Give users new ways to interact with your product by building engaging voice and text-based conversational interfaces powered by AI.

In 2017, Slice, a New York tech company that builds software solutions for independent pizzerias, had a management problem. The company's tech staff is based in Macedonia, where high unemployment rates mean most of their new hires have never held a formal job prior to Slice. "We have a lot of first-time managers who need coaching," said Rick Pereira, chief people officer. Instead of moving to Macedonia himself, Pereira implemented Butterfly.ai, The tools uses anonymous employee survey results and past performance data to rate managers' performance, then offers tips and training content to help them improve.

For most, the term Artificial Intelligence evokes thoughts of futuristic technologies, of C-3PO and Asimov's "I,Robot." We think of walking, sentient robots that look like us – or at least we imagine they appear like us. What we don't generally think of is a glorified speakerbox, or a supercomputer tasked to create recipes. But that's where AI starts – with small steps and incremental advances in technology. These small steps gradually lead to giant leaps forward; think of a narrow canyon off in the distance: you're pretty sure you can jump the canyon, but first you need to get there.

If you ask Alexa what chemtrails are, you might be surprised by what she says. The voice assistant has been spouting a government conspiracy theory as an explanation for the oft-debated condensation trails. Alexa has been recorded telling users: 'Chemtrails are trails left by aircraft [that] are actually chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for a purpose undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programs directed by government officials'. Amazon says it has taken steps to fix the issue since the error was first discovered by Mashable. Amazon's Alexa voice assistant has been telling users that chemtrails are part of a government-issued conspiracy theory.

Before my eyes were even open, I spoke to my smart assistant this morning: "Alexa," I asked hopefully, "what time is it?" She kindly replied, "The time is seven twenty-seven a.m." I did not need her to tell me the morning was going to be a struggle. An hour later, dropping the kids off at school, I realized their violins were left in haste by the front door. As I made the U-turn in the school parking lot, I thought to myself, "Inconceivable! I have all this technology surrounding me! How long do I have to wait for this to get easier?"

The Amazon Alexa of the future could be listening to you all the time – and building up a detailed picture of what you want to buy. That's the suggestion of a patent filed by the company that details the idea of'voice-sniffing' technology. Such software would allow the device to eavesdrop on conversations and analyse them, feeding that into a database for ads. At the moment, Amazon's Echo products are hardwired so they will only listen to users when they say the "Alexa" wake word. Amazon has denied that it uses voice recordings for advertising at the moment, and said that the patent might never actually come to the market.

That's the future suggested by a patent recently filed by the company, which examined the possibility of eavesdropping on conversations held around its voice-activated devices in order to better suggest products or services to users. The idea seems to be to turn Alexa, the company's virtual assistant, from a dutiful aide under the user's command to one with a more proactive attitude. For instance, the patent suggests: "If the user mentions how much the user would like to go to a restaurant while on the phone, a recommendation might be sent while the user is still engaged in the conversation that enables the user to make a reservation at the restaurant." Other proposals include making a note if you mention you like skiing, for instance, or hate to draw, and using those to update the company's profile of you as a customer. In a statement, Amazon said the patent was a proposal for the future, rather than a feature it is preparing to roll out. "Like many companies, we file a number of forward-looking patent applications that explore the full possibilities of new technology.

Today, recommendation engines are perhaps the biggest threat to societal cohesion on the internet--and, as a result, one of the biggest threats to societal cohesion in the offline world, too. The recommendation engines we engage with are broken in ways that have grave consequences: amplified conspiracy theories, gamified news, nonsense infiltrating mainstream discourse, misinformed voters. Recommendation engines have become The Great Polarizer. Ironically, the conversation about recommendation engines, and the curatorial power of social giants, is also highly polarized. A creator showed up at YouTube's offices with a gun last week, outraged that the platform had demonetized and downranked some of the videos on her channel.

A recently published FCC filing shows a Google-branded HDMI dongle that's running Android TV. The device is listed with the model number "SN5B6AD" and it is described as a "4K ATV Stick." The mysterious device is listed as being manufactured by "Shenzen SEI Robotics Co. Ltd." The dongle itself features Google's signature "G" logo and it's accompanied by its own remote. The device appears to have a design that closely resembles a next-generation Chromecast, but it's running the Android TV operating system.

Google Assistant has been available on Pixel phones from the get-go and has spread to virtually every device that's even vaguely capable of handling it, but there has been a glaring exception: the Pixel C. Yes, while other Android tablets have had the AI helper for a while, Google's own slate has gone without. That glaring omission might not exist for much longer: Pixel C owners have reported that their devices now have Assistant access. Google Lens isn't accessible (unsurprising when it only just started reaching non-Pixel handsets), but you can use Assistant in landscape where other tablets require portrait mode. Google confirmed to Engadget that the deployment started today. It's not certain why it took so long for the Pixel C to get Assistant, but it's certainly not the widest audience available.