Voice assistants are the latest focus among tech companies. For Apple, its Siri voice assistant remains popular, but for the first time in a while, it's feeling the heat from the competition. In a SurveyMonkey Audience poll for USA Today, 33 percent of those responding said they use Apple's Siri the most regularly. The survey's other findings follow a rough split of general smartphone marketshare: 19 percent of respondents used Google Assistant, 6 percent named Amazon's Alexa as their primary assistant and a middling 4 percent named Microsoft's Cortana as their main assistant. USA Today noted part of Siri's popularity comes from the assistant's head start.

An alleged group of insiders from Chinese hardware manufacturer Foxconn is hinting about an upcoming slate of Apple products that could include glasses, a home speaker and other incremental updates. The news, which comes from an Ask Me Anything on reddit, is worth taking with a slight grain of salt. While moderators were able to validate that the users of the account foxconninsider are Foxconn employees, the account's track record has made some missteps like a rumor over an alleged Apple keyboard prototype. However, a lot of rumors in the thread have lined up in broad strokes with past leaks about Apple's upcoming product releases. With Apple's Worldwide Developers Conference coming up this week, we'll likely know which leaks are facts or false about the company's product calendar.

In Andy Rubin's past career stops, the former Android co-founder has generally managed to be either ahead of the curve or close to it. At Danger Inc., Rubin helped produce the T-Mobile Sidekick and with Android, he also nurtured the mobile operating system into Apple's biggest competitor in the smartphone marketplace. Essential, the new consumer electronics company from Rubin, doesn't necessarily fit the same mold. At last week's Code Conference, Rubin admitted a smartphone is more "technology evolution" than rocket science. But the upcoming Essential Phone is, at least against the current smartphone market, a similarly aggressive moonshot.

When it was unveiled at last year's I/O, Home felt like little more than Google's attempt to cash in on the Echo's success. And the intervening year hasn't done a lot to dispel that notion. The company announced a handful of additions to Home and Assistant at this year's event to try to pull even with Amazon's lead, but the whole Google Home offering still feels ambling and aimless. That Google thought it had a slam dunk with Assistant on the mobile side hasn't helped much, either. Since launching on the Pixel back in October, the voice helper still has a limited reach. Amazon, meanwhile, has made the jump onto handsets by companies like HTC and Huawei, while others, including Samsung, have opted to just build their own damned assistant in house.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham gives a sneak peek at what to look for at Apple's 2017 Worldwide Developers Conference as the iPhone turns 10 years old, Apple doesn't have a voice-activated speaker like Amazon Echo's--yet. But it does have wireless Bluetooth speakers from its Beats by Dr. Dre unit. Siri may soon have a say in the future of smart speakers. Amazon's sleeper hit Echo and its challenger Google Home have claimed spots on countertops and nightstands across America. And that poses a competitive threat to Apple.

The next big thing in the technology world is artificial intelligence (AI). Big tech organisations like Apple and Google are aggressively investing in AI. Google has been partnering Oxford University to expand Artificial Intelligence. Some examples of everyday AI include iPhone Siri and Microsoft Windows 10 Cortana. Before going further, it will not be out of place to define AI.

Consumers are still mixed about Siri, but according to an exclusive new poll for USA TODAY, they like her more than other personal assistants. LOS ANGELES -- "Siri, will you finally catch up to Amazon and Google this year? We'd like to believe she might say, "Yes...Jefferson. I'll have more accurate, chattier responses, and good news -- I'll be able to understand you much better, too." Apple, which introduced the world to voice-activated computing in 2011 with the release of Siri, is feeling the heat. The tech press has given raves to the superior results from Google's Assistant, now available on the iPhone. It's also been wowed by the constant drumbeat generated by Amazon for its Alexa assistant, coming to new speakers and other devices on an ongoing basis. So on the eve of the Worldwide Developers Conference, where Apple touts all the cool new things app makers get to do in 2017 with software updates, the company is expected to once again put the spotlight on a newer, improved Siri, ...

The age of the digital assistant is upon us and as these AI helpers attempt to interface with humans companies like Apple and Google are trying anything to make their interactions more organic. Brent Rose takes Google Assistant, Amazon Echo, Microsoft Cortana and Apple's Siri out for the ultimate test drive; which AI has the best sense of humor? How will a human audience respond to a stand-up set written entirely by smart gadgets? Tech writer Brent Rose is on a quest. With a surplus of emerging technologies and scientific discoveries popping up how do we separate facts from hype? Brent takes the goods out of the box--and out of the office--to find out how the new wave of cultural phenomena really holds up.

Goel got the idea to recruit an AI teaching assistant because of the sheer workload he and his graduate students faced every semester. Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online master's of computer science program, and as a result, 300 students take it each semester--and rack up around 10,000 messages in the class's online forums. To develop the AI, Goel and his students gathered up every message that had ever been posted in the forums since the class first started, amassing about 40,000 messages in all. Then, they fed the postings to their robo-TA to help her learn the kinds of questions that might be asked and the kind of answers that would be helpful. At first, Jill Watson wasn't able to answer enough questions to be a viable force for good on the message boards.

In the 2013 movie "Her," Theodore Twombly, a lonely writer, falls in love with a digital assistant designed to meet his every need. She sorts emails, helps get a book published, provides personal advice and ultimately becomes his girlfriend. The assistant, Samantha, is AI software capable of learning at an astonishing pace. Samantha will remain in the realm of science fiction for at least another decade, but less-functional digital assistants, called bots, are already here. These will be the most amazing technology advances we see in our homes in 2017.