If you look at all the tech giants - Microsoft, Google, Apple, Facebook and Amazon - there is one area all of them are keenly interested in. Personal assistants and bots which work on the basis of artificial intelligence (AI). Admittedly, Apple, Google and Microsoft have been in this space for a couple of years, but 2016 is the year when these technologies could start to have a telling impact on the way people use their gadgets and services. In fact, for many including Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella, "Bots will be the new apps." More than the biggies, start-ups are doing some unique and disruptive things. On Monday (May 9) night, at the TechCrunch Disrupt conference, Dag Kittlaus, co-founder and CEO of Viv, showed his new AI-based personal assistant which seemingly was a step above what Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, Google's Search or even Amazon's Alexa are capable of doing.

Detroit automakers that viewed Silicon Valley as a "serious threat" just a few years ago are now jumping into deals, acquisitions and investments with West Coast tech companies, describing some of the partnerships as "getting married." The new relationships promise to bring the tech and automotive industries closer as they rush to develop self-driving cars, ride-sharing partnerships and to take advantage of other cutting-edge technology. The change from potential adversaries to partnerships illustrates a growing awareness that neither industry is likely to conquer the other anytime soon and that they need each other to evolve at the speed necessary to remain competitive. But like any successful marriage, the two parties must recognize their differences and figure out how to work more closely together, said Xavier Mosquet, a Detroit-based senior partner in the automotive practice of the Boston Consulting Group. These are industries that move at vastly different paces, operate in entirely different regulatory environments and come from different corporate cultures, he pointed out.

In the 30 years since it was released in theaters on May 16,1986, it's almost unimaginable to think "Top Gun" -- the Tony Scott-directed action film starring Tom Cruise as a hot shot fighter pilot whose cocky attitude puts him at odds with other students at the Top Gun Naval Fighter Weapons School -- wouldn't be a hit. Despite mixed reviews -- the film has a 55 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes -- "Top Gun" was a box-office smash, earning 177 million in the U.S. (and another 177 million internationally) during its initial theatrical release. The movie not only cemented Cruise's leading-man status, it also launched the careers of Val Kilmer, Meg Ryan and Anthony Edwards, who were all relative unknowns at the time. "Top Gun" went on to win an Academy Award for Best Original Song for Berlin's "Take My Breath Away," spawned numerous video game adaptations, earned a place in the Library of Congress' National Film Registry, and, ahead of its 30th anniversary, reportedly started moving forward with a highly anticipated sequel, marking Cruise's return as Maverick. "You don't make'Top Gun' without Tom Cruise," producer Jerry Bruckheimer told ET after he shared a photo of him and the actor in New Orleans, discussing "a little Top Gun 2." But Bruckheimer, who has since launched the "Bad Boys" and "Pirates of the Caribbean" franchises, is the first to admit the cards were stacked against their ace pilot.

Undergoing an aggressive revamp to prepare for an autonomous-driving future, the Los Angeles Auto Show is eliminating its Connected Car Expo and replacing it with a new pre-show designed to better bridge automakers and technology companies. When the L.A. Auto Show takes place this fall, it will be preceded by AutoMobility LA, which will fold in elements of the Connected Car Expo into the traditional media and trade days for "one schedule, one brand, one show," said the event's Brendan Flynn. Kicking off Monday, Nov. 14, with opening ceremonies and a cocktail party, AutoMobility LA's next three days will include panels, conferences, test drives and demonstrations -- and the car displays that have been the L.A. Auto Show's centerpiece since it was founded in 1907. The 10-day auto show that will follow AutoMobility LA will be unchanged. The idea of folding the 4-year-old Connected Car Expo into the traditional media and trade days that precede the auto show's public days has been in the works for several years.

Difficult as it may be to remember now, there was a time when planning a vacation meant calling a travel agent. These professionals served as an intermediary between travelers and hotels, airlines and so on, taking vague notions ("We'd like to do two weeks across Europe") and turning them into itineraries. But over the past 15 years or so, do-it-yourself websites like Orbitz and Airbnb have empowered vacationers to pick their own accommodations, making travel agents increasingly unnecessary. The U.S. Department of Labor warns that the employment of travel agents is set to drop 12% by 2024, thanks largely to "the ability of travelers to use the Internet to research vacations and book their own trip." Those DIY sites have given rise to a new problem: too much choice.

Chinese hi-tech firm Baidu has unveiled a plan to let driverless vehicles range freely around an entire city. The five-year plan will see the autonomous cars, vans and buses slowly introduced to the eastern city of Wuhu. Initially no passengers will be carried by the vehicles as the technology to control them is refined via journeys along designated test zones. Eventually the test areas will be expanded and passengers will be able to use the vehicles. "They want to be the first city in the world to embrace autonomous driving," said Wang Jing, Baidu's head of driverless cars, in an interview with the BBC's Click programme.

Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. is eyeing the movie business for growth. Company spokesman Makoto Wakae said Monday details are undecided but the work might be a theater release or a DVD. Nintendo, which makes the Wii U home console and Nintendo 3DS hand-held machine, has licensed its game characters in the past, such as with its Pokemon movies, but it is now thinking about make its own film content. It won't become a full-fledged film studio, but filmmaking is an area it has chosen for future investment of proceeds from selling its stake in the major league Seattle Mariners, planned for later this year, according to Kyoto-based Nintendo. The Japanese daily newspaper Asahi reported Monday that Nintendo's work might be 3-D animation.

Of course, gamers go into every year filled with excitement and anticipation. This is a medium that thrives on slow burn hype, with even tiny indie projects using months of teaser shots and YouTube trailers to garner interest. The good news is, there's usually enough brilliant, innovative and compelling fare to justify that enthusiasm – and 2016 looks to be no exception. Although you could fill a dozen'most anticipated' lists with all the grandiose sequels and blockbusting franchises due out this year, there are also dozens of smaller-scale independent projects, keeping the idiosyncratic and experimental heart of video game culture beating. Here, then, is our pick of the biggest, smallest and strangest titles to look out for in the coming 12 months.

Continuing the tradition of Machine Learning Summer Schools, this year's summer school is going to be held at the University of Cádiz, in Cádiz, Spain, from 11-21th May, 2016. The MLSS is a course offered to graduate students, researchers and professionals. The courses consists of lectures by respected researchers who come from the industry as well as from academia. The lectures will touch several fundamental as well as advanced concepts related to, but not limited to, machine learning, data analysis and inference. There will also be tutorials, which will concentrate on the practical aspect of machine learning.

Lately, there's been a rumble pretty much everywhere about artificial intelligence, digital personal assistants, the Internet of Things, wearables and apps for everything. I've even written about what the rise of digital assistants means to search. There are some who claim that these new technologies will render search obsolete, passed over for the convenience and joy of an always-available digital world. I think they are wrong. Instead of looking at a search engine as an ad platform, we need to remember what it actually does for people.