Reuters – Google-parent Alphabet Inc launched Allo, a messaging app that incorporates Google's search feature and a chatbot that uses machine learning to "improve" itself over time. The new messaging service, which was unveiled in May, will compete with Facebook's WhatsApp and Messenger. The much-anticipated launch comes a month after Google rolled out Duo, its video calling app. Allo features a chatbot powered by Google Assistant, a virtual personal assistant like Apple's Siri. Users can call up the assistant in a chat by typing "@google" followed by a search query and the results will be displayed in the chat itself.

Amazon's Echo voice-activated speaker has more "skills" than you may be using. Amazon's Echo has become a sleeper hit thanks to tasks its digital assistant Alexa can carry out. There's probably more you could do with it. In case you haven't played around with an Echo or similar Alexa-driven voice speakers, the 179 cylindrical-shaped, cloud-connected speaker sits in a room and you use your voice to ask a question or give a command. Using the wake word "Alexa," a sensitive microphone picks up the request and dishes up the info you want in a human-like voice.

It turns out I'm not the only one who thinks AI alarmism is a bit out of hand. The ITIF Luddite Award nominations include "alarmists, even including respected luminaries such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking, touting an artificial intelligence apocalypse." Opinions are stewing on both sides of the issue, with Gizmodo writer George Dvorsky saying it's not right to be branded a Luddite for warning against potential perils. Like most controversies, the differences are smaller than the similarities, since both groups contend that they are promoting a better future for humanity. The real question is from where does your faith in humanity stem?

Despite the ongoing efforts of banks to attract millennials, they are still failing to make an impression. According to Gallup, only 23% of millennials are actively engaged with their bank, making millennials the least engaged generation. Considering that fully engaged customers bring considerable benefits and higher revenues – this is a big problem. If banks expect millennials to "simply grow up," they may be facing a tough road ahead. Financial institutions – banks and others -- that find a way to communicate with millennials on their terms and give them the financial tools they want are more likely to end up the winners.

Maluuba launched its first Siri-like personal assistant at TC Disrupt San Francisco four years ago. Since then, the company has raised 11 million and has licensed its technology to a number of handset manufacturers that now use it to power their own personal-assistant features. As Maluuba's head of product Mo Musbah told me, the company spent the last two years doubling down on how it could utilize deep learning in the context of natural language processing. To do so, it recently opened an R&D office in Montreal, for example. As Musbah told me, "our vision there is to build one of the largest deep learning labs in the world," so the company is definitely not lacking in ambition.

Apple Inc. is pressing ahead with the development of an Echo-like smart-home device based on the Siri voice assistant, according to people familiar with the matter. Started more than two years ago, the project has exited the research and development lab and is now in prototype testing, said the people, who asked not to be identified discussing unannounced Apple projects. Like Amazon Inc.'s Echo, the device is designed to control appliances, locks, lights and curtains via voice activation, the people said. Apple hasn't finalized plans for the device and could still scrap the project. If a product reaches the market, it would be Apple's most significant piece of new hardware since the company announced the Apple Watch in 2014.

Apple has bought Tuplejump, a machine learning technology company with operations in both India and the United States, TechCrunch reports. Apple continues to buy companies with machine learning expertise. The reason the company had its eyes on Tuplejump was for its "FiloDB" project, according to the report. The lead engineer on FiloDB has been working at Apple since this May, according to his LinkedIn. The purchase price is unknown, although it's almost certainly lower than Apple's last machine learning purchase, Turi, which was bought for around 200 million earlier this year.

Here's our guide on how to use Siri for the MacBook series in macOS Sierra version 10.12. Apple's voice-activated virtual assistant Siri got a boost in iOS 10, but it doesn't stop there. After updating your Mac to the latest version of the new operating system, macOS Sierra, Siri appears automatically on your home dock. You can remove it from the dock if you want, but Siri is fun to use and can actually help you out. To get Siri to pop up, all you have to do is click the icon on the dock.

When it was first announced to a sceptical tech press months after a flop phone, the Echo was dismissed separately as a joke and a privacy nightmare. Now the latter may still prove to be the case - the Echo is always listening, and after it is awakened by saying "Alexa", it logs every sentence spoken to it (although Amazon says privacy is at the heart of the device and that users can delete queries that are stored) - but a joke it is clearly not. In fact many analysts now believe that Amazon has one hand on the future that comes after the smartphone. Alexa is not the only, or even the first, voice-activated virtual assistant – Apple, Google and Microsoft have had their own for years – but it is the first that consumers have truly embraced. While taking out a smartphone in public and speaking to it – as one must with Apple's Siri or Google's Assistant – is awkward, and often slower than simply using a touchscreen, talking to a device in the comfort of one's own home is decidedly less uncomfortable.

Rumors have already outed that Google's new Pixel smartphone will sell for around 650. Now, a couple of sources have indicated that the company's Google Home device will sell for 129, while the new 4k-capable Chromecast Ultra will be available for 69. Google Home was first announced back in May during Google's I/O conference. The device is intended to be the company's answer to Amazon's Echo speaker system. Home will function very much the same way as Echo. The device will be voice-activated and will be able to stream music, answer questions and manage tasks.