Asus recently announced their latest range of products, including a predictable new ultra-thin laptop, amongst a range of other pieces of tech. However, arguably their most intriguing reveal came in the form of a little robot for you home that does everything, which Asus have aptly named the Zenbo. According to the Verge, the Asus Zenbo is unlike anything you've seen before, essentially bringing a real-world fully functioning version of BB-8 from the Star Wars series into your home. He spoke about the Zenbo's many key functions, describing the robot as a smart home manager, security guard, hands-free kitchen assistant, and family photographer, amongst many other things. It's a product that Asus are clearly very excited about.

Further complaints, most recently slung by Bookslut founder Jessa Crisipin, center on the perceived nepotism of book reviewing. Reviewers, she purports, are influenced too heavily by publishers, contributing to an insular community that doesn't allow room for subversive takes. It is perhaps due to these criticisms of criticism that Hunter noticed "so much change in terms of the media [...] newspapers moving to websites and cutting down book review sections or hiding them on sub-menus."

The headline of a May 24, 2016 press release reads, "Nortek Acquires Next-Generation Language Processing Platform Nuiku." The release calls Nuiku "a next-generation natural language processing platform that facilitates sophisticated voice control across home automation and other applications." I'm into natural language processing -- I follow NLP and applications as an industry analyst and consultant -- so when my friends at Slator asked my take on the transaction, I thought I'd take a closer look. How could I not, reading that "Nuiku is a leader in natural language processing," even though the claimant is biased: Nortek CEO Michael J. Clarke? So was this a successful exit pure and simple -- a favorable sign for other NLP start-ups -- or is there more one can learn and infer from the acquisition?

The Weather Company, acquired by IBM in January, will begin rolling out digital ads that people can communicate with this fall. Powered by IBM Watson's artificial intelligence, consumers will be able to ask questions via voice or text and receive relevant information about the product or offering. The first companies to tap Watson ads will be Campbell Soup Company, GSK Consumer Healthcare and Unilever. Unlike ads tied to keyword searches, Watson Ads are able to pick up the nuances of natural language. For example, a consumer seeing a Campbell's digital ad may ask by voice interaction, "What can I make for dinner tonight?"

AI is entering Financial Services by automating processes, identifying patterns by crunching Big Data, and interacting with humans through voice. What areas of Financial Services will NOT be affected, and how will consumers buy banking and insurance services in the future? Artificial Intelligence surrounds us so seamlessly interwoven in our daily lives that we hardly pause to contemplate it during the day. Most of us carry around in our pockets our very own artificial intelligence assistants: iPhone s personal servants "Siri", Windows' "Cortana" and Android's "Google Now". All assistants communicate with us through interpreting and "understanding" natural language.

Lenovo recently released a new combination desktop program/Windows Store app that helps add even more power to Cortana on Windows 10 PCs. Lenovo's Reachit lets you take Cortana into places it's never been before by connecting the digital assistant to your files within the likes of Dropbox and Google Drive. Lenovo released Reachit in beta form in 2015, but now it's available for anyone to use. First, you install the Windows Store version of Reachit. Once you've done that, you'll be prompted to install a desktop program as well.

There's a lot of sci-fi-level buzz lately about smart machines and software bots that will use big data and the Internet of things to become autonomous actors, such as to schedule your personal tasks, drive your car or a delivery truck, manage your finances, ensure compliance with and adjust your medical activities, build and perhaps even design cars and smartphones, and of course connect you to the products and services that it decides you should use. But there's another path that gets much less attention: the real world. It too uses AI, analytics, big data, and the Internet of things (aka the industrial Internet in this context), though not in the same manner. Whether you're looking to choose a next-frontier career path or simply understand what's going on in technology, it's important to note the differences. A recent conversation with Colin Parris, the chief scientist at manufacturing giant General Electric, crystalized in my mind the different paths that the combination of machine learning, big data, and IoT are on.

In a promotional video for Amazon's Echo virtual assistant device, a young girl no older than 12 asks excitedly: "Is it for me?". The voice-controlled speaker can search the web for information, answer questions and even tell kids' jokes. An investigation by the Guardian has found that despite Amazon marketing the Echo to families with young children, the device is likely to contravene the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), set up to regulate the collection and use of personal information from anyone younger than 13. Along with Google, Apple and others promoting voice-activated artificial intelligence systems to young children, the company could now face multimillion-dollar fines. "This is part of the initial wave of marketing to children using the internet of things," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group that helped write the law.

Microsoft is adding its Cortana smart assistant to millions of Xbox One game consoles in a bid to take on Apple, Google and Amazon in the smart assistant market. The firm today launched the first test version of the smart assistant for beta users of its Xbox One, ahead of a full launch for it later this summer.

A woman from Cairns, Australia, used Siri to call an ambulance for her one-year-old daughter when she stopped breathing. Stacey Gleeson grabbed her iPhone and ran to the child's room to help her but dropped it as she turned on the light. She shouted at the handset to activate Siri and told it to get the emergency services on speakerphone as she began CPR. Ms Gleeson told the BBC she feels it may have saved her daughter's life. She instructed Siri to call an ambulance on speakerphone and was able to communicate with the emergency services while resuscitating Giana.