Amazon's Alexa home assistant program is a central feature of the Echo and Echo Dot, but don't expect it to only remain there this year. At CES, multiple companies have announced devices that feature native Alexa integration for a variety of applications. Whirlpool announced that its newest smart home appliances will feature compatibility with Alexa. Through Alexa, users can control options like setting an oven timer or remotely check a refrigerator's cooling levels. As The Verge notes, Whirlpool won't have Alexa physically built into its newest products -- you'll need an Amazon Echo or Echo Dot to bridge the device to your home network.

Hyundai has partnered with Google to make its vehicles compatible with Google Assistant. This will allow Hyundai vehicle owners to do things like ask Google to start their car, lock the doors or set the temperature car. Google Assistant will let you control some of the same things that Blue Links allows you to control via your smartphone. An example, you can ask Google Assistant about a nearby restaurant and then follow it with "Ok Google, tell Blue Link to send the address to my Santa Fe." You can also use new commands to operate the horn and lights, start charging your Hyundai plug-ins and more.

Forget human babysitters, Mattel has designed a virtual assistant that will keep an eye on your children. Deemed the'world's first smart baby monitor', Aristotle orders diapers, reads children bedtime stories, sings lullabies and teaches them a second language. The speaker is also equipped with a HD camera that streams live video through an encrypted cloud connection - which Mattel claims makes it safe for parents to watch their children from anywhere. Aristotle will help parents order diapers, read bedtimes, sing lullabies and teach children a second language. Recognize and answer young kids' questions after a voice recognition training session Recognize specially designed kids' toys with embedded NFC chips, or with its camera Although Aristotle is aimed at watching over little ones, it is being compared to Amazon's Echo and Google's Home because it is also a Wi-Fi speaker and boasts similar functions - and in fact has Amazon's shopping software built in.

In previous years, he has run 365 miles, built a simple home AI, read 25 books and learnt Mandarin. Now Mark Zuckerberg has revealed his 2017 challenge. He plans to visit and chat with people in every US at what he claims is a'turning point in history.' Mark Zuckerberg has revealed his 2017 challenge. He plans to visit and chat with people in every US at what he claims is a'turning point in history.' 'My personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met people in every state in the US by the end of the year,' he wrote. 'I've spent significant time in many states already, so I'll need to travel to about 30 states this year to complete this challenge.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg is hitting the road in 2017. Zuckerberg is not leaving the social network: His personal challenge for 2017 is to have visited and met with people in all 50 U.S. states by year-end, and by his count, he has about 30 to go. Zuckerberg's past personal challenges have included building an artificial intelligence-powered personal assistant for his home, running 365 miles, reading 25 books and learning Mandarin. Priscilla and I have enjoyed taking road trips together since we started dating. Recently, I've traveled around the world and visited many cities, and now I'm excited to explore more of our country and meet more people here.

As the Amazon Echo and Google Home compete to become the voice assisant-powered speaker of the living room, Mattel has its own option designed for a different room of the house. Aristotle is a voice-assistant speaker made specifically for kids. At first glance Aristotle bears considerable resemblance to one of its adult contemporaries, Google Home, with its tube-like design and colored base. And much like the Amazon Echo and Google Home, the speaker houses an artificial intelligence called Aristotle that can answer the many questions that cross the mind of an inquisitive child. Powering the device's ability to field questions from kids is Microsoft, which lends its search tool Bing and AI from Cortana, its voice assistant that is often given a lower billing on the marquee than competitors like Alexa from Amazon, Apple's Siri and Google Assistant.

The retail giant's Alexa voice assistant aims to revolutionize the shopping experience, but recently delivered a big surprise to one six-year-old's parents. Dallas, Tx. resident Megan Neitzel, recently received the Echo Dot as a holiday gift from her in-laws. However, Neitzel was surprised when she received a confirmation email for cookies and a dollhouse that had been ordered. According to Neitzel, the device had not been hooked up for long, and while she overheard her kids telling Alexa Knock-Knock jokes, the cost of the items on the invoice was no laughing matter. "It was a $170 Kidcraft dollhouse and 64 ounces, four pounds, of cookies," she told Foxnews.com.

Shogazer, one of many brainchildren to emerge out of high-tech British creative agency Happy Finish's global studios, has been dubbed the "shazam of shoes" after a test run by various news outlets. Powered by artificial intelligence, the app is capable of identifying kicks and gives you the lowdown of who made them, how much they cost, any background information and where you can score a pair. Using a process known as "transfer learning" – a subsection of machine learning which focuses on storing specific knowledge to be tapped for solving other objectives – shoegazer doesn't just display information on specific shoes, but can actually show you what you would look like wearing them with an in-store link to an interactive mirror. For shoe brands, the app is a good indication of where AI can fit within a marketing creative. Since shoes often leave a subcultural footprint, offering further context for consumers to sift through increases their willingness to dive in and buy into the trend of interactivity within advertising.

It seems like every other day, a new device gains Amazon Alexa integration. Now Amazon's voice assistant can also control Whirlpool's new washer-dryer pair, and Alexa will come to the rest of Whirlpool's smart appliances later this year. The company is launching 21 new Wi-Fi-connected appliances that will respond to your voice with help from Alexa. For instance, if you're in the middle of mixing cookie dough and want to preheat the oven, you can just holler at Alexa to do it for you. Ask Alexa to set the refrigerator to party mode so you'll have tons of ice at the ready.

Amazon and Whirlpool are hoping homeowners will pay for the luxury of not having to run down the stairs to pause a load of laundry or sprint to the kitchen to check on dinner. Whirlpool announced on Tuesday that its new home appliances will be compatible with Amazon's Alexa voice assistant. This means these appliances will be designed to respond to voice requests for tasks like pausing and starting a load of laundry, asking for the time remaining on a wash cycle, adjusting the cooking mode on a smart oven, and turning on maximum cool settings for refrigerators among other commands. In addition to owning a Whirlpool appliance that supports the tech, users will need to have an Amazon Alexa-enabled device (Echo, Echo Dot, Fire TV, etc.) nearby to listen up for commands. Whirlpool hasn't revealed exactly which models will work with Alexa, but did say they will debut early this year along with the Whirlpool skill for Alexa. Skills are like apps; they're add-ons that enable Alexa to perform various tasks and communicate with different products and third-party services.