Pizza Hut recently debuted a chatbot to help you with a delivery order, but the restaurant chain is putting Amazon's virtual assistant to work for the same task. Alexa's newest skill includes the ability to order your pizza via voice integration on the Echo, Echo Dot, Fire TV and Fire tablets. While the menu options for placing an order from scratch are a bit limited, Alexa can access your favorite items and past orders as well. The pizza chain says you'll be able to use Alexa to place an order starting December 15th. When the time comes, all you'll have to do it say "Alexa, open Pizza Hut" or "Alexa, ask Pizza Hut for a pizza" to start the process.

Since launching it in 2015, Amazon has been improving its voice-controlled home assistant Echo, from adding thousands of recipe walkthroughs to releasing its hockey puck-sized sibling, the Dot. But soon the device will be moving in to hotel rooms, too. The Wynn Las Vegas will begin outfitting all 4,748 guest rooms with an Echo this month, allowing visitors to control environmental conditions with vocal commands. The suites will get Amazon's domestic device first, rolling out to the whole hotel by next summer. Just don't expect your room's Echo to help you plan your day, as they'll only be set to voice-control lights, room temperature, drapes and the TV to begin. Future features may include the device's fancier personal assistant features, according to the press release.

Microsoft's AI Is Not Just About Being Smart On December 13th at a very announcement-packed event in San Francisco, Microsoft shared its views of Artificial Intelligence and the progress it has made thus far. Back in September, Microsoft created a new AI and research group of about 5,000 people under the leadership of Harry Shum and they have certainly been busy. A new chatbot called Zo.ai that is integrated into messenger app Kik Cortana Devices SDK so Cortana can be on all kind of devices including what looked to be an Echo-like smart speaker manufactured and branded by Harman/Kardon Calendar.help The list of achievements is significant but it's the picture that develops when looking at them in total that really shows how invested Microsoft is in AI. Nobody would argue that Microsoft missed the whole "app economy" craze.

Tonight is your friend's birthday party. You've forgotten to get a gift, and you have to work late. The solution is in the palm of your hand. With your smartphone, you can ask MyKai, a mobile tool that connects to your bank account, how much you can spend. You can then send a quick text message to 1-800 Flowers for a bouquet of flowers.

Why does Amazon's Alexa team need 1000 people? I have stated for quite some time that 50% of all human interaction with computers will be through voice-assisted AI in the next ten years [2]. "What if we didn't need to learn arcane commands? What if you could use the most effective and powerful communication tool ever invented? This tool evolved over millions of years and allows you to express complex ideas in very compact and data dense ways yet can be nuanced to the width of a hair. It is our voice… The last 60 years of computing, humans were adapting to the computer. The next 60 years the computer will adapt to us. It will be our voices that will lead the way; it will be a revolution."

Microsoft is trying to turn Cortana into the digital assistant of your dreams with a new AI bot called Calendar.help. The beta service requires an invitation, but once signed up, you link it to your Outlook, Google or Office 365 calendar apps. Then, when it's time to schedule a meeting, send an email to attendees and Cc: Cortana. The message can include natural language like "sometime next week" or "make this a Skype meeting." From there, it'll look at your calendar and contact other attendees by itself to find the best time for everyone.

Steadfast robots replace hotel desk clerks and retail workers, autonomous cars and drones transport robots that deliver packages more efficiently, shopping sprees take place in virtual reality – these are just a few of the innovations Gartner, Inc. predicted during a webcast entitled, "The Gartner Top 10 Strategic Technology Trends for 2017." In a fascinating presentation that encouraged companies to experiment with scenarios for these and other technologies based on targeted business value, David Cearley, Vice President and Gartner Fellow, explained how intelligence anywhere and everywhere actually puts people in charge. More and more people will use augmented reality for more personalized shopping experiences. It's about all of that together," said Cearley. "We need to…put the person at the center.

Recently, we had written about how Expedia is planning to become the first $100 billion online travel company. One of the main drivers to help Expedia reach its target is technological investments. In one of its moves towards technological advancements, Expedia has recently announced voice activated searches on its platform through Amazon Alexa. This is the company's first move towards introducing a voice activated search product and it marks progress in Expedia's ongoing work on the processing of natural language. The feature will enable Expedia customers to ask Alexa about the status of their existing flight reservations, it will help them rent cars and also answer queries about the customers' loyalty program numbers.

THE ORIGINAL MACHINERY question, which had seemed so vital and urgent, eventually resolved itself. Despite the fears expressed by David Ricardo, among others, that "substitution of machinery for human labour…may render the population redundant", the overall effect of mechanisation turned out to be job creation on an unprecedented scale. Machines allowed individual workers to produce more, reducing the price of many goods, increasing demand and generating a need for more workers. Entirely new jobs were created to oversee the machines. As companies got bigger, they required managers, accountants and other support staff.

Conversational artificial intelligence company Conversica has raised $34 million in an oversubscribed Series B round led by Providence Strategic Growth Capital Partners. Toba Capital, Wellington Financial LP, and Recruit Strategic Partners contributed to the round, as did Series A investor Kennet Partners and Conversica founder Ben Brigham. The funding will be used to boost the company's sales and marketing activities and for expansion into international markets. It will also support ongoing product development efforts including the launch of new AI assistants and multilingual support. Our planes are now'big flying mobile devices' and top hacking targets Consumers check smartphones more than 9 billion times a day and enable new businesses PwC sends'cease and desist' letters to researchers who found critical flaw China targets aviation industry to spy and steal secrets Our planes are now'big flying mobile devices' and top hacking targets PwC sends'cease and desist' letters to researchers who found critical flaw Conversica's flagship product, the AI Sales Assistant, automatically engages with prospective customers using natural, two-way email conversations until the lead converts into an opportunity or chooses to opt out.