For most people, artificial intelligence is Siri, the lovable but modest digital assistant on iPhones. She can't really do much beyond answering simple questions. Advanced artificial intelligence is far from that. Algorithms are constantly learning, often in unusual ways, and at an exponential rate. Co-founder of Google DeepMind Mustafa Suleyman attends a Q&A with Special Projects Editor forTechCrunch, Jordan Crook during day 1 of TechCrunch Disrupt London at the Copper Box on December 5, 2016 in London, England.

Running a business today means contending with technologies that sound like plot devices from a comic book. Gene editing, artificial intelligence, voice-powered digital assistants--these are the unlikely realities facing leaders today, and we're going to take them on at WIRED Business Conference 2017 with the help of a few folks largely responsible for unleashing these forces in the first place. Andy Rubin, smartphone inventor and creator of the Android mobile operating system, who is working to bring AI to everyone. David Limp, senior vice president of devices at Amazon, oversaw the development of the Amazon Echo and its artificially intelligent digital assistant, Alexa. Jennifer Doudna, the UC Berkeley biochemist who developed the groundbreaking gene-editing tool CRISPR in 2012, will come clean about her fears and hopes for the powers of genetic modification.

Amazon has launched two new budget Fire tablets, with one costing just £50, and has brought its Alexa voice assistant to tablets in the UK. The new thinner and lighter £50 Fire 7, which has an improved screen, longer battery life and more storage, hopes to continue the success of the previous Fire 7 tablet, which won plaudits for balancing low cost with features. At the same time, Amazon has launched a new version of its Fire HD 8 tablet, with similar improvements and a lower starting price of £80. Kevin Keith, Amazon's general manager for Fire tablets, said: "The Fire 7 for under £50 shocked a lot of folks, and became the bestselling tablet we ever built. We found most of the folks who buy our devices do so for entertainment, or what I like to call digital snacking: social media, light email, apps, games and music. So we've really focused on those areas."

Google's Assistant just learned some new kitchen tricks. Ahead of Google's I/O developer conference, GE has announced its full suite of Wi-Fi-connected smart appliances can now be controlled with Google Assistant, the voice-enabled digital assistant that lives in Google Home. The announcement comes a year after GE integrated Amazon Alexa voice commands with its smart appliances using the Geneva Alexa skill. Google Assistant integration works the same as it does with Alexa, and you can ask it to do things like preheat the oven, or check if the dishes are clean, or make hot water. "OK Google, ask Geneva Home to preheat the oven to 350 degrees."

You may want to practice saying "Ok Google" if you have GE WiFi-connected appliances in your home. Just as Bloomberg reported a few days ago, GE worked with the tech titan to integrate Google Assistant into its system. Now, you can use the voice-activated helper through Google Home, a Pixel or other select Android phones to operate various smart appliances. Take note that the big G's Assistant can't exactly control the devices directly. Your commands work by going through Geneva, the skill GE developed when it launched Amazon Alexa integration for its appliances in September last year.

Apple might be ahead of most of its rivals in terms of sales and branding, but for the past few years, it has been lagging behind in terms of features. An important feature of Apple's iPhone is Siri -- the company's voice assistant. Siri was the first conversational voice assistant on the scene in 2011. However, in the past year it has been left behind by artificial intelligence (AI) based voice assistants such as the Google Assistant and Samsung Bixby. While Siri has remained limited by its pre-recorded responses to queries, other AI-based voice assistants have developed the ability to evolve with usage.

USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham says Google Home is improved but is still a work in progress with some gaping holes. For the second straight year, Google is expected to use its annual conference for software developers to push its latest hardware. Wednesday kicks off Google I/O, the company's developers conference. It starts with a keynote address at 1 p.m. eastern, during which Google is likely to reveal lots of news about both its latest wave of gadgets and its software. Here's what to expect on Wednesday: Amazon's Echo fueled a surge in interest for both voice-enabled speakers and the digital assistants that power them.

Competition – it motivates all of us to become better at what we do. Marketers are no different, especially when they have to stay on top of the SEO game. They research the latest SEO trends; they use the best SEO tools out there. The problem is, unlike a sports competition, the goal posts for SEO are always changing. This, of course, makes the game more interesting, but also pretty frustrating for those trying to "keep up."

Imagine a surgeon asking a Siri-like digital assistant in the operations theater about the options available in a risky operation, based on the patient's medical history matched with a global database of similar cases. The "assistant" comes up with several options in a split second and, the surgeon and his team, choose one that they think is best and proceed. This could be one of the many possibilities that an Artificial Intelligence or A.I. can provide to the healthcare sector. A.I. is poised to become a game changer for the health care sector, according to Steve Leonard, chief executive of SGInnovate, the government entity that supports entrepreneurs leading Singapore's innovation efforts. But convincing doctors, clinicians, nurses, patients and other stakeholders to place their trust in self-thinking machines could be tricky.

Microsoft on Wednesday unveiled new tools intended to democratize artificial intelligence by enabling machine smarts to be built into software from smartphone games to factory floors. Improving programs with artificial intelligence that could tap into services in the Internet "cloud" and even take advantage of computing power in nearby machines, was part of a vision unveiled as the US technology titan's annual Build Conference opened. "We are infusing AI into every product and service we offer," said Microsoft executive vice president of artificial intelligence and research Harry Shum. "We've been creating the building blocks for the current wave of AI breakthroughs for more than two decades." Microsoft research has gone deep into areas such as machine learning, speech recognition, and enabling machines to recognize what they "see." "Now, we're in the unique position of being able to use those decades of research breakthroughs," Shum said.