Could robots change the way we think? While that might seem the stuff of dark science fiction, New Zealand artificial intelligence (AI) experts say there's real fear that computer algorithms could hijack our language, and ultimately influence our views on products or politics. "I would compare the situation with the subliminal advertising that was outlawed in the 1970s," said Associate Professor Christoph Bartneck, of Canterbury University's Human Interface Technology Laboratory, or HIT Lab. "We are in a danger of repeating the exact same issue with the use of our language." Bartneck has been working in the area with colleague Jurgen Brandstetter and other experts at the New Zealand Institute of Language Brain and Behaviour and Northwestern University in the United States.

Amazon saw a big win this holiday season. The company took over with its Echo devices after Apple's HomePod was delayed. Amazon announced on Tuesday the Echo Dot was the top-selling device across all categories on the shopping platform this holiday season. The company said it sold tens of millions of Alexa-enabled gadgets worldwide, selling millions of Echo Dot devices alone. The Echo Dot was also the top-selling gadget across Amazon Books' 13 stores, the company said.

'The Cyber Guy' Kurt Knutsson explains on'Fox & Friends' Amazon's smallest smart speaker turned out to be its biggest hit this holiday season, selling more than any other product among all manufacturers. The diminutive Dot sold in its "millions," the ecommerce giant revealed on Tuesday, though as usual the company declined to offer a specific number. It's sold out, too, and won't be in stock again until January 2, according to its product page. "Echo devices have been an extremely popular gift this year," Amazon said in reference to its growing line-up of smart speakers that besides the Dot also includes the updated Amazon Echo, the larger Echo Plus, and the Echo Spot. The hands-free, voice-controlled devices let you communicate with Alexa, the built-in virtual assistant that allows you to request information, play music from your library, make calls, listen to audiobooks, control smart home devices, and more.

AI is about to head to the office. Already these "voice assistants" are learning to recognize different voices within one conversation and respond accordingly. When you ask Google Home about your calendar it will know to reply with the events on your calendar and not your wife's calendar. Likewise, when your wife queries Google home, it will respond using her data.

If you've had enough of disappointing first dates, this new app could herald a new era of dating where you have sexual chemistry with every person you meet. A genetics-based app called Pheramor has pinpointed 11 genes that link to our pheromones and therefore whether we are sexually compatible with someone. Experts say this information could reveal how diverse someone's immune system is compared to our own - and all you have to do is take a swab from your cheek. Pheromones are chemical signals secreted in bodily fluids such as sweat that influences the behaviour of the opposite sex - including triggering sexual interest. People can take swabs from their cheek in order to isolate the 11 key genes that control how attracted we are to other people.

Vehicles made by Korean carmakers Hyundai and Kia will include built-in virtual assistants with AI-powered smarts beginning in 2019 (via Engadget). The plan to build smart assistants into vehicles will make use of tech created by SoundHound, the music identification company that has recently been focusing more on building AI agent software more akin to things like Siri and Google Assistant. The assistants would be able to do things like suggest destinations based on what's next in your calendar, or based on your past preferences and choices. They could also offer remote car and smart home control using voice commands, and do Alexa-like stuff including providing news and weather. The so-called Intelligent Personal Assistant will get its official debut at CES this year, which is coming up in a couple of weeks – but it's aiming to begin testing in actual cars on actual roads starting in 2018, with a broad ship window of 2019, as mentioned.

If we told the average person in early 2013 that someday it was going to be very important to learn the correct way to greet your devices, the average person might have thought we'd gone mad. It wasn't that people didn't love their gadgets in the distant wilds of five years ago; nor did the idea of talking to a digital intelligence sound completely outside the realm of normal experience. In 2013, the world had been acquainted with Apple's Siri for almost two years, and Google's first crack at a smart, voice-activated assistant, "Google Now," was released in mid-July 2012. But the idea of voice-activated artificial intelligence (AI), capable of fulfilling more than very simple commands -- and, in fact, being able to "converse" in real-time with a human, recognize a user's voice through biometrics and develop more skills over time so it could gradually "learn" to do better -- seemed literally the stuff of science fiction or superhero movies. The idea that there would not only be that type of AI in the market, but that there would be so much of it out there that users would need to learn a variety of different "wake" commands to initiate conversation with their devices?

Abraham Lincoln once said, "The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time." Winston Churchill once said, "If you're going through hell, keep going." And, "Never, never, never give up." As we look back at top cyber stories and security trends in 2017, these wise words from fearless leaders who have gone before us certainly apply to cybersecurity and the new 21st-century challenges confronting our world in 2018. Last year we started with, "You ain't seen nothing yet!"

Hyundai and Kia both have reputations as early adopters of in-car tech, and that's truer than ever now that voice assistants are becoming a practical reality on the road. The Korean automakers have revealed that they plan to include AI assistants in their new cars starting from 2019, with every vehicle being'connected' by 2025. As Hyundai explained, they've been working with SoundHound to create an Intelligent Personal Agent (based on Houndify) that both makes proactive suggestions (such as reminding you of a meeting) and offers remote control of both your car and your home. This sounds a whole lot like what other voice assistants do, but the car brands are counting on support for "multiple-command recognition" as the ace up their sleeve. If you tell your car to check the weather and turn on the lights at the same time, it'll do both instead of scratching its head like so many other AI helpers.

Perhaps you've been hearing strange sounds in your home--ghostly creaks and moans, random Rick Astley tunes, Alexa commands issued in someone else's voice. If so, you haven't necessarily lost your mind. Instead, if you own one of a few models of internet-connected speaker and you've been careless with your network settings, you might be one of thousands of people whose Sonos or Bose devices have been left wide open to audio hijacking by hackers around the world. Researchers at Trend Micro have found that some models of Sonos and Bose speakers--including the Sonos Play:1, the newer Sonos One, and Bose SoundTouch systems--can be pinpointed online with simple internet scans, accessed remotely, and then commandeered with straightforward tricks to play any audio file that a hacker chooses. Only a small fraction of the total number of Bose and Sonos speakers were found to be accessible in their scans.