The demo house Amazon built inside one of the towers at its Seattle headquarters to show off its Echo smart speakers has a new room, and an important one: a garage. Inside the garage is a concept electric car--or, more specifically, the immobile insides of such a vehicle--that Amazon uses to show automakers the full spectrum of things its Alexa Auto software platform can do. That includes in-car versions of typical Alexa tasks such as audio streaming, messaging, voice calls, and reminders. And because it's a car, Alexa can also do things like roll the windows up and down and control the cabin temperature, all at the verbal request of the driver. Amazon has been working hard on Alexa Auto for the past two years.

Apple has launched new privacy settings with its voice assistant Siri. The new features strive to fade out privacy concerns of the users. As announced recently, Apple is introducing new settings with Siri to allow better privacy control to users. Reportedly, Apple has taken this decision in the wake of reports regarding how Siri listened to users' recordings. We know that customers have been concerned by recent reports of people listening to audio Siri recordings as part of our Siri quality evaluation process -- which we call grading… We've decided to make some changes to Siri as a result.

Apple is turning off automatic review of Siri audio and locking it down so that only Apple employees get to listen to it.

Looking to make the most of current AI technologies and solutions in your business? Register now for the O'Reilly AI Conference in San Jose, September 9–12, 2019, and learn how to leverage AI in your work today. What can artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) do to improve customer experience? AI and ML already have been intimately involved in online shopping since, well, the beginning of online shopping. You can't use Amazon or any other shopping service without getting recommendations, which are often personalized based on the vendor's understanding of your traits: your purchase history, your browsing history, and possibly much more.

Artificial intelligence – We've all heard about it. It's everywhere, in your cell phone, your social media apps, Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant – you name it. Let's just agree that it's become a norm in the technology space and is destined to make an appearance in almost every area of our lives in the coming years. The thing is, AI is a computer program that has the ability to learn. With a regular software, once you're done typing in commands, the software stops operating.

No two cultural touchstones better illustrate our diametrically opposed feelings about voice systems. Star Trek's always listening, ever-helpful Computer represents the highest ideal of a digital assistant, while Orwell's Telescreen, with its "Big Brother is watching" messages, was emblematic of our darkest fears. With each passing year and digital assistant breakthrough, we vacillate wildly between these two perspectives. Bloomberg recently reported that Amazon was employing thousands of humans to comb through utterances and transcribe what we say to Amazon's Echo-based voice assistant. The revelation broke an unspoken agreement between Amazon and the millions of Echo and Alexa-enabled device owners who assumed that only algorithms, not humans in a back office somewhere, would be analyzing our words for meaning.

Machine learning is the most important technology for the business of the future. That's because AI-driven software is already helping companies increase efficiency, improve customer relationships, and boost sales. Researchers estimate that machine learning has the potential to add $2.6 trillion in value to the marketing and sales industry by 2020, as well as another $2 trillion to manufacturing and logistics fields. The International Data Corporation estimates that spending on machine learning will reach $77.6 billion by 2022. This is why companies of all sizes are collaborating with Python development outsourcing firms to source experienced data scientists as-needed and develop custom data analytics software.

John Borthwick (above) believes the convenience of today's smart assistants comes at a price far higher than the cost paid for the devices. 'It's hard to call it anything but surveillance,' says the former Time Warner exec Tech investor John Borthwick believes the convenience of today's smart assistants from Amazon, Google and Apple comes at a price far higher than the cost paid for the devices. 'From a consumer standpoint, user standpoint, is that these, these devices are being used for what's -- it's hard to call it anything but surveillance,' Borthwick says, warning that government regulation may be the only safeguard to user privacy. Borthwick, a venture capitalist who started out in the technology industry with a web content studio that was bought by AOL, and who later headed tech strategy for Time Warner, tells Yahoo that he expects regulators will hand over more control of privacy to device users. As it stands now, he warns tech companies that manufacture and sell popular smart speakers, like Amazon's Echo, Google Assistant and Apple's HomePod, are having much more than they're audible responses recorded.

As artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning become ubiquitous, we will soon be hard-pressed to find any industry not capitalizing on the benefits they can provide. Telecommunications is one of the fastest-growing industries as well as one that uses artificial intelligence and machine learning in many aspects of their business from enhancing the customer experience to predictive maintenance to improving network reliability. The largest telecoms in the world rely on artificial intelligence and machine learning in a number of ways. Here are the most common applications. Nearly every telecom uses artificial intelligence and machine learning to improve its customer service primarily by using virtual assistants and chatbots.

Well, when the president does it, that means that it is not illegal," marks one of the famous lines from US President Nixon's interviews, where Nixon implicated himself in the Watergate scandal. At the time it was well-known that the government was tapping phones of its opponents, Nixon's confession gave it the much-needed propriety. What is different about today's scenario is that tech companies are well within their confines to listen to your conversations. It's just that they are being obscure about the way they do it. The latest to join this is Cupertino giant Apple.