Artificial intelligence will change workplaces, transforming how people work, a panel of experts said. The fast-evolving technology could mean pink slips for workers with routine responsibilities -- but not for all workers, the experts said. AI, in the form of robots, virtual assistants and intuitive office machines, will take over repetitive tasks now performed by office staff. This will give them additional time for more important duties. AI "is already transforming a lot of business processes," said Greg Ryan, head of Canon U.S.A.'s information and imaging solutions division.

Astonishingly, Apple's long-delayed HomePod speaker might not be the last to market when it launches early next year. Samsung will release its own smart speaker in the first half of 2018, according to a Bloomberg report. Unsurprisingly, it will reportedly run Bixby, Samsung's personal assistant rivaling Siri and Alexa, and may be priced at $200. The yet-untitled speaker will focus on audio quality and managing smart home devices, sources told Bloomberg. It will also work with the SmartThings service and product network, the company Samsung acquired back in 2014.

Andrew Ng, co-founder of some of Alphabet Inc-owned Google's most prominent artificial intelligence projects, launches a new venture with iPhone assembler Foxconn to bring AI and so-called machine learning onto the factory floor. Consumers now experience AI mostly through image recognition to help categorize digital photographs and speech recognition that helps power digital voice assistants such as Apple Inc's Siri or Amazon.com But at a press briefing in San Francisco two days before Ng's Landing.ai Google Brain founder Andrew Ng said Foxconn has already signed up for his new firm, using AI for visual inspection in a factory's quality control efforts. Pictured, Chinese workers assemble electronic components at the Taiwanese technology giant Foxconn's factory in Shenzhen, in the southern Guangzhou province.

The TP-LINK HS100 smart plug is quite simply a power outlet that you can control from anywhere. Using your smartphone, you can turn devices on & off, set programs to turn them on & off at set times while you're away, or engage a "countdown timer" which powers the switch off after a set amount of time. Installation is simple -- just plug a device into your smart plug and connect to your wifi network. The HS100 is also compatible with Amazon Alexa, for voice control. Buy multiple plugs and get creative.

Google has thrown a lot at marketers in just the last five years. All of these big changes -- from rolling out major algorithm updates to shifting to mobile-first -- have essentially had the same goal: to provide the best possible search experience to users. Google wants to show users the best content at the right time on the right device as quickly as possible. Some marketers have struggled to keep up with and adapt to these huge changes. Meanwhile, other brands are thriving.

Every year seems to have its business trends. Last year it was digital transformation. For small businesses, it can be hard to distinguish hype from reality. It can also be difficult to embrace AI with the same fervor as large companies because AI talent is scarce and expensive. In this case, small and medium-size businesses (SMBs) are once again trying to keep up with a potentially game-changing technology that might be out of their price range.

Consumers now experience AI mostly through image recognition to help categorize digital photographs and speech recognition that helps power digital voice assistants such as Apple Inc's Siri or Amazon.com But at a press briefing in San Francisco two days before Ng's Landing.ai In many factories, workers look over parts coming off an assembly line for defects. Ng showed a video in which a worker instead put a circuit board beneath a digital camera connected to a computer and the computer identified a defect in the part. Ng said that while typical computer vision systems might require thousands of sample images to become "trained," Landing.ai's

With virtual assistants answering our emails and robots replacing humans on manufacturing assembly lines, mass unemployment due to widespread automation seems imminent. But it is easy to forget amid our growing unease that these systems are not "all-knowing" and fully competent. As many of us have observed in our interactions with artificial intelligence, these systems perform repetitive, narrowly defined tasks very well but are quickly stymied when asked to go off script -- often to great comical effect. As technological advances eliminate historic roles, previously unimaginable jobs will arise in the new economic reality. We combine these two ideas to map out potential new jobs that may arise in the highly automated economy of 2030.

Consumers now experience AI mostly through image recognition to help categorize digital photographs and speech recognition that helps power digital voice assistants such as Apple Inc's Siri or Amazon.com But at a press briefing in San Francisco two days before Ng's Landing.ai In many factories, workers look over parts coming off an assembly line for defects. Ng showed a video in which a worker instead put a circuit board beneath a digital camera connected to a computer and the computer identified a defect in the part. Ng said that while typical computer vision systems might require thousands of sample images to become "trained," Landing.ai's

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