Voice-powered virtual assistants have huge potential for improving and expanding clinical trials, and tech companies are moving quickly to develop artificial intelligence-based software that can support and also protect the most private conversations between patients and clinicians. Katherine Vandebelt has already started scribbling down ideas about how voice assistants could work in a clinical trial environment. As Oracle's global head of clinical innovation, and former clinical innovation leader at Eli Lilly and Company, Vandebelt believes that the clinical trial experience can change with the introduction of virtual assistants into the drug research ecosystem. In April, Amazon's Alexa app became compliant with the US government's Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), and similar virtual assistants are likely to follow. Here are five changes she sees coming.

Everybody knows they need to invest in pilots and initial projects. Yet getting those projects into production is hard, and most companies still aren't in with both feet. If you aren't hands on with the projects yourself, you may have heard a lot of different terminology. You may be wondering what it all means. Is AI the same as machine learning?

Using the CB Insights platform, we track where AI is heating up, from health to entertainment. Since 2013, over 3.6K AI startups have raised equity funding globally. The majority of these companies -- like unicorns UiPath, Automation Anywhere, and Face -- sell AI software-as-a-service. Others use AI to develop their core products, including Indigo Agriculture, which leverages machine learning to develop microbial seed treatments. Some other startups -- such as Graphcore, Habana, and Cerebras -- focus on hardware to support AI workloads.

Apple Inc. will launch its HomePod smart speakers in Japan this summer at a retail price of ¥32,800, according to its website, although the exact date has yet to be announced. On sale since February 2018 in the United States and a number of other countries, the artificial intelligence-enabled speakers have attracted interest for their sound quality and integration with Siri, Apple's voice-controlled personal assistant that responds to simple questions and commands. The tube-shaped speakers are 17 centimeters high and 14 cm wide. Inc. and Google LLC have also each developed smart speakers.

The NHS has teamed up with Amazon to allow elderly people, blind people and other patients who cannot easily search for health advice on the internet to access the information through the AI-powered voice assistant Alexa. The health service hopes patients asking Alexa for health advice will ease pressure on the NHS, with Amazon's algorithm using information from the NHS website to provide answers to questions such as: "Alexa, how do I treat a migraine?"; 'Alexa, what are the symptoms of flu?'; and "Alexa what are the symptoms of chickenpox?" The Department of Health (DoH) said it would empower patients and hopefully reduce the pressure on the NHS by providing reliable information on common illnesses. The health secretary, Matt Hancock, said: "Technology like this is a great example of how people can access reliable, world-leading NHS advice from the comfort of their home, reducing the pressure on our hardworking GPs and pharmacists."

People will be able to get expert health advice using Amazon Alexa devices under a partnership with the NHS, the government has announced. From this week, the voice-assisted technology is automatically searching the NHS Choices website when UK users ask for health-related advice. Previously the device provided information from a range of sources. The Department of Health in England said it could provide valuable support and even reduce demand on the NHS. The partnership was first announced last year and now talks are under way with other companies, including Microsoft, to set up similar arrangements.

Ravi N. Raj is the CEO & Co-founder of Passage AI, a company that develops a natural language understanding and processing (NLU/NLP) platform that can be used to create a deep conversational interface for any website or business to interact with their customers. In this interview Mr. Raj shares insights on conversational AI, the opportunities it brings to enterprises and the future of human interaction with voice-enabled interfaces. This interview has been featured in the Conversational AI Initiative 2019. Prior to co-founding Passage AI, I was VP of @WalmartLabs, Walmart's hub for innovation around social, mobile and retail. I came to Walmart through the acquisition of a startup called Kosmix where I was their VP & GM.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham gives the pros and cons on the new Amazon Amazon Fire TV Recast, a DVR over-the-air television. LOS ANGELES -- The corporate spat between Google and Amazon ends today, with good news for TV viewers. The YouTube app, which brings the world's most popular video network to televisions, will be available, again on Amazon Fire TV devices and branded TVs. The companies announced in April that they had agreed to agree, but didn't offer a firm date for when it would become effective. In January 2018, YouTube vanished from Fire TV devices and the Amazon Echo Show.

Dialogue systems and conversational agents are becoming increasingly common in our everyday lives, from commercial personal assistants (such as Amazon Echo and Google Assistant) and customer service chatbots to intelligent tutors and voice control interfaces. Recent advances in artificial intelligence have put some of these practical applications within reach. The Conversational Intelligence Summer School (CISS) aims to train young researchers and future employees interested in this challenging and exciting field in state-of-the-art techniques and provide them with hands-on skills to develop such applications. This one-week intensive program includes a combination of instruction and programming tutorials, invited lectures by top researchers, and supervised project work. As students of today receive training in this emerging field, they will acquire the knowledge and skills it takes to innovate the applications of tomorrow.

Amazon has confirmed that its Alexa voice assistant sometimes stores your data indefinitely, even after any corresponding audio clips have been deleted. The admission comes after inquiries from US Senator Chris Coons, who asked the tech firm to explain what happens to voice records and data gathered by Alexa. The senator, a democrat, wrote to Amazon following a CNET investigation in May that revealed that the company retains voice records unless users delete them. The probe had also suggested that, regardless, written transcripts of those voice recordings may also be kept indefinitely. Amazon's device - along with Apple's Siri and, until recently, Google's Assistant - saves every single interaction a person has with the device, with some unintentional snippets also being recorded.