As anyone with even a trace of a regional dialect who has had to pay a parking fine can attest, voice recognition services struggle with accents. Now, people in Mark Sewards' constituency in Leeds are likely to find the same problem with his AI variant. A chatbot billed as the first AI version of an MP responds in Sewards' voice with advice, support or by offering to pass on a message to his team – but only if it understands you. The website, a virtual representation of the MP for Leeds South West and Morley – complete with a Pixar-style cartoon – was launched by a local startup to field questions from his constituents, some of whom have broad Leeds accents. I was interested to see how "Sewardsbot" would handle a conversation with someone from only a couple of miles away from his constituency border.

I am a forty-five-year-old journalist who, for many years, didn't read the news. In high school, I knew about events like the O. J. Simpson trial and the Oklahoma City bombing, but not much else. In college, I was friends with geeky economics majors who read The Economist, but I'm pretty sure I never actually turned on CNN or bought a paper at the newsstand. I read novels, and magazines like Wired and Spin. If I went online, it wasn't to check the front page of the Times but to browse record reviews from College Music Journal. Somehow, during this time, I thought of myself as well informed.

The European Space Agency's Mars rover is being constructed in Stevenage with the aim of exploring the Martian surface in 2021. It has a drill to probe up to two metres under the surface of Mars and has instruments on board that can examine the samples it finds. The 300kg robot vehicle is capable of travelling 2cm a second for at least 90 days, but scientists hope it will remain active for as long as the latest American rover Curiosity, which landed in August 2012 and is still exploring. Liz Seward, senior strategist at Airbus Defence and Space in Stevenage, said it was a first for the European space project. "It's part of a big plan called the global expedition road map," she said.

A San Francisco man aboard an Asiana Airlines flight claims he was discriminated against and forced to vacate his seat because of his prosthetic leg. During the confrontation, a flight attendant allegedly told the passenger, Tim Seward, that he's "not a normal person." Seward captured some of the exchange on video. Seward was traveling from China to South Korea Sunday and reportedly purchased a seat in the exit row near the front of the aircraft, according to NBC reported Monday. But he was soon asked to move by an airline agent, who was concerned that he would not be able to perform the same actions required of the seat as an able-bodied person.

A San Francisco man claims that he was asked to move seats on his flight from Beijing to Seoul over his prosthetic leg. Tim Seward said that he paid more for a seat on an Asiana Airlines flight with extra leg room, but a flight attendant told him Sunday that he had to get up or face ejection. "They threatened me that they were going to kick me off the plane if I didn't move," Seward told news station KGO-TV. Seward took out his phone to record the incident. In the video, the flight attendant says he's concerned that Seward won't be able to perform the exit seat duties.

"HI!" says the chat window as users converse with the person on the other side of the screen to help them complete important but mundane HR tasks like requesting leave or even calling in sick. With every line of the chat sounding natural, you may think that the person responding to your request is a human. Chatbots are now becoming a mainstay in enterprises, as they help companies to save cost and be more efficient in delivering personalised data and experience to their employees and customers. How does it help companies achieve better performance? A recent webinar, organised by Microsoft and Ramco, revealed a few insights into the phenomenon that is gaining traction in the enterprise world.