Emerging Tech

Speed Dialer Aims to Profit off IRS' Terrible Customer Service

Software helps route paying customer to a breathing person within 1 to 6 minutes at an IRS call center notorious for its lengthy hold times.

Artificial Intelligence

New Competition Seeks Robots That Can Handle a To-Do List

NIST is looking for a way to evaluate a robot's agility before it gets deployed on a factory floor.

Digital Government

Smart Bombs, Swarmbots and Miniature Railguns: The New Weapons the Pentagon Says It Needs

Defense secretary lays out his vision for the next decade’s killer capabilities in 2017 budget preview.

Digital Government

How Will Managers Deal with Robot Employees?

Many industries are already incorporating artificial intelligence into their daily operations.

Emerging Tech

Robots Could Make the Supreme Court More Transparent

Computer models can determine the authorship of unsigned legal decisions with startling accuracy.

Emerging Tech

Robots, They’re Just Like Us: Google’s Bot Now Does Mundane Chores

Perhaps in the future, we’ll come home to find our dishes clean, our floors vacuumed,and our surfaces dusted.

Cybersecurity

US Hiring Researchers to See if China’s Military Robots Originate from Hacked Designs

The feds want to know if hacked trade secrets are aiding the rise of an army of Chinese bots.

Digital Government

Military Wants X-Ray Vision and Tunnel Robots To Fight Terrorists

The Combating Terrorism Technical Support Office has released its wish list for 2016 and beyond.

Emerging Tech

What Color Lightsaber Would Use the Most Energy?

Is R2-D2 battery operated? And other questions pondered by the Energy Department.

Emerging Tech

18F Is Using a Chatbot Named After Mrs. Landingham from 'The West Wing'

The Slack bot is designed to send messages and reminders to new hires with information about forms, discussions, and the ever-present government jargon.

Artificial Intelligence

Robots are Key to Pentagon’s Defensive Cyber Operations Strategy

To gain an edge on the battlefield, artificial intelligence is increasingly necessary.

Modernization

Star Wars’ R2-D2: The Original Mobile Device

The bleep-blooping droid from "Star Wars" helped shape people's perceptions of how machines can be helpers.