Yes, the leaks were true: you no longer have to buy a Pixel (or launch Allo) if you want official support for Google Assistant on your Android phone. As of this week, the AI helper will start rolling out to Android phones running Marshmallow or Nougat. So long as your phone has Google Play Services and meets some basic specs (at least 1.5GB of RAM and a 720p screen), you too can use Android's native search app to get answers and issue commands through Google's conversational companion. Just where and when you'll get it will vary, though. The initial rollout will focus on English-speaking users in the US.

If you didn't know that LG was releasing its G6 flagship smartphone at Mobile World Congress, you must have not had Internet service for most of 2017. LG itself has been releasing bits of information about its newest smartphone for weeks, and a steady stream of leaks and spy shots have conspired to elucidate pretty much every aspect of the phone thus far. Well, now the G6 is finally here, and with an extra-tall display and Google Assistant built into the OS, it's every bit the flagship it was promised to be. Even without any surprises--and even with a soon-to-be-outdated processor--the G6 is a beast that puts LG back on the Android map. Why this matters: LG needs a hit.

Does the Voice Activated Assistant have a place in the business? There are lots of voice activated assistants available to help us with our daily tasks. Some are built into mobile devices and some are purchased as specific items. The key is that they all respond to commands and can interact with other devices in our lives. These devices are already within most business today, but may not be used to their full potential.

Five months after introducing its digital assistant, Google is sharing the feature with Android partners, hoping the service can boost its odds to win customers from Apple Inc.'s iPhone. Alphabet Inc.'s Google is making its intelligent assistant -- a service that answers queries, plays music and completes tasks -- available for smartphones using the two newest versions of its Android software. It's showcasing the service with a closer partnership with LG Electronics Co. announced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, where LG and a slew of hardware manufacturers aim to make a splash ahead of the iPhone's 10th anniversary later this year. Google's assistant on LG's new G6 phone introduced Sunday at the Mobile World Congress. Until now, Google's Pixel smartphone, introduced in October, has been the only handset with the company's automated assistant.

Universities are to get £17 million to help develop pioneering robotics. Artificial intelligence (AI) and robotics which can "transform how we live, work, travel and learn" are in line for a boost in the Government's digital strategy. Universities will get £17 million to help them develop pioneering robotics and AI as part of the plans to support the "booming" sector, which is behind smartphone voice and touch recognition technology and digital assistants such as the iPhone's Siri. AI also forms the bedrock of video games and music and film recommendations services, as well as improving online customer services, and is used in fraud detection tools used by banks. Among the projects supported with the money from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) is a move by the University of Manchester to develop autonomous robots for hazardous environments such as nuclear facilities.

Many months of leaks have mostly proved to be accurate. The LG G6 is a considerable change from the G5. Gone now is the modularity that made last year's flagship both fascinating and also the centre of some not inconsiderable quality control issues. The G6 might lose some of that innovation, but LG has really focused on what's important this year - I'll explain more as we go. First of all the G6 is a beautiful phone.

Editor's note: This is the first chapter of a book I'm working on called Demystifying Artificial Intelligence. The goal of the book is to demystify what modern AI is and does for a general audience. So something to smooth the transition between AI fiction and highly mathematical descriptions of deep learning. I'm developing the book over time - so if you buy the book on Leanpub know that there is only one chaper in there so far, but I'll be adding more over the next few weeks and you get free updates. The cover of the book was inspired by this amazing tweet by Twitter user @notajf. Feedback is welcome and encouraged!

Startup Intuition Robotics emerged from stealth on January 11, 2017, announcing a social robot aimed at keeping older adults active and engaged. The design and actions of the artificial intelligence-based device, ElliQ, make it look and feel less like a traditional robot and more as a friendly and approachable digital companion. It is unveiled this week as part of the exhibition New Old: Designing for our Future Selves at The Design Museum in London and was developed in collaboration with famed industrial designer Yves Béhar and his studio, fuseproject. The world's advanced economies are facing today the challenge of responding to the needs of a rapidly aging population (about 15% of people in the United States and 26% in Japan are older than 65). Loneliness and social isolation are serious issues that sometimes accelerate specific health conditions and worsen the physical disabilities of older adults.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Apple is preparing to rebuild Siri and take the fight to Amazon and Google, but how does the current version stack up against the current AI industry leader, Alexa? If you're considering buying Google's AI tech, check out how it fared against Alexa in this head-to-head.

I just binge-listened to an outstanding podcast, LifeAfter, which, without giving too much away, is about artificial intelligence and its impact on people. When you die in the digital age, pieces of you live on forever. In your emails, your social media posts and uploads, in the texts and videos you've messaged, and for some – even in their secret online lives few even know about. But what if that digital existence took on a life of its own? The ethical issues that this podcast raises are fascinating and riff on some of the AI-related issues we're starting to appreciate.