Technically Incorrect offers a slightly twisted take on the tech that's taken over our lives. These entitled bots don't impress their therapist. What happens when you seen it, been it and done it all? Doesn't a certain sadness set it in? Don't you feel as if you're life wasn't quite what you'd hoped?

Recommender systems are widely used in big information-based companies such as Google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and Netflix. A recommender system deals with the problem of information overload by filtering important information fragments according to users' preferences. In light of the increasing success of deep learning, recent studies have proved the benefits of using deep learning in various recommendation tasks. However, most proposed techniques only aim to target individuals, which cannot be efficiently applied in group recommendation. In this paper, we propose a deep learning architecture to solve the group recommendation problem. On the one hand, as different individual preferences in a group necessitate preference trade-offs in making group recommendations, it is essential that the recommendation model can discover substitutes among user behaviors. On the other hand, it has been observed that a user as an individual and as a group member behaves differently. To tackle such problems, we propose using an attention mechanism to capture the impact of each user in a group. Specifically, our model automatically learns the influence weight of each user in a group and recommends items to the group based on its members' weighted preferences. We conduct extensive experiments on four datasets. Our model significantly outperforms baseline methods and shows promising results in applying deep learning to the group recommendation problem.

LG has officially joined the ranks of appliance makers that support more than one voice assistant. The electronics giant has announced that its current collection of ThinQ-branded appliances now takes commands from both Amazon's Alexa and Google Assistant. The amount of control you'll have will vary, of course, but there are common elements: you can make ice in your fridge door, turn off the oven or cool down with your air conditioner. This isn't the first company to officially support more than one voice assistant, but those brands are still few and far between. LG is certainly one of the largest given its international scope.

Apple's main claim to fame is a proven track record for successful products. But with its latest, the HomePod smart speaker, some analysts say its old formula for success -- going for the high end of the market and tightly controlling its ecosystem -- has let it down. Recent analyst reports suggest that the HomePod isn't selling well. Bloomberg reported last week that Apple even cut its internal sales estimates. While Apple hasn't released numbers on HomePod sales, it's expected to give some sense of the HomePod's sales in its next earnings report on May 1. HomePod sales are important to the Cupertino, Calif.

Google uses AI for services like search, translation and face detection, but its AI chips, which it calls tensor processing units, run in data centers. Now AI chips are spreading to phones, PCs, cars and more. You've likely seen artificial intelligence technology spread into apps, devices and services, doing things like recognizing your friends' faces in photos and endowing smart speakers with human-sounding voices. Well, good news: The processor industry has noticed, too. That means we'll see a slew of new chips that should speed up AI tasks not just on your phone or laptop but also in your car or home security camera.

Apple's AirPods could have a new rival in the wireless earbuds world, with an affordable alternative now up for pre-order in the form of Mobvoi's TicPods Free. You may know Mobvoi from its Ticwatch line of Android Wear smartwatches, which we've reported on before. Just launched on crowdfunding platform Indiegogo, the TicPods Free are available for the'early bird' pre-order price of $59 or £42 – approximately £120 less than the AirPods' RRP. Key features of the TicPods include cross-platform smart assistant compatibility, with Google Assistant, Siri and Alexa all supported as AI helpers. There's also a number of touch-based controls on-board: swipe up and down on the stem of the TicPods to adjust the volume, double tap to answer or end a call, and long-press for two seconds to activate your voice assistant or (if you're feeling really mean) reject a call.

Google's do-it-yourself AIY kits released last year are already a great way to learn the ins and outs of designing a smart home speaker powered by Google Assistant, but they always came with a caveat: You needed to bring your own Raspberry Pi to the party. But with an update available today, Google is giving you everything you need right in the box. Once again available in two flavors, Voice and Vision, Google's new kits are a one-stop solution for building the next-generation of AI devices, and include a Raspberry Pi Zero WH, micro USB connection cable, and pre-provisioned SD card. Each kit also comes with the appropriate hardware you'll need to get your smart device up and running: Google's AIY Voice Kit includes everything you need to make a smart speaker. Google's AIY Vision Kit includes everything you need to make a smart camera.

Let's kill a few false ideas first. No, artificial intelligence won't take the control of the world. You can forget your dreams about Terminator, The Matrix, Johnny 5 and Wall-e (yes I know for the last one it's kind of sad). But you just have to watch some Alexa, Google home or any other AI fails on YouTube to understand that we are far away from that scenario. Now that we agree on that, let's talk more seriously.

If the bot answers a question logically or solves a given task, it should be considered smart. A lot of personal assistants like Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa and Google Home can be regarded as intelligent. But can we say these assistant bots are Turing smart? Well, when we cannot distinguish between a bot and a human, then the bot can be called Turing smart. To check whether a bot is human level intelligent or not, a lot of ways are there, and the most prominent one is the Turing test.

Have you ever wondered why so many companies program robots, virtual assistants, and AI with feminine traits? Have you ever pondered, if there were more women behind the algorithms, how AI would be different -- not just vocally and aesthetically, but functionally? With Alexa, Cortana, Siri, Google Home, and most GPS systems defaulting to female, there has been plenty of speculation over the ubiquity of demure, ladylike tones emitted from the speakers of modern machines. Research has demonstrated a greater affinity for female voices on the part of men and women alike, prompting big tech companies like Amazon to opt for "Alexa" over "Alexander." Still, it's impossible to ignore the gendered implications at play, even if consumer demand drives such decisions.