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Thrive Senior Living Launches Artificial Intelligence inside All Communities in 2019

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Thrive Senior Living is once again challenging norms and industry standards, today announcing plans to integrate conversational artificial intelligence across all of its communities in 2019. The industry disrupter has tapped Aiva Health, a Silicon Valley-based startup, to launch an integrated technology platform designed to transform the way residents interact and build relationships beyond the four walls of their rooms. The comprehensive and personalized system is the first of its kind in the industry to be fully integrated into the work flows of a community. Aiva uses Google Home, Amazon Echo and smart speakers to not only engage and empower Thrive residents, but also to connect them more closely to their caregivers. The voice OS is built on a suite of enterprise applications โ€“ a mobile app for caregivers to manage help requests, a dashboard for performance reporting and a backend for controlling the voice assistants' settings and interactions with other IoT smart devices such as TVs, lights and thermostats.


The NFL wants Alexa to be your playoff watching companion

Engadget

Just in time for the start of the playoffs, the NFL has released a new skill for Amazon Alexa devices. "A Rookie's Guide to the NFL" will guide fans and folks who are new to the game through the 2019 postseason, with information about teams, rules, positions, players, equipment, formations and more. The skill is the NFL's first venture into apps with voice-enabled features and is available through the Alexa Skills Store starting today. To use the Rookie's Guide to the NFL, you'll have to download and enable the skill through your Alexa app. That will make it available through any of your Alexa devices.


Why the iPhone Is Finally Fading

Slate

On Wednesday morning, a FedEx delivery man knocked on my door. His face bore a broad grin, his hands a svelte cardboard box. I nodded sleepily, and he thrust the box into my hands. "Your new iPhone is here!" he said, still smiling, evidently in anticipation of my own excitement. "Hey, thanks," I said, trying to match his enthusiasm, if only out of reciprocal politeness.


Combining Privileged Information to Improve Context-Aware Recommender Systems

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

A recommender system is an information filtering technology which can be used to predict preference ratings of items (products, services, movies, etc) and/or to output a ranking of items that are likely to be of interest to the user. Context-aware recommender systems (CARS) learn and predict the tastes and preferences of users by incorporating available contextual information in the recommendation process. One of the major challenges in context-aware recommender systems research is the lack of automatic methods to obtain contextual information for these systems. Considering this scenario, in this paper, we propose to use contextual information from topic hierarchies of the items (web pages) to improve the performance of context-aware recommender systems. The topic hierarchies are constructed by an extension of the LUPI-based Incremental Hierarchical Clustering method that considers three types of information: traditional bag-of-words (technical information), and the combination of named entities (privileged information I) with domain terms (privileged information II). We evaluated the contextual information in four context-aware recommender systems. Different weights were assigned to each type of information. The empirical results demonstrated that topic hierarchies with the combination of the two kinds of privileged information can provide better recommendations.


Wirecutter's best deals: Save $100 on an Apple HomePod

Engadget

This post was done in partnership with Wirecutter. When readers choose to buy Wirecutter's independently chosen editorial picks, it may earn affiliate commissions that support its work. Read Wirecutter's continuously updated list of deals here. If you're looking to get into multicolor smart bulbs but don't have a lot to spend, this is a solid price for this recommended two-bulb kit with control hub. You'll sacrifice a small amount of brightness and Apple HomeKit functionality versus our other picks, but these light bulbs are still app-controllable and a nice value proposition. We've only seen this kit lower on one occasion.


Why Voice Assistants are Beneficial to Children - Voice Tech Podcast

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According to Yext, nearly 50% of broadband households use voice search and artificial intelligence (AI) search capabilities, such as Amazon Alexa and Google Home. It's no secret that, as AI adoption rates are skyrocketing, the impact on today's youth increases as well but, it's actually more helpful than you may have anticipated. You may have guessed this, sinceโ€ฆyou know, the majority of voice assistants don't have a screen. But for kids, this is a great thing! Unlike other search technology that requires typing, conversational AI provides information without actually staring at a screen.


Why Artificial Intelligence Is Important for Businesses Today

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You studied the Industrial Revolution in your school history classes. If you think back, you'll realize that the technology available during this span of time completely re-framed the way products were created and, in turn, the way people worked and lived. It's hard to imagine a world before industrialization. But the truth is that there was little change in the mechanics of the economy, movement of classes, or technological advancements prior to this time. After the industrial revolution began, though, technology boomed at a rapid pace.


Alexa, what's a screen pass? Amazon speaker can teach football to casual NFL fans

USATODAY - Tech Top Stories

Dec 22, 2018; Carson, CA, USA; Los Angeles Chargers defensive end Joey Bosa (99) looks on before the game against the Baltimore Ravens at StubHub Center. You don't know a lateral from a screen pass or the difference between a tight end and wide receiver. And what the heck does "three men in a box," "RPO" "nickel defense" or the "coffin corner" mean? Your significant other is fixated on watching the NFL playoffs that kick off this weekend. And if you're going to spend any meaningful time with your honey, then you best watch, too.


Axi Hoover

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Equipped with innovative Artificial Intelligence, the impressive AXI washing machine and washer dryer can understand your voice, your laundry habits and provide washing and drying solutions personalised to your family's life and needs. Fully Wi-Fi connected with a host of bespoke functions, you can control AXI via our Wizard app, using Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant.


New 'smart cycle' with Amazon voice controls lets you control Alexa from your bike

Daily Mail - Science & tech

Playing music, listening to directions or ordering a takeaway while you commute home from work could soon be a reality thanks to a new'smart bike'. The Cybic Legend, being unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas next week, comes equipped with Amazon's Alexa digital assistant. The bike, which will be launched alongside an electric version, features a control mounted on the handlebars that lets riders access its internet connected features. That includes performance data, personalised light settings, theft tracking, a security lock, an alarm and a music player. Playing music, listening to directions or ordering a takeaway while you commute home from work could soon be a reality thanks to a new'smart bike'.