Artificial intelligence (A.I.), in some form or fashion, is all around us; its presence pervades our lives in ways seen, hidden and/or overlooked. Its influence is growing and will continue to do so for years to come. As currently constructed, though, it will not lead to the idyllic future researchers and enthusiasts predict, but rather an ideal-adjacent alternative owing to one missing element: natural language processing (NLP). Why is that so important? Well, beyond revolutionizing the concept of a user interface in ways undeniably more natural and efficient, it would truly upend the way we interact with and utilize machines forever.

I recently asked my Amazon Echo's Alexa what the future of cloud computing is. Alexa paused, with her blue lights blinking, and then said, "Sorry, I don't know that one." She could, however, give me a thorough definition of cloud computing and confidently point out that the word "future" can have different meanings, which she then diligently recited until I stopped her. It's not the first time that Alexa and I have had different opinions about how we see the world. But overall, I have become very fond of Alexa.

Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, or WWDC, will begin on June 4, the company recently announced. WWDC is one of Apple's biggest events of the year, giving it a chance to preview what's in store for gadgets from the iPhone to the Mac and beyond. The headlining news is usually a look at the next version of Apple's iPhone and iPad software, called iOS. Apple typically uses WWDC to show off the new features coming to the iPhone and iPad in the following months. But Apple may take a different approach this year, focusing less on flashy new features and more on performance upgrades.

By now, you must have heard the term "virtual assistants." The natural evolution of virtual assistants is the virtual experts. Going from former to the latter is a substantial technical challenge not many companies are willing to meet yet, because the simpler "assistant" version has untapped commercial potential and a quick ROI. Nevertheless, virtual experts is the real game changer – a paradigm shift – that will have social and economic impact beyond our wildest imagination. The rise of virtual experts is just hiding behind the puzzle of the most effective machine learning approach.

Wikipedia says Alexa is an intelligent personal assistant developed by Amazon, initially utilized in the Amazon Echo and later the Amazon Echo Dot devices developed by Amazon Lab126.

As its name suggests, the temperature sensor works in conjunction with the Nest Thermostat (and the Nest Thermostat E) to let you control the temperature in individual rooms. So if you set one in the bedroom, for example, you can then configure the Nest app to have it so that room is colder or warmer than the rest of the house. The price for a single unit is $39 or $99 for a pack of three. You can pre-order it starting today, and it'll begin shipping next month. As part of the above announcement, Nest recently gave us a demo of some of its connected home products to walk us through some of the new features.

Amazon's Alexa can order you an Uber, tell you where you've parked your car and turn off your lights. But pretty soon, the voice assistant could be getting one of its most useful skills yet. Biometric software company Daon has developed a way for users to send money to friends using Alexa, according to CNET. The feature could arrive on the internet giant's voice-activated speakers and devices in the next nine to 18 months. Amazon's Alexa voice assistant could allow people to pay friends using their voice in the next nine months or by next year, according to CNET Daon is the company behind MasterCard's'Selfie Pay,' which lets users send an online payment by showing their face to their smartphone's camera.

Yup, we've all been there. Try saying, "Hey Google, set a reminder to pick up more coffee at the grocery store" and your Google Assistant will remind you on your phone. Your reminder will appear on your phone when you arrive at the given location. If you say, "remind me to grab some cereal from the grocery store," then you'll be notified when you get to a grocery store. We confirmed the feature by asking home to remind us to get coffee beans the next time we were at Starbucks (don't judge).

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Digital personal assistants, such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, are sexist, according to one expert. They struggle to understand quiet and'breathy' voices of women compared with the deeper voices of men. The software is often developed with the help of male voice examples and so lacks a deeper understanding of female commands. The comment was made by Delip Rao, the CEO and co-founder of R7 Speech Sciences, a company that uses artificial intelligence to understand speech. Voice recognition software is built-in to most modern devices and has been around for years.