Apple Inc. is pressing ahead with the development of an Echo-like smart-home device based on the Siri voice assistant, according to people familiar with the matter. Started more than two years ago, the project has exited the research and development lab and is now in prototype testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced Apple projects. Like Amazon Inc.'s Echo, the device is designed to control appliances, locks, lights and curtains via voice activation, the people said. Apple hasn't finalized plans for the device and could still scrap the project. If a product reaches the market, it would be Apple's most significant piece of new hardware since the company announced the Apple Watch in 2014.

Apple has bought Tuplejump, a machine learning technology company with operations in both India and the United States, TechCrunch reports. Apple continues to buy companies with machine learning expertise. The reason the company had its eyes on Tuplejump was for its "FiloDB" project, according to the report. The lead engineer on FiloDB has been working at Apple since this May, according to his LinkedIn. The purchase price is unknown, although it's almost certainly lower than Apple's last machine learning purchase, Turi, which was bought for around 200 million earlier this year.

Here's our guide on how to use Siri for the MacBook series in macOS Sierra version 10.12. Apple's voice-activated virtual assistant Siri got a boost in iOS 10, but it doesn't stop there. After updating your Mac to the latest version of the new operating system, macOS Sierra, Siri appears automatically on your home dock. You can remove it from the dock if you want, but Siri is fun to use and can actually help you out. To get Siri to pop up, all you have to do is click the icon on the dock.

When it was first announced to a sceptical tech press months after a flop phone, the Echo was dismissed separately as a joke and a privacy nightmare. Now the latter may still prove to be the case - the Echo is always listening, and after it is awakened by saying "Alexa", it logs every sentence spoken to it (although Amazon says privacy is at the heart of the device and that users can delete queries that are stored) - but a joke it is clearly not. In fact many analysts now believe that Amazon has one hand on the future that comes after the smartphone. Alexa is not the only, or even the first, voice-activated virtual assistant – Apple, Google and Microsoft have had their own for years – but it is the first that consumers have truly embraced. While taking out a smartphone in public and speaking to it – as one must with Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant – is awkward, and often slower than simply using a touchscreen, talking to a device in the comfort of one's own home is decidedly less uncomfortable.

Rumors have already outed that Google's new Pixel smartphone will sell for around 650. Now, a couple of sources have indicated that the company's Google Home device will sell for 129, while the new 4k-capable Chromecast Ultra will be available for 69. Google Home was first announced back in May during Google's I/O conference. The device is intended to be the company's answer to Amazon's Echo speaker system. Home will function very much the same way as Echo. The device will be voice-activated and will be able to stream music, answer questions and manage tasks.

Apple Inc. has acquired Indian machine-learning start-up Tuplejump Software Pvt Ltd as it seeks to expand its expertise in artificial intelligence. The iPhone maker bought the Hyderabad, India-based company in June, according to a person familiar with the deal who asked not to be identified. Tuplejump's software specializes in processing and analysing big sets of data quickly. The deal was reported earlier by TechCrunch. The purchase price wasn't disclosed.

Apple has just triggered a flurry of speculations as news was confirmed that it had acquired Tuplejump Software Pvt Ltd., a machine learning company operating in Hyderabad, India. The acquisition was reportedly completed last June and it rounded up the series of Apple startup purchases dabbling in artificial intelligence. Previously, the company acquired Turi Inc. for 200 million and it was followed by Emotient for a still unconfirmed amount. This last company is known in the industry for its employment of AI on facial expressions. These purchases are widely believed to be part of Apple's drive to improve its virtual assistant technology amid growing competition with Google.

Google Home, the latest entrant in the voice-activated-assistant race, will cost 130 and include the colorful base options shown off at the company's I/O conference in May, according to Android Police. Home is Google's answer to the Amazon Echo, though the reported price means it's 50 cheaper than Amazon's flagship device. Earlier this year Amazon unveiled the Echo Dot, a smaller version of the assistant, and the second generation of this little gadget costs 50. Android Police also reports the so-called Chromecast Ultra, a 4K media streaming device, will cost 70. That's double the cost of the standard Chromecast, though the report claims that the new dongle will include HDR capabilities as well.

Even today, a hacker with a command of artificial intelligence may be able to force a self-driving car to miss a stop sign, or a facial recognition system to believe it's seeing a completely different person in a security setting. Researchers have shown that virtual personal assistants like Siri or Google Now can be tricked into visiting potentially malicious websites by audio that sounds like white noise to humans. To thwart such hackers, Elon Musk's OpenAI and Pennsylvania State University released a new tool this week called "cleverhans," that lets artificial intelligence researchers test how vulnerable their AI is to adversarial examples, or purposefully malicious data meant to confuse the algorithms. Once the vulnerability has been found, a defense to the attack can automatically be applied. The tool is meant to be a "collection of attacks and defenses, along with tutorials on how to use them," according to Nicolas Papernot, co-creator and security researcher at Pennsylvania State University, in an email to Quartz.

Visit our Marketing Nerds archive to listen to other Marketing Nerds podcasts! In this episode of Marketing Nerds, SEJ's Chief Social Media Strategist, Brent Csutoras, was joined by Heidi Young, the principle engineering lead at Oslo, an AI program, to discuss the future of conversational search and how AI could help create a true virtual assistant. Here are a few excerpts from Brent and Heidi's conversation, but be sure to listen to the podcast to hear everything. We very much are in the early stages of it, but I would say what makes today very different from even five years ago, is that technology has kind of been catching up and the market it ready for it. The fact that Google has worked so hard, over the years, to digitize the world's information, organize the world's content, and that Facebook has learned so much about you, and Amazon knows everything that there could be to know about products, you have this ocean of information that's specialized and personalized, all at the same time.