Recommendation engines are deeply embedded in American culture. Anyone who shops online, subscribes to a streaming media service, conducts on online search, or uses social media is encouraged to do something -- buy this, click on that, listen to this song, watch that movie. Sometimes the recommendations are accurate. For example, Google's search engine thinks I'm male. Netflix thinks I might enjoy comedies aimed at college-age men.

A Bentonville murder case caught the attention of privacy advocates Tuesday (Dec. Bentonville investigators found the Amazon Echo at the home of James Andrew Bates, 31, who was arrested on suspicion of first-degree murder in February in connection to the death of Victor Collins, according to the search warrant affidavit. Police found Collins' body in Bates' hot tub Nov. 2015 and a medical examiner ruled there had likely been a fight and Collins died from strangulation and drowning, according to a probable cause affidavit. Collins' body had cuts and bruises and investigators found blood in the hot tub, the affidavit states. After noticing the Echo in Bates' kitchen, investigators requested a search warrant for all the audio recordings and data from the device, according to court records.

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. 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. While these smart-home ideas are likely to gain plenty of attention at CES, the JAMA study highlights the need to improve digital helpers' responses to more critical health and wellness issues, as well.

Amazon remains an e-commerce company at its core, but like any tech giant, it's put its fingers in many other pies over the years. Some of its attempts have been disasters. Others are bona fide smash hits. The biggest surprise, though, continues to be the Amazon Echo -- the family of smart speakers that, along with its Alexa voice assistant, has steadily put Amazon in a leading position within the Internet of Things and the burgeoning consumer market for artificial intelligence. As this chart from Statista shows, the Echo only gained momentum in 2016.

When police responded to a home in Bentonville, Ark., one Sunday morning in November 2015, they discovered Victor Collins' dead body in the backyard. Police records describe a grim scene: Collins' body was floating face up in a hot tub, his left eye and lips dark and swollen. The resident who had called 911, James A. Bates, told police that he and a few work buddies, including Collins, had stayed up the night before watching football and drinking. Bates agreed to let two of them crash at his house, then went to bed, he told police. Shortly after he awoke, he said, he spotted Collins' lifeless body in the spa.

Amazon's personal assistant device Echo, powered by the voice recognition program Alexa, is one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Amazon's personal assistant device Echo, powered by the voice recognition program Alexa, is one of the most popular gifts this holiday season. Amazon's personal assistant device called Echo was one of the most popular gifts this Christmas. But this week, the device grabbed headlines for another reason: Police in Arkansas are trying to use its data in a murder investigation. What we know from court documents is that in November 2015, a man in Arkansas had some friends over at his house to watch a football game and in the morning, one of the friends was found dead in a hot tub in the back yard.

Samsung is looking to build hype ahead of this year's CES event by announcing a few new products before next week's event. Not only has the company announced its second 4K Blu-ray player, the M9500 but the company has also announced the POWERbot VR7000, a robotic vacuum you can control with your Amazon Echo. While we're not sure of all the details, we can say that Samsung's POWERbot VR7000 will function with commands like "Alexa, ask Neato to start cleaning" or "Alexa, ask Neato to stop cleaning." Samsung's robo-vacuum is smaller than previous models, Samsung said, but that makes it easier for the POWERbot VR7000 to go under couches or beds. It can also clean up against walls, which is an issue with a number of other similar devices.

Cops have asked Amazon to reveal any audio it might have stored after a man is murdered in a hot tub in Arkansas. The crime, committed in Bentonville, happened in a hot tub, but police found an Echo at the scene and wanted Amazon to unlock any audio it has sent to its cloud servers. Amazon refused, demanding a warrant first. Over on Slashdot the argument started quickly about the merits of allowing a device into your home that can listen to every word you say. Amazon, for its part, assured journalists at the UK launch of the product that it only ever saves audio directly after the keyword is spoken to trigger the unit.

Shanghai-based software company Zhizhen Network Technology, which sued Apple four years ago over a voice recognition patent for the iPhone Siri "personal assistant", plans to expand into the US in 2017 with ambitions of becoming a global leader in artificial intelligence. It will set up offices in Hong Kong and Silicon Valley to develop software to cater to local clients, a fresh sign that Chinese technology firms are speeding up their "go-global" drive to take on big-names such as Microsoft and Amazon for world markets. "Taking a global view, it's time to set sail for the largely untapped territory of artificial intelligence," said Yuan Hui, founder and chairman of Zhizhen. "Internationalisation is a necessary step we will take to develop our businesses." In a report on the top 10 technology trends for 2017, IT research firm Gartner listed Zhizhen's Xiaoi Robot, Siri, Cortana of Microsoft and Echo of Amazon as world leaders in intelligent conversational systems.

Police in Bentonville, Arkansas would love to know whether an Amazon Echo picked up the sounds of a crime. As reported in the Washington Post, the investigation highlights the privacy issues around increasingly popular smart-home products. The Amazon Echo in question was present in a home where a murder took place in November. Victor Collins was found dead in a hot tub after a social event that went late into the previous night. Police found the Echo among many other smart devices in the home, but the Echo is the only one that records what you say.