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More than 70 percent of a random sample of tweets analyzed appear to have been produced by bots, whose use to influence public opinion while posing as real people is coming under increased scrutiny.

Researchers have discovered how to power simple robots with a novel substance that, when heated, can expand more than 10 times in size, change its viscosity by a factor of 10 and transition from regular to highly irregular granules with surprising force. You can also eat it with a little butter and salt.

Researchers have devised a way to replace the use of 'blurring' faces in news reports when anonymity is needed. The team's method uses artificial intelligence (AI) techniques that aim to improve visuals while amplifying emotions tied to the story.

In a symbiotic human-robot interaction project, a multimodal conversation control system and a multi-robot conversation control system were developed to promote a robot with a higher degree of human-like presence as well as a 'sense of conversing'. This project attempted to expand the field of activity of such conversational robots and has resulted in the development of a child-like android 'ibuki', which has equipped with wheels that could enable the android to move around.

Researchers are using wearable sensor technology to develop an automatic alert system to help people quit smoking.

An origami-like drone is flexible enough to absorb shocks without breaking before returning to its initial shape. This new type of drone, which was inspired by insect wings, draws on the advantages of both stiff and flexible structures.

Researchers have trained computers to quickly and consistently detect and analyze microscopic radiation damage to materials under consideration for nuclear reactors. And the computers bested humans in this arduous task.

Could robots soon help rescue crews save the survivors of a natural disaster? Such a mission would require that the robots be able to determine, on their own, which tasks to perform and in what order to perform them. Researchers have shown, for the first time, that this ability can emerge from a group of robots.

A new highly maneuverable search and rescue robot that can creep, crawl and climb over rough terrain and through tight spaces has been developed.

Progress on new artificial intelligence (AI) technology could make monitoring at water treatment plants cheaper and easier and help safeguard public health.

Researchers have developed a prototype of a robot that can express 'emotions' through changes in its outer surface. The robot's skin covers a grid of texture units whose shapes change based on the robot's feelings.

Researchers have developed a new technique to quickly teach robots novel traversal behaviors with minimal human oversight.

Understanding how a robot will react under different conditions is essential to guaranteeing its safe operation. But how do you know what will break a robot without actually damaging it? A new machine learning method can use observations made under safe conditions to make accurate predictions for all possible conditions governed by the same physical dynamics.

Researchers have created extremely dense, random SWNT/POM network molecular neuromorphic devices, generating spontaneous spikes similar to nerve impulses of neurons. They conducted simulation calculations of the random molecular network model complexed with POM molecules, which are able to store electric charges, replicating spikes generated from the random molecular network. They also demonstrated that this molecular model would very likely become a component of reservoir computing devices. Reservoir computing is anticipated as next-generation artificial intelligence.

The goal of a technology known as mind upload is to make it possible to create functional copies of the human brain on computers. The development of this technology, which involves scanning of the brain and detailed cell-specific emulation, is currently receiving billions in funding. Science fiction enthusiasts express a more positive attitude towards the technology compared to others.

Robotic surgery is as effective as traditional open surgery in treating bladder cancer, according to a new study.

Researchers have demonstrated a novel synaptic architecture that could lead to a new class of information processing systems inspired by the brain.

A computer built to mimic the brain's neural networks produces similar results to that of the best brain-simulation supercomputer software currently used for neural-signaling research. Tested for accuracy, speed and energy efficiency, this custom-built computer named SpiNNaker, has the potential to overcome the speed and power consumption problems of conventional supercomputers, with the aim of advancing our knowledge of neural processing in the brain, including learning and disorders such as epilepsy and Alzheimer's disease.

Millions of people take upwards of five medications a day, but testing the side effects of such combinations is impractical. Now, computer scientists have figured out how to predict side effects using artificial intelligence.

AI holds real potential for improving both the speed and accuracy of medical diagnostics -- but before clinicians can harness the power of AI to identify conditions in images such as X-rays, they have to 'teach' the algorithms what to look for. Now, engineers have designed a new approach: using machine learning to create computer generated X-rays to augment AI training sets.