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20 gifts under $50 that are perfect for Father’s Day

USATODAY - Tech Top Stories

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA TODAY's newsroom and any business incentives. Every year when Father's Day rolls around, you may begin thinking, "What did I give to Dad last year? Let's see, one year it was the golf club, last year it was the polo shirt," and that's when you realize that you're fresh out of new gift ideas. We've rounded up 20 unique, handy, and even hip gifts to give to dads of all ages and interests, and each item is priced under $50, so you don't have to break the bank to get him a gift he'll love.


I ask 100 information questions to four digital assistants. All of them fail at least half.

@machinelearnbot

Despite the massively larger size of the Google Home speaker, the winner of "who can actually hear a user" is the Echo Dot, which was able to hear me from farther away and without me having to look at it. After seeing the poor feedback of Watson in Bridge Crew, I decided to take my four digital assistants for a spin. After 21 questions across four assistants, I learned that Alexa cannot give basic information about Amazon Prime videos, none of them can properly understand which movie you're looking for information for, and none of them can actually recommend stuff. Also, Google still needs to learn how to round up. I also learned I'm going to need a bigger set of questions. First, the purpose of this test is to test the assistants on the one skill that is a must-have for a disembodied speaker: Information retrieval and processing. This is not a comprehensive test, but is indicative of the types of questions that one might ask based on conversation, i.e. two or more people are having a conversation and they reach a question that needs an answer. To begin with, I summarise the results, mostly for fun. After that, you can browse what I found the most interesting 40 questions, and the varied (or non-varied) answers offered by each assistant for those. This piece is not intended to be illustrative on who is the "best" assistant.


It's Bill Murray: A Facial Recognition Algorithm Settles the Debate

The Atlantic - Technology

The debate--which began when the photo was first posted in 2013 and was revived this week--continues from there. In making their case for either Hanks or Murray, people examined eyebrow bushiness and the contours of the actor's left ear. They looked for telltale scars and forehead crinkles. "What I learned from the comments: When Bill Murray is crying, he starts to look like Tom Hanks," one person wrote. One of the weird aspects of all of this is that Tom Hanks and Bill Murray are both ultra famous and don't normally look very much alike.


Trump refuses to commit to accepting vote, Airbnb faces NYC eviction and a plea against helicopter parenting

#artificialintelligence

Donald Trump refused to guarantee that he would accept the result of the US election if he loses, in a fiery third and final presidential debate in which Hillary Clinton accused her Republican rival of being a "puppet" of Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to a YouGov poll, 49 per cent of respondents said Mrs Clinton won the debate, while 39 per cent thought Mr Trump the victor. Here is what FT readers thought. Airbnb faces fight for survival in NYC Governor Andrew Cuomo is preparing to sign a bill that would in effect end the home-sharing company's business in New York City. The San Francisco-based company has waged a last-minute campaign to thwart the law, which would impose fines of up to 7,500 on any host who advertised short-term accommodation through Airbnb.