The machine-learning smarts that help Google know what's in a photo and let Amazon's Alexa carry on a conversation are getting a real job. "ML" platforms from vendors like Amazon, Google, IBM, Microsoft, and others can automate business processes on a previously impossible scale and free up employees for more creative, thought-intensive work. They also require a lot more commitment and, sometimes, coaxing than parking an Amazon Echo on a kitchen table or tapping a button to have Google back up the photos on your phone. But the payoff can also be correspondingly greater. "Every business process is just badly written software," observed Markus Noga, head of machine learning at SAP.

USA Today contributor Jennifer Jolly shows us some absolutely genius're-uses' for an that old iPhone that you have lying around the house. The classic View-Master takes a modern twist, now compatible with your iPhone. The new iPhones are almost here, which means that the older iPhone in your pocket is probably not looking as fresh and fun as it once did. But just because you're jonesing for the hottest new tech doesn't mean yesterday's iPhone can't still make your life better in a totally new way. Here are some genius ways to squeeze a bit more life out of that dated device. It's not just iPhones on Apple's fall release schedule; the HomePod, a Siri-equipped smart speaker is also on the way to compete with the Amazon Echo and Alexa virtual assistant.

For the majority of its existence, home automation has been confined to fiction and the houses of the wealthy. But as more affordable smart-home technology trickles into the market, the demographics are shifting, and tech companies are jostling to get their virtual home assistants in the door. Many are even teaming up with home builders to develop connected homes from the ground up. In 2015, consumers bought 1.7 million voice-compatible devices, according to a report from analytics start-up VoiceLabs. Last year that number grew to 6.5 million.

File photo: Luke Peters demonstrates Siri, an application which uses voice recognition and detection on the iPhone 4S, outside the Apple store in Covent Garden, London October 14, 2011. I know I'm a bad mother, but how bad? I wonder for the hundredth time as I watch Gus deep in conversation with Siri. Obsessed with weather formations, Gus has spent the last hour parsing the difference between isolated and scattered thunderstorms – an hour when, thank God, I don't have to discuss them. Siri: It's nice to be appreciated.

Google is set to release two new smartphones, the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, as well as a smaller Google Home Mini smart speaker on 4 October, the Guardian has learned. The devices will be released at the Made by Google event scheduled to take place in San Francisco and will lead the company's renewed hardware efforts as it attempts to take on Apple and Samsung in the premium smartphone and accessory market. Two variants of the Pixel smartphone will be released mirroring last year's devices, several well-placed sources told to the Guardian. The smaller Pixel 2, which is expected to have a screen about 5 inches in size, will be made by smartphone manufacturer HTC – part of which was acquired by Google on Thursday – according to two sources. It will come in blue, black or white and have a metal and glass back, similar to last year's Pixel.

Bose's new headphones promise something more than just listening to music. The audio equipment company debuted its QC35 II headphones on Thursday that are compatible with Google Assistant, the search giant's voice-activated digital assistant. Google goog, like other big tech companies including Apple aapl and Microsoft msft, has been pushing its digital assistant as a new way for people to interact with their smartphones and other devices like the company's web-connected Google Home speaker. Now, people can use their voices to tell Google Assistant to play music--including a specific song--through the new Bose headphones. And if they want to add meetings to their Google calendars, they can press and hold a button on the new headphones then tell Google Assistant to add an appointment to their calendars.

Kathy Gibson at Gartner Symposium, Cape Town -- Artificial intelligence (AI) is becoming more pervasive -- and it is starting to enable intelligent apps and things. This is among the trends that we can look forward to in 2018, according to Gartner's list of the top 10 technology trends. Brian Burke, vice-president and head of research at Gartner, refers to the intelligent digital mesh as the overarching concept. Intelligent refers to technology that is becoming more insightful and aware of context; digital is about technology that spans the digital and physical world, becoming immersive and more autonomous; and mesh talks to the enabling underlying technologies that are enabling these trends, while making them dynamic and secure. "Each of these -- intelligence, digital and mesh -- will have a different impact on your organisation -- you need to analyse how you can use them to increase your competitive advantage -- or how your competitors will use them to displace you. "These are not standalone technologies: the combinatorial effect will have the most impact on your business, your industry and the world overall." By 2020, 30% of CIOs will have AI as one of their top five investment priorities; while 40% of new development projects will have AI components delivered by joint teams of data scientists and programmers. "We think it will be a bit like electricity was 100 years ago: we will add it to just about everything that we do.

Facebook has added three new automatic suggestions using Artificial Intelligence (AI) to the Messenger app's virtual assistant'M'.

Market disruptions are times of great stress, but they also provide great opportunity. They define new winners and losers in the marketplace. And the next major disruption is just around the corner -- it's the coming era of the personal assistants, and there are many market forces that are driving this shift. The first of these market forces is the explosion of the Internet of Things: Internet-connected devices will be something other than a PC, tablet or a smartphone. Gartner predicts that 8.4 billion connected devices will be in use in 2017 (up 31 percent from last year) and that this number will reach 20.4 billion by 2020.

"We're all sorry for the other guy when he loses his job to a machine. When it comes to your job, that's different, and it always will be different." In the 1968 Star Trek episode, "The Ultimate Computer," these were Dr. McCoy's words of wisdom to a concerned Captain Kirk, who was fretting over the possibility he might be replaced by the advanced M5 supercomputer. Nearly 50 years later, concerns over artificial intelligence-driven job losses have moved from science fiction to everyday reality, with a growing chorus of voices sounding the alarm over potential labor disruptions wrought by the rise of robots. Some experts now are warning that machines and AI will be outperforming humans at nearly every task in 45 years, leading to massive unemployment.