Top Republican lawmakers on the House Energy and Commerce Committee sent letters Monday asking Apple and Google for more information on how extensively their smartphones track people's locations and record snippets of their conversations. The questions from lawmakers come amid a broader scrutiny from Capitol Hill into how the underlying, everyday practices of technology companies may infringe on Americans' privacy. Congressional hearings with Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg revealed several lawmakers were troubled by the amount of data that the social network collects on a regular basis. In the letters to Google and Apple, lawmakers said the committee is "reviewing the business practices that may impact the privacy expectations of Americans." The letters ask Larry Page -- the chief executive of Google's parent company Alphabet -- and Tim Cook, Apple's CEO, for more specific information on how their phones collect location information at times when many people may not expect.

The explosive growth of in-home artificial intelligence assistants has many companies scrambling to develop apps and "skills" to keep up with the new technology. But many are doing so without a clear strategy. The same thing could be said about chatbots, virtual reality and even social media. Why are companies in such a rush to be first to market with new technology, even with a potentially inferior product? According to the Smart Audio Report from NPR and Edison Research, one in six Americans now has a smart speaker.

Last week we told you about a killer deal on the original Pixel (which is still going on), but if you'd rather get some of Google's newest products for less, now's the time to act. Pixels, Chromecasts, and Google Home speakers are all on steep sales through July 17. The Pixel 2 XL, Google's premier smartphone, is $100 off both the 64GB and 128GB models, bringing them down to $749 and $849 respectively. The phone easily earned our Editors' Choice award for its great all-around performance, but the Pixel 2 XL's blending of a top-of-the-line mobile camera with Google's A.I. magic results in one of the most fun, elegant camera experiences you'll find in a camera today. And if you want to use the phone's power to wander worlds in virtual reality, the 2nd-gen Daydream View headset is on sale for $49, 50 percent off its $99 list price. The Google Home Max is a beefy smart speaker.

Dish launched Alexa support for its Hopper and Wally set-top boxes last year, so the devices can already do your bidding with just a spoken command. Now, the satellite TV provider is giving you another voice control option: one that should make you happy if you prefer Google's AI to Amazon's. So long as you have an Android device, an iPhone loaded with the AI's app or an Assistant device such as a Home speaker or a Home mini, you can navigate its channels and shows with your voice. You can ask Assistant to play, pause, fast-forward, rewind and adjust the volume of what you're watching. If you have no idea what to watch, you can also search for shows based on channel, title, actor and genre.

Amazon Prime Day is just around the corner and it could be bigger and better than ever. Amazon Prime Day features a lot of deals. Not all are worth pursuing. Like Black Friday and Cyber Monday, Amazon's annual Prime Day features tons of products screaming "deal!" But sometimes it's tough to separate the big discounts from the disappointments. Here's how to make sense of the sales bonanza that starts July 16.

Customer experience is a combination of the perceptions, emotions, and reactions that a consumer has while using different channels to interact with a company's environment, products, or employees. Major brands aspire to deliver an engaging and compelling experience across all the touch points and "moments of now" they have with their individual customers. To deliver on their ambition, they build the ability to consistently support the entire customer experience lifecycle: from initial contact, through the process of acquisition, engagement, and into a long-term relationship – anywhere, anytime, any device, seamless, contextualized, personalized, and proactive. Many of them have already started the transformation towards having a single, consistent customer platform that supports the end-to-end customer experience by interconnecting enterprise-wide sets of customer data and insights, customer engagement engines (such as marketing, CRM, commerce), and enabling processes through a digital architecture. This next-generation digital platform not only connects the whole client ecosystem of business and technology partners, but also the ecosystem of internet platforms, social networks and devices favored by the consumer.

How it works: Control hot water and heating from your smartphone. How it works: A lightbulb you can dim, or turn on and off, using your phone. How it works: A smart speaker you control by speaking to Alexa, an intelligent'virtual assistant'. Functions include answering questions and playing music. How it works: Be alerted on your phone when someone rings your doorbell, and speak to that person via a video link, regardless of where you are.

You know the robots have taken over when they start not just bossing you around, but being rude, too. All I had done was ask my Amazon Echo – a speaker on the kitchen worktop that connects to a supposedly intelligent'virtual assistant' called Alexa – to turn on the lights. I was greeted with: 'I hate to state the obvious, but the light is already on. I guess my job is done.' The idea is that every major appliance in the house can be connected to the internet and, in turn to your smartphone.

Artificial intelligence is the creation of intelligence machines which are capable of think and react like humans. John McCarthy coined the term "Artificial Intelligence" and McCarthy was one of the founders of the discipline of artificial intelligence. Artificial Intelligence can perform tasks more accurately. It has been said that Artificial Intelligence will create the fourth Industrial Revolution. Let us now understand the types of artificial intelligence.

Asking Alexa or her cloud-based buddies to turn on lights, or activate the air conditioning ahead of your arrival home, might seem nifty – for now. As artificial intelligence takes up residence, prepare for a home that doesn't need to be told – it knows intuitively everything about you, anticipating your every move (and mood), and adjusting itself to take care of you. A glimpse of that future was unveiled at technology trade show CES Asia in Shanghai in June, when a new product category – artificial intelligence (AI) – was introduced. John T. Kelley, senior director, international programs and show director, CES Asia, describes artificial intelligence (AI) as "one of those exciting technologies that will become ubiquitous in the next decade as it becomes more deeply embedded in the products that we use day in and day out to make our lives better". AI is already being incorporated in everyday consumer technology products that provide practical benefits, including cars, smart homes, robotics, health and wellness devices and home security, he adds – and in many categories, China is leading the way.