Aldi customers have been warned to stay away from hoax vouchers circulating on email and social media which trick shoppers into thinking that they can save money. The German retailer said the £65 vouchers, that circulated on platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, are worthless and will not be accepted as legal tender at their stores. Aldi said it was investigating the scam and urged customers not to share their personal details, which could help scammers to commit identity fraud. "We advise customers to ignore these adverts and not to share any personal information," the supermarket said in a statement sent to the Independent. On Twitter, the supermarket said: "We are aware that there is a hoax £65 Aldi voucher being circulated. This voucher is fraudulent and cannot be redeemed in store."

Morrisons is using artificial intelligence to stock its stores in a bid to improve efficiency and customer service. The supermarket is rolling out a system from tech firm Blue Yonder that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to predict exactly what is needed in each of Morrisons' 491 stores. Morrisons has been trialling the technology in select stores for around 18 months, and is now introducing it across its store portfolio. To build its stocking algorithm, Morrisons gave Blue Yonder three years of sales data for every single store, and the exact weather around every store over the same period. This means the algorithm knows which stores sells more pies, and when, but it can also learn.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc. is creating a technology-startup incubator in Silicon Valley to identify changes that will reshape the retail experience, including virtual reality, autonomous vehicle and drone delivery and personalized shopping. The incubator will be called Store No. 8, a reference to a Wal-Mart location where the company experimented with new store layouts. Marc Lore, chief executive officer of Wal-Mart's e-commerce operations, announced the incubator Monday at the ShopTalk conference in Las Vegas. The world's biggest retailer has been overhauling its online team to better challenge Amazon.com Lore founded Jet.com, which Wal-Mart purchased in September for about $3.3 billion in pursuit of Amazon in the e-commerce race.

Tired of searching far-flung corners of a big box retail store for that item you want? Walmart may have a high-tech solution – the retail giant has filed a patent to use drones within its stores. The patent application describes "dispatching an airborne drone to an item located within a retail shopping facility, securing that item of inventory to the airborne drone, and then directing the airborne drone to carry the item of inventory to a delivery area located within the retail shopping area." As for the safety of customers when drones are buzzing around a busy store, the patent explains that the flying robots' flightpath will not include any open space. Sensors and 3D map technology will be used to ensure that drones keep to their designated space, according to the patent, which adds that the flightpath could be configured to largely avoid aisles between product display shelving.

Add this one to the growing pile of evidence that the world is slowly transitioning into a sci-fi dystopia: a billionaire entrepreneur with a side-line building space rockets has been showing off piloting a 13-foot-tall robot. Amazon CEO and fifth richest person in the world Jeff Bezos got behind the wheel (well, dual joysticks) of the bot at the retailing giant's annual robotics conference. He tweeted out the picture above earlier this morning, saying: "I just got to pilot an awesome (and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology." Other conference attendees videoed the event, and Bezos can be seen waving around the robot's arms and asking: "Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver?" Reports that Bezos then told the crowd to "bow down before your new king and master, Metal Jeff" are unsubstantiated. Bezos was showing the robot off at MARS -- an annual invite-only conference run by Amazon and dedicated to machine learning, home automation, robotics and space exploration.

There are so many great commerce sessions at Amplify 2017 that I'm going to have to write a 10,000-word blog post. But it is true that we've got all the hottest topics in commerce today covered in our Amplify program – AI, omni-channel, personalization and so much more. How is #AI revolutionizing the way brands connect with customers? How can artificial intelligence help spur creative thinking? As a consumer, how can cognitive computing help deliver what you want before you even know you want it?

In the race to become humanity's real-life Iron Man, it appears Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos has taken the lead from Tesla's Elon Musk. I just got to pilot an awesome (and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology. Caleb Harper, who works with The Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Open Agriculture Initiative, shared video on Twitter of Bezos operating the robots' arms. "Why do I feel so much like Sigourney Weaver," said Bezos, a nod to the actress' role as Ripley in the sci-fi classic Alien. Bezos was attending the second annual MARS conference, which brings together experts in robotics, machine learning, home automation and space to demonstrate and discuss the latest innovations.

Looking for another terrifying 2017 moment to keep you up at night? We can't imagine why, but here ya go: Jeff Bezos in a giant mechanical robot suit. The filthy rich Amazon CEO and Oscars attendee (lol) suited up in the 13-foot-tall mechanical armor to get a taste of the supervillain life and I guess try to ease everyone into this new weird world we live in where very little makes sense. SEE ALSO: Moon missions continue Jeff Bezos and Elon Musk's rocket-measuring contest Anyways, Bezos hopped in this mechanical robot, known as the Method-2, and went full-on Avatar to demo the technology at Amazon's annual MARS conference -- an elite gathering that offers a glimpse at innovative Machine-Learning Automation, Robotics and Space Exploration technology. I just got to pilot an awesome (and huge) robot thanks to Hankook Mirae Technology.

Research shows that a 5-star rating isn't actually the best, as if customers don't see at least a few negative reviews they think the system's been gamed. SAN FRANCISCO -- Chances are, a week or two after you buy something online you'll get an email asking, "How'd we do?" and a link to review the product. Your response and those of other customers are worth a lot: $400 billion, according to one analyst. The more buys, the more reviews. The more buys, the higher your rank in search and the more sales you get," said Alice Kim, owner of online cosmetic brand Elizabeth Mott. Even a single comment can make a huge difference. Just going from zero review to one increases the rate at which online window-shoppers actually click the "buy" button by 65%, said Matt Moog, CEO of Power Reviews, a company that makes ratings and review software. He estimates 20% of sales are driven by reviews and one-third of online shoppers say straight out they won't buy a product that hasn't been positively reviewed. Increasingly, online reviews matter for all buyers even though online sales made up just 8.3% of U.S. retail sales in the fourth quarter, according to the Department of Commerce -- and Amazon's reviews matter most of all. The online retailer lives and dies by its reviews online, said owner Alice Kim. Fifty-five percent of shoppers start their buying research on Amazon, a survey by marketing firm BloomReach found, and half of all shoppers say they rely primarily on Amazon for reviews, according to Market Track, an e-commerce analysis firm. "They can be in Best Buy or Home Depot, but they go on their phones to check Amazon reviews," said Greg Perry of One Click Retail, an e-commerce data company. Amazon's reviews rank so highly in part because they're considered the most trustworthy, even though -- like other sites -- it's not immune from people using the reviews for ancillary purposes, say last November's flood of one-star reviews of anchor Megyn Kelly's book hours after it went on sale, which the LA Times said was orchestrated by a pro-Trump forum on Reddit. The Seattle retailer has gone to great lengths to root out fake reviews, launching over 1,000 lawsuits against those who post them, according to the company. It also marks and gives more weight to reviews by people who actually bought the product and has introduced a machine learning algorithm that gives more weight to newer, more helpful reviews. In October Amazon began requiring that any review of a product given to the reviewer for free or at reduced cost be marked as such. "Our focus is to make sure our reviews are authentic and helpful," said spokeswoman Angie Newman. Whether consumers realize it or not, the notes they hastily type out, whether glowing or scathing, wield tremendous power. "Before, you might have told ten people about a product.

I guess this isn't the best book for newbies. I picked this up because I would like to incorporate AI/Machine Learning into my Thesis. My school does not offer Artificial Intelligence on a semester nor yearly basis (it's on rotation, which means I won't be able to take the course until 2017 - after i've already graduated). I will admit that I have not actually finished the entire book, but I think I have covered enough of the material to make an opinion. In my opinion, the book reads like a literature review on AI.