It's the quiet-but-pressurised noise of Samsung executives holding their breath as they wait to see if the new Galaxy S8 is the success they so badly need it to be. After the Galaxy Note 7 had to be withdrawn last autumn because of safety issues, the S8 really must not fail. I've been using the S8 and its larger sibling, the S8 for a week. So, is it sigh of relief or hard, disappointed exhale for the execs? The look of the Galaxy S8 is a refinement of the Galaxy Note 7 and the Samsung Galaxy S7 edge.

One of the technology terms I have encountered most on my travels of the past couple of years has been artificial intelligence. AI has been around as a concept for a long time, but until recently it seemed always a little out of reach. Today AI is a reality. It is present in our smartphones in the shape of intelligent assistants like Siri, and powers chatbots that deliver real-time customer service. It is my belief that AI will grow to become a mainstream element of digital transformation sooner rather than later.

Beyond our quantum-computing conundrum, today's so-called A.I. systems are merely advanced machine learning software with extensive behavioral algorithms that adapt themselves to our likes and dislikes. While extremely useful, these machines aren't getting smarter in the existential sense, but they are improving their skills and usefulness based on a large dataset. These are some of the most popular examples of artificial intelligence that's being used today. Everyone is familiar with Apple's personal assistant, Siri. She helps us find information, gives us directions, add events to our calendars, helps us send messages and so on.

Last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge were excellent phones, and so was the Galaxy Note 7... until it started bursting into flames. While some within Samsung were tasked with figuring out what happened and how to prevent it from happening again, others were trying to build a phone that would make people move on. The Note 7 won't disappear so easily from our collective memory, but I have to hand it to Samsung: The S8 siblings are impeccably built, thoughtfully designed devices. It's not hard to look at these smartphones as the first steps on a road to redemption, and after a week of testing, I can confidently say these are two of the best smartphones money can buy. I just wish its virtual assistant wasn't so half-baked. Text and photos don't do the S8 ($750) and S8 Plus ($850) justice. From their rounded edges to their precisely formed metal-and-glass bodies, they feel like smaller, sleeker versions of the Galaxy Note 7. That's a hell of a compliment, battery insanity notwithstanding -- the Note 7 was a beautiful device and I'm glad that DNA lives on. The S8 and S8 Plus's rounded Infinity displays -- which are 5.8 and 6.2 inches big, respectively -- only add to the phones' appeal. We'll dig into these curved screens more later, but people seemed to like them enough that it didn't make sense to have non-curved flagships anymore.

USA Today's Ed Baig tries out Samsung's new smartphone before it hits store shelves. Samsung Electronics' Galaxy S8 and S8 smartphones are shown off during a media day in Seoul, South Korea, (Photo: Lee Jin-man, AP) NEW YORK--Samsung's Galaxy S8 and its larger sibling the S8 are strong new smartphones I can highly recommend. The devices, which hit stores Friday (for around $720 on up), aren't perfect. Cool-sounding features like iris and facial recognition were extremely spotty for me. Water and dust resistance are great, but other phones now share these traits.

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.

Once a science fiction fantasy, Artificial Intelligence is today's resonating reality. People are already relishing myriad advantages through advanced mobile apps and smart-forever smartphones. Supposedly, smartphones made our lives easier. Not only does it allows us stay in touch with our beloved ones 24/7 but also allow us easy accessibility to a humungous amount of information over the internet, help us reach our designated destinations, play games, watch movies, check mails, and lot more.. And in the thick of all the telltales of new cameras and additional storage, AI is bringing in a poignant change in the realm of smartphone technology, which will impact our lives immensely.

Have you ever relied on your smartphone's maps to get around? Asked Siri, Alexa, or Google Home to find you the best dim sum? Let a Tesla ferry you in Autopilot mode? Then you owe Shakey some thanks. Really, it's "what's Shakey?" Shakey is the wobbly-headed robotic great-grandparent of the artificially intelligent systems taking over your digital life.

From selfie authentication to finance tools that respond to emojis to computer-generated avatars that look and act like real people, new technological tools are giving digital banking a makeover. The April PYMNTS Digital Banking Tracker looks at the various ways technology is changing the digital banking landscape. Banks and FinTechs are rolling out several new technological banking solutions aimed at enticing a new generation of banking customers. With more millennial consumers joining the banking systems, companies are turning to the technologies this generation uses on a daily basis to help them deliver more modern banking solutions. From selfie authentication tools to emoji-based transactions to virtual assistants, the past few weeks saw several companies make new additions to the banking toolbox.

Samsung is blocking users from reconfiguring the Bixby button on the Galaxy S8. The company has made a number of ambitious claims about the virtual assistant, which is being marketed as one of the phone's key features. In a move designed to help establish Bixby as a genuine rival to Google Assistant, Samsung even decided to equip the S8 with a physical Bixby button. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.