Board games aren't quite as sexy as their digital counterparts, but the hobby has nevertheless seen a resurgence in recent years. NPD Group reported that board game sales in the U.S. grew by 28 percent in 2016, cafes dedicated to the hobby are cropping up all over the country (and the world), and three out of the top ten most-funded projects on Kickstarter are tabletop games. Much of this can be attributed not just to the increased desire for real-life social interaction, but the rise of good-quality titles that are far superior to outdated classics like Monopoly and Candyland. But there is one problem with all of these new and exciting games: You need to learn how to play them. Unlike video games, which you can figure out by jumping into a tutorial and pressing a few buttons, tabletop versions often require you to read the instructions.

The newly released Sonos product is a soundbar – that long, narrow speaker that sits under your TV pumping out bullet ricochet sound effects and atmospheric rumblings thanks to cunningly placed tweeters and woofers that create a soundstage wider than the speaker itself. The Sonos Beam, as it's called, is more compact than most soundbars, including the company's previous TV helpers – the Playbar and Playbase – so that bigger soundstage is especially important here. At the product's launch, I sat down with CEO Patrick Spence. Spence is the former chief operating officer who moved to the big job in January 2017. He is charismatic and welcoming, with the utterly unflappable, chilled vibe of someone who has music in the background all day long.

This may seem obvious given my profession, but I think technology is...fine? It's hard to believe that it's safe for your kid to get anywhere near a Wi-Fi-enabled device when you read stories about tech addiction, hacked toys and horrible YouTube videos. It's also possible that my opinion might change as my kids get older. But I do believe it is possible for families to strike a balance between protecting their children and introducing them to the tools that they will be using for the rest of their lives. As a millennial, I've been on the Internet for as long as I can remember, but I've somehow grown to adulthood without marrying a talking toaster.

Is emotional AI really the next frontier for artificial intelligence? In Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, author Philip K Dick questions the notion that an artificial brain could ever be capable of understanding emotion. Is it possible for a machine to really ever have an emotional connection with a human if it can't empathise or express emotion itself? What may well have been science fiction in 1968 is now a topic up for debate amongst many within the artificial intelligence industry. As AI advancements march forward, many believe that emotional intelligence is what's next for the industry.

Back in May of 2016, when artificial intelligence was coming into its own, I looked at how it was starting to reshape the business world. As a business enabler, artificial intelligence (AI) was still relatively immature and only the most elementary of use cases were being introduced at that time. Well, fast-forward a couple of years and here we are -- still talking a lot about AI and its subcomponents of machine learning, cognitive computing and deep learning. As a marketer, I think about the brand-to-consumer experience daily. Over the past couple of years, we have seen a lot of automation driven by artificial intelligence with regard to the digital experiences that consumers have when interacting with brands.

Global and United States Artificial Intelligence Software Market Size (Sales) Market Share by Type (Product Category) in 2017 Artificial Intelligence Software Market by Application/End Users Global and United States Artificial Intelligence Software Sales (Volume) and Market Share Comparison by Applications (2013-2023) table defined for each application/end-users like [Executives, Banking, Insurance, Marketing, Telecom, Action & Art] Global and United States Artificial Intelligence Software Sales and Growth Rate (2013-2023) Artificial Intelligence Software Competition by Players/Suppliers, Region, Type and Application Artificial Intelligence Software (Volume, Value and Sales Price) table defined for each geographic region defined.

Astronauts aboard the International Space Station are about to get an AI personal assistant. Known as CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN) the bot, developed by Airbus, will use IBM's Watson AI technology to help astronauts. Researchers hope that with its face, voice and artificial intelligence, it will become a genuine'colleague' on board, helping astronauts with their daily routines, and warning of any impending problems - much like the HAL robot in Stanley Kubrick's 2001 was designed to do. Known as CIMON (Crew Interactive MObile CompanioN) the bot will use IBM's Watson technology to help astronauts. CIMON is designed to support astronauts in performing routine work, for example by displaying procedures or – thanks to its'neural' AI network and its ability to learn – offering solutions to problems.

Technology and mobile devices are revolutionizing the way consumers interact with the world now, and artificial intelligence and machine learning are making massive breakthroughs recently for mobile app development. These developments have a bearing for healthcare organizations, which are seeking ways to use the technology to better engage patients. Machine learning (ML) is a subset of artificial intelligence (AI)--it gives machines the ability to enhance their decision-making skills and performance without any human interference. It is based on learning from experiences and examples, instead of programming rules, and machines collect and analyze data to come to relevant conclusions. As ML is based on neural networks that simulate the biological neural networks, they are capable of accumulating experiences and recognizing patterns in a way similar to the human brain.

Tech giants like IBM and Google have invested billions internally in A.I. research, but the past few years have also seen a wave of acquisitions, as big companies buy up startups to obtain top talent and new data-crunching science. Google CEO Sundar Pichai has made the case that artificial intelligence is core to the search giant's major businesses. It definitely shows in its acquisitions, including its 2014 purchase for over $600 million of U.K.–based Deep-Mind--whose software is best known for being the first to defeat a human champion at the strategy game Go (above). Apple kicked off its A.I. acquisition spree in 2010 when it bought Siri, whose voice-recognition interface has since become, for many, the embodiment of consumer-facing A.I. The social networking giant is also an A.I. heavyweight, using deep learning to clean up its News Feed (though that's very much a work in progress).

Internet-enabled, voice-activated "smart" devices have infiltrated homes, making it possible for people to adjust their bedroom temperature, turn on their oven or order a pizza merely by speaking the command. But talking and beeping devices, combined with other noise-emitting items like TVs, phones and iPads, have created a high-tech racket. It's the opposite of the peaceful retreat many homeowners strive to create. "Homes have suddenly become more'live,' " says Steve Haas, an acoustical consultant who works in luxury residences. "It emphasizes the need for better control."