Computers can now tell you if the profile picture you use on social media sites or your online dating profile is making the right first impression. Scientists have developed an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to predict what kind of first impression you will make on other people based on your photograph. The technology could prove useful for ensuring your appearance sends the right signal to prospective employers when going for an interview or what message your Facebook profile picture sends about you. The AI showed that Benedict Cumberbatch was a good choice to play Julian Assange in the Fifth Estate (top). Similarly Joseph Gordon Levitt was rated as a good match to play Edward Snowdon in the film Snowden (bottom).

Amazon's best deals: The Echo Dot with Alexa is finally on sale (Photo: Amazon) 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. Springtime is here, and it's the perfect time to kick off those weekend projects you've spent all winter dreaming about. Amazon Echo is our favorite smart home speaker, you can get the full power of Alexa in a more compact package with the $49.99 Echo Dot. Amazon is sweetening the deal today by taking $20 off when you buy three Echo Dots, which is the first time the company has offered any kind of deal on the cheapest Alexa-enabled speaker. Just add three to your cart and enter the code DOT3PACK in the "promo code" field and you can easily add Alexa across your whole home.

Susan Bennett has told the story before of how she became the voice of Siri without realizing it – at the time, she thought she was making the recordings for an automated switchboard system. In fact, she didn't even find out she had become Siri until a friend played with an iPhone and recognized her voice. She only got the gig, she says, when the actor supposed to be auditioning for the role failed to show. It was, she says, an ironic role for a non-techy. My generation didn't grow up with computers.

For all the excitement about policing the web with image detection algorithms, machine learning, and other tools, the task of keeping the internet functioning and habitable still falls to people. Beneath the slick automation of companies like Google and Facebook hides a hidden army of manual laborers--many in countries like India and the Philippines. They perform the tedious, disturbing task that machines still can't, and that most Americans won't: Filtering social media sites for obscenities, abuse, and violence. In their short documentary The Moderators, filmmakers Adrian Chen and Ciaran Cassidy go inside an Indian firm doing that work, capturing a week-long training session for new employees. Their film, which WIRED is premiering online, centers on a group of young Indians starting their first jobs for Bangalore-based Foiwe Info Global Solutions, whose clients include a handful of dating sites in the US, Europe, and India.

News today about a Burger King ad that takes over your Google Home speaker is a sign of things to come. In the ad, an employee triggers the speaker to read a description of the Whopper burger on Wikipedia (which may have been altered by an employee of the company). It worked, although you have to have the volume turned up in the ad and Google moved quickly to attempt to shut down the trigger phrase. It made me wonder -- in what other ways could voicebots become more annoying over time (or even dangerous)? Here are a few that comes to mind, but if you think of any more, let us know.

When it comes to your profile picture, a total stranger knows what's best for you, according to new research. Images selected by strangers convey a much more favourable first impression than images people select for themselves, according to the study. The findings contradict evidence which suggests that we portray ourselves in a good light in our profile pictures - instead it seems we're doing it all wrong. This participant selected the top, second from left photo for her professional profile picture but strangers thought she looked better in the bottom, second from left one. Researchers took 102 students and asked them to select two out of 12 photos of their face that they were most likely to use as profile pictures in three contexts - on social networks, dating sites and professional networks.

Amazon is offering other manufacturers free use of its smart speakers' microphone technologies as part of its efforts to spread the use of its Alexa virtual assistant. The firm will, however, pick and choose who can take advantage of the proposal. The initiative follows the launch of the Google Home speaker and its associated Assistant. One expert said the two tech firms were now involved in a "land grab" to become the sector's number one player. Doing so will help attract developers, and in turn ensure that one product has a wider range of capabilities than the other.

Amazon's Alexa can summon an Uber and satisfy a four-year-old's demand for fart noises. Siri can control your Internet-connected thermostat. Each serve millions of users each day. But a lucky group of around 10,000 people, mostly in California, know that Facebook's assistant, named M, is the smartest of the bunch. Recommend and reserve a romantic hotel in Morocco that's also suitable for small children?

One is the home of America's automotive industry, a heavily regulated, ultra-conservative sector focusing on high-volume, low-margin sales. They are also in competition to own what some are calling the next personal computing platform: the car. The recent focus is less the embedded systems that run vehicles – Linux won that battle – and more the data connections to deliver so-called "infotainment" to those inside and beam diagnostic data back to the manufacturer. Gartner reckons on a five-fold increase in such units globally by 2020 to 61 million. With those units come opportunities. Now, the sale isn't just about the car; it's about the subscription revenue that you can garner from apps and online services.

Ever go to a party where they play music you hate, and everyone dances except for you? That shouldn't happen at a party with PartyBOT. Ever wish Amazon's Alexa or Apple's Siri would let their hair down, stop being such know-it-all busybodies, and head out for a night on the town While it's likely better to have some regular human friends to fill this role, you may still be interested to hear about PartyBOT. Created by Accenture Interactive, PartyBOT loves to party. You know that because it totally says so in his name. PartyBOT debuted at this year's SXSW party: showing off his AI, facial recognition, and natural language processing technology to figure out the emotions of partygoers, and in the process working out which ones needed to be lured to the dance floor, and then feeding that information to the DJ.