An artist taught Google Assistant how to fire gun, creating an art piece that may further increase concerns on whether artificial intelligence is dangerous. While it may still be very far from the human-killing cyborgs from science fiction movies, Google Assistant firing a gun upon a voice command may already be a very scary thought for opponents of artificial intelligence. Alexander Reben, in a video that he uploaded to YouTube, showed his latest work. "OK Google, activate gun," Reben said, prompting a response of "Sure, turning on the gun" from Google Assistant. Following the voice command issued by Reben, the gun fires at the apple in front of it.

A fresh set of rumors about Google's upcoming Pixel 3 claim that the phone could look a lot like the iPhone X. Images of purported screen protectors of the Pixel 3 were shared, showing both a base model and what seems to be an XL model. The regular Pixel 3 is expected to look like the Pixel 2, while the XL will get some features that resemble the iPhone X, according to Bloomberg. It's also believed that the Pixel 3 will launch in October with Verizon as its exclusive carrier. The Pixel 3 XL is expected to feature a'nearly edge-to-edge screen', aside from thicker bezel, or'chin', at the bottom of the display, Bloomberg noted. It will also feature a notch at the top of its display that's'taller' than the one included on Apple's iPhone X. Google is reportedly hoping to remove the bezels entirely in the future, but has kept them as part of the phone's design this year to make room for stereo speakers on the front of the device.

A machine learning project to build an autonomous sailplane that remains aloft on thermal currents is impressive enough. But the work conducted by Microsoft researchers Andrey Kolobov and Iain Guilliard will also improve the decision making and trustworthiness of IoT devices, personal assistants and autonomous cars. The constraints limiting the computational resource of weight and space imposed by the airframe of the sailplane adds relevance to the many new developments in ubiquitous computing. The autonomous sailplane is controlled by a 160MHz Arm Cortex M4 with 256KB of RAM and 60KB of flash running on batteries that monitor the sensors, run the autopilot and control the servo motors, to which the researchers have added a machine learning model that continuously learns how to autonomously ride the thermal currents. In the these early days of platforms like digital assistants, IoT and autonomous vehicles, there are hundreds of open problems that will be distilled into a handful of scientific questions that first must be answered to build products that match popular visions of them.

The stereotypical salesperson - smartly dressed with their Rolodex of contacts - is an image of a bygone era. Even interacting via phone and email is starting to feel outdated thanks to advanced communication methods. Video collaboration software like Google Hangouts and Skype reduce the need for physical interactions. Social media and messaging apps also afford an instant line of communication. The ways to interact with each other seem endless, yet somehow it feels as if personal relationships are becoming more distant.

We all know that Artificial Intelligence (AI) is here to stay. We experience AI everywhere and enjoy its benefits without even realizing it. From streaming video services like Netflix, which learn our viewing behaviors and patterns so we spend our valuable time watching the shows we like best; to digital assistants like Amazon's Echo which can recognize speech patterns to follow our commands and answer our questions; to using AI-powered apps like Lyft or Google Maps to hail the closest ride or navigate around traffic and get from point A to point B, AI is now embedded in our daily lives. Each of these everyday consumer applications uses machine learning (ML) for their AI use cases. But it's not just the consumer technology giants and startups that are using ML technology to power AI-enabled applications; enterprises in virtually every industry are now exploring ML for a wide range of different AI use cases, ranging from fraud detection to medical diagnosis, stock market prediction, and autonomous driving to name just a few.

The Google Assistant was the star of Google I/O for the second year in a row. Now that the technology has been available for well over a year, Google is adding numerous features that will expand the AI's reach in Google's quest to dominate your home. In other words, expect to be talking to your phone a lot more in the coming years. Getting voice answers Google Home or your phone is fine and all, but sometimes it helps to have a visual aid. Google is leveraging Chromecast to do just that.

Google Assistant is now capable of firing a handgun. The artificial intelligent (AI) assistant has been filmed pulling the trigger for the first time as part of a new video project from artist Alexander Reben. 'Ok Google, activate gun,' Reben can be heard off-screen telling the Google Home. The 30-second'disturbing' video shows the smart speaker process his command, and then pull the air pistol trigger -- firing a round into an apple and knocking it from its perch next to the gun. Google Assistant also responds, saying: 'Sure, turning on the gun.' Artist and roboticist Alexander Reben said creating the Google Home-activated weapon was'easy'.

Apple's annual developer conference, WWDC, kicks off on Monday in San Jose, California. We'll get a first look at the newest updates in store for the iPhone, Apple Watch, Mac, and other Apple products. We're not expecting much in terms of whizz-bang feature announcements this year; the company has reportedly decided to take a step back and hone its existing software offerings. However, we'll still see improvements to Apple's operating systems. Apple would be smart to give Siri priority among its consumer-facing updates.

With so many connected devices making their way into our living rooms and bedrooms and onto our persons, it was no surprise when gadgets started making their way into our kitchens. You can buy so many WiFi- or Bluetooth-enabled widgets to help out with your cooking now, from smart Crock-Pots to app-controlled cooktops. Some are pretty dumb -- who really needs a toaster that pings your phone to say it's done even though it literally only takes three minutes? A smart thermometer that tells you when your pork roast is at optimal temperature after hours and hours of slow cooking makes a little more sense. However, you only have so much counter space, so you better choose wisely when it comes to adding new tech to your kitchen.

In the AI arms race, Google's I/O conference is akin to Russia's Victory Day parade -- an annual, carefully-orchestrated pullback of the curtains hiding otherwise-secret projects, designed to showcase technical prowess and achievements. This years I/O highlight was Duplex, Google Assistant feature that-- using recurrent neural-network-based AI (and a telephone) -- will schedule appointments for you. To demonstrate, Duplex called two businesses: a hair-salon and a restaurant. With lifelike voices and natural conversation flow -- including appropriate disfluencies (the technical term for "hmms," "uh's", etc.) --Duplex appeared to fool both humans into thinking a living, breathing, potential customer was on the line. By displaying behavior indistinguishable from that of a human, some think Duplex could pass the Turing test.