Google is looking to become a leader in instant-messaging with its purchase of Emu. The Emu instant-message system, Wired reports, can monitor chats, determine what people are discussing, and then insert links it deems helpful to users. Of course, Google could easily use this feature to get ads in front of users. In a blog post, Emu announced that it would be joining the search giant and closing down its app as of August 25. Starting then, Emu will no longer be available in the App Store and current users will no longer be able to send, receive, or download messages using the app. Although the purchase of Emu has been confirmed, it's currently unclear how much Google paid in the deal.

Cortana, the new voice-activated personal assistant for Windows phones, takes its name from an artificially intelligent character in the Halo franchise. The software is expected to launch in beta form later this month or early next, along with the Windows Phone 8.1 update. In a recent interview with the New York Times, Joe Belfiore, corporate vice president of Microsoft's operating system group, promised that Cortana would go far beyond the capabilities of Apple's Siri assistant, to the point that Cortana could even (with permission) comb through a user's e-mail and anticipate any potential travel problems, long before the user recognizes those problems for him- or herself. "Siri is this anthropomorphized character, but Siri doesn't know you personally," Mr. Belfiore told the Times. Does this sound a little creepy?

Siri is introduced as a built-in feature with the Apple iPhone 4S smartphone in October. A voice-activated personal assistant, Siri could "understand" natural language requests and also adjust the information it retrieved from the web by learning user tendencies and preferences. Siri could perform a wide number of functions – from recommending local restaurants (using the web and the iPhone's built-in GPS navigation system), providing walking or driving directions, giving weather forecasts, showing current sports scores, and even answering seemingly meaningless questions like, "Who is your favorite NCAA college football team?" Although the program's "voice" was female by default, it could be changed to a man's voice.

To hold its own against digital assistants from Google, Microsoft and Amazon, Siri needs an IQ boost. Last month, Google took the stage in Mountain View, California, to show off improvements to its digital voice assistant. Its signature ability is to have a conversation with it like you would a normal person. You can ask "Google Assistant" what's on your schedule and then have it text the person you're meeting to say you'll be late. Google remembers your first question, so you don't have to start over with a new command.

It's been 25 years since "Terminator 2: Judgment Day" gave us nightmares about Skynet and liquid-metal assassin robots, and we're still freaking out about artificial intelligence breaking bad. Now Australian researchers are helping to resurrect fears of the movie's spooky T-1000 killing machine by developing self-propelled liquid metals reminiscent of the ones that made up its body. Researchers at RMIT University in Melbourne plan to create elastic electronic components and soft-circuit systems that act more like live cells. For the most part, our modern electronics use fixed metallic tracks to create circuits that are stuck in a single configuration. This is why you can't simply ask Siri to split and rearrange your iPhone into four smaller iPods to share your music with friends.

As Google showed off its master plan for a future built around artificial intelligence in May, CEO Sundar Pichai introduced a virtual helper that aims to make its search technology even more useful for you. It's a grand plan -- in an interview in May, Pichai called it a "broad journey" -- but we'll have to wait a while longer until it comes into focus. Consumers won't be able to even try out the Google assistant until the fall. That's when the company will make available the first gadgets to have AI built-in: Google Home, a device like Amazon's Echo speaker and smart home hub, and Allo, a messaging app. "We are building the engine that will drive our future," Pichai said Thursday on a conference call.

If the battle between rival digital assistants can be summed up by the NBA championships, then Google's take would be the Golden State Warriors. That's assuming, of course, the record-setting Warriors beat the Cleveland Cavaliers to defend their NBA title. It's the analogy used by Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who characterized the competition as more friendly than bloody. "This is not like'Game of Thrones,'" he said Wednesday at Recode's Code conference in Ranchos Palos Verdes, California. Artificial intelligence is already a hot topic at the conference, and it's a big part of Google's future.

Google may be getting even more serious about business. The company is in talks with Hewlett-Packard about expanding the Internet giant's Google Now voice recognition software to be able to search through corporate data, according to a report published Wednesday by The Information (subscription needed). The partnership would allow Google Now --- which serves as a "virtual assistant" that lets users ask it about restaurants, driving directions or sports scores -- to do the same thing with company data. For example, an enterprise user on a device running Android, Google's mobile operating system, would be able to ask the software about financial information or inventory data. HP would be valuable to Google in this case because of its wealth of relationships with corporate customers.

You can soon expect to see new, interactive gaming experiences developed for Amazon's Alexa-powered smart speakers. Amazon wants more gaming options for its voice-powered virtual assistant Alexa, and today, it's introducing a new set of tools that'll make it easier for developers to bring them to life. The gaming tools are the newest addition to the Alexa Skills Kit, a set of blueprints for creating Alexa's "skills" -- essentially the apps of the Amazon Echo and Amazon's other Alexa-enabled gadgets. Developers already had access to templates for crafting basic command-and-response skills, along with skills that put Alexa in control of smart-home devices like lights and thermostats. Developers have already trotted out games for Alexa, too -- but now, they'll be able to plot out their voice-powered gaming skills in a simplified design interface, with Amazon-approved templates to guide them through the process.