Digital personal assistants have been with us for quite a few years already, and this is valid for Android smartphone users as well as fans of iOS and/or Windows Phone. Needless to say, the biggest players in this segment are Google Now, Siri, and Cortana. These personal assistants are present on their respective operating systems out-of-the-box, and a relatively large number of third-party digital assistants are also available for download, some being more powerful and successful than others. However, as clever as the majority of personal assistants may have become, due to a variety of limitations they have yet to completely change the way we interact with our smartphones. But with the passage of time, personal assistants could become more relevant to smartphone users, and to prove this during a recent tech event in New Your City, Dag Kittlaus – one of the developers behind Apple's Siri – took the veil off "Viv", or what looks to be the most advanced personal assistant created to date.

As someone who recently bought--and was quickly enchanted by--Amazon's Echo connected speaker, I've been thinking of ways to get its Alexa virtual assistant into more rooms of the house. Of course, I could just buy another Echo speaker, or some other Alexa-infused device such as the Echo Dot, Amazon Tap, or Invoxia's Triby. But what if I could just use my smartphone to access Alexa instead? Or better yet, what if I could repurpose an old smartphone to act like an Echo full-time? Such is the promise of a couple new smartphone apps that have Amazon's Alexa assistant built-in.

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display

CEO and co-founder of Viv Dag Kittlaus speaks onstage during TechCrunch Disrupt NY 2016 at Brooklyn Cruise Terminal on May 9, 2016 in New York City. Apple's Siri co-creators, Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer, introduced their newly designed virtual assistant AI Viv, dubbed "The Global Brain." Kittlaus and Cheyer's latest venture in artificial intelligence research proved a rewarding call as AI Viv impressed the public. AI Viv goes beyond Siri's boundaries and performs various tasks that involve third-party exchange and transactions. While Apple's virtual assistant provided reliable in referencing information from the world wide web, users hoped to eventually see more.

Artificial Intelligence is the new technology catchphrase. While nobody knows the ultimate power and the effects of AI's workings at this point, many tech startups and big corporations are investing in this technology. Tesla's Elon Musk is one of the few to raise concerns over AI. Not long ago, he famously said "AI might threaten humanity," if used in the wrong way. However, Microsoft U.K.'s Chief Envisioning Officer Dave Coplin sees AI in a totally different light.

Men who are not tall, dark and handsome may want to brush up on their storytelling skills. A new study has revealed males who can spin a good yarn are seen as more attractive to women. Females also perceive strong storytellers as being more important and of higher status in society. A new study has revealed males who spin a good yarn (illustrated by a stock image) are more attractive to women. Researchers from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and the University at Buffalo (SUNY) asked 388 students, 55 per cent of whom were women, to rate the attractiveness of a potential partner based on a written description – much as they might on an online dating site.

Dag Kittlaus and Adam Cheyer created the artificial intelligence behind Siri and yesterday they showed off their new AI: Viv, a digital assistant they've been developing behind closed curtains for four years. For instance, the problem with Siri is that it actually only links to a very small circle of apps, nearly all of which are homebrewed Apple ones. For other enquiries it merely conducts a web search. Viv on the other hand offers the ability to connect to third-party apps so that it can execute commands via those apps. During a 20-minute on stage demonstration Viv effortlessly handled complex requests and connected to a number of third-party apps to purchase goods and book reservations.

Microsoft UK's chief envisioning officer Dave Choplin made some strong statements at an artificial intelligence conference last Thursday. Sam Shead of Business Insider wrote about Choplin's claim that AI is "the most important technology that anybody on the planet is working on today." Currently, most people's interactions with AI are limited to asking Cortana or Siri to help with simple tasks like scheduling appointments or making phone calls. Those small incremental improvements to our digital assistants might make AI seem like something other than the game changer that Choplin envisions. But as AI improves with advances in deep neural nets and machine learning algorithms, the technology stands the chance to amplify virtually everything in life.

As far as intelligent personal assistants go, the ecosystem has been clearly divided between the top three AI based assistants - Siri, Google Now and Cortana. Of course, there's also Amazon's Alexa, which drives the company's Echo smarthome hub, but it still hasn't reached larger audiences because of its non-smartphone existence. Now, Siri co-founder, Dag Kittlaus has showcased an impressive new AI based digital assistant called Viv, and it may just kick the top three personal assistants out of business, unless of course they up their game. Yesterday, Kittlaus introduced Viv at Tech Crunch Disrupt in New York, where it managed to wow audiences with its ability to handle extremely complicated commands. "Will it be warmer than 70 degrees near the Golden Gate Bridge after 5PM the day after tomorrow?"

College of Computing Professor Ashok Goel teaches Knowledge Based Artificial Intelligence (KBAI) every semester. And every time he offers it, Goel estimates, his 300 or so students post roughly 10,000 messages in the online forums -- far too many inquiries for him and his eight teaching assistants (TA) to handle. That's why Goel added a ninth TA this semester. Her name is Jill Watson, and she's unlike any other TA in the world. Jill is a computer -- a virtual TA --implemented on IBM's Watson platform.