After an extraordinarily close contest, Google's artificially intelligent Go-playing computer system has beaten Lee Sedol, one of the world's top players, in the first game of their historic five-game match at Seoul's Four Seasons hotel.

In both an impressive display of innovative technology and a glimpse of a future in which humans could be redundant, Volvo has shown off its Robot-based Autonomous Refuse handling (ROAR) project.

In response to Humanoid Robots to Manufacture Planes, reader "XBE", a 37-year ex-Boeing employee, pinged me with a few comments on robots and trends in the number of people it takes to build a plane.

Walking with a wearable robotic exoskeleton may enable people with multiple sclerosis to walk more efficiently by reducing the energy and muscle activity needed to walk, according to research.

Scientist Wendel Wallach calls for ethical committees to monitor research Yale University ethicist believes the machines should not go uncontrolled Need to keep technology 'a good servant, not a dangerous master'

WPI working on algorithms for 5-foot, 10-inch robot that would fight fires, perform maintenance

The Japanese lettuce production company Spread believes the farmers of the future will be robots.

The race to reusable spacecraft just heated up again. Today, Jeff Bezos' Blue Origin accomplished a first among firsts:

China plans to land the first probe ever on the dark side of the moon in 2018, marking another milestone in its ambitious space program, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

The new cut is three minutes and thirty-seven seconds long, and it shows footage from before the launch in Cape Canaveral, Florida as well as during the takeoff and the epic landing.

A swimming lifeguard, abetted by quadcopter drones

Intel's drone stunt was stunning. Flown at an airport near Hamburg, Germany, the 100 drones danced to an orchestra performing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

Currently scheduled for January 17

At least, brain-inspired computers

Not so long ago, the surest sign that you are extremely rich and/or a supervillain was access to a helicopter.

The rocket was due to blast off at 8.29pm ET on Sunday, but SpaceX decided to go for the second launch opportunity at 8.33pm ET today instead.- (We're Going To Space... And Government Is Not Invited)

Maybe it's time to rethink the stiff, mechanical movements of the popular "robot" dance: A new NASA video features the agency's humanoid R5 robot breaking it down on the dance floor to an epic techno beat.

"Hold this," he says, dumping a wireless keyboard in my lap before backing out of the garage. "But don't touch any buttons, or we'll die." Hotz explains his self-driving car setup is meant for highways, not chaotic city streets.

That isn't even the weirdest thing about it

Race on Sunday, drive your human to work on Monday