HONG KONG: It's 2050 and the world revolves around you. From the contents of your fridge to room temperature - digital assistants ensure your home runs smoothly. Your screens know your taste and show channels you want to see as you enter the room. Your car is driverless and your favourite barman may just be an android. Predictions for an AI-dominated future are increasingly common, but Antoine Blondeau has experience in reading, and arguably manipulating, the runes - he helped develop technology that evolved into predictive texting and Apple's Siri.

Samsung's virtual assistant Bixby has added voice commands for UK users for the first time. The artificial intelligence-powered assistant first appeared on Samsung's Galaxy S8 and S8 smartphones earlier this year and enables users to ask questions and quickly access different parts of their smartphone using command prompts. Until now, voice commands had only been available in the US and South Korea, with only text and camera-based feature accessible to users outside these countries. But the UK is now one of more than 200 countries included in the expansion, which can be triggered by saying "Hi, Bixby". Similar to other smart assistant's including Apple's Siri, Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa, Bixby understands and responds to voice commands on scheduling, news updates and weather reports, as well as launching apps on a user's smartphone.

Watson powers the company's chatbot GWYN (Gifts When You Need) and helps it detect user tone. GWYN interacts with online customers using natural language and is designed to understand human intention behind each purchase by interpreting and asking several questions. Last year, an AI teaching assistant powered by IBM Watson helped moderate an online forum for a computer science class at Georgia Tech University, and most students didn't find out they were interacting with AI. IBM Watson did a pilot with the Australian government around Nadia, a virtual assistant platform that helps disabled people get information about government services.

Google will unveil a new Pixel Chromebook as well as a miniature version of Google Home at its upcoming hardware event, according to a source. If true, that would make the new laptop the fist Pixel-branded computer since 2015 and would mean the new Pixel 2 phone wouldn't be the only big release of the event. The firm is also reportedly getting ready to launch smart headphones with direct access to Google Assistant, although it is not clear if it will be revealed alongside the other new devices. It is believed Google is also getting ready to announce smart headphones that will give users direct access to Google Assistant, similar to the futuristic technology in the film Her. The Google product is codenamed Bistro.

Netflix Inc. wants subscribers to know it's looking out for them. For instance, the average Netflix subscriber might not guess that its dark superhero drama "Jessica Jones" might strike similar chords as the zany hijinks of "Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt." Netflix is happy to help you make the connection. Much of the attention showered on the streaming-video giant in recent years has focused on its appetite for original content and for creators to produce it. "We want to appeal to as many different people as possible, and appeal to the many moods that each person has," said Netflix's vice president of product innovation, Todd Yellin.

Artificial intelligence (AI) may sound futuristic, but it's a real-life breakthrough that exists in the present. Anyone who interacts with an online search engine, shops on Amazon, owns a self-parking car, or talks to voice-powered personal assistants like Siri or Alexa is using AI. AI is a field of computer science in which a machine is equipped with the ability to mimic the cognitive functions of a human. An AI machine can make decisions or predictions based on its past experiences, or it can respond to entirely new scenarios. When given a goal, not only does it attempt to achieve its objective, it continuously tries to improve upon its past performance.

Virtual assistants have been quick to invade our phones and our homes -- is it any surprise that they're creeping into our email accounts, too? A startup called Astro built a chatbot (imaginatively named "Astrobot") into its email app earlier this year, and now it's taking things a step further: as part of a new update going live today, users can talk to Astrobot when they want to sift through their emails sans hands. Well, mostly: you can't invoke it with a wake-word like "Ok, Google." Once installed, you'll have to long-press the little Astrobot button that lives in your inbox. Then, you just gab away: asking if you have any emails prompts Astrobot to read through your most recent messages out loud, and telling it to archive, snooze or mark as unread worked consistently well.

My morning routine is simple: I wake up when my phone's alarm goes off, I go back to sleep, wake up again, contemplate more sleep, get dressed, make coffee and listen to one of Alexa's "flash briefings" before I start slinging words on the internet. Getting that first news blast of the day used to be a job for my trusty clock radio, but no longer: Alexa's invasion has begun. More precisely, it began this past summer, when I was dragged through a Home Depot, saw a spider-wrapped Echo, and said, "Eh, what the hell?" For a while there, in the early days, Alexa's responsibilities boiled down to reading my Audible audiobooks and telling me what the weather was like so that I didn't need to look out the window. Since then, though, she's become so enmeshed in the fabric of my household that I don't consciously remember all the times I talk to her.

Amazon Echo comes in both white and black, and is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, make calls, send and receive messages, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more. One works well, or string them around your house for Alexa in every room. Multiple Echo devices work together seamlessly. It may be one of those devices that actually does what it promises to do.

Samsung's Bixby voice assistant for the Galaxy S8 and galaxy S8 Plus is finally available worldwide. Bixby Voice is now being rolled out to more than 200 countries. Unfortunately, the service will only work in English and Korean languages for now. "Now millions of customers worldwide have access to a new and intelligent way of interacting with their phone," executive VP and head of R&D for Samsung's Mobile Business Injong Rhee said. "The expansion of Bixby's voice capabilities is an initial step in the continued rollout of Bixby functionality. In the future, Bixby will have the learning power to offer more intelligent and personalized interactions and seamless connections across more devices."