Amazon's futuristic cashier-free store is expanding from its Seattle base. The claim to fame for Amazon Go, a hybrid grocery and convenience store stocked with prepared meal items and a variety of kitchen staples, is its lack of human staff: You check into the store with a code on the Amazon Go app on your phone, shop, and then are charged for the items you leave the store with, eliminating the sometimes time-consuming hassle of the checkout line. First announced as an employee-only beta in late 2016, Amazon opened its flagship Seattle location to the public in January. Now, the Seattle Times reports that the innovative retail experience will be heading to Chicago and San Francisco next. Amazon confirmed the expansion after publishing job postings for store managers in both cities, although exact store-opening dates are still under wraps.

Customers at this automated JD.com store in Tianjin can pay via QR code on mobile phones and through facial recognition technology, both without sales assistance. First there was pilot-free aircraft in China, better known as drones. This year the country began setting up a tract of the South China Sea to test captain-less ships. And now there are stores without staff. This phenomenon, while not unique to China, has taken off quickly there this year with lots of growing room left.

The Internet is nothing but a massive reservoir of websites that contain audio-visual content of varying formats and themes. However, we have come a long way in the space of website development, as today we have all kinds of software that can be used by an average person with no programming background to create beautiful and responsive websites in a matter of few hours. In truth, there are many technologies that are pushing website development to great heights, and Artificial Intelligence is easily one of them. Dedicated web development programs such as Dreamweaver have already made web designing a piece of cake. However, for those who seek advanced customization features and highly refined websites that require expert guidance, there are many AI-powered tools that fit the bill.

A lot of people are worried that voice assistants like Amazon (AMZN)'s Alexa, Apple (AAPL)'s Siri or the Google (GOOGL) Assistant are spying on us at home. All three companies have said the assistants are not listening all the time, but only listen for a wake word -- or perhaps hidden commands humans can't hear. So I asked all three voice assistants if they're spying on us, just for kicks. Here's what each one said. Here's what Amazon Alexa said: "I only send audio back to Amazon when you activate me. For more information, and to view Amazon's privacy notice, visit the help section of your Alexa app or alexa.amazon.com."

In a matter of decades, computers and the internet revolutionized the business world in ways that few people predicted. Savvy professionals who recognized that shift as it was occurring had the opportunity to position themselves and their businesses for success, such as the garage-based book vendor turned mass online retailer -- Amazon. The next wave of change is already underway, and the question is: who will be the next success stories? "The disruption caused by artificial intelligence and augmented reality/virtual reality will be so drastic that it will overshadow the cloud disruption," says Dr. Payam Saadat, academic program director and designer of the Bachelor of Science in business administration at City University of Seattle. "This will be akin to the revolution of personal computing in the 1990s, and internet computing and cloud computing of the 2000s. It will disrupt every single industry and is, in fact, vital for other emerging technologies."

Do you think Nikita from New York and Melissa from Memphis would buy the same kind of clothes or be attracted to the same top? It's hard to argue that they will. Yet, H&M and hundreds of other retailers choose to bring the same "new" product line and replicate the same store format, in all outlets across the country. However, if the Wall Street Journal's reports are to be believed, H&M has learned to question this practice. Instead, the retailer will use big data and artificial intelligence (AI) to radically transform how it manages stores in each location to better engage with and entice shoppers.

Robots aren't going to take over the world, but humans could use them for some scary stuff. And in the wake of Google's latest tech revelation, many experts are agreeing with him. Google revealed its human-sounding AI assistant Google Duplex during this week's I/O conference. Google Duplex can make phone calls for users to perform tasks such as scheduling appointments and reservations -- even completing those conversations with natural, human-sounding "ums" and "uhhs." Though the technology demoed at the event is still in its early stages, it has drummed up a fair share of controversy as people debate the ethics of letting robots do the talking.

There are so many amazing ways artificial intelligence and machine learning are used behind the scenes to impact our everyday lives and inform business decisions and optimize operations for some of the world's leading companies. Here are 27 amazing practical examples of AI and machine learning. Using natural language processing, machine learning and advanced analytics, Hello Barbie listens and responds to a child. A microphone on Barbie's necklace records what is said and transmits it to the servers at ToyTalk. There, the recording is analyzed to determine the appropriate response from 8,000 lines of dialogue.

To reduce markdowns and break out of a lull in sales, H&M is turning to artificial intelligence (AI) and Big Data to tailor its merchandising mix in its brick-and-mortar stores. The fashion retailer is using algorithms to gain insights from returns, receipts and data from loyalty cards to improve its bottom lines, according to news source Retail Dive reports. H&M is utilizing the technology in a store located in an upscale section of Stockholm, Sweden. It has so far learned that women make up most of its customer base, and that fashionable items such as floral skirts have sold at better-than-predicted rates. Sales have improved with these insights, and H&M is moving away from the idea of stocking each location with a similar selection.

Today I'm excited to announce a new Machine Learning Competency for Consulting Partners in the AWS Partner Network (APN). This AWS Competency program allows APN Consulting Partners to demonstrate a deep expertise in machine learning on AWS by providing solutions that enable machine learning and data science workflows for their customers. This new AWS Competency is in addition to the Machine Learning competency for our APN Technology Partners, that we launched at the re:Invent 2017 partner summit. The AWS Competency Program helps customers find the most qualified partners with deep expertise. AWS Machine Learning Competency Partners undergo a strict validation of their capabilities to demonstrate technical proficiency and proven customer success with AWS machine learning tools.