Imagine driving down the highway, coming home from work, and without taking your hands off the wheel or hitting any buttons, asking your car to turn up the heat in your house, preheat the oven for dinner, and play your favorite album, all in the same breath. Picture negotiating with a street vendor in Beijing, having your phone translate the entire conversation between Mandarin and English out loud, so you can haggle in real time. Or how about a stuffed animal that can tell your daughter interactive stories every night before bed, reshaping the adventure at every twist and turn based on her responses and reactions. The human voice is well on its way to becoming the next major medium we use to interact with computers, and as we'll explore in this two-part series, voice computing is the burgeoning field of technology making it possible. Already spanning multiple consumer and enterprise ventures (think call center routing, digital dictation, or the virtual assistants on smartphones), the industry's ultimate aim is enabling people to carry on hands-free, conversational-style interactions with computers.

Apple is going to release an "iPhone Edition" as well as its normal 7s and 7s Plus this year, according to a report, potentially making this year's iPhone release the most complicated ever. The company is expected to reveal its 7s and 7s Plus later this year, in keeping with tradition. But much less is known about a special model that might accompany it – the so-called iPhone 8, which will mark the phone's tenth anniversary. Now a new report claims that phone will have a 5-inch screen, be made out of strange new materials and launch later than the two updated models. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

WHAT: Will host the webinar, "Robots in Recruiting: The Implications of AI on Talent Acquisition," featuring guest speaker Allan Schweyer, human capital management expert and founder of TMLU, Inc. DETAILS: Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to replace the repetitive and time consuming work of sourcing, screening and early assessment in the recruitment process. AI can dramatically improve recruiting while lowering costs and enhancing the candidate experience. As this technology continues to evolve, organizations put themselves at a deep disadvantage in finding and hiring talent when they ignore or don't understand the advantages of automation and AI. During this Appcast-hosted webinar, human capital management expert Allan Schweyer will examine how AI is pushing the recruiting industry to engage and source candidates differently. Schweyer will share how AI is applied to machines and algorithms that mimic the cognitive functions of human beings, enabling the augmentation and automation of specific tasks previously only performed by humans.

Suddenly, everyone is talking about artificial intelligence (AI). But the difference between this'next big thing' and, say, the cloud, big data or any other widely-discussed technology, is that the AI talk goes way beyond the IT department. This time it's being discussed by sociologists, economists and politicians too. Quite rightly so; ultimately, AI has the potential to transform the world of work as we know it, propelled by the promise of high productivity growth – think of those science fiction films of robots replacing workers. According to the script, world domination usually follows.

Intel is buying the Israeli autonomous-driving company Mobileye for $63.54 per share in cash, or about $15.3 billion. Mobileye soared about 30% in pre-market trading on Monday after the Israeli newspaper Haaretz broke the news. The Jerusalem-based company develops vision-based driver-assistance tools to provide warnings before collisions. "Mobileye brings the industry's best automotive-grade computer vision and strong momentum with automakers and suppliers," Intel CEO Brian Krzanich said in a statement. "Together, we can accelerate the future of autonomous driving with improved performance in a cloud-to-car solution at a lower cost for automakers."

In terms of revolutionary potential, the latest'big tech' wave is getting many in the healthcare industry excited about things to come. With resurgent technologies like artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality being joined by new platforms like instant messaging chatbots and voice-activated assistants, healthcare seems on the brink of a new, digital dawn. Ben Greenberg, vice president of mobile products and user experience at Medscape and WebMD, is one who believes that the new era of technology will change the face of healthcare forever. "We are clearly in the midst of a technological revolution," says Greenberg, "but what can we do about it?" Having spent the past nine-and-a-half years building software that promotes patient wellness and provides decision support to physicians at the point of care, Greenberg has witnessed the growing role of technology in health.

The "Rise of the Healthy Machines" sounded more like a screening of a sci-fi movie than a Medstartr Health 2.0 NYC event. But to this group of over 180 attendees, this title conjures images of "machines" that help us stay healthy, help doctors give better care and help researchers give us better answers. Moderator Fard Johnmar, President of Enspektos fielded questions from the audience to the expert panelists on the newest analytics and algorithms now embedded in health technology. Dialogues highlighted, on a personal level, the struggle healthcare is having with the hype of machine learning and artificial intelligence and the whether it is a "one-size fits all" solution. A 30-second definition of machine learning and what may be its biggest benefit for healthcare was the first request of the panel.

As artificial intelligence becomes more powerful, people need to make sure it's not used by authoritarian regimes to centralize power and target certain populations, Microsoft Research's Kate Crawford warned on Sunday. In her SXSW session, titled Dark Days: AI and the Rise of Fascism, Crawford, who studies the social impact of machine learning and large-scale data systems, explained ways that automated systems and their encoded biases can be misused, particularly when they fall into the wrong hands. "Just as we are seeing a step function increase in the spread of AI, something else is happening: the rise of ultra-nationalism, rightwing authoritarianism and fascism," she said. All of these movements have shared characteristics, including the desire to centralize power, track populations, demonize outsiders and claim authority and neutrality without being accountable. Machine intelligence can be a powerful part of the power playbook, she said.

It's quite easy to do a Google search on Android. The deep tie-in is an important feature, and one of the reasons Android is the superior choice for those who rely so much on Google services. Yet, sometimes picking out just how to do a Google search is like choosing from among 12 shades of blue shirts you have hanging in the closet. We get that Google wants to be helpful and all, but sometimes it feels like that overeager know-it-all you remember from fourth grade. Each of these different search methods have their own particular strenth. If you learn the nuances, your Android use will be even more powerful.

Over 30 different Android smartphones and tablets have been found to have had malware preinstalled on them before users even switched them on, according to a cyber security firm. Check Point detected a "severe infection" on 38 handsets being used by two of its corporate clients, a telecommunications firm and a multinational technology company that have not been named. The issue affects smartphones from a number of big-name brands, including Samsung, LG and Google. It must be made clear, however, that not all models of the devices named above are affected. "According to the findings, the malware were already present on the devices even before the users received them," reads the Check Point blog post announcing the discovery.