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Google Home, Amazon’s Echo New Rival

May 18, 2016 By David Crozier Leave a Comment

Google is rumored to launch Google Home, an Amazon’s Echo rival

By all accounts, Google will probably launch Google Home, a new competitor for Amazon’s Echo, today, Wednesday 18. Today is the Google I/O developer’s showcase.

The New York Times and Recode have reported that Google will launch a voice-activated device called “Google Home or Google Chirp” at the I/O developer conference in Mountain View.

The reports say Google’s new gizmo will be a home device, roughly shaped like Google’s OnHub Router, which will integrate the tech giant’s voice agent.

A few years ago Google added the “hotword” support to Android, which allows phones to respond to an “OK Google” command. Presumably, Google Home will have this command incorporated.

Echo, Amazon’s very own Home device, is a cylinder appliance that uses Alexa, a cloud-space digital assistant, to report news, craft shopping lists, turn on the alarm, the kitchen timer. It’s basically a loudspeaker that doubles as a microphone.

The beauty of Echo is in its Amazon Prime services integration that plays back audiobooks or your music selection by voice command. The voice command also allows you to shop or order items from Amazon.

But Google has the same capabilities and even more. With a hefty list of info and other commands users can ask “Google Ok” and other services like Google Express and Google Play Music, Google Home will come in strongly as a competitor for Amazon’s Echo.

It’s not yet certain if third-party services will be able to access Google Home through API. All of the popular food-delivery apps run on Android while Echo only allows you to order pizza from Dominos and a few restaurants in strategic cities over the US. However, Amazon has integrated other services like Uber and Audible with Alexa but came back with mixed results.

If Google Home allows developer access through API, it will boost the device even more.

The price and ship date for the Google Home gadget are still unknown. Echo has a price tag of $180. Will Google beat that?

With all the digital assistants clogging the market funnel – see Siri, Viv, Cortana, Alexa – will there still be a need for another one or a better one? We’re on the wait to see the results of Google’s I/O developer conference presentations and find out what other consumer technology will Google make available.

Image source: Flickr

Google’s AI Language Software Now Open Sourced

May 13, 2016 By Nicholas Anderton Leave a Comment

"Google's AI Language Software SyntaxNet now open sourced"

Google’s AI Language Software SyntaxNet is Now in Open Source

Google has just put its AI language software called SyntaxNet in the open source section, a smart move that will not only benefit Google tremendously, but it will also help all the AI researchers working on this technology to push the market forward.

Only recently, Dag Kittlaus, co-founder of Siri, the infamous AI assistant, has presented a new digital assistant called Viv. Viv is an AI that promises cutting-edge technology able to understand more complex and natural aspects of language than the other AIs on the market now.

So how about it? Will the open sourced SyntaxNet news be a game changer for the not-yet-launched Kittlaus’s Viv?

SyntaxNet is known amongst natural language researchers as a “syntactic parser,” a processor that analyzes computer linguistics by using “deep neural networks” and tries to create a meaningful dialect.

The system combines punctuation, grammar logic and everything involved in speech – what is the subject, the object, a noun, a preposition, the verb and how they all relate – to try to figure out what a phrase might be about.

Fernando Pereira, Google’s Research Director, says SyntaxNet, the AI language software, has improved Google’s error rate up to 40% compared to previous software methods.

Researchers outside Google say SyntaxNet is probably the most advanced existing AI language software. Noah Smith, a University of Washington profession specialized in natural language understanding is surprised that Google is sharing so much