This story was delivered to BI Intelligence IoT Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Anker, a hardware accessory manufacturer, will introduce a new, Echo Dot-sized smart speaker with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant built in, according to The Verge. The new speaker, which will go on sale August 16 for $35, will give consumers a new way to add an Alexa-enabled speaker to their homes and is an early example of Amazon's plan to move Alexa beyond just its own hardware. Amazon is looking to make Alexa widely available to give consumers a wide variety of device options.

According to Facebook, chatbots were going to change the way we get things done. Users were meant to be able to to buy flowers, order fast food and check in with their bank without ever having to leave the Messenger app. The company quickly dialed back its enthusiasm, admitting that they were somewhat overhyped, but its core technology, M, still underpins Messenger today. Most of that functionality has been limited to the US, but this week Facebook has brought what it calls "M Suggestions" to the UK, allowing users to enjoy recommendations from its AI-powered personal assistant. Facebook's M assistant is designed to pop up when it feels it can deliver content or provide timesaving advice inside an open Messenger chat.

Innovation is all around us, and the new conversational world is changing our world. If you are one if those unique innovative CIOs or CTOs, you also know that this change influences not only the way users interact with businesses but also the way businesses deploy and secure applications. The shift from a direct interaction using a browser or a mobile app to a mediated interaction using a third-party device or a platform such as Alexa, Messenger, and Siri creates new challenges for business, especially in highly regulated sectors like financial services or health. Security, compliance, and privacy is the basis for any digital strategy. The good news is that all major providers take security, compliance, and privacy seriously.

If you like being on the bleeding edge and aren't afraid of a few bugs, the Google Home Preview Program is now available to anyone who wants to sign up, as 9 to 5 Google noticed recently. If you'd rather not be an AI assistant guinea pig, fear not. When Google first announced the program, it assured users that "this is not beta software." Rather, it is production quality, and users are "simply getting earlier access to new features before they're released broadly." If that's so, it seems like every Home owner would sign up, so what's the catch?

"Hey, Siri! Find the nearest sushi restaurant." New technologies are emerging and showing up in our everyday lives at a rapid rate. Voice-recognition, like Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, and image recognition in our Facebook and Google accounts are just two mainstream applications that leverage artificial intelligence (AI)--one of the newest technologies gaining widespread momentum today. Artificial intelligence (AI) is defined by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence as "the scientific understanding of the mechanism underlying thought and intelligent behavior and their embodiment in machines." It is one of the Top 10 Emerging Technologies of 2016 chosen by the World Economic Forum, based on the power to improve lives, transform industries, and safeguard the planet.

There's a popular perception out there that most people, particularly office workers, are concerned that artificial intelligence (AI) is coming for their jobs. After all, more and more simple tasks in the workplace have become automated -- from daily reminders to finding and editing electronic documents. But are the office workers themselves truly worried that robots will take away jobs? In our new report The Future of Work: More than a Machine, we surveyed more 4,000 office workers across the U.S., U.K., and Germany and asked them about how technology is changing their jobs, especially advanced technology like AI, and how confident they feel about keeping their jobs in the future. The study suggests that instead of being anxious about technology taking over their jobs, office workers are optimistic about how it can boost productivity and work for them.

Jeff Bezos might be the world's biggest Star Trek fan. At one point, the Amazon founder and CEO wanted to call his e-commerce platform makeitso.com, in reference to Captain Jean-Luc Picard's catchphrase. In 2016, after years of begging Paramount Pictures, Bezos made a cameo as an alien Starfleet official in Star Trek Beyond. So, when Amazon set out to build the AI assistant Alexa, Bezos envisioned finally realising the Star Trek computer - a benign, omniscient assistant, available everywhere. "We really did think of it as the Star Trek computer, where it was ambient and you could simply say: 'Computer, beam me up,'" says Mike George, Amazon's vice president of Echo, Alexa and Appstore. Clad in a black v-neck jumper and jeans, the 20-year Amazon veteran has a booming laugh and a vague resemblance to both Bezos and Picard. George bounds into the office, all unwavering eye contact, full-body laughs and wrist-crunching high fives, his preferred form of greeting. I meet him, and most of the Alexa executive team, on an upper floor of Amazon's skyscraper, Day 1, in the Denny Triangle in downtown Seattle. From here, on a blue-sky morning, the Space Needle is dwarfed by the snow-capped mountains beyond. Both seem like inconsequential theatrical set pieces to the Amazon empire below.

Advances in artificial intelligence mean computers can now use machine prediction to learn and make decisions on their own, opening the door to a new wave of automation and the threat of computers taking over jobs or at least augmenting human capabilities in ways we can't fully anticipate. "This isn't something that we want to look at five years from now, because it would be way too late," says Noel Webb, founder of Karen.AI, a recruitment startup. Webb was among a group of AI entrepreneurs who spoke at RBC Disruptors, a monthly forum on technology and how it's changing the way we live and work. He said advancements in AI could have such a broad impact that every company and government needs to have an AI policy. "We're at a really great fork in the road here," Webb said.

Why has AI become one of the most popular topics among marketers? Because it makes our lives easier. And then there's the next question: How can it help? We're facing an invasive amount of information, and we need to be able to process the huge chunks of data now available to us and make the best use of them. Yet, in most cases, we are at a loss, and the only easy way is to go by intuition alone.

Allo, Google's beleaguered chat app that arrived on the iPhone and Android devices last year, finally has a web counterpart. Just a few minutes ago, Amit Fulay (head of product for Allo and video chat app Duo) tweeted that Allo for the web was available, but only for Android phones. To give it a go, you'll need to open the Allo app on your device and use that to scan a QR code you can generate at this link. Once you've scanned the code, Allo pulls up your chat history and mirrors all the conversations you have on your phone. Most of Allo's key features, including smart replies, emoji, stickers and most importantly the Google Assistant are all intact here.