The Assistant SDK is the key to enabling Google's AI helper in third-party devices. Google has expanded the developer toolkit's support to several new countries, including Australia, Canada (both English and French), Germany, Japan and the UK. While Assistant-enabled devices have certainly been available in other countries, this makes it easier for hardware companies in those countries to get the ball rolling and cater to local audiences. On top of this, the SDK itself is becoming more powerful. If a device is using the kit, you can now customize its location (either through its latitude and longitude or a street address) to get area-specific results.

The Echo was the first but there are a bunch of Alexa enabled Amazon products to choose from these days. So which one is the best for you? A link has been posted to your Facebook feed. The Echo was the first but there are a bunch of Alexa enabled Amazon products to choose from these days. So which one is the best for you?

For long, insurance firms have been relying on traditional virtual assistants. But with the advent of improved analytics, insurance technology startups (better known as Insurtech)are paving way for smarter and more innovative platforms. With strong data analytics, Insurtech startups seem to have no lack of funding. According to a report by KPMG, since 2015 the interest in Insurtech has increased dramatically. The report shows that Insurtech startups attracted more than $1.7 billion worldwide in 2016.

It's better late than never for Facebook, who is now in the process of developing its own smart speaker. Mark Zuckerberg's social networking company is believed to be taking cues from Amazon's Echo Show for its upcoming hardware. On Thursday, industry sources disclosed to DigiTimes that Facebook's new hardware team, called Building 8, is the one in charge of the development of the company's smart speaker. The device that is currently in the works reportedly features a touchscreen. While the inclusion of a display fuels speculations that it could be an Amazon Echo Show copy, fans can rest assured that Facebook's hardware would be very different.

The release of the most recent Blade Runner film has further fueled the long-standing debate as to whether artificial intelligence (AI) should be subject to regulation. One domain that has been quick to adopt AI technology is marketing. There's little debate that AI will fundamentally alter the marketing landscape. Already, the use of chatbots--the likes of Apple's Siri, GoogleAssistant, Amazon's Echo, Microsoft's Cortana, etc.--has empowered marketers to increase and optimize engagement with consumers. As well, AI has enabled marketers to more effectively target consumers and develop more relevant personalized content.

You'd think that, with Christmas mere days away, we'd be enjoying the holiday season with mulled wine and family time galore. Instead, its likely most of us are scrambling to finish shopping, wrapping and cooking whatever roast beast our family wants, all while attempting to complete those work projects that just keep popping up. While joyous and wonderful, the holidays can also be anything but namaste. Luckily, you can look no further than your trust friend Alexa to provide some much-needed "me time." This year, digital and creative agency Deutsch NY partnered with their artificial intelligence division, Great Machine, to create a wintry guided meditation that is perfect for the season.

Amazon's Echo has long ruled the smart home market, but Google Home's recent updates make it a contender for the top slot. The smart home market is evolving faster than you can say "third-party device," and the competition between these heavyweight companies is good for your wallet. Understanding the pros and cons of each platform is essential, especially when integrating home security devices. When it comes to digital assistants, Google Home and Amazon Echo are the clear front-runners in the smart home market. Their platforms utilize voice controls and massive libraries of available skills, and both offer integration with a number of third-party devices.

What if we don't need a smartphone as much as we think? That's a question I've been asking a lot over the past few months. In my office, I use Amazon Alexa to order products by voice, control the heat and lights, and to ask about weather forecasts. I used to always pick up my phone or use a computer for these tasks. While we might not totally leave the phones behind in 2018, there's a good chance we'll use them less and less. At home, I use the Google Home speaker, doing roughly the same thing to make voice commands and avoid picking up a phone or a tablet.

Certainly, it's undeniable that technology is becoming more and more commonplace in our present and it promises a huge leap in the days to come. Although there are some technologies which fizzle and dies away silently, there are some so significant that transmute the world we live in. Though the impact of artificial intelligence in our lives and work in the coming days is debated by experts, it can be gauged that Ai is making significant strides in several applications. According to a new research report by MarketsandMarkets, the market size is expected to grow from USD 2.61 Billion in 2017 to USD 9.88 Billion in 2022, at a CAGR of 30.5 percent. The increasing demand for AI-based solutions and proliferation in data generation are some of the major driving factors of the AI Platform Market.

Year after year, blockbuster films are replete with Turing-test-passing examples of AI -- and this past year was no exception. From Blade Runner 2049 to Marjorie Prime to Star Wars: The Last Jedi, it seems the public's appetite for depictions of truly intelligent AI is insatiable. This tendency to dream of overly optimistic futures when it comes to technology is hardly relegated to the movies. In 2016, publications including Wired, Forbes, and, yes, VentureBeat, eagerly predicted a year where "machines will win" and AI will spark "the beginning of a new internet." However, while there have been massive advances in AI this year, particularly in semantic recognition, the future the media predicted is far from realized.