Media love both success stories of AI and'dystopias driven by Artificial Intelligence: machines replacing human workers, AI exceeding human intelligence, robots taking control and so on. But, if you look beyond this hype, you will realize that there is a real revolution in progress. To understand the potential of AI, just examine the recent advances in fields like Deep Learning and their applications in domains such as Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing. There is a massive disruption in progress -- powered by a combination of technologies, enabling machines to make sense of massive volumes of data and perform cognitive functions. Artificial Intelligence can be defined as'the technology enabling systems to encapsulate cognitive functions along with adaptive and learning capabilities -- leading to self-improvement'.

Should robots be given'personhood' status? That was the topic being debated by the European parliament earlier this month, along with whether or not a kill switch should be added in case there is a terminator style uprising. Does this mean that robots and machines are slowly taking over? There hasn't been a machine uprising. You may be thinking that the likes of robots, smart machines and artificial intelligence is something you might only read about in Sci-Fi novels or see in films, but actually, artificial intelligence and smart machines are nothing new.

Voice controlled technologies are growing in popularity everywhere. From home automation to cab booking or ordering a meal, customers are getting pampered with the luxury of using voice to control things around them. In this blog post, I present a tutorial to build a voice-activated Oxford dictionary using Amazon Alexa. You can talk to the dictionary and ask for definitions, example usage, synonyms or antonyms of any English word present in the Oxford dictionary. Often I stumble across some word from a classic English literature.

"Conversational AI" is a hot topic right now, what with the tech giants' virtual assistants all competing to be the most human-esque, and Microsoft (msft) just gave itself a boost by purchasing a startup called Semantic Machines. The move could improve Microsoft's Cortana assistant, as well as the "social chatbots" that it is deploying on social networks. Semantic Machines is a company that's been developing technology for voice-enabled agents that can speak like a person and understand what others tell it. The use cases on its website echo those recently demonstrated by Google with its Duplex app, for example interacting with real people to make appointments on behalf of the user. In a blog post, Microsoft noted that the Berkeley, Calif.-based company comes with some well-known talents in the field, such as UC Berkeley professor Dan Klein and Stanford's Percy Liang.

Artificial intelligence is a latest buzzword in the technology industry. Suddenly all the startups and companies who operate in technology field are claiming to use artificial intelligence or machine learning in one way or the other to solve their customer's problems. But like all other buzzwords, is artificial intelligence also just a hype cycle which will fizzle. Artificial intelligence specifically is notoriously famous for reaching a crescendo of hype every decade and then going through a period of non activity and non investment which is known as the AI winter. So first of all let's try to understand what exactly is artificial intelligence.

Amazon has agreed to review its labor practices at Foxconn plant in China where its popular Echo Dot smart speakers are assembled. SAN FRANCISCO -- The Chinese plant where Amazon's popular Echo Dot smart speakers are assembled underpaid workers, some of whom worked as many as 14 consecutive days and more than 100 overtime hours per month, according to a U.S.-based labor rights group. Amazon says it knew of problems at the plant and has requested corrective action. The report by China Labor Watch found that the Foxconn plant in Hengyang in China broke multiple Chinese labor laws, underpaying workers and subjecting them to verbal abuse. More than 40% of the staff there were temporary employees, while China only allows 10% of any workforce to be temps.

From Apple's Siri to Microsoft's Cortana to Amazon's Alexa, talking AI assistants now willingly, and most of the time accurately, respond to our commands. Voice is the new interface. Voice adds many opportunities for interacting with computers at the time and place of our choosing, with new locations and activities including driving, exercising, cooking, and operating machinery. The rapid progress in natural language processing (NLP) over the last five years has been behind the development of much improved software which "understands" human speech and can respond at a high level of accuracy and relevance. The same machine learning methods--deep neural networks--that spurred the progress in NLP have also contributed to a significant expansion of the range of activities the software can support.

AI capabilities are advancing rapidly, but the results are mixed. While chatbots and digital assistants are improving generally, the results can be laughable, perplexing and perhaps even unsettling. Google's recent demonstration of Duplex, its natural language technology that completes tasks over the phone, is noteworthy. Whether you love it or hate it, two things are true: It doesn't sound like your grandfather's AI; the use case matters. One of the striking characteristics of the demo, assuming it actually was a demo and not a fake, as some publications have suggested, is the use of filler language in the digital assistant's speech such as "um" and uh" that make it sound human. Even more impressive, (again, assuming the demo is real), is the fact that Duplex reasons adeptly on-the-fly despite the ambiguous, if not confusing, responses provided by a restaurant hostess on the other end of the line. Of course, the use case is narrow. In the demo, Duplex is simply making a hair appointment and attempting to make a restaurant reservation. In the May 8 Google Duplex blog introducing the technology, Yaniv Leviathan, principal engineer and Yossi Matias, VP of Engineering explain: "One of the key research insights was to constrain Duplex to closed domains, which are narrow enough to explore extensively.

It goes without saying that an online presence is an absolute necessity if you want your business to get anywhere these days. The moment that someone starts searching for a product or service that they need, the first place they're going to look is Google, no exception. Let's be real, no one browses phonebooks anymore when they can just ask Siri or their Google Assistant to find the information for them in less than five seconds. So, if you want your customers to actually notice your business, you have to establish some kind of online presence. A good website and eCommerce store is the logical first step, and today we'll be discussing how you can make that first step as easy as possible – by using AI.

KUALA LUMPUR, 1 JUNE 2018 – Celcom Axiata Berhad, in its ongoing journey to create awesome moments and experiences for its customers, today announced its latest channel to serve customers -- a state-of-the-art Intelligent Virtual Agent service. Celcom's Intelligent Virtual Agent service brings together cutting-edge Artificial Intelligence (AI) and Machine Learning technology, giving birth to two personas – Clive and Emma – with their own personalities that will interact with customers 24 7 with regard to their inquiries and transactions. The combination of technology, transaction capability and personality is the first of its kind in Asia. Both Clive and Emma are powered with Microsoft's AI & machine learning technology and will have the opportunity to initiate conversations with consumers with a personal and humanised touch, providing an awesome customer experience anywhere and at any time. Microsoft's Machine Learning feature will allow Clive and Emma to auto-learn questions variations via a knowledge-based system that improves their effectiveness over time.