Automatic human-computer conversation is said to be one of the most difficult obstacles in artificial intelligence. To overcome this challenge, a team of Chinese researchers has developed'StalemateBreaker', an AI that can proactively initiate conversation while it's interacting with humans. The AI detects awkward silence by identifying triggers, and revives the conversation with unique ideas or suggestions relevant to the dialogue. To overcome this challenge, a team of Chinese researchers propose'StalemateBreaker', a system that can proactively initiate new content while interacting with humans. Researchers face two challenges in making chatbots, like Siri, more proactive.

Humans have always had a complicated relationship with new "technologies." From awe to fear, centuries ago, Plato even worried that writing would adversely affect people's memories. Modernity has had a particular curiosity regarding artificial intelligence (AI). From Terminator-style killer robots to emotive humanoids, the mention of AI brings to mind the many silver screen renderings of some future civilization. More likely than any of these, however, is the reality that AI will probably turn out to be another commonplace technology that, while novel at first, will end up integrated into our everyday lives.

PRESS RELEASE–CAMPBELL, Calif.–[24]7 announced yesterday that it has launched the [24]7 Customer Acquisition Cloud, a suite of marketing technology solutions that enable marketers to better connect with and influence consumers at every touch point. The suite is based on the acquisition of Campanja, a paid search bid optimization company, and EngageClick, a personalized marketing company. Combined with [24]7's predictive customer engagement platform, the Customer Acquisition Cloud gives marketers insight into the entire customer journey, from initial search to the point of purchase. Marketers in large organizations are increasingly challenged to provide the personalization that consumers have come to expect. The Customer Acquisition Cloud empowers companies to achieve more effective customer acquisition at lower cost, increase their understanding of how media spending is driving revenues through marketing campaigns and leverage the consumer interactions that happen annually on the [24]7 platform.

Artificial intelligence (see the Wikipedia definition), specifically machine learning, is an increasingly integral part of many industries, including marketing. Here are a whole bunch of case studies and use cases, as a complete primer for AI in our industry. Predictive analytics allows Netflix to surface and finesse recommendations. This kind of clustering algorithm is continually improving suggestions, allowing users to make the most of their subscription. Uniting information from diverse datasets is a common use of AI.

That's the first day of Apple's 2016 Worldwide Developers Conference in San Francisco, when the company is expected to reveal the latest version of iOS, a bump to the Apple TV, and maybe even a renamed release of OS X – or "MacOS", as it hinted at last week. The event was announced, bizarrely, through Siri, which started giving out a more precise answer to the question "when is WWDC?" than previously. Until Monday evening, the digital assistant had answered with "WWDC is not yet announced", but now it correctly says that "the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) will be held June 13 through June 17 in San Francisco. Although WWDC is more developer-focused than most other Apple events, it usually involves the first look at major software updates coming later in the year. If past events are any indication, this June will see the launch of iOS 10, as well as updates to WatchOS and tvOS (the software that runs the Apple TV). It will also be the first chance for developers (and Mac users) to find out information about the next version of OS X.

As a thank you to customers, Amazon is offering a sale on its Echo and Dot for today only. It seems like every week the Amazon Echo is in the news for one reason or another. But instead of adding new features or announcing new hardware partners, this week Amazon has decided to do something a bit more exciting and a lot more rare: put the Amazon Echo and Amazon Tap on sale. The sale is in celebration of being recognized by the Reputation Institute, which named Amazon the "No. 1 Most Reputable Company in the U.S." Amazon is proudly displaying the award in banners on its homepage, and to say thank you to its customers, it's offering the Echo and Tap for 15 percent off list price--for one day only. That means you can get the Echo for 153.71 instead of 179.99, and the Tap for 111.01 instead of 129.99.

You can shout at your electronics, and they actually do what you want. Unfortunately, all too often that means other people can also shout at your electronics, and they do what they want instead. The latest group of gadget fans to discover the downside of talking to their hardware are owners of Amazon's Echo, the all-singing, all-dancing home automation device produced by the Seattle-based retailer. Hiding inside Echo is Alexa, the (inevitably gendered) personal assistant: simply ask Alexa to perform a task, from playing your favourite song to dimming the lights in your smart home, and she will. But she's not very picky about who's giving the commands, as some listeners of American radio show Listen Up found to their cost.

Why just use one voice assistant when you can get Amazon's Alexa to command Google's Now to activate Apple's Siri? This voice-assistant three-way was enabled by using Amazon's recently released Alexa voice-command system, which the company hopes will help developers insert its voice assistant (made popular in the US by Amazon's Echo intelligent speaker) into their new products. Whether Amazon envisioned them being used to talk to competitor products, we'll never know. Enterprising developer Leon Nicholls used a Raspberry Pi loaded with the Amazon Alexa Skills Kit to talk to an Amazon Echo asking it to ask Google how to enable Apple's "Hey Siri" feature on the iPhone. Alexa did as she was commanded, asking a Google Nexus 6P how to enable Hey Siri.

Humans behind the scenes are vital for helping virtual assistants to learn how to interact with people as if they were real people themselves. At the moment, one of the main things holding adoption of virtual assistants back is the public's discomfort with communicating machines using their own voice. Amazon's Alexa is working to humanize its responses by adding in'hmms' and'ums' into her responses. Apple's Siri assistant too is renowned for making wry jokes. To do this, companies are hiring writers to help build the assistant's personality.

The dates for Apple's developers' conference have been revealed by none other than Siri Apple is known for announcing new hardware and software by taking to the stage and giving its creations the star treatment. The iPhone, iPod and iPad were revealed this way, new versions of Mac and iOS software were revealed this way and, most recently, the iPhone SE was revealed this way. Every June, the tech giant introduces software improvements for its various products and this June is no different. Unfortunately for Apple, Siri just spilled the beans on where and when that presentation will take place: Apple's Worldwide Developers' Conference (WWDC) 2016 will take place June 13-17 in San Francisco. The WWDC keynote always takes place the first day of the conference.