In February, Microsoft revealed that it would be slowly phasing out Cortana functionality in mobile and other devices, implying that the third-party Harman Kardon Invoke would be among them. On Friday, Microsoft clarified that these changes will occur in early 2021, including the Invoke--but the company will offer gift cards of up to $50 to sweeten the deal. Microsoft said Friday that it is eliminating the third-party Cortana skills--Cortana plug-ins that could be used to ask for a Fitbit activity summary, for example--by September 7. In January, 2021, the mobile Cortana app for iOS and Android will stop working. And in "early 2021," Microsoft says, the Cortana functionality for the Invoke will also cease to exist.

You're not going to hear anything about Cortana this week at Microsoft's Build conference. Microsoft Cortana has moved from becoming the flagship feature at the Windows 10 launch to something of a has-been. And yet the intelligence that powers her is something that's become a priority for Microsoft, creating the impression that there's Cortana, and then there's AI, and the two are separate and distinct. There's a similar gap between the reason that Cortana is absent from Build, and separate underlying issues with Cortana itself. Put simply, it's a bit of a mess.

A man dressed in white from head to toe was posted outside the Las Vegas Convention Center last week. His outfit included just a few colorful exceptions: four bubbles in red, yellow, blue, and green splashed in the center of his T-shirt, and a fluffy red poof atop his ski cap. Those multicolored spots should look familiar to anyone who's used Google's virtual assistant on their smartphone. After all, those dots form the same logo that appears in the Google Assistant app. That's because he, like others at CES in the same attire, was dressed as the Google Assistant. The costumed characters were part of Google's effort to give its digital helper a flashy presence at CES after Amazon's Alexa stole the spotlight at last year's show.

PitchBook, a Morningstar company, tracks every aspect of the public and private equity markets, including venture capital, private equity, and M&A. LAS VEGAS--For many of us, it feels like the future is now, and that's largely thanks to AI-powered technology such as virtual assistants and robots. AI is on the front lines of new technology, and venture capital investors have certainly taken note, pouring more and more money into the space each year. But there's still a lot to come for the red-hot industry. That's the view from a panel of AI executives who attended CES.

Plug in an Amazon Echo and it's obvious that artificial intelligence is using algorithms to produce responses. But drivers in Singapore probably don't realize traffic signal patterns are being determined AI that examines data from street cameras. In the next few years, AI will become increasingly integrated our modern lives--in ways that will be at times conspicuous, and other times unobtrusive. AI will get to know you. So said a trio of AI experts who work on some of the best recognized digital AI assistants--Amazon's Alexa, Microsoft's Cortana and IBM's Watson--at the "Future of AI" panel Thursday morning at CES 2018 in Las Vegas, Nevada.

Similar to Amazon's original Echo, the Invoke is a Pringles can-size speaker that can play music, check traffic and answer questions about sports scores or historical facts. Microsoft and Harman Kardon announced plans in May to launch the Invoke, priced at $199. In August, Harman Kardon said it also would launch the Allure, a voice-enabled speaker using Amazon's Alexa. Though Microsoft's arrival to the market comes years after Amazon's, the company is betting the Invoke can draw customers in with its connections to Microsoft products that have millions of users, such as the Office productivity franchise and Skype internet-calling. Cortana, like Amazon's Alexa, will take commands from users.

Could you be playing the next big video game with your voice? Voice assistants can seem supersmart. Ask my Amazon Alexa why the sky is blue, and you'll get a lesson in light refraction through the atmosphere. Ask it what CNET is and things start to break down. "In addition CNET currently has region-specific and language-specific editions."

For the second installment of our series exploring the future of human augmentation, we bring you a story by the Transhumanist Party's presidential candidate (and occasional Motherboard columnist), Zoltan Istvan. Though he's spent most of the last year traveling the nation in a coffin-shaped bus, spreading the gospel of immortality and H, he's no stranger to fiction. His novel, The Transhumanist Wager, is about the impact of evolving beyond this mortal coil. This story is even bolder. He struggled to open his eyes. 'Who the hell is calling me in the middle of the night?' he thought. He rolled out of bed and walked naked to his desk to see. His phone showed it was his secretary.