She's smart, resourceful, and roughly the same size as two Campbell's soup cans stacked on top of one another. Her name's Alexa, and unless you've been hiding under a technology-averse rock for the past several months, you've probably heard of her. The Amazon Echo packs a technological maze of wires, motherboards, speakers, and LED's into a 9 x 3 cylindrical frame. It's impressively accurate voice recognition technology is the perfect key to tie your smart home together (for a detailed teardown of an Echo, check out this article from I Fix It) Here at Inspire Energy, we've road tested the Amazon Echo since early April of this year. Here are three important set-ups you'll want to nail on your first day of ownership so that you can get the most out of Alexa right from the get go.

Microsoft has released a new, 30-second video spot which pits the iPad Pro against the Surface Pro 4. The video spot -- presented as a conversation between Siri and Cortana -- highlights the differences between an iPad Pro, fitted with Apple's detachable keyboard (something Apple has been touting in a new commercial) and a Core i7-based Surface Pro with its detachable keyboard. The new ad also calls out the fact that Apple's iPad Pro isn't able to run "full Office," which is true, since the iPad Pro is an iOS, not OS X device. Microsoft tag line for its Surface Pro devices are "tablets that can replace your laptop."

Bell started working at Intel in 1998. She brought her anthropological research and fieldwork techniques to the world of microprocessors, wearables and artificial intelligence. Over the years, her formal role has evolved from director of user experience at Intel's research lab to VP of corporate strategy. But regardless of the titles, her work has remained firmly focused on studying the patterns and complexities of human behavior across cultures. In her self-proclaimed role as a "full-time anthropologist and part-time futurist," she examines the meaning of "intelligence" within the context of machines, while she continues to trace its cultural impact on humans and their relationships. At a time when robotic helpers and virtual assistants are starting to infiltrate our personal lives, the need to assess the implications of this new kind of interaction feels more pertinent than ever. I recently called Bell to talk about the social impact of building relationships with our machines and the ways in which the story of AI is deeply connected to the history of human culture. In what ways does the study of human societies and cultures drive technological innovation? And how does that translate into your work at Intel?

In March this year, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella talked about the industry trend of using human language more pervasively for interaction with computing devices, a trend he called "conversation as a platform." He also announced several bot initiatives, including the company's bot framework. In April, Facebook launched its Messenger platform with bots. Then, in May, Google announced its attempt to develop AI-powered bots, called Google Assistant. Since then, bots have been widely regarded as a new user interface (UI) to fundamentally change how computing will be experienced by people.

Criteo is the world leader in performance Internet advertising. The Recommender System is at the core of its Engine. Real-time prediction: Everybody predicts clicks. But how do you accurately predict if the userâ s click on a product will generate a sale? Thankfully, you have billions of data points to help you.

I met Abby at an HRUndergroundX meetup hosted by Nick Larche. She told me about a new technology she was using to recruit candidates for her start-up clients. "Abby, it was nice to meet you the other night. I'd love to get together and have coffee." "… Amy CC'd has my schedule and will reach out to coordinate with you. She'll also send you a calendar invite once confirmed. Amy, please block this as a 30 minute coffee meeting. If Crema is not a good location for Greg, please let him select our meeting spot. Does Monday, Jul 18 at 4:00 PM work? Alternatively, Abby is available Tuesday, Jul 19 at 11:00 AM or 4:00 PM. Abby likes Crema Coffee House, 2862 Larimer St, Denver, CO 80205, USA, for coffee. I am open at 11am on July 22nd. I received and accepted the invite. Just want to confirm that Abby is still available for our appointment tomorrow at 11AM?"

Snapchat Inc. is in the process of acquiring personalized search app Vurb, according to people familiar with matter. The Venice entertainment app maker would spend more than 100 million in cash and stock to purchase the San Francisco start-up, said a source unauthorized to speak publicly about the deal. The transaction hasn't been finalized, multiple sources said. Vurb co-founder and Chief Executive Bobby Lo would receive 75 million over several years -- separate from the initial purchase price -- if he stays at Snapchat. The tech news website the Information first reported details of the deal Monday.

The use of robots is increasingly becoming inevitable in our daily lives. From social and domestic bots like Alexia – Amazon Echo to financial robo-advisors, Robots exist in real life and no longer synonymous with science fiction alone. The nature of work and the role of human in getting work done is constantly being redefined, as we see more machines take on, and even getting better and more efficient that human in routine task execution. Robots are always related with industrial applications, but have gradually crept into our offices, banks, homes, roads, labs and even hospitals. Below is an illustration of broad application of robots.

This is part of a series on Artificial Intelligence. If you are catching it for the first time I'd recommend that you start here where I introduce the idea and provide some instrumental background. In the last article, I talked about the usefulness of thinking about artificial intelligence in its chapters. True, you could start biting this elephant anywhere and anyhow. The phases approach is just my recommended way of understanding, with better clarity, the goals and ultimate intentions of AI.

Just two months after announcing the arrival of iOS 10 this fall at the 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple is now rolling out the sixth beta of its upcoming mobile operating system. Just last week, the Cupertino-headquartered tech company distributed the iOS 10 beta 5 to developers and beta testers for evaluation, so releasing the sixth beta today comes as a surprise. The iOS 10 beta 6, which is actually iOS beta 5 for public non-developer users that are part of the Apple Software Beta Program, gives developers access to a more stable operating system, since this one comes with fixes for a number of bugs present in the previous releases. For example, the bug that was causing the sticker pack apps to be blank has been repaired, so developers can now load and view the sticker packs. In addition, MacRumors has learned that the bug affecting iPad docks has been remedied as well. The newly released iOS 10 dev beta also brings an improvement to Siri.