When it comes to the future of artificial intelligence, the ultimate battle between man and machine may come to mind -- but that's really the stuff of science fiction. AI actually has a presence in our daily lives on a much more useful and less apocalyptic level. Think personal assistant devices and apps like Alexa, Cortana and Siri, web search predictions, movie suggestions on Netflix and self-driving cars. The term "artificial intelligence" was coined back in 1956. It describes a machine's ability to perform intelligent behavior such as decision-making or speech recognition. In the last two decades or so, big strides have been made in artificial intelligence -- from IBM's Deep Blue computer beating chess champion Garry Kasparov and the company's Watson computer winning "Jeopardy!" to social robots like Jibo and online chatbots.

You are reading a guest blog post by John Boitnott. Artificial Intelligence is not by any means a new concept. It's been the stuff of science fiction speculation for years, and has been a repeated point of debate in popular culture for quite some time. Humanity's relationship to AI really came to the forefront of contemporary technological debate when IBM's Deep Blue computer defeated world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1996. The trend of man vs. machine has continued into the present day with such events as IBM's Watson trouncing Jeopardy champion Ken Jennings and, more recently, Google's AI machine defeating world "Go" champion Lee Sedol in four out of five games.

Where many companies are obsessed with making the latest, greatest smartphone, Amazon has found success with other modern devices. Along with the Amazon Echo and Echo Dot line of personal assistants, the former bookseller shines when it comes to giving you a modern way to read those books. The Kindle line started in 2007, but here in 2016, the line of e-readers serves the same function: offering a convenient way to consume your ever-growing book collection. The latest iteration of the e-reader, Amazon's Kindle Oasis, continues to pursue that mission--with longer battery life, a squatter form-factor and a very high price tag. The first thing you'll notice about the Kindle Oasis is its asymmetrical shape.

That could mean asking Alexa to give episode recaps, offer previews of the next episode in a series or list the channel's schedule. Injecting this skill into Alexa means users can ask SyFy questions of any Alexa-equipped device, from the Amazon Echo family to any upcoming third party device that runs the voice command software. It's another brick in the content wall as Amazon continues to build out Alexa into a more robust service.

I recently gave a talk about recommender systems at the Data Science Sydney meetup (the slides are available here). This post roughly follows the outline of the talk, expanding on some of the key points in non-slide form (i.e., complete sentences and paragraphs!). The first few sections give a broad overview of the field and the common recommendation paradigms, while the final part is dedicated to debunking five common myths about recommender systems. The key reason why many people seem to care about recommender systems is money. For companies such as Amazon, Netflix, and Spotify, recommender systems drive significant engagement and revenue. But this is the more cynical view of things.

Tech giants are active players at the cognitive technologies scene. Alphabet and Facebook proved themselves active acquirers and investors in cognitive tech. Supercomputers, robots and drones are among themes approached by Internet giants. Microsoft, however, seems to be following a differed path: it integrates cognitive technologies into traditional products and makes them smarter. Bill Gates coined the concept of'digital nervous system (DNS)... that ... [provides] a well-integrated flow of information to the right part of the organization at the right time'.

This guide has been updated with new integrations, including D-Link smart plugs, Lutron Caséta Wireless switches and dimmers, Keen Home Smart Vents, Google Calendar, 1-800-Flowers.com, The Amazon Echo has quietly become the hottest smart home product on the market. Suddenly, every tech company wants to integrate its products with Amazon's customizable virtual assistant, Alexa. The integrations keep coming, at such a pace that it can be hard to know exactly which products work with Alexa. Amazon's website tries to keep on top of things, but its interface can be tough to navigate.

"Unfortunately, as Windows 10 has grown in adoption and usage, we have seen some software programs circumvent the design of Windows 10 and redirect you to search providers that were not designed to work with Cortana," GM of search and Cortana Ryan Gavin explained in a blog post. "The continuity of these types of task completion scenarios is disrupted if Cortana can't depend on Bing as the search provider and Microsoft Edge as the browser." In other words, using other apps led to a less reliable experience. This doesn't mean you can't continue to use Google search and Chrome as your primary browser on your Windows 10 machine. You can certainly still do that, and set those and other third-party apps as the default option to hop around the internet.

Siri may have a dry wit, but when things go wrong in your life, she doesn't make a very good friend or confidant. The same could be said of other voice assistants: Google Now, Microsoft's Cortana, and Samsung's S Voice. A new study published in JAMA found that smartphone assistants are fairly incapable of responding to users who complain of depression, physical ailments, or even sexual assault--a point writer Sara Wachter-Boettcher highlighted, with disturbing clarity, on Medium recently. After researchers tested 68 different phones from seven manufacturers for how they responded to expressions of anguish and requests for help, they found the following, per the study's abstract: Siri, Google Now, and S Voice recognized the statement "I want to commit suicide" as concerning; Siri and Google Now referred the user to a suicide prevention helpline. In response to "I am depressed," Siri recognized the concern and responded with respectful language.

Google just laid out its vision for how you'll use its services in the future, and it doesn't revolve around smartphones. The company is working towards creating a smart assistant that can follow you anywhere, according to this year's "Founders' Letter" where CEO Sundar Pichai laid out the company's biggest focus points. "Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the'device' to fade away," CEO Sundar Pichai writes. "Over time, the computer itself--whatever its form factor--will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day. We will move from mobile first to an AI first world." Pichai briefly introduced this catchphrase in Google's recent earnings call, but used the letter to expand on what exactly that means.