Apple has acquired PullString, the startup behind the voice technology powering the interactive "Hello Barbie" doll Mattel released in 2015. PullString, previously known as ToyTalk, was founded back in 2011 by former Pixar employees. Its AI platform gave its partner companies and clients a way to create digital and physical characters and voice apps that can communicate with people. Hello Barbie was one of those -- an interactive Thomas The Tank Engine toy was another. The company previously launched software that makes it easy even for non-technical pros to create Alexa apps of their own, as well.

Apple has acquired a San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup called PullString that specializes in helping companies build conversational voice apps, according to a report from Axios. Pullstring was founded back in 2011 by former Pixar employees -- its CEO, Oren Jacob, is Pixar's former chief technology officer. Up until now, PullString was most well known within the tech industry as the software backbone behind voice systems for popular toys, like Mattell's talking Hello Barbie doll. It's not clear what Apple will be getting out of the deal, which is said to be worth under $100 million, but well over the $44 million in venture capital funding PullString has amassed thus far. But beyond toys, PullString has also worked on the enterprise end to help companies build skills and apps for Amazon's Alexa platform and Google Assistant.

Apple has just bought up the talent it needs to make talking toys a part of Siri, HomePod, and its voice strategy. Apple has reportedly acquired PullString, also known as ToyTalk, according to Axios' Dan Primack and Ina Fried. The company makes voice experience design tools, artificial intelligence to power those experiences, and toys like talking Barbie and Thomas The Tank Engine toys in partnership with Mattel. Founded in 2011 by former Pixar executives, PullString went on to raise $44 million. Apple's Siri is seen as lagging far behind Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant, not only in voice recognition and utility, but also in terms of developer ecosystem.

The first voice you hear on the recording is mine. "Here we are," I say. My tone is cheerful, but a catch in my throat betrays how nervous I am. "Esquire," a second voice on the recording chimes in, and this one word--delivered as a winking parody of lawyerly pomposity--immediately puts me more at ease. The speaker is my dad. We are sitting across from each other in my parents' bedroom, him in a rose-colored armchair and me in a desk chair. It's the same room where, decades ago, he calmly forgave me after I confessed that I'd driven the family station wagon through a garage door. Now it's May 2016, he is 80 years old, and I am holding a digital audio recorder. Sensing that I don't quite know how to proceed, my dad hands me a piece of notepaper marked with a skeletal outline in his handwriting. It consists of just a few broad headings: "Family History." "So … do you want to take one of these cat egories and dive into it?" "I want to dive in," he says confidently. "Well, in the first place, my mother was born in the village of Kehries--K-e-h-r-i-e-s--on the Greek island of Evia …" With that, the session is under way. We are sitting here, doing this, because my father has recently been diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer. The disease has metastasized widely throughout his body, including his bones, liver, and brain. It is going to kill him, probably in a matter of months. So now my father is telling the story of his life. This will be the first of more than a dozen sessions, each lasting an hour or more. As my audio recorder runs, he describes how he used to explore caves when he was growing up; how he took a job during college loading ice blocks into railroad boxcars.

My son's disappointment is the exact problem that Mattel believes it can fix with Aristotle, a $349 voice-activated speaker launching in May that functions like Google Home or Amazon Echo devices. But rather than rule the entire house, Aristotle is built to live in a child's room--and answer a child's questions. In this most intimate of spaces, Aristotle is designed to be far more specific than the generic voice assistants of today: a nanny, friend, and tutor, equally able to soothe a newborn and aid a tween with foreign-language homework. It's an AI to help raise your child. "We tried to solve the fundamental problem of most baby products, which is they don't grow with you," says Robb Fujioka, senior vice president and chief products officer at Mattel.

My son's disappointment is the exact problem that Mattel believes it can fix with Aristotle, a $349 voice-activated speaker launching in May that functions like Google Home or Amazon Echo devices. But rather than rule the entire house, Aristotle is built to live in a child's room--and answer a child's questions. In this most intimate of spaces, Aristotle is designed to be far more specific than the generic voice assistants of today: a nanny, friend, and tutor, equally able to soothe a newborn and aid a tween with foreign-language homework. It's an AI to help raise your child. "We tried to solve the fundamental problem of most baby products, which is they don't grow with you," says Robb Fujioka, senior vice president and chief products officer at Mattel.

Over the past year, the swell of chatbots and virtual assistants has grown larger, and their capabilities have grown more complex. Want a bot to schedule your meetings? Remind you to bring an umbrella if it's going to rain? But while completing practical tasks is the goal of most chatbots and virtual assistants, we don't have conversations simply to get things done. Conversation can also bring connection and joy, and laughter is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for making people feel comfortable and creating positive associations and memories. Tech companies, from giants to small startups, are investing in humor because they view it as an integral part of the human experience--and the key to their bots and assistants slipping smoothly into our lives.

Over the past year, the swell of chatbots and virtual assistants has grown larger, and their capabilities have grown more complex. Want a bot to schedule your meetings? Remind you to bring an umbrella if it's going to rain? But while completing practical tasks is the goal of most chatbots and virtual assistants, we don't have conversations simply to get things done. Conversation can also bring connection and joy, and laughter is one of the most fundamental mechanisms for making people feel comfortable and creating positive associations and memories. Tech companies, from giants to small startups, are investing in humor because they view it as an integral part of the human experience--and the key to their bots and assistants slipping smoothly into our lives.

The 2015 version of the Barbie Dreamhouse was pretty rad. It had a slot that let you use a phone as a TV screen, a bay window that flips down and becomes a pool, plug-and-play appliances, and a roomy three-level floorplan. It's hard to see how the next-gen BDH could improve, and savvy shoppers will likely scoff at the proposition of buying new real estate for their dolls after only a year. But slow your roll and bust out your wallet, because Mattel's new Barbie Hello Dreamhouse makes last year's version seem like a rat-infested hovel. This mini-mansion is dope AF.

One of the first things Genevieve Bell did after bringing home an Amazon Echo was ask the smart speaker to set a timer. After the Echo replied in its soft, reassuring female voice, Bell told the device "thank you." "When was the last time you said'thank you' to Google search?" asked Bell, Intel's longtime cultural anthropologist and corporate strategist. Bell's experience points to both the promise and the peril of Google's new effort to create its own digital butler, simply dubbed "Google assistant," which it hopes will become capable of natural, two-way conversation with people. Several experts in conversational software said Google could make itself an even more intimate part of users' lives by offering this kind of technology.