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Personal assistants are ushering in the age of AI at home
Google Home is the latest embodiment of a virtual assistant. The voice-activated speaker can help you make a dinner reservation, remind you to catch your flight, fire up your favorite playlist and even translate words for you on the fly. While the voice interface is expected to make quotidian tasks easier, it also gives the company unprecedented access to human patterns and preferences that are crucial to the next phase of artificial intelligence. Comparing an AI agent to a personal assistant, as most companies have been doing of late, makes for a powerful metaphor. It is one that is indicative of the human capabilities that most major technology companies want their disembodied helpers to adopt. Over the last couple of years, with improvements in speech-recognition technology, Siri, Cortana and Google Now have slowly learned to move beyond the basics of weather updates to take on more complex responsibilities like managing your calendar or answering your queries. But products that invade our personal spaces -- like Amazon's Echo and Google Home -- point to a larger shift in human-device interaction that is currently underway.
With Assistant, Google is becoming a lot more like Apple
Google may have finally taken control of its hardware with the new Pixel phones, but the company's still focusing on software. In particular: artificial intelligence. The AI-powered Assistant is an integral part of its new phones, Allo messaging app and smart speaker, making for a more uniform and useful experience across all of Google's (and other brands') devices. If that sounds familiar, it's because Apple brought Siri to multiple platforms first.
Microsoft reorganizes to create a dedicated AI division
Microsoft has reorganized several disparate projects and programs into an entirely new Artificial Intelligence group. It will be the fourth major division after Windows, Office and cloud, reallocating over 5,000 computer scientists and engineers under its umbrella. The shift shows how much unified effort the tech giant believes the field needs, as well as internally standardized AI tech they can more easily integrate into customer products.
LG's 29-inch Windows 10 tablet comes stuck to a smart fridge
If you didn't know already, Samsung and LG are the two biggest companies in Korea which leads to plenty of corporate pissing contests. For instance, if LG were to release a 100-inch 4K TV, you can be damn sure Samsung will follow up with a 101-incher a few weeks later. It should come as no surprise to anyone, then, to see that a few months after Samsung launched a fridge with a built-in tablet, LG's got a version of its very own.
Pop culture's many takes on artificial intelligence
Over the years, artists, writers, filmmakers and game studios have all tackled the concept of artificial intelligence. Often their vision is of machines that are brutally hostile to humans. Philip K. Dick envisioned androids that murder their owners. The iconic HAL from 2001: A Space Odyssey ... also murders his human companions. Of course, there's Skynet, which launches an all-out war on mankind. We could go on like this for a long time. But there are also those, like Spike Jonze, who envision us having a more complex relationship with computer-based personalities; one in which they could even be love interests. And in Star Trek: The Next Generation Data is not only a "good" android, but he's often the hero of the show. We've pulled together 13 of our favorite portrayals of AI over the years and put them in the gallery below. It is by no means comprehensive. So please, let us know what we missed in the comments or tweet at us (@engadget) to let us know your favorite AI character from the film, TV or books using the hashtag #EngadgetAIWeek.
How we trained AI to be sexist
You'd never know from Jacqueline Feldman's background that she'd become a passionate proponent of gender equality for artificial intelligence. She went the dreamer's route at college, attending Yale for English literature and writing. She prefers casual dresses and writing from the comfort of her Brooklyn apartment surrounded by books, where she has the option of climbing to the roof for cool air on sweltering nights.
Windows 10's Anniversary Update arrives
After a few months of hype, the Windows 10 Anniversary Update is here... well, mostly. Microsoft has started rolling out the upgrade to desktop users, who'll automatically receive it in stages. "Newer machines" will get it first. You can update manually if you just can't stand sitting behind the curve. However long you wait, your PC will get more pervasive Cortana voice commands (such as controlling some apps), deeper pen input (including a dedicated pen interface) and a spruced-up Edge browser with extensions.
Xbox One's Cortana update arrives at last
After months upon months of delays, Cortana is finally ready for your Xbox One. Microsoft has started rolling out its promised summer update with Cortana's smarter, richer voice control as its centerpiece. You can use your headset or Kinect to search games, invite friends to play and otherwise accomplish tasks that required either stiff commands or (gasp) your gamepad. This also represents another step toward tighter integration of the Xbox and Windows 10 experiences, such as platform-independent party chat and streamlined shopping that lets you redeem Xbox credits.
Windows 10's Anniversary Update makes a great OS better
"It's nice, for once, to be able to recommend a new version of Windows without any hesitation." That's how I summarized my review of Windows 10 last year, and for the most part, it's lived up to my expectations. Other than Microsoft's bafflingly forceful automatic upgrade policy (which has led to lawsuits and plenty of ticked-off users), the operating system's first year on the market has been relatively smooth.
