The creators of Siri have been hard at work on its successor, and after four years of development, Viv is now ready for its first public demonstration. But the AI-powered digital assistant has already been catching the eye of Google and Facebook. On Monday, the team behind Viv, which includes Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, who were the co-creators of Siri, will give the first public demonstration of the technology they dub "the global brain." Viv is a smarter version of Siri, according to its creators, and will allow users to carry out a huge range of actions by just using voice and without having to tap on a screen or type a request. The work on Viv began in 2003 and was what its creators envisioned Siri would be.

NEW YORK – A video game that allowed players to zap marching aliens with dot lasers and another that gave them flamethrowers and put them in the driver's seat in a violent 3-D world are among six games inducted into the World Video Game Hall of Fame. "Space Invaders" and "Grand Theft Auto III," along with "The Oregon Trail," "Sonic the Hedgehog," "The Legend of Zelda" and "The Sims," were honored Thursday for their influence on gaming and pop culture at the hall inside The Strong museum in Rochester, New York. "Space Invaders" wasn't the first shooter game when it was introduced in Japan in 1978, but it spurred many imitators and a craze for arcade games, said Jeremy Saucier, assistant director of The Strong's International Center for the History of Electronic Games. A virtual universe away, "Grand Theft Auto III" armed players with flamethrowers and assault rifles. "By providing players with a license to do virtually anything they wanted to do on foot or behind the wheel, 'Grand Theft Auto III' renewed debates about the role of games and violence in society while it signaled video games aren't just for kids," Saucier said. The hall of fame inductees were chosen from among 15 finalists culled from thousands of nominations from around the world.

Activision Blizzard Inc. (NASDAQ:ATVI) beat analysts' expectations Thursday with revenue of 1.46 billion, the company revealed in its earnings report for the first three months of 2016. Analysts had forecast around 1.3 billion. The beginning of the year is notoriously sleepy for video games due to the lack of major releases, but the completed acquisition of King in February added intrigue as investors saw the first returns in the 5.9 billion investment in the developer of "Candy Crush." Activision Blizzard's adjusted revenue of 908 million was up 29 percent year-over-year. The company reported King had 463 monthly active users with a net revenue of 207 million, accounting for 23 percent of Activision Blizzard's total sales.

On Friday, Space Exploration Technologies Corp. founder Elon Musk will try to repeat a successful attempt to pitch a SpaceX rocket from the Florida coastline to a robotic platform floating 200 miles away in the Atlantic Ocean. This time, however, the company's Falcon 9 rocket will be moving much faster than the one that deftly kissed the floating landing platform last month when SpaceX made aerospace history. The April 8 landing, part of the CRS-8 Dragon mission that delivered a payload to the International Space Station, proved Musk's idea that first-stage rockets can be recovered and reused instead of dropped into the ocean like very expensive garbage. But this idea is still in its experimental stage and would require repeated successes to become part of normal operating procedures. If the process is repeatable using the same first-stage rocket, it promises to significantly lower the cost of sending satellites, astronauts and other payloads into orbit.

Narrowed down from a field of 15 finalists, this year's winners come from multiple decades and platforms, but all get the nod for their significant contributions to "the video game industry, popular culture, and society in general." Sonic and Zelda are ingrained in popular culture with their countless sequels and spin-offs, but GTA III was groundbreaking for its 3D, sandbox-style open world. Likewise, The Sims' "virtual dollhouse" proved games didn't need a concrete plot to achieve universal appeal. On the older end of the spectrum, Space Invaders was a runaway success that introduced the "high score" box, and at 45-years-old The Oregon Trail has undoubtedly taught generations of American children to fear dying of dysentery. The 2016 nominees that didn't make the cut this year include: Elite, Final Fantasy, John Madden Football, Minecraft, Nürburgring, Pokémon Red and Green, Sid Meier's Civilization, Street Fighter II, and Tomb Raider.

Earlier this year, the Detroit automaker invested 500 million and secured a seat on the board of the ride-sharing service, with the goal of rapidly implementing their vision of a driverless taxi network. Back in March, GM also acquired San Francisco-based Cruise Automation to further speed up that goal. Prior to the acquisition, Cruise built aftermarket self-driving kits that could be added to several Audi vehicles for around 10,000. The forthcoming fleet will use Chevy Bolt electric vehicles paired with Cruise's self-driving technology. As a low-cost, long-range electric vehicle, the Bolt actually makes an ideal taxi platform with plenty of backseat legroom built into a compact profile.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display