Amazon doesn't have an official presence at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but it's making no shortage of headlines thanks to its Alexa smart assistant. Don't assume, though, that the AI butler will be king forever. If you've been following the news coming out of CES this year, you'll have noticed that voice-controlled AI assistants are everywhere. Conversational interfaces, which we predicted would be a breakthrough technology in 2016, have already made a big impression on consumers, and now companies want to bake them into as many pieces of hardware as possible. Leading the pack by a wide margin is Alexa. It's made its way into third-party speakers similar to Amazon's own Echo device.

Apple has unveiled a massive overhaul of all its software to include a new'Super siri' personal assistant. With sales of Apple's flagship iPhone slowing, the spotlight is on the company's hunt for its next big thing. Cook began the conference with a heartfelt message for victims of the Orlando massacre, saying'we offer our deepest sympathies to everyone whose lives were touched by this violence, it was senseless' before asking everyone to rise for a moment's silence. The firm is set to make a raft of announcements at its annual WWDC event at San Francisco's Bill Graham auditorium later today, including new software for iPhones, iPads and its Watch. Apple's annual developer conference begins on Monday in San Francisco.