The parent company of hacked extramarital dating site Ashley Madison has agreed to pay an $11.2m (£8.57m) settlement to US-based users of the site, ending a two-year court battle. Ruby Life Inc agreed to pay the settlement following a number of class-action lawsuits "alleging inadequate data security practices and misrepresentations regarding Ashley Madison". It will pay for, among other things, "payments to settlement class members who submit valid claims for alleged losses resulting from the data breach and alleged misrepresentations as described further in the proposed settlement agreement". The plaintiffs, a collection of three separate class-action lawsuits consolidated together, alleged that the company "misrepresented that they had taken reasonable steps to ensure AshleyMadison.com was secure and that the data breach resulted in the public release of certain personal information contained in AshleyMadison.com accounts and included account information of some users who had paid a fee to delete their information from the AshleyMadison.com Ruby Life inc, formerly known as Avid Life Media, has new leadership following the departure of the executive team in April 2016.

While HTC U11 owners have known Amazon's AI assistant was on its way ever since the phone launched back in May, they can now finally install Amazon's AI assistant on their phones. And it's already learned a big new trick for its second Android phone: voice recognition. To get Alexa on the HTC U11, you'll need to update your system to the latest version (1.13.651.6) and download the app from the Play Store. It's a little tricky to find, but you can either follow this link or search for "HTC Alexa"--it should be the third or fourth result. Then, launch the app, sign into your Amazon account, enable the microphone, recording, and location services, and Alexa will be ready to go. The impact on AI: Amazon is making a major push to put Alexa within earshot wherever we are.

"A new coat, please," you say to the store robot, in a bit of a hurry. It notices that you're in no mood for chit-chat and already knows that you have little time to spare on Thursday nights. The robot immediately presents three stylish coats, of course in your perfect size. Yes, in 2030 you'll even be comfortable shopping in an actual brick-and-mortar store. And all of that will be made possible thanks to artificial intelligence. Ten years ago, we were very impressed with Siri, but now it's become quite common to communicate with devices and programs.

Samsung's digital assistant Bixby might finally find its voice next week after previous reports suggested it was'struggling to comprehend English'. When the Samsung Galaxy S8 was released in April, users were disappointed to find that their device was missing Bixby, the firm's highly-anticipated digital assistant. But now that might be about to change as a Reddit user posted a screenshot of an email saying it would launch on July 18. When the Samsung Galaxy S8 was released in April, users were disappointed to find that their device was missing Bixby, the firm's highly-anticipated digital assistant According to Samsung, Bixby is'a completely new way to use your Galaxy S8 or S8 .' Users can use voice, text, or touch to say what they need, since it understands all three. Alternatively, users can take pictures on their camera, and Bixby will search for objects within the picture.

If the futurists, visionaries, and venture capitalists are to be believed, artificial intelligence is right on the cusp of becoming the most important breakthrough for healthcare since penicillin. Self-driving cars, scary-smart advertising, and virtual home assistants are just the beginning, they proclaim. Hospitals must brace themselves for a complete transformation – a revolution – a total makeover of every aspect of patient care. If the amount of money riding on "artificial intelligence" breakthroughs is any guide, it won't be long before the first chat bot bursts through the barrier of the Turing Test. A new report from MarketsandMarkets pins the healthcare artificial intelligence sector at 7.98 billion dollars in 2022, accelerating at a wild compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 52.68 percent over the forecast period.

The battle of the smartphone voice assistants has begun. While Google Assistant, Apple Siri, and Samsung Bixby are squaring against each other by offering different features, Amazon Alexa is on a different track altogether. Unlike the other voice assistants, Alexa's first home was the innards of a smart speaker, instead of a smartphone. It was announced in 2014, but finally made its appearance in 2015 in Amazon Echo. Unlike Apple Siri which made its journey from a smartphone to a smart speaker, Amazon's Alexa did quite the opposite. Until the end of the last year, it was only present in Amazon smart speakers.

Apple in 2016 opened up Siri to bring the personal assistant to apps, but few developers have signed on. While Apple says Siri works with YouTube, the results are wanting: Ask Siri to play a specific YouTube playlist, it tells you it can't find that playlist in your Apple Music. Slow uptake by app developers risks further denting Siri's credibility, already bruised by the growth of Alexa and the ambitious advance of rival Google Assistant on Android phones and the Google Home speaker. On Apple's Siri web page, the company lists under 100 possibilities to use Siri, from setting calendar appointments, searching photos on Pinterest and booking rides on Lyft.

As promised, HTC is finally making it possible for owners of its U11 smartphone to install Amazon's Alexa. Starting today, those in the US who need yet another voice interface can download the HTC Alexa app from the Google Play Store -- we're told localized versions of Alexa are coming to other countries in the coming weeks. For those keeping count, that brings the U11's virtual assistant count to three: Google Assistant is also on-board, along with HTC's non-chatty Sense Companion. Unsurprisingly, the company doesn't think three assistants are overkill. VP of product planing Nigel Newby-House sees these three options as complementary, and on some level, he's got a point.

Everyone, from tech powerhouses to startups to Hollywood, has pondered this existential question. If you take a look at AI products coming out of Silicon Valley, you'd assume consumers don't just want Siri to tell them the weather, they want Siri to be their friend.

The machines haven't taken over. However, they are seeping their way into our lives, affecting how we live, work and entertain ourselves. From voice-powered personal assistants like Siri and Alexa, to more underlying and fundamental technologies such as behavioral algorithms, suggestive searches and autonomously-powered self-driving vehicles boasting powerful predictive capabilities, there are several examples and applications of artificial intellgience in use today. However, the technology is still in its infancy. What many companies are calling A.I. today, aren't necessarily so.