Gay dating app Grindr has said it will stop sharing its users' HIV status with other companies after it was heavily criticised for distributing the information to third parties. Tech firms Apptimize and Localytics, which help to manage the app's performance, had been provided with the data. As the HIV information is transferred alongside GPS, phone ID data, and email, users could be identified along with their HIV status, according to Antoine Pultier, a researcher at Norwegian non profit organisation, SINTEF, which first raised the issue. In response, Grindr's chief technology officer, Scott Chen, said sharing data with partners to test and optimise its platform was "industry practice". He insisted sensitive data was encrypted when sent and vendors were bound by strict contractual terms to ensure it is kept secure and confidential.

Smart speakers are fun to have around. You can tell them what songs to play, ask'em for the weather, or have them control any smart appliances you have around the house. This week, we spotted a few speakers bucking the trend. Best Buy, Jet, and Amazon are holding a few sales on some of the better Bluetooth speakers and smart speakers on the market at some deep discounts. If you're interested in other smart speakers, be sure to read our full guide to the best smart speakers and best Amazon Echo speakers. It almost looks like a mistake, but Jet.com has paired together Sony's pretty solid Google Speaker with its kickass little XB20 Bluetooth speaker.

Grindr was confronted with questions about security flaws as recently as last week after NBC reported private information about users, including unread messages, deleted photos and location data, were being collected by a property management startup through a website that Grindr built. Grindr says it has since fixed the flaw and shut down the website, which allowed users to see who blocked them on the app.

Grindr says Localytics and Apptimize were paid to test and monitor how the app is used. The company says the firms are under "strict contractual terms that provide for the highest level of confidentiality, data security and user privacy." Grindr says data that may include location or information from HIV status fields are "always transmitted securely with encryption."

"I'm sorry, Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that." Even if you've never seen the movie, you know the voice. HAL 9000, the seemingly omniscient computer in "2001: A Space Odyssey," was the film's most expressive and emotional figure, and made a lasting impression on our collective imagination. Stanley Kubrick's epic, a journey from pre-human history to a possible infinity that doesn't need humans at all, is probably the most respected, if not the most beloved, science-fiction film of all time. The story of the creation of HAL's performance -- the result of a last-minute collaboration between the idiosyncratic director Stanley Kubrick and the veteran Canadian actor Douglas Rain -- has been somewhat lost in the 50 years since the film's release in April 1968.

Amazon wants to make it easier than ever for users to donate to charity. Users simply ask Alexa, the voice of Amazon Echo smart speakers, to donate money to one of dozens of philanthropic organizations to give to them, Amazon announced on Monday. Among these organizations are the American Cancer Society, March of Dimes Foundation and PETA. 'This is just the beginning -- the list will continue to grow,' an Amazon spokesperson told CNET. When users donate money, it will come out of the bank account linked to the user's Amazon account, Amazon said.

Given the rising need for smart automation of existing processes, AI has entered the traditional hospitality landscape with a promise to enhance hotel reputation, drive revenue and take customer experience to the next level. Like many industrial systems, the world of hotels revolves around a handful of solutions all driven by intelligent chatbots and voice-enabled services. To meet changing consumer expectations, hotels across the globe must upgrade their operational system and services by integrating intelligence-based predictive analytics in hospitality. In this article, we will see how the adoption of AI further impacts the overall dynamics of hospitality industry. Chatbots in hospitality are changing the way booking inquiries are handled and visitors are converted into patron customers.

Slowly but surely, artificial intelligence is making an impact on the average consumer's daily life. Siri, Amazon Echo, Google Home, etc. have made AI mainstream, but what if we could make retail shopping with AI mainstream as well? For example, imagine walking into your favorite retailer and having the store not only recognize that you're there, but then direct you to particular styles, brands, and products based on your unique user profile. Sound too good to be true? It's coming -- the time is now for AI in ecommerce.

I recently had the pleasure of being invited to speak at The Item Conference http://www.item.nu/cgi-oic/pagedb.exe/show?no 1 in London for educators, policy-makers and head-teachers visiting our amazing City for inspiration and knowledge about how to foster creativity in children with I. T. They were particularly interested in the possibilities of Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning. So, with thinking cap on, and just a few short hours to prepare, I was thrilled to find out that A.I in education is not the work of science fiction, but is with us right now -- in action, and starting to build impact. For hundreds of years, humans have pondered the idea of building intelligent machines. Over this time, artificial intelligence has had highs and lows, demonstrated successes and unfulfilled potential. Today, the news is filled with the application of AI and machine learning to new problems.

AI systems have gotten pretty good, by this point, at understanding us when we talk to it. That is, they've gotten pretty good at understanding what the words that we say mean. Unfortunately for AI, it's often the case in conversations between humans that we say things that we don't expect the other person to take literally, instead relying on them to infer our intentions, which may be significantly different than what the exact words that we use would suggest. For example, take the question, "Do you know what time it is?" Most of us would respond to that by communicating what time it is, but that's not what the question is asking.