The traditional definition of artificial intelligence is the ability of machines to execute tasks and solve problems in ways normally attributed to humans. Some tasks that we consider simple--recognizing an object in a photo, driving a car--are incredibly complex for AI. Machines can surpass us when it comes to things like playing chess, but those machines are limited by the manual nature of their programming; a 30 gadget can beat us at a board game, but it can't do--or learn to do--anything else. This is where machine learning comes in. Show millions of cat photos to a machine, and it will hone its algorithms to improve at recognizing pictures of cats.

Get customer service right, and you've got an advocate for life. Get it wrong and it can damage the perception of your brand and, as a result, your balance sheet. Today's consumers are more refined and demanding than ever. Instant gratification, whether in the form of 24/7 food ordering, taxis or information, has become such a large part of our life that limitations in service delivery, like hold times or untrained staff are causing brands high levels of customer attrition. An estimated two-thirds of customers have left brands due to bad service, so when Mark Zuckerberg addressed his audience at this year's F8 conference, he seemed to provide us all with a glimpse of customer service nirvana in a burst of slick, fast and efficient exchanges.

After almost 10 years of working incognito, former National Aeronautics and Space Administration head Daniel Goldin is finally ready to formally present KnuEdge to the world. KnuEdge is a "neural technology innovation company," an outfit that builds hardware and software based on neural technology, with a main focus on human-machine interaction. While newly revealed publicly, it has been in stealth mode for a decade now, and has already raised 100 million in funding to build its neural chips. The company has revealed its two primary products: KnuVerse, which is a voice authentication technology, and KnuPath, its state-of-the-art neural chip. It has also unveiled Knurld.io, a software development kit with a cloud-based voice recognition and authentication service. Foremost of these offerings is KnuPath.

Decades have passed since Simon first explored the psychology of human cognition; today AI is more and more present in our lives, be it via customer service or pure entertainment. No matter what its application, the Holy Grail of any successful AI project is its ability to achieve seamless interaction with humans. And at the core is AI's capability to recognize and react to emotions. But first, what are the basic human emotions, and why are they so important? Identifying the key types – and number – of human emotions was tough even for Aristotle who, in the 4th century B.C., identified the following 14: confidence, anger, friendship, fear, calm, unkindness, shame, shamelessness, pity, kindness, indignation, emulation, enmity and envy.

What if a simple camera capturing data for machine learning could tell you the threat level of an individual approaching a fence. What if the same combination of camera and computer could classify the behavior of shoppers in a grocery store isle and judge things like intent to purchase, presence of decision paralysis, and ease of identifying desired products. Fueled by advances in image recognition and processing power, smart-cameras that can classify human behavior rather than simply observe it may be the next step for IoT. Nanit is one of the first companies in this space. Dr. Assaf Glazer, a parent himself, and his team are working to take the pain out of one of the most strenuous tasks of any parent, making sure their baby gets a good nights sleep.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has been changing our lives for decades, but never has AI felt more ubiquitous than now. It seems as though not a week passes without yet another AI system overcoming an unprecedented hurdle or outperforming humans. But how the future of AI will pan out for humans remains to be seen. AI could either make all our dreams come true, or destroy society and the world as we know it. To get an a realistic handle on what that future might look like, Tech Insider spoke to 18 artificial intelligence researchers, roboticists, and computer scientists about the single most profound change artificial intelligence could bring. Scroll down to see their lightly edited responses.

Microsoft made some big announcements about the future of the Xbox gaming platform this week at the annual E3 conference. Among the top headlines were two new pieces of hardware: A slimmer version of the company's current console called the Xbox One S, as well as a turbocharged "Project Scorpio" model coming next year. TIME sat down with Xbox Chief Phil Spencer to talk about the company's future gaming plans. What follows is a lightly edited transcript of our conversation. Project Scorpio is designed to run games at 4K, the latest and greatest television resolution.

Before becoming a reality, AlphaBounce had to be shaped by ARAMIS, a motion-capture system that helps determine the amount of strain and tension caused by different materials. ARAMIS, which NASA has used to inspect the outer hull of space shuttles, combines high-speed cameras with flexion sensors to gather information at up to 500 frames per second. Since the software maps skin, bone and muscle, it can give Adidas engineers insight into how they should go about designing a more comfortable running sneaker. ARAMIS can visualize the level of comfort on every area of an individual's foot, from the heel to the toes, as well as indicate when the fabric may be getting in the way of performance. "It's a really versatile tool," said George Robusti, senior design director of global running at Adidas, of the ARAMIS system.

SugarCRM has put AI at the core of its product plans and is working on a new intelligence service along with a Siri-like agent named Candace. Tapping the company's recent acquisitions of Stitch and Contastic, the new technology will be designed to help businesses spend less time entering data into their customer relationship management software and more time learning from and acting upon it. SugarCRM is scheduled to demonstrate the new capabilities Wednesday at its SugarCon conference in San Francisco. "In the CRM space, we want people to focus on what they're good at: relating to others, such as customers and partners," Rich Green, SugarCRM's chief product officer, said in an interview last week. "As data becomes more and more available, it typically has required quite a bit of labor to ensure that your CRM system stays up to date," Green explained.

Choosing a machine learning algorithm is a lot like shoe shopping. If it were, we'd all be wearing thousand-dollar feather-light track shoes. Instead, we consider how we'll be using them. Some shoes are good for standing all day, and some are good for climbing cliffs. And, of course, how they look can trump everything else.