The tech industry is in a high-flying war over who can dole out more millions to attract artificial intelligence specialists. Individual researchers, most equipped with PhDs in computer science, are commanding giant salaries and mammoth signing bonuses in hiring negotiations. You might call them talent. The Washington Post called them Olympians in a recent headline: "Why AI superathletes could be winning 100 million bonuses in Silicon Valley." These are the most sought-after employees in the world.

If you wanted to cover a large distance and had the world's best sprinters at your disposal, would you have them run against each other or work together in a relay? That, in essence, is the problem Elliott Rouse, a biomedical engineer and director of the Neurobionics Lab at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, has been grappling with for the best several years. Rouse, an engineer, is one of many working to develop a control system for bionic legs, artificial limbs that use various signals from the wearer to act and move like biological limbs. "Probably the biggest challenge to creating a robotic leg is the controller that's involved, telling them what to do," Rouse told Digital Trends. "Every time the wearer takes a step, a step needs to be initiated. And when they switch, the leg needs to know their activity has changed and move to accommodate that different activity. If it makes a mistake, the person could get very, very injured -- perhaps falling down some stairs, for example. There are talented people around the world studying these control challenges. They invest years of their time and hundreds of thousands of dollars building a robotic leg. It's the way things have been since this field began."

The topic of artificial intelligence has become indispensable in today's world. More and more companies are developing innovative solutions that want to simplify people's lives with the help of machine learning, big data and digital assistants. Some players are particularly active here and invest considerable sums in AI and Co. We would like to introduce these to you below. When you think of artificial intelligence, you often imagine human-like robots that perfect human-machine interaction.

Google just announced the third generation of its Pixel-branded smartphone, the Google Pixel 3. Keeping consistent with previous Pixel phone releases, there are two versions of the new phone: the regular-size Pixel 3 and the larger Pixel 3 XL. Both phones have new glass backs. They have bigger displays, better cameras, and updated processors. And they're shipping with a new mobile security chip--the same kind of chip that Google uses to protect the information flowing through its data centers. But Google's hardware products are never as much about hardware as they are about software.

Google, which prides itself on developing simple, intuitive software that seems to know what you want almost before you do, is finding itself in a very different world when it comes to its own phones and other gadgets. Its new Pixel 2 phones, released in October, got high marks for their camera and design - at least until some users complained about'burned in' afterimages on their screens, a bluish tint, periodic clicking sounds and occasionally unresponsive touch commands. Then the company's new Home Mini smart speaker was caught always listening. In this Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2017, file photo, a woman holds up the Google Pixel 2 phone, left, next to the Pixel 2 XL phone at a Google event at the SFJAZZ Center in San Francisco. In short, Google is re-learning an old adage in the technology business: Hardware is hard.

Google, which prides itself on developing simple, intuitive software that seems to know what you want almost before you do, is finding itself in a very different world when it comes to its own phones and other gadgets. Its new Pixel 2 phones, released in October, got high marks for their camera and design -- at least until some users complained about "burned in" afterimages on their screens, a bluish tint, periodic clicking sounds and occasionally unresponsive touch commands . Then the company's new Home Mini smart speaker was caught always listening . Finally, its wireless "Pixel Buds" headset received savagereviews for a cheap look and feel, mediocre sound quality, and being difficult to set up and confusing to use. In short, Google is re-learning an old adage in the technology business: Hardware is hard.

Huawei aims to use artificial intelligence-powered features such as instant image recognition to take on rivals Samsung and Apple when it launches its new flagship phone next month, a top executive said on Saturday. Richard Yu, chief executive of Huawei's consumer business, on Saturday revealed a powerful new mobile phone chip Huawei is betting on for its upcoming flagship Mate 10 and other high-end phones to deliver faster processing and lower power consumption. Huawei will launch the Mate 10 and its sister phone, the Mate 10 Pro, in Munich on Oct. 16, Yu confirmed. He declined to detail new features, but the phones are expected to boast large, 6-inch-plus full-screen displays, tech blogs predict. Artificial intelligence (AI) built into its new chips can help make phones more personalized, or anticipate the actions and interests of their users, Yu said.

"Most companies would get a stage, and we'd have lights and music and everything else," joked Andy Rubin as he addressed a group of reporters. He was casually dressed in jeans and a blue T-shirt with a coffee mug in one hand as he stood in a lobby-like room. The setup was located just a few feet from an adult-size slide and overlooked a farm of cubicles on one side and a cafeteria on the other. But a product launch it was. We were gathered at Playground Global -- a startup incubator that Rubin founded after he left Google -- for the unveiling of what is perhaps his most important creation since Android.

The co-founder of the Android operating system, Andy Rubin, has revealed his first new creation since leaving Google in 2014: a $699 Android phone that aims to take on Apple and Samsung for the high end of the mobile market. The phone, created by Rubin's new firm, Essential, comes with the standard top-of-the-line setup in many areas: a 5.7in QHD display, a pair of 13MP rear cameras and an 8MP front-facing one, a 7.8mm thick body and USB-C connector at the base (although, taking a cue from Apple, there's no headphone jack on the device). But the featureEssential hopes will make the phone stand out is hidden in two metallic dots on the back of the phone, to the right of the twin cameras. Those make up a new expansion port that allows accessories to be magnetically clipped straight into the device - providing structural stability as well as leaving the USB-C port free. At launch, there will be only one such accessory, a $199, 360 camera that peers over the edge of the phone and allows for video and photos to be taken and shared on the move. According to the Verge, others will follow, including a charging dock and the possibility of audio accessories to make up for the absent headphone jack.

HTC is launching a new smartphone with a virtual assistant that it says can make suggestions without being prompted, the company announced on Jan. 12. The phone costs $749, about the same as most premium smartphones, and will begin shipping in mid-March. The phone, called the U Ultra phone, will include a new virtual aide called the HTC Sense Companion. That new feature comes after both Apple and Google have made significant improvements to their own respective digital helpers over the past year. HTC is touting its AI aide as a proactive assistant that can show relevant reminders and alerts throughout the day, similar to what Google Now has been doing for years.