swamp california roads in a storm not seen since the 1990s. plus, president biden s mission to maui. the consoler in chief tries to bring comfort to a community all but wiped out in a wildfire. and a consequential week for donald trump. the former president set to surrender in charges to georgia and skip the first gop debate in wisconsin. welcome to our viewers in the united states and around the world. i m danny freeman. we begin this morning with something southern california hasn t experienced in decades but people there are facing it right now. torrential record rain and strong winds from tropical storm hillary. overnight hillary has been bringing down power lines and trees, flooding streets and triggering mudslides. in fact, one mudslide forced firefighters to take fast action in san bernardino county when it came barrelling towards their fire house. trees are going. just incredible images right there. rescuers have had to pull several people from flood waters an
not to get too close. it does look a little bit hazardous. this robot dog hasn t been programmed to walk. it s learning by itself. it s called reinforcement learning. what we ve done here is, we ve given it this task to try to kind of stand up and move forward. when it does well, one of the computer scientists gives it the digital equivalent of a pat on the head. i can see it s doing better and better. it s strong. i try and put that in its way, and it s stronger than i am. yeah. have you trained it to make a beeline for me? uh-huh. i feel like i m battling the ai here, and the al s winning. in just a few hours, it s moving around by itself, even coping with the unexpected. i m really feeling an instinct to help it, but that is, of course, not good. you know, it s learning, and maybe it looks a bit mean sometimes when we push it around, but, really, we rejust trying to see what it can handle and help it learn new behaviours. this robot dog is the brainchild of professor piete
the evolution of your own writing and what interests you? have you changed in the decade? yes, i think i have. i mean, it s so interesting to go back to something you wrote just over ten years ago. as you say, 2012 was the first production of it. it s a play called the effect, and it follows. it follows two triallists taking part in a clinical trial for a new antidepressant and two doctors running it. and the triallists basically start to fall in love, but don t know whether they are actually falling in love or if it s an effect of the new antidepressant that they re trialling. and of course, when i wrote it originally, i felt very close to these young sort of romeo and juliet 20 somethings feeling excited and romantic for the first time. and now i feel much closer to the sort of ao something, older doctors who are, you know, dealing with their past and what that means and, you know, just being a bit more adult and older and, hopefully, wiser. do you feel as in love with the
but the artificial intelligence revolution is changing that. you have warned me not to get too close. it does look a little bit hazardous. this robot dog hasn t been programmed to walk. it s learning by itself. it s called reinforcement learning. what we ve done here is, we ve given it this task to try to kind of stand up and move forward. when it does well, one of the computer scientists gives it the digital equivalent of a pat on the head. i can see it s doing better and better. it s strong. i try and put that in its way, and it s stronger than i am. yeah. have you trained it to make a beeline for me? uh-huh. i feel like i m battling the ai here, and the al s winning. in just a few hours, it s moving around by itself, even coping with the unexpected. i m really feeling an instinct to help it, but that is, of course, not good. you know, it s learning, and maybe it looks a bit mean sometimes when we push it around, but, really, we rejust trying to see what it can handle and h
i knew very young there was no question i wanted to play the violin. there was no question that that was what i must do and had to do and wanted to do. have you played here much, nicky? nicola benedetti, welcome to this cultural life. thank you so much for having me. it s an absolute pleasure. you were born and brought up in north ayrshire. what are your earliest musical memories at home? what memories do you have of music being played at home? the bee gees and abba. later on, good dose of shania twain. that was all my dad s taste. my mum definitely had a kenny g record. um. she. laughs saxophone? they ll kill me for saying all of this quite like this, but it s the truth! both of your parents were born in italy, weren t they ? yes. was it an italian household culturally growing up? it s a good question. i would say both parents assimilated very concretely and quite deliberately with scottishness and scottish culture, but they also came over very young. my mum was three years