To meet growing consumer expectations in a digitally-driven world, companies have to deal with huge amounts of real-time data and create personalized consumer experiences to stay relevant. As such, they are increasingly employing newer technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI), cognitive computing and robotics, among others. From Apple's assistant Siri to self-driving cars, evolution of AI has been transformational, to the extent that it seems to replicate human characteristics, intellect and behaviour. While scientists and experts including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have warned against the risks and hazards associated with fully developed and self-aware AI machines, the market is expected to grow rapidly. According to a recent International Data Corp. (IDC) report, AI is expected to drive worldwide revenues from nearly $8 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020, across a broad range of industries.

The best deals you can find on popular gifts for Free Shipping Day 2017 (Photo: Reviewed.com) If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Still having holiday shopping to do? If you would rather not deal with crowds of stressed holiday shoppers and chaotic parking lots, today is the best day to get what you need online.

Samsung isn't going to let Apple hog the smart speaker limelight early next year. A new report reveals the South Korea giant is preparing to introduce its Bixby-powered speaker in the first half of 2018, so it is now expected to go head-to-head with the Cupertino giant's HomePod. On Thursday, Bloomberg learned from people familiar with Samsung's plans that the South Korea tech company is planning to launch its Bixby-powered smart speaker in the first half of the following year. While this may seem like Samsung's entry to the voice-controlled devices market is coming in late, its release would just be enough for it to rival Apple's HomePod, which is already scheduled for launch in the first quarter. Since the Bixby-powered speaker will compete with not only the HomePod but also established smart speakers like Amazon's Echo series and Google's Google Home, Samsung is setting its new product apart from its rivals by promising a device that's strongly focused on audio quality and efficient management of connected home appliances. The Bixby speaker is also said to have the advantage of synchronizing seamlessly with Samsung TVs, Galaxy phones and other Samsung products.

Microsoft is continuing to infuse more AI smarts into its Bing web search, Cortana digital assistant and Office 365 services. At a press and analyst event in San Francisco on December 13, company officials showed off some of the incremental AI-powered updates it is introducing to these services. Microsoft's overriding message was that in addition to providing big-bang AI advances, like its just-unveiled quantum-computing development kit, it also is delivering more "everyday AI" ones, too, by integrating AI-driven tech into its core products and services. At a time when news and other information is under increased scrutiny for bias and intentional fakery, Microsoft is adding multiple viewpoints to Bing search results. Asking Bing "is cholesterol bad?" will result in two different answers to that question.

Researchers have identified an incredibly smart method used by fruit flies to categorise odours – and it's so clever it could be applied to powering recommendation algorithms for the likes of Netflix or Spotify. In the same way that YouTube might want to flag up videos similar to the one you've just watched, fruit flies – like many other animals – need to know which smells are similar, for finding food and avoiding poisonous substances. The team from the University of California San Diego (UCSD) and the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in California has found that fruit flies have an especially clever way of categorising odours which lets them recognise differences with a very fine level of accuracy. "In the natural world, you're not going to encounter exactly the same odour every time; there's going to be some noise and fluctuation," says one of the researchers, Saket Navlakha from Salk. "But if you smell something that you've previously associated with a behaviour, you need to be able to identify that similarity and recall that behaviour."

Samsung is set to take on Apple, Google and Amazon with a new home speaker using its Bixby AI. The new speaker will go on sale early next year, according to Bloomberg. Samsung has already confirmed it will will'soon' release a smart speaker designed to take on Amazon's Echo, Google's Home and Apple's HomePod. Bloomberg says the speakers will have a'strong focus on audio quality and the management of connected home appliances such as lights and locks.' It will also synchronize with TVs, Galaxy smartphones and other Samsung devices.

A link has been posted to your Facebook feed.

Key sectors of interest include Internet of Things, FinTech, Future of Work, Logis-cs/Transporta-on, eHealth, Security and others. BootstrapLabs is a Venture Capital firm based in Silicon Valley and focused on Applied Ar:ficial Intelligence About Us 3. Community of Founders, Intrapreneurs, AI/ML Experts, Execu-ves, Professors, Researchers, Investors focused on Innova-on, Technology and Entrepreneurship 30K PEOPLE Our Community 200K FOLLOWERS 1K ATTENDEES Our online community between BootstrapLabs core team and its closer advisors has over 200K followers. We see traffic on our website and deal flow referral coming from over 60 countries BootstrapLabs brought together over 1,000 people during 2016. Our community is a key pillar of our success and we organize many exclusive private and public AI centric events each year 4. Applied AI Digest #1 2016 Google's DeepMind Beats a Top Player at the Game of Go Zucks to create AI-Powered Jarvis JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUN JUL AUG SEP OCT NOV DEC IBM Watson Head on the Future of AI Read Full Articles 5. Applied AI Digest #2 Artificial Intelligence Deals on the RiseCould AI Solve the World's Biggest Problems? Harvard is building an AI Engine as fast as the Brain Read Full Articles 6. Applied AI Digest #3 Is Big Data Still a Thing?

If you care more about your smart speaker's sound than which digital assistant it employs, the new Google Home Max speaker should be on your holiday short list. After days of pumping an eclectic range of music through Google's $399 speaker -- from AC/DC to the Three Tenors -- it's clear the Google Home Max is in a class by itself when it comes to filling a home or apartment with sounds even an audiophile could appreciate. Admittedly, for many people the decision to purchase this or that voice-activated smart speaker has often boiled down to which AI-infused digital assistant you're most comfortable engaging with in your home, most likely Amazon's Alexa or the Google Assistant. But when music is the priority, different features come into play. Certainly, at $399 there is a high price to pay for such sonic joy.

Google Home and the Amazon Echo Dot both provide a variety of services that can help you out around the house and entertain you. But to accomplish this task, they also keep audio recordings of everything you have ever asked them. It's a little bit creepy, but both companies say this history is important to help the devices learn and serve you better. If this still bothers you, here's how to find the recordings and delete them. Following is a transcript of the video.