Voice-controlled assistants are having a moment. But there may be an intriguing wrinkle that their makers have to smooth out: users don't seem to be using many apps. The number of Skills--the Amazon name for apps that operate on its Alexa smart assistant software--available for the company's Echo smart speaker have risen significantly in the past six months, from 950 last May to over 8,000 today. But an analysis of the way people use Alexa and and Google's Assistant platforms shows that third-party apps aren't too well used, nor particularly sticky. The analysis, which was carried out voice software startup Voice Labs, shows that most app don't get any user reviews, which suggests they're not very popular.

Yesterday I read a fascinating article shared on LinkedIn written by Gil Fewster, Creative Technologist. The mind-blowing A.I. announcement from Google that you probably missed. I read it and I'm not going to lie, I was actually fully freaked out. Gil mentioned that at the end of last year Google'quietly' announced a new discovery for Google Translate, and here's what it does. "Google Translate invented its own language to help it translate more effectively. What's more, nobody told it to. It didn't develop a language (or interlingua, as Google call it), because it was coded to. It developed a new language because the software determined over time that this was the most efficient way to solve the problem of translation."

San Francisco: A technology industry alliance devoted to making sure smart machines don't turn against humanity said Friday that Apple has signed on and will have a seat on the board. Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM, and Google-owned British AI firm DeepMind last year established the non-profit organization, called "Partnership on AI," which will have its inaugural board meeting in San Francisco on February 3. Apple "has been involved and collaborating with the partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership," the alliance said in an online post. Major technology firms joined forces in the group, with stated aims including cooperation on "best practices" for AI and using the technology "to benefit people and society." Creation of the group came 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.

Apple is reportedly planning to join the Partnership on AI, which Bloomberg describes as "an artificial intelligence research group that includes Amazon.com More broadly, "While the introduction of the Siri virtual assistant in 2011 gave Apple an early presence in AI for consumers, it has since lost ground to rivals such as Google and Amazon," Bloomberg writes.

Artificial Intelligence has reached the point where it is being productively applied to a wide range of disciplines. Artificial Intelligence can optimize supply chain logistics to match sales and customer demand. IDC Manufacturing Insights predicts that within five years that 50 percent of manufacturing supply chains will be robotically and digitally controlled and able to provide direct-to-consumer and home shipments. Asia Outlook Magazine wrote that "the latest robots have the ability to learn how to complete multiple jobs, so they can be plugged in practically anywhere along the supply chain. AI's ability to be flexible, particularly in manufacturing processes, will take AI to the mainstream as its return on investment (ROI) will become clear to stakeholders."

Marketers are usually the ones responsible for creating the buzzwords that follow us everywhere we go; that is, until artificial intelligence (AI) turned the tables and made the whole marketing industry buzz with excitement. But will AI make life easier for marketers or will it, in the end, replace them? We believe that AI will not replace marketers but enhance their knowledge and experience. AI will help unlock deeper customer insights, communicate with prospects and customers more effectively and eliminate the more monotonous, impersonal aspects of our jobs. Artificial intelligence is a broad term and within marketing involves several capabilities.

Apple published its first paper on AI last month and now the company is set to join five others in a newly-formed research group. The Partnership on AI announced today that Apple would become its sixth founding member, adding to a lineup that already touts Amazon, Facebook, Google, IBM and Microsoft. The group was first formed last September as a means of supporting research, establishing ethical guidelines and promoting both transparency and privacy when it comes to AI studies. In today's announcement, the Partnership on AI explained that Apple has already been working with the group before it was made official last fall, but now the company is a full member alongside those other tech titans. Part of today's news was also that the group selected its board of trustees that will oversee the initiative.

Sci-fi and tech movies have been around for a surprisingly long time. They frequently tackle similar themes of exploring consciousness or over-dependence on technology which almost everytime leads to disastrous results. But, which movies are the essential ones to watch? You might be asking "What is your selection criteria?". Well, that is a good question. We may not be able to give you a definitive answer for each movie but for most of the list; it is self-evident.

Distilling a generally-accepted definition of what qualifies as artificial intelligence (AI) has become a revived topic of debate in recent times. Some have rebranded AI as "cognitive computing" or "machine intelligence", while others incorrectly interchange AI with "machine learning". This is in part because AI is not one technology. It is in fact a broad field constituted of many disciplines, ranging from robotics to machine learning. The ultimate goal of AI, most of us affirm, is to build machines capable of performing tasks and cognitive functions that are otherwise only within the scope of human intelligence.

A big name in tech was conspiciously missing from the list of companies that formed the Partnership on AI last year--Apple. But now Apple is reportedly planning to join the research group, which promotes education and interoperability issues around artificial intelligence. Existing members include Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, Here are the key details on Apple's pending involvement, from Bloomberg: Apple's admission into the group could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation. Representatives at Apple and the Partnership on AI declined to comment. While the introduction of the Siri virtual assistant in 2011 gave Apple an early presence in AI for consumers, it has since lost ground to rivals such as Google and Amazon.