From giving you flight reminders and airport maps, to tracking traffic on your usual commute, to keeping an eye on weather conditions, the Pixel 2 XL is constantly working in the background to ensure you're seeing what you want to see without you needing to ask for it. While this might sound creepy on many levels, I've long gotten used to the idea of having the big companies crunch my data into meaningful material that helps me. I quite enjoy the thrill of having my phone work for me without my needing to tell it what to do, and the Google Pixel 2 XL is quite possibly the best phone on Android that will do that. There are plenty of other subtle touches in the software that I found incredibly useful. One of these is the ability to unlock the phone with a simple'OK Google' command that recognizes your voice specifically, and won't unlock the phone if it's anyone else's voice. And just like the squeezable functionality on the HTC U11, the Google Pixel 2 XL also brings up Google Assistant with a quick squeeze, a feature it calls the'Active Edge'. Additionally, if you turn on the'Now Playing' feature, the phone can identify songs playing in the background and show them right on your lock screen. The function works offline on a small set of pre-programmed tracks, so it won't always work.

Echo Plus is one of the latest Alexa-enabled devices. You'd like to say "Alexa, turn off the lights," or "Alexa, lock the door," and have it all happen without you having to get up out of your lounge chair. No question, but it will cost you. Based on the costs of purchasing items, trying to install them and then giving up and then paying someone else for installation, USA TODAY estimates a figure of at least $2,200 to get started with smart lighting, doorbell, lock, thermostat and security. Compared to the options a few years ago, that's a bargain.

Artificial intelligence is strategically important for driving enterprise strategies. Every day, new examples are coming out of new problems being solved and old markets being disrupted by what is collectively called "Artificial Intelligence." Enterprises that do not have an AI strategy would be wise to start working on one straight away. Unfortunately, managers often lack understanding when it comes to AI and it started with the term itself. Artificial General Intelligence is what people think of and see destroying the world in apocalyptic summer blockbuster movies.

This week, the announcements came thick and fast from Google and Amazon. Google Clips and a talking fish that can connect to Alexa make headlines, Snap is launching an augmented reality art platform, and at IBM we've been busy at the Genius of Things event in Boston. Read on for the latest news from the connected world. At a conference in San Francisco yesterday, Google let loose a flurry of announcements covering everything from smart, wearable cameras to new phones. Of the smart devices, first up is the Google Mini – it's got all the know-how of the Google Home, but crammed into much smaller packaging.

Almost 12,000 people in 139 countries have taken our AI survey -- Do You Speak Human? We are living in the age of artificial intelligence and we scarcely even realise it. AI explains what we see in our Facebook news feed, how Netflix determines what we should watch next, and why Google Maps can predict where we're heading when we jump in the car. And this is just the beginning. Increasingly we will see computer-based life forms in our homes, our cars, our household goods -- technology woven into the very fabric of our lives, living alongside us and making decisions on our behalf.

The company, founded in 2012, initially focused on consumer electronics devices such as headphones. The new artificial intelligence product, similar to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa, marks a sharp departure for the firm, which now employs about 300 people. Its most recent funding round, an $89 million investment by a group including Salesforce Ventures, closed in March but had not been previously announced. Will.i.am, who rose to prominence as a member of The Black Eyed Peas, said the corporate market offered the company an opportunity to quickly deploy and develop its assistant, called Omega. "I wanted to create something that allows us to do many things," said will.i.am,

Over the past year or so, earbuds with translation tech have been popping up everywhere, signaling the evolution of an industry. Headphones are now capable of being more than just a means to deliver music -- if the tech is good enough, they can act as a bridge between disparate cultures, bringing people together to foster mutual understandings. The new Bluetooth-enabled Mars wireless earbuds, a collaborative project from Line Corporation and Naver Corporation (a leading internet provider in Korea and Line's parent company), aim to do just that. Boasting real-time ear-to-ear translation of 10 different languages, Mars is unique in that it is designed for each person to wear one earbud (as opposed to needing two pairs). The earbuds were named a CES 2018 Best of Innovation Honoree at CES Unveiled New York on Thursday, November 9. Scheduled for release in early 2018, Mars support Line's Clova artificial intelligence, a virtual assistant which takes cues from Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant.

If digital assistants were actual people, there would be no place to sit in my living room. Between Siri, Google Assistant, and Alexa, things are already pretty crowded. Now, Microsoft's Cortana wants in, and it brought its own home, a speaker called the Harmon Kardon Invoke. Where does it fit into the invisible assistant landscape? Microsoft first introduced its Cortana assistant back in 2013, naming its assistant after a similar, disembodied AI character from the video game Halo. Its big year, however, was 2015, when it made its way onto Windows 10 computers, Xbox consoles, as well as the other big mobile platforms, Android and iOS via dedicated apps.

Google Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL owners are complaining about a bug that prevents Google Assistant from working with Bluetooth headphones, Android Police first spotted. Users commenting on a Pixel User Community thread said that when they connect Bluetooth headphones to their devices and activate Google Assistant, it makes a sound that indicates it's listening but does not pick up their voices. "[...] every time that Google Assistant is summoned up and any bluetooth headset is connected, then Assistant will NOT detect audio neither from bluetooth headset nor from phone, said one user in the forum. "Assistant is not detecting audio when squeezed from lock screen with Bluetooth headset. Even when I set the assistant to detect the hot word and hear audio from wired and Bluetooth headsets." "In my case the issue occurs always and not only when the screen is locked and I squeeze to launch the Assistant.

A man says Amazon's AI assistant threw its own "party" at his flat in the early hours of the morning, forcing the police to intervene. Oliver Haberstroh, who lives in Hamburg, says his Alexa-enabled speaker started playing music at full-blast in the early hours of the morning, when nobody was at home to control it. Police had to break into his sixth-floor flat in order to investigate the disturbance, which was reported to them by Mr Haberstroh's neighbours. The voice-controlled speaker started playing music between 1:50am and 3am. Mr Haberstroh says he was on a night out at the time.