Apple's iPhone turns 10 in 2017--a look back at the most ground-breaking tech device of our generation, suggests USA TODAY's Jefferson Graham on #TalkingTech. A group of iPhones released through the product's 10-year history. On Jan. 9, 2007, Apple introduced the world to the iPhone. With its all-touch interface and sleek design, the iPhone took a very different approach to the smartphone, which had been defined by front-runners like BlackBerry. Ten years later, the iPhone is perhaps the most important device launched this century.

On the Stanford University campus, you could practically throw a rock and hit 100 graduate students who are building apps that enable people to communicate more effectively. But Terry Winograd is particularly enthusiastic about the one his graduate student, Catalin Voss, is working on.

When a San Diego TV station covered the Dallas story, Alexa perked up again -- in other households. After local CW6 anchor Jim Patton commented on-air, "I love the little girl, saying'Alexa ordered me a dollhouse,'" Alexa owners watching the broadcast found that the remark triggered orders on their own devices.

A group of iPhones released through the product's 10-year history. On January 9, 2007, Apple introduced the world to the iPhone. With its all-touch interface and sleek design, the iPhone took a very different approach to the smartphone, which had been defined by frontrunners like the BlackBerry. Ten years later, the iPhone is perhaps the most important device launched this century. It made smartphones a must-own device, and helped to transform how we live.

Amazon's "artificial intelligence" software or should we say smart assistant, Alexa, was the quiet star of CES 2017, appearing in a huge range of products, from fridges to smart lamps, to cars. Alexa has even made its debut in its first smartphone, the Huawei Mate 9 – Alexa, and this could be the start of a new trend in 2017 that sees smart assistants become important flagship differentiators. Of course, Google and Apple have been at this for a long time already, and Google Now is already baked in to every new Android smartphone release these days. So really the age of the smart assistant has been here for a while already. However, Google Now certainly isn't a unique selling point for manufacturers looking to stand out in the competitive high-end market, hence why custom assistants are starting to pop up.

It seems that just about everyone wants to get into the AI assistant game. Nokia (the networking giant, not HMD Global's brand) has applied for a trademark on "Viki," a chat- and voice-based helper for smartphones and the web. Details are scarce -- this is a trademark, not a patent -- but there's little doubt as to what it's for. The question is, what will Nokia do with it? "Nokia registers trademarks from time to time," a spokesperson tells us, "but we don't comment on how, whether or when they may be used for Nokia products or services."

One of the unintended results of our growing world of voice-activated devices and assistants is that they can be inadvertently set to a task. We first caught a glimpse of that problem two and a half years ago when an Xbox One ad woke Xbox consoles across the globe. More recently, Amazon's Alexa ended up inadvertently obeying a command from broadcast TV to make a purchase on Amazon--or at least that's what some Echo owners claim. It all started a few days ago when a 6-year-old girl in Texas asked Alexa to "play dollhouse with me and get me a dollhouse." Alexa quickly complied with the request and ordered the child a dollhouse from Amazon, as well as four pounds of cookies, according to CBS DFW.

Why IoT needs artificial intelligence and interoperability to succeed 2. 2017 Nuance Communications, Inc. I'm travelling over the holidays, so make sure it looks like someone is still home at night. Ok, I'll turn on the lights at night. Each company is competing to promote their own proprietary system. For example: If you'd like to adjust the temperature while watching TV in your living room, the conversational assistant in your smart home will know to direct that request to your smart thermostat.

Nokia's trademark application for Viki comes just as the new Android-powered 5.5-inch Nokia 6 launches. A new trademark application by Nokia suggests the former mobile-device giant could be building a phone-based digital assistant called Viki. Nokia filed the European trademark application for the name Viki just ahead last week's launch of the new Android-powered 5.5-inch Nokia 6 from HMD Global, the sole licensee of Nokia handsets, which plans to sell its first Nokia mobile exclusively in China this year for around $250. Nokia's involvement in the new phones is limited to branding and IP. However, the new trademark application could suggest it still may be eyeing a prominent place on Nokia-branded Android devices via Viki, which could be its answer to artificial intelligence-powered digital assistants such as Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, Google's Assistant, and Microsoft's Cortana.

It's poised to be an exciting year in artificial intelligence. Last year, artificial intelligence deals topped a billion for the first time. The White House started publishing reports on AI and the economy. Samsung just announced a new $150 million fund for early-stage AI startups. Their recent acquisition of "super-Siri" Viv Labs must have whetted their appetite. There's are even AI startup incubators popping up, like deep learning mastermind Yoshua Bengio's Element in Montreal.