In a world where technology is changing rapidly, it can be hard for businesses to keep up with shifting consumer demands. Take how customers interact with businesses, for instance. According to a recent study by Drift, people now prefer real-time interaction as they make their purchases, meaning that just having an online storefront is no longer enough. For startups looking to grow a loyal customer base, the immediate needs of users can be especially intimidating and even seem, at times, insurmountable. Entrepreneurs with small employee bases would have no way of being there for every customer and anticipating each person's needs in real time.

Amazon Alexa, which sits in your house and accepts voice commands enabling it to play music, activate lights, read news headlines and many other functions, is one of several intelligent personal assistants currently vying for dominance alongside Google Home and the Apple HomePod. Now however, Amazon is aiming to take this technology one step further by implementing it in to an actual robot that can not only answer questions, but also move autonomously around your home. Codenamed'Vesta', the new device is currently being worked on by Amazon's Lab126 research and development arm in Sunnyvale, California. According to reports, the web giant had intended to reveal the robot earlier this year but it wasn't quite ready for mass-production and more engineers have since been assigned to help speed things along. Rumor has it that the robot will be about waist-high and can navigate using an array of cameras.

With images aggregated from social media platforms, dating sites, or even CCTV footage of a trip to the local coffee shop, companies could be using your face to train a sophisticated facial recognition software. As reported by the New York Times, among the sometimes massive data sets that researchers use to teach artificially intelligent software to recognize faces is a database collected by Stanford researchers called Brainwash. More than 10,000 images of customers at a cafe in San Francisco were collected in 2014 without their knowledge. OKCupid and photo-sharing platforms like Flickr are among for researchers looking to load their databases up with images that help train facial recognition software. That same database was then made available to other academics, including some in China at the National University of Defense Technology.

Alexa-enabled devices like the Echo or Echo Dot can be used to control smart home products such as the Ring Alarm Kit. If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Prime Day is a great opportunity to find money-saving deals on smart home products that can be controlled using Amazon Alexa on your Echo device. From smart doorbells to pressure cookers, here are the best Alexa-compatible Prime Day deals of 2019.

Tucker examines Google's algorithms and how they benefit Democrat ahead of 2020. Billionaire tech investor Peter Thiel on Sunday called for the FBI and CIA to investigate whether Chinese intelligence had infiltrated Google, according to a report. Thiel, who supported Trump in 2016 and Facebook board member, made the comments during a speech at the National Conservatism Conference in Washington. He said the FBI and CIA needed to ask Google three questions to determine if the tech giant had been compromised by Chinese intelligence, Axios reported. FILE: A Google Home Hub is displayed in New York.

Google has reportedly admitted that Google employees listen to private recordings of customer conversations via Google Assistant. Moreover, employees are able to access conversations which were not meant to be recorded. Leak of 1,000 private conversations in Dutch language by some of Google's partners to a Belgian news site further proved that third-party contractors working for Google were also able to access these multiple sensitive user conversations, that were reportedly recorded unintentionally. Usually, users with Google Assistant on their phones and smart speakers have to say "Ok, Google" to start a conversation with the AI-powered virtual assistant. But even when users didn't call up the virtual assistant, various user conversations that were personal and sensitive in nature were recorded.

We already knew humans could make biased AIs -- but the United Nations says the reverse is true as well. Millions of people talk to AI voice assistants, such as Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. When those assistants talk back, they do so in female-sounding voices, and a new UN report argues that those voices and the words they're programmed to say amplify gender biases and encourage users to be sexist -- but it's not too late to change course. The report is the work of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), and its title -- "I'd blush if I could" -- is the response Siri was programmed in 2011 to give if a user called her a "bitch." According to UNESCO, that programming exemplifies the problems with today's AI assistants.

The Institute of Chartered Accountants of Trinidad and Tobago (ICATT), earlier this month, hosted a business forum comprising an audience of financial executives from various sectors including energy, banking and finance at the KPMG Headquarters in Port of Spain. The event themed "Artificial Intelligence (AI) – the Future of Accounting" exposed professional accountants to global developments, good practice guidance and knowledge-sharing that will enhance their roles and domain across the economy. In delivering the opening remarks, ICATT's president, Stacy-Ann Golding, praised the ICATT Professional Accountants in Business (PAIB) Committee for organising the forum, the topic of which, she noted, was critical to improving the readiness of today's accounting professionals to deal with AI and its implications. Bring a depth of insight and experience were featured speakers Nigel Romano, managing director and chief executive officer, JMMB Bank and Leslie Lee Fook, director of Artificial Intelligence, Automation and Analytics at Incus Services Ltd. Romano spoke on the use of AI, "I can recall the now obsolete, clunky computerised systems used in accounting during the 1970s and how they helped speed up work processes at that time. Today a similar shift is happening as current systems will soon be overshadowed by those powered by self-learning / machine learning capabilities."

Do chatbots, robots and digital assistants intrigue you? What about automated vehicles and virtual assistants? AI is a field of computer science that focuses on the creation of a machine that can replicate human behaviour. The science fiction of yesterday quickly becomes reality. AI statistics surrounding the business and tech industries are changing.

"Alexa, why is my baby crying?" Scientists say they have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) tool that can reliably interpret the cries of babies. Using similar technology to Amazon's Alexa assistant, it can tell parents whether their little one is hungry, needs changing or is in pain. Crying babies demand attention, but for their anxious parents it's often difficult to understand exactly what the problem might be. Now a group of American researchers has developed a AI that can help.