Clinc, a four-year-old conversational AI startup, is teaming up with Ford to power voice recognition in the Detroit automaker's cars. The two companies announced the collaboration today during the Detroit Auto Show, at a panel hosted by Inforum about machine learning and the future of in-vehicle technology. According to Clinc CEO Dr. Jason Mars, the Ann Arbor company's automotive platform, which was announced in September 2018, is enabling drivers and passengers to control vehicle systems using natural language in Ford's connected car lab. They can make verbal requests to turn up the air conditioning, adjust cruise control, and check fuel mileage, or ask if there's enough gas for a trip to a specific address. "What we found in our collaboration with Ford is that when you bring in a conversational experience that allows you to talk to your car naturally, it improves the lives of people driving those cars," Mars said.

The "NariTra" multilingual translation app employs noise-canceling techniques and recognizes a wide range of speech. Offered by the airport at no cost, the app is designed to work hands-free -- and therefore suitable for foreign visitors who have just arrived and who have their hands full with luggage. The tests will see the app deployed on a shuttle bus running between Terminal 1 and Terminal 2, translating Japanese into English, Chinese and Korean, and vice versa. The airport operator plans to roll out the app by the time the 2020 Tokyo Olympic and Paralympic Games take place.

Daimler's all-new Mercedes A-Class includes the automaker's own machine-learning and voice recognition technology in one of the industry's boldest attempts so far to take on its competitors. The Mercedes "MBUX" dashboard system is capable of understanding what you say, and even more importantly, what you mean, similar to Amazon's Alexa, Apple's Siri or Alphabet's Google Assistant. The vehicle also uses artificial intelligence to make sense of commands and even anticipate them by learning the preferences and habits of up to eight different users. Voice instructions can command everything from navigation to infotainment. One big difference is that unlike its cloud-based rivals that are available only when online, the Mercedes assistant uses embedded software from Nuance Communications to continue functioning when data connections fail.Continue reading for another video, more pictures and information.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is the ability of a machine or computer system to perform tasks that would normally require human intelligence, such as understanding language, recognizing images, making decisions, and solving problems. AI systems are designed to mimic human cognitive functions, such as learning and problem-solving, and can be trained to perform a wide variety of tasks. There are different types of AI, including narrow or weak AI, which is designed to perform a specific task, and general or strong AI, which is designed to be capable of performing any intellectual task that a human can. AI has the potential to revolutionize many industries and has a wide range of applications, including in healthcare, finance, education, transportation, and more. Some common applications of artificial intelligence include voice recognition, image recognition, and natural language processing.