LG is planning to show "advanced robot technologies" at CES 2017 next week to showcase new innovations in artificial intelligence. The robots aren't your run-of-the-mill smart toasters or vacuum bots either, with some being designed for public use outdoors. There looks to be three new AI bots on the way, one for use at home, serving as a "smart home gateway" and personal assistant for owners: think, I, Robot. Another model "will demonstrate new capabilities for tending to one's yard and garden": think, The Lawnmower Man. The third, and perhaps most interesting type of robot LG has lined up includes "models designed for commercial use in public spaces such as airports and hotels to help improve the traveler's experience": think, Johnny Cab in Total Recall.

Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own. The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer. Few moments in life are more humiliating than showing off your new voice-assistant toy to family. Only for it to miss-hear, not understand or play Bonjovi when you ask what the weather's like today. I'm sure, given how well Alexa appears to have sold this Christmas, others have been through a similar ordeal.

It started out in your phone. You would ask Siri to tell you the weather report or a silly joke. But artificial intelligence and digital assistants are no laughing matter: They are likely the way most Americans will experience the Internet of Things (IoT) explosion, and are finally a cheap and easy way for mere mortals to automate their homes as only the wealthy once could. Last year Amazon brought its AI Alexa to homes, but next year it's going to be in your home. Cheap and affordable voice-controlled artificial intelligences like Amazon's Alexa and Google's Home are going to be everywhere, and you'll see that in spades at CES. You'll hear from companies like Neura that "enhance products with AI." You'll read about it when you hear about Ara by Kolibree, the world's first toothbrush with embedded AI. (My brain hurts thinking about that.)

Android is in a very different place than it was when 2016 began. While the last 12 months were filled with much of the usual pomp and circumstance surrounding the release of new handsets, connected gadgets, and OS refreshes, the state of Android has never been more promising or less predictable. Google stepped out from behind the curtain and into the spotlight. Headsets took over smartwatches as the trend of the moment. And Samsung's phablet woes opened the door for smaller players to make big gains.

As smart as smart assistants like Siri, Cortana, and Alexa try to be, they seem to have problems with their short term memory. Ask them a question and they'll answer promptly. But ask them immediately about something related to that answer and they seem to have forgotten about it entirely. Unless they asked you first, that is. Google, however, has had the ability to take into account the context of these follow-up queries, and now Amazon has silently given Alexa that skill in the latest update to its Echo devices. Understanding follow-up questions might seem simple, and it probably is for us humans.

What are lift, KPI, robustness, model fitting, design of experiments, and the 80/20 rule? Answer: KPI stands for Key Performance Indicator, or metric, sometimes called feature. A robust model is one that is not sensitive to changes in the data. Design of experiments or experimental design is the initial process used (before data is collected) to split your data, sample and set up a data set for statistical analysis, for instance in A/B testing frameworks or clinical trials. The 80/20 rules means that 80 percent of your income (or results) comes from 20 percent of your clients (or efforts). What are collaborative filtering, n-grams, Map Reduce, and cosine distance?

Expect the Internet of Things (IoT) and artificial intelligence (AI) to have a bigger impact on the workplace in the next few years than 3D printers and virtual reality solutions. After quizzing 566 IT professionals Spiceworks today released its latest study today, Future of IT: Hype vs. Reality. Many expect IoT devices (80 percent) and AI (60 percent) to have a beneficial effect on their business processes. Meanwhile, VR technologies are used by 7 percent of organizations and only 13 percent or survey respondents signaled that they intend to adopt it. "IT professionals are rightly concerned with the practicality of integrating emerging technology in the workplace, particularly when it comes to VR and 3D printing," said Peter Tsai, IT analyst at Spiceworks, in a statement.

Alexa and Siri become new retail customers: Home-based digital assistants like Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri will proliferate and expand into eCommerce, enabling consumers to'shop by voice'. These assistants are becoming pervasive as the ecosystems expand outside the home; Amazon is already integrating Alexa into Ford, BMW, and Hyundai autos and Apple is a growing force in cars. IoT hits a tipping point: The Internet of Things (IoT) has been talked about a lot for both in-home and in-store applications. Omnipresent omni-channel: Platforms are being put in place that provide consistent relevant content across every digital touchpoint while ensuring a cohesive and comprehensive user experience across devices and channels both inside and outside the store. Relevancy required: Strategic hyper-personalization goes from a'nice to have' to a necessity to keep customers (especially millennials and younger shoppers) engaged and to make the most efficient use of marketing budgets.

A year ago, a researcher tested Samsung's S Voice digital assistant by telling it he was depressed. "Maybe it's time for you to take a break and get a change of scenery." Researchers found Apple's Siri and Microsoft's Cortana couldn't understand queries involving abuse or sexual assault, according to a study published in March in JAMA Internal Medicine. Amazon's Echo speaker, which houses the Alexa assistant, is mostly used to play music, check the weather and control smart-home devices. Next week's Consumer Electronics Show will show off digital assistants' abilities to make our lives a little easier by adding more voice-powered smarts into our lights, appliances and door locks.

You may have heard by now that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg's personal project for 2016 was to build his own Artificial Intelligence (AI) bot, which he affectionately named Jarvis. Zuckerberg's AI is far from Iron Man's fully functional cognitive assistant, called Jarvis, or even Rosie, the beleaguered maid of "The Jetsons." Still, for 100 hours worth of work, it manages to accomplish a few basic tasks. Using a combination of Python, PHP and Objective C and overlays natural language processing, speech recognition, face recognition, and reinforcement learning APIs, allowing him to talk to Jarvis on his phone or computer and control connected appliances, allowing him to turn on and off lights and music, launch a gray t-shirt from his t-shirt cannon, and even have warm toast ready for him in the morning. But just how does one build an AI? Iddo Gino, CEO of Rapid API, connected the dots.