We stand on the precipice of greatness, on the gravel edges of a long path that seems to curve into the sky itself. Someone points to the sky as the sun is rendered to a speck behind a cloud of locusts. The sky turns to black and brown, as packages containing soap, fridge magnets, socks and HDMI cables are dropped from the sky. Amazon Prime Air drone delivery is here and we are saved? Yesterday Jeff Bezos announced the first ever Amazon Prime Air customer delivery.

We stand on the precipice of greatness, on the gravel edges of a long path that seems to curve into the sky itself. Someone points to the sky as the sun is rendered to a speck behind a cloud of locusts. The sky turns to black and brown, as packages containing soap, fridge magnets, socks and HDMI cables are dropped from the sky. Amazon Prime Air drone delivery is here and we are saved? Yesterday Jeff Bezos announced the first ever Amazon Prime Air customer delivery.

Amazon announced Wednesday that it had made its first commercial drone delivery. CEO Jeff Bezos revealed in a Tweet that it took 13 minutes from "click to delivery" and that the delivery made to a customer in England is on Amazon's books. Drone deliveries might be in a nascent stage right now, but companies such as Amazon and Domino's have proved with their test deliveries that commercial drone deliveries are a not-so-distant possibility. Drone deliveries take less time than traditional mode of deliveries and seem to be a more convenient way for retailers to make deliveries. Amazon is currently using two of its customers as test subjects, but the company believes that its "Prime Air" service has great potential.

David Lazarus' column runs Tuesdays and Fridays. He also can be seen daily on KTLA-TV (Channel 5) and followed on Twitter @Davidlaz. Send your tips or feedback to david.lazarus@latimes.com.

The Mall of America worked with IBM to create a chatbot guide for the nation's largest shopping center. At the Mall of America in a suburb just south of Minneapolis, shoppers walk 1.15 miles just to make their way around a single level of the sprawling shopping destination visited by 40 million people every year. And with multiple floors in total comprising around 5.6 million square feet of total building area--enough to fit nine Yankee Stadiums--some might find it handy to have a digital guide for navigating the nation's largest shopping center. The mall--call MoA by the locals--has partnered with IBM to integrate the company's Watson technology to create a "mobile concierge" that helps shoppers make their way around. Using Watson's conversational API, a holiday-themed chatbot--fittingly named "E.L.F." (short for Experience List Formulator)--helps guests plan a personalized shopping experience based on whatever they're looking for.

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Amazon has started its drone delivery trial in Cambridge, UK, the company announced Wednesday. In a tweet, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed Amazon Prime Air, which promises to deliver packages with small drones in 30 minutes or less after placing an order. The company did not say when the service will be available. "We will deploy when and where we have the regulatory support needed to safely realize our vision," said Amazon. "We're excited about this technology and one day using it to deliver packages to customers around the world in 30 minutes or less."

Why does Amazon's Alexa team need 1000 people? I have stated for quite some time that 50% of all human interaction with computers will be through voice-assisted AI in the next ten years [2]. "What if we didn't need to learn arcane commands? What if you could use the most effective and powerful communication tool ever invented? This tool evolved over millions of years and allows you to express complex ideas in very compact and data dense ways yet can be nuanced to the width of a hair. It is our voice… The last 60 years of computing, humans were adapting to the computer. The next 60 years the computer will adapt to us. It will be our voices that will lead the way; it will be a revolution."

It's already been three years since Amazon first revealed its somewhat audacious plan to make deliveries by drone. But the company is quite serious about this, and today it is announcing that it complete the first Amazon Prime Air drone-powered delivery. The company recently launched a trial in Cambridge, England -- and on December 7th, Amazon completed its first drone-powered delivery. It took 13 minutes from order to delivery, with the drone departing a custom-built fulfillment center nearby. Amazon's video about the project says that it's only servicing a few customers in the area right now, but will soon be open to dozens more who live within a few miles of the Cambridge fulfillment center.

This is a great interview with Abhik Banerjee. Abhik is a Staff Data Scientist at Kohl's Technology (at the Kohl's departmental stores) where he leads a team on machine learning and data mining projects. He also provides strategic direction around these areas to senior executives at Kohl's. Abhik has an interesting role because he has to marry online and physical store analytics to provide insights to Kohl's. Abhik received his MS in computer science from the University of Cincinnati in 2012. Welcome to another episode of Flyover Labs. Today we are lucky enough to have Abhik Banerjee with us. And Abhik is a Staff Data Scientist at Kohl's Department Stores where he works on machine learning and data mining projects.