Google's Assistant is finally ready to take on Siri on Apple's own turf: the iPhone. Yes, you could already play around with the AI-powered chatbot if you downloaded Allo -- Google's mobile-only messenger app -- but its functionality was limited. Eager to check it out, we downloaded it right away and spent some time commanding our Google-branded phone butler around. After a few hours, I'll say that while I find Google Assistant a lot friendlier and smarter than Siri, it doesn't quite replace it. The first obvious barrier is that while Siri is baked right into iOS, you'll need to download Google Assistant as a separate app.

If you missed out on Google's I/O 2017 keynote earlier today, don't fret. We've cut down all of the noteworthy news on Google Lens, AI, Google Assistant, Google Home, Daydream, Android O and more into a quick TK-minute clip. Just sit back, relax and catch up on all of the news in way less time than we spend taking in the 2-hour presentation this afternoon. For all the latest news and updates from Google I/O 2017, follow along here. A tech writer by day and a graphic designer by night, Billy was ushered into the gadget world by an Atari and its vices: Frogger and Grand Prix.

Google I/O is, far and away, Google's most important single event of the year, where CEO Sundar Pichai presents his grand vision for the company in the year to come. So it was a little baffling, at first blush, that Google -- a search company, which makes its money from search advertising -- would spend so much time talking about Google Photos, its photo-sharing service, and camera-related apps in general. At the same time, it makes perfect sense, in its own way. It's the same old Google, adapted for a world where cameras rule over keyboards. Way back in 2009, it launched an app called Google Goggles that let you snap a picture of, say, a book, and search for it online.

Amazon announced that its virtual assistant Alexa will soon be able to deliver notifications, including telling you to go for a run if the weather is nice. Users will be able to enable notifications for specific updates about news, the weather and shopping. Skills like AccuWeather will provide weather updates, The Washington Post will provide breaking news alerts, and Just Eat will give food order confirmations. Amazon Echo is a voice-controlled smart speaker that works alongside a smartphone app. Using a virtual assistant called Alexa, the speaker can respond to voice commands from the user, such as setting an alarm or ordering a cab.

Google Assistant delivers the weather on a Google Pixel. Owners of the iPhone will have one more option for their digital voice assistant. Google's Assistant app is now available on the iPhone, giving Apple's Siri a run for her money. Whether at home or on the go, your Assistant is here to help. Google Assistant is the equivalent to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa.

Google's computer programs are gaining a better understanding of the world, and now it wants them to handle more of the decision-making for the billions of people who use its services. CEO Sundar Pichai and other top executives brought Google's audacious ambition into sharper focus Wednesday at an annual conference attended by more than 7,000 developers who design apps to work with its wide array of digital services. Among other things, Google unveiled new ways for its massive network of computers to identify images, as well as recommend, share, and organize photos. It also is launching an attempt to make its voice-controlled digital assistant more proactive and visual while expanding its audience to Apple's iPhone, where it will try to outwit an older peer, Siri. The push marks another step toward infusing nearly all of Google's products with some semblance of artificial intelligence -- the concept of writing software that enables computers to gradually learn to think more like humans.

It's 2017 and unless you've been living under a rock, you will have seen that Artificial Intelligence is everywhere, and having an impact on (pretty much) everything. Artificial Intelligence is the here and now; it's making leaps and bounds throughout the world of tech and beyond. But what exactly is AI and why should we be embracing it? Defining AI can be pretty tricky and is often heavily disputed. If we're speaking via textbook definitions, then we can define AI as the development of computers that can embody and perform the same so-called'intelligent' actions of humans.

Evan Nisselson is a partner at LDV Capital. Major technology companies and new startups are at war over having the most valuable artificial intelligence and at the core of this war is having unique high quality visual data. This battle will be won by owning the connected camera. The majority of the data our brains analyze is visual, and therefore the majority of the data needed for artificial intelligence to have human (or better than human) skills, will rely on the ability for computers to translate high quality visual data. One of the business sectors that will be revolutionized by artificial intelligence is e-commerce.

Artificial Intelligence can help us, dammit. The notion of a coming AI apocalypse has grown tiresome, especially because it invariably makes the leap from the nascent forms of AI we experience now to a terrifying future were every robot can out-think and, eventually, annihilate us. I'm not saying it's not an eventuality, but it is also decades or more away. It's time to focus on the now, which is why I was so pleased with Google's I/O 2017 developer's keynote on Wednesday. In it, Google CEO Sundar Pichai described the fundamental shift from a mobile-first landscape to an AI-first one. In fact, mobile hardware and software remain a crucial part of Google's strategy, but now all of it is infused, at some level, with artificial intelligence and, especially, machine learning.

Google Home--the tech giant's answer to Amazon's Alexa--can do everything from bake cookies to control your lights. Now, in its efforts to topple Amazon, Google is unrolling some new functionality: Starting this month, Google Home will be compatible with a host of appliances from Whirlpool, LG, GE, and iRobot (including some of our favorites). If you've ever wanted to check on the status of your dishwasher from the living room, or tell your oven to preheat even when your hands are busy chopping onions, Google Home might be for you. Just think of it as a friendly Skynet that just wants to help you cook and clean. Less than a year after GE baked Alexa into its appliances using the Geneva Home skill, Google and GE announced that most new GE washers, dryers, ovens, and dishwashers will now also respond to Google Home.