A couple of years ago, Ikea did something pretty cool. They turned a bunch of kids' drawings into a line of cuddly stuffed monsters that they sold in their stores. Now you can do something similar, except the results are a lot more disturbing. What you see at the top there was one of my attempts, which the clearly sinister AI that powers this nightmare generator turned into some sort of donkey-earned, grimacing cyclops. To be fair, the app's real purpose is to create realistic-looking human faces from a detailed line art original. I mean, I really thought my second attempt would turn out a little better… Nope.

Disney is taking scary clown makeup to the next level. It's using a new projection system to transform the appearance of actors during live performances, tracking facial expressions and "painting" them with light, rather than physical makeup. Called Makeup Lamps, the system was developed by a team at Disney Research, and it could potentially change the way stage makeup is used in future theater productions. Makeup Lamps tracks an actor's movements without using the facial markers common in motion capture, then it displays any color or texture the actor wants by adjusting the lighting. It can make someone appear older by creating "wrinkles" on their face, for example, or it can paint their face in creepy clown makeup, à la Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight.

The artificial intelligence (AI) currently being developed is largely benevolent. It can mimic the way humans think, complete menial and repetitive tasks, and more. But that doesn't prevent people from being afraid of AI, thinking it will take away jobs or eventually turn Terminator into a documentary. Somebody thought AI wasn't scary enough, and did something to change that. Researchers from MIT and Australia's CSIRO have created AI that actively warps pictures into scary nightmare fuel.

The artificial intelligence (AI) currently being developed is largely benevolent. It can mimic the way humans think, complete menial and repetitive tasks, and more. But that doesn't prevent people from being afraid of AI, thinking it will take away jobs or eventually turn Terminator into a documentary. Somebody thought AI wasn't scary enough, and did something to change that. Researchers from MIT and Australia's CSIRO have created AI that actively warps pictures into scary nightmare fuel.

What you're seeing here is not a professionally made piece of robotics to be used in an upcoming Hollywood movie, nor is it a detailed prop used to showcase some new AI program. This is a home-made robot, built from scratch, by a Hong Kong man over the last year and a half. It is clearly made to resemble the actress Scarlett Johansson, even though the maker won't directly say so, something that only contributes to the fact that it is creepy as hell. It features limited movement abilities, and can speak using canned phrases (with a voice that definitely does not resemble Johansson's). And in case you're wondering, no, the humanoid robot was not built to meet, ahem, personal needs.