Last week, Martin Abadi, a computer scientist and member of the Google Brain Team at Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG, NASDAQ:GOOGL), along with David Andersen, an associate professor of computer science at Carnegie Mellon University, published a research paper that describes how artificial intelligence entities "can learn how to perform forms of encryption and decryption, and also how to apply these operations selectively in order to meet confidentiality goals." In simpler terms, GOOGL created three separate AI entities and instructed two of them to pass secret messages back and forth while the third attempted to intercept and decode them. When the encryption was broken, subsequent messages were secured with even more advanced methods. The truly amazing part of the experiment was that "the networks were not taught anything about encryption before the game began, meaning that the strategies they came up with were entirely original." That also means Alphabet researchers may never know exactly what kind of encryption methods were being used, and they probably won't be able to crack it, either. The GOOGL Brain Team isn't the only AI research team competing to develop the next revolutionary advancement in machine learning and automation.

USA TODAY'S Ed Baig compares Google Home to the Amazon Echo. It was the question on everyone's minds Wednesday night – particularly if you weren't parked in front of a TV. Who won the World Series? Reviews are pouring in for Google Home, the search giant's answer to the Amazon Echo smart speaker which goes on sale Friday. While there is a lot to like in the $129 device, many critics, including USA TODAY's own Ed Baig, noted that there's still plenty of room for improvement.

I'd be lying if I said unplugging my Amazon Echo didn't feel a bit like a breakup. "Alexa," I whispered while pulling the plug, "it's just for now." But it wasn't Alexa, it was me. More specifically, it was someone else. I needed the space for Google Home.

USA TODAY'S Ed Baig compares Google Home to the Amazon Echo. A link has been sent to your friend's email address. USA TODAY'S Ed Baig compares Google Home to the Amazon Echo.

USA TODAY'S Ed Baig compares Google Home to the Amazon Echo. Ask Google Assistant inside Google Home what it thinks of Amazon Echo's Alexa and you get a gracious reply: "I like Alexa's blue lights. Her voice is nice too." Civility aside, the standalone $129 Home speaker that becomes available Friday is Google's answer to the $179.99 Echo speaker, and a potentially strong answer at that, though Google is still in catchup mode and too often answered my voice queries with a "sorry I don't know how to help with that yet."

The Google Assistant was the big news from the company's I/O conference earlier this year, but it took months for Google's true Siri competitor to really arrive. First it was baked into the largely unnecessary Allo chat app, and then it showed up as a flagship feature on the new Pixel phones. Now Google Home is shipping, putting the Assistant a voice command away even when your phone is in your pocket. Its inspiration is obvious: The $129 Home directly takes on the Amazon Echo. Indeed, many of the features here are the same.

Chatbots and conversational interfaces are the new big thing: they are intuitive, natural, and can be quickly deployed without downloading a new app. Use cases for enterprises are numerous: agenda management, customer support, ... During this talk, we will focus on one particular B2B application: how intelligent assistants can reinvent the way analysts and data scientists access and spread advanced data analytics across organizations.

Like many tech enthusiasts, I've been using a $180 Amazon Echo intelligent speaker at my home for a year or more. And, while I love using it for some things -- playing music and podcasts, setting timers, and re-ordering items from Amazon -- I've come to realize that, like Apple's Siri and all other virtual assistants, its Alexa voice-driven artificial intelligence system disappoints a lot. So I was excited to test Google Home, the $129 Echo competitor that puts the search giant's much-touted new Google Assistant intelligence technology inside a small, but powerful Echo-like speaker and microphone unit. Surely, I thought, after collecting all that info about the world (and about me) for years and years, Google would crush Amazon in the home-intelligence race. But after nearly a week of using two Google Home units in two different rooms, my conclusions are decidedly mixed.

Google Home is an interesting product to review. In a way, it's just an internet-connected microphone and speaker array that draws all of its smarts from the cloud. As far as the AI experience goes, Home delivers -- but that's no surprise, given that Google already has long had a lead over competitors like Apple's Siri, Amazon's Alexa and Microsoft's Cortana. Because its intelligence is in the cloud, it will also only get smarter over time (which makes these devices rather future-proof if you're thinking about them as an investment). We've already written quite a bit about the Google Assistant, which is at the core of the Home experience.

OK, now this is clever. That was my reaction when I asked Google Home, "What's the temperature inside?" and it replied, "It's currently 73 degrees, but the Nest is set to 65." Google's hyper-aware, voice-activated speaker dishes up a lot of surprising answers, and it's smarter, better sounding, and better looking than Amazon Echo. At $129, Google Home also beats the Echo's current price by $51. That's significant, because the two digital assistants promise essentially the same features and benefits. And both let you control other smart home devices with voice commands.