the dangers of smoking – sardonically suggesting that Russian soldiers caused the explosions themselves by tossing lit cigarettes. Unless they want an unpleasantly hot summer break, we advise our valued russian guests not to visit Ukrainian Crimea.

In today's China, behemoths like Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and Tencent Holdings Ltd. are out of favor, but "little giants" are on the rise. That's the designation for a new generation of startups that have been selected under an ambitious government program aimed at fostering a technology industry that can compete with Silicon Valley. These often-obscure companies have demonstrated they're doing something innovative and unique, and they're targeting strategically important sectors like robotics, quantum computing and semiconductors. Wu Gansha won the little giants title for his autonomous driving startup after a government review of his technology. That gave the Beijing company, Uisee, an extra dose of credibility and financial benefits.

In comics, television and film, there is almost no hiding from Superman because of his powerful X-ray vision. The famous exception is his inability to see through lead. Nearly 82 years since this superhero first appeared in Action Comics #1 on April 1938, the line between science fiction and reality is blurring fast in China, as more advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology are being used to help stop the coronavirus from spreading. Roving security staff at Hongyuan Park, part of the Xixi Wetland preserve in Hangzhou in eastern China, now have the power to quickly detect the body temperature of all park visitors from a distance of up to 1 meter, thanks to "non-contact thermal augmented reality" smart glasses supplied by AI start-up Rokid Corp. The company said on Thursday that each smart glass user will be capable of checking the temperature of several hundred people within two minutes – a vast coverage and speed that would make even Superman proud – to eliminate queues at the park entrance.

In comics, television and film, there is almost no hiding from Superman because of his powerful X-ray vision. The famous exception is his inability to see through lead. Nearly 82 years since this superhero first appeared in Action Comics #1 on April 1938, the line between science fiction and reality is blurring fast in China, as more advances in artificial intelligence (AI) technology are being used to help stop the coronavirus from spreading. Roving security staff at Hongyuan Park, part of the Xixi Wetland preserve in Hangzhou in eastern China, now have the power to quickly detect the body temperature of all park visitors from a distance of up to 1 meter, thanks to "non-contact thermal augmented reality" smart glasses supplied by AI start-up Rokid Corp. The company said on Thursday that each smart glass user will be capable of checking the temperature of several hundred people within two minutes – a vast coverage and speed that would make even Superman proud – to eliminate queues at the park entrance.

Hey, did my congressman really say that? Is that really President Donald Trump on that video, or am I being duped? New technology on the internet lets anyone make videos of real people appearing to say things they've never said. Republicans and Democrats predict this high-tech way of putting words in someone's mouth will become the latest weapon in disinformation wars against the United States and other Western democracies. This technology uses facial mapping and artificial intelligence to produce videos that appear so genuine it's hard to spot the phonies.

In recent months, machine learning has become somewhat of a buzzword, with major players such as Google highlighting the positive impact it can have for businesses. Defined as a subset of artificial intelligence, machine learning focuses on the development of computer programmes that can teach themselves, and grow and change in response to new data. With 90% of the world's data having been created in the last two years alone, the ability to develop automated processes to efficiently adapt to new information is invaluable. For mobile operators, machine learning has the potential to drive huge benefits, in particular when it comes to tackling fraud. In 2016 alone, telcos are expected to face global losses of $294 billion, making it vital that they look to utilise all tools at their disposal to combat such a pressing issue, says Raul Gomes Azevedo, director Product Development, WeDo Technologies. For starters, fraud management involves identifying specific profiles and behaviour, and checking whether everything's running as expected, or if there are any anomalies.

Facial recognition software is most commonly known as a tool to help police identify a suspected criminal by using machine learning algorithms to analyze his or her face against a database of thousands or millions of other faces. The larger the database, with a greater variety of facial features, the smarter and more successful the software becomes – effectively learning from its mistakes to improve its accuracy. Now, this type of artificial intelligence is starting to be used in fighting a specific but pervasive type of crime – illegal fishing. Rather than picking out faces, the software tracks the movement of fishing boats to root out illegal behavior. And soon, using a twist on facial recognition, it may be able to recognize when a boat's haul includes endangered and protected fish.