It's an exciting time for innovations in ed tech, and chatbots are at the forefront. Mobile apps are still compelling and there are many use cases where an app can provide the richest experience. However, the downside is that you still need to download them, log in, keep them updated, and make sure they work well with your devices. When it comes to sheer speed and convenience, nothing can beat a chatbot. So, what is a chatbot, anyway?

Tech companies are investing heavily in artificial intelligence, and touting the financial benefits of AI-powered technologies like robots, virtual assistants and augmented reality, Now, a new study reports that artificial intelligence could dramatically boost economic growth and productivity. The Accenture report looked at 12 countries and found that AI -- or technology that senses the environment, comprehends what's happening and takes action -- could increase productivity by up to 40 percent in 2035. The report also forecasts economic growth in the U.S. could increase from 2.6 percent to 4.6 percent over the same period with the adoption of AI technologies. Among the countries that stand to make the largest gains in productivity from AI in 2035 are Sweden, Finland, the U.S. and Japan. "The impact this has is that it automates a lot of the low-level tasks and gets them done with higher satisfaction," says Accenture's chief technology officer, Paul Daugherty.

You may not have noticed, but artificial intelligence has already arrived. AI systems are used today to identify your friends' faces in Facebook photos, cue up recommended videos on YouTube and help your Siri voice assistant talk. Hoping to build on these uses, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Microsoft said Wednesday they've created a new group called the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society. The nonprofit's primary missions include researching AI, creating guidelines in developing new AI tech and advancing the public's understanding of AI -- perhaps helping allay fears that robots may want to kill us or take our jobs (or both). The Partnership on AI isn't intended as a lobbying group.

Summary: What comes next after Deep Learning? How do we get to Artificial General Intelligence? Adversarial Machine Learning is an emerging space that points to that direction and shows that AGI is closer than we think. Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Nets (CNNs) have given us dramatic improvements in image, speech, and text recognition over the last two years. They suffer from the flaw however that they can be easily fooled by the introduction of even small amounts of noise, random or intentional.

Until recently, artificial intelligence (AI) was primarily limited to computer chess players and jeopardy. In the last few years, however, the pace of innovation in AI has skyrocketed, driven by tipping points in algorithms, processing (GPUs), and increasing volumes of data. While there is an infinite set of use cases for AI, the Internet of Things is a particularly interesting breeding ground for new AI-driven solutions and experiences, from self-driving cars to intelligent homes to mHealth. In this talk at Bosch ConnectedWorld Chicago, MongoDB's Dev Ittycheria discusses how the massive increase in data driven by sensors will drive the next wave of innovation in AI.

The web is a vast storehouse of knowledge and with people becoming more and more internet savvy, search engines have become an integral part of our lives. Companies like Google and Microsoft are actively investing in their respective search engines to keep up with the growing demand for information. However the endeavor does not end there. Search engine providers have to improve the search algorithms continuously, add new features and look into further innovations. Over the years, searching on Google, Bing or even Facebook has seen a drastic improvement, not only in terms of the results they deliver, but also with the accuracy of these results.

SAN FRANCISCO: Major technology firms have joined forces in a partnership on artificial intelligence, aiming to cooperate on "best practices" on using the technology "to benefit people and society." Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Google-owned British AI firm DeepMind on Wednesday announced a non-profit organization called "Partnership on AI" focused on helping the public understand the technology and practices in the field. The move comes amid concerns that new artificial intelligence efforts could spin out of control and end up being detrimental to society. The companies "will conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research under an open license in areas such as ethics, fairness, and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability, and robustness of the technology," according to a statement. Academics, non-profit groups, and specialists in policy and ethics will be invited to join the board of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society (Partnership on AI).

TOKYO Japan's Sharp Corp said it will spend 570 million on its organic light-emitting diode (OLED) screen business - one of its first major investments since it was taken over by Taiwan's Foxconn although the amount pales in comparison to efforts by South Korean rivals.

The Tap is similar to Echo, but requires you to press a button to speak to Alexa. SAN FRANCISCO – Amazon is offering 1 million to the university team that builds an artificial intelligence that can keep up its side of the conversation with a human being for 20 minutes. On Thursday Amazon announced the Alexa Prize, a 1 million award for the creation of a conversational artificial intelligence that can talk to people "coherently and engagingly" for a third of an hour. Such a system would be unprecedented "and at least five times more advanced than state-of-the-art conversational AI," said Rohit Prasad, vice president and head scientist of Amazon Alexa. To aid the endeavor, up to ten teams will get a 100,000 stipend from Amazon along with Alexa-enabled devices, free cloud computing and support from Amazon's Alexa team.

Silicon Valley company is creating AI software for self-driving cars. Amazon's Alexa can now handle commands for the Hyundai G90 luxury car (Photo: Genesis) Some of the top names in tech have formed a consortium aimed at fostering the promise of artificial intelligence while keeping its less savory side-effects in check. Microsoft, Amazon, IBM, Google and Facebook announced Thursday the formation of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society. Noticeably absent as founding members are companies such as Apple and Tesla. "We look forward to working arm-in-arm on best practices and on such important topics as ethics, privacy, transparency, bias, inclusiveness, and safety," Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research, said in a statement.