The tech titan has moved away from relying on country-specific domains to serve up localized results on mobile web, the Google app for iOS, as well as Search and Maps for desktop. Now, your location dictates the kind of results you'll get -- you could go to google.com.au, for instance, but if you're in New Zealand, you'll still get search results tailored for your current whereabouts. You'll know the location Google recognizes by looking at the lower left-hand corner of the page, as you can see above. Google will automatically detect if you go to another country and serve you results for your new location. So, you'll get results tailored for Japan if you go there, but Google will seamlessly transition back to United States when you fly back home.

The writing has been on the wall for years, at least since Microsoft de-bundled the motion-tracking system from the Xbox One in 2014, knocking $100 off the price tag and making the system more competitive with the PlayStation 4. The Kinect debuted in 2010 with the Xbox 360, and it had a good run, overall: Microsoft sold roughly 35 million devices in total. However, across its iterations and upgrades, the Kinect never quite found its market -- the one application that would turn the hardware into an essential piece of home technology. It wasn't a conversational, connected, voice-activated system like Google Home or Amazon Alexa, and game developers lost interest in the device as virtual and mixed reality rose to the fore. The Kinect was a product out of time. That's not to say it didn't contribute to some truly wild experiences over the years. Developers quickly applied Kinect to surgery, physical therapy and a range of other medical uses.

According to a survey from SLI Systems, 54 percent of mid-size retailers are using or plan to use artificial intelligence (AI) as an online tool in the next 12 months. The most popular applications are expected to be personalized product recommendations, customer service requests and chatbots. The online survey of 234 e-commerce professionals primarily in the U.S., Europe, Australia and New Zealand showed that 56 percent are either using or planning to use AI for personalized product recommendations. That was followed by customer service requests, 41 percent; chatbots, 35 percent; and visual search, 32 percent. VR/AR, voice-activated apps and virtual buying assistants scored lower.In a note from late September, according to Barron's, R.W. Baird's Colin Sebastian indicated that the "overriding theme" at the Shop.org Noting that AI chatter had risen significantly at e-commerce conferences over the last two or three years, Mr. Sebastion said the message being relayed was that "machines will learn about and communicate with individual customers."

Labor has secured support for a Senate inquiry into the dramatic changes about to hit the workforce in the belief the political establishment is not doing enough to prepare people for the impact of innovation and robotics. The move follows a warning sounded last month by the shadow minister for the future of work and the digital economy Ed Husic who told the AFR's innovation summit that Australia risked being swamped by the consequences of technological change due to the reluctance of government and elements of business to take a lead role in preparing for automation and innovation. Mr Husic said 3.5 million Australian jobs stood to be affected by automation and change, including 250,000 vehicle drivers, while the economy stood to gain $1 trillion by 2030. Yet the rapidly-approaching change was barely audible in the national debate, in part due to the government retreating from its key innovation theme following a backlash during the last election campaign and criticism by former prime minister Tony Abbott.

In an effort to stay relevant, Galaxy's Australian Futures Survey reveals proactive workers have: The future of work is a hot-button topic being tackled by the #WTFAustralia campaign, which aims to start a conversation about the big issues and encourage problem solvers to share their ideas. Readers can join in tomorrow on the What's the Future, Australia? You can ask an expert for advice if you're concerned or there's a chance to win $500 just by sharing your ideas on the issue. Social analyst David Chalke said whether new technology should be a source of worry or excitement for workers depended on their situation. "If you are 50-plus, tired, low paid and low skilled, you should be terrified because the jobs for you in the future are not going to be there, they will be automated," he said.

For many founders the road to raising capital usually takes months, if not years, but for Flamingo founder Dr Catriona Wallace the latest part of her journey took just 12 minutes. The artificial intelligence fintech startup, which is listed on the Australian Securities Exchange through its holding company Cre8tek, raised $5.1 million last month via a share placement to new and existing institutional, professional and sophisticated investors. The oversubscribed round closed after just 12 minutes, with $10 million in bids vying for the 128.1 million in shares that were on offer for 4c each. "There's recently been a lot more interest and conversation [in Australia] around artificial intelligence, and this is reflected in the success of this raise," Wallace tells StartupSmart. "Like all startup founders I know that raising money is always a difficult task -- we were very pleased that the $5.1 million was oversubscribed and mainly our feeling was of happiness and confidence. It gives us a really significant runway into 2018 to prove our next key milestones."

China and the US are becoming the world's biggest rivals in artificial intelligence: it's Luke vs Darth Vader, Alien vs Predator, Rocky vs Ivan Drago. The Chinese government's pivot to become the leader in this technology has created plenty of hype, but how are China's ambitious AI aspirations playing out on the ground? Research by startup database IT Juzi and Tencent News offers a new view of China's AI industry's strengths and weaknesses. The US is currently the definite champion in AI development, according to the data. There are 1.82 times more American AI companies than Chinese.

Seeing Machines (AIM: SEE), an industry leader in computer vision technologies which enable machines to see, understand and assist people, announces the automotive production debut of its FOVIO driver monitoring technology in the 2018 Cadillac CT6. The FOVIO based driver monitoring system (DMS) forms an integral part of General Motors' industry leading Super Cruise hands-free driving system for the highway, ensuring safe and confident vehicle operation. Overcoming the challenges of reliable driver monitoring is critical in hands-free driving systems to address the need for keeping drivers engaged and prepared to re-take control of the vehicle when required. The Cadillac Super Cruise system uses FOVIO vision technology, developed by Seeing Machines, to enable a gumdrop-sized infrared camera on the steering wheel column to accurately determine the driver's attention state. Determining driver attention state is accomplished through a precise measure of head orientation and eyelid movements under a full range of daytime and night-time driving conditions including the use of sunglasses.

Two artificial virtual assistants called Rosie and Maggie are set to become more ubiquitous after artificial intelligence start-up Flamingo raised $5.1 million last month to fund their rollout. Chief executive Catriona Wallace, who founded Flamingo in 2014, says she is "super pleased" with the raise after it was opened and closed within 12 minutes with $10 million bid on the book. "We were well oversubscribed," she says. "It was one of the fastest capital raises that [lead investment partner] Bell Potter had ever conducted, which I believe is testament to Australia's growing interest in artificial intelligence and machine learning." Flamingo is headquartered in Sydney but also has offices in the US with 30 staff across the two countries. The start-up's flagship technology is its artificial virtual assistants Rosie and Maggie.

Operators in the travel industry in the Asia-Pacific region should prepare themselves to maximise business from voice searches online, one of Australia's leading tourism strategists has cautioned. Simply optimise your digital online presence by building reputation, trust, authority and relevance and the voice recognition algorithms of Google, Apple, Amazon and others will do the rest for you – mostly. That was the recommendation by Bronwyn White, co-founder of MyTravelResearch.com, when she was addressing an audience of tourism marketers at the Tourism Marketing Rockstar Convention in Sydney last month. Ms White explained that voice search and chatbots were the latest digital marketing outcomes of the artificial intelligence revolution currently transforming the travel industry by stealth. Apple Siri, Google Now, Windows Cortana and Amazon Alexa are the leading voice activated chatbots helping consumers search without typing," she said. "They all use artificial intelligence algorithms to drive voice search.