IKEA is delaying the launch of its smart blinds until later in 2019 in order to work on a firmware update. The Verge reports that the Swedish furniture maker pushed back the release date for the smart blinds, which were expected in Europe last month and in the US in April, because it found an opportunity for "improved functionality". IKEA said that the belated launch means that the smart blinds will be compatible with Alexa, Siri, and Google Assistant right away, instead of in a later firmware update. Both the KADRILJ and FYRTUR smart blinds are attractive due to their low price; the KADRILJ starts at around $113 dollars and the FYRTUR starts at around $136 dollars, based on their European pricing. Some existing smart blind options such as Somfy or Velux start at twice that amount.

They say Apple confirmed the acquisition, which probably equates to the usual "from time to time we buy companies but we don't discuss it so back up off us already." The group joins John Giannandrea's new artificial intelligence org, which he's been building out over the last little while. Where and how this will fit in, beyond the thin "make Siri better" angle, there's no word yet. But you have talent and you have tech and, hopefully, both of those will help get Apple's virtual assistant where it needs to be for the age of voice and AI to truly begin.

LG says OLED TVs will comprise 20 percent of the company's high-end TV portfolio in 2019, with the world's first 8K OLED (model 88Z9) and the 65-inch roll-up 4K OLED (model 65R9) joining its W-, E-, and C-series 4K models. There are 14 new models in the company's LED-backlit LCD series--the Nanocell line--in screen sizes ranging from 49 to 86 inches. New LG TVs will get a mid-year upgrade that will add Amazon Alexa support to the existing support for Google Assistant. Samsung doesn't have an answer to LG's eye-popping roll-up OLED, but it will offer 8K QLED TVs--the Q900 series--in screen sizes ranging from 65 inches to an eye-popping 98 inches. The company's 4K quantum-dot TVs (the Q60, Q70, Q80, and Q90 series) are available in screen sizes ranging from 43 to 82 inches.

Artificial intelligence (AI) works as the driver of exponential economic value creation by making its way into our lives. You can assume the development of AI through Amazon's Alexa and Facebook's M to Google's Now and Apple's Siri and thus you can track your future growth, incredible opportunities and expected problems. Today, you can take the example of IBM's Watson. Watson is a question-answering computer system which can give answers to questions created in natural language, hypothesis generation and evaluation; and dynamic learning that is developed in IBM's DeepQA project by a research team led by principal investigator David Ferrucci. Watson was named after IBM's first CEO, industrialist Thomas J. Watson.

I don't mind letting your programs see my private data as long as I get something useful in exchange. But that's not what happens. A former co-worker told me once: "Everyone loves collecting data, but nobody loves analyzing it later." This claim is almost shocking, but people who have been involved in data collection and analysis have all seen it. It starts with a brilliant idea: we'll collect information about every click someone makes on every page in our app! And we'll track how long they hesitate over a particular choice! And how often they use the back button!

Human creativity will be key to avoiding the diminishing returns of technology and data as artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning become an everyday part of our marketing lives. That's the view of IDC research director, Gerry Murray, who took to the stage as the keynote of CMO and CIO's recent Executive Connections events in Melbourne and Sydney to share how AI use cases are starting to proliferate across the marketing and customer engagement sphere. Importantly, he also discussed what marketing and technology leaders should be doing to realise their potential. As Murray pointed out, AI is going into every single marketing tool out there today, and he noted more than 80 use cases identified by IDC as part of recent research. These stretch from virtual sales reps and social sentiment analysis, through to lead scoring, AI-powered content marketing, chatbots, recommendation engines and attribution analysis.

The retail category as a whole will spend $5.9 billion this year on tools like automated customer service agents and product recommendation generators, while the banking sector is set to put $5.6 billion toward more security-oriented AI uses like fraud prevention and threat intelligence, according to the report. Total spending from businesses on AI is projected to reach nearly $35.8 billion in 2019--a 44 percent increase from last year--and $79.2 billion by 2022. The retail industry's investment in AI comes as ecommerce companies struggle to compete with Amazon's personalized recommendation and pricing algorithms and increasingly cut out traditional retailers to sell directly to consumers. Efficiency in such a cutthroat environment requires the constant processing of customer and transaction data often made possible by machine learning. Meanwhile, banks see AI as a means to cut costs and beef up effectiveness around expensive security and compliance operations, which are complex but quantitative enough for AI functions to handle. All told, the top-funded use cases included automated customer service agents ($4.5 billion worldwide), sales process recommendation and automation ($2.7 billion) and automated threat intelligence and prevention systems ($2.7 billion).

Siri, Alexa, Google Home--technology that parses language is increasingly finding its way into everyday life. Boris Katz, a principal research scientist at MIT, isn't that impressed. Over the past 40 years, Katz has made key contributions to the linguistic abilities of machines. In the 1980s, he developed START, a system capable of responding to naturally phrased queries. The ideas used in START helped IBM's Watson win on Jeopardy!

Technology promises a future that isn't tied down by the limitations of flesh. Communication travels further and faster than legs can run, and data beamed into space will live longer than any of its creators. Devices that respond to our voices make hands less necessary. But the digital assistants many of us rely on inadvertently perpetuate the old restrictions of the human form. If Siri has no body, why does she sound like a woman?

Big innovations in home appliances can offer builders the opportunity to construct the smart home that buyers are seeking. Two new examples come from KitchenAid and Whirlpool. The KitchenAid Smart Oven with Powered Attachments, the Whirlpool Smart Front Control Range, and the KitchenAid Limited Edition 36" 6-Burner Dual Fuel Freestanding, Commercial Style Range, demonstrate the innovation of the IoT (Internet of Things). The KitchenAid Smart Oven with Powered Attachments will connect to the downloadable Yummly app, where users can receive as well as log recipes, update their shopping list, and have food delivered to their home. Other features also include the Even-Heat True Convection Oven, a 4.5-inch LCD display, connectivity to the KitchenAid app, which offers notifications of the system's status, and the option to give voice commands through Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa.