There are times when you know exactly what you want to watch. So when you're ready to launch a Stranger Things binge session, you can tell Google to do exactly that. Similar specificity can be performed with Spotify and Google Play Music playlists, albums, or titles in your Google Play Movies & TV catalogue. Sometimes I've found the program will start streaming right away, while other times it'll take you to the product screen and you'll still need to press play. Such is the inconsistency that happens at times when living in the future.

WeMo, Belkin's line of smart light switches and plugs, will soon be compatible with Apple's HomeKit. Its products already give you a way to control the electronics in your home wherever you are, but HomeKit support means you'll be able to ask Siri to do it for you. You can, for instance, tell virtual assistant to "dim the lights in the living room" or switch them on or off completely. That said, you'll have to do more than update your software or download an app to get that feature. You'll have to get WeMo's upcoming HomeKit-enabled device called Bridge to be able to ask Siri on your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch to control supported devices.

Robots that think and feel emotions like humans will enter our homes in as little as ten years. That's according to Dr Mark Sagar, who is the chief executive of Soul Machines, a New Zealand-based company that develops intelligent and responsive avatars. Sagar, an artificial intelligence programmer, creates incredibly realistic virtual humans which can respond to questions and learn from experience. The avatars blink and communicate exactly like we do. But they are powered by a virtual neural network which helps them learn social cues and spot patterns in order to answer questions.

The internet initially connected computers; then it connected mobile devices. New sources of data emerged through things like social media, digital images and video. Furthermore, new machine learning models have emerged recently that seem to be able to take better advantage of all the new data. We can use AI to extend and augment human capability to solve real problems that affect health, poverty, education and politics.

"An important shift from a mobile first world to an AI first world," declared Google CEO Sundar Pichai, summarizing the Google I/O 2017 keynote yesterday. His description of the changes underway at his company apply to nearly every business today. Almost all of Google's announcements touched on AI in one way or another. From introducing a second generation of TPU chips to accelerate deep learning for such applications as cancer research and DNA sequencing, to a broad effort to get Google Home on as many screens and devices as possible. The company also shared that it's speech recognition technology was now better than 95 percent accurate.

Robots are slowly creeping their way into retail, restaurants, hospitals and now, they are starting to show a presence on Wall Street. Although some banks have argued that wealthier individuals will'always demand face-to-face advice', many high-net worth investors are looking to robo-advisors for guidance in the market. New York-based Betterment has revealed that not only does its digital employee work with thousands of customers, but'a number of them are worth more than $10 million under management each.' Although some banks have argued that wealthier individuals will'always demand face-to-face advice', many high-net worth investors are looking to robo-advisers for guidance in the market AI advisors generate investment advice using computer programs, at half the rate of human brokers. Roughly 15 percent of'robo-clients' at Charles Schwab Corp. have at least $1 million in the company, Bloomberg writes, and the trend is increasing across the board.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from any business incentives. In the age of smart home technology, childproofing goes beyond electrical sockets and cabinet doors. When you have smart gadgets in your home, you may need to secure them from curious kids. Otherwise, you could end up with a dozen boxes of fruit gummies that your little one ordered through your Amazon Echo.

The phenomenal rise of Amazon's Alexa, and its run against Google Home and Siri, has us aquiver again with talk of the war for voice, and who will win it. We all love a good competition, but the commentators are missing the point. You might as well have a war for a color or smell. There are pretty much two situations where your hands aren't free and it's OK to shout commands to a computer. Solving for driving is hard.

As banking organisations, financial services providers and brands predict and plan for the way consumers will manage their money in the future, artificial intelligence (AI) is high on the business development strategy for 2017 and beyond. AI is already around us and used everyday within payments, money management and for robo-advice, particularly in the area of intelligent digital assistants that handle regular customer service enquiries and tasks. It can process'big data' far more efficiently than humans and can recognise speech, images, text, patterns of online behaviour, for example to detect fraud as well as appropriate advertisements for upselling. Smart machines and technology can turn data into customer insights and enhance service provisions, bringing the digital experience closer to the human interaction for consumers. Santander announced it is to provide secure transactions using voice recognition via its banking app, while Royal Bank of Scotland has trialled'Luvo' AI customer service assistance to interact with staff and potentially serve customers in the future.

Add one more perk to Ikea's elegant, affordable selection of smart lighting products: you can soon control them with your voice. The Swedish furniture giant revealed Wednesday it will add support for digital voice assistants such as Google Assistant, Amazon's Alexa, and Apple's Siri via the Home app. The voice feature will roll out during the summer into early fall. Ikea launched the TRÅDFRI line of smart products last year in North America and Europe, billing it as a low-cost way to add to smart home tech. According to Ikea's website, a gateway kit featuring two bulbs, remote control, and a gateway to access broadband Internet costs $79.99, while dimming kits go for roughly $27.