Early reviews of Apple Inc. AAPL -2.26 % 's new iPhone 7 were, in a word, "meh." Pundits praised the many improvements in the device, but a consensus emerged that Apple had not given existing iPhone owners a compelling reason to upgrade. Why are the iPhone, and other computing devices like PCs and tablets, not changing as quickly as they once did? There are many reasons, but the central issue is this: It is harder than ever--more technically difficult, more expensive and more time consuming--to advance the state of the art. Our devices are so complicated that, at their most fundamental level, advancing them further pushes against the boundaries of physics.

APPLE's events have often been compared to religious worship. Evangelical fans watch as the company's darkly-clad boss--first Steve Jobs, now Tim Cook--presents shiny new iSomethings in front of a screen showing colourful slides reminiscent of stained glass. Yet Apple's latest event, on September 7th, was a less rapturous affair. The iPhone 7, the firm's new smartphone, will come with a better camera, a faster chip and a brighter display, but will otherwise not be much of an improvement. The main novelty is that it no longer has a conventional jack for headphones, which have to plug into the charging port or be wireless (conveniently, Apple also introduced new untethered "AirPods", which will cost 160 a pair).

Can you imagine life without your smartphone? The last time I forgot mine at home I felt a bit lost, disconnected and just plain naked. Like I'd left an arm or a leg at home. Yet the fact that 79% of smartphone users are never more than an arm's reach from their phones, I know I'm not alone. So when I started to hear rumblings that smartphones could be on their way out in the next few years, I almost choked on my coffee.

Artificial intelligence might be on its way Photo credit: David Molina Evan Roberts and David MolinaSeptember 10, 2016Filed under Opinion # Hang on for a minute...we're trying to find some more stories you might like. Close # Email This Story Send Email Cancel Siri was first introduced in 2011 on the iPhone 4S. When it was first introduced it was fun to play with and receive cute responses from, but it was not too useful. Since then, Siri and its competitors have become increasingly more use... U.S. – Google Inc. (NASDAQ: inGOOGL) is working with a third-party company called DeepMind to enhance their AI personal assistant.

While subtle, one of the biggest advances portrayed in movies like Her or Ex Machina was that the AI began to really sound like a fellow human. And in the realm of real-life tech, Google's AI focus in recent years has similarly been to make computers sound more like us. The latest development to come out of Google's Deepmind AI is called WaveNet and it samples different parts of human speech and models its own waveforms after the way they sound. It's not perfect yet, but we're definitely getting closer to voices that sound like they come from a person's mouth, rather than from a computer's speaker. While it still sounds strange, the new AI speech certainly flows better than the kinds of responses you'll get from Siri or Cortana, which chop up human speech and paste it back together in a way that makes individual pronunciations correct, but the flow of the speech is completely off.

Amazon's voice-controlled speaker Echo and its Alexa software have been so successful that even rivals such as Google and reportedly Apple are developing competing versions. But Babak Hodjat, the inventor of the technology behind Apple's voice recognition system Siri, doesn't believe in Echo and Alexa's hype. He thinks they still lack one major component that makes human-machine conversations more complete: visual interactions. "It has to be augmented with all sorts of other visual cues, interactions, and maybe show some icons to allow the user to be able to click," Hodjat told Business Insider. "A solely speech recognition based system with no other user interface or contextual elements is incomplete."

Over the past 30 years, tools once reserved for presidents, spies, generals and media moguls have been made available cheaply to billions. Streaming live video to a global audience used to cost millions. Now, it's free and you could be doing it in five seconds if you wanted to. Every great leader, from presidents to CEOs, is surrounded by trusted advisors who guide and inform at every step. Successful leaders often succeed in part because they have better advice or better information.

The terms "machine learning" and "artificial intelligence" (AI) conjure up feelings that are equal parts fear and fascination. Until recently, the prospect of a piece of software making human-like decisions resided safely in the far-fetched expectations of 1960s-era computer scientists or the plot lines of science fiction novels. Today, however, after decades of unmet expectations, we finally have AI systems that are beginning to influence our lives in tangible ways. Voice recognition systems like Amazon's Echo and Apple's Siri, and once-unimaginable fantasies like self-driving cars, are on the market for consumers, with more exciting life-like systems to come. We have also seen a few early signs of robotic autonomy that makes us feel uneasy, like the Russian robot that learned how to escape the lab!

It's helping medical researchers, aiding in just about every computational process, and beating people in lots of games The AIs Are Winning: 5 Times When Computers Beat Humans The AIs Are Winning: 5 Times When Computers Beat Humans Artificial intelligence is getting good. These aren't AIs that are going to move us closer to the singularity Here's Why Scientists Think You Should be Worried about Artificial Intelligence Here's Why Scientists Think You Should be Worried about Artificial Intelligence Do you think artificial intelligence is dangerous? Boomerang is an add-on for Gmail 5 Smart Addons That Will Make You A Gmail Ninja 5 Smart Addons That Will Make You A Gmail Ninja Gmail has spawned many third party tools, extending it from a mere email service into something much more powerful instead. Siri, Google Now, and Cortana Siri vs Google Now vs Cortana for Home Voice Control Siri vs Google Now vs Cortana for Home Voice Control To find which home voice control is best for you, and which voice assistant fits your specific needs, we've unveiled the pros and cons for Siri, Google Now, and Cortana.