What if your collaboration tools could actually understand the context of your words and deliver you what you really want, and not just web search results? What if it was like having another person in your office and not just a computer? Cisco Systems is aiming to answer that, in part through a $125 million acquisition of AI company MindMeld, which it announced last month. Cisco wants to incorporate MindMeld's AI platform into its collaboration products, because the tech allows users to build intelligent and human-like conversational interfaces for any application or device. AI-enhanced collaboration tools have the potential to increase efficiency, speed up the discovery of new ideas and lead to improved outcomes for teams that are working together in disparate locations.

To learn more about conversational AI, check out Yishay Carmiel's session Applications of neural-based models for conversational speech at the Artificial Intelligence Conference in San Francisco, Sept. 17-20, 2017. The dream of speech recognition is a system that truly understands humans speaking--in different environments, with a variety of accents and languages. For decades, people tackled this problem with no success. Pinpointing effective strategies for creating such a system seemed impossible. In the past years, however, breakthroughs in AI and deep learning have changed everything in the quest for speech recognition.

A survey last year found that 98 percent of smartphone owners had used their device's artificial intelligence-based virtual personal assistant (VPA). The majority of those surveyed were inhibited about talking to their artificial intelligence (AI)-powered VPAs in public, but that's likely to change as AI becomes more firmly entrenched in everyday life. As AI becomes a part of daily living, brand leaders are realizing the potential the technology has to transform marketing. With AI, marketers can understand customers more completely and connect with them on a deeper, more personal level. This can allow brands to deliver a buying experience that is relevant to the customer.

Amazon's Echo Dot was made available for free through Amazon.com The apparent promo appeared to shut down around 4 p.m. EDT, with some users showing notifications that the product was no longer available. There is no listing of the promotion, which is applied at checkout and is listed as an "Audible Promo," presumably in reference to Amazon's audiobook service Audible. It is unclear if the deal or apparently giveaway was intended solely for Amazon Prime customers, but customers without Prime were also able to order the product for free as of Friday afternoon. When the device is added to a user's cart, it is listed at it's retail price of $49.99.

Google's partnerships with media companies for Home add-ons goes beyond advertisements for Beauty and the Beast. For next month's 125th anniversary issue of Vogue, readers can ask Google Assistant for more information on a quintet of articles. Once they do, the journalists who wrote them will share bits of interviews with Megyn Kelly, Nicole Kidman, Jennifer Lawrence, Serena Williams and Oprah Winfrey that didn't make it to print.

Do you want Siri or Alexa to be the voice of your organization, or do you prefer a solution that is differentiated in tone, context and capabilities? Tara Kelly, from SPLICE Software sat down with The Financial Brand to discuss the future of AI-driven voice solutions. According to recent studies, by 2020, 50% of all searches will be voice searches. As consumers increasingly rely on voice artificial intelligence (voice AI) to answer questions and make life easier, it will be important for banks and credit unions to be part of this transformation. Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, and Microsoft's Cortana are becoming an increasing part of how consumers manage their lives, and the competition is becoming more intense as forward-thinking banking organizations start to introduce voice-first solutions.

A June 2017 study by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) found relatively low current or anticipated use of virtual assistants--such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri--among Germany's internet users. But a new report by PwC has revealed that internet users in the country are much more interested in other artificial intelligence (AI) applications. PwC polling in July found 85% of adult internet users in Germany had used or would like to use AI in some capacity. Those polled were most interested in using AI in the form of robots. The study found 58% of respondents were using or interested in having an AI-powered robot to clean their home.

Nicholas Fuentes, an 18-year-old student who attended the "Unite the Right" rally in Charlottesville, Va., this past weekend, said that he's received death threats for months over his conservative viewpoints -- enough for him to decide it's time to leave Boston University. Fuentes said he made the decision to abandon his Political Science degree a month ago after being constantly threatened over his conservative views. He said no longer felt safe on campus, and will not return for the fall semester. Still, despite the intensity of the backlash he's received, he has absolutely "no regrets" about taking part in the controversial white-nationalist movement. "I went to represent this new strain of conservatives, of people in the right wing who are opposed to mass immigration and multiculturalism," Fuentes told Fox News on Thursday. "For a long time, this existed on the fringes.

If you're a Google Home user without a paid Spotify account, your use of the service on Home has been limited. Up until now, Spotify has only integrated with Home for paid accounts. But at I/O, Google announced that would change; free Spotify users would be able to stream their library to Home. And now, it appears that the integration is now live for US users: free-tier Spotify users can now stream their music to Google Home. We've reached out to Google to confirm whether the service is available now or in the process of rolling out.

White supremacist Chris Cantwell has been kicked off the dating website OkCupid following his participation in the recent Charlottesville, Va. In a series of tweets, OkCupid (owned by Match.com) said it had kicked Cantwell off the platform after being alerted of his profile. We were alerted that white supremacist Chris Cantwell was on OkCupid. Within 10 minutes we banned him for life. "We were alerted that white supremacist Chris Cantwell was on OkCupid," OkCupid wrote in a tweet.