According to several close sources, as reported by Yahoo Finance, Amazon is "seriously exploring" real-time translation abilities for Alexa. The intelligent personal assistant is currently capable of deciphering single words and phrases, but with these improvements, Amazon hopes that Alexa will work seamlessly in conversations as a real-time translator. Beyond language itself, the company wants Alexa to gain a well-rounded knowledge of the cultures in which the translated languages are spoken. By incorporating this knowledge into translation, the device could help users to communicate more respectfully and effectively. "The cross-culture, cross-language piece is going to be big for Amazon and Alexa, and it has a lot of potential," an anonymous source told Yahoo Finance.

Marketers have been talking about artificial intelligence (AI) marketing for some time now. But many are still wondering, what exactly can AI marketing do for us right now? To find out, Econsultancy recently held a gathering of over 400 marketers for Digital Outlook 2018 in Singapore and invited subject matter experts to speak on AI marketing and other topics trending in digital. In his talk, Chandra Kumar, CEO WiselyWise, stated that, despite many setbacks over its long history, AI marketing may now be ready for mass adoption. He proceeded to describe four concrete things that marketers can use AI for right now.

Automation technology is moving into the workplace with unstoppable momentum. As bots and robots take on more kinds of tasks, will they eliminate jobs? Or will they instead generate opportunity for workers to leverage their own strengths and manage their tireless mechanical colleagues? In today's workforce a factory line worker, a university professor, and a customer service rep are guaranteed to have one thing in common: a job that will be transformed by the presence of robots and AI in the coming decade. Will that worker be able to change along with it?

Now, you at least have an idea of what machine learning is and how useful for businesses and the IT industry in general it is. So, it is high time to learn how to implement these magic algorithms. It is worth noting that there are already several ready-made machine learning tools intended to somehow simplify the work for your developers. Google launched its machine learning service called Awareness API last year. This service allows developers to understand the context in which customers use their smartphones.

China's leading technology companies are on fire, heavily investing in artificial intelligence and building true global presences. McKinsey recently reported that academic and research institutions in the country publish more cited research papers than the US, UK, or any other global leader in AI, producing nearly 10,000 papers in 2015 alone. Backed by strong government mandates and billions of dollars of both private and public investments, China is challenging the US for position of global AI leader. Fearful of competition, the US government is considering placing restrictions on Chinese investments in AI and technology in the United States. In many sectors, such as healthcare, China may already be ahead of America in applying AI to critical public issues.

Amazon is making it easier for developers to add a variety of sound effects to their Alexa skills. The tech giant has launched a library full of built-in audio clips people can use to add -- in Amazon's words -- "unique sounds" to their creations. Of course, by the time most developers are done tweaking their skills to add the audio clips, they'll no longer seem unique. In fact, you should probably probably get used to hearing the same thing again and again. But developers do have quite a wide selection to choose from with 14 categories that include sounds you'd usually hear in cartoons and sci-fi shows, as as well as sounds of nature, humans and animals.

With the Apple HomePod, the cotton that has been in our ears since the arrival of the first smart speaker has been removed. The HomePod sounds far better than the popular smart speakers from Amazon, Google--and even Sonos. That's what I've been asking myself during my week testing the HomePod, which goes on sale Friday for $350. In the last three years, Amazon Echo and Google Home have set tens of millions of us at ease with speakers that listen for our commands. Of course, Apple has a long history of crushing incumbents--see MP3 players and smartphones.

In 2011, Gartner had prophesied that "By 2020, customers will manage 85% of their relationships with the enterprise without interacting with a human." We are still a few years away from 2020, yet we can see that the prophesy is almost true. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is changing the customer experience as we used to know it. Unrelenting pressure to not just to fulfill but to surpass the customer expectations has forced the CMOS to harness the power of AI. Apple's Siri, Amazon's Echo, Google's Assistant are some of the popular examples where AI is being used to enhance customer experience.

Last quarter, the market size of smart home speakers grew by 30 percent. According to a report published by CIRP, the number of installed Amazon Echo speaker devices is 20 million units and Google Home devices is 7 million units. Last quarter, 7 million smart speakers were sold in the USA.

Perhaps the most important choice you need to make is your preferred software: Just like phones and laptops, streaming devices have their own operating systems. So you should choose a platform that fits two criteria: It must play your favorite content and work well with the devices you already own. For example, if you want to watch shows and movies purchased from iTunes, then you need the only device capable of working with that software: the 4K Apple TV ($150 and up on Amazon). If you're all-in on the Apple ecosystem--you rely on a Mac computer or an iPhone--then you'll want this option. Android users, on the other hand, should lean toward devices, such as the 4K Nvidia Shield ($180 and up on Amazon), that run the Android TV operating system. This works best with Android-based video apps, everything from YouTube to Plex, although it can't play your iTunes content.