Sorry Apple fans, but Oppenheimer senior analyst Andrew Uerkwitz thinks the Cupertino giant does not have what it takes to lead the tech industry. Uerkwitz even issued a brutal note to talk about "strategic issues" in Tim Cook's company. In the note that was obtained by Business Insider on Friday, Uerkwitz wrote that he and the investment banking company actually think that Samsung's biggest rival does not have enough courage to be the leader of the industry in terms of innovation. He also noted that Apple has greater risks because of this. "We believe Apple lacks the courage to lead the next generation of innovation (AI, cloud-based services, messaging); instead will become more reliant than ever on the iPhone," a part of the note read.

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is back in the headlines as more and more companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook, Twitter and Microsoft have started to commercialize its use. Four important developments in the past few days on this front caught our eye. The most recent was last week's announcement of an AI partnership by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft. The new alliance is dedicated to advancing public understanding of the sector, as well as coming up with standards for future researchers to abide by. The other important development was the release of a research report by Forrester – The Top Emerging Technologies to Watch: 2017 to 2021.

Did Samsung acquire Harman for $8bn to bring Viv Voice First technology to cars? originally appeared on Quora: the knowledge sharing network where compelling questions are answered by people with unique insights. Did Samsung acquire Harman for $8 Billion to bring Viv Voice First technology to cars? On November 14th, 2016, Samsung acquired Harman, a car electronics and audio systems company for $8 billion dollars. There were no other material bidders. I have said that all future automobiles, self driving or otherwise will be, by definition, Voice First devices.

Microsoft's rumored Home Hub was once thought to be a device rivaling Amazon Echo or Google Home. A new report suggests it will instead be a Windows 10 software service aimed at families, complete with a new Cortana assistant that will run on upcoming Windows 10 PCs. Just like in real families, Home Hub will put an emphasis on sharing, according to the source of the report, Windows Central. The site said it would have a communal, interactive calendar, presumably touch-based like Windows 10's current Calendar app. Microsoft may also be planning to create a family-friendly version of its Cortana digital assistant that will be the primary, voice-driven interface.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says Going Public Is'A Possibility' Up until very recently, computers needed a complicated and extremely precise set of instructions in order to accomplish even the simplest of tasks. Who among us remembers programming via punch cards? Computer programming languages have evolved over the years, but the biggest step has been moving towards the elimination of complicated programming. In other words, teaching computers to learn for themselves, dubbed machine learning. Because machine learning is such a promising leap forward in technological ability, it has the very real potential to affect every person in every field of business in the near future.

Over the past year, the swell of chatbots and virtual assistants has grown larger, and their capabilities have grown more complex. Want a bot to schedule your meetings? Remind you to bring an umbrella if it's going to rain? But while completing practical tasks is the goal of most chatbots and virtual assistants, we don't have conversations simply to get things done. Conversation can also bring connection and joy, and laughter is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for making people feel comfortable and creating positive associations and memories. Tech companies, from giants to small startups, are investing in humor because they view it as an integral part of the human experience--and the key to their bots and assistants slipping smoothly into our lives.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, and the holiday shopping season is in full swing. As such, Google, Microsoft and Apple have all revealed their latest and greatest to get shoppers opening their wallets. Microsoft has the Surface Studio and refreshed Surface Book, not to mention the Xbox holiday lineup, while Apple goes into holiday battle with the new MacBook Pro and the iPhone 7. Google is trying something different this year. The company has a full ecosystem of products made in-house for the first time: the Pixel smartphone, Google Home assistant and Daydream VR headset. All three products are important to Google's strategy, but it feels to me like something's missing: the humble Chromebook.

How can we programme a robot to behave morally when we don't have a working definition for morality ourselves? This is one of the many questions involved with the field of artificial intelligence and the development of advanced robots. While it might sound like something out of a science fiction novel, artificial intelligence has quickly become a facet of our daily lives. Take Siri or Google Now on our smartphones, and Amazon's Alexa. Rudimentary as they are today, these so-called "smart assistants" represent the future of artificial intelligence.

At this week's Amazon Web Services conference re:Invent, the online retailer revealed two smart home initiatives that are getting a big hand from Intel. First, Intel built a reference design for a smart speaker that employs the Alexa virtual assistant to help with tasks. The device is meant to encourage other companies to make their own gadgets with Amazon's voice tech and the Intel platform. Developers and manufacturers will be able to get their hands on the reference device during the first quarter of 2017. Second, Intel brought Alexa voice controls to its Smart Home Hub, including wrangling smart devices, asking questions and more.

We are at the very beginning of a fundamental shift in the way that humans communicate with computers. I laid out the beginning of my case for this in my essay The Hidden Homescreen in which I argued that as Internet-powered services are distributed through an increasingly fractured set of channels, the metaphor of apps on a "homescreen" falls apart. The first obvious application was in chatbots, but as new unique interfaces come online, the metaphor becomes even more important. To understand this shift, it's worth examining how platform changes have created entirely new businesses and business models. Two easy examples to look at are the shift to content distribution through social media and the move of Internet connectivity to mobile.