Chris Pratt on new film Mercy: I asked to be locked into an executioner's chair Being locked barefoot in an executioner's chair sounds uncomfortable, but that is what Chris Pratt requested for his latest film, Mercy. More familiar as a wisecracking action hero in blockbusters like Guardians of the Galaxy and Jurassic World, this role is quite a departure for him. He plays homicide detective Chris Raven, who's fighting for his life after being accused of murdering his wife. Raven is an alcoholic who wakes in the chair after a drinking binge, with just 90 minutes to convince an AI judge he's innocent, or he'll be executed immediately. The film is set in real time, so we see Raven defend his case - while enduring a crashing hangover.

Pratt, Charlie Day and Jack Black on new animated film, playing iconic characters, being fans of the game and more. Chris Pratt had harsh words for Hollywood stars who bring negativity to movie sets. On Thursday, the 45-year-old actor joined co-star Millie Bobby Brown and directors Joe and Anthony Russo on the New York Comic Con panel for their upcoming Netflix sci-fi film "The Electric State." During the panel, Pratt slammed actors who had "bad" attitudes while filming. "Look, these guys can attest to this, because they're the same way. Like, there's no room for s---ty attitudes there," the Marvel star said, via People magazine.

Netflix has released the first trailer for The Electric State, a post-apocalyptic road movie from Marvel (and Community) mainstays The Russo Brothers. The adaptation of Simon Stålenhag's 2018 graphic novel is set in a retro-futuristic version of the '90s after a robot uprising. It tells the story of Michelle, an orphaned teenager (Millie Bobby Brown) who ventures across the west of the US to look for her younger brother with a smuggler (a mustachioed Chris Pratt) and a pair of robots. The movie's look draws heavily from Stålenhag's gorgeous artwork, right down to the oversized VR helmets. The robots, in particular the one accompanying Michelle, have a cartoon-inspired aesthetic that wouldn't look out of place in Fallout.

Eight years ago, the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency organized a painful-to-watch contest that involved robots slowly struggling (and often failing) to perform a series of human tasks, including opening doors, operating power tools, and driving golf carts. Clips of them fumbling and stumbling through the Darpa Robotics Challenge soon went viral. Today the descendants of those hapless robots are a lot more capable and graceful. Several startups are developing humanoids that they claim could, in just a few years, find employment in warehouses and factories. Jerry Pratt, a senior research scientist at the Institute for Human and Machine Cognition, a nonprofit research institute in Florida, led a team that came second in the Darpa challenge back in 2015.

"Jidoka" is a new one to me. TRI (Toyota Research Institute) CEO Gill Pratt described the concept as "Automation with a Human Touch." The anglicized version of the notion is "Autonomation" -- both are modified forms of " automation," in their respective languages. The word was originally applied to Toyota's Production System, highlighting the need for human participation in the process. Employing Jidoka principles throughout the production process is a vital element of the Toyota Production System, forcing imperfections to be immediately addressed by self-inspecting workers and thereby reducing the amount of work added to a defective product.

A lot went on in the gaming space this year, with the industry seeing waves of acquisitions, the rise and fall of cryptocurrencies and NFTs, some game releases that took the world by storm and a casting choice for a video game movie that we all came together to dunk on. Think you can remember all the big stories? Try our quiz below to see how well you know the gaming news of 2022. Nintendo showed the first trailer for "The Super Mario Bros. Movie" in October, giving all of us an earful of Chris Pratt (of "Parks and Recreation" and Guardians of the Galaxy fame) as the iconic plumber. Many fans were swift to decry the choice for the snub to Mario's longtime voice actor, Charles Martinet, and for what they felt was Pratt's uninspired voice acting (not to mention his ties to the controversial megachurch Hillsong).

Since COVID-19 became a part of our lives, businesses around Europe have been looking for ways to remind their customers to wear a face mask. One garden centre in West Yorkshire may have found the answer: artificial intelligence. It uses a system at its front entrance that watches people's faces and detects if they are wearing a mouth and nose covering. If it spots anyone without a mask, it can relay a message to the customer or notify staff. Jonathan Pratt, whose firm Videcon developed the system, says the idea is to "promote and increase mask-wearing so we can safeguard the safety of customers and staff."

Excellent & insightful article on maturity (or lack thereof) of current AI for safety-critical applications, such as self-driving cars, by a researcher who knows what they're talking about. If interested in this topic, you should follow @missy_cummings.

Toyota has, over the years, earned a reputation for producing the beige Corollas that always seem to clog the fast lane. Yet this is the same company that still offers in many of its cars the rapidly dying stickshift option so many enthusiasts ask for. Moving towards the autonomous era, Toyota is taking a refreshingly open view to how the self-driving car will keep the driver engaged. The philosophy falls under the "automation with a human touch" banner. Advanced driver aids, says the company, are designed to enhance the human experience, not replace it.

You probably picture robots as clodhoppers: ponderous, clunky, even doddery droids that need caffeine, badly. But robots are on the brink of making giant strides. Just ask Columbia University engineering professor Hod Lipson, who writes in Nature that "young animals gallop across fields, climb trees, and immediately find their feet with grace after they fall"--and robots are set to follow suit. A new breed of speedy robots promises to eventually outdo the runners at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Notable cybernetic contenders include MIT's dominant Cheetah, Boston Dynamics' Petman and Handle, Michigan Robotics' MABEL, and--further afield in South Africa--the University of Cape Town's Baleka. Plus, that efficiency-geared Florida University powerhouse, the Institute for Human & Machine Cognition (IHMC), fields a smart, sensor-free biped plainly called Planar Elliptical Runner (PER).