Amazon is reportedly planning to release a new version of its Echo smart speaker that includes a screen and improved audio quality, according to Bloomberg. The new Echo could debut in the first quarter of 2017 and is said to have a 7-inch touch screen, the report says. That would make the screen slightly smaller than an iPad mini but larger than that of smartphones like the Google Pixel and iPhone 7 Plus. The screen could make it easier to view information like news and weather forecasts, according to the report. The new device would be capable of responding to voice commands like Amazon's other Echo speakers, which the company will continue to sell after it releases the new more expensive model.

This year, before the doors of the the Los Angeles Auto Show open to the public, the show held Automobility, an automotive tech showcase. As our cars become more like two-ton devices that we drive, auto shows are having to adjust their focus to include apps, AI, connected cars, and more. Here are a few of the most innovative tech stories from LA. Hyundai offered Blue Link, an app that allowed owners to unlock and start their cars via smartphone, in 2011. The second generation of Blue Link rolled out in 2014, adding smart watches to the app's repertoire. Now the service works with Amazon's Alexa in-home AI device.

Today we Google for information, but in the future, we might not need to. Instead we may rely on our butler, namely the intelligent, voice-activated digital assistant on our smart phones or smart watches, or, like Amazon's Echo and Alphabet's Home. Rather than searching the web, we'll be able to ask our digital assistant how to remove the stain from our shirt. It'll perform other perfunctory tasks, like adding groceries to our shopping list, checking the weather, sending a text, or ordering an Uber. Maurice E. Stucke (@MauriceStucke) is a co-founder of the Konkurrenz Group and a law professor at the University of Tennessee.

Not a day goes by when I don't hear another artificial intelligence horror case. There's something called artificial intelligence coming up. This big unknown is personified with a picture of the Terminator. If evoking more of a modern and less of a killer machine image is desired, the protagonist in Ex Machina (although no less scary) is selected. The audience is really interested now.

Microsoft is betting on artificial intelligence (AI) with the creation at the end of September of a new AI and Research Group. This newly formed group brings together Microsoft's research organization and more than 5,000 computer scientists and engineers focused on AI and is now the fourth major division in the company, on par with the Windows, Office and Cloud divisions. Harnessing AI through agents such as Cortana, the company's digital personal assistant Infusing AI into Skype, Office 365 and every other Microsoft application Making cognitive capabilities such as vision and speech and machine analytics available to external developers Using Azure to build a powerful AI supercomputer in the cloud to provide "AI as a Service" Using Azure to build a powerful AI supercomputer in the cloud to provide "AI as a Service" When Microsoft talks of "infusing" every application with AI, it's reminiscent of the famous "Internet Tidal Wave" email Bill Gates sent to all staff in 1995. In it, Gates outlined his desire to focus the company's efforts on the internet with immediate effect and told them to "assign the internet the highest level of importance" in everything that they did henceforth. Is the creation of the AI and research group effectively a "tidal wave" message?

One could not just talk about Google Home without talking about Amazon Echo and vice versa. Both smart speakers are hot items on the market right now. Though they do have a lot of similarities, they also possess differences that can help consumers decide which voice-activated smart device is the one for them. In this review, consumers will find out which is the better choice between Google Home and Amazon Echo. In terms of design, both Google Home and Amazon Echo are made to be compact and stylistic despite their minimalist appearance.

The word bot is used to mean several different things. Gamers understand bots as AI characters in a game, while botnets are groups of hijacked computers which cyber criminals use for various tasks such as sending out millions of spam emails or even to attack and attempt to take down websites. The bots we're talking about here are essentially virtual assistants, much like Siri and Cortana. Only the latest generation of bots communicate via text rather than speech. Cortana already does this, both on Windows Phone and in Windows 10.

From Google to Amazon to Facebook, all of the platforms that emerged as a consequence of our daily activities such as search, shop, chat, collaborate, communicate, have upgraded to artificial intelligence agents. Just look at Siri, Google Assistant, Alexa or Facebook M. Chatbots are their most primitive form. You can ask them questions related to weather conditions, you can make them search for the cheapest flight and book it for you and you can order pizza. Or you could teach them about you and your habits, and make them search, book and order things for you automatically. Most of the activities mentioned above have become tedious tasks for us, humans, mostly because they're very simple, intuitive and some of them, recurrent.

The IoT continued its toddler-like growth and stumbles in 2016. Here are five trends to look for in 2017 as the IoT enters its adolescence and how to benefit from them. Filling out a whole product value proposition through partnerships has repeatedly proven its importance across B2B and enterprise software sectors. In the IoT, they will be even more critical. As an example, the Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) is driving the definition of platforms and test beds and should show results in 2017.

It was only a matter of time before Google came out with something to compete with the Amazon Echo: After all, Google too has deep experience with both voice commands and search. Indeed, one of the things we like best about the new Google Home hub is how it responds to conversational inquiries -- and how Google's vast knowledge graph allow it to be genuinely helpful. What's more, the $129 device has a lower profile than the Echo, making for a more discreet design. It also has a surprisingly good speaker, and being able to just tell it what music you want to hear is a killer feature. We already like it, then, but we'll like it even more when the device supports more third-party services, the way the Echo does.