With a connection this LG G6 can take advantage of the Google Assistant (Photo: Edward C. Baig) BARCELONA--The virtual Google Assistant is going to spread its voice beyond Google's own Pixel devices. Google announced that starting this week, it will roll out a software upgrade that brings the Assistant to all Android phones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow with Google Play Services. That's the software Google uses to update Google apps and services on Android devices. Google says the rollout will come first to English users in the U.S., followed by English users in Australia, Canada, India and the United Kingdom, as well as German speakers in Germany. More languages will be added over the course of the year.

The next BriefingsDirect applications health monitoring interview explores how a new breed of continuous intelligence emerges by gaining data from systems infrastructure logs -- either on-premises or in the cloud -- and then cross-referencing that with intrinsic business metrics information. We'll now explore how these new levels of insight and intelligence into what really goes on underneath the covers of modern applications help ensure that apps are built, deployed, and operated properly. Today, more than ever, how a company's applications perform equates with how the company itself performs and is perceived. From airlines to retail, from finding cabs to gaming, how the applications work deeply impacts how the business processes and business outcomes work, too. We're joined by an executive from Sumo Logic to learn why modern applications are different, what's needed to make them robust and agile, and how the right mix of data, metrics and machine learning provides the means to make and keep apps operating better than ever. To describe how to build and maintain the best applications, welcome Ramin Sayar, President and CEO of Sumo Logic. The discussion is moderated by BriefingsDirect's Dana Gardner, Principal Analyst at Interarbor Solutions. Gardner: There's no doubt that the apps make the company, but what is it about modern applications that makes them so difficult to really know? How is that different from the applications we were using 10 years ago?

From Jeopardy winners and Go masters to infamous advertising-related racial profiling, it would seem we have entered an era in which artificial intelligence developments are rapidly accelerating. But a fully sentient being whose electronic "brain" can fully engage in complex cognitive tasks using fair moral judgement remains, for now, beyond our capabilities. Unfortunately, current developments are generating a general fear of what artificial intelligence could become in the future. Its representation in recent pop culture shows how cautious – and pessimistic – we are about the technology. The problem with fear is that it can be crippling and, at times, promote ignorance.

For the past year, we as a society have been worried sick about artificial intelligence eating the jobs of 3 million truck drivers. Turns out that a more imminently endangered species are the Wall Street traders and hedge fund managers who can afford to buy Lamborghinis and hire Elton John to play their Hamptons house parties. Financial giants such as Goldman Sachs and many of the biggest hedge funds are all switching on AI-driven systems that can foresee market trends and make trades better than humans. It's been happening, drip by drip, for years, but a torrent of AI is about to wash through the industry, says Mark Minevich, a New York-based investor in AI and senior adviser to the U.S. Council on Competitiveness. High-earning traders are going to get unceremoniously dumped like workers at a closing factory.

The US Supreme Court is considering a law banning convicted sex offenders from social media sites such as Facebook. The lawsuit was sparked by a North Carolina sex offender who posted on Facebook after his traffic ticket was dismissed. Thanks, Jesus," Lester Packingham Jr wrote. Mr Packingham was forbidden by a 2008 North Carolina law from using social networking sites that children could join, because he is a registered sex offender. He was convicted of indecent liberties with a minor when he was 21 and served 10 months in prison. A Durham police officer investigated the post and determined Mr Packingham used an alias rather than his real name. He was prosecuted, convicted of a felony and received a suspended prison sentence. However, his lawyers say no evidence pointed to him using Facebook or his computer to communicate with minors, or that he posted anything inappropriate or obscene. The Supreme Court will now decide whether the law, meant to prevent communications between sex ...

Huawei has unveiled its latest flagship smartphone, the P10. The 5.1-inch handset is intended as a direct rival to the iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7, featuring high-end specs and a number of unusual tweaks. The P10 Plus, which has launched alongside it, instead features a 5.5-inch, 2,560 x 1,440 display, 128GB of storage, a 3,750mAh battery and 6GB of RAM. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo.

MWC 2017 kicked off with the launch of the LG G6, and Huawei has followed its rival with a new flagship of its own: the Huawei P10. The Chinese firm has become a genuine force in the smartphone industry, with the Huawei Mate 9 easily its best release yet, boasting outstanding battery life, an excellent screen and a number of intelligent software tweaks. Does the P10 represent another step in the right direction? In terms of design, we have no complaints. The'dazzling' colours options are particularly attractive, thanks to something Huawei calls the'hyper diamond cut'.

Five months after introducing its digital assistant, Google is sharing the feature with Android partners, hoping the service can boost its odds to win customers from Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Alphabet Inc.'s Google is making its intelligent assistant -- a service that answers queries, plays music and completes tasks -- available for smartphones using the two newest versions of its Android software. It's showcasing the service with a closer partnership with LG Electronics Co. announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where LG and a slew of hardware manufacturers aim to make a splash ahead of the iPhone's 10th anniversary later this year. Google's assistant on LG's new G6 phone introduced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress. Until now, Google's Pixel smartphone, introduced in October, has been the only handset with the company's automated assistant.

OK, here we go again. A couple of days ago, Square reported the results of its Q4 and full year 2016 business results. The results and attendant guidance can be broadly characterized as another quarter of beat and raise. Interestingly to me, was that the raise part was more on earnings. The company is now forecasting growth of 30% in adjusted revenues but it expects adjusted EBITDA to more than double in 2017. Over the past year that I have been following the name, I have been particularly impressed with the company's strategy of being able to offer lots of pieces of IT services that merchants needed in order to be successful. The shares jumped 21% last week and have reached an all-time high since the company went public in late 2015.

Just over a week ago, Donald Trump gathered members of the world's press before him and told them they were liars. "The press, honestly, is out of control," he said. "The public doesn't believe you any more." CNN was described as "very fake news… story after story is bad". That night I did two things. First, I typed "Trump" in the search box of Twitter. My feed was reporting that he was crazy, a lunatic, a raving madman. But that wasn't how it was playing out elsewhere. The results produced a stream of "Go Donald!!!!", and "You show'em!!!" There were star-spangled banner emojis and thumbs-up emojis and clips of Trump laying into the "FAKE news MSM liars!" Trump had spoken, and his audience had heard him. Then I did what I've been doing for two and a half months now. I Googled "mainstream media is…" And there it was.