This post will guide you through installing Apache Prediction IO machine learning server. We'll use one of its templates called Recommendation to build a working recommendation engine. The finished product will be able to recommend customized products depending upon a given user's purchasing behavior. You've got bunch of data and you need to predict something accurately so you can help your business grow its sales, grow customers, grow profits, grow conversion, or whatever the business need is. Recommendation systems are probably the first step everyone takes toward applying data science and machine learning.

While we love to hate Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, she has been hailed a hero by some fishermen in Florida, who claim that it saved their lives. Though it seems like Siri is incapable of doing anything well aside from dishing out sass, the assistant is actually pretty good at making hands-free phone calls. Though simple, this feature did save lives this weekend. SEE ALSO: Computers can't grasp Icelandic. Three boaters ran into rough seas on Saturday morning while fishing four miles off of the coast of Key Biscayne, and Siri came to their rescue, according to Fox 4. Their 18-foot boat began to take on water in the rough seas, and the men quickly put on life jackets and attempted to call 911 before the boat sank.

You've heard of Siri, Viv, Cortana and Echo – you've probably even used one of them. Powered by Artificial Intelligence, these increasingly clever digital assistants provide the user with instant access to information, from the weather forecast to amusing trivia. The most well-known of the bunch is probably Siri, developed by Apple and built in to all iPhones, iPads and Macs as standard. However, companies like Microsoft, Amazon and Google have released their own assistants. Samsung being the most recent tech giant to develop a competing product, revealing its new PA at the beginning of the month.

Apple's rumored Siri speaker could be announced as soon as June at the Worldwide Developers Conference, according to a note by KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo obtained by MacRumors. Kuo said there is an "over 50 percent chance" the speaker will be revealed at WWDC, which will be held June 5-9. "We believe there is an over 50 percent chance that Apple will announce its first home AI [artificial intelligence] product at WWDC in June and start selling in the [second half of 2017] in order to compete with the new Amazon Echo models to be launched," Kuo said in the note. The analyst also revealed the Siri speaker will cost more than the Amazon Echo. Apple's rumored speaker will supposedly support AirPlay, which had been rumored before, and will have "excellent" acoustics performance.

The future is dystopian: a world in which we humble humans will be replaced by fleets of slick automatons – mechanical menials destined to not only solder, weld and glue us out of jobs, but account, diagnose, and translate us out, too. Or, so goes a certain line of argument. Certainly, there have been some heavyweight concerns voiced about the rise of artificial intelligence. Of course, there are counterarguments too. Just as the Industrial Revolution sparked fears around the supplanting of man by machine (fears which lead some as far as destroying the new mechanical marvels: hence today's use of the word'Luddite' to denote those opposed to technological progress), all new vistas are likely to provoke both optimism and hesitance.

You might not have to wait too much longer to see Apple's fabled smart speaker... though buying it may be another matter. Well-connected KGI analyst Ming-Chi Kuo claims that Apple will introduce its Siri-equipped speaker (labeled by Kuo as Apple's "first home AI product") at its Worldwide Developer Conference in early June. And to no one's surprise, it would be pitched as a premium alternative to the Amazon Echo -- a subwoofer and seven tweeters would deliver "excellent" sound. It would also tout a more powerful processor (comparable to the A8 or A9 in previous-generation iPhones) and, naturally, tight integration with other Apple devices. You might be waiting a while.

In the 25 years or so since I've been working on voice recognition projects, the technology has evolved a great deal. Today, all the major tech companies, from Apple to Google and beyond, are combining voice recognition with artificial intelligence software to create new platforms and interfaces for their users (think of Siri, Alexa or Cortana.) This kind of voice-activated innovation will continue to be important. But I believe a different technology will be even more significant: Augmented reality, or AR. Simply put, AR technology integrates virtual images and information with a user's real-world surroundings.

The Galaxy S8 is shipping all over the world, people are raving about it, and it's breaking all sorts of sales records. Samsung's AI assistant Bixby wasn't quite ready to launch when the Galaxy S8 did, so Samsung held back its biggest feature, voice commands, with a vague promise that it will launch "later this spring." But we could be getting to know Bixby sooner than we think. Samsung has launched the voice component of Bixby in its home country of South Korea, a clear signal that the company is hard at work at perfecting its voice recognition engine. The plan has always been for Korean language support to launch first followed by English.

You can pick up Amazon Echo for far below list price, if you're comfortable buying refurbished. Which you can be -- certified refurbished products are tested and certified to look and work like new, and come with warranties. Amazon Echo is a hands-free speaker you control with your voice. Echo connects to the Alexa Voice Service to play music, provide information, news, sports scores, weather, and more--instantly. All you have to do is ask.

Sudha Jamthe is a mobile product leader, Author of IOT Disruptions and host of The IoT Show. My kitchen opens up to my family room, where right smack in the middle sits Alexa, an Amazon Echo device. It feels strange to call Alexa a device, because she has been chatting with my family and is building out her personality. Tell Alexa, "You are stupid," and she'll reply, "I'll try to do better next time," and "That's not very nice to say," the second time. As Amazon applies machine learning, Alexa will learn and develop her personality to fit in my home differently from yours.