University of Texas

The scientists are creating systems that can learn for themselves and be able to operate in the home, the workplace and even on the sports field.

The University of Texas, Austin team is incorporating artificial intelligence into its machines so that they can deal with real-world situations.

Among the systems are automated assistants that will carry out simple tasks in a working office.

Science fiction films predicted that in the future we would have intelligent robots.

The girl, from a Hispanic family, was diagnosed in Houston, Texas, by Dr Michael Yafi, a paediatric endocrinologist with the University of Texas. In a written presentation to the European Association for the Study of Diabetes conference in Stockholm, Yafi said she had been brought to his clinic because she was obese.

The girl weighed 35kg (5st 7lbs), putting her in the heaviest 5% of children her age. She was also in the top 5% for height and body mass index (BMI), a measure of obesity.