That same source says Apple has also given up on the idea of building a Bluetooth speaker to focus on its next set-top box, and it's also considered upgrading the current Apple TV with more Siri smarts. I wouldn't count out an Apple speaker just yet -- it makes plenty of sense for it to dive into that burgeoning market, and it could also co-exist with a new Apple TV. A speaker could also be an easy way to bring Siri into your bedroom (ahem) without having an Apple TV nearby. All of these rumors could have some truth to them. The most likely scenario is that Apple is working hard to bring expanded Siri capabilities to all of its devices, just like Google is planning to do with its Assistant.

Would it be an exaggeration to say we caress our smartphones? Our connection to them is emotional: We paw at them idly and endlessly. There are times when your phone can be your best friend. Google and Microsoft are betting big on artificially intelligent helpers--not like Apple's Siri, which is stuck only on its products, but a device-agnostic digital personality that follows you wherever you go. As Google's founders put it in their annual letter: "[O]ver 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."

Google is turning to artificial intelligence to make sure people keep using its search engine, even if they're not spending as much time on the Web and personal computers. The Alphabet division unveiled a new mobile messaging application on Wednesday called Allo containing - a digital personal assistant, based on AI technology that powers other Google services like Inbox. At its I/O developer conference near its Silicon Valley headquarters, the company also showed off a voice-based search device called Google Home that uses the same assistant technology to answer questions when people are in their houses, a potentially potent rival to Amazon.com's Chief executive Sundar Pichai said the goal was to develop an "ongoing two-way dialogue with Google" and build billions of people their own "individual Google." The CEO sees the Google digital assistant as an "ambient experience that extends across devices."

This week, a lot of attention was given during the kick-off of the annual Google I/O conference to three of this year's key technologies: artificial intelligence, conversational interfaces and virtual reality. The attractive force of Google's technologies was in full display with the opening viewed by more than 1 million users in China alone. Google's CEO, Sundar Pichai, kicked it off by demonstrating that Google had not missed out on the shift to mobile and that 50% of all search engine queries were already today made from phones, including 20% through voice recognition in the United States. Already, the results of a mobile study that were unveiled extend beyond a simple list of links to include "cards" used to preview related content (photos, results, artists) without having to exit the search engine. The head of Google went on to highlight his company's progress with respect to artificial intelligence and concrete applications for search engines.

The smartphone boom upended Google's advertising profit engine and it took years for the Internet giant to adjust to the new mobile world. The next wave of computing will be an even bigger challenge. At Google's I/O developer conference this week near its Silicon Valley headquarters, the company unveiled new technology that will rely less and less on physical devices with screens to deliver information and services to consumers. Google hopes these advances will capture the human attention its business depends upon, and then it can figure out how to make money later, one executive said. Google Home will sit in living rooms sucking in voice-based queries and delivering verbal answers from an artificially intelligent "Google assistant."

If you're a man who's tried (or considered trying) online dating, chances are you've worried you might meet a woman looking to use you for a free expensive dinner. It seems trivial in comparison to what women have to worry about when they filter through men on dating sites, but it's still a concern, and it still happens to the best of us. My online dating profile doesn't mention my dad's accomplishments, but in moments of insecurity, I've been known to name-drop in order to keep the woman interested. It's never gone well, and it's never attracted the right women. The women who see me as "Giorgio the teacher" or "Giorgio the writer" have never tried to use me for a free dinner.

Artificial intelligence and voice-based computing are likely two of the main components of the smart devices of the future, and Amazon's surprisingly popular Echo is certainly one device to beat. The home assistant can offer fast responses to some of your immediate needs, like playing music, or giving you the information you require the most, including weather, traffic, sports scores, to name just a few. To many people, the Alexa assistant that powers Echo is about as robust as Siri. Apple's voice-assistant that resides inside the iPhone, iPad, Apple Watch, Apple TV, and iPod touch, can easily do the same things. But Alexa does things better and faster than Siri not because Amazon is better than Apple at processing voice requests, but because the devices offer vastly different experiences.

In a promotional video for Amazon's Echo virtual assistant device, a young girl no older than 12 asks excitedly: "Is it for me?". The voice-controlled speaker can search the web for information, answer questions and even tell kids' jokes. An investigation by the Guardian has found that despite Amazon marketing the Echo to families with young children, the device is likely to contravene the US Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA), set up to regulate the collection and use of personal information from anyone younger than 13. Along with Google, Apple and others promoting voice-activated artificial intelligence systems to young children, the company could now face multimillion-dollar fines. "This is part of the initial wave of marketing to children using the internet of things," says Jeff Chester, executive director of the Center for Digital Democracy, a privacy advocacy group that helped write the law.

There's an article going around that claims Apple could be the next BlackBerry as it gets left behind in the AI arms race. Yes, Google is better than Apple at some kinds of AI. If the tech giants were playing in Go, then Google would win by a mile. The thing is, Apple doesn't have to match Google in all kinds of AI, only the things that matter to Apple. How does Apple use AI today?

The secret to Viv is the system actually writes it's own code. In contrast to any other similar system, It is a profound and monumental giant leap forward. The structure of the Voice First world is held together by Intelligent Agents. Intelligent Agents use AI (Artificial Intelligence) and ML (Machine Learning) to decode volition and intent from an analyzed phrase or sentence. The AI in most current generation systems like Siri, Echo and Cortana focuses on speaker independent word recognition and to some extent the intent of predefined words or phrases that have a hard coded connection to a domain expertise.