Some Onkyo receivers are getting the Work with Sonos seal of approval -- you'll soon be able to stream tunes from the Sonos app to Onkyo, Integra and Pioneer Elite receivers. You can add Onkyo devices to an existing Sonos setup as well, which might come in handy for a multi-room setup. Some Onkyo systems already have Google Assistant support via Google Home, and the Sonos tie-up will similarly add limited Alexa controls through Amazon's Echo hardware, the company told Twice. It's a positive move for Onkyo owners who might want to combine their systems with Sonos speakers into a more streamlined setup. Onkyo will reveal the specific models involved on June 6th, when the firmware update is scheduled to drop.

Benevolent hackers are trying to expose weaknesses in Amazon Echo and Google Home, hopefully to the benefit of users. There's a new and novel way to snoop on Google Home and Amazon Echo devices, researchers have told Forbes. It's called "voice squatting" and was uncovered by a group of researchers from Indiana University, Bloomington, the University of Virginia and the Chinese Academy of Sciences. The hack abuses what're known as "skill markets." Those markets open up third-party services, from banking to cat fact apps, that can be called with certain commands.

"Never before in history have such a small number of designers – a handful of young, mostly male engineers, living in the Bay Area of California, working at a handful of tech companies – had such a large influence on two billion people's thoughts and choices." Those are the words of Tristan Harris, former design ethicist at Google and founder of Time Well Spent, a not-for-profit initiative to help educate businesses, users, and designers about morally acceptable technology design choices. However, he and the entire high-tech industry may not be going far enough, or fast enough. Take for instance Google, Tristan's former employer. Recently at their annual I/O conference, Google CEO Sundar Pichai demonstrated the company's "Duplex" technology nested within the Google Assistant project.

From targeted digital ads and chatbots to voice assistants and Amazon's impending home robot. Artificial intelligence has surfaced in a wide range of ways and as it continues to evolve, it will transform both marketers and their agencies, says IBM's Jay Henderson. "I tend to think of artificial intelligence around two lines," said Henderson, director of Watson Marketing at IBM. "Marketers are going to be able to infuse A.I.-technology to create more personalized, informed interactions with customers and it will help companies work smarter and be more efficient and effective with their efforts." According to a recent report from eMarketer, 80 percent of b-to-b marketing executives believe that A.I. is going to revolutionize the marketing industry in the next two years. The report, called "Artificial Intelligence for Marketers 2018: Finding Value Behind the Hype," highlights Garner's prediction of worldwide spending on A.I. technology to grow significantly in the next four years, with an estimated $6 billion in investments this year and $29 billion by 2021.

Google has unveiled a range of new products focused on artificial intelligence, which the technology giant hopes will make its services easier to use. At the firm's annual I/O developer conference, Google's latest innovations included revamps for its Android operating system, as well as Gmail and virtual helper Google Assistant. The next version of Google's annually updated mobile operating system, Android P, is now "smarter" according to the firm, thanks to new machine learning tools at its heart. This artificial intelligence has been applied to several new features, including Adaptive Battery which prioritises power to the apps used most, while Adaptive Brightness automatically tweaks screen brightness. There are also App Actions, which learn user habits and then predict which app a user is likely to turn to next - for example raising a prompt to resume a Spotify playlist when a pair of headphones are plugged in.

I asked Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant if they're spying on me. Some answers are helpful, one isn't. Here's what each voice assistant said when I asked. I asked Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant if they're spying on me. Some answers are helpful, one isn't.

Microsoft, best known for its software, still manages to churn out a beautiful piece of hardware every once in a while. On the portable side, products like its Microsoft Surface Laptop show that the company still has a keen sense of design and a knack for developing products for the modern era. The larger Surface Studio does the same for the desktop. Now, the company's just-announced Surface Hub 2 promises to be a sleek, extra-large addition to the office boardroom when it begins shipping next year. The Hub 2, a more affordable follow-up to the original 2016 Surface Hub, is a 50.5-inch touchscreen display ringed by only the most slender of black bezels.

Google Assistant is finding her (or his) voice. At Google's developer conference this year the company introduced six new voices and they're now available. The new voices, three female and three male, are said to be more realistic because they include pauses and intonation, and they better approximate the way real people speak. To be sure, they still don't sound totally realistic but they do remove a bit of the monotone from the basic Assistant voice. Switching between them is simple and should only take a few seconds.

Past last week Google unveil their Artificial Intelligence (AI) assistant namely Project Duplex. Hosted the Google I/O 2018 by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, a mix reaction of audience are seen in the event when Pichai start to call and book a hair cut appointment to a salon. When the AI Assistant make a call to the salon and set an appointment there. The hair salon receptionist have no idea that she was talking to a robot. When you carefully listen to the conversation you can hear a person like sound that the Assistant do like using "umhh" with a slightly pause before a sentence and the fast recognition of understanding of the receptionist answers.

Google has unveiled artificial intelligence software that books appointments over the phone on behalf of users by conducting voice-based conversations on their behalf. Chief executive Sundar Pichai said that Google Duplex would launch as an "experiment" over the coming weeks. The facility was unveiled at the firm's annual IO developers conference. Experts have said that if it works it could give the firm a major advantage over rival virtual assistants. Pre-recorded demonstrations played back to the audience featured the software first booking a haircut and then making a restaurant reservation by speaking to two human employees.