Someone tried to mess around with the FaceUnlock application code from the Android SDK, and stumbled upon this code, which seems to include answers, as if given by a personal assistant or such. We've heard some rumors a few months back that Google may be working on a personal assistant as part of their Google X projects, and they've been doing this for years. These rumors came from someone who claimed he was involved with Google X, and he wanted to give a hint about what they've been working on: This is in total violation of the NDA, but I don't care anymore. The central focus of Google X for the past few years has been a highly advanced artificial intelligence robot that leverages the underlying technology of many popular Google programs. As of October (the last time I was around the project), the artificial intelligence had passed the Turing Test 93% of the time via an hour long IM style conversation. IM was chosen to isolate the AI from the speech synthesizer and physical packaging of the robot.

As consumers, we're familiar with -- if not yet wholly invested in -- the term "artificial intelligence," whether it's by way of self-driving cars or voice-enabled search like Siri and Amazon's Alexa. Artificial intelligence is on course to drastically change the enterprise, with big implications for productivity, and possibly even larger ramifications for the economy. Business intelligence is providing companies with an overabundance of data, but it's AI that's emerging to make this data actionable by giving executives and employees useful insights that are relevant to their specific roles and what they need to accomplish on any given day. To name just a few implications of how business will change with AI, today's workforce will be empowered to take on new approaches with time management, teamwork and collaboration, client service, and business forecasting. For example, instead of just assessing raw data, artificial intelligence can take into account historical patterns and the current context of an employee's role, the nature of the business within which they work, and market dynamics.

It's not the level design or even the gameplay, which are both compelling enough. As a long-time gamer who has fond memories of playing Ico quite a few years ago and then beating the spiritual successor to that release called Shadow of the Colossus in 2005 (all created by designer Fumito Ueda and his team with a focus on forming an emotional bond), I've kept up on this latest project. The Last Guardian features a young boy climbing around on castles and coaxing a giant dragon-like creature named Trico into helping him escape. The interchange between the boy and the creature is what held my attention. It serves as a good lesson in how to make AI in a chatbot, a digital assistant or within an app or any piece of software.

"Wear that blue-colored dress today, it matches your new shoes." "Go to Tahiti on vacation, there is a good price now for tickets for this destination." All of these pieces of advice and more come from AI assistants. A wide range of these assistants have emerged to make our lives better: big ones like Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri, and SoundHound and multiple startups that are trying to conquer the market. Alterrа, for example, will help you choose the country for your next vacation.

Today, we are just beginning to scratch the surface of what is possible with artificial intelligence (A.I.) and how individuals will interact with its various forms. Every single aspect of our society -- from cars to houses to products to services -- will be reimagined and redesigned to incorporate A.I. A child born in the year 2030 will not comprehend why his or her parents once had to manually turn on the lights in the living room. In the future, the smart home will seamlessly know the needs, wants, and habits of the individuals who live in the home prior to them taking an action. Before we arrive at this future, it is helpful to take a step back and reimagine how we design cars, houses, products, and services. We are just beginning to see glimpses of this future with the Amazon Echo and Google Home smart voice assistants.

I recently spent a few days with my family at a ski lodge in the Sierras. While we were there, we noticed a young French couple who spent the vast majority of their time sitting by the fire, staring at a tiny Android tablet, flipping through a guidebook, and making notes in a paper calendar. For two or three days, while we were out skiing through the sublimely silent woods, learning how to snowboard on the bunny slope, and sitting in the hot tub underneath the misty evening skies, these two sad, beautiful foreigners were sitting in the lodge, trying to plan their trip. A similar experience motivated Travis Katz to create Gogobot, a social travel recommendation engine that helps you plan your trip quickly and efficiently by using the expertise of your Facebook and Twitter networks. Katz, while working for MySpace in London a few years ago, spent so much time researching and planning European trips that he wound up missing many of the actual trips.

The Amazon Echo is much more than just a connected speaker. Paired with its Alexa voice-enabled assistant, the cylinder of sound is a new platform on which people can access cutting edge products and services like Uber and Spotify. But like most tech, you only get out of the Echo it what you put into it. These 10 Echo "skills" (Amazon's name for Echo apps) will turn your Echo from a headline-reading automaton into a true digital assistant, capable of informing, entertaining, informing, and even challenging you. You can add them to your Echo via Amazon's Alexa companion smartphone app.

Across Silicon Valley, technology companies are scrambling to make their software smarter with the help of artificial intelligence. Both Apple and Google have made significant improvements to their virtual assistants, Siri and Google Now, that help them better understand what a user might need before he or she asks. Meanwhile, Facebook has unveiled plans to create its own intelligent chat bot that can perform tasks on your behalf. As of this week, Apple has more firepower in the AI department. The Cupertino, Calif.-based company has purchased Emotient, a company that uses artificial intelligence to interpret a person's emotions, The Wall Street Journal first reported Thursday.

The future has not only arrived -- it's been here for years. You've just probably been too bogged down in the digital drudgery of your life to notice. But it's not too late to get onboard with the coming times. In fact, machine learning will get you there before you know it. Machine learning lets computers learn tasks they weren't specifically programmed to do.

For most of my 35-year technology career, fights over operating systems have dominated the landscape. First, it was MS-DOS againt the original Apple II OS. Then it shifted to Microsoft's Windows vs. the Mac OS. These wars have become ideological, with fanboys and devout followers in each camp. At Google's I/O event this year, the company announced Now On Tap. It's a new version of Google Now, which uses context to make your smartphone more useful.