From booking systems to customer and feedback services, chatbots are ubiquitous in business. But in areas, such as health or the home, people seem less willing to engage with what is effectively a computer running smart software or a machine that "learns" thorough artificial intelligence (AI). However, businesses are increasingly taking advantage of advances in emotionally intelligent AI to open up new opportunities to gain people's trust when it comes to more sensitive subjects. Nowhere is the use for emotionally intelligent AI more apparent than in healthcare. When pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma Deutschland was looking at using a chatbot to give women in Germany advice on the morning-after pill, it needed it to do more than parrot its website.

From booking systems to customer and feedback services, chatbots are ubiquitous in business. But in areas, such as health or the home, people seem less willing to engage with what is effectively a computer running smart software or a machine that "learns" thorough artificial intelligence (AI). However, businesses are increasingly taking advantage of advances in emotionally intelligent AI to open up new opportunities to gain people's trust when it comes to more sensitive subjects. Nowhere is the use for emotionally intelligent AI more apparent than in healthcare. When pharmaceutical company HRA Pharma Deutschland was looking at using a chatbot to give women in Germany advice on the morning-after pill, it needed it to do more than parrot its website.

The Trump administration's new birth control rule is raising questions among some doctors and researchers. WASHINGTON -- The Trump administration's new birth control rule is raising questions among some doctors and researchers, who say it overlooks known benefits of contraception while selectively citing data that raise doubts about effectiveness and safety. "This rule is listing things that are not scientifically validated, and in some cases things that are wrong, to try to justify a decision that is not in the best interests of women and society," said Dr. Hal Lawrence, CEO of the American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists, a professional society representing women's health specialists. Two recently issued rules -- one addressing religious objections and the other, moral objections -- allow more employers to opt out of covering birth control as a preventive benefit for women under the Obama health care law. Although the regulations ultimately address matters of individual conscience and religious teaching, they also dive into medical research and scholarly studies on birth control. It's on the science that researchers are questioning the Trump administration.

An online pharmacy is planning to use drones to deliver the morning-after pill and Viagra following successful UK trials. MedExpress is in talks with the independent regulator for pharmacy services to dispatch medicines and the contraceptive nationwide. The company says the service will be particularly useful for people living in remote areas. They have offered assurances that the products will be delivered discreetly with purchases details blacked out on sales records and bank accounts. One challenge MedExpress faces is delivering medication safely and at temperatures that do not interfere with the drugs' effectiveness.