Google created a mild amount of confusion when it launched its Home speaker. You could say "hey, Google" to start a command with the living room device, but you still had to use the time-honored "OK, Google" on your Android phone. Needless to say, that could be confusing if you used both platforms. However, Google is finally sorting things out. Many Android phone users have reported that Assistant is asking them to reconfigure the voice modeling, and is giving them a choice between "hey, Google" or "OK, Google" afterward.

Google created a mild amount of confusion when it launched its Home speaker. You could say "hey, Google" to start a command with the living room device, but you still had to use the time-honored "OK, Google" on your Android phone. Needless to say, that could be confusing if you used both platforms. However, Google is finally sorting things out. Many Android phone users have reported that Assistant is asking them to reconfigure the voice modeling, and is giving them a choice between "hey, Google" or "OK, Google" afterward.

We encounter stories and predictions about how artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally change a variety of industries on an almost day-to-day basis. In fact, it has become such an important topic that late last year the Council for Society and Technology wrote a letter to the Prime Minister advising how the UK could take advantage of opportunities created by the increasing convergence of robotics, automation and artificial intelligence. As more and more industries, including healthcare and financial services, adopt AI technology, we'll continue to see increased benefits on our society as a whole. Conversations about AI tend to have a sci-fi vibe: robot personal assistants, self-driving cars, you name it. But the real, day-to-day business value of AI is much less futuristic, starting with the hundreds and thousands of contracts that keep business deals up and running every day.

We've spent so long wringing our hands and worrying about artificial and virtual intelligence that we forgot to roll out the welcome mat when they finally arrived. Now, when major tech companies give their annual keynotes, they can't help but pepper the narrative with phrases like "machine learning." What does it all mean, though? Should we crank up the worry now that it looks like every tent-pole feature of self-learning software could also be a critical flaw? The future is here -- and it's equal parts exciting and terrifying.

Microsoft on Wednesday announced new artificial intelligence features and functionality for several of its flagship products and services, including Office 365, Cortana and Bing, at an event in San Francisco. Building on the progress the company has made in integrating AI over the past year, the new enhancements are designed to help users perform increasingly complex and complicated tasks. "AI has come a long way in the ability to find information, but making sense of that information is the real challenge," said Kristina Behr, a partner design and planning program manager with Microsoft's Artificial Intelligence and Research group. One of the advances, machine reading comprehension, will improve an AI-based system's understanding of context -- for example, recognizing that one's cousin is a family member. Bing users will get more personalized answers, Microsoft said, such as restaurant recommendations based on travel destinations, or a greater variety of answers to offer different perspectives on a topic.

Would you pay extra for Facebook, Snapchat and YouTube? That's how they do it in England, reports Jefferson Graham. Could that happen here too, in the wake of the relaxed FCC Net Neutrality rules? LOS ANGELES -- Like turning on lights and making phone calls, we consider it a right that we can watch free entertainment on YouTube, post travel photos on Facebook and listen to online music. After all, we treat Internet providers another utility, just like the electric or phone company, with our monthly service fees.

Next time you get your annual physical, will the internet of things play a role in that checkup? But what could that look like? IoT plays a role in a multitude of industries and verticals, we have heard how IoT will impact how John Deere helps farmers, how it impacts the way GE and Rolls-Royce manage their fleets of planes, and how ExxonMobile is using IoT to remotely monitor its facilities. The future of IoT has the potential for great influence on our personal wellbeing, but it will face some major hurdles. The IoT is imminent – and so are the security challenges it will inevitably bring. Get up to speed on IoT security basics and learn how to devise your own IoT security strategy in our new e-guide.

Without a doubt, artificial intelligence (AI) is changing how we do things. From today's iterations that power apps in your smartphone, to promises of super-intelligent AI in the next few decades, more companies are pushing for integrating AI technology into what they do. All of this means that there could soon be a new AI business sector thanks to an explosion of innovation, according to Bruce Aust, vice chairman of the U.S. stock exchange Nasdaq. Speaking to CNBC at the ongoing Web Summit conference in Lisbon, Portugal, Aust predicts that AI could lead to the creation of completely new industries or sectors. "I think AI is really going to be the technology behind a lot of these great companies that provide the innovations that will be a new sector we probably don't know about yet," the Nasdaq chief said.

The AI debate shifts from "is it good or evil" to "is it ever going to be good enough": If 2017 was the year where the warnings from Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking about the potential evil from AI clashed with predictions from Mark Zuckerberg and Bill Gates on its potential good, 2018 will be the year when the debate shifts to its practical utility. Much like other technologies that were lauded for their world-changing potential and then fizzled as the fog of the hype cleared, early adopters will find themselves disappointed by AI's obvious limits. The broader public--familiar with Alexa, Siri, and Google Home--will be similarly disillusioned as the experts acknowledge that there is only so much that AI will be able to do, and for really complex problems, a new paradigm will be needed. Despite the hype, AI has demonstrated value in industries across the board - from agriculture to biotech to manufacturing. AI is just beginning to ingest data to power services and offerings, in turn providing information necessary for better decision-making. AI's success will continue in the new year, specifically in a new area: troubleshooting.

In recent years, the smartphones, bots, and devices we spend so much of our time with could be accused of contributing to the desensitization of our society. When a fight breaks out, some teens' first reaction is to pull out their phones and take a video, rather than call for help. We can yell mean things at our Amazon Alexa device without any consequences. These are just a few examples. In 2018 and beyond, this will change.