his eldest son, his former campaign manager and his son—in—law will testify before a committee, investigating possible russian meddling in last year's presidential election. president trump says he would never have madejeff sessions the attorney general if he'd known he would stand aside from the investigation into russia. in a newspaper interview mr trump called the decision very unfair. before recusing himself mr sessions revealed he'd twice met with the russian ambassador in 2016. the office of us senatorjohn mccain has revealed he has brain cancer. the 80—year—old republican had been recovering from surgery to remove a blood cot above his eye. the vietnam veteran and senator for arizona was the republican nominee for the presidential election in 2008. it's time now for click. this week... the cyborg's are coming, the eyeborg's are watching,

the bar staff are serving and lara photographs a banana! this is adam jensen, star of the video game deus ex: human revolution. set in 2027, the poor chap has to undergo extensive cybernetic modifications after being severely injured. well, just ten years before those events might occur, that plot line doesn't seem that far off. for years now people have been body hacking, giving themselves extra abilities and, as our understanding of robotics has advanced, so has our creativity. meet rob spence, like the cyborg in the video game, he too has a bionic eye. it doesn't have terminator vision like this, yet, but it does record video. inside a prosthetic eye, which is an odd shape, they're not a sphere,

a prosthetic eye, they're actually like a very thick contact lens. inside that is a battery, a video camera and a video transmitter all attached to a circuit board so they can talk to one another. the camera is turned on and off with a magnet. it doesn't look at all comfortable, is it in anyway comfortable? yeah, it's fine. i have know it looks uncomfortable. the first consideration that looks the most uncomfortable, it looks like a 90s imac, you can see all the goods inside. like the battery and the wires, but that's covered by smooth plastic that, you know. so it's not like that. i don't have open wires and batteries, you know. 0h! that kind of made my stomach drop a little bit when i saw that. rob damaged his eye when he was nine and in 2009 began exploring the idea of a bionic eye. as a film—maker himself, he was fascinated with the idea that his eye could become a camera. it's like an absurd toy for a one—eyed film—maker. i used to watch the bionic man

when i was a kid, the $6 million man. i had the action figure, you looked through the back of his head, through his bionic eye. i was looking at my nokia flip phone at the time i was like — this is pretty small. that's in fact who i called, i called nokia. they said — well, we'll call the camera module people in china. this is how you begin these things. it's very small, it's very challenging. we in fact used analogue technology. it does visual dropouts, which is the visual language of all video from the future, including princess leia asking for 0bi—wan‘s help. exactly — the future is analogue! yeah! since the initial prototype, rob and his engineers have gone through several upgrades. he now has one eye that glows red when it films and another camera eye that looks a bit more normal.

i get calls from and emails from mom's whose kid hasjust lost an eye because it's some sort of fun thing to show a kid this maniac running around on videos and glowing red eye cameras and stuff. it's fun for them to look at that. they're now looking working on ways to transfer the technology to other people's prosthetic eyes. we're doing 3d scans of those now and then that creates a space that you can take into software to map on the technology that we're increasingly able to reproduce. some people golf, i like to make fake eye cameras and, you know, film things with it. activate eyeborg — now! 0h! right, that's the eye upgraded — now let's do the rest of the body. here's dave lee at mit in boston. mit's media lab is home to some of the most innovative tech research

in the world, but there's one room here i find particularly fascinating. the mission of this lab is probably one of the most important goals of our time, they're trying to essentially eradicate disability. they want to make it so that if you lose a limb, it won't have any impact on your quality of life and they're making incredible progress. so we work on everything from creating new motors and designs for ankles and knees and artificialjoints, all the way to marrying these biomechatronic devices with the human body through novel neural interfacing methods. evidence of this work can be seen with people like ryan cannon, complications after a broken leg left him needing an amputation. what's special about his new robotic leg is that it's doing something the human body can do instinctively, but it's extremely complex to engineer. the motor is able to work in such a way that simulates a real biological anklejoint. it uses on board sensors to interfere whether the leg is, for example, in the air or on the ground and perform actions

that to the person feel much more like real walking than they would get from a passive prothesis. for amputees like ryan such innovations are life—changing. i can move in a more rhythmic, symmetrical way and being able to move in that manner allows me to walk at a faster pace for a longer distance and to do more activities during the day. this is not relying just on straight physics and mechanical design, it's relying on computing power. not all of the research here is about solving disability, this exoskeleton project is about augmenting humans. it allows the body to use much less energy when running or walking. it improves your ability to walk by 25%. so what that means is, if you were to walk 100 miles,

it would only feel to you that you walked 75. we're able to do that today, right and those are devices that i would expect to see rolling out commercially in the next several years. we're already beginning to see this kind of technology deployed into the real world. us retail chain, lowes, is experimenting with kitting out its staff with exoskeletons, designed in virginia, which could give their employees more stamina at work. with this in mind, the lab at mit is now looking to the next huge question — how close are we to the point where people might actually want these kind of prosthetics instead of their real limbs? i definitely think that we are entering an age in which the line between biological systems and synthetic systems is going to be very much blurred. but what might be some of the drawbacks of having these additions to the human body? as there's widespread uptake, that they might only be available to people who have the financial ability to pay for them.

