The industry is falling over itself to make products'intelligent' but what does that really mean to a user? As a Product Manager in this space, I've been thinking about intelligence and what it really means to users. There are many definitions of intelligence but they tend to be technical definitions of AI rather than intelligence seen through the eyes of a user. As we progress through the stages, what users once considered as intelligent, can become ordinary over time. For example, improving search so that it was accurate and fast could be regarded as highly intelligent at the time but now it's the minimum we expect.

With thousands of people in your area using Tinder to find love, it's easy for your own profile to be overlooked. The firm understands it's hard to get noticed among the sea of profiles and is now testing a feature that places paid user at the top for 30 minutes - but for a price. Called Tinder Boost, this new premium feature aims to increase users' chances for a match, as it gives them up to 10 times more profile views than the standard method. Tinder is testing a feature that places paid user profiles at the top of their area for 30mins. Tinder Boost can be activated swiping through profiles in the app.

Artificial intelligence is one of those tech terms that seems to inevitably conjure up images (and jokes) of computer overlords running sci-fi dystopias -- or, more recently, robots taking over human jobs. But AI is already here: It's powering your voice-activated digital personal assistants and Web searches, guiding automated features on your car and translating foreign texts, detecting your friends in photos you post on social media and filtering your spam. But as practical uses of AI have exploded in recent years, one critical element remains missing: an industrywide set of ethics standards or best practices to guide the growing field. Now, the industry heavyweights are partnering to fill that gap. Called the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, the group consists of Amazon, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and IBM. Apple is also in talks to join.

Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft are joining forces to create a new AI partnership dedicated to advancing public understanding of the sector, as well as coming up with standards for future researchers to abide by. Going by the unwieldy name of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, the alliance isn't a lobbying organisation (at least, it says it "does not intend" to lobby government bodies). Instead, it says it will "conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research under an open license in areas such as ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology". There will be equal representation between corporate and non-corporate members on the board of the partnership, and it hopes to invite "academics, non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics" to join. Each of the five founding corporate members has strong AI research teams, some of which have become household names, such as IBM's Watson and Amazon's Alexa.

Throughout time, humans have been fascinated by the idea of machines "thinking" like humans. In Eagle Eye we became acquainted with ARIIA (an Autonomous Reconnaissance Intelligence Integration Analyst), in Her, we were introduced to Samantha (a highly capable computer program that doubled as a personal assistant), in Ex Machina we fell for Ava (a humanoid robot with genuine human traits) and in I, Robot, we befriended Sonny (a friendly robot). Concepts like machine learning, robotics, deep learning and artificial intelligence, have been thrown around, here and there, spiking our interest and commercializing these once scientific concepts. But what exactly is artificial intelligence, and what are its implications? John McCarthy, an American computer scientist and cognitive scientist coined the term "artificial intelligence" in 1955 describing it as "every aspect of learning or any other feature of intelligence can in principle be so precisely described that a machine can be made to stimulate it. An attempt will be made to find how to make machines use language, form abstractions and concepts, solve kinds of problems now reserved for humans, and improve themselves".

"AirPods--in their current form and in future revs--seemed aimed at putting Siri's gentle voice, and her growing personal assistant capabilities, in your ear. And your ear canal may be the very best part of the body to put such a thing," Sullivan reports. "Veteran Apple engineer Bill Atkinson -- known for being a key designer of early Apple UIs and the inventor of MacPaint, QuickDraw, and HyperCard--saw this coming a long time ago. He gave a presentation at MacWorld Expo back in 2011 in which he explains exactly why the ear is the best place for Siri." "Atkinson points to Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game series from the 1980s, in which an artificial sentience called'Jane' lives in a crystal planted in the ear of the main character, Ender," Sullivan reports.

Amazon is releasing a new version of its Fire TV Stick that includes support for its Alexa virtual assistant, the company announced on Wednesday. It will be priced at 39.99, just like the older model, and begins shipping on Oct. 20. The addition of Alexa means Fire Stick users will be able to perform tasks like finding content by genre and launching apps without tapping any buttons on the device's remote control. "Go back 30 seconds," etc.), will only be available when viewing TV shows and movies from Amazon Video, not third-party apps like Netflix. Amazon also says the new Fire Stick will be 30% faster than previous models.

Google has helped build intense speculation for its October 4 event in San Francisco, where it's expected to reveal new phones aimed at consumers that will power a new virtual reality platform, and possibly other smart home devices. Now that the buzz has reached a football-stadium roar, here comes the hard part: living up to the hype. Google has been teasing the event as one for the history books. A tweet Monday from Hiroshi Lockheimer, the company's senior vice president of Android, Chrome OS and Google Play, turned up the volume on the buzz. We announced the 1st version of Android 8 years ago today.

The virtual Google helper, titled Google Assistant, debuted alongside Allo--the company's messaging app. The app for Android and iOS not only allowed users to chat with friends, but also with a digital assistant that would fetch information in its own chat window, or even while you were in a chat with someone else. Instead of requiring users to speak out loud, the Google Assistant allows users to type out questions and responses. The above gif, hailing from Android Police, speculates that the updated version of Android will more closely integrate the recently revealed assistant. Google Assistant throughout Android would not only allow Google users to say "Ok, Google" to summon their assistant, but type to it too.

Artificial intelligence (AI) isn't new but the rise of mobile and cloud computing, combined with big data and cheap computing power, is driving a resurgence. Convergent technologies mean AI is finding new uses in financial services. AI will be used in "every single segment of financial services", predicts Christophe Chazot, group head of innovation, HSBC. "The software is getting more intelligent in a human sense, mimicking human reasoning." The technology can help wealth advisors, back office staff and operations, traders and corporate finance teams.