Cameo has added a pair of timeless superstars to its stable of celebrities (a term used loosely in some cases) available for personalized video greetings. Cookie Monster and Elmo, who may or may not have fallen on hard times, will shamelessly plug their services on the six-year-old platform, offering to count to your kid's age or rattle off words that start with the same letter as your child's name -- for $25 a pop. Perhaps that relatively low price for the Sesame Street icons is because humans don't appear to record their voices: Cameo describes the characters as "powered by artificial intelligence." Cookie Monster and Elmo join a Cameo crew that also includes Kenny G ($350 per message), Danica McKellar ($150) and Billy Dee Williams ($300), among many others. Other animated characters on the platform include Thomas the Tank Engine, Grumpy Bear (from Care Bears) and JJ from CoComelon.

It's clear that AI art is growing fast and will continue to capture the imaginations of people around the world – especially now it's in the hands of TikTokers. It's a clear indication of how fast the disruptive technology is growing in popularity and hitting the mainstream. Verdict has contacted TikTok and Open AI for comment. GlobalData is the parent company of Verdict and its sister publications.

Samsung's virtual assistant, Bixby, was introduced to the Galaxy S8 smartphones last week in South Korea and it appears to have a skill that goes beyond just making calls and setting reminders. Many users have asked the digital helper to'please rap' or'please beatbox' and had discovered that the AI was able to bust out a beat on command. However, what some have found intriguing was the rapping AI took a stab at Apple's voice assistant – in one of the verses Bixby said'I am better than Siri'. The rapping AI took a stab at Apple's voice assistant – in one of the verses Bixby said'I am better than Siri' (highlighted letters) Users can make apps Bixby-enabled, which will let Bixby support almost every task that the application is capable of performing using the conventional interface. Any task a human user can do via touch commands, the AI will have the ability to do as well.

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.