If you've been using voice search technology from Apple Siri, Amazon Alexa, or Google Home more than you did in previous years then you're a part of a large and growing trend that's impacting the way we search for information and make purchases. In fact, Dominos knows this very well, and allows customers to order a pizza just by speaking into a smart device. Back in 2013 the Hummingbird update changed the way Google delivers better search results through an improvement in semantic search by tracking conversational phrases. This led to the search engine understanding the intent and contextual meaning of terms used in a query. Enter in the two-way conversation of speaking your search phrases -- users no longer rely on links, but rather verbal responses.

Technology is incorporated into every single aspect of our life, right from waking up from the smartphone alarm to using maps while driving. It was created to make our life easier. When used correctly, the negative impact of technology can balance the positive. Virtual assistant technology is another buzzword in the startup world that is helping entrepreneurs by performing tasks on their behalf. The voice-enabled virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Google Now can do tedious jobs with a touch command or voice command.

This is part 4 of a five-part series, providing an update on the 5 Disruptions to Marketing as we head into 2018. If you have not yet read Part 1: Digital Transformation (2018 Update), Part 2: Microservices & APIs (2018 Update), or Part 3: Vertical Competition (2018 Update), you might want to start there. For the first half of the Internet revolution, "digital" meant the web. Email was there from the beginning too, but it's never gotten much respect as a transformational medium. But then the Hyrda-like heads of digital touchpoints began to multiply. Social media was something different than the web.

Google Assistant's fingerprints are all over the CES 2018 show floor, but it's especially easy to see on a few new Android Things-powered devices. This LG ThinQ Google Assistant Touch Screen Speaker is one of them, and like Lenovo's Smart Display, it's built on a Qualcomm Home Hub Platform. On the show floor, it smoothly scrolled through demo applications popping up info in ways we're used to seeing on our phones or through Android Auto. So far all the demonstrations only include Google apps like Duo, Maps, Music, Photos and YouTube -- currently MIA on Amazon's Echo Show -- so we'll be watching carefully to see how the device's capabilities expand as developers dig into Android Things, which leans on existing tools to create new apps for these devices. According to Qualcomm, this more powerful version of its platform (SDA624) can drive a Full HD display, capture 4K video and support Tensor Flow for on-device machine learning.

Do we really need an Alexa-powered toilet? Kitchen and bath products-maker Kohler thinks so, as well as a faucet and bathroom mirror and the list of Alexa-activated devices is even longer and weirder than that. Amazon was expected to get its voice-activated digital assistant into all manner of Internet-connected gadgets at CES 2018, the big annual technology trade show that wrapped up in Las Vegas last week. The list of new devices powered by Alexa rose to 4,000, from over 1,000 brands. Not to be outdone, Google made an unusual splash, showing off deals that put its Alexa rival, Google Assistant, in touchscreen displays and voice-activated commands in cars.

Yet the clear darling of this year's show was not a gadget but the growing amount of artificial intelligence software helping these products run. The race between Amazon and Google to be the go-to service for integration of consumer products was on full display. In many booths, signs prominently advertised that products worked with Google Assistant or Amazon's Alexa. The smart home, car and TV all seemed to have been touched by Amazon or Google. "It's the year of A.I. and conversational interfaces," said J. P. Gownder, an analyst for Forrester Research.

Court documents show Stephen Morreau, of Rhode Island, arranged to meet Kelleher-Mahunik at the motel in September. Morreau told investigators another man knocked on his motel room door, showed a badge and identified himself as an officer.

All new technologies bring with them new and sometimes unique security concerns. And while some of these concerns can be overblown by security vendors (and, let's face it, tech writers), a couple of recent news items regarding artificial intelligence (AI) raise some genuinely frightening prospects for enterprise IT security pros and enterprise employees. Item No. 1: AI soon may get crazy good at conversing with humans. Researchers at Osaka University have developed a method of dialogue that enables chatbots, voice assistants and other AI-powered platforms to learn information from humans that isn't already in their knowledge base. Right now voice assistants such as Alexa and Google Home, for example, learn from humans "by asking simple repetitive questions," the researchers write.

It takes only a few seconds to click a button and open a window on a computer. But for a busy doctor sifting through patient records, those clicks can add up to extra hours spent at a computer each day completing tedious but necessary tasks. Now, in response to doctors' demands for more efficient software, several companies that make electronic health record systems are offering a new tool: voice-activated virtual assistants. Think Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, but for health care providers. Westborough-based eClinicalWorks, a large vendor of electronic health records, has launched what the company calls a first-of-its kind virtual assistant, named Eva, to help doctors and other care providers more quickly find patient information. Just like an Alexa user can stream music and ask for the weather forecast, a physician using Eva can order a prescription or ask for a patient's medical history.

Jefferson Graham reports from CES 2018, where this year, with hot new robots from LG and Sony, it looks like robots are poised to finally go mainstream. LAS VEGAS -- When LG, one of the world's largest corporations, brings a home robot to CES and places it smack dab in the middle of its mammoth booth here, you know something is up. So what if the debut of the South Korean giant's CLOi fell flat at a press conference? Early technology can be spotty, especially here where on-stage demos often can go south. Perhaps LG is early--very early, in wanting to bring robots to your homes alongside TVs, appliances and mobile phones.