Life can be a little more relaxed and a little less chaotic when you employ a routine. The same goes for the smart speaker in your home. While the aptly named "Routines" feature on the Amazon Echo may get a lot of attention, the Google Home is every bit as capable of making your life easier. The Google Assistant utilizes a feature it calls "Shortcuts," which allows you to customize a phrase to say to perform a string of actions you can program in the Google Home app. It's all pretty effortless as long as you spend time to setting things up.

There is a lot you can do with Alexa. Here's how you can add skills. A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. There is a lot you can do with Alexa. Here's how you can add skills.

Every single type of business is being transformed by artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML). The increasing availability of intelligent tools has resulted in an AI revolution. Companies of all sizes are now implementing these features into their operations. Perhaps nowhere is this more evident than in the financial technology (fintech) space. Stock trading is being automated, virtual assistants are easier than ever for companies to set up, and most banking tasks can be done through digital portals.

On February 9th, 2018, Apple suddenly woke up and finally released the HomePod. It plays music and, assuming your house and all its gadgets are connected using Apple's HomeKit ecosystem, it will let you control them via Apple's intelligent assistant, Siri. It can tell you what the weather or news will be, and it will answer [possibly] whatever other random questions you think of. It can turn off your lights or air-conditioning. If you have an iPhone, you'll know what Siri is – basically say "Hey Siri, play XYZ" and then pray what the results might be. There are other competitors to HomePod already, primarily Amazon's Echo, which is powered by its Alexa voice assistant and Google Home which uses Google Assistant.

According to a recent survey by, shopping by voice is expected to grow from $2 billion today to $40 billion in the next four years. But how far along are smart speakers right now? USA TODAY Isabelle Olsson, lead designer for home hardware for Google, Inc., introduces the new Google Home Mini at a product launch event, October 4, 2017, at the SFJAZZ Center. The retail revolution that is shifting sales from stores to laptops to smartphones could be on the verge of its next sea change -- when shoppers will ask Amazon's Alexa, and other voice-driven speakers, to order just about everything. Purchases made through devices like Google Home and Amazon's Echo are projected to leap from $2 billion today to $40 billion by 2022, as technology improves, U.S. consumers become more comfortable, and the speakers become nearly as commonplace in homes as a flat-screen TV, according to a new study from OC&C Strategy Consultants. "We really see this as the next big disruptive play in U.S. retail,'' says John Franklin, associate partner at OC&C which surveyed 1,500 smart speaker owners in December . The smart speaker space is one that many tech giants want to play in. Though Amazon and its digital helper Alexa have come to define the niche, Google Home with its Google Assistant is second in popularity. Apple began shipping its Siri-assisted HomePod smart speaker in February. Microsoft's "Cortana" is also part of the mix. For now, the most popular use of voice-driven speakers is to play music or find out whether to take an umbrella when heading out the front door, OC&C says. More: Amazon's Alexa has a new voice, Jeff Bezos reveals in Super Bowl ad But with virtual assistants that can turn up a thermostat and even rattle off jokes, voice-driven speakers are at the center of a budding universe of AI-connected devices that include bathroom mirrors, door locks, and TV monitors. Smart home product sales are expected to total $4.5 billion this year, up 34% from 2017, according to The Consumer Technology Association. Among the U.S. residents who have a smart speaker, 62% have used it to buy groceries or some other item, according to OC&C's study. And the report predicts that the percentage of U.S. homes with a smart speaker will rise from the current 13% to 55% by 2022. "That number has been going up incredibly rapidly over the last two years,'' Franklin says.

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology has progressed in virtually every sector in the world. AI has made leaps and businesses have redesigned their models. From law to smartphone manufacturing, every sector has been impacted with emergence and application of AI. Leading tech giants have provided AI assistants in their smartphones. Alexa, Siri, and others have been assisting users by recognizing speech and performing desired actions such as booking a table or searching a place to purchase a nice perfume. Moreover, Russian tech firm Yandex has developed an AI assistant Alice, which gives sassier responses over the polite ones.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society. In late September, Egyptian authorities began a crackdown against the country's queer communities after fans of Mashrou' Leila, an outspoken Lebanese indie rock group with an openly gay band member, displayed a rainbow flag at the group's concert in Cairo. The government responded quickly in what some activists called the worst campaign against LGBTQIA Egyptians in decades. Security forces arrested more than 85 individuals on a range of charges, including "habitual debauchery." Officials convicted at least 16 and issued sentences ranging from six months to six years in prison (though a handful were later released).

Christopher Plata doesn't have time or patience for bad dates anymore. The 30 year-old nursing student has been trying for years to meet Mr. Right--first on Grindr and Compatible Partners (eHarmony's queer subsidiary), and more recently on Bumble--and has yet to find someone with whom he shares a real connection. "I've really been through the ringer," he says. So in December, while he was attending Houston's Day For Night music festival, he stopped by a booth hawking cheek swabs, and handed over a few thousand cheek cells in the name of love. The booth belonged to Pheramor, a Houston-based online dating startup that claims to use your DNA as the secret sauce in its matchmaking formulation.

The concept of artificial intelligence (AI) has been floating around for years. At first it was just an idea discussed at universities by stereotypical academics. But is has emerged, first test cases have been developed and then, in the form of intelligent personal assistants (Siri, Cortana, Alexa), developed into something that we are confronted with in everyday life. There are new developments almost every month – in January 2018 AI delivered,for the first time, a better reading performance than a human. It is only a matter of time, until AI will move into manufacturing.

Lux has finally released a follow-up to its Lux Geo smart thermostat. The Kono is largely in line with the Geo's basic sensibilities of delivering smart features and style in a lower-priced high-tech thermostat. Priced at $150, the Kono is an affordable way to get smart connectivity in your heating and cooling controls, but you won't get much in the way of bells and whistles. One potential sticking point is pure aesthetics: The Kono's industrial design could appear stylish and techno-hip, or tacky and plastic looking depending upon your taste. Lux has cleverly made it so you can purchase an array of colored faceplates for the unit and swap them out in a second to suit your room's color scheme or general mood.