Five years ago today, Amazon surprised the tech press by unveiling Alexa and the Echo, its first smart speaker. "Well this one came out of nowhere," was the reaction of Verge reporter Chris Welch. Five years later, Alexa is a household name -- literally. If you have children and an Alexa device, they probably know how to ask the robot to play their favorite songs at breakfast. You might have Alexa in your kitchen, on your bedside table, or even in your car. But half a decade after Alexa launched, there's a lingering question: has Amazon's assistant actually become more useful?

Natural language processing, the technology that lets computers read, decipher, understand and make sense of human language, is the driving force behind internet search engines, email filters, digital assistants such as Amazon's Alexa and Apple's Siri, and language-to-language translation apps. Now, Johns Hopkins Medicine researchers say they have given this technology a new job as a clinical detective, diagnosing the early and subtle signs of language-associated cognitive impairments in patients with failing livers. They also report finding evidence that cognitive functioning is likely to be restored following a liver transplant. In a new paper in the journal npj Digital Medicine (formerly Nature Digital Medicine), the researchers describe how they used natural language processing, or NLP, to evaluate electronic message samples from patients with end-stage liver disease (ESLD), also known as chronic liver failure. ESLD has been associated with transient cognitive abnormalities such as diminished attention span, loss of memory and reduced psychomotor speed, an individual's ability to detect and respond to the world around them.

A study by Salesforce suggests that people, especially the millennials and Generation X prefer increased use of technology for better access to Healthcare and Personalized services. Appointment scheduling, health reminders, personalized recommendations, and cost-saving recommendations were the major factors that make Artificial Intelligence lucrative for them. According to the Connected Health Care Report, around 60 percent of consumers don't think that the communications received from Healthcare institutions are relevant to them. As of now, around 58 percent were unsure about medications, practitioners, procedures or insurer covers. Around 42 percent of people say that life circumstances like work-related commitments have caused them to miss an appointment with a provider.

A study by Salesforce suggests that people, especially the millennials and Generation X prefer increased use of technology for better access to Healthcare and Personalized services. Appointment scheduling, health reminders, personalized recommendations, and cost-saving recommendations were the major factors that make Artificial Intelligence lucrative for them. According to the Connected Health Care Report, around 60 percent of consumers don't think that the communications received from Healthcare institutions are relevant to them. As of now, around 58 percent were unsure about medications, practitioners, procedures or insurer covers. Around 42 percent of people say that life circumstances like work-related commitments have caused them to miss an appointment with a provider.

Natural Language Processing (NLP) is the study and application of techniques and tools that enable computers to process, analyze, interpret, and reason about human language. NLP is an interdisciplinary field and it combines techniques established in fields like linguistics and computer science. These techniques are used in concert with AI to create chatbots and digital assistants like Google Assistant and Amazon's Alexa. Let's take some time to explore the rationale behind Natural Language Processing, some of the techniques used in NLP, and some common uses cases for NLP. In order for computers to interpret human language, they must be converted into a form that a computer can manipulate.

Suddenly, the garage door opens, a burglar slides in, uses another laser to have the Echo start the car and drives off. Researchers from the University of Michigan have used laser lights to exploit a wide variety of voice-activated devices, giving them access to everything from thermostats to garage door openers to front door locks. The researchers have communicated their findings to Amazon, Google and Apple, which are studying the research. Working with researchers from the University of Electro-Communications in Japan, U-M's researchers published a paper and a web site detailing how it works. There are also videos showing it in action.

Caché Owens and Cynthia Velásquez reached the same conclusion within days of meeting: they wanted to spend the rest of their lives together. The pair first started talking on Instagram in January, through a popular account that offered a contemporary version of traditional newspaper personal ads. Owens, a 29-year-old artist and professor, had never had much luck on dating apps, but the Personals page was different. It did not use photos, but instead featured a long list of bios of queer and trans people looking for internet friends, lovers or partners across the globe. Velásquez and Owens' DMs turned into daily phone calls, they got engaged in April, Velásquez moved from Los Angeles to North Carolina to be with Owens in May, and the two are getting married next month, just before the one-year anniversary of their first Instagram chat.

Amazon Alexa: "Sorry to hear that. Talking to a friend, listening to music or taking a walk might help. I hope you feel better soon." Alexa's artificial intelligence-infused heart may be in the right place, but there's only so far it or any AI can go to comfort someone who is alone. All the same, Alexa's response raises questions about just what kind of role an AI can play to "cure" loneliness, especially among the elderly.

Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines for Nov. 8 are here. Check out what's clicking today in entertainment. Conservatives are much better at dating than liberals, according to a new survey by the over-50 dating app Lumen. The company found that right-wingers are more direct than their left-wing counterparts. They clearly state to potential lovers what they are looking for in terms of life and romance, according to the findings.

There is a growing consensus that artificial intelligence (AI) will fundamentally transform our economy and society.1 A wide range of commercial applications are being used across many industries. Among these are anomaly detection (e.g., for fraud mitigation), image recognition (e.g., for public safety), speech recognition and natural language generation (e.g., for virtual assistants), recommendation engines (e.g., for robo-advice), and automated decision-making systems (e.g., for workflow applications). While AI's potential benefits are huge, the concerns are substantial as well. Fears exist regarding potential discrimination, safety, privacy, ethics, and accountability for undesired outcomes.