it says beds. it says — fashion, style, outfit, that's you. stepaside, the coveted crown of most watched youtube clip. it has been seen as staggering to .5 billion times. elon musk has brought out the tesla, more affordable than the previous efforts, which have cost up

to 100 grand. the rival company has scrapped its plans to build a billion—dollarfactory scrapped its plans to build a billion—dollar factory in the us state of nevada which leaves a question over the launch of the ff91 car. no, not the ministry of silly walks, it is google's artificial intelligence and how to walk. so far it has been conducted in virtual environments and could help robots learn how to navigating complex or unfamiliar spaces. finally, a nasa scientist built a super—sized super soaker which can fire a jet of water at 272 miles an hour. it is so big you should see him coming. it says bids. nasa, it says fashion style

outfit. sometimes it is not easy to put into words what you want to search for online. that's why companies are working on ways of us being able to take a simple picture and then search using that image. pinterest is a place all about images and ideas, they've had a form of visual search for a couple of years now, allowing you to focus in on a particular object within a picture. through a combination of image recognition and the data points attached to that image, including the hundreds of thousands of boards it may have been pinned to, it can select similar images. this january they upped their game though launching pinterest lens, a way of being able to search through a photo with no other data attached and from that search term it aims to come up with similar objects and related ideas. there we go, we've got a picture and something is emerging. it says "shoes."

right, those are definitely shoes, but they don't exactly resemble mine. black shoe with blue laces, some men's shoes. so how does it actually do this? so there are two parts to visual search. the first is computer vision, which is a way of translating the information coming in through the camera into words. the second is the data set and the data set is the most important. so with pinterest lens, when you point your camera at something in the real world, the computer inside the phone translates that image into text and then it takes the text and it takes the image and runs a search against 100 billion pins on pinterest to find the ones that seem the most relevant. 0k, it knows it's a lemon, that's definitely a good start. now, if we scroll down. ok, i think you scroll through it and some of the results make sense, which is sort of like when you search with words because often you search then and a lot of the things don't make sense and some do.

and having come up with those words, i've got a series of recipes that contina lemons. so we've got a lemon drizzle cake, a lemon polenta cake. we've now got some artwork of lemons. it's a lot better than it did on my boots and this's probably because this is a very simple image to recognise and understand. pinterest lens is also powering vision, the image search function in samsung's bixby which is currently only available on s8 phones in the us and korea. and so today we're announcing a new initiative called google lens. google lens is also due for release soon. the company says it'll be a new way of the computer being able to see and even act on its surroundings whilst you're talking to your google assistant. also working in this space is a chat bot called glamix, which is a way of photographing any item that you like, sending it to them via facebook messenger and receiving a response that should tell you where you can buy a similar item. so let's give this a go on my boots to start with. it worked with pictures found on instagram or your phone, eventually allowing you to narrow

down results based on price bracket, brand and retailers. ok, this isn't a bad start. the bot uses artificial intelligence, machine learning and what it calls ‘content based image recognition‘ to search without the need for tags. as well as shopping for individual items, it aims to be able to help recreate a whole look. making clicking through to items so easy is of course amazing for retailers, but also if you're lacking in inspiration. so if someone passes you by and they're wearing something you really like, you need to be quick. got it! having spent a while testing both the results were sometimes surprisingly accurate and other times kind of questionable. but it is early days and the more this sort of technology is used, the more data it collects and the more reliable the results become. that's underwear. well, that explains the weird birthday present that lara bought me.

well, that explains the weird birthday present that lara bought me. now, earlier we looked at human beings attempts to become more robotic, but there's a whole lot of research that's attempting to make robots more human. it's not actually taking place at a robot art school like this, but it's nice to think it might be, isn't it? there is a long way to go in robotics, just picking up all those weirdly shaped every day objects is still an enormous challenge, requiring a robot to recognise a given object and to decide how exactly to pick it up. but a team at berkeley says that dex—net here is the most effective picker—upper ever seen. when not playing with lego, it's being taught and building up a huge database of 3d objects by its masters. when something new comes along, it uses its 3d sensor to compare it to this list, it then uses its neural network to figure out the best way to grasp it and it is said to get it right nearly all the time.

