DEC 3 marked the opening of the annual World Internet Conference in Wuzhen. The global techfest was attended by the CEOs of some of the world's largest companies, including Apple's Tim Cook and Google's Sundar Pichai, alongside Alibaba Group Holding's Jack Ma, Tencent Holdings' Pony Ma and Baidu's Robin Li, as well as the top names in artificial intelligence (AI), robotics, digital payments and cybersecurity. The opening session on the first day was aptly titled "Artificial Intelligence: Smarter World, Better Life". That a small Chinese town 90 minutes' drive from Shanghai would host the world's biggest annual internet event, or that CEOs of global tech giants and the world's top robotics experts would flock there, should not surprise anyone. China is where the action is across an array of powerful internet-enabled technologies such as AI, robotics, fintech and e-commerce as well as virtual and augmented reality.

Together, these led to an effi- ciency- and automation-driven model that made banking more transactional and technology-centric. Banks focused on faster and more convenient transactional services for their end consumers via ATMs, e-cards and telephonic services. Social, mobile, analytics and cloud technologies (the SMAC stack) fueled a second wave of change that is just now taking shape. The role of technology has rapidly changed from a monolithic enabler of efficiency to an engine for personalized and ubiquitous provisioning of banking services for digi- tally connected customers. We now see the emergence of another disruption, known as Digital 2.0, which will leave an altered banking landscape in its wake.

Samsung's very own voice assistant continues to evolve and bolster itself with new acquisitions and staff, but it's now losing Rhee In-jong, the original head of Bixby development and Samsung's chief technology officer. This isn't a case of the CTO being kicked out of the company due to the challenges of making the voice assistant a proper competitor against Alexa, Siri and the rest, however. According to a statement sent to the Korea Herald by Samsung, Rhee In-Jonh said that he wanted to leave Samsung back in July, citing personal reasons. That doesn't mean Bixby is without a lead: Last month, Samsung merged its software and hardware divisions for mobile, appointing Executive Vice President Roh Tae-moon as the chief of the combined division, including Bixby. Rhee was subsequently made chief technology officer covering multiple projects for the company's mobile devices.

Think back to the early days of the Internet. Chances are, you used a search engine like you might previously have used a phone book: To find a specific piece of information, such as a website, address or phone number. Technology has changed significantly in the years since, and so have our expectations for it. These days, people want more intelligent answers: Maybe they'd like to gather the pros and cons of a certain exercise plan or figure out whether the latest Marvel movie is worth seeing. When people make requests like that, they don't just want a list of websites.

Venture capital isn't a monolith, but startup investors are compared to lemmings for a reason. Once a trend gets hot, every firm needs to make a play, or come up with a good excuse for missing out. Investors continue to aggressively pour money into startups. As of the third quarter, US investors were on track to match or exceed 2016's $69 billion in investments, according to the National Venture Capital Association and Pitchbook. For startups, riding a trend such as artificial intelligence can be the difference between a hot round of funding and no investor interest. Founders have spent the last year throwing terms like blockchain, neural network, and machine learning into their pitch decks in hopes of attracting investment.

Every trip around the sun, we prod, poke, and test hundreds of products here at WIRED. Most of them are just fine. Not boring--few things are truly boring these days--though also not really exciting. But every so often, we get a product in our hands and it sets off that spark of joy, that rush of excitement that makes us want to tell you about it, explain why we love it, argue about why it's important. The products below are all the things that lit a fire in our imaginations during 2017.

If you don't know yet, we can answer that for you, as well as provide some impressions of Google's latest smart speaker and a new hybrid from Honda. Does the company provide rides or just information?EU decides to treat Uber like a taxi company Europe's highest court has ruled that Uber is a transportation company and not some kind of middleman between passengers and drivers, like it has often claimed. The much-anticipated decision opens the door for member nations to impose stricter regulations on the company, especially where it operates the UberPOP service with non-professional drivers. No other smart speaker sounds this good.Google Home Max review: an assistant for music lovers The Google Home Max is expensive, but you get a lot for your money. If you want great audio and don't want to mess around with more complicated speaker setups, the Home Max is a solid option -- with all those Google Assistant smarts.

When one product is better in one aspect, but it's competitor is stronger in another, the easy answer is to recommend both. You might want a Sony TV in your home theater, for instance, but Anthem's A/V receiver, Bowers & Wilkins' speakers, and a subwoofer from SVS. Well that dog won't hunt when it comes to smart speakers, especially if you're looking to control your smart home. No one wants to remember one wake word to turn on a light, a second to stream music, and a third to lock the front door. With this in mind, I evaluated the two most popular smart speakers--Amazon Echo and Google Home--using seven important criteria, but giving smart home control the heaviest weight. If you can't stand the suspense, my current opinion is that the Amazon Echo series is superior to the Google Home series.

The machines haven't taken over. However, they are seeping their way into our lives, affecting how we live, work and entertain ourselves. From voice-powered personal assistants like Siri and Alexa, to more underlying and fundamental technologies such as behavioral algorithms, suggestive searches and autonomously-powered self-driving vehicles boasting powerful predictive capabilities, there are several examples and applications of artificial intelligence in use today. However, the technology is still in its infancy. I can claim that any piece of software has A.I. due to an algorithm that responds based on pre-defined multi-faceted input or user behavior. A true artificially-intelligent system is one that can learn on its own.

Fulfilment & Logistics At Amazon, we've been making investments in ML for the last 20 years… 3. 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. At Amazon, we've been making investments in ML for the last 20 years… Fulfilment & Logistics Search & Discovery 5. 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. At Amazon, we've been making investments in ML for the last 20 years… Fulfilment & Logistics Existing Products Search & Discovery 7. 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. Put machine learning in the hands of every developer and data scientist ML @ AWS: Our mission 14. 2017, Amazon Web Services, Inc. or its Affiliates. What are some of the ML capabilities our customers are asking for?