This article is an on-site version of the #fintechFT newsletter. Using artificial intelligence to improve fraud detection is becoming one of the hottest trends in the insurance industry, but it is also one of the most controversial trends. US insurer Lemonade has become a case study of potential technology rewards and reputational risks. Lemonade has become one of the most successful large-scale IPOs in 2020, fulfilling its promise to speed up and simplify lessor insurance and home insurance with AI-powered apps. But earlier this year, it sparked a social media backlash in concerns about the behavior of the algorithm.

Voice assistants typically need a little nudge to listen to your commands. From "Hey, Siri," to "Hello, Google," to "Alexa," they all need to hear something (called a wake word or phrase) before doing your bidding. With the MBUX system you have to say, "Hey, Mercedes," to get the car to listen to you. Nuance, the company behind MBUX and a whole host of other automaker voice-assistant systems wants to do better. Starting next year, BMWs outfitted with the latest version of Nuance's voice-assistant will be able to tell the difference between the driver talking to passengers and the driver talking to the car.

August 2, 2017 --C-3PO's fluency in more than 6 million forms of communication in "Star Wars" set a high bar for human-robot interaction, and the field has been struggling to catch up ever since. They started in the factories, taking over physically demanding and repetitive tasks. Now robots are moving into hospitals, shopping malls, even the International Space Station, and experts don't expect their expansion into human spaces to slow down anytime soon. "Even 10 years ago, the primary use of the robots was in the dangerous, dirty, and dull work," says Julie Shah, an engineering professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Mass. "You'd deploy them to operate remotely from people, but [now] robots are integrating into all aspects of our lives relatively quickly."

IN THE early days of computing, information was put into computers by flipping switches. After this came the relative sophistication of loading programs and data by means of punched cards or punched paper-tape. These were followed in their turn by such devices as the keyboard, the mouse, the trackball, the joystick, the touchpad and the touch-sensitive screen. Throughout all this, speech--the most natural, and perhaps the most effective, interface between people and computers--has remained largely neglected. Apart from some modest developments in software for desktop dictation in the 1990s, the only time most people have talked to their computers has been when cursing them.

Spend half an hour checking out what people are writing online (especially in the business niche) and you will inevitably stumble across an article on how artificial intelligence (AI) is the future of this and that. For one reason or another, AI has once again caught the attention of people who, in most cases, know little to nothing about artificial intelligence. This can also be seen in many an HR-oriented article where AI is used in broad strokes that feel more like a plot of an 80s B-movie with Rutger Hauer, than a serious piece of writing on this potentially exciting proposition. If we were to answer this question in this article, we would probably all receive some kind of a prize for solving one of the most hotly debated questions of the last 70-odd years. Namely, when discussing AI and what it should encapsulate, it is only a matter of time before the debate grows extremely philosophical in nature and various theories, limits and questions of ethics arise.

From MOOCs (Massive open online courses) to the use of iPads in schools, there's no doubt that technology is changing the way that we learn. Chatbots could have a similar effect, too -- by offering a means by which children can better interact with the subjects they're studying. That was the conclusion reached by UK-based tech company rehabstudio. During a recent hackathon event, they came up with the idea of creating an "edubot" that would enable kids to ask questions to a tyrannosaurus rex (called Tina) using Facebook Messenger. The finished product was a collaboration between rehabstudio (providing the tech) and National Geographic Kids (providing the data.)

Eugenia Kuyda, 29, is the co-founder of Luka, whose main chatbot product mostly recommends restaurants. How did you go from a restaurant recommendation chatbot to, well, this? When I was living in San Francisco working on Luka, I lived with Roman, my best friend. He was killed in an accident, walking across the street. A few months after, I was sitting at home and reading through our text exchanges. And I was like, Goddammit, I opened up so much to him--am I going to be alone?

Spend half an hour checking out what people are writing online (especially in the business niche) and you will inevitably stumble across an article on how artificial intelligence (AI) is the future of this and that. For one reason or another, AI has once again caught the attention of people who, in most cases, know little to nothing about artificial intelligence. This can also be seen in many an HR-oriented article where AI is used in broad strokes that feel more like a plot of an 80s B-movie with Rutger Hauer, than a serious piece of writing on this potentially exciting proposition. If we were to answer this question in this article, we would probably all receive some kind of a prize for solving one of the most hotly debated questions of the last 70-odd years. Namely, when discussing AI and what it should encapsulate, it is only a matter of time before the debate grows extremely philosophical in nature and various theories, limits and questions of ethics arise.

Even a decade ago, talking to your computer was probably a sign that you'd been working too hard and could do with a lie down. Today, no such stigma applies. That's because chatbots -- the conversational agents capable of simulating intelligent conversations with human users -- have made some massive leaps forward. From changing the way kids learn in schools to picking you out the perfect meal this evening, here are the seven of the most interesting chatbots doing the rounds at the moment. From MOOCs (Massive open online courses) to the use of iPads in schools, there's no doubt that technology is changing the way that we learn.