News Snapshot:
Robot Pepper: Foxconn invested hundreds of millions in the effort to make robotics a ubiquitous part of daily life. Yet it was not to be. Photograph: Johannes Simon/Getty Images Pepper, the humanoid robot, was born in 2014. It enjoyed a brief wave of hype, including a visit to the Financial Times to meet the editor. “This is a robot that behaves autonomously, powered by love,” declared Masayoshi Son, the head of its main backer, SoftBank. Alibaba and Foxconn also invested hundreds of millions in the effort to make robotics a ubiquitous part of daily life. Yet it was not to...