You are settling into your window seat, bound for a summer vacation, when the flight attendant wishes you a happy birthday or commiserates about the lousy weather that delayed the last leg of your trip. It might feel like the flight crew has been scouring your recent social media posts, but at some airlines, that wouldn't be necessary. Carriers such as United Airlines, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines are giving gate agents and flight attendants access to more customer data in hopes of giving passengers more personalized service. Still, there is only so much a birthday greeting can do to make up for a lost bag or late arrival, particularly when airlines want to steer clear of conversations that feel too personal. While in-cabin recognition might be the most visible way airlines are working to do more with the troves of data they collect, behind-the-scenes efforts to mine stats on everything from collisions between airport vehicles to turbulence touch almost every piece of a passenger's trip.

AI is no longer the stuff of science fiction – it's impacting patients today It's difficult to open a newspaper nowadays without seeing an article about artificial intelligence. But one thing you cannot escape is that AI is here now and it's only going to become more pervasive. While fear of an unknown technology is understandable, in many ways it does a disservice to the incredible impact that AI is already having on the world around us. In the healthcare space alone, it is offering ways to fundamentally rethink clinical practice, speeding up diagnosis, driving patient support programs and aiding drug discovery. In only five years, more than 200 venture capital and private equity deals to fund research into the use of AI in healthcare have been signed.

Google has a slew of artificial intelligence announcements it's making this week at its Cloud Next conference, which kicks off in San Francisco today, and many are focused on the company's democratization of machine learning tools. Starting today, Google's AutoML Vision tool will now be available in public beta after an alpha period that started back in January with the launch of its Cloud AutoML initiative, the company announced during its keynote. Cloud AutoML is basically a way to allow non-experts -- those without machine learning expertise or even coding fluency -- to train their own self-learning models, all using tools that exist as part of Google's cloud computing offering. The first of these tools was AutoML Vision, which lets you create a machine learning model for image and object recognition. Google makes these tools legible to those outside the software engineering and AI fields by using a simple graphical interface and universally understood UI touches like drag and drop.

There aren't many gadgets that I'm still using five years after I buy them, except for maybe a laptop. Even then, that's getting quite long in the tooth given how quickly upgrades arrive these days. Chromecast and Google Cast are still things that I use multiple times a day, every day. When Google first introduced the Chromecast in 2013, the company promised to make any TV with an HDMI port a smart display with the combination of a thumbdrive-like dongle and your home WiFi. That it did, but in the months that followed, Google expanded the tech undergirding its TV accessory well beyond that $35 device.

The use of natural wood, hand-knitted fabrics, and leather lend a rustic hand-made vibe to the Maverick.Cavalier Cavalier Audio is a New Jersey-based designer and manufacturer of voice-controlled speakers. The company's latest product is Maverick portable Bluetooth and Wi-Fi speaker with Amazon Alexa voice control. Maverick blends a hand-crafted finish and immersive sound to a market that's positively crowded out with'me-too' products produced from mass-produced plastics and so-so design. The Maverick has been designed to stand out from the crowd by using authentic materials, stylish design while incorporating the latest audio technology. Maverick was dreamed up by a team of musicians and engineers with the aim of offering world-class acoustics to life via a 20W stereo speaker system featuring two active drivers and dual passive radiators that the designers claim will produce true room-filling experience.

Fashion is a glamorous business. British fashion house Burberry recently sparked a massive outcry after burning £28 million of excess stock (as listed in its annual report), continuing a "brand protection" practice associated with other fashion labels like Louis Vuitton and Chanel. Far from protecting Burberry's brand, this backlash could not have come at a worse time for the label. The industry is already under intense scrutiny for years of unethical practices. In addition, fashion houses have to contend with changing tastes and shopping habits.

Despite Google's best efforts, Google Assistant has often been overshadowed by its more efficient, feature-laden counterparts, such as Alexa and Siri. However, the company is taking steps to make it more intuitive, and to increase its compatibility with its own services, which many would agree should have been considered from the get-go. One such example, apparently rolling out now, is video calling on Duo. Android Police reports that instructing Assistant to "video call contact name" will now automatically boot up Duo (although if you or your contact don't have Duo, Hangouts might be initiated instead). As is the case with many Duo updates, though, things aren't working smoothly just yet.

Router and smart-home product manufacturer TP-Link announced two new products today: A weatherized outdoor home-security camera to go with the well-regarded indoor model that's already on the market, and a new Wi-Fi smart plug with dual outlets that can be controlled independently of each other. The Kasa Cam Outdoor ($139.99) is a ball-shaped Wi-Fi home security camera offering 1080p resolution and a 130-degree field of view that TP-Link says eliminates the need for pan/tilt features. Once its bracket is mounted to the wall, the camera body can be rotated inside the bracket's magnetic socket to provide the best coverage. The camera captures video in 1080p resolution and is outfitted with a mic and speaker for two-way conversations. The user can also trigger an onboard siren (rated 80db at one meter) from the Kasa app to intimidate unwanted visitors. The camera enclosure is rated IP65, meaning it is dust tight and protected from water jets from up to a 6.3mm nozzle from any direction.

The pace at which companies are investing in artificial intelligence (AI) continues to gain momentum and the financial sector is not immune to this trend. According to research by global management consultancy Accenture, banks that invest in AI and human-machine collaboration tools could boost their revenue by over a third (34 per cent) by 2022. AI is considered one of the most important disruptive technologies for today's banks, with a recent PwC survey revealing that 72 per cent of senior management see AI and machine learning (ML) as key sources of competitive advantage. The survey also highlighted that 52 per cent of companies in the financial services sector are already making substantial commitments to AI, with 66 per cent projecting significant investments by 2020. The finance sector has been using AI in very specific areas for some time, but we're now seeing a rapid growth in take-up due to increasing market competition, the need to reduce overheads and the benefits of harnessing increasing volumes of data. "Banks are experiencing massive competitive pressure from multiple organizations that don't carry the same technical debt in the form of legacy software," highlights Daniel Kroening, Professor of Computer Science at the University of Oxford.

When new technology takes off, we sometimes assume the only early adopters are the young. While millennials are no doubt talking to the new wave of voice-activated speakers, it turns out that Google Home and Amazon Echo are really resonating with baby boomers. In fact, our research has found that boomers see their voice-activated speakers as more than a simple device. Here are three key things we discovered when researching boomers who own voice-activated speakers. Boomers are clearly using their devices for practical reasons.