Since hosting the first Intelligent Assistants Awards in the fall of 2014, the market for smart self-service solutions has rapidly expanded. Today's customers don't just accept interacting with virtual intelligent assistants (IAs); many prefer taking their questions to IAs rather than calling or chatting with a human agent. Companies reap the dual benefits of providing customers with popular self-service options while optimizing their overall customer support infrastructure and expense management. IA Awards Puts Focus on Intelligent Assistance Landscape Opus Research will host the third IA awards at the upcoming Intelligent Assistants and Intelligent Authentication Conferences (IASquared) in San Francisco on September 12-13, 2016. Awards Focus on Real-World IA Implementations and Proven Business Value From their inception, the IAAs focused on real-world implementations that fit into what Opus Research has defined as the "Virtual Agents and Customer Assistants" category of the Intelligent Assistants Landscape.

It's here – a world in which helper robots live with us, get us through the day, and yes, become our trusted friend. Science fiction is becoming science fact. As sci-fi writer William Gibson has apparently noted: "The future is already here – it's just not very evenly distributed." The demand for helper robots is booming, and academia, industry and the military are working overtime to meet the need as a whole new industry gains momentum. The demand is fuelled by the existence of those boring, dirty and dangerous jobs that nonetheless need doing.

In today's edition of men having outbursts on the internet, self-proclaimed feminist online dating app Bumble has issued an open letter to a user named Connor, who threw a veritable temper tantrum when a woman boldly asked him what he does for a living. The Bumble messages, featured below, originally appeared on the blog of "The Millionaire Matchmaker" cast member David Cruz. The aptly named post, "How to FIGHT BACK to Digital Dicks!" shows how quickly a conversation shared by Cruz's friend Ashley between her and her Bumble match, Connor, went south. As Cruz writes, Connor "went from Prince Charming to Digital Dick in zero seconds." In the string of messages, Connor accused Ashley of being an "entitled gold-digging whore," because she made the grave mistake of asking Connor what he does for a living.

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. Philips Hue is now compatible with Apple Home Kit, meaning you can use Siri to control your lights. LOS ANGELES -- Siri is expected to expand beyond the iPhone and iPad to third-party apps and Macs, a move designed to hike the usefulness and IQ of Apple's personal digital assistant. Analysts who cover Apple predict an expanded role for Siri will be one highlight of Apple's Apple Worldwide Developers Conference, which begins Monday in San Francisco. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

Bot Directory is created with a goal to be comprehensive source of information about bots (short for of'robots') – computer programs that can run automated tasks. It can be very simple like a bot that scraps price of certain product price from single website on daily basis or very complex system that acts almost like human. Think about artificial intellect that powers robots in Sci-Fi movies. It can be advisor/concierge/virtual assistant app like Siri or Google Now or a robot trading on financial markets. We target to list both final products – bots that are doing particular tasks and technologies and tools that facilitate creation of bots.

I think there's a special stigma when people say they're supporting Trump, because of some of the brash things that he's said,

Lately there's been a rumble pretty much everywhere about artificial intelligence, digital personal assistants, the Internet of Things, wearables and apps for everything. I've even written myself about what the rise of digital assistants mean to search. There are some who claim that these new technologies will render search obsolete, passed over for the convenience and joy of an always-available digital world. I think they are wrong. Instead of looking at a search engine as an advertising platform, we need to remember what it actually does for people.

The question I've been asked most frequently by reporters in the last couple of weeks is whether Apple's Siri personal assistant is behind its competitors, and whether it can catch up. The answer is more complicated than just yes or no, and having some context for next week's Apple's Developer Conference is important for properly evaluating the announcements. First, many comparisons at the moment are of apples and oranges (no pun intended). We're at a particular point in the calendar where all the other major consumer tech companies have already held their developer events this year, so we're comparing their 2016 products (including announcements of products that aren't yet available) to Apple's AAPL, 0.80% versions from 2015. Moreover, many of these new products aren't actually available yet, and won't be for months.

Tinder has today banned under-18s using the service after it was revealed teenagers were using the service to meet with children as young as 13. Child protection campaigners have been upset that since 2012 the online dating app has allowed people aged between 13 and 17 to hook up. But it has emerged that adults have been posing as teenagers to have sexual contact with children, or 16 and 17-year-olds have been grooming boys and girls under the age of consent. Yesterday a serving police officer admitted he had groomed a 15-year-old girl he met on the Tinder and would later film the girl performing a sex act on him. Stephen McMillan, 26, sent a photo of the underage girl's naked breasts to three friends - leading to her becoming suicidal and taking a drug overdose, magistrates were told.

Starting next week, Tinder will discontinue the use of the dating and hookup app for anyone under age 18. Since Tinder launched in 2012, Tinder users had to be at least 13. Users age 13 to 17 could only match with others in that group. Now, users must be at least 18, TechCrunch reports. "On a platform that has facilitated over 11 billion connections, we have the responsibility of constantly assessing our different user experiences," Tinder's official statement said.