Chinese internet search giant Baidu on Thursday introduced a speaker and two robots as part of its Raven series in a serious push into the highly competitive smart home market. The products, introduced at the Baidu World conference in Beijing, are powered by the company's DuerOS conversational artificial intelligence technology. That system is similar to virtual assistants like Amazon's Alexa, the Google Assistant and Microsoft's Cortana. The smart speaker is called Raven H and will be available for purchase in December for about 1,699 yuan ($256). Design-wise, the speaker looks like a stack of thin, colored square blocks and it comes with a touch-sensitive light-emitting diode (LED) display controller.

Indian ride-hailing firm Ola said it has tied up with Microsoft to build a connected-car platform and will use the U.S tech giant's Azure cloud-computing service to power its in-car entertainment offering. Microsoft is separately also in talks over a potential investment in Ola, a source told Reuters, declining to be named as the discussions are private. The new connected-vehicle platform, for cars that have internet access, will have features to aid navigation and to flag when vehicle maintenance is required, Ola said in a statement on Tuesday. "Both companies will collaborate to take this platform to car manufacturers globally to integrate with vehicle systems," Ola said, making the announcement during a visit to India by Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella. Ola, which has been locked in a fierce battle with rival Uber for a bigger piece of India's $12 billion taxi market, has said it would invest in artificial intelligence and machine-learning capabilities, which include technologies like its in-car entertainment platform called Play that allows riders to choose music and stream videos.

The company's dedication to developing AI capable of running algorithms on a mobile device -- without connecting to the cloud -- is laying the groundwork for the artificial intelligence of things (AioT) of the future. As far as consumer products go, Google Assistant, Alexa, and Siri are among the most popular uses of AI in the mainstream. For as little as $30 or $40 a person can get their own interactive artificial intelligence – as long as they also have WiFi and somewhere to plug in a charger. TensorFlow Lite represents the nascent steps on the path toward making AI-powered devices not just accessible, but disposable. Developers now have preview access to TensorFlow Lite for Android or iOS. Instead of providing new functionality for AI applications, it's designed to leverage existing hardware – like the Snapdragon processors inside many smartphones – to run algorithms typically impossible for mobile devices without connecting to the cloud.

Most people still don't know who or what Teenage Engineering is. But, those that do probably think of them as a music company -- the iconic OP-1 synthesizer, OD-11 speaker and line of tiny Pocket Operator synths have earned Teenage Engineering that reputation. But more than that, the company is made of of people who love getting weird with hardware design; pushing the boundaries of what can be created is in Teenage Engineering's DNA. The two new products Teenage Engineering just unveiled at the Baidu World conference in Beijing, China most definitely fit with that ethos. Simply referred to by the single letters "H" and "R," the easiest way to identify devices is to call them smart speakers.

Sure, Facebook has "M", Google has "Google Now", and Siri's voice isn't always that of a woman. But it does feel worth noting that (typically male-dominated) engineering groups routinely give women's names to the things you issue commands to. Is artificial intelligence work about Adams making Eves? The response to this critique is usually about the voices people trust and find easy to understand. Adrienne LaFrance over at The Atlantic does a good job discussing those points, so go read her article.

When the passionate heroine of DH Lawrence's infamous 1928 novel Lady Chatterley's Lover was looking for romance, she turned to her gamekeeper. Now, she's joined dating app Tinder - with the help of artist Libby Heaney. "There's lots of good fish in the sea... maybe," Lawrence wrote in Lady Chatterley's Lover. "But the vast masses seem to be mackerel or herring, and if you're not mackerel or herring yourself you are likely to find very few good fish in the sea." If only Lady Chatterley, in her search for the perfect catch, had been on Tinder.

It seems like everyone is building in Alexa or Google Assistant smarts to their speakers, thermostats and cars these days. If you haven't yet had enough of devices you can talk to, the Olie lamp over at Indiegogo might interest you. It's a cute little desk, floor or table lamp that will have a voice assistant from Amazon or Google and a neat little Qi wireless charging station built right in (to the table-sized Olie). Sure, this is Indiegogo, so don't get your hopes up. If the project is funded and the lamp is produced, though, you'll get an lamp made of aluminum in one of two finishes, black or chrome, that you can talk to.

Artificial Intelligence is the future of growth. There is sure to be at least one article in the newspaper/internet/blogs daily on the revolutionary advancements made in the field of Artificial Intelligence or its subfield disrupting standard industries like Fintech, Banking, Law, or any other. In banking domain digital banking teams of all modern banks planning to transform the customer experience with their AI based chat-driven intelligent virtual assistant i.e. bots. Amalgamating the latest technology of artificial intelligence, predictive analytics and cognitive messaging to serve millions of customers is now a new winning strategy? AI and regulation are paving the way for Fintech.

Back in September, Bluetooth-connected device owners got a little scare when security firm Armis disclosed a new hack exploit known as BlueBorne. In theory, bad actors could target smartphones, tablets and such using specific vectors in Bluetooth connectivity. Armis had informed Apple, Microsoft and Google months before and they patched up the vulnerabilities ahead of the news release. But today the firm disclosed that it wasn't just handheld devices that might have been affected -- Amazon's Echo and Google Home were vulnerable, too. Once again, Armis notified the companies in question long enough for them to patch out the vulnerabilities, so updated devices should be safe.

Google Assistant already has its share of third-party apps, but that experience doesn't usually leave the device where it starts. You can't make a request on your Home speaker that needs an answer on your phone. Thankfully, Google is about to fix that. It's introducing a slew of developer upgrades that include a new framework for passing third-party app experiences from Assistant-equipped speakers like Home to your phone. If you're ordering food, you can start the request by asking your speaker and review the details on your handset.