Round the year, investors kept showing faith in innovative data driven healthcare ideas. Market and innovators continued exploring how mobile technology could be leveraged to improve user healthcare. Global commitment to better healthcare, from both the governments as well as industry giants, strengthened. I foresee 2016 to continue carrying the momentum of this year. Several ideas and solutions that received initial support from the medical community will go mainstream next year as new paradigms will keep emerging.

Despite mixed early reviews, Amazon's Echo smart home assistant has become one of the company's biggest hardware hits since it launched in 2014, selling an estimated 3 million units. Now, Google wants a slice of the action. According to a report from the New York Times, quoting sources with knowledge of Google's plans, on Wednesday the search giant will unveil Google Home, its version of a digital home assistant that will compete directly with the Echo. The launch will take place at Google I/O, the company's annual developer conference, but according to the New York Times reports, the product won't launch until this fall. Google is keen to establish its position in a fast-evolving market and leverage its AI-based Google Now product to carry out a range of tasks for users.

Whether it's called Google Chirp or Google Home, Google seems very likely to debut a new Amazon Echo rival when Google I/O kicks off on Wednesday. The New York Times reported Tuesday that Google's voice-activated gizmo will be called Google Home, confirming an earlier report from Recode that Google would launch what it called "Google Chirp" at the I/O developer showcase in Mountain View. Both reports basically state the same rumor: Google plans to launch a small home device, which Recode claims will be shaped roughly like Google's OnHub Wi-Fi router, that will incorporate Google's voice agent. In 2014, Google added hotword or "trigger word" support to Android phones, which allow them to listen for and respond to the "OK Google" command that would presumably be used to command Google Home. Amazon's Echo device is a small cylinder that functions both as a loudspeaker as well as a microphone, reporting sports scores and crafting shopping lists, turning on an alarm clock and kitchen timer, and more, using Amazon's cloud-based digital assistant, known as Alexa.

This story was delivered to BI Intelligence Apps and Platforms Briefing subscribers. To learn more and subscribe, please click here. Consulting firm Accenture has announced a partnership with artificial intelligence software company, IPsoft, aimed at spurring the use of AI in the enterprise, ZDNet reports. The deal will see Accenture integrate IPsoft's AI program, Amelia, into a new business unit called Accenture Amelia. Amelia is similar to other virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri or Amazon's Alexa, however, IPsoft's program is reportedly more expressive and capable of showing empathy than other programs.

Chatbots, virtual assistants, machine learning and Artificial Intelligence have all been growing in popularity in recent times. Prior to Google I/O 2016 we were expecting to finally hear something from Google about their efforts in creating an AI Bot platform of some type. If the rumours are correct Google will, in fact, be launching their Bot platform at their developer conference. However, we haven't been able to determine the scope or scale of the platform thus far. It could be intended as a platform to run on any network, Telegram, Slack etc or it could be used in conjunction with a new interaction platform to be launched by Google itself, be it a chat or voice interaction model – hello Google Home – or it could be all of these things or none of these things.

If you weren't certain about Google's plans to introduce an Amazon Echo competitor, a new report may help you feel a bit more sure about what'll happen at Google I/O tomorrow. According to The NewYork Times, Google will introduce it's standalone connected home device at I/O, and will name it'Home.' A previous report noted it was going by the codename of'Chirp.' Some of the biggest names in tech are coming to TNW Conference in Amsterdam this May. The latest report pegs Google Home as a device that "answers simple questions and carries out basic tasks."

While the data was somewhat anonymous, it did include usernames, locations and personal information like sexual orientation, political leanings or turn-ons, and as Motherboard explained last week it wouldn't have been difficult to reverse engineer the data set to identify individuals. At the time, OkCupid claimed the scraping the site for data violated the site's user agreement and it now appears Open Science Framework is complying with OkCupid's DMCA claim. "The repository is currently unavailable due to a DMCA claim sent by OKCupid. Kirkegaard also edits a research journal called Open Differential Psychology, where he submitted a paper based on the data, but that paper is now subject to "internal discussions." After the controversy broke, Aarhus University distanced itself from Kirkegaard, stating that the OkCupid project was not part of his student work at the university.

Amazon is working on a new device imbued with Alexa's powers, according to The Wall Street Journal. It won't be yet another speaker, though: it's a device with a "tablet-like computer screen" that's codenamed Knight. Lab126, the company's secretive hardware facility, is reportedly in the midst of developing the tablet, which sounds like it's meant for the kitchen. WSJ says it'll allow users to load websites or images "even when their hands are covered in flour." Amazon has been working on a high-end kitchen computer for quite some time, but it's unclear if this is the reimagined version of that old project.

Google's answer to the Amazon Echo is named Google Home, according to The New York Times. Google Home, which was developed under the codename "Chirp," is a voice-powered assistant that can answer basic questions as you bustle around the house. The device should hit stores in the fall and Google is set to unveil the device during its big I/O conference tomorrow, NYT reports.

Snips is a new take on the virtual personal assistant. Science fiction has enrapt the world with conversational artificial intelligence. Iron Man's Jarvis is the most notable culprit, but Her's Samantha and even the droids in Star Wars imagine a world where supercomputers integrate seamlessly into our everyday life. But that's not the only way for computers to help. Snips, a French company just launching in the United States, has a different idea about how to serve as a personal assistant. Snips connects to every relevant data stream in your phone--contacts, email, calendar, accelerometer, location data--and logs everything.