This is the first post in an intended series on what is the current state of Artificial Intelligence capabilities, and what we can expect in the relative short term. I will be at odds with the more outlandish claims that are circulating in the press, and amongst what I consider an alarmist group that includes people in the AI field and outside of it. In this post I start to introduce some of the key components of my future arguments, as well as show how different any AI system might be from us humans. Some may recognize the title of this post as an homage to the 1974 paper by Thomas Nagel, "What Is It Like to Be a Bat?". Two more recent books, one from 2009 by Alexandra Horowitz on dogs, and one from 2016 by Peter Godfrey-Smith on octopuses also pay homage to Nagel's paper each with a section of a chapter titled "What it is like", and "What It's Like", respectively, giving affirmative responses to their own questions about what is it like to be a dog, or an octopus.

The outfit evaluations consider fit, color, and personal preference, which Amazon could easily use to recommend you items from its growing apparel shop. That's not to say that it can't notice other stuff about users, like changes in body shape, complexion, and any number of other physical traits. The specific AI recipe driving the algorithm remains a secret, so one wonders how whether Amazon might use the Echo Look to undercut its e-commerce competition. If Alexa can recognize clothes from Target, for example, could it recommend instead that you swap it out for something from its own service? From a security standpoint, Echo Look users will have to make peace with putting a camera and a microphone in their bedrooms, connecting it to the internet, and giving Amazon the ability to get some data from it.

Amazon.com Inc., seeking a bigger slice of the clothing market, is casting itself as a style adviser. The Seattle-based online retailer on Wednesday introduced the Echo Look, a new version of its artificial-intelligence powered speakers that includes a camera. The company said the $200 device, which is only available via an invitation for now, will enable consumers to take videos and photos of their outfits and compare them via algorithms. But Amazon's plans are likely much broader than offering fashion advice, experts say. Potential applications range from becoming a virtual home-fitting room to a communications and security system for companies -- all ways to more deeply integrate the company into consumers' lives.

Amazon revealed Wednesday its latest Alexa device, the Echo Look, which wants to be your "style assistant" by judging your outfits. The Echo Look, is a hands-free camera which receives your commands through Alexa. The device takes full length photos and short videos of you with a built-in LED lighting, depth-sensing camera. The images taken by the Echo Look are focused on what you're wearing by blurring out the background so your outfits stand out. Read: Amazon Launches'Amazon Cash', A Credit-Free Way To Make Purchases: Here's How To Use It The Echo Look, which works kind of like a smart mirror, comes with an app for iOS and Android devices.

Amazon's New Echo Aims to Answer Age-Old Question: Does This Look Good on Me?

Forget your stack of dusty old cookbooks and your worries about gunking up your phone with messy hands while you struggle to follow directions in the kitchen. Google Home will help streamline your cooking experience with a major expansion of its ability to guide you through recipes. Google announced in a blog post that Assistant will now give users access to step-by-step, voice-activated guides for more than 5 million dishes through the Home speaker. The new recipes come courtesy of partnerships with Bon Appetit, The New York Times, Food Network, and others. You'll still be able to get directions for dishes on the fly by telling Google that you're ready to cook, but finding specific recipes is a bit more complicated.

Artificial intelligence may one day surpass human intelligence. But, if designed right, it may also be used to enhance human cognition. Tom Gruber, one of the inventors of the artificial intelligence voice interface Siri that now lives inside iPhones and the macOS operating system, shared a new idea at the TED 2017 conference today for using artificial intelligence to augment human memory. "What if you could have a memory that was as good as computer memory and is about your life?" Gruber asked the audience. "What if you could remember every person you ever met? The last conversation you had with them?" Gruber said he thinks that using artificial intelligence to catalog our experiences and to enhance our memory isn't just a wild idea -- it's inevitable.

Intelligent machines of the future will help restore memory, mind your children, fetch your coffee and even care for ageing parents. It will all be part of a brave new world of the not-so-distant future, in which innovative smart machines, rather than being the undoing of people - as some technophobes have long feared - actually enhance humans. Many experts say technology will allow people to take on tasks they might only have dreamed of in the past. "Super-intelligence should give us superhuman abilities," said Tom Gruber, head of the team responsible for Apple's Siri digital assistant, during an on-stage talk at the prestigious TED Conference in Vancouver. "Artificial intelligence can enable partnerships where each human on the team is doing what they do best," he told the popular technology conference. Gruber, a co-creator of Siri and artificial intelligence research at Apple, told of being drawn to the field three decades ago by the potential for technology to meet people's needs.

Amazon has just unveiled the Echo Look, the latest addition to its range of voice-enabled assistants. Unlike its predecessors, the Look is equipped with a camera, which means it can watch, as well as listen to, its users. It sounds potentially creepy, but the company is marketing the Echo Look as a sort of fashion assistant, and says the device can be used to help you choose an outfit. "Get a live view in the Echo Look app or ask Alexa to take a short video so you can see yourself from every angle," says Amazon. You can also get it to take a full-body picture of you by saying "Alexa, take a picture".

Just ask Amazon's new fashion-selfie-focused Amazon Echo Look. Amazon quietly unveiled the new voice-activated, hands-free camera on Wednesday that it's pitching as the first "artificially intelligent style assistant." SEE ALSO: Glimpse into Amazon's futuristic living spheres Like other Echo devices, the Echo Look is voice-activated, powered by the Alexa digital assistant, and it does everything the current Alexa can do, including controlling other smart home devices and answering questions about the weather, news, and your schedule. This Alexa, though, can also control the device's integrated camera with, "Alexa, take a photo." No more standing in front of the mirror and shooting a selfie or overextending your arm to capture an image of your blouse and skirt or pants and shirt.