Robots

The folks at Cornell Creative Machines Lab wanted to see what happened if two chatbots, which had been programmed to carry on coherent conversations with people, were instead introduced to each other. The results are pretty funny and more awkward than any human-on-human first date we can imagine. Check out the banter, which quickly takes an odd philosophical turn, below.

If you think soccer is a low-scoring sport now, just wait until the robot goalies take over. This prototype of a mechanical goalkeeper isn't ready for a regulation net, but is able to flawlessly protect his indoor soccer-sized goal from some pretty tough shots using GPS-like technology. Next, they should probably program the net-minding bot to take dives.

It looks like Geoff Pedersen, Craig Ferguson's skeletal, robotic sidekick, has recently gotten an upgrade. In the past, Geoff worked only sporadically and even had difficulty repeating pre-recorded phrases. But now, the late-night robot has become a wisecracking automaton who drops jokes on the fly. On Wednesday night's episode of 'The Late Late Show,' Geoff did a spot-on impression of guest Regi

While scientists have yet to perfect artificial intelligence, they've at least perfected artificial beer preference. When it comes to brewskies, this thirsty robot named DARwIn-OP know what it likes -- the folks who built him over at Trossen Robotics actually programmed him to have a drink of choice. Given the option, the little guy will ignore a can of Bud Light and go for a cold Tecate every tim

With Japanese media reporting that more than half of the country's recent tsunami and earthquake victims were over 65 years of age, the road to mental and physical recovery for many of Japan's elderly survivors has been especially tough. Thanks to Japanese company Daiwa House, elderly survivors at the Suisyoen retirement facility are finding comfort in the companionship of two affectionate, robot

Look closely. What you're seeing isn't chewing gum that's been left on the floor of a hair salon. That's a robot armpit prototype, built by designer Kevin Grennan as part of his studies on the role of smell in human-robot interaction. He's also developed ideas for adding scent glands to industrial robots -- like a surgical robot that releases the trust-building hormone oxytocin.

Japanese YouTuber Ron Tajima likes to build robots. Not necessarily the kind of robots that are going to revolutionize manufacturing as we know it, but the kind that will turn from a beer can into a cute little creature or from a Roomba into a baby cradle ...