Ted Dunning (Chief Application Architect at MapR) and Ellen Friedman have written a new O'Reilly Media book on "Practical Machine Learning – Innovations in Recommendation" (released in January 2014). This book examines one of the most interesting, fun, and powerful data science applications in the big data universe: recommendation systems. For me, this was one of the most interesting applications of data mining that immediately captured my imagination after I embarked on the journey to data science (drifting away from my astrophysics roots) about a dozen years ago. It is also one of the most common use cases that are taught in data science MOOCs and other analytics training courses. I believe that the love affair with recommender systems can be partly attributed to two things.

Carol has extensive experience as a developer and architect building complex mission critical applications in the Banking, Health insurance and Telecom Industries. As a Java Technology Evangelist at Sun Microsystems, Carol traveled all over the world speaking at Sun Tech Days, JUGs, Companies, and Conferences. She is a recognized speaker in Java communities.

Today, the biggest technology players are in a mad dash to develop the smartest conversational interface. These personal assistants are helpful, entertaining and already a powerful connector between people and their digital lives. While they function a little differently, they all source every bit of data they can find to engage in unique, valuable conversations with their owners. The astounding pace of technology guarantees that there will always be a new connector, a new privileged broker that draws humans and the digital realm ever closer together. But this shouldn't be a threat to marketers.

Apple may have inadvertently erased doubts that Siri would come to the Mac. Brian Roemmele has discovered that asking iOS' Siri the right question (such as "open settings in the window") sometimes produces a response saying that the voice assistant can't find the Finder app -- you know, a crucial part of the Mac's interface. Barring the inclusion of a full-on file manager in iOS 10 (not very likely), this hints that Apple is laying the groundwork for Siri in OS X.

Best of all, you don't even have to pay it. That is what users have at their fingertips these days. With Cortana spreading her reach, and Siri firmly established in Apple products' interfaces, it brings forth the question if the age of artificial intelligence has arrived. When I hear the word AI, I immediately think of HAL from "2001: A Space Odyssey." When HAL first comes onto the scene, he seems like an alright guy.

It appears that the rumor mill has gone into full tilt in the lead-up to Apple's upcoming WWDC event: there are reports that the Cupertino giant is working on opening up its artificial intelligence strategy. The Information reports that Apple may open Siri up to third-party developers and apps. Apple may also be working on an AI-powered smart speaker to compete with Amazon's Echo and its Alexa AI or Google's Home system. Presumably, the speaker will have a microphone and built-in Siri capabilities, meaning users can have their digital assistant read them the morning headlines, weather reports, play music, et cetera. There is no official word from Apple HQ, naturally, but there should be plenty to look forward to at this year's WWDC.

Apple's keynote will take place the first day of WWDC, June 13. This coming Monday, June 13 will bring Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference, held in San Francisco, California. The keynote, where a bulk of new software announcements that consumers care about are made, will start at 1 p.m. ET, or 10 a.m. PT where the conference is held. The conference breaks off into smaller sessions after the keynote, where developers get to find out new features they're being given and hoops they'll have to jump through to continue developing for iOS.

Worldwide Developers Conference, Apple's annual event for people who write apps for its platforms, kicks off with a keynote presentation on Monday, June 13. WWDC is a software-focused event aimed at developers, which doesn't exclude possible hardware announcements. Here's everything we think Apple will announce at WWDC and, please, do feel free to post your own observations and predictions in comments. The tenth major release of Apple's mobile operating system should improve upon the feature set introduced in iOS 9 and iOS 8 while continuing to refine its look and feel, which received a major makeover with the release of iOS 7 three years ago. The changes should begin with bringing Siri intelligence to third-party apps and continue with refinements like an iCloud Voicemail feature that should transcribe voicemails, an improved Apple Music with a more intuitive interface, the officially-sanctioned way to hide, or even delete unwanted stock apps, new 3D Touch shortcuts, a person-to-person payments via iMessage, iMessage for Android, a Skitch-like editing feature in Photos and more.

To hold its own against digital assistants from Google, Microsoft and Amazon, Siri needs an IQ boost. Last month, Google took the stage in Mountain View, California, to show off improvements to its digital voice assistant. Its signature ability is to have a conversation with it like you would a normal person. You can ask "Google Assistant" what's on your schedule and then have it text the person you're meeting to say you'll be late. Google remembers your first question, so you don't have to start over with a new command.

Apple is set to unveil a new and improved Siri, the personal digital assistant, and widen its reach, to Mac computers and third-party apps. LOS ANGELES - Once again, Apple wants us to believe that Siri can be ready for prime time finally, with a more chatty, robust personal digital assistant. You know, unlike the one who debuted in 2011 as a novelty, and has been touted every year since as new and improved. At Apple's Worldwide Developer's Conference, which begins Monday, Apple is expected to tout the better Siriand open her up to third-party developers, to make it available to say, apps like Uber and Airbnb for voice-activated booking of cars and overnight stays. But do we believe that Apple is really up for the task, and can succeed, when the company has let us down so many times before?