Amazon has begun work on creating its own custom-made AI processors to power its Echo devices, reports have indicated, in order to decrease their reliance on the cloud. The addition of custom chips is intended to speed up the response times of Alexa, the company's AI assistant, a person familiar with the company's plans told The Information. At present, when users ask Alexa a question, the voice data is sent to Amazon's cloud to be analysed, interpreted and acted upon, whereas having dedicated silicon on the device allows much of that computation to be done locally. According to The Information, the e-tailer has nearly 450 employees with experience in the field of processor design, with many joining through a series of acquisitions including that of chip manufacturer Annapurna Labs for $350 million three years ago. The AI boom has sparked something of an arms race, with companies competing to develop specialised chips for performing the intensive workloads required for machine learning.

Having started my career in the pre-technology era, I am very accustomed to talking rather than texting. Plus, being from New York City, I frequently use my hands to communicate, gesturing to add emphasis or other emotions. All of this means that this new era of intelligent devices--objects you can speak to and wave at--is a very comfortable one for me. Voice-recognition technologies are among the top trends of 2018. Most of us are familiar with Siri, Google Home, and Alexa.

Samsung will announce the Galaxy S9 and Galaxy S9 on Feb. 25, Sunday. The South Korean phone maker will also reportedly unveil its new social network "Uhssup" alongside its brand new flagship phones. Late last month, it was discovered that Samsung trademarked a social media service called "Uhssup." Not much is known about it at the time, but its description did say that it will allow users to share their location to friends and other contacts. "Uhssup" will apparently be pre-installed on the Samsung Galaxy S9, according to the Korean website HeraldCorp.

Spotify is working on a line of "category defining" hardware products and is ready to start setting up the manufacturing process. The streaming music company intends to create a hardware category "akin to Pebble Watch, Amazon Echo, and Snap Spectacles", according to job adverts posted over the past year. One ad for a senior product manager, posted last April, called for an expert to "define the product requirements for internet connected hardware [and] the software that powers it". Today, a trio of job adverts (spotted by industry site MusicAlly) have been posted, seeking an "operations manager", "senior project manager: hardware production", and "project manager: hardware production and engineering" for the hardware. The first of those adverts states that "Spotify is on its way [to] creating its first physical products and set-up an operational organisation for manufacturing, supply chain, sales and marketing." The new hire would manage the supply chain for the new product, suggesting the company is ready to begin the manufacturing process shortly.

News outlets reported Monday that visitors to the dating site geared toward supporters of the president were greeted with the faces of Jodi and William Barrett Riddleberger, conservative activists involved in the Tea Party-inspired political action committee, Conservatives for Guilford County. The couple's exact role with the site is unclear.

Idemandu Founder Pooya Abka wants to help make your daily life easier with AI technology. Earlier this year, Pooya Abka attended the 2018 Consumer Electronics Show and walked away feeling validated. CES was all about Google Assistant this year and he knew he was definitely on to something in the artificial intelligence space. You see, Abka is the founder of Idemandu, an AI agent that learns and adapts to your needs over time. As Abka explained to me, we "created the first AI agent that can understand customers' service needs over voice, connect them to vetted service providers instantly, and learn about their personal preferences with time."

Artificial intelligence has finally found its voice, literally. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, you could not avoid Amazon's Alexa and Google's Assistant, not to mention Baidu's Duer and Samsung's Bixby.

The artificial intelligence (AI) industry is growing at a rapid pace, with an expected value approaching $60 billion in 2025. Additionally, Gartner predicts that AI will be in almost every software product by 2020. The general public is already familiar with AI in the forms of personal assistants like Siri and Alexa. People reading this article will be aware that online customer service typically begins with chatbots. Most will have used navigation apps and be aware of how our future will include self-driving cars.

As e-commerce goes mainstream, more product searches take place on Amazon every day than on Google or Facebook. The online economy is growing and growing but more evidence shows that Amazon's intricate engine, which now includes voice AI interfaces such as Echo, is threatening traditional retailers. The most recent study by digital marketing agency Wolfgang Digital has found that e-commerce transactions are up 32pc on last year and traffic is up 14pc. 'Amazon is now actively listening to you in your home so it can sell you more things next time you log on to Amazon on a screen. What's more, consumers are paying for the privilege of welcoming this 21st-century Trojan horse into their home' – ALAN COLEMAN It estimates that Ireland's online economy is worth €12.3bn, or 6pc of GDP in 2017.

If I asked you to describe the first thing that pops into your head when you hear Artificial Intelligence (A.I.), what would it be? Do you imagine a world where machines take over the planet like Skynet in The Terminator movie series? Or maybe something simpler such as when you use your phone to ask Siri or your Echo speaker to ask Alexa, "What will the weather be like today?" Regardless of what first pops into your head, most of you probably imagine a world where a machine both thinks and acts like a human autonomously. In reality, A.I. is a computing device that can mimic human thought and decision-making ability. The device can perceive its own environment and act on its own to reach the goal.