Google doesn't usually have a big presence at CES, but that's changed in a big way this year. You can't help but notice that the monorail circling the Las Vegas Convention Center bears huge letters saying "Hey Google!" Just below, Google has set up a huge, multi-story monument to the Google Assistant booth in convention center parking lot. It's still under construction so it's hard to say exactly what's going on in there. Even though Google hasn't done much at CES in recent years, it makes sense for it to make a big splash this year. Earlier this week, the company announced that it has sold "more than one" Google Home device per second since the Home Mini launched in October.

We're in the midst of a breakthrough decade for artificial intelligence (AI): More sophisticated neural networks paired with sufficient voice recognition training data brought Amazon Echo and Google Home into scores of households. Deep learning's improved accuracy in image, voice, and other pattern recognition have made Bing Translator and Google Translate go-to services. And enhancements in image recognition have made Facebook Picture Search and the AI in Google Photos possible. Collectively, these have put machine recognition capabilities in the hands of consumers in a big way. What will it take to make similar inroads in business?

It's been difficult to gauge how well smart speakers are selling outside of unofficial estimates, but Google just provided a clearer picture. The search firm revealed that it has sold "more than one" Home speaker per second since the Home Mini started shipping on October 19th. If you perform some back-of-the-napkin math, that suggests Google sold at least 6.4 million speakers between the Mini's debut and the end of 2017. Google hasn't split those sales by device, but it's safe to say that many (if not most) were Minis. The company added that Google Assistant is available on more than 400 million devices, including its own products as well as third-party Android phones, smart speakers, TVs and iOS devices.

Earphones and wearables are a natural fit for Alexa's next move. Google and Apple, Amazon's main hardware competitors in the voice assistant space, already have wireless earbuds, the Pixelbuds and AirPods, imbued with their own respective digital assistants. For now, however, Amazon isn't making audio hardware itself--it's letting third-party brands and manufacturers take charge of that task. Amazon has been testing and refining the kit with Bose, and the kit itself will be available more broadly later this year. Several other audio and mobile accessory makers have also begun integrating Alexa into their products, including Beyerdynamic, Bowers and Wilkins, Jabra, and iHome.

Analyst Gartner put out a 10-strong listicle this week identifying what it dubbed "high-impact" uses for AI-powered features on smartphones that it suggests will enable device vendors to provide "more value" to customers via the medium of "more advanced" user experiences. It's also predicting that, by 2022, a full 80 per cent of smartphones shipped will have on-device AI capabilities, up from just 10 per cent in 2017. More on-device AI could result in better data protection and improved battery performance, in its view -- as a consequence of data being processed and stored locally. Its full list of apparently enticing AI uses is presented (verbatim) below. But in the interests of presenting a more balanced narrative around automation-powered UXes we've included some alternative thoughts after each listed item which consider the nature of the value exchange being required for smartphone users to tap into these touted'AI smarts' -- and thus some potential drawbacks too.

Smart & Safe Tech: Amazon Echo has enabled voice control of smart security devices to keep your home safe. In the first week of 2018 we learned that "most of the computers in the world" have dangerous security flaws that make them vulnerable to hackers, criminals, authoritarian regimes, our own security services –you name it. For months the tech giants have been aware of fundamental design problems in the tiny microprocessors that power everything from smartphones to laptops to commercial servers. It means that pretty much anything you do online is at risk. We've been told there are actually two different problems with these processors.

Newer technologies such as Artificial Intelligence (AI), robotics and automation, 3D printing, mixed reality that combines virtual reality and augmented reality, and blockchain are not only disrupting and transforming business models and the lives of individuals, but also ushering in the so-called gig economy which envisages an environment in which temporary positions are common and organizations engage independent workers on short-term contracts. Lounge takes a look at how these technologies will affect us in the years to come. It was only in December that the US' National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) announced that a solar system with as many planets as our own had been discovered with the help of its Kepler space telescope and AI. Closer home, Microsoft and the International Crops Research Institute for the Semi-Arid Tropics are using an AI-based sowing app that is expected to help about 4,000 farmers in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka during the kharif season. HDFC Bank's AI chatbot Eva, built by Senseforth AI Research, now works with the Google Assistant in Indian English.

With the majority of the holiday shopping season now behind us, we can take a high-level look to see how various companies performed during the season. Specifically, when it comes to digital assistants, app installs are generally a good benchmark of performance. Looking at both the iOS app store and Google Play, Amazon appears to have had a home run of a holiday season with its Alexa app topping charts for both platforms. Google has a Google Home app that is at the number 6 position for top free apps for iOS and number 2 position on Android, indicating that its hardware also sold well this year. There are also two other players, Microsoft and Apple and the story is quite clear here.

When people talk about creating an artificial intelligence, the conversation is often focused on human or superhuman AI -- systems that would equal or surpass us in intelligence. But what if we create an artificial intelligence that's deserving of respect, but don't recognize it as such? That's a question I've had bouncing around in my head for the past several months. Over the course of human history, we've proven very poor as a species at successfully evaluating the intelligence of other beings, whether they're human or non-human. Consider crows, who learn from their dead, recognize individuals, use tools, and even bring gifts to those they like -- are they … intelligent? Furthermore, if we were to create an AI that produced those characteristics, does it require the same sort of considerations that a crow does, with regards to its treatment at the hands of humanity?

The battle now raging between the big technology companies for consumer cash is focused on the voice-controlled smart speaker. Having already conquered the pocket with the ubiquitous smartphone, big tech has been struggling to come up with the next must-have gadget that will open up a potentially lucrative new market – the home. A pilot light was lit when Amazon's Echo launched in 2014 and became a sleeper hit. Now the voice controlled smart speaker is rapidly becoming the next big thing, capable of answering questions, setting timers, playing music, controlling other devices about the home, or even potentially selling products. "The last 12 months have been explosive for smart speakers, which have surged into the mass market for two reasons.