Sonos has revealed the Beam, a speaker that sits under your TV. The company's pitch is that the device is really three different things all packed into one box: not only a soundbar, but also a music player and a smart assistant, as well. And in fact it is more than one smart assistant, with Sonos announcing at the same event that Siri will now be able to talk to Alexa, and that Google Assistant will also eventually be coming to its speakers. But another important point is that box all of that is crammed into is much smaller than its other devices. Until now, its only TV speakers have been the Playbase and the Playbar, which either sit beneath or in front of the television and sweep all the way in front of it.

Recommender systems play a crucial role in mitigating the problem of information overload by suggesting users' personalized items or services. The vast majority of traditional recommender systems consider the recommendation procedure as a static process and make recommendations following a fixed strategy. In this paper, we propose a novel recommender system with the capability of continuously improving its strategies during the interactions with users. We model the sequential interactions between users and a recommender system as a Markov Decision Process (MDP) and leverage Reinforcement Learning (RL) to automatically learn the optimal strategies via recommending trial-and-error items and receiving reinforcements of these items from users' feedback. Users' feedback can be positive and negative and both types of feedback have great potentials to boost recommendations. However, the number of negative feedback is much larger than that of positive one; thus incorporating them simultaneously is challenging since positive feedback could be buried by negative one. In this paper, we develop a novel approach to incorporate them into the proposed deep recommender system (DEERS) framework. The experimental results based on real-world e-commerce data demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed framework. Further experiments have been conducted to understand the importance of both positive and negative feedback in recommendations.

With its acquisition of artificial intelligence and machine learning developer HeavyWater, Black Knight is turning to its Artificial Intelligence Virtual Assistant to streamline the mortgage process, with an immediate focus on the originations sector. The company, which acquired the Philadelphia-based startup late last week, aims to eventually get to a place where tech can guide and advise underwriters on potential opportunities and in decision making, according to Rich Gagliano, president of Black Knight's Origination Technologies division. "AIVA makes the decisions and recommends actually a conclusion, the operator can agree or disagree, and as a result of that two things happen: that activity or that job task gets done, and in certain situations, creates a reinforcement learning for AIVA," said Soofi Safavi, CEO of HeavyWater. "That activity ultimately will be shadowed by AIVA to be able to actually give her the same level of cognition that a human expert has," he added. Though AIVA's primary focus for the short term will be on the originations sector, it will also eventually support mortgage servicing.

As smart speakers gained popularity, a big name in the space seemed to have fallen by the wayside. Sonos pioneered a high-quality connected home-theater speaker system in the early 2000s. In 2016, it began making a shift to support streaming music services on its products. It shipped its first assistant-laden speaker, the Alexa-enabled Sonos One, in 2017, but has now taken that idea even further. The company, on Wednesday, unveiled Beam, a smart sound bar, which will soon be virtual assistant agnostic: It's shipping with Alexa, gaining Siri control with AirPlay 2 in July, and adding Google Assistant compatibility later this year.

Amazon's Alexa has learned how to be a personal stylist - and the skill is now available to everyone. The e-commerce giant has launched its Echo Look device to the public, allowing the AI to help you create a'personal lookbook' and design shareable photos. Before now, the device, which takes full-length photos and short videos of your outfit from every angle, was only available by invitation. There is also a service, called Style Check, that combines machine learning algorithms with advice from fashion specialists to give you a second opinion on your clothing choices. Amazon has released the Echo Look, which is an Alexa-powered camera that takes full-length photos and short videos of your outfit from every angle, helps you create a'personal lookbook' and creates shareable photos The Echo Look is priced at $199.99.

Sonos took the wraps off its latest smart speaker at an event in San Francisco earlier today. The $399 Sonos Beam is smaller and less expensive than either the Sonos Playbase or the older Sonos Playbar, and it will support Apple's AirPlay 2 multi-room audio technology when it ships in July. "All the tech giants are building smart speakers," said Chris Kallai, Sonos' VP of Hardware Product Management, when introducing the Sonos Beam. "But they're not doing it so you can listen to all the music you want. Kallai said the Beam combines three products into one: "Alexa, Apple Music, and a compact soundbar."

If you are not deaf to the things that are taking place in the tech world and all the ways new technologies are transforming our surroundings, you must have heard already about Artificial Intelligence (AI). This new facet of machine led intelligence is lately pushing growth for many businesses. Several leading tech brands are already in the research and development of AI enabled products including Google's self-driving car project to already unveiled Amazon's Alexa, the voice command enabled home theater system. When talking of artificial intelligence we can call to mind all the personal assistant applications that are making our user experience with handheld devices easier and richer. Thanks to digital assistants completing any task with simple voice commands became easier than ever before.

Spotify is gearing up to launch its own range of hardware products fuelling rumours the company plans to launch its own smart speaker. The music streaming service has registered with the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), paving the way for it to sell hardware products for the first time. Without proper certification from the FCC, it is impossible to market or sell wireless products in the United States. Spotify has yet to submit any hardware for certification from the US government agency. The company has long been rumoured to be developing its own hardware, however, its registration with the FCC is the first evidence it is considering bringing products to market.

Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) saw its shares rise marginally on Wednesday after the company announced a new product in its Echo line. The e-commerce giant is expanding its virtual assistant to help users manage their closets and image better. Ultimately, Alexa will help users look their best with the Echo Look. Alexa on Echo Look is a style assistant that gives personalized recommendations, helps keep users' closets organized and provides fashion inspiration. Echo Look offers features like Style Check, Collections and suggestions of new pieces to complement users' existing wardrobe.

Smart speaker and home audio company Sonos is holding an event in San Francisco today, and the first bit of news is that AirPlay 2 support is coming in July. As previously announced Apple's latest streaming protocol will work with the Sonos One, Playbase, and Play:5 speakers -- anything older than that won't be supported, unfortunately. The update will come via software update, and it'll let you group together multiple Sonos speakers through Apple's apps. This means you can start up songs in Apple Music and send them directly to Sonos without having to use the dedicated Sonos app. Sonos gave a quick demo showing off what AirPlay 2 can do.