BONA FIDE holiday revelry is often linked to a good mixed drink. Parties where decadent cocktails flow befit the season, especially when those behind the bar know what they are doing. Result: Manhattans with too much whiskey, martinis made hastily with sweet vermouth and too much astringent lemon concentrate. So why not delegate the task to a computer? Over the past few years, cocktail machines have emerged that promise to do the difficult work of remembering recipes more capably than a designated bartender who's had a few tipples herself.

A few years ago, I spent a day at Suntory's Yamazaki Distillery outside of Kyoto, Japan. There's a bar at the end of the tour, and (pro tip) it's one of the only places in the world you can get Suntory's whiskeys at cost. When I purchased my first glass of whiskey, a pair of Japanese men who'd taken the Shinkansen in from Tokyo waved me over to their table. Through pantomime, one of them offered me a taste of the whisky in his glass, and we ended up spending hours sampling spirits and talking about Japanese whiskey through the magic of Google Translate on our phones. It was a halting, awkward way to have a conversation, but it was glorious, and it still stands as one of the best experiences of my life.

In today's world, the power of artificial intelligence is everywhere. From agriculture to healthcare, from shopping to dating, from the vehicles we drive to the way we do business, our experiences are increasingly shaped by AI. This is true even when it comes to whiskey tasting, although in this case the intelligence is driven by our senses and our reasoning rather than sophisticated algorithms. This is a topic that is close to my heart, given that I'm a director of AI, data analytics and high performance computing sales who moonlights as a whiskey sommelier. I often have occasion to reflect on the amazing parallels between the principles of AI and the process of tasting whisky.

Forget all those whiskey brands from musicians and celebs -- there's A.I. whiskey now. Microsoft this week announced it has teamed up with Finnish tech company Fourkind and Sweden-based distillery Mackmyra Whisky to create the "world's first whisky developed with artificial intelligence." Here's how it will work. As part of the distillation process, whiskey first spends time -- typically years -- sitting in charred wooden casks. This turns the clear liquor a darker color, and gives it a unique flavor.

You'd have to agree, customer service has taken a *yuge leap this decade. From human backend interaction to artificial intelligence assistants – chatbots have officially taken over the world and people are ironically enjoying it. Over 80% of the 800 decision makers surveyed by Oracle said they are already using or they want to use chatbots for business by 2020. Before we explore the branded chatbots, let's learn where the chatbots live? Here are the ten brands using chatbots to change the way we deal with customers on all three levels of the buyer's journey including awareness stage, consideration stage and decision stage.

You'll want the Google Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for the purest, most elegant Android experience possible in a 6-inch phone. You'll want the Pixel 2 XL if you're looking for a stunning display with an 18:9 aspect ratio, amazing portrait photography, and a ton of surprise-and-delight features made possible by Google Lens and the rest of Google's A.I. tool chest. When the Pixel 2 XL was announced on Oct. 4, Google reminded us that its machine learning engine is watching our every move to improve its A.I. algorithms. So, yes, the Pixel 2 XL's ever-Googley magic tricks may keep robophobes up at night. And you'll rightfully want one it if you're due for a phone upgrade. But if you already own the original Pixel, your decision is more difficult. The Pixel 2 XL kicks ass, but much of what makes it special--stock Android, the Google Photos experience, Google Assistant in the home button, and Google Lens--are available in the first-generation Pixel phones, too. To this extent, the Pixel 2 XL (and the smaller Pixel 2, which I'll review soon) are victims of Google's success at creating a cloud-first, machine-learning platform that spans #MadeByGoogle devices. The Pixel 2 XL feels great in the hand. Before we drill down into features, let's get straight to Pixel 2 XL specs.

Hawaii, like an aging model, is still gorgeous--just sometimes in a fragile, wasted way. My parents were here a long time ago; they came on their honeymoon, back in the Old World times. They bought a hotel-and-airfare package to Honolulu. They went scuba diving in the coral reefs and touched real rays and even one dolphin, they said. Of course that's not an option anymore, but you can snorkel all you like in fiberglass reefs stocked with colorful farmed parrotfish and now and then a robot shark. Lydia Millet is an American novelist and conservationist. Her third novel, My Happy Life, won the 2003 PEN Center USA Award for fiction, and she has been a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize as well as a Guggenheim fellow. Her newest novel for young readers, The Bodies of the Ancients, comes out in January.

What happens when machines are advanced enough to take our cognitive heavy lifting? It's a question at the heart of hundreds of clickbait articles with titles like, "Will robots take your job?" The answer is typically either utopian (we'll all be living like the Jetsons, as machines take care of our every need) or depressingly bleak (The birth of Skynet?). The truth, as so often happens, is somewhere in the middle. The fourth industrial revolution will have an impact on labour in the short term, partly offset by the creation of new jobs that emphasise creativity and emotional intelligence.