Chicago / AFP A US flight was evacuated prior to takeoff when a passenger’s Galaxy Note 7 — reportedly a replacement in Samsung’s global recall — caught fire, landing the company in new controversy. Samsung has been struggling with a recall of 2.5 million Galaxy Note 7 handsets due to complaints of exploding batteries, a problem the replacement phones …

  AFP A shiny new cohort joined the workforce in Taiwan on Thursday — a troop of mini robots all going by the name “Pepper”, enlisted to entertain customers and give them the hard sell. Chinese-speaking Pepper was introduced into two banks and an insurance company in the capital Taipei, dancing to music, playing with children in lobbies and leading …

  Bloomberg Google published research this week detailing how its software enables robots to learn from one another. To demonstrate, the company’s scientists showed videos featuring robotic arms whirling inside its labs. Google’s robotics group built those machines and wanted to sell them to manufacturers, warehouse operators and others. However, executives at Google parent Alphabet Inc. nixed the plan because …