Apple Inc. got an early start in artificial intelligence software with the 2011 introduction of Siri, a tool that lets users operate their smartphones with voice commands. Now the electronics giant is bringing artificial intelligence to chips. Apple is working on a processor devoted specifically to AI-related tasks, according to a person familiar with the matter. The chip, known internally as the Apple Neural Engine, would improve the way the company's devices handle tasks that would otherwise require human intelligence -- such as facial recognition and speech recognition, said the person, who requested anonymity discussing a product that hasn't been made public. Engineers at Apple are racing to catch their peers at Amazon.com Inc. and Alphabet Inc. in the booming field of artificial intelligence. While Siri gave Apple an early advantage in voice-recognition, competitors have since been more aggressive in deploying AI across their product lines, including Amazon's Echo and Google's Home digital assistants.

That's because, to paraphrase Amazon's Jeff Bezos, artificial intelligence (AI) is "not just in the first inning of a long baseball game, but at the stage where the very first batter comes up." Look around, and you will find AI everywhere--in self driving cars, Siri on your phone, online customer support, movie recommendations on Netflix, fraud detection for your credit cards, etc. To be sure, there's more to come. Featuring 30 lectures, MIT's course "introduces students to the basic knowledge representation, problem solving, and learning methods of artificial intelligence." It includes interactive demonstrations designed to "help students gain intuition about how artificial intelligence methods work under a variety of circumstances."

Voice technology that power devices like Amazon's Alexa and Google Home is the next frontier for tech companies. Facebook's announcement to launch ParlAI recently only intensified the industry's ambition to reach the ultimate goal of having meaningful conversations with computers by voice. But let's hold onto our horses; we're not there yet. At my company, we're receiving increasing requests from brands eager to explore this emerging utility, and at the same time, we're working with engineering and product teams to understand exactly what the technology can do. As it stands, we still have leaps to make, but one thing is sure: Voice-activated tech is set to get smarter, and fast.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has entered our daily lives like never before and we are yet to unravel the many other ways in which it could flourish. All tech giants such as Microsoft, Uber, Google, Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Oracle, Intel, IBM or Twitter are competing in the race to lead the market and acquire the most innovative and promising AI businesses. AI is already being used in everyday life with applications including speech recognition, smart cars, fraud detection, security surveillance, music recommendations and AI-powered personal virtual assistant such as Cortana (Microsoft), Siri (Apple) or Alexa (Amazon). Discussions on AI are generally dappled with the terms, 'Machine Learning' and'Deep Learning'. Moreover, they are often interchangeably used.

Artificial Intelligence in eCommerce has been a hot topic for years, but its benefits have been slow to materialize. Last year, however, that began to change – AI is now becoming useful in the lives of many consumers. Digital assistants, such as Alexa, Siri, Cortana, and Google Assistant have gotten people accustomed to talking to machines, and their impact is just now starting to be understood. Many other applications turn shopping data into actionable insight, and these are now available to smaller merchants. We expect the adoption of these applications will accelerate in 2017.

Knoema is the latest data provider to add a conversational interface. The McLean, Virginia-based company has launched an artificial intelligence (AI)-powered chatbot called Yodatai, which it describes as the first digital assistant for public and corporate data. The name, CEO Vladimir Bougay told me, is a shortening of "your data AI." His company provides access to industry, governmental and market data from thousands of providers, including the US Census, the US Department of Energy and other sources around the world. Additionally, Yodatai has been integrated with product analytics platform Amplitude and can access other databases via API.

"This unique report provides an insightful view into the future of apps and the rapid transition to a powerfully immersive digital and app-centric society," he added, commenting on a new report titled "The Future of Apps", commissioned by F5 Networks, a leading application security and cloud solutions expert, which draws upon research conducted by the Foresight Factory. It also charts the rise of new app interfaces (including augmented and virtual reality) and the potential-rich influence of blockchain technologies and edge computing. Looking ahead, Foresight Factory flags critical advances in areas such as collaborative AI, where virtual assistants – and underlying apps – can communicate and act accordingly. New networks Foresight Factory anticipates far greater decentralisation as blockchain technologies and edge computing become mainstream, empowering IoT and privacy-hungry consumers.

BEIJING (Reuters) - A popular Chinese dating app for lesbians has been shut down, along with its website and main social media account, just as the gay community celebrates Taiwan's decision giving same-sex couples the right to marry, a first for Asia.

Apple's voice assistant, Siri, lets other people access your iPhone, surpass the passcode protection and turn off cellular data, a user said Friday. The user, Anton31Kah, stated Siri can be manipulated into turning off cellular data by simply asking it about the current status of cellular data on the smartphone, upon which the voice assistant will not only tell the user whether the data is currently on or not, but also prompt the user by asking "let me know if you want it turned on/off." This basically lets any user switch mobile data on your iPhone on or off, which is against general smartphone security protocols. Due to the fact access to the iPhone, however minor, is being provided to a third person without the owner's permission who had already protected the device with a security cover like as a passcode. This is a loophole in Siri's functioning due to the fact had the user directly asked Siri to turn the data on or off, he/she would need to put in the passcode first.

Mark 1 is no Amazon Echo: it looks like an '80s clock radio mashed up with WALL-E, and speaks with a robotic, bass-heavy British accent. But the startup behind it, Mycroft, hopes it has similar appeal to hackers, students, and companies who want a voice-enabled assistant that they can run on all kinds of devices and alter at will. When it comes to voice-enabled digital assistants, there are plenty of them available these days--in addition to the Echo, which runs Amazon's Alexa assistant, there's Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, and Google's assistant. None of these is open-source, though, so even if developers can use it on various devices (like Amazon's Alexa), they can't go under the hood and change its code--ostensibly, to help improve it. Mycroft--whose voice assistant, which runs on Mark 1, is also called Mycroft--isn't trying to rival any of these big companies' digital helpers, says CEO Joshua Montgomery.