The number one benefit of information technology is that it empowers people to do what they want to do. It lets people be creative. It lets people be productive. It lets people learn things they didn't think they could learn before, and so in a sense it is all about potential. Microsoft new focus would be Intelligent edge, not Windows.

You've probably been to a supermarket that printed coupons for you at checkout. Or listened to a playlist that your streaming service generated for you. Or gone shopping online and seen a list of products labeled "you might be interested in…." that did indeed contain some stuff that you were interested in. Recommendation engines take data about you, similar consumers, and available products, and use that to figure out what you might be interested in and therefore deliver those coupons, playlists, and suggestions. Recommendation engines can be extremely complex.

In an amazing demo at Google I/0, Google's Assistant can actually ring up a salon or a restaurant to make an appointment for you. You don't have to call yourself even if the pizzeria doesn't have an online reservation system.

We pose 150 questions to Siri, Google and Alexa to see which one has more correct answers. We asked 150 questions of Apple's Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa, compiled from the suggested lists the companies cite on their websites and queries from Loup Ventures, an investment firm that regularly tests the assistants. Here's a sample of some of our queries, and how each answered. A quick caveat to our methodology--if Google and Amazon gave us a complete, audio answer to the question, that counted as a successful response (Y). When an assistant said it was not yet able to answer, or didn't know, that counted as a fail (N).

Google's Assistant, its answer to Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, is getting smarter, more visual, and potentially, more helpful. At the I/O conference in Mountain View, Calif., Google put the spotlight on the assistant, bringing new voices, including one from singer John Legend, and more visuals. Additionally, Google has beefed up voice commands for its popular Maps app, bringing the Assistant to the feature in the summer. Google execs offered demos on new iPad-like Smart Displays coming from Lenovo and Google later in the year, which will allow voice navigation via the Google Assistant to say, watch Jimmy Kimmel Live via YouTube TV or order lattes from Starbucks. Google emphasized that visuals will be coming to the Google Assistant app, to marry voice navigation with tools like food recipes, where you'll get spoken step-by-step instructions, along with video.

An approach to artificial intelligence that embraces uncertainty and ambiguity could paradoxically help make future virtual assistants less confused. Gamalon, an AI startup based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, developed the new technique for teaching machines to handle language, and several businesses are now testing a chatbot platform that uses it. The approach lets a computer hold a more meaningful and coherent conversation by providing a way to deal with the multiple meanings that an utterance might convey. If a person says or types something ambiguous, the system makes a judgment about what was most likely meant. Today's virtual assistants and chatbots typically follow simple rules in order to respond to questions.

We got a sneak peek at Google's upcoming slate of smart displays earlier this year at CES, and now it seems we know when they'll finally come to market. At Google's I/O developer conference, the company announced that the first round of smart displays will ship starting this July. At I/O, Google showed off that you could also watch YouTube TV, which is Google's over-the-top live TV service, on those smart displays. You could use Google Assistant to walk you through steps of a recipe, complete with visual aids. You can also use these smart displays to see what your Nest cam sees.

Google has unveiled artificial intelligence software that books appointments over the phone on behalf of users by conducting voice-based conversations on their behalf. Chief executive Sundar Pichair said that Google Duplex would launch as an "experiment" over the coming weeks. The facility was unveiled at the firm's annual IO developers conference. Experts have said that if it works it could give the firm a major advantage over rival virtual assistants. Pre-recorded demonstrations played back to the audience featured the software first booking a haircut and then making a restaurant reservation by speaking to two human employees.

During Google I/O today, the company announced that Assistant will soon be able to make appointments and reservations for you even when they can't be booked online. It's powered by a new technology called Google Duplex and it will be rolling out as an experiment soon. In a demonstration, Google showed how the Assistant can call a hair salon and book an appointment with the person on the other end of the line. With a command from the user about when she wanted to make the appointment, the Assistant then called the salon, worked out a date and time and notified the user afterward. The Assistant was even able to say, "Mhmmm," when she was asked by the salon employee to hold on.

Google Assistant may have debuted as a bonus feature in the company's ho-hum Allo messaging app, but it's been on a roll ever since. The AI helper is now embedded in more than 500 million devices worldwide, Google revealed Tuesday during its annual I/O developer conference keynote. The company is rolling out new features and products to make Assistant more helpful no matter what sort of device you use--and to keep pace with Amazon Echo's fast and furious improvements. And get this: In the future, Google Assistant will even call local businesses to book appointments for you. Google's machine learning chops have advanced far enough that you'll be able to ask Assistant to schedule an appointment for you at a business that can't be easily booked online, and Google's big brains in the sky will actually ring local shops to set up a reservation.