Virtual children that play with you, cuddle you, and even look like you will be commonplace in 50 years, and could help to combat overpopulation, an artificial intelligence expert has claimed. These computer-generated offspring will only exist in the immersive digital world known as the'metaverse', which is accessed using virtual reality technology such as a headset to make a user feel as if they're face-to-face with the child. They will cost next to nothing to bring up, as they will require minimal resources, according to Catriona Campbell, one of the UK's leading authorities on AI and emerging technologies. In her new book, AI by Design: A Plan For Living With Artificial Intelligence, she argues that concerns about overpopulation will prompt society to embrace digital children. She describes them as the'Tamagotchi generation' -- a reference to the handheld digital pets that became wildly popular among Western youngsters in the late 1990s and the 2000s.

There is a worldwide community that collects "reborn dolls." These dolls look almost like real babies. They help some collectors cope with the loss of a child. For others, it fulfills their sense of self image. And yet others just see them as a quirky hobby.

The phrase "positive reinforcement," is something you hear more often in an article about child rearing than one about artificial intelligence. But according to Alice Parker, Dean's Professor of Electrical Engineering in the Ming Hsieh Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, a little positive reinforcement is just what our AI machines need. Parker has been building electronic circuits for over a decade to reverse-engineer the human brain to better understand how it works and ultimately build artificial systems that mimic it. Her most recent paper, co-authored with Ph.D. student Kun Yue and colleagues from UC Riverside, was just published in the journal Science Advances and takes an important step towards that ultimate goal. The AI we rely on and read about today is modeled on traditional computers; it sees the world through the lens of binary zeros and ones.

The weekend felt like an eternity for the 13-year-old. So when she handed back her "robot baby" it was with great relief. She had taken part in a program launched by the Caldas municipality in Colombia to try to tackle the problem of teenage pregnancies. "This experience was pretty tough, it's not easy being a mommy or a daddy," Ortegon said. The baby's cries were so loud that they even bothered her parents.

Soul Machines has discussed services for the elderly with prospective clients but has not announced any partnerships on that subject to date, says chief business officer Greg Cross. Soul Machines envisions a future in which digital instructors educate students without access to quality human teachers, and in which famous deceased artists are digitally resurrected to discuss their works in museums. Robot companions for the infirm, then, are not too far a leap. Nor is the prospect of a future in which a family converses with the lively AI recreation of a person suffering from dementia, while a caregiver--robot or human--tends to their ailing body in another room. The potential for deception is already here. A few years ago, Brent Lawson, the president of 1 AM Dolls, a manufacturer of life-sized rubber sex dolls, was on the phone with a client who wanted a specific doll he'd seen on the company's website. The man was particularly concerned that the doll's hair was just so, and peppered Lawson with questions about the color and style, Lawson told Quartz.

Imagine trying to learn Chinese by reading hundreds of books containing only Chinese characters, and absolutely nothing else. Or trying to teach a new language to a 1 year old baby by giving him the text of hundreds of English books written in the past few years. Given hundreds of books written in Chinese, a rare megasavant (with a nearly eidetic memory) will possibly learn to identify certain patterns in the text, and use those patterns to generate coherent Chinese text. This is exactly what neural networks do, they learn to generate meaningful sequence of characters/words. However, neither the savant nor the neural network can be expected to know the meaning of the Chinese text that they generate, they are simply copying partial sequences from their memory.

This year's Christmas must-have toys will be life-like dolls with artificial intelligence and a Lego robot which can be controlled from an iPad, according to Argos. But the introduction of new "pimped up" versions of classic toys mean parents can expect to takean extra large hit to the wallet, as the toys are part of a growing number which cost over £100. Argos said the new breed of £100 gift could spell the end of children expecting a full Santa sack as they would be hoping for one or two high value items instead. It said the most popular choice among parents this year was a "blockbuster gift", with over half (54 per cent) planning on purchasing a "gasp out loud" present alongside a couple of stocking fillers. The Luvabella doll, which retails at £99.99, has fluid movements and responses to being fed and cared for like a real baby. For example she laughs when her feet are ticked, and gets upset when her eyes are covered for too long.

Robots that can think and feel like people could soon be living among us, according to one expert. An AI engineer, who has invented a'virtual nervous system', believes it is only a matter of time before robotics hardware catches up to his software. He says responsive robots could be a common sight in businesses and homes around the world within the next ten years. Robots that can think and feel like people could soon be living among us, according to one expert. An AI engineer, who has invented a'virtual nervous system', believes it is only a matter of time before robotics hardware catches up to his software (stock) Dr Mark Sagar is the CEO of Soul Machines, an AI company in New Zealand that specialises in creating hyper-realistic 3D avatars.

On screen an adult talks to a baby, showing images and words that the baby identifies and says aloud. But this isn't a parent talking to a child - rather, it's a researcher talking to an artificially intelligent human known as BabyX. The virtual infant learns and acts just like a real baby, and it could be an important step to creating artificially intelligent brains. Scientist at Auckland University have designed a virtual baby that learns. Called BabyX the computer programme can recognise words and images (shown).