Are you concerned about the continued development of smart gadgets increasing their ability to listen, think, speak and feel more human than humans? When we think about science fiction movies like The Terminator, iRobot, Maximum Overdrive, RoboCop, 2001: A Space Odessey, The Machine, Transcendence, Project Almanac, Robot and Frank, and The Matrix Revolutions, many people worry these smart gadgets will overpower the world. Voice Command Devices (VCD) are evidence of how science and technology leaped into an incredible world of artificial intelligence (AI). Voice-activated smart devices such as Alexa, Siri, and Google are programmed to interact, play music, provide the weather, play audiobooks, keep up with your calendar appointments and provide other real-time information requested by the user. One funny, but kind of freaky occurrence has been reports made by individuals who were on the telephone with someone who owns one of these VCD's and heard those devices suddenly start to talk on their own.

Robots are taking over retail, well not quite. There has been much talk about robots taking on human roles within retail. Whilst this seems like an incredible innovation and still very futuristic, IBM Watson, the supercomputing power behind Pepper, the high profile robot with linguistic talents is one of several technologies such as advanced voice-recognition, data analytics, cognitive systems and automation that are going to transform our experience of shopping. What can be a painful drag, will, thanks to these advances, become more convenient and satisfying, whichever way we shop. Get right to the point When you go online to shop for a new coat the power of machine learning and artificial intelligence means you won't immediately be confronted by a bewildering range that takes hours to trawl through and ends up making you unhappy with your indecisiveness.

Peter Shulman, an associate history professor at Case Western Reserve University in Ohio, was lecturing on the reemergence of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s when a student asked an odd question: Was President Warren Harding a member of the KKK? He confessed that he was not aware of that allegation, but that Harding had been in favor of anti-lynching legislation, so it seemed unlikely. But then a second student pulled out his phone and announced that yes, Harding had been a Klan member, and so had four other presidents. For most of its history, Google did not answer questions. Users typed in what they were looking for and got a list of web pages that might contain the desired information.

Whether your interaction with artificial intelligence (AI) is limited to science-fiction or you spend more time in your day talking to Siri and Alexa than actual humans, you can't hide from the fact AI is changing the world. This week, the UK's new digital strategy was launched, which dedicated £17.3m to research and development of robotics and AI. Out of the industries welcoming this technology with open arms, finance and banking is one of the biggest. It's not hard to see why: when companies are dealing with large amounts of data, handing over control to a machine learning system that can analyse and understand information much faster than a human being is an obvious benefit. Where is this new technology having an impact in the finance sector?

Many of you are old enough to recall the Personal Computer OS "war" of the late 80's and early 90's. I can clearly remember being pressured by my boss to make a choice between IBM OS/2 and Microsoft Windows. I chose the wrong one. Then came the browser war, followed by the smartphone war. The next technology war on the horizon is shaping up to be consumer artificial intelligence (AI) devices like Amazon Echo, Google Home, Microsoft Cortana and Apple Siri.

I don't want to alarm anyone, but if Google Home is to be believed, Barack Obama is planning a coup. With Trump making unfounded accusations against Obama this weekend, it makes sense that Google's smart speaker would indulge in a right-wing conspiracy theory. First, Danny Sullivan of SearchEngineLand discovered that Google was offering up fake news about an Obama coup when you typed the question into the search engine behemoth. If you're wondering if Obama is planning a coup, Google's "one true answer" is yes. Then, as noted by ReCode, videos of Google's in-home assistant replying with the same answer began to circulate, an unsettling development that would give your conservative uncle the upper hand in your next political debate. And here's what happens if you ask Google Home "is Obama planning a coup?" pic.twitter.com/MzmZqGOOal

It has been a while since Amazon came out with new Echo hardware and according to a recent report, that might change in the coming months. Amazon has reportedly started beta testing the new Echo that will be powered by its artificial intelligence-based smart assistant Alexa. The company is expected to add some major functionality to Echo which will set it apart from the competition. Previous reports have suggested that the new Amazon Echo is going to have support for voice calls. It will enable users to make voice calls to their friends and family by simply issuing voice commands to the assistant.

Silicon Valley investor and web pioneer Marc Andreessen said in 2011 that "software is eating the world." The explosion of app ecosystems seems to prove his point, but things have changed dramatically even since then. These days, it might be more accurate to say that "AI is fueling the software that's eating the world," but I've never been very quotable. In any case, it's not impossible to ignore the normalization of artificial intelligence at this year's Mobile World Congress -- even if a resurrected 17-year-old phone did end up stealing the show. When it comes to the intersection of smartphones and AI, Motorola had the most surprising news at the show.

These days, marketers can't read about their profession without getting bombarded with wild claims about how AI is going to disrupt everything they do. And with the sales and marketing functions evolving so rapidly in recent years, marketers in particular must embrace an entrepreneurial spirit and constantly explore new technologies in order to give their team a competitive edge. That mindset shift, along with new consumer trends -- such as self-driving cars and intelligent voice-first products like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri -- are bringing the possibilities of AI to the forefront of business-to-business marketing technology discussions. But all of this begs the question, "Which AI claims are hype and which are reality?" In order to know what a new technology like AI can bring to the table, it's important to fully understand the problems you're trying to solve.

When it comes to the intersection of smartphones and AI, Motorola had the most surprising news at the show. In case you missed it, Motorola is working with Amazon (and Harman Kardon, most likely) to build a Moto Mod that will make use of Alexa. Even to me, someone who cooled on the Mods concept after an initial wave of interesting accessories slowed to a trickle, this seems like a slam dunk. Even better, Motorola product chief Dan Dery described what the company ultimately wanted to achieve: a way to get assistants like Alexa to integrate more closely with the personal data we keep on our smartphones. In his mind, for instance, it would be ideal to ask an AI make a reservation at a restaurant mentioned in an email a day earlier.