You might have heard of travel virtual assistants Pana and Lola but you will definitely have heard of Google Allo and Assistant. If Google Trips is being seen as the app to end all other in-destination apps, then should Allo and Assistant put to rest travel-specific concierge and chat-based apps? The audience at last week's SITA 2016 Air Transport IT Summit was treated to a demo of how Assistant might work for travellers. Treated because it was, it seems, only the second time the system was getting an airing. The job title alone of Marcin Brodziak, the senior engineer from Google who presented at the Summit, is quite telling in itself – engineering lead of conversational travel.

As we've discussed, Facebook's bot platform is still in its early stages, and most apps aren't ready yet to become part of your everyday life. This is mainly due to shortfalls in natural language processing and the trial-and-error process of developers actually figuring out how users are going to use bots. But one company, the slightly inappropriately named And Chill, has figured out how to build a bot that is actually well suited for Facebook's chat-based interface. And Chill is a movie recommendation engine that is eschewing the traditional "like/dislike" model of recommendation, instead pledging to dig deeper into the reasons a viewer would want to watch a certain movie. The bot can be accessed via Facebook Messenger or SMS.

Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos thinks that we're at the "beginning of a golden era" when it comes to machine learning and artificial intelligence. "It's hard to overstate how much of an impact it's going to have over the next 20 years," he said on stage at Vox's Media's Code Conference on Tuesday night. Not only is it the first inning, "it might even be the first guy up at bat," he laughed. Amazon currently sells a voice-controlled smart speaker called Echo that's powered by its artificial intelligence assistant, Alexa. Right now, Alexa can help users do things like order groceries, play music, or make to-do lists.

A version of this essay was originally published at Tech.pinions, a website dedicated to informed opinions, insight and perspective on the tech industry. One of the themes coming out of the recent Google I/O conference was that Google plans to make a more aggressive push into the consumer hardware business. The company announced the Home product, an AI-oriented service to compete with Amazon Echo; a VR headset; and a new smartphone division that will build and ship its modular Ara phones. Former Motorola CEO Rick Osterloh will lead the new hardware division. In a Recode post last week, Mark Bergen argued that one of the key unanswered questions coming out of I/O is how these exciting new products are going to be distributed. Getting products such as Nexus and Chromecast into consumers' hands is something Google has "never done well," Bergen wrote, further suggesting that if Google wants to more directly compete with Apple, the company will also need to think about its retail strategy.

Users who don't want to pay the 180 for the Amazon Echo smart-speaker can now test the system's features in their web browser with Echoism, according to Mashable. Amazon's 9.25-inch cylindrical Echo speaker uses voice interaction, where users ask Alexa questions or request music. Browser testing of these features is just one way Amazon is trying to get Alexa into cars, homes and phones. Popular Science reported Amazon's release of two seperate toolkit packages: Alexa Voice Service and Alexa Skills Kit. These will allow companies to add new functionality and integrate Alexa into various devices including smart yard products and robotic vacuums.

One of the biggest reveals to come out of Google I/O two weeks ago was Google Home, a voice-activated virtual assistant meant to rival the likes of Amazon's Echo. The device was met with a great deal of fanfare, but a new report from The Information might be enough to put a little damper on the excitement. According to the report, Google Home is basically just a "dressed-up version" of the company's video streaming Chromecast device. It uses the same ARM-based microprocessor as well as the same Wi-Fi chip, a source tells The Information. In other words, it's a Chromecast with a microphone and speaker glued on.

Some would-be users might chafe at the thought of a machine keeping tabs on them. Hackers have been able to break into some Internet-connected devices in the past, and both Google Home and Amazon Echo have drawn criticism for collecting huge amounts of data about their users. Intelligent machines are playing an increasingly central role in people's lives, and users will have to decide whether the advantages of "always-on" technology outweigh the potential drawbacks. Asus is selling Zenbo for 599. While that's a lot more than, say, the Amazon Echo, it's cheaper than many other home'bots, like the 995 Personal Robot from tech company Robot Base.

I hope you had a great long weekend. The weather in New York was beautiful. I'll cut the small talk, though. I want to tell you about something that's been happening on my iPhone. See, I have this folder called Apple Apps.

Google Home promises a minor revolution as far as around-the-home voice assistants go, but its hardware roots may be more than a little familiar. The Information's source understands that Home ultimately boils down to a Chromecast with a microphone, a speaker and a nice case -- it reportedly has the same processor and WiFi chipset. The simple Linux-based operating system is also supposed to be similar (minus the voice command part, of course), although the same insider claims that a future Home might run on Android.

Apple now has the tech in place to give its digital assistant a big boost thanks to a UK-based company called VocalIQ it bought last year. In fact, it was so impressive that Apple bought VocalIQ before the company could finish and release its smartphone app. After the acquisition, Apple kept most of the VocalIQ team and let them work out of their Cambridge office and integrate the product into Siri. Before Apple bought the company, VocalIQ tested its product against Siri, Google Now, and Cortana, and the results were impressive. Users asked each AI questions using normal language, not the robotic commands you're used to using with digital assistants.