Robots are getting smarter, and, if you listen to high-ranking digital execs at Coca-Cola and other major brands, they're coming for your advertising jobs. No one knows that better than the tech geeks at Team One's newly launched AI Lab, who are vowing to stay ahead of the machine-learning curve by surrounding themselves with all things futuristic in a stylish nook of the agency's cavernous Playa Vista, Calif., headquarters. The lab, a scaled-down re-creation of a smart home designed to look like a midcentury modern crash pad, is outfitted with Google Home, Amazon Echo, Philips Hue and a trunk full of cognitive toys. "It's a dedicated space to experiment and brainstorm," said Alastair Green, executive creative director, digital, who launched the agency's tricked-out, gadget-heavy VR Lab onsite last year. "We want to spark ideas and create better work with AI. And to answer the brands' question: 'What's the business case for it?'"

Amazon Echo and Google Home can make you feel like you've stumbled across a genie: say what you want and, like magic, it appears on your doorstep. And as the incident earlier this year where a 6-year-old girl ordered a $170 dollhouse and four pounds of cookies demonstrates, it often isn't. Kids are ingenious little creatures. Soon they'll realize getting Nintendo Switch accessories or a hot pizza delivered no longer necessitates kicking and screaming. Instead, just ask Alexa nicely.

When you ask Siri for directions, peruse Netflix's recommendations or get a fraud alert from your bank, these interactions are led by computer systems using large amounts of data to predict your needs. The market is only going to grow. By 2020, the research firm IDC predicts that AI will help drive worldwide revenues to over $47 billion, up from $8 billion in 2016. Still, Coursera co-founder ANDREW NG, adjunct professor of computer science, says fears that AI will replace humans are misplaced: "Despite all the hype and excitement about AI, it's still extremely limited today relative to what human intelligence is." Ng, who is chief scientist at Baidu Research, spoke to the Graduate School of Business community as part of a series presented by the Stanford MSx Program, which offers experienced leaders a one-year, full-time learning experience.

U.S. consumers who plan to buy the all-new LG G6 will now have no reason to think twice about making the purchase. LG is offering a special preorder gift to those who will preorder its newest flagship phone, and it's none other than the Google Home smart speaker. Just this Wednesday, TechnoBuffalo exclusively received word form the South Korea tech company that as part of its promotions for the G6, anyone who will preorder the device will also get a Google Home. That means U.S. consumers can bring home two premium devices with built-in Google Assistant. The offer, called the LG G6 Google Home National Promotion, is already live.

Alexa, Amazon's all-knowing and doing voice assistant can now help people vacuum, thanks to a partnership between the Seattle-based retail giant and iRobot, a maker of consumer robots. Bedford, Mass.-based iRobot announced updates for the iRobot HOME App on both iOS and Android to continue integrating its line of Roomba-connected vacuums to the smart home, integrating Amazon Alexa and its voice control into the app. "iRobot is aggressively pursuing opportunities within the connected home to improve our customers' experience with our cleaning robots," said Colin Angle, chairman and CEO of iRobot in a statement. In addition to adding voice control, the HOME App is getting new Clean Map reports that provide details about cleaning performance, including what part of the floor is the dirtiest, how much space was cleaned, time taken and more. Inside the iRobot HOME App, customers can start, stop and pause a cleaning job, using just their voice.

Announced this week, the TAG Heuer Connected Modular 45 is a circular smartwatch with a 1.39-inch touchscreen display. It's powered by an Intel Atom Z34XX processor and 4GB of memory. The watch will run Android Wear 2.0, the latest version of Google's wearable operating system. Although the Connected Modular 45 is being recognised for its Swiss design and blend of traditional and modern technology, one of its software features could be the most significant component. Intel is building a futuristic virtual assistant to sit on the watch, enabling owners to use their voice to ask questions and carry out commands.

Developers interested in extending the capabilities of Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant have some more free tools in their arsenal, thanks to a program the company announced Wednesday. Developers with an active Alexa skill -- a service that expands the capabilities of the virtual assistant -- can apply for $100 in Amazon Web Services credits every month to help pay for what they've built. After that, they can receive up to $100 per month in additional credits if they incur usage charges for their skills. The credits are meant to build on AWS's existing Free Tier, which offers developers a small bundle of free services every month, but charges them for any usage that goes over those low caps. According to a blog post by Amazon CTO Werner Vogels, the move is supposed to make it free for developers to operate most Alexa skills.

One of Google Home's biggest strengths is its ability to fill our homes with music on command. All we need to do is say, "OK Google, play Shape of You," and it will dutifully comply, but if you don't know what you're in the mood to hear, the boundless options can be overwhelming. A new feature in the Google Home app is looking to help make it easier. Joining Watch and Discover, there's a new Listen tab in the Google Home app that is dedicated to finding just the right music at just the right time. As Google describes, the new section "shows you curated lists of ready-to-stream, personalized albums and playlists from your favorite music apps, like YouTube, Google Play Music, and Spotify. You'll also find compatible music and audio apps you already have on your phone or tablet, as well as a section to discover new apps to download."

Editor's Note: This article first appeared in Spektrum der Wissenschaft, Scientific American's sister publication, as "Digitale Demokratie statt Datendiktatur." "Enlightenment is man's emergence from his self-imposed immaturity. Immaturity is the inability to use one's understanding without guidance from another." The digital revolution is in full swing. How will it change our world? The amount of data we produce doubles every year. In other words: in 2016 we produced as much data as in the entire history of humankind through 2015. Every minute we produce hundreds of thousands of Google searches and Facebook posts. These contain information that reveals how we think and feel. Soon, the things around us, possibly even our clothing, also will be connected with the Internet. It is estimated that in 10 years' time there will be 150 billion networked measuring sensors, 20 times more than people on Earth. Then, the amount of data will double every 12 hours. Many companies are already trying to turn this Big Data into Big Money. Everything will become intelligent; soon we will not only have smart phones, but also smart homes, smart factories and smart cities. Should we also expect these developments to result in smart nations and a smarter planet? The field of artificial intelligence is, indeed, making breathtaking advances. In particular, it is contributing to the automation of data analysis. Artificial intelligence is no longer programmed line by line, but is now capable of learning, thereby continuously developing itself. Recently, Google's DeepMind algorithm taught itself how to win 49 Atari games. Algorithms can now recognize handwritten language and patterns almost as well as humans and even complete some tasks better than them. They are able to describe the contents of photos and videos. Today 70% of all financial transactions are performed by algorithms. News content is, in part, automatically generated. This all has radical economic consequences: in the coming 10 to 20 years around half of today's jobs will be threatened by algorithms. It can be expected that supercomputers will soon surpass human capabilities in almost all areas--somewhere between 2020 and 2060. Experts are starting to ring alarm bells.

Amazon announced a new partnership with Grubhub on Wednesday that will let users order a meal by simply talking to any device outfitted with digital assistant Alexa. The feature is limited to delivery orders a customer has made in the past; it won't work if you're trying a restaurant or menu item for the first time. Once a user's Grubhub account is linked to Amazon, the skill can be accessed through prompts like, "Alexa, open Grubhub" or "Alexa, tell Grubhub I'm hungry." Alexa will then reel off a list of previous orders, from which users can decide what they want to repeat. Alexa already offers a similar delivery and takeout service through Amazon Restaurants, as well as select brands like Domino's and Wing Stop. But Grubhub's network of more than 50,000 restaurants will vastly expand the available selection.