Looking for a way to keep up with TIME's journalism beyond the written word? Good news: Audio versions of our stories are now available as downloadable podcasts for your smartphone or tablet, and on-demand via your favorite smart speaker. Stories are updated every morning. You can listen on your favorite podcast app, including Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google Play, iHeartRadio or Overcast. Or, if you have an Amazon Echo or Google Home, ask it to "launch TIME Magazine."

Not long ago, I thought of smart TV software--especially from the likes of Samsung and LG--as something to ignore. Dedicated streaming devices such as Roku's Streaming Stick and Amazon's Fire TV Stick offered slicker interfaces and better app selections, which made me wonder why TV makers even bothered making subpar software. A funny thing's happened in recent years, though: Smart TV software from LG and Samsung has actually gotten pretty good. Now, I'm wondering why those companies don't take a page from Roku and Amazon, and put their software on external streaming players. To be clear, I don't own any Samsung or LG TVs, so I haven't lived with their software like I have with all the major streaming devices.

A non-league football club is hoping that artificial intelligence will help them to succeed on the pitch, employing a digital coach to share tactical decisions. Seventh-tier side Wingate and Finchley FC is set to use an Amazon Echo system to choose their team formations as well as to make pre-game and in-game decisions. As well as making tactical suggestions, the smart speaker - which will be linked to a computer - will provide Kevin Keegan-style inspirational quotes. The manager could, for example, ask Alexa what the best formation would be. The AI would then ask a series of questions about the team and the opponents before proposing an answer.

One hotel in Japan learned the hard way that robots are not always right for the job. Henn na Hotel in Tokyo is laying off half of its nearly 250 robots because they failed to do their automated tasks and humans had to intervene in their operations, the Wall Street Journal via Business Insider reported on Jan. 17. The hotel began employing robots in 2015 with the goal of becoming "the most efficient hotel in the world" and to respond to a worker shortage. Those laid off included Churi, a pink, egg-shaped virtual assistant assigned in each room, who could not keep up with the likes of Siri and Alexa. For instance, she failed to answer guests' questions on opening hours of local businesses.

The rise of virtual or artificial intelligence (AI) assistants has been underway for some time now with the growing popularity of products such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's Assistant The technology -- which has been trained to understand voice commands and complete tasks for users -- is also making headway in business as organizations look to leverage AI assistants (including chatbots) for a variety of use cases, including voice-to-text dictation, team collaboration tasks, email management, customer service, help desk management, and data analysis. Get the latest insights with our CIO Daily newsletter. According to a 2018 report from online IT community Spiceworks, 40 percent of businesses with more than 500 employees expect to implement one or more intelligent assistants or AI chatbots on company-owned devices in 2019. For its research, Spiceworks surveyed 529 technology buyers from North America and Europe in March 2018. Among organizations that have implemented the technology on company-owned devices and services, 49 percent are using Microsoft Cortana for work-related tasks, followed by Apple Siri at 47 percent.

In many ways, Artificial Intelligence and marketing seem to go hand in hand. The multi layered technology is an incredibly useful tool for helping brands to engage with customers, as by analysing data, brands can glean a far deeper understanding of what consumers want. According to research from Demandbase, 80 per cent of marketers believe that AI will revolutionise their industry by 2020. However, only 10 per cent are actually using it today. Although marketers have recognised the importance of embracing AI in campaigns and content, few have put this into practise.

Slowly but surely, artificial intelligence (AI) is creeping into the workplace, creating fear that the technology will progress to the point where it will replace the human workforce entirely. We've heard it a million times – "The robots are coming to take our jobs." In the past, perhaps just a decade ago, the words may have seemed empty – the threat too far off to worry about. After all, when it comes work – running businesses, serving customers, programming computers, driving buses and flying planes – humans are indispensable, aren't they? We can't be so sure anymore.

When we think of the AI platforms that are shaping how we use voice to interact with phones, home devices and other services, we tend to think of Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google and Microsoft's Cortana. But there are other players that may prove to have a compelling value proposition of their own. Sherpa.ai, a voice assistant out of Spain that also provides predictive recommendations with a focus on the Spanish language, today is announcing that it has expanded its Series A by $8.5 million to $15 million as it passes 5 million active users of its app. Investors include Mundi Ventures, a Spanish VC fund focused on AI, and Alex Cruz, the chairman and CEO of British Airways. In a still-heated tech climate where startups are raising tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of dollars in rounds that sometimes happen only months apart, Sherpa's Series A has been a comparatively slow burn: the startup first announced a Series A of $6.5 million nearly three years ago.

Artificial intelligence may still be an emerging technology, but chances are you're already using it in your everyday life. AI is what is powers iPhone's Siri and Google Assistant. Gmail's smart replies, online product suggestions, and directions for the fastest route -- with traffic included -- from one place to another are all examples of AI coming into play. AI, which allows computers and other machinery to learn and adapt to its surroundings, is also active in schools and in classrooms. It runs in many educational and tutoring apps, and digital curriculum tools use this technology to assess a student's performance and suggest an individualized learning plan to help them improve their understanding of a subject.

LOS ANGELES--Here's a new way to get the daily Talking Tech podcast delivered to you first thing every morning, via an Alexa Flash Briefing. The "skill" to bring Talking Tech directly to you went live Tuesday, and it's easy to add. However, it will take a few steps. In the smartphone app (which you use to control the Amazon Echo speakers), you enable the Talking Tech Flash Briefing skill. Open the app, go to Settings, and click on Flash Briefings.