the springy legs of this creature were 3d painted at uc san diego, they're designed to be able to more easily traverse difficult environments, such as disaster areas. as we know, even walking on flat surfaces is still an issue for most robots. 0uch! well, i say ouch, but of course these things don't feel pain. that said, there are those of us who are asking whether even feelings might one day be part of a robot's mind. at the simplest level it makes sense, robots are pretty expensive, you don't want them to run willy—nilly into fire and acid and toxic substances. but at a more complex level, we're looking ahead to a time when robots might interact with us on a more personal level as companion robots for the elderly, for those who are sick or are in pain and perhaps maybe they need to understand the similar sort of experience and perhaps develop something like what we call empathy.

pain is notjust about us saying ouch, there's an emotional element to this as well, isn't there? i get quite upset when i get hurt. so are we actually talking about programming some kind of emotions into artificial intelligence? we don't really understand what emotions are in human beings. like you say, you might assume there's some sort of phenomenon that occurs around instances of pain. so hypothetical if we developed systems that worked like pain, might emotion develop off the back of that as well? there are those robots that do look so life—like, the boston dynamics‘ big dog and the walking robots, we actually feel quite sorry for them when they fall over or even when we see them being kicked. absolutely. when those videos were released online the reaction was like — oh no, you‘re bullying them, don‘t hurt them. they don‘t at this stage have that technology at all. there‘s no suggestion they do feel pain, but the human reaction is what i‘m really interested in. so is that going to inform how we behave towards robots in the future?

is that where you‘re looking at applying our sympathies? absolutely. i mean, i think science fiction model of a human—like entity is probably not all that realistic. there may be more kind of cute models we‘ve seen already of robots that, sort of, pull on our heart strings in a more child—like way and there‘s those that suggest that we shouldn‘t have anything that looks human—like at all because it‘s disingenuous, it‘s cheating and it‘s tricking us into treating them like they‘re human beings or other beings. the doctor thinks that appearing to feel pain may make us treat robots with a bit more respect. of course what many people are worried about is how much respect the robots will have for us and, most of all, ourjobs. last week caterpillar invested seven million in this australian automated building company. now robots can build houses at the rate of 1,000 bricks an hour. ambition in the area is huge and for the first time out of the lab, eth in switzerland is working on much more ambitious structures like this undulating wall which has been largely built by robots.

now an increasingly robotic workforce raises a number of issues and along with the worry of whatjobs will actually be left to us in the future, there is another one. fewer workers earning a wage, means fewer workers paying income tax on their earnings and that means less money going into the economy. now some tech brains, including that of bill gates, are calling for a robot tax to counter that and cat hawkins went to find out how that might work. almost everyone in the world who works pays tax on the money they earn, but at this restaurant in san francisco there are no waiting staff and robots plate the food. that work is currently not taxable and politicianjane kim is now looking into how this is changing the city‘s economy. so what we‘re seeing is after automation that you can

hire less people in order to deliver products maybe quicker and more affordably. but it‘s one of the questions that we have, it‘s true this is really convenient, but at what cost? it‘s notjust restaurants, this picture is now seen across the city, from hotels and hospitals to the latest addition to the autonomous family, self—driving cars. policy makers have noticed, every time a robot take as human job, potential tax revenue is being lost. the research is showing us thatjobs are going to get lost over the next ten years and if before the great depression we could have predicted what would come afterwards, if government could have prepared for the job loss that occurred, wouldn‘t we do that? that is the level at which we are looking at potentially over the next ten years, in terms ofjob loss for this country. estimations of how manyjobs will be wiped out vary widely stuck in jane‘s mind.

it‘s estimated that robots will replace 37% jobs in the united states by the early 20305. so the biggest concern is mass job displacement, lack of true, meaningful, high wage work. we are already seeing a decrease of that in san francisco where we have the fastest growing income gap in the country and a wealth gap that is akin to the country of rwanda, accord to our own human services agency data and so we have a shrinking middle—class and we have this growing imminent threat that many of our meaningful, working—class and even middle—class jobs may go away to robots and automation. at cafe x, again a human worker has been replaced by a robot. an americano with milk, served by a robot. now, the human has a different role, advising on coffee beans and showing customers how to use the tablet to operate the robot. the owner is not sure about the idea of a tax on the replacement. i guess i find it a little odd because what robots are supposed

to do is to increase productivity. that means it allows a shift in labourfrom doing highly repetitive, low productivity tasks to more useful things. it‘s not about eliminating people. actually, we have quite a big team. so in order to have this machine operate, there has to be a lot of engineers on software, hardware and manufacturing to build something like this. jobs like this require training and that‘s what supervisor kim wants a tax to help bring about. if you‘re a childcare worker or you‘re an in home support services worker, working with a senior or individual with disability, you often work three or four hours a day and you make minimum wage. so one of the ideas was, why not tax robots and invest in these povertyjobs and make them truly living wage careers for people. this would mean a robot tax potentially subsidising low paying, but essential jobs, so that the human employees would earn a living wage.