Plex rewrites its media streaming app for Windows 10
Plex users on Windows have been stuck with an old Windows 8 app for awhile now, but that changes today. The media streaming server's desktop app has been completely rebuilt for Windows 10 as a Universal Windows app -- giving users the same Plex experience across tablet, desktop and mobile platforms. Well, almost the same experience: Plex says it's still working on the mobile release of the UWP app, but promises it will be along soon.
Microsoft's new acquisition can enhance Cortana's chat bots
Looks like Microsoft has been on a shopping spree. Hot on the heels of its massive LinkedIn purchase, the company announced that it's acquired three-year-old messaging-app maker Wand Labs. In a statement, Microsoft said that the acquisition would "accelerate [its] vision and strategy for Conversation as a Platform." Unveiled at the company's Build 2016 conference in March, Conversation embeds AI bots into Cortana to let users access third-party services within a chat.
Microsoft buys LinkedIn for $26.2 billion
You probably didn't expect your week to start this way: Microsoft has acquired LinkedIn for $26.2 billion. The company plans to integrate the career-oriented social network into many of its apps and services, including Office, Skype and Cortana. You'd get the details of the person you're meeting for a business deal, for example, or get help from an expert when you're working on an Office 365 project. Microsoft is vowing to maintain LinkedIn's overall independence, including the role of CEO Jeff Weiner, and hopes to close the deal sometime in 2016.
Cortana is coming to the Xbox One this summer
Microsoft announced the first big update to Windows 10 -- known as the "anniversary update" -- earlier this year. And now that the Xbox One is technically a Windows 10 machine, it'll be getting some new features as far of the fun. It's not near as radical an update as what we saw last year, but a handful of new features will make the console a bit more user-friendly.
Microsoft Band 2 gets Cortana support for Android users
Microsoft Band 2 pairs up just fine with Android phones. But if you want to be able to issue voice commands through the wearable, check out the latest update for Microsoft Health. The app's newest version comes with Cortana integration for Android users -- something that only used to be available for people whose Bands are connected to a Windows Phone device.
Lenovo's Cortana-powered file finder app is finally out
Lenovo announced that Cortana would come to its devices way back in May last year, and now the ReachIt app is finally making its way out of beta and into your life. It's like that Billy Ocean song. Almost. Except that this is an application that'll give Microsoft's virtual assistant deeper access to your files so you can ask for them in natural language -- not a pop song about someone's dream-lady getting in their car. The app is a free download on the Windows Store and it should definitely help you find Tear Down These Walls in your MP3 folder. All you'll have to do is ask, "Cortana, where's the Billy Ocean album I downloaded last week at Starbucks?"
Windows 10 beta testers can make Cortana a DJ or an egg timer
Beta testers who elect to receive the the freshest test builds of Windows 10 have some new features on the way, as we move even closer to the big Anniversary Update this summer. With Build 14352, Cortana's music abilities go from simply being able to play any song from your library by voice command, to pulling any song from the Groove Music catalog (assuming you have a Groove music subscription, of course), and now also can easily set a timer, similar to other automated assistants like Amazon Alexa. Windows Ink is also getting a new Cortana wrinkle, since you can create reminders for it directly from notes, as well as write down a phone number, URL or email address and launch the appropriate app directly from a note.
The people who made Siri are readying another big leap in AI
It's been a couple of years since we heard from Viv Labs, but a report from the Washington Post says it will debut the next generation of AI assistance on Monday. One reason we won't dismiss that possibility is because of the last project developed by company co-founders Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham -- a little feature called Siri. According to the Post, as much of a third of the team behind Siri is now at Viv, ready to fulfill a bigger dream of what the personal assistant can do than what we've seen so far in its Apple iteration.
Cortana won't let you search with Google in Windows 10
In what may come as no surprise, Microsoft won't let you use Cortana to perform a Google search anymore. While the digital assistant was capable of using a third-party search engine on Windows 10, the company announced this week that the "result is a compromised experience that is less reliable and predictable." So, to ensure that everything works well, Microsoft will only allow Cortana to launch the new Edge browser and find answers via Bing.
Cortana's international versions get instant translations
The French-, German-, Italian- and Spanish-speaking versions of Microsoft's voice assistant Cortana are now much better travel companions. Just like their English- and Chinese-speaking counterparts, these versions can now instantly translate words and phrases into other languages, so long as you're running Windows 10. For instance, you can ask it for help by saying "Hey Cortana, translate where is the toilet in Japanese" in any of the four languages above, and it will quickly respond with the result.
Windows 10 preview adds Cortana's cross-device features
Been aching to try some of the bigger improvements from Windows 10's Anniversary Update? It's time to give them a shot. Microsoft has released a Windows 10 Insider Preview (only available on the Fast ring) that includes a few of the choicer improvements. The highlight is likely to be the Cortana-based cross-device features: if you have an Android or Windows phone, Cortana will tell you when your handset's battery is running low, help you find a lost phone and share navigation directions across devices.
