Even though Siri and Alexa are chatbots that many people now believe they can't live without, it was the SmarterChild chatbot that lived on many people's buddy lists in 2000, and that gave humans their first widespread exposure to chatbots. The thing that SmarterChild, Siri and Alexa have, along with other successful chatbots (computer programs designed to mimic human conversation), is personality. Robert Hoffer, the creator of SmarterChild, explained their goal was to create a bot people would actually use and to achieve that objective, "we had to make the best friend on the Internet." They succeeded in creating a bot who could respond with funny, sad, and sarcastic comments--ultimately more human-like than a robot. And, back in 2000, it spoke to 250,000 humans each day, which was extraordinary for the time, so there's no debate that it was used!

On a recent afternoon, Mr. Luckey, dressed as if ready for the beach in a Hawaiian-like shirt, shorts and flip-flops, joined other Anduril employees at the company's testing site near Camp Pendleton, a Marine training facility. As the drone took off and swooped between the hills, Mr. Luckey said it could track an object and capture detailed images from seven football fields away. Using many of the artificial intelligence technologies that underpin self-driving cars, Anduril's drones can identify and track vehicles, people and other objects largely on their own. The drones are not armed, but could be useful for guarding bases or reconnaissance. The same sensor technologies that allow the drones to fly on their own could also be used to identify targets on a battlefield.

Even though Siri and Alexa are chatbots that many people now believe they can't live without, it was the SmarterChild chatbot that lived on many people's buddy lists in 2000, and that gave humans their first widespread exposure to chatbots. The thing that SmarterChild, Siri and Alexa have, along with other successful chatbots (computer programs designed to mimic human conversation), is personality. Robert Hoffer, the creator of SmarterChild, explained their goal was to create a bot people would actually use and to achieve that objective, "we had to make the best friend on the Internet." They succeeded in creating a bot who could respond with funny, sad, and sarcastic comments--ultimately more human-like than a robot. And, back in 2000, it spoke to 250,000 humans each day, which was extraordinary for the time, so there's no debate that it was used!

"It should be better known as artificially inflated," says Fabrice Brossart, CRO of AIG, upon discussing the role that Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays within the insurance giant. A buzzword of many years, Brossart believes that there is not enough penetration into the various sectors of AI. Chris Gledhill, a former Lloyds Group developer and current CEO of Secco, is of much the same opinion when it comes to AI. "That's the problem with emerging tech," says Gledhill, "For whatever reason we don't think about the unknowns-unknowns, chaos-style disruptions that may arise from the technology." For Gledhill, that technology, the one that he is most excited about, is neural networks, a sub-sector of the AI label. Artificial Neural Network (ANN) mirrors the concept of biological neural networks within the human brain.

Does your business use customer personas? Before long, you'll be able to get rid of them for good. It's not because they haven't worked, but years ago there was nothing else available. Soon, artificial intelligence is going to do everything for us. Thanks to machine learning, computers will soon know your customers better than your customers know themselves (it's actually a bit scary, when you think about it).