It was only a matter of time. In what appears to be a milestone in the Internet of things era, police have asked Amazon for data that may have been recorded on its Echo device while a murder was taking place. As the Information reports (paywall), a man named Victor Collins died sometime during the night of November 21, 2015, while visiting James Andrew Bates, a friend from work, at his home in Bentonville, Arkansas. Collins's body was discovered in a hot tub the next morning, and Bates was charged with first-degree murder. Bates had several smart devices in his home, the Echo among them.

BENTONVILLE, Ark. -- Amazon has denied Bentonville authorities access to a murder suspect's Amazon Echo data. According to KFSM, James Andrew Bates, 31, is accused of murdering Victor Parris Collins, 47, in a hot tub back in 2015. Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone NY judge: US cannot make Apple provide iPhone data Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone Apple fights order to help FBI unlock San Bernardino attacker's iPhone The Amazon Echo is a personal assistant that collects voice data to help solve the user's problems. Police asked the retailer for access to the information the Echo collected to see if the device picked up any other audio from the night of the murder, The Information reported. Amazon did not turn over the information stored on the device, but they gave authorities Bates' account details and purchases, Engadget reported.

Earlier this year, Samsung acquired Viv, an artificial intelligence assistant from the creators of Siri. Now it's been discovered that Samsung's Bixby will be powered by Viv's tech and will be supported in almost all of the Galaxy S8's native apps. Bixby is said to work system wide on the Galaxy S8. This means that most of the apps that are already preinstalled on Samsung's smartphone will support the AI assistant, according to SamMobile. For example, a user will be able to ask Bixby to show photos taken at a particular date in the Gallery app.

Samsung today pulled the covers off of a new wireless speaker that it will formally introduce at the CES conference in Las Vegas next week. The H7 speaker features Samsung's previously announced Ultra High Quality (UHQ) audio and is capable of going down to 35Hz to deliver low bass, according to a statement. Wheels on the top of the gadget will let people adjust the volume and choose playlists from music streaming services. But what's notable is that the speaker doesn't have any smart intelligent assistant built in. Between the Amazon Echo and the Google Home, that sort of thing is in if anything is.

Amazon has long been at the forefront of innovation, with Amazon Prime Air, Amazon Echo and now Amazon Go all recent inventions. But where Amazon really leads the way is in its marketing and specifically how it manages to describe and sell complex technology like artificial intelligence (AI) to the public. General knowledge about AI is still low, with only 18% of consumers surveyed by Weber Shandwick feeling like they had a lot of knowledge about AI. This figure rose to 48% for those who felt that they had a little, but it's still a paltry figure given how much of our lives AI has now infiltrated. We've now got Siri and Cortana in our pockets and on our computers, Google Home and Amazon Echo is in our living rooms, and soon our roads will be filled with AI operating self-driving cars and Amazon Go-esque stores in our high streets.

Kevin Gavin (CMO at Five9): Next year the use of Artificial Intelligence will continue to rise and we'll see an increase in its potential to make our everyday lives easier. Machines will continue to learn patterns and provide answers to help eliminate some of our mundane tasks, and intelligent machine personas like the Alexa in Amazon Echo and Siri in Apple devices, are paving the way for natural language processing (NLP). However, in the customer service industry in particular, at the end of the day customers will still seek the human touch when getting complex issues and questions resolved because AI will never be able to replace the empathy that a real person can provide. Daniel Incandela (SVP Global Marketing at ReturnPath): The future of all enterprise processes will be driven by Artificial Intelligence, which requires the highest quality of data to be successful. AI is where all business processes are headed; however, with the recent push of AI technology advancements for businesses - many companies have not addressed how they will ensure that the data their AI models are built on is high quality.

Samsung's Galaxy S8 is expected to include the debut of its new voice-based digital assistant. Following on from the South Korean company's acquisition of Viv Labs, the technology from this artificial intelligence platform will be baked into Samsung's software on the upcoming flagship. Previous Galaxy handsets have supported voice interaction using its S Voice application, but the inclusion of a new voice-powered digital assistant (that many are calling'Bixby') should give Samsung an AI presence in all of the Galaxy S8's own applications (reports SamMobile). It also gives Samsung a stronger foothold into the world of digital AI alongside the likes of Microsoft's Cortana, Apple's Siri, and Google's imaginatively named Google Assistant. And it is the latter which could raise some eyebrows in Mountain View.

Amazon.com Inc.'s Echo voice-activated artificial-intelligence devices were the stars of what the e-commerce behemoth is calling its "best ever" holiday season. Seattle-based Amazon said the Echo family of devices sold by the "millions," at a rate nine times greater than during last year's holiday season. The Echo is a home speaker through which Amazon's customers interface with Alexa, a voice-activated software assistant; it became widely available to U.S. customers in summer 2015. A smaller version, which connects to speakers, is dubbed the Echo Dot; it was unveiled earlier this year. "Echo and Echo Dot were the bestselling products across Amazon this year,," Jeff Wilke, the head of Amazon's consumer division, said in a statement.

The Consumer Electronics Show (CES) kicks off in Las Vegas next week, with technology companies from around the globe descending on "Sin City" to showcase their latest gadgets and offer a glimpse into our digital future. From the camcorder and the CD player to the Xbox and the plasma TV, some of the best-known technologies of all time have debuted at CES, and some of the most famous industry figures have given keynotes, including Bill Gates, Michael Dell and Elon Musk. This year marks the show's 50th annivarsary. The first CES kicked off in 1967, with 250 exhibitors and 17,500 attendees gathered in New York City. Since then, CES has grown by more than 10-fold, and now encompasses both traditional and non-traditional tech industries.

Looks like many people had a talkative present this Christmas. According to conversational user interface analytics company VoiceLabs, Echo sales spiked over 400% versus last year, and both Google Home and Alexa usage saw third-party developer growth of over 1500%. "This holiday season saw one of the biggest jumps in terms of units sold, which equates to a lot more Echos in the wild," says CEO Adam Marchick. "We also saw a spike in Google Home activations and usage." Last year Amazon sold north of one million units; this year the number should be north of four million. Google Home sales are harder to estimate, since the product has no comparable year-over-year history, and Google has not released sales figures.