Amazon's virtual assistant Alexa could be getting an upgrade in the near future. Amazon is joining the ranks of Google and Apple in creating its own custom processing chips for AI, according to a report (paywall) from The Information. This potential chip would give Alexa devices, like the Amazon Echo, the ability to transcribe and respond to voice commands faster. On today's devices, all that work is sent up to Amazon's data centers. The new speciality chip could also be useful for Amazon's cloud business, speeding up AI processes that it sells to business customers.

Affectiva today announced the launch of its Automotive AI service that lets creators of autonomous vehicles and other transportation systems track users' emotional response. The Automotive offering is Affectiva's third service for tracking the emotional response of product users and is part of a long-term strategy to build emotional profiles drawn from smart speakers, autonomous vehicles, and other platforms with a video camera or conversational interface. An MIT Media Lab spinoff, Affectiva launched a voice analysis tool last year for the makers of AI assistants and social robots, but its computing services have been available to marketers and advertisers since 2010. Affectiva can pick up emotions like joy, surprise, fear, or anger from a person's face and things like laughter and arousal levels from their voice. To develop its solution for cars, Affectiva has been working with OEMs, vehicle safety system providers like Autoliv, and robotaxi startup Renovo over the past 18 months, an Affectiva spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.

Telsa's Model 3 uses a lot of voice and touchscreen rather than physical controls, which makes it a bit harder to operate than it should be, we found. One thing that will help is more voice controls, and Tesla has addressed that with its latest iOS app release -- sort of. The Model 3 now supports Siri, letting you do some functions like unlocking it, flashing the lights and honking the horn by voice without opening the Tesla app. You can also find your car and check the charge levels. The Siri feature, spotted by Reddit users and Electrek, has been available on the Model S and Model X since November of last year.

The expression, "Marketers are data rich and insight poor" is more true today than ever. Marketers all over the world are working to optimize marketing operations and effectiveness using their abundance of data. Many are turning to tools and platforms powered by artificial intelligence and machine learning. AI promises to make sense of all the dark data companies are sitting on as well as structured and unstructured data online to surface insights about customer behaviors, opportunistic content and emotional triggers to inspire conversions. In an age of too many choices, increased competition for customer attention requires every advantage to optimize for reach, engagement and conversion.

Today's shoppers have developed a new standard of behaviors, preferences and expectations for all of their retail experiences. Responsible with meeting these elevated needs, retailers seek to overcome the hurdles of legacy technology and captivate each of their customers on a 1:1 basis. In the past, consumer value expectations were centered on three variables: cost, choice, and convenience. With instant gratification available at the push of the button, customers are looking to have more control of their purchase journey and are seeking out personalized shopping experiences. Accustomed to the instant access of e-commerce shopping, customers are looking for opportunities to skip the line and have direct communication channels to ask, troubleshoot, and of course, shop.

If you just returned from HIMSS this year you most likely hear one of these acronyms every hour you were there. What is the difference between them? If you google these questions you will get all kinds of definitions and explanations. Here are the basics, from the leading text book around the world, Artificial Intelligence: A Modern Approach. To build a generally intelligent agent, you need machine learning in addition to the other aspects mentioned above.

Auckland's International Airport has deployed a remarkably human-like female virtual assistant to answer travellers' queries about biosecurity matters. Virtual Assistant Interface (Vai) has been developed by Auckland company FaceMe with support from Westpac's Innovation Fund. FaceMe says the Ministry of Primary Industries (MPI) is trialling Vai in the airport's biosecurity arrivals area to see whether she will become a permanent feature. "Vai can see, hear and answer arriving international visitors' questions." FaceMe says Vai was built using its platform that offers companies customised digital employees that, with training, can offer personalised service using natural language.

Tencent, Alibaba, Baidu and JD.com from China are in a global competition with Google/Alphabet, Apple, Facebook, Walmart and Amazon from the USA and SoftBank from Japan. All are agressively searching for talent, intellectual property, market share, logistics and supply chain technology, and presence all around the world. These leading tech-savvy companies have many things in common. Foremost, they are all in pursuit of global growth and the funding, technology and talent to propel that growth. And they all are investing in voice assistance and other forms of AI and robotics.

Amazon confirmed it's rolling out an optional "Brief Mode" that lets Alexa users configure their Echo devices to use chimes and sounds for confirmations, instead of having Alexa respond with her voice. For example, if you ask Alexa to turn on your lights today, she will respond "okay" as she does so. But with Brief Mode enabled, Alexa will instead emit a small chime as she performs the task. The mode would be beneficial to someone who appreciates being able to control their smart home via voice, but doesn't necessarily need to have Alexa verbally confirming that she took action with each command. This is especially helpful for those who have voice-enabled a range of smart home accessories, and have gotten a little tired of hearing Alexa answer back.

It's sad that one of the greatest minds of our time, Professor Stephen Hawking is no more. Nonetheless being one of the most brilliant figures to ever step on planet earth, the world-renowned theoretical physicist and cosmologist had very strong views and concerns about the rise of artificial intelligence. Taking into account Hawking's life history and accomplishments, that is, his discoveries about the four laws of black hole mechanics, the amazing theories about wormholes and time travel, his out of the world wisdom about top-down cosmology, and his books which sold out in millions; we can't afford to ignore his advice on AI. Also known as a fact-based technology dreamer, prof. Hawking voiced his fears that someday in future, a powerful artificial intelligence technology capable of evolving and improving itself could be developed by humans, after which it could turn against the human race.