We're possibly less than a decade away from self-conscious artificial intelligence capable of learning on its own, and this latest project gets us one step closer. Researchers OpenAI took an unusual approach at developing AI, one inspired by natural selection and competition. Put simply, they pit multiple AI agents against each other to compete for conflicting goals and found that it developed new sophisticated behavior in the long term. These AI agents are split between "hiders" / "seekers," and their roles are exactly as they sound. The hiders get a set time to hide, while the seekers are frozen, with each of the AI agents left on their own to discover ways to make use of their environment to achieve their goals.

Alexa is adding kids skills.' (Photo: Amazon) Amazon boasts more than 20,000 "skills" for its Alexa-powered Echo speakers and all the many other devices in which Alexa increasingly lends her voice. On Thursday, Amazon announced that the first "kids" skills are coming to Alexa, along with a parental consent framework that mom and dad must approve before Junior can try out these skills. Alexa, it's time for work: Ask Cortana to read Outlook emails At launch, Amazon says there will be nine skills for Alexa, including a SpongeBob challenge through Nickelodeon, a Sesame Street skill in which kids can call Elmo or play hide and seek with him, and an Amazon Storytime skill in which short stores designed for youngsters 5 through 12 are read aloud via say an Echo by such narrators as Saturday Night Live's Aidy Bryant, and Tom Kenny, who is the voice of SpongeBob SquarePants. Storytime content is free and doesn't require an Amazon Rapids or Audible subscription, though Audible does plan to contribute short stories in the future. Amazon has opened up the kids' skills platform to developers and says hundreds have expressed interest.