currently, many people are working but not earning enough to live, leading several politicians around the world to float the idea of a universal basic income. this would be expensive for governments and supervisor kim is suggesting an automation tax could be a solution. if there‘s one thing that san francisco is known for, it‘s leading the conversation on technology and innovation, but as harder and harder questions are asked about automation and what this really means for people‘s jobs it seems appropriate that this city, which has added so much to the problem, is also grappling with what could be the solution. but the rise of robotic workers is playing out on a global scale and san francisco is not the only place trying to lead the conversation. in the eu, a proposal to tax robot was voted down earlier in the year and one of the commissioners who did so says robots will create more jobs, not reduce them. they are worried because they say robots they will take theirjobs,

but i believe in progress. progress always created more jobs than progress used to destroy. the train is moving and speed is high and now it‘s up to us to be on that train or to stay and to wave to the leaving train. concerns about automation replacing human jobs has been felt sense the industrial revolution and more recently workers in the manufacturing industry have seen jobs disappear as automation takes hold. as the issue of a robot tax begins to spread further, a fundamental question still needs to be answered — what even is automation? in the context of robots of course automation is much broader and we have to find this definition. they gave this definition more than 100 years ago. politicians can no longer ignore the robots creeping

into the workplace and while many of the big questions are still being thrashed out, it‘s clear that the issue of robot workers is becoming more and more of a political one. will yeah, really interesting issues, aren‘t they? that was cat hawkins and this‘s it for this week. you can follow us on twitter @bbc click throughout the week and like us on facebook, too. that‘s it for now, though. thanks for watching and we will see you soon. hello there. there was still quite a lot of energy in the atmosphere, during wednesday afternoon some pretty intense thunderstorms broke out across north wales and parts of north—west england. weather watchers pictures coming through of torrential downpours, and there were reports of flash flooding across the rhyl area

and parts of western lancashire. during the small hours of thursday, those heavy, thundery showers continue to move their way northwards. quite a wet start to thursday across scotland. further south, much of england and wales, it‘s going to be cloudy with showery outbreaks of rain. the odd heavier burst there too. turning a little bit cool and fresh and pushing to the far west, but quite a humid start again for thursday morning across eastern areas. and it means it will be quite a drab start across many eastern areas through the morning, and outbreaks of rain, the odd heavy outbursts too. eventually clearing out into the north sea, becoming more confined towards the north—east of scotland. but something a bit brighter and drier into the afternoon, but with it cooler and fresher air, so you will notice that — highs around 21 and 22 degrees across the southeast. further west, even cooler than that. around the mid—teens celsius, but at least you have the sunshine to compensate. in towards scotland, it‘s central northern areas will see most of the cloud, outbreaks of rain, the odd heavier burst,

particularly across the northern isles. and then into northern ireland, something more showery moving in later on in the day. that is because of this area of low pressure which will become quite a player in our weather through friday, and potentially on into the weekend as well. notice isobars deepening as it continues to move in towards western parts of the uk. so it means quite a windy day for the western half of the country. and a weather front, pretty slow moving, will bring a lots of rain to northern ireland, to wales, particularly into south—west england and maybe in towards the west midlands. whereas further north and east, actually a fine dry day with some sunny spells and temperatures around 20—23 degrees. but cooler further west under that rain. through friday night, the weather front slowly gets a wiggle on, moves its way a little bit further northwards and eastwards but it‘s still with us though, as we head on into saturday, but a bit of a disappointing start to the weekend, i have to say, across northern and eastern areas — quite wet, the odd heavier burst there, too. feeling quite cool as well. the south could see the sunshine come out a little bit but then blustery showers will arrive and it will feel fresh. 0n into sunday, the winds ease down

a little bit but it doesn‘t mean any showers that develop through central southern areas could be quite slow—moving so quite a bit of rain falling in a short space of time. further north, it looks like it will remain quite wet. i think the main message is, then, through this weekend, it is going to remain fairly cool and fresh for the time of year, longer spells of rain, but more likely showers and sunny spells. welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to viewers in north america and around the globe. my name‘s mike embley. our top stories: three of donald trump‘s inner circle are called before congress, as part of investigations into russian interference in the us election. us senatorjohn mccain reveals he has brain cancer. the 80—year—old vietnam veteran was the republican nominee for the presidential election in 2008. billions of tons of plastic manufactured since the 19505 are now threatening the planet. researchers say the world is at risk of near—permanent contamination. the gay men and women of south asian

origin coming under pressure to marry someone of the opposite sex — we have special report. and a british zoo joins the fight to save the northern white rhino, using ivf from its closest relatives.