After a rough 2016, H&R Block is pulling out all the stops to win this year's tax season. In December, the tax-service provider debuted a campaign with new spokesman Jon Hamm. Now, the brand is returning to the Super Bowl after an eight-year hiatus to pitch a first-time partnership with IBM Watson. H&R Block plans to use the technology of Watson to improve the tax preparation services at its 12,000 retail locations. "It's this idea of man and machine together--it's not any attempt to get rid of the experts but instead to just enhance their judgements," said Kathy Collins, chief marketing and strategy officer at H&R Block.

Have you ever wanted to bottle-up and save that feeling when you have had a great vacation? Now, that joyful excitement of travel can be bottled in'Holiday Spirit' -- a new rum that's crafted using artificial intelligence. According to Joe Harrod -- a big data analyst and Artificial Intelligence expert -- Virgin Holidays used IBM Watson's linguistic AI to interpret millions of social media posts to pick out key emotions associated with holidays. IBM Watson then analyzed thousands of rum reviews to uncover which ingredients elicit different emotions and sensations in reviewers. The second data set analyzed the language and tone of 5,000 rum reviews and tasting notes found online.

Google Chrome just revamped its app on iOS devices that support 3D Touch with its new update Wednesday. The new update allows users to use 3D touch on the Google Chrome app to open up a menu of options, including "Scan QR Code," voice search, opening an incognito tab and regular tab. Here's how the 3D menu on Google Chrome looks like now: The Scan QR code feature is helpful for users, since it skips the step of downloading a separate app to scan codes. The update also lets users search for "QR" by using Spotlight on iOS. Google Chrome adds "Scan QR Code for iOS app.

Whether you're interested in cognitive computing, artificial intelligence or machine learning, you probably know that the fourth industrial revolution is well underway and accelerating rapidly. The speed of change presents a challenge to developers who want to stay abreast of the latest ideas and approaches. Conferences, workshops and other meetings provide opportunities to learn where the jobs and technology is headed and a chance to learn and practice the skills necessary to keep up. Why you should attend: AI engineers, practitioners, researchers and scientists will discuss the latest developments in the field, while tutorials and workshops will give attendees a chance to hone their skills. Speakers will be drawn from a wide variety of sectors, including Microsoft, MIT, the National Science Foundation and NASA Ames Research Center.

Sears wants to use artificial intelligence to help to shop for your next tire. Sears Auto Center announced the pilot launch of its Digital Tire Journey, a web app that uses IBM Watson Natural Language Classifier service to help customers find the best tires that fit their needs. Hoffman Estates-based Sears says that beyond a vehicle's make and model, customers need tires that are built for their everyday routines, and its new AI-powered site is designed to make the shopping experience more efficient. Rather than using a drop down menu with available selections, Sears' Digital Tire Journey provides tire recommendations based on a customers answer to certain questions. The program asks questions like: "When it comes to tires, what's most important to you?"

What can bots do right now to make their user experience better than that of visiting a website? They can personalize the experience -- either with user context or AI. See, most sites try to appeal to the general user by splitting the homepage in one of two ways: by sales or by product category. They'd prominently display brands that have expressed their efforts in these areas -- like Nike or Yesah They have awesome watches, btw. This might be the case when choosing an outfit for a formal event.

If you've ever wanted to bottle up and save that holiday feeling - a new AI-produced drink could be just the ticket. "Holiday Spirit" is claimed to be the world's very first data-distilled rum and was created using IBM Watson. The supercomputer analysed data from social media posts in order to produce a bespoke rum "that tastes like a holiday". "In just six hours Watson was able to read 15 million posts on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter relating to holidays - and find the predominant emotions and concepts in those posts," explained Joe Harrod, big data analyst and AI expert, who works closely with Watson. "The machine then showed that feelings like joy and excitement should be part of a perfect holiday moment. "Then Watson read 5,000 rum reviews from review sites around the web, matching emotions from the reviews with ingredients.

What makes a cartoon caption funny? As one algorithm found: a simple readable sentence, a negation, and a pronoun--but not "he" or "she." The algorithm went on to pick the funniest captions for thousands of the New Yorker's cartoons, and in most cases, it matched the intuition of its editors. Algorithms are getting much better at understanding language, and we are becoming more aware of this through stories like that of IBM Watson winning the Jeopardy quiz. Google released the word2vec tool, and Facebook followed by publishing their speed optimized deep learning modules.

If, for example, you're diagnosed with cancer, you might benefit from the platform, Watson for Oncology. "Normally it's up to a specialist doctor to meet with cancer patients, and to spend time reviewing their notes – which would arrive on paper format or in a string of emails," says Balkizas. "A doctor's decision will be limited to their individual experience and the information available in front of them." However, now the Memorial Sloan Cancer Treatment Centre in New York is training IBM Watson to be able to quickly provide evidence based recommendations to time poor clinicians. "It takes all those unstructured notes and restructures it in a way that the doctor can check easily, with treatment recommendations of which drug to give, which radiation or dosage," says Balkizas.

CES 2017 is all wrapped up but there's still plenty of buzz around the latest and greatest gadgets and gear that debuted at the annual tech mecca in Las Vegas. There were thousands of new products to digest, between wallpaper TVs, next-gen wearables and drones, and "smart" versions of pretty much every appliance and tool we use in our everyday lives. As expected, AI took center stage at this year's event. Most products were AI-powered, "smart" or "intelligent." It's already part of the lives of millions of people, and most customers at CES expected to see sufficiently mature and useful applications of AI.