Voice-controlled assistants are having a moment. But there may be an intriguing wrinkle that their makers have to smooth out: users don't seem to be using many apps. The number of Skills--the Amazon name for apps that operate on its Alexa smart assistant software--available for the company's Echo smart speaker have risen significantly in the past six months, from 950 last May to over 8,000 today. But an analysis of the way people use Alexa and and Google's Assistant platforms shows that third-party apps aren't too well used, nor particularly sticky. The analysis, which was carried out voice software startup Voice Labs, shows that most app don't get any user reviews, which suggests they're not very popular.

Apple is reportedly planning to join the Partnership on AI, which Bloomberg describes as "an artificial intelligence research group that includes Amazon.com More broadly, "While the introduction of the Siri virtual assistant in 2011 gave Apple an early presence in AI for consumers, it has since lost ground to rivals such as Google and Amazon," Bloomberg writes.

Marketers are usually the ones responsible for creating the buzzwords that follow us everywhere we go; that is, until artificial intelligence (AI) turned the tables and made the whole marketing industry buzz with excitement. But will AI make life easier for marketers or will it, in the end, replace them? We believe that AI will not replace marketers but enhance their knowledge and experience. AI will help unlock deeper customer insights, communicate with prospects and customers more effectively and eliminate the more monotonous, impersonal aspects of our jobs. Artificial intelligence is a broad term and within marketing involves several capabilities.

A big name in tech was conspiciously missing from the list of companies that formed the Partnership on AI last year--Apple. But now Apple is reportedly planning to join the research group, which promotes education and interoperability issues around artificial intelligence. Existing members include Amazon, Google, Facebook, IBM and Microsoft, Here are the key details on Apple's pending involvement, from Bloomberg: Apple's admission into the group could be announced as soon as this week, according to people familiar with the situation. Representatives at Apple and the Partnership on AI declined to comment. While the introduction of the Siri virtual assistant in 2011 gave Apple an early presence in AI for consumers, it has since lost ground to rivals such as Google and Amazon.

A humanoid, mobile, and much cuter version of the Amazon Echo, the "Kuri 8" robot by California-based startup Mayfield Robotics will perform a range of actions at your command. Not only will it project videos, play music, read to you, tell you the weather, or entertain you with a podcast, it'll follow you from room to room if you wish, chirp, blink, and glow, making it a personal companion along the lines of pop culture robots like R2-D2, BB-8, and Wall-E. The three pillars that make up how Kuri functions are mobility, awareness, and personality. Standing 20 inches tall and 12 inches wide, Kuri boasts a built-in 1080p camera so you can keep an eye on your house or pets when you're away, plus a four-microphone array, dual speakers, WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity, and sensors for mapping and detecting objects so it won't fall down stairs or constantly bump into furniture. Instead of a screen, it's got an animated head with moving "eyelids," relying on a vertical lift and six motors to blink and create Kuri's signature "smile." Mayfield says Kuri is a "him," but especially since it doesn't have a voice, it seems like you could gender your android companion however you prefer.

Apple has formally joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member, confirming an earlier report, the organization announced today. Apple has joined the Partnership on AI as a founding member. The company has been involved and collaborating with the Partnership since before it was first announced and is thrilled to formalize its membership alongside Amazon, Facebook, Google/DeepMind, IBM, and Microsoft.Siri co-founder Tom Gruber, who heads advanced development of the assistant at Apple, will serve on the Partnership's inaugural Board of Trustees. The Partnership on AI is a non-profit research consortium established in September to "study and formulate best practices, to advance the public's understanding of AI, and to serve as an open platform for discussion and engagement about AI and its influences on people and society," according to its website. Apple has always been notoriously secretive, but it recently started allowing its AI and machine learning researchers to publish papers.

Amazon's intelligent personal assistant is making big inroads into homes and the keyboard could be the first victim. "The mass adoption" of Amazon's Alexa devices "may lead to the decline of the keyboard," said Ken Cassar, an analyst at Slice Intelligence, in a statement that's part of a just-released report from the marketing research firm. "Echo…given its ease of use and low price point, it could establish itself as the hub of the smart home," Cassar added in the statement, referring to the smart speaker that is the hardware for interacting with the Alexa service. Echo, which understands spoken questions and commands via its Alexa persona, saw its popularity skyrocket over the holiday season, according to Cassar. "Forty five percent of all Echo devices that have been purchased – since it was launched back in 2015 – were purchased in November and December of 2016," he told Foxnews.com in an interview.

Finding exciting new Android apps and games can be difficult on the crowded Play Store, but please allow us to do the hard work for you. Our Five to Try column highlights five new releases each week, and you're sure to find something interesting and entertaining in each batch. This week's collection is led by Pokémon Duel, another spinoff from Nintendo's monster-battling phenomenon, and it's a lot different than the location-based Pokémon Go. Other intriguing options this week include curated dating app The League, an Android version of classic PC adventure Myst, Fender Tune for guitar players of all sorts, and Disney's colorful Moana Island Life. We probably won't get a traditional, full-fledged Pokémon game on Android anytime soon, but at least we have another fun spinoff option to consider.

Have you ever tried to put a face on the voice of Alexa, Amazon.com's "Elvia," as Studnicki baptized the creation he shows in a YouTube video, is essentially a mechanical head that can move its mouth and eyes, as well as pivot sideways. Alexa's words are routed via a tiny USB sound card to software that moves the two servomotors that animate the head's mouth. The result is even eerier than the Alexa connected to a singing Big Mouth Billy Bass robot that made some waves last year. The experiment highlights how Alexa and other voice-activated artificial intelligence software have captured the imagination of tinkerers.

Coders who can help machines communicate with people are in high demand. Software engineers who program computers to understand human speech saw U.S. demand for their labor grow faster than workers with any other skill, according to data from last quarter compiled by Upwork, a website that matches freelancers with employers. The skillset, called natural language processing, is what powers voice-activated virtual assistants like Apple's Siri and Amazon's Echo devices. "Voice surged to the scene in 2016," said Rich Pearson, a senior vice president of marketing at Upwork Global Inc. "I don't think any of us expected Echo to be as popular as it is." Freelancers who know natural language processing earned an average hourly rate of $123 per hour, and the total amount that they billed soared by 2300 percent last quarter from a year earlier.