The pace of progress is ramping up so quickly in this space, it's useful to pause for a refresher on what AI and machine learning actually are. Artificial intelligence is the study of how to make machines intelligent or capable of solving problems as well as people can. At its core, machine learning is a new way of creating those problem-solving systems. For decades, programmers manually coded computer programs to provide outputs when given a certain input. With machine learning, we teach computers to learn without having to program them with a rigid set of rules.

Samsung Electronics is showcasing an AI assistant this coming Sunday at SXSW 2018 Trade Show, and surprisingly, we are not talking about Bixby here. The South Korean tech giant is unveiling a visualized 3D character assistant at the event as part of the new technologies its C-Lab (Creative Lab) program is currently working on. The Galaxy S9 maker recently took to its online newsroom to announce that three new innovative projects from C-Lab will be showcased at SXSW 2018 from Sunday, March 11, through Wednesday, March 14. The company has disclosed that it will be exhibiting the new AI technologies at Stand #1538 in Exhibit Hall 3 of the Austin Convention Center in Austin, Texas. One of the C-Lab creations that will be present at Samsung's booth is Aurora, a smartphone app and deck that features a visualized 3D character assistant.

The Noon Lighting System is easily our favorite smart switch, with only its weighty price tag keeping it from being our top recommendation. But this system is worth every penny. Its heart is the Noon Room Director, a single rocker switch with an embedded OLED touchscreen that controls not only the circuit it's wired to, but up to 10 Extension switches as well. This allows you to create and manage lighting scenes for an entire room of lighting fixtures without having to walk light to light. It also includes a motion-triggered night light and a vacation mode that learns to mimic your habitual light usage patterns so you can make potential intruders think you're still at home when you're actually away. Noon offers professional installation for $150 for up to three switches, plus $20 per each additional switch.

Autonomous vehicles, biometric recognition, virtual assistants and robo-advisors - these are just some of the many examples of artificial intelligence-powered technologies impacting our daily lives. They promise us increased safety, efficiency and productivity, but at what cost to our privacy, security and liberty? Host John Wright explores these topics with his guests discussing legal, ethical and public policy issues related to new and emerging technologies powered by artificial intelligence.

Huawei is expected to announce its 2018 flagship Android phone in a couple of weeks and it looks like the company will also debut its own virtual assistant for the Chinese market. Evidence has surfaced suggesting that Huawei will soon announce HiAssistant, the company's answer to Google Assistant and Amazon Alexa. The existence of HiAssistant was first discovered by XDA-Developers, which examined the firmware files of EMUI 8.1 for the Huawei Mate 10. Apparently, HiAssistant will only run on future Huawei phones that are being powered by the company's own Kirin 970 system-on-chip (SoC). This will most likely include the Huawei P20 and P20 Plus, which are both expected to be announced in Paris on March 27.

Google has started offering free voice calls through its Home smart speakers to UK landlines and mobile phones, bringing it in line with US offerings. Following an update rolling out this week, Google's Home and Home Mini smart speakers will be able to place calls to ordinary UK numbers over its wifi connection, for hands-free phone calls. It doesn't need a mobile phone to work, unlike some rival systems. Google Assistant will be able to call any number in your Google Contacts, as well as millions of businesses. Assistant is able to recognise the voice of up to six different users, giving them access to their own personalised contacts, meaning a command to "call mum" should call the right mother.

VID Cisco will shortly give the world a voice assistant it believes has a shot at making life uncomfortable for Siri, Cortana and Alexa in the office. The company's effort won't be a general-purpose bot. Instead the company plans to make it a part of its Spark collaboration portfolio and have it do things like place calls, find documents and open meetings. The assistant was announced in November 2017, but The Reg today beheld a live demo of the tool at Cisco Live in Melbourne. Forgive us the shot-on-a-phone handheld footage, but here's what Cisco feels is fit for public consumption.

Federal prosecutors say the individuals created false profiles on online dating sites including Match.com and MillionaireMatch.com and contacted men and women across the U.S. on the pretense of starting romantic relationships.

"Orange Bank has entered the banking market with an innovative, new offer. Djingo powered by Watson is one of the bank's innovations. The virtual advisor brings our customers a unique experience allowing them to interact with their bank when and where they want," said André Coisne, CEO of Orange Bank. For the French, mobile banking is becoming the preferred mode of interaction with their bank. Today, nearly two out of three (63%) French people have downloaded their bank's app on their mobile, and almost half (47%) consult their app at least once a week*.

Today Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning are penetrating every aspect of business, from Chatbots being deployed to assist customers to AI-driven platforms being harnessed to automate sales processes. From powering Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana to Google's Allo, AI is promising a better future. At FuGenX, we help businesses build cutting-edge AI solutions that enable them to achieve a first-mover advantage to be a leader in the better future. Our services around AI help you gain high-quality, high-accuracy AI capabilities that enables building highly scalable and cost-effective digital products and solutions. You will certainly achieve the benefit of minimized labor and infrastructure cost.