Microsoft is hoping to make Skype conversations a bit smarter by injecting then with artificial intelligence. At its Build 2016 conference, Microsoft demonstrated how Cortana, along with other third-party "bots," can provide more information and potential actions as part of Skype messaging. As a basic example, Cortana will highlight key parts of a conversation, which users can tap on to pull up more information. During any conversation, users will also be able to pull up a private AI chat window, where they can talk to Cortana and other bots. Say for instance that you're talking to someone about an upcoming event.

At Tuesday's Build keynote, Microsoft showed how the company plans to add increased utility to its Cortana digital assistant, through greater contextual awareness and more proactive actions. It's not clear when these capabilities will come to Cortana, though it seems likely they'll be rolled out over the coming months, probably timed to coincide with the Anniversary Update of Windows 10 this summer. Microsoft Chief Executive Satya Nadella said the improvements to Cortana are part of a larger conversation the company is having, involving natural language interactions with users and even other automated digital intelligence, or bots. Cortana, though, remains the premier way for users to interact with a Windows 10 PC or phone. Marcus Ash, the group product manager for Cortana at Microsoft, showed off some of its new capabilities--the most impressive of which was its ability to "send [a colleague] the PowerPoint that I worked on last night".

If Microsoft's Satya Nadella has his way, there will be no Singularity in the future--where humanity uploads its consciousness into a mass, computer-backed intelligence--nor a murderous scene straight from the Terminator. "Ultimately," Nadella said, "It's not going to be man versus machines. It's going to be man with machines." Nadella made the grand pronouncement during Wednesday's introduction of Microsoft's new "Conversations as a Platform" philosophy--basically, the idea that the mixture of machine learning and natural language will alter the way computing behaves going forward, as we interact with personal digital assistants and legions of bots to help us organize our lives. Ordering food should be as simple as sending a text message; having Cortana juggle your appointments and suggest changes should be accomplished with a simple verbal conversation using natural language.

Microsoft doubled down on its message of Windows apps that can work on your PC, smartphone or Xbox One during Build 2016, its annual developers conference in San Francisco. Central to this idea was the big Windows 10 Anniversary update, which further opens up the operating system to developers. Chatbots and Cortana were also featured prominently as a potential future for Microsoft in a world that has left the desktop behind. "I am an optimist," Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said Wednesday during the Build 2016 keynote. "We, as a company, are optimistic about what technology can do for us. I believe technology can, in fact, drive economic growth all over the world. I believe technology can empower us in our daily lives. I believe technology can be used to preserve our enduring values."

For two of the datasets we are using a small sample for testing. The OpenStreetMap data is limited to edits in Azerbaijan from 2012 and earlier, and the Git data is just from the Django GitHub repository. The datasets we have selected span a wide range of densities, user and item counts, and types of ratings. Additionally, they provide a wide variety of information about items and users allowing us to explore different methods of extracting content vectors from the datasets.

I still remember my mom telling me about her first job out of college. She was an executive secretary--or what we'd now call a personal assistant--for a multi-millionaire. I fantasized about how easy life would be with someone to take care of all the "little details." Imagine how much more productive I would be if someone else handled scheduling doctor appointments, finding time on my calendar for meetings, and buying my boss a gift for her birthday. Fast forward to 2016 and I don't have anyone at my beck and call. But nowadays you can get lots of the advantages of a personal assistant right on your phone.

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

For example, it can offer to order lunch or arrange a taxi pick-up for you, using information from personal calendars. Cortana's also going to be able to automatically add receipts to your expense reports, as well as use a combination of geolocation and historical data to bring up details about the places you've been to in the past. Marcus Ash, a member of Microsoft's Cortana team, demoed this during the Build 2016 keynote by asking the virtual assistant: "What toy store did I go to last year at Build?" Cortana will be available on your lockscreen, too, letting you access its features without having to unlock your desktop or laptop. And now Microsoft's making it easy to find apps that work well with its smart assistant, thanks to a section in the Windows Store dubbed Cortana Collection. Get all the news from today's Microsoft Build keynote right here, and follow along with our liveblog!

CEO Satya Nadella said, "it's about taking the power of human language and applying it more pervasively to all of our computing." He continued that Microsoft needs to infuse intelligence into its products and services." He pointed out that the platform will be composed of three factors: Humans that actually have the conversations, the digital personal assistant like Cortana and the bots that are the new applications. Nadella said that all of three of these interact in a variety of ways. It won't be corralled in the Window's world. "It has to be about you, not a single device.

The simplest explanation is that people are conditioned to expect women, not men, to be in administrative roles--and that the makers of digital assistants are influenced by these social expectations. "It's much easier to find a female voice that everyone likes than a male voice that everyone likes," the Stanford communications professor Clifford Nass, told CNN in 2011. "It's a well-established phenomenon that the human brain is developed to like female voices." Which sounds nice, but doesn't necessarily hold up to cultural scrutiny. Just ask any woman who works in radio about how much unsolicited criticism she receives about the way she talks.