Many have lauded the latest phone from Google, the Pixel 2, applauding its ability to showcase the emerging capabilities of artificial intelligence. Not only does the virtual assistant sound more human than other competitors' technologies, but it also does a better job of understanding commands and questions. Still, there's a distinct difference between responding to short queries and understanding the nuances of conversation, and Google's "AI" hasn't quite made that leap. Current iterations of AI are actually a combination of traditional algorithms with modern computing power and technology for processing big data. Due to extreme growth in specialized computing capabilities, it's relatively easy to design algorithms that make decisions based on statistics gleaned from large volumes of data.

Apple's $159 (£159) wireless headphones are set to get an upgrade by the end of 2018. The second-generation AirPods will feature a new chip from Apple to improve the use of Siri and speed up the connection from phone to headphones. Rumours are circling that Apple is also working on a third-generation version for release in 2019 that will be waterproof. Apple's popular wireless headphones are set to get an upgrade by the end of 2018. The firm is believe to be working on installing a W2 chip in the headphones, which would improve connection reliability.

Google is my favorite giant tech company. Unlike Apple, it has preserved a broadly innovative spirit, pursuing lots of ideas that have no direct link to its existing revenue model. Unlike Microsoft, it understands people well enough to give them consistently comfortable interfaces, and it keeps the interfaces pretty glitch-free. And unlike Facebook, it has never treated users, literally, like laboratory rats. Robert Wright (@robertwrighter) is an Ideas contributor for WIRED and the author of Nonzero, The Moral Animal, The Evolution of God, and, most recently, Why Buddhism Is True. He cofounded and runs bloggingheads.tv and meaningoflife.tv, and he founded and publishes The Mindful Resistance Newsletter.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has always been the subject of dreams and visions about the distant future of humankind. Even though we are nowhere near a conscious robotic system, nowadays, AI systems are ubiquitous and showing tremendous successes in various fields of our everyday life. We are using these on a daily basis, often without even noticing. Whether it is the Virtual Personal Assistants on our mobile phones (such as Siri, Google Now, and Cortana), self-driving cars, the ranking of the web pages given your search query, or the classical textbook examples such as spam filtering and recommendation systems of online media providers and marketplaces like Amazon. Various fields of AI have made a major leap forward in the recent years.

A voice user interface, or VUI (voo-e), is an application that the user interacts with using speech. Early examples of this are automated telephone services. Since then, we've seen the growth of products like the Amazon Echo and Google Home and we now see Apple entering the market with their'HomePod' but what does any of this have to do with UX design? The design process for voice interfaces is not massively different from a usual discovery stage in any UX project. You need to understand what your users are trying to achieve, what they need along the way to achieve it and what channel or solution might help them achieve it best.

Baidu's research arm announced yesterday that its 2017 text-to-speech (TTS) system Deep Voice has learned how to imitate a person's voice using a mere three seconds of voice sample data. The technique, known as voice cloning, could be used to personalize virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri, Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa; and Baidu's Mandarin virtual assistant platform DuerOS, which supports 50 million devices in China with human-machine conversational interfaces. In healthcare, voice cloning has helped patients who lost their voices by building a duplicate. Voice cloning may even find traction in the entertainment industry and in social media as a tool for satirists. Baidu researchers implemented two approaches: speaker adaption and speaker encoding.

Apple is already rumored to be working on upgraded version of AirPods this year and now a new report has more details on exactly what those upgrades are going to be. People familiar with the matter claim Apple is working on a new version of the AirPods that will be released as early as this year. This version of the wireless earphones will apparently arrive with an upgraded wireless chip, which will manage Bluetooth connections. Most importantly, the 2018 AirPods, known internally as B288, will also have hands-free voice command feature, according to Bloomberg. The report claims the new hands-free voice command feature will work without the user having to tap on the wireless headphones. Users will be able to call on the Siri voice assistant by simply saying "Hey, Siri."

Experts at the University of Cambridge have warned that rogue states and terrorists could turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to destabilise the world. A new report by 26 experts on AI, security and technology suggests that unless preparations are made against the malicious use of the technology, cybercrime will rapidly increase in years to come. The report, The Malicious Use of Artificial Intelligence: Forecasting, Prevention, and Mitigation, also warns of the rise of "highly believable fake videos" impersonating prominent figures or faking events to manipulate public opinion around political events. It forecasts artificially intelligent bots being used to manipulate the news agenda, social media and elections as well as the hijacking of drones and autonomous vehicles. AI software features prominently in modern life - it is used to power virtual assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and many smartphone features, as well as in driverless car technology and on an industrial scale to process large amounts of data.

My wife and I were just settling into bed one night when Alexa, the other woman in my life, decided to make herself heard. Without being summoned, the Amazon Echo Dot at my bedside -- one of the half-dozen devices that Alexa inhabits in our house -- lit up its spectral blue ring, as if it had heard its triggering wake word, "Alexa." But instead of offering help with some household chore, the voice assistant began to wail, like a child screaming in a horror-movie dream. "Huh," I said to my wife when it was over. She said something less kind. But here's what's really strange: By the next morning, we had forgotten all about it.

The banking world is racing to get smarter via artificial intelligence (AI), but how can intelligence that's artificial stack up to human expertise and the demands of human consumers? To tackle this issue, companies are looking to infuse AI with a bit of humanity, help consumers better connect with computer-operated services and offer improved insights. In the February edition of the Digital Banking Tracker, a Feedzai Collaboration, PYMNTS explores the latest developments surrounding AI and machine learning in the financial services space. Can AI help consumers become smarter spenders? Several industry players seem to think so.