Though movies and TV shows would have us believe that artificial intelligence means machines rising up against us, the truth is much more benign. Indeed, many of us use AI on a regular basis: Just ask Siri for directions to a restaurant or tell Shazam to name a song. This is certainly true of Facebook too, which uses AI and machine learning for a variety of tasks such as identifying images, translating languages and, yes, ranking your News Feed. With such a vested interest in AI, Facebook is releasing a series of videos today to offer a brief introduction to what it is and how it works. "We want to tell people it's not magic," says Yann LeCun, Facebook's director of AI research.

The Android Auto improvements promised by Google at its I/O Conference earlier this year have been slow to roll out. Last month it released a standalone phone app for people who don't have the car-centric technology already built-in to their dashboards, but we're still waiting for the first wireless cars and the native Waze app to make an appearance. Google is making good on another promised feature, though: OK Google support. High on the list of most Android Auto users' wish lists, OK Google brings a true hands-free experience to your cars, letting you summon directions, send texts, and make calls without needing to leave the 9 and 3 position on your steering wheel. As spotted by eagle-eyed Redditor neo5468, you'll find the setting inside the Google app rather than the Android Auto one, but you'll need to have the latest Android Auto app build (2.0.6427) installed as well.

Palantir CEO Alex Karp Says Going Public Is'A Possibility' According to a recent Gartner report, by 2020 the average person will have more conversations with AI-enabled bots than they will with their spouse. In fact, a lot of people are already doing it, often without even knowing. Half of US teens use voice control functions on their phones on a daily basis. As well as smartphone AIs like Siri and Cortana, organizations are incorporating bot experiences into their customer communication strategies with increasing frequency. Devices such as Google Home and Amazon's Echo are increasingly being used to interact with machines without using a screen – in fact Gartner also predicts that by 2020, 30% of browsing sessions will be done via a screenless interface.

The Telegraph has proclaimed: "The end of apps is here…" TechCrunch, Mashable, VentureBeat, and others also shared their belief that mobile applications as we know them are a dying breed. But how did mobile apps become endangered? Recently, IO's creators changed the app's name to Luka and added several little helpers, meaning it's now in charge of 12 other bots: Foodie (for restaurant recommendations), Weather, Wiki, Video, Gif, Pic, News, Founders, Search, Calculator, Quiz, and QuestHero. As of July 2016, Luka had around 5,000 downloads on App Store, with a monthly income of less than $5,000 (according to Sensor Tower). Nevertheless, having announced the recent close of a $4.42 million Series A funding round, Luka's creators are more than optimistic about the app's future.

According to a set of intelligent humans interviewed for this story, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning are going to help drive the tech economy in 2017. When CIO.com posted a query on Help a Reporter Out, a site designed to help journalists connect with sources, asking about startup trends to watch in 2017, the overwhelming majority of respondents pointed to AI. This coming year and beyond, AI will help companies "disrupt sectors that haven't been fully disrupted," says Anthony Glomski, principal of AG Asset Advisory, a financial advisory firm. "AI is in its beginning stages with massive potential impact." Here are eight startup categories and trends experts believe will be big in 2017.

No more than 15 years ago we were watching sci-fi films that boggled the mind and tested the limits of our imagination. Facial recognition technology, fingerprint biometrics, intelligent phones and computers that talked to people, functional artificial intelligence; all of this seemed worlds away when Tom Cruise and Will Smith were in their action movie prime. The technology dreamed up for those blockbuster productions is the same as what we see entering our reality today. Seemingly, it's taken no more time than the transition from child to adult. To the average person, it still feels unimaginable that innovation like artificial intelligence (AI) is on our doorstep.

Today, Amazon announced three new artificial intelligence tools for developers that use Amazon Web Services, the company's cloud division. Drawing on the artificial intelligence that powers Amazon's popular home assistant Alexa, the new tools will allow developers to build apps that have conversational interfaces, can turn text into speech and use computer vision that is capable of recognizing faces and objects. Amazon's latest push follows moves from Google and Microsoft, both of which have cloud computing platforms that already use artificial intelligence. Google's G Suite, for example, uses AI to power Smart Reply in Gmail, instant translation and smart scheduling functions in its calendar. Likewise, Microsoft recently announced it's bringing artificial intelligence to its Office 365 service to add search within Word, provide productivity tracking and build maps from Excel with geographic data.

Under, behind and inside many of the apps we use every day, a revolution is underway. It's a revolution that started decades ago but today is empowering companies to deliver better, smarter services with greater ease and on broader scales than ever before. At Singularity University's inaugural Global Summit, Neil Jacobstein, chair of Artificial Intelligence and Robotics, provided a primer showing how artificial intelligence literally transforms everything it touches. First of all, it's critical to define the scope of artificial intelligence (AI), which can be categorized into four areas: techniques in pattern recognition, software agency (that is, software that acts like real users), an exponential technology that is accelerating other exponential technologies, and a vision of a future superhuman intelligence (that fortunately hasn't happened yet). Anyone who has seen a science fiction film is likely familiar with this last area, but it's the other three areas where AI is making huge strides at a revolutionary pace.

The'smart' speakers that won't stop talking to each other: Watch Amazon's Echo Dot get stuck in an'infinite loop' chatting to Google's Home Google's $130 Home speaker went on sale earlier this month Amazon's Alexa has been a huge hit with 5.1m sold Both can do everything from control lights to answer questions Google's $130 Home speaker went on sale earlier this month Amazon's Alexa has been a huge hit with 5.1m sold Has YOUR Google account been hacked? Researchers say... Apple goes Red for World AIDS day as firm is revealed to... Britain traded with the Middle East 1,300 years ago: Bitumen... The original human ancestor'Lucy' was a tree climbing... Has YOUR Google account been hacked? Researchers say... Apple goes Red for World AIDS day as firm is revealed to... Britain traded with the Middle East 1,300 years ago: Bitumen... The original human ancestor'Lucy' was a tree climbing... Google Home AI speaker (left) shows the incredible potential of a smart home assistant - but still has a little bit of learning to do before it become indispensable.

Rumors are flying about the latest Samsung flagship smartphone. Presumably to be called the Galaxy S8, it'll attempt to revive Samsung's burned edges from the Galaxy Note7 debacle. Here's everything we have heard so far about what Samsung is putting together. The details are pretty much in the rumor category at this point, but we'll continually update this article as we get more information. The latest Samsung phone usually wins the "best display" crown from Displaymate.