It's fun to complain that powerful Artificial General Intelligence (Hal-AI), the kind destined to enslave us, hasn't yet cured cancer. But, focusing too much on what Hal-AI can't yet do makes it easy to overlook the accomplishments of what Practical Artificial Intelligence (Siri-AI) can. For example, consider a recent article by Dr. Dave Levin, former CMIO for the Cleveland Clinic. He claims that AI currently offers little of value to healthcare, "Chronic diseases like diabetes and hypertension… recognizing and treating acute conditions like sepsis, heart attacks and strokes… better prenatal care, prevention and wellness. This is where the vast burden of illness, suffering and costs lie... AI likely has little to offer here of immediate value and can divert resources and attention from these harder (and frankly less sexy) needs."

It's time I face the truth: I think Alexa may be making my wife nervous. You see, when I'm not traveling, I work from home, and lately I have been researching the capabilities of Amazon's virtual assistant from my home office. As suspected, my wife has indeed overhead some of these conversations, and as I type them here I can see how they might make her nervous. While she has yet to admit she is, in fact, jealous of Alexa, last night she did ask me just exactly what it is that Alexa and I could possibly be talking about all day long. Maybe my wife had good reason to question us.

We are pleased to invite you to contribute to the Eleventh ACM Conference on Recommender Systems (RecSys 2017), the premier venue for research and applications of recommendation technologies. The upcoming RecSys conference will be held in Como, Italy, from August, 27th to August 31st, 2017. The conference will continue RecSys' practice of connecting the research and practitioner communities to exchange ideas, frame problems, and share solutions. All the accepted papers will be published by ACM. We construe recommender systems broadly, including applications ranging from e-commerce to social networking, platforms from web to mobile and beyond, and a wide variety of technologies ranging from collaborative filtering to knowledge-based reasoning. The authors will be asked to indicate whether their paper is primarily Algorithm or Application focussed.

TGI Friday's may have a reputation as a casual restaurant and watering hole, but its messaging to customers was hardly conversational. The well-known chain sent out regular blasts through traditional broad-reach media and, more recently, social media, yet it increasingly wanted to re-create the banter that happens organically when regulars belly up to the bar. In lieu of hiring a battalion of customer service "bar keeps," TGI Fridays recruited an enterprise conversation platform infused with a shot of machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to personalize its messaging and overall customer experience. Now, patrons can chat up the AI for happy hour suggestions and appetizer specials, engage in small talk using emojis, make reservations, and order takeout via social media channels and through Amazon Alexa. "We thought about how technology could help us create that one-on-one personalized messaging outside of the bar without having to hire 1,000 people to respond to individual guests," says Sherif Mityas, vice president of strategy and brand initiatives, as well as acting CIO, at TGI Fridays.

Well try doing this with your dating app profile photo. Emily Drooby (@emilydrooby) has the story. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Well try doing this with your dating app profile photo. Emily Drooby (@emilydrooby) has the story.

If you don't use emojis when you meet someone on a dating app, maybe you should. It's no secret that people love their emojis. Today, virtual conversations -- from chats with friends to exchanges with relatives -- pretty much always seem to involve emojis. But how do emojis influence dating? Dating app Clover decided to find out.

Now that Google has fixed the Burger King exploit, it's a great time to pick-up a Google Home. Today, Newegg has a pretty good deal for those looking for this smart speaker. The online retailer is selling a Google Home and a TP-Link HS100 Smart Plug for $129. That's the purchase price of the Google Home, which means you get the $25 smart plug (street price) for free. As you might expect, the Smart Plug works with both Alexa and Google Assistant. That means you can use the Smart Plug to convert an item in your home into a voice-controlled appliance.

Computers can now tell you if the profile picture you use on social media sites or your online dating profile is making the right first impression. Scientists have developed an algorithm that uses artificial intelligence to predict what kind of first impression you will make on other people based on your photograph. The technology could prove useful for ensuring your appearance sends the right signal to prospective employers when going for an interview or what message your Facebook profile picture sends about you. The AI showed that Benedict Cumberbatch was a good choice to play Julian Assange in the Fifth Estate (top). Similarly Joseph Gordon Levitt was rated as a good match to play Edward Snowdon in the film Snowden (bottom).

Amazon's best deals: The Echo Dot with Alexa is finally on sale (Photo: Amazon) If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. Our picks and opinions are independent from any business incentives. Springtime is here, and it's the perfect time to kick off those weekend projects you've spent all winter dreaming about. Amazon Echo is our favorite smart home speaker, you can get the full power of Alexa in a more compact package with the $49.99 Echo Dot. Amazon is sweetening the deal today by taking $20 off when you buy three Echo Dots, which is the first time the company has offered any kind of deal on the cheapest Alexa-enabled speaker. Just add three to your cart and enter the code DOT3PACK in the "promo code" field and you can easily add Alexa across your whole home.

Susan Bennett has told the story before of how she became the voice of Siri without realizing it – at the time, she thought she was making the recordings for an automated switchboard system. In fact, she didn't even find out she had become Siri until a friend played with an iPhone and recognized her voice. She only got the gig, she says, when the actor supposed to be auditioning for the role failed to show. It was, she says, an ironic role for a non-techy. My generation didn't grow up with computers.