Amazon makes hardware that's all about easing the way to buying stuff from Amazon. Their Echo digital assistant is a case in point. You can order anything from the Amazon website just by saying "Alexa, order me a . . That can be very convenient – or not. Early this month a CBS affiliate in Dallas reported the story of six-year old Brooke Neitzel who was talking with Alexa about dollhouses and cookies.

Here are the four trends that will dominate artificial intelligence in 2017. We could call this "natural language processing" or NLP, but let's think more broadly about language for a moment. The key to cognition, for you mavens of Psychology 101, is sophisticated communication, even internal abstract thinking. That will continue to prove critical in driving machine learning'deeper.' One place to keep track of progress in the space is in machine translation, which will give you an idea of how sophisticated and accurate our software currently is in translating some of the nuance and implications of our spoken and written language.

Samsung's next flagship phone, the Galaxy S8, will be arriving very soon. The pressure is on for the Korean electronics giant to deliver a flagship phone that not only improves on the specs of last year's Galaxy S7 and S7 Edge, but also kicks the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus' butt. SEE ALSO: Samsung's foldable phone could transform into a 7-inch tablet Adding more features has always been Samsung's approach with new flagships, but as the company is no doubt aware after the Galaxy Note7 literally burned out, everyone will be watching closely to see what new safety measures it includes on the S8. What exactly can we expect from the S8? Here's what we're hearing from the rumor mill. The Samsung Galaxy S7 has a Quad HD screen.

While dating apps have exploded in popularity, they're most often built with straight, cisgender men and women in mind. Founded by Diana Kalkoul and Neda Robat-Meily, two 20-something Sydneysiders who both have backgrounds in technology, the app aims to be LGBTQ-friendly from the start. "We're two queer individuals ... that are kind of frustrated with the lack of inclusivity dating apps present people with," Kalkoul told Mashable. The pair looked at dating apps like OKCupid -- traditional and a bit slow -- and Tinder -- the first to double-down on mobile -- but found none were quite right. "Tinder always catered to the hetero-market first," she said, "so you could either be male, you could either be female ... It was adopted by queer people and kind of augmented, but that was never the purpose."

As machine learning gains ground thanks to smart algorithms and enormous amounts of data, working with an intelligent digital system may be less farfetched than you might think. Knowledge workers in particular stand to reap the benefits of this technology. First, what exactly is machine learning? In essence, it refers to computer systems that can train themselves and get smarter. Data is their training material; the computer systems deduce knowledge from offered data, as opposed to data that is explicitly programmed.

Technology is forging new views on search marketing. Finding a clear path means having a fluid approach in place, knowing where to start, and by doing at least one thing really well. To succeed in competitive search in 2017, it helps to understand how artificial intelligence and technology are forging a new approach to search. Having limited funds and limited time means that a clear focus is of the essence to search success! This article is meant to help get the mindset you need for successful search campaigns in 2017. There is no "one thing" that offers a magic bullet to success. But one thing is clear – the need to focus on new business generation coming from organic search, sales leads, and/or e-commerce revenue gained from paid search marketing. Old paths to get there must update and see how artificial intelligence and algorithms are vastly changing the world of search.

With the rise in self-driving technology, the latest automobiles are grabbing more attention at The Consumer Electronics Show. Las Vegas – January 3, 2017 – Fiat Chrysler Automobiles unveiled the Chrysler Portal Concept at CES 2017 today. While CES is an acronym for Consumer Electronics Show, the running joke at this annual Las Vegas event is that CES is turning into the Car Electronics Show. Many of the world's biggest auto makers have become a major part of this highly-publicized conference – which serves as a glimpse into the future of technology -- by dominating much of the North Hall at the Las Vegas Convention Center, as well as surrounding facilities. And it doesn't seem to matter this Sin City event falls on the heels of the North American International Auto Show in Detroit.

An Amazon application to the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) emerged Saturday. The original application, which was first revealed in a Business Insider report, requests the FCC for a five-month experimental Special Temporary Authority to operate on selected channels on some mobile bands. This is the first time that news has emerged about Amazon working on mobile technology. Could it be that the company is secretly working on an Amazon Alexa smartphone? It wouldn't be a completely outlandish notion, even if it's true.

A few weeks ago, I bought Amazon's latest gizmo – the Echo. It's a voice-activated, networked device equipped with a seven-piece microphone array, which means that it can pick up one's voice from anywhere in its vicinity with impressive accuracy. It comes in two versions, one a 9.25in-tall cylinder that contains a number of speakers, the other a much smaller cylinder that just has tinny speakers. Since the latter was a third of the price of the former, your cheapskate columnist bought that and hooked it up to his hi-fi system, which means that when he speaks to it the Echo replies in sultry female tones modulated by a high-end analogue amplifier and a pair of very fine speakers. Her name, by the way, is "Alexa". I bought it because it seemed to me that it might be a significant product and I have a policy of never writing about kit that I haven't paid for myself.

Over the past year, the swell of chatbots and virtual assistants has grown larger, and their capabilities have grown more complex. Want a bot to schedule your meetings? Remind you to bring an umbrella if it's going to rain? But while completing practical tasks is the goal of most chatbots and virtual assistants, we don't have conversations simply to get things done. Conversation can also bring connection and joy, and laughter is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for making people feel comfortable and creating positive associations and memories. Tech companies, from giants to small startups, are investing in humor because they view it as an integral part of the human experience--and the key to their bots and assistants slipping smoothly into our lives.