A developer named Brian Kane has hacked his Alexa to speak through the avatar of a wall-mounted Big Mouth Billy Bass. It's not clear exactly how he did it, but it's probably related to the Alexa API -- opened in April just after the release of the Dot -- which allows developers to embed the smart assistant in third-party hardware. In the Facebook video, you can clearly see the animatronic fish responding to Alexa's wake word and moving its mouth in sync with her commands. The results, embedded above, are unsettling to say the least. The Big Mouth Billy Bass is a classic of novelty shops and Wal-Marts, designed to sing "Take Me To The River" or "Don't Worry Be Happy" when its motion sensor is activated.

The video is simply captioned, "the future" ― and it's a dystopian vision indeed. Gizmodo suggests that Kane could have accomplished this feat by using Amazon's API that lets people embed the Alexa technology in third-party devices. TechCrunch noted he also could have just shoved an Amazon Echo -- the wireless voice command device where you usually hear Alexa's voice -- inside the fish. Please just no one let this guy get his hands on a Teddy Ruxpin.

During his presentation at Alphabet Inc. subsidiary Google's (GOOG) event to launch Pixel phones earlier this month, CEO Sundar Pichai said the company's goal was to build a personal google for everyone. Google Home, which will be available at major retail stores starting tomorrow, is part of the company's ecosystem of devices to achieve that aim. A spate of reviews in tech publications provide more details about Google's personalization plans. Google Home is a competitor to Amazon.com Inc.'s (AMZN) home assistant Alexa and is outfitted with Google Assistant, the AI system that will soon become all pervasive in Google's hardware products.

Watch Google Home, the Internet giant's take on Amazon Echo, as it struggles to answer basic queries posed by Jefferson Graham on #TalkingTech A link has been sent to your friend's email address. Watch Google Home, the Internet giant's take on Amazon Echo, as it struggles to answer basic queries posed by Jefferson Graham on #TalkingTech

Watch Google Home, the Internet giant's take on Amazon Echo, as it struggles to answer basic queries posed by Jefferson Graham on #TalkingTech LOS ANGELES - A new look to the Uber app that taps into your contacts to potentially share rides, a deep dive into Google Home, the product that tries to take on Amazon's Echo, but some say fails, subscription based organic dog food, video doorbells and online dollar stores. The extended weekend edition of the Talking Tech podcast weighs in on the week's tech's headlines, and introduces you to some new and very interesting tech startups. The app adds calendar integration--tap it to pick up a ride request for that destination. Uber also taps into your contact list to send push notifications to friend, asks if he/she wants to share ride. Microsoft Teams won't be fully available until the first quarter of 2017.

We're on the precipice of choosing the next President of the United States, and if you're still an undecided voter, let our 2016 Election Guide help inform your selection. While Trump or Hillary is the question most are trying to answer, Devindra Hardawar's interview this week sheds light on third-party, transhumanist candidate Zoltan Istvan and what he learned from the 2016 campaign. What I learned: while the idea that technology and man will merge to make us immortal is an enticing one, it's not an idea most of us feel is worth investing in politically... not yet, anyway. As the nation ponders the US election's outcome and the implications of its result, a city of the future is being built in Singapore -- a place where a far more restrictive political system has enabled the creation of the most technologically advanced metropolis on the planet. The question remains, however, whether the loss of privacy and the opportunity for governmental abuse is worth a more efficient municipal power grid and public transport system.

The greatest fear for banks in the changing landscape of financial services is to lose grasp of the customer relationship and become utility commodity providers, or "dumb pipes". This fear is strengthen by changes in consumer behavior and expectations, regulatory changes such as PSD2, new business models and new technology. Artificial intelligence is one of the technological paradigms that is set to transform financial services in the years to come. How will banks stay relevant in a perfect storm of changes affecting nearly every aspect of the industry? According to Accenture, banks must become an indispensable Everyday Bank to meet changes in consumer behavior and expectations.

Four out of four online travel luminaries, in one sampling, agree: Voice search is the future of online travel. Google is billing its new Google Assistant as a smarter, more useful competitor against Apple's Siri voice-control feature. For now the service is available only on Google's new Pixel line of phones and its Allo app, which combines Assistant functionality with SMS messaging tools (but not, strangely, Google's Hangouts chat or video features). When it comes to travel, however, Google Assistant is not yet the perfect voice-controlled travel assistant. It doesn't offer booking capability, unlike travel agency chat hybrids like Lola, and isn't enabled to inform you of your travel itinerary.

Yes, artificial technology is rapidly improving -- and true, AI will invade the legal business before you know it -- but futuristic AI-infused robot lawyers aren't going to replace legal pros anytime soon. AI-based tools and technologies created and customized for legal work are coming for sure, though. AI-enabled software can use pattern recognition and extreme machine learning algorithms to help legal pros work faster. Their capability digest vast amounts of information and interpret it can help you work smarter, too. The time to start thinking about the first wave of AI legal tools is now.

Amazon has been introducing its own products to take a bigger share of the market it already controls, and the strategy is working. Of speakers sold on Amazon, the Amazon Echo accounts for 45 percent. Bose is next with just 16 percent. Those Amazon sales cover 89 percent of all online speaker sales. A new report from the data analytics group 1010data analyzed Amazon's private label products.