Artificially intelligent systems optimized for speech conversation are appearing at a fast pace. Such models are interesting from a healthcare perspective, as these voice-controlled assistants may support the elderly and enable remote health monitoring. The bottleneck for efficacy, however, is how well these devices work in practice and how the elderly experience them, but research on this topic is scant. We review elderly use of voice-controlled AI and highlight various user- and technology-centered issues, that need to be considered before effective speech-controlled AI for elderly care can be realized.

How it works: If you have said the phrase change wallpaper in your command, the program will download a random wallpaper from unsplash.com,

Defence and foreign policy decisions are based on immense cognitive and intangible skillsets. As AI evolves further, it could play a vital role in analyzing large data sets, intelligence inputs, imagery from satellites or other airborne platforms, scenarios or even draw cognitive deductions from the historical records of foreign policy decisions or deployment of military resources during previous wars. Such detailed analyses could also supplement individual and organisational ability during bilateral or multilateral negotiations, and military standoffs or geopolitical conflicts. AI is also being used for crime prevention as facial detection and recognition technology has made strides. Akin to any advanced technology, AI also has its own set of risks.

Federal agencies are a step closer to automating some of their common customer service processes using artificial intelligence. The General Services Administration recently wrapped a pilot that walked federal agencies through the process of building chatbots and other intelligent personal assistants similar to Apple's Siri and Amazon's Alexa. Graduates of that pilot have developed some basic prototypes--a single chatbot that lets users access Small Business Administration licenses, Internal Revenue Service tax credits, Forest Service park permits, and Health and Human Services Department benefits, for one. But prototypes weren't the point of the pilot, GSA's Emerging Citizen Technology Office lead Justin Herman told Nextgov--instead, it was to help agencies understand what they'd need before they can fully deploy intelligent personal assistants. One finding, Herman said, was that agencies need to assess their cloud services, as chatbots and voice-controlled virtual assistants would need to pull information from the internet.

With the appearance of intelligent personal assistants (IPA) supported by machine learning such as Siri on iOS or Alexa for Amazon, the above scene does not sound like science fiction anymore. If we also consider how Cognitoys support the cognitive development of small children with the help of AI in a fun and gentle way, personal health assistants on our phones suddenly become definite responses for certain needs. They can make our lives more comfortable and they could pay attention to our very personal wishes through constant learning – which might also have some downsides. Remember the movie entitled Her? The main protagonist, Joaquin Phoenix falls completely in love with the voice of a digital assistant capable of learning at astonishing pace as well as fulfilling his every need.

Amazon Echo is strange enough - especially with fears that Alexa, its intelligent personal assistant, is listening to our every word. But a robot enthusiast has just made it even creepier by transforming his Alexa into a terrifying talking skull. Not only does this skull appear to talk, but it can also nod, tilt its head and even move its eyeballs at the same time. The skull is made by an American computer and robotics fanatic called Mike McGurrin who lives in Virginia. The key components are the skull, an Alexa and a special chip.

Amazon's intelligent personal assistant is making big inroads into homes and the keyboard could be the first victim. "The mass adoption" of Amazon's Alexa devices "may lead to the decline of the keyboard," said Ken Cassar, an analyst at Slice Intelligence, in a statement that's part of a just-released report from the marketing research firm. "Echo…given its ease of use and low price point, it could establish itself as the hub of the smart home," Cassar added in the statement, referring to the smart speaker that is the hardware for interacting with the Alexa service. Echo, which understands spoken questions and commands via its Alexa persona, saw its popularity skyrocket over the holiday season, according to Cassar. "Forty five percent of all Echo devices that have been purchased – since it was launched back in 2015 – were purchased in November and December of 2016," he told Foxnews.com in an interview.

Walking the exhibit halls and attending sessions at the mammoth Consumer Electronics Show, it was easy to identify the dominant theme: AI-enabled Intelligent Personal Assistants (IPAs). Natural language commands, queries and responses provide a vastly more intuitive UX. And these capabilities in turn make owning and using a connected home or car much more attractive. But there is a deeper potential benefit for the connected car and connected home sellers: developing context-rich data and information about the connected home occupants and the connected car drivers and passengers. Mining this data will enable vendors to anticipate (and sometimes create) more demand for their goods and services.

Tis the season for Listicles – those wonderfully quick reads with the "Top 10" things to look for in the coming year. Customers started showing a pronounced preference for self-service over lengthy interactions with live assistants. Conversational commerce, involving chatbots through mobile devices was rapidly expanding All flavors of Intelligent Assistants (especially bots and virtual agents) were making the transition from "assistant" to "advisor" Customers started showing a pronounced preference for self-service over lengthy interactions with live assistants. All flavors of Intelligent Assistants (especially bots and virtual agents) were making the transition from "assistant" to "advisor" Indeed, these three factors shaped IA in 2016 and will continue to do so in 2017, spurred on by increased spending by business enterprises on Speech Processing, Natural Language Processing, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Knowledge Management and Predictive Interaction Analytics. It's great news for the 28 or so firms that offer platforms for Enterprise Intelligent Assistants [link to our Landscape] while, at the same time it is a tremendous shot in the arm for the thousands of developers who are building bots for messaging platforms (especially Facebook Messenger) or "skills" for "metabots" (like Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant).

Apple's intelligent personal assistant and knowledge navigator allows users of its devices to send messages, schedule meetings and make phone calls. The voice-activated, interactive system has been incorporated into Apple's mobile operating systems since 2011 with iOS 5. Microsoft's primary intelligent personal assistant, which was developed in time for the launch of the Windows Phone 8.1 operating system in 2014, is now integrated into Windows 10. The system can be used to track package deliveries, find files on a PC and set reminders. Google's intelligent personal assistant is available for use on its own Android-operated mobile devices and via Google Search apps downloadable on Apple devices. First launched in 2012, it can answer queries, warn users of bad traffic, and provide reminders of dinner dates and flight times.