Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN) has become one of the leaders in the emerging field of artificial intelligence (AI). Many of the ways the company uses the technology go on behind the scenes for things such as improving search results, better product recommendations, and enhanced forecasting and inventory management. The more public face of Amazon's AI ambitions can be found in its Echo family of smart speakers powered by Alexa, its voice-activated digital assistant, which has become the leader in the burgeoning smart-speaker market. With that much riding on AI, it should come as no surprise that Amazon has announced plans to expand its AI research by building a new R&D center in Barcelona, Spain. Amazon is setting up AI labs around the globe in search of AI talent.

Google Home is one of the better smart home speakers you can buy. But, even at $130, Google Home is out of reach of many who might want to try it out. Now, the electronics retailer Micro Center is selling Google's officially-sanctioned AIY Voice kit, a $35 kit that includes all the parts you need to build your own smart-talkin' speaker on the cheap. While this bundle of wires and cardboard won't magically become a squawk box on its own, all you have to provide are your hands, a microSD card, and a screwdriver. Thankfully, unlike so many of these hobbyist kits, there's no soldering required.

When Apple unveiled its new iPhone X that lets users unlock the device with facial recognition (called Face ID), many joked that this would allow their partners to snoop on their phones, and that they'd have to wear masks to sleep. To help upcoming iPhone X users protect themselves, online retailers are now selling masks, including one dubbed'anti-facial recognition headgear.' While Apple's premium anniversary device won't be released in China until November, several vendors on the country's e-commerce giant Taobao are now selling such'accessories' for those with untrustworthy partners. With the unveiling of the iPhone X's Face ID, many joked this would allow their partners to snoop on their phones and that they'd have to wear masks to sleep. To help upcoming iPhone X users protect themselves, online retailers are now selling'anti-facial recognition headgear' The green mask called'anti-facial recognition headgear' is selling on the site for 39 Yuan (or $5.95).

More psychologists are now coming the tech space because they're trying to teach machines to become more social and sociable, according to BT's head of customer insight and futures, Dr Nicola Millard. "I'm not a technologist, I'm a psychologist – and it makes a lot of sense having me on-board because innovation in itself won't work unless people adopt it," she told CMO. "A psychologist in the team prevents us from getting carried away exclusively by the technology which often tech companies do." Leading the third largest innovation hum in the UK, Millard is responsible for tapping into the research and innovations that BT does for its global services clients. "I used to have a silly job title as a futurologist, and I hated that job title because everyone assumes you have a crystal ball," she said. "But I'm in global services so my clients are typically retailers, airlines and banks – big global corporates – and we often bring them around to our showcases of the retail store of the future, or the bank of the future, so they can have a play with our proof of concepts." While Astral Park in the UK is BT's main research hub, the company also has other centres dotted across the world including Abu Dhabi, Singapore University in Beijing and MIT in the US.

A tech startup called Bodega that hopes to replace mom-and-pop shops with unmanned boxes that rely on an app and artificial intelligence is facing a massive backlash from immigrant business owners and skeptics across Silicon Valley. The company, founded by two former Google employees and launched on Wednesday, is marketing five-foot-wide pantries that users can unlock with their smartphones to pick up non-perishable items. There are no humans at the "stores" – which are already stationed in spots like apartment buildings, offices and gyms – and a computer program automatically charges customers' credit cards, according to Fast Company, which first reported on the startup. Although the boxes appear to be little more than glorified vending machines, the company's executives have been widely mocked, and criticized for explicitly stating that their mission is to displace neighborhood corner stores and put family-owned shops out of business. "The vision here is much bigger than the box itself," co-founder Paul McDonald, a former Google product manager, told Fast Company.

In addition, in 2016 Etsy bought Blackbird Technologies to apply the firm's image-recognition and natural language processing (NLP) to its search function. UNIQLO, the global casual apparel retailer, has also taken a leadership position by offering its customers an expert, AI-powered assistant with deep knowledge about UNIQLO's product catalog, retail locations and more. "As one of the world's leading fashion apparel companies, UNIQLO is committed to delivering the industry's gold standard for customer service and support," said Makoto Hoketsu, Group Senior Vice President and CTO at Uniqlo's parent company Fast Retailing. The focus on natural language processing is dramatically growing as consumers are now accustomed to intelligent conversational assistance, fueled by the use and acceptance of consumer tools like Google Assistant, Siri, Microsoft Cortana and Amazon Alexa. When looking at voice/AI-enabled application tools, the market is flooded with options and growing more competitive with every passing day.

The following is a guest blog post by Sahir Anand, Managing Vice-President, Research & Strategy, EnsembleIQ. Artificial Intelligence is defined as the study of "intelligent agents" and takes place when a device perceives its environment and takes actions that maximize its chance of success at some goal. Colloquially, the term "artificial intelligence" is applied when a machine mimics "cognitive" functions that humans associate with other human minds, such as "learning" and "problem solving." While traditional data mining extracts data for humans to analyze, AI draws conclusions on its own. AI uses predictive models and machine-learning to advance company strategy and relieve end-user efforts.

Our recent purchase of an older house put a lot of home improvement projects on my plate. It was one of those projects that took me to a big box retailer this last weekend. My project was not very straightforward and I needed some help. Although the staff at big box retailer was really helpful, they were not able to provide me with a way forward. See it was not a simple problem, I needed options and consulting. Instead of giving up on the project, I decided to check out Dale's Hardware.

CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA – Apple Inc. on Tuesday rolled out its much-anticipated iPhone X, a redesigned product of glass and stainless steel with an edge-to-edge display that Apple Chief Executive Tim Cook called "the biggest leap forward since the original iPhone." The phone features wireless charging, an infrared camera and special hardware for facial recognition, which will replace the fingerprint sensor for unlocking the phone. The home button found on previous iPhones is also gone, and users will instead tap the device to wake it up. But in an embarrassing moment for Apple's senior vice president, Craig Federighi, the face ID unlocking did not work on his first attempt during the on-stage presentation. The phone, which is priced at $999 and ships on Nov. 3, as well as the holiday shopping season that will follow are the most important for Apple in years.

Prateek Joshi is an artificial intelligence researcher, published author of five books, and TEDx speaker. He is the founder of Pluto AI, a venture-funded Silicon Valley startup building an analytics platform for smart water management powered by deep learning. His work in this field has led to patents, tech demos, and research papers at major IEEE conferences. He has been an invited speaker at technology and entrepreneurship conferences including TEDx, AT&T Foundry, Silicon Valley Deep Learning, and Open Silicon Valley. Prateek has also been featured as a guest author in prominent tech magazines.