Trust is important when it comes to design. Whenever we arrive at a new website or consider a product, we rely on feeling like we trust a brand in order to interact with it. Whether you trust the service or not is the difference between whether you will sign up, make an order, refer a friend, or come back for a second spin--all within a matter of a few unconscious seconds. But that's no longer the only place we look for trust. The graphic user interfaces (GUIs) you use to interact with websites are slowly being complemented or replaced entirely by voice user interfaces (VUIs), such as personal-assistant bots.

Apple, Amazon, and Google are at war over the future of personal computing, and now Amazon is taking the battle to its rivals' home turf: the smartphone. All three are convinced that voice-controlled virtual assistants have the potential to transform how we interact with our devices. Apple has Siri, Google has Google Assistant, and Amazon has Alexa. They believe that in the future, you won't swipe or manually fiddle with your device -- you'll just talk to it, as you would another human. Whoever gets ahead now has the potential to define the next major era of computing.

Amazon is bringing Alexa to the iPhone today right inside of the company's main app. While this isn't the first time Alexa has been on a smartphone -- third parties have made it happen already -- this is the first time it's coming directly from Amazon. And it could be a huge help to anyone who's filling their home with Alexa-enabled devices. Inside of the Amazon App for iOS, there will be a microphone icon near the top of the screen that you can press to call up Alexa. You'll be able to ask the assistant almost anything you'd normally be able to ask through a device like the Echo.

We talk about artificial intelligence (AI), robots, and machine learning as if they're coming soon, or are just some tech pipe dream. In fact, a special report from Bank of America, Merrill Lynch predicts the global market for AI and robots will be just under $153 billion by 2020, and some industries will experience up to a 30% productivity increase through the use of those technologies alone. That can either terrify you if you've seen too many sci-fi films, or excite you if you consider the upside and benefits it could yield. The reality probably lies somewhere in the middle. There will be disruption – there will be jobs and perhaps even whole industries that see massive displacement from robots and other "intelligent" machines. And that says nothing of the inherent risk associated with creating something capable of logical thinking without emotion. The robots may not rise up and exterminate humanity any time soon, but the development of true AI is closer than you think.

The idea of thinking machines may evoke thoughts of a Terminator-esque era, but the fact is that artificial intelligence, to an extent, is already a part of our lives and its presence is only set to grow. Artificial intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science that deals with making computers simulate human intelligence. However technical and geeky that may sound, AI is a far less mundane technology than you might believe. Right from medical diagnoses to driverless cars, AI has fundamentally improved the way people consume a product, which is why marketers bet on it big time. A 2016 survey by Demandbase pointed out that over 80 percent of marketing executives believed that AI would revolutionise marketing by 2020.

Tech giants are in a race to see who can build the most powerful voice-activated assistant, but there's a side effect that we haven't considered: Kids who grow up asking Amazon's Alexa questions or summoning Siri might lose some social skills. What if artificial intelligence changes the way we talk? Experts in robotics, machine learning, and AI descended on Austin for South by Southwest this week, and the biggest questions were lifted straight from the film Her. Is it changing the way we interact with each other? Will kids think they can order around their friends the same way they tell Alexa to tell them a joke?

Google Assistant, Google's own AI digital assistant, is now rolling out to several smartphones running Android Marshmallow and Nougat. However, it looks like the company's digital assistant won't be making its way to tablets. Earlier this month, Google Assistant started rolling out to older, non-Pixel smartphones. The company also made it clear on its blog that the service will be available on "Android phones" and "smartphones running Android 7.0 Nougat and Android 6.0 Marshmallow." Android Police has now reached out to Google regarding the availability of Assistant on tablets, and this was the company's response: "The Assistant will be available on Android Marshmallow and Nougat phones with Google Play Services, this does not include tablets."

The LG G6 hasn't yet hit the shelves, but carriers have started making efforts to entice customers. T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint and US Cellular are all offering a free Google Home speaker (priced at $129) on the purchase of the device. The offer ends April 30 or until supplies last, whichever comes first. In addition to the Google Home speaker, carriers are also offering other freebies with the device. T-Mobile is offering the G6 for a EMI of $26 a month for 24 months along with a $26 down payment, which makes the total cost of the handset $650.

The second man to set foot on the moon thinks colonizing Mars is humanity's destiny. Buzz Aldrin, Apollo 11 astronaut, may now be 87, but he's keeping his mind focused on the next space frontier. For decades now, he's thought about how to get astronauts to Mars, becoming more vocal about his plans in recent years. He's also a fan of virtual reality as a medium to communicate his vision: He partnered with NASA to build a Mars Hololens experience last year, and now he's hosting a 10-minute VR experience that walks you through his vision of how to get to Mars. Now it's up to CongressTrump's budget proposal means big cuts for NASA, climate change programs The president's proposed 2018 budget has been revealed.

Amazon's virtual assistant just got a much wider audience. The company announced it's integrating Alexa into its main shopping app on iPhone, starting today with a full rollout expected by next week. The assistant can do more than just provide a voice interface to Amazon's retail store, however – it can also control your smart home, play your music or Kindle books, answer questions, check the news and weather, and take advantage of Alexa's extensions, known as Skills. Basically, it's a mobile version of Alexa that you can use even without Amazon hardware, like an Echo speaker or Fire TV. It may seem a bit odd to think of using a virtual assistant via a shopping app rather than, say, the existing Alexa mobile app.