Entertainment has already been transformed by tech advances that seem custom-made to blow our minds. Whether it's amazing graphics that transport us to incredible new worlds or interactive 3-D games that feel like real life, entertainment is evolving into a more personalized, immersive experience, and the key to this engaging entertainment future is artificial intelligence. At its most simple, AI is technology that can operate and think for itself without traditional human intervention. If you have an iPhone, Siri is a great example. Without lifting a finger, you can ask Apple's digital assistant to find things for you, take a note or call your mom.

The first was the steam engine-driven Industrial Revolution; the second involved the innovations from Henry Ford's assembly line. Third, microelectronics and computer power appeared on factory floors. Now, manufacturing businesses are beginning to integrate robotics, automation and other data-driven technologies into their workflows. Now, manufacturing businesses are beginning to integrate robotics, automation and other data-driven technologies into their workflows. Robots have taken over difficult, dangerous and repetitive physical tasks, improving factory safety, worker comfort and product quality.

Any article on the web that starts with terms like "Machine Learning" and "Artificial Intelligence," more or less drops us hints about the future. Although it all seems like preparing a foundation for the time ahead, things have started picking up pace already. It's difficult to deny that even though machine learning and A.I. sound more like future technologies, we all have been using it already. Some of the notable examples include Google Home, Amazon Echo, Google Photos etc. What's more, smartphone manufacturers are trying their luck nowadays with these technologies. Care to think of Apple Siri, Google Assistant, Microsoft Cortana, and newborn Samsung Bixby? It often reminds me of what Elon Musk once said, "Great companies are built on great products."

From phone support and mobile apps to ATMs and chatbots -- when it comes to customer service, banking automation has come a long way. However, the one missing piece that these automated banking features lack is a real human being to interact with during a transaction. That's something that Soul Machines, a New Zealand-based startup, is hoping to change. The company's new technological development is intended to bring back the human component to customer service without relying on actual people. To meet this goal, Soul Machines is producing artificial intelligence-powered avatars that are designed to emotionally engage with banking customers.

Have you ever wanted to grab your friend's phone and seize control of their disastrous dating life? Enter Wingman, a new app launching today that lets you set up friends with only people you deem appropriate. It's more of matchmaking app -- a little bit like handing your friend your Tinder or Bumble account and saying, "Here, you deal with this." What sets it apart from the flood of other dating apps is that singles can't create their own profiles or connect themselves with people. Your fate rests almost entirely in the the hands of your wingman or wingwoman.

Having artificial intelligence on our mobile devices is becoming commonplace these days. Many of our modern smartphones are equipped with AI assistants. Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, and Samsung's new lineup of S8 smartphones will see the debut of their new virtual assistant, Bixby. Amazon Alexa is also coming to the iPhone. However, Facebook has now announced the launch of their new open-source platform, Caffe2, which will provide coders with the machine-learning tools necessary to develop AI software for mobile devices.

S-based bot platform Gupshup on Monday launched InterBot, a bot-to-bot communication platform to enable them transact, co-ordinate, compete, collaborate and negotiate with each other. Touted as the world's first, Interbot communications enable different kinds of bots, such as shopping bots to negotiate with merchant bots to find the best prices. A travel bot can book packages by combining the services of flight and hotel bots. A taxi bot can ask the café bot to have the coffee ready by the time the user's taxi arrives. Gaming bots can play strategy games with dealer bots.

It sounds like a line from science-fiction: Two of the world's most famous technologists are butting heads over artificial intelligence. Tesla/SpaceX CEO Elon Musk and Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg have very different ideas on what qualifies as "AI," according to a recent Vanity Fair article detailing whether popular male tech figures believe in a forthcoming AI apocalypse. Their debate underlies a bigger one facing the industry: nobody can agree on what the term means. There are generally two schools of thought when talking about whether software today (read: not an imaginary future killer robot) is a form of artificial intelligence: literalists and generalists. When asked about Zuckerberg's Jarvis, a bot that mainly handles home-automation tasks like controlling the thermostat or picking music to play, Musk replied dismissively.

Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa, is infiltrating your home, your beach trips and even your ride to work. Now that there are four ways to interact with Alexa -- with the Tap, Echo and Dot devices, and with the Amazon Fire TV -- you might find yourself talking to her more often. The list of commands is expanding rapidly, as is the number of third-party services and devices that Alexa officially (and unofficially) supports. Here is the (almost) complete list of Amazon Alexa commands. By default, Amazon's connected speakers have the same wake word.

Amazon's Echo connected speaker--and Alexa, the device's voice controlled brains that let users order pizzas and Ubers--is a hit. But the technology underlying Alexa can do more important things like helping people with special needs do more things on their own. Witness this recent blog post from Amazon that explores how Troy Larson, a senior architect for Amazon (amzn) Web Services, used two software tools for third-party developers to program a virtual assistant that cues his autistic son reminders about needing to eat or using the restroom. The first tool, "Lex," lets programmers build speech recognition into their own software. The second tool, "Polly," converts text to speech. Developers can use them to build their own voice commands and interactions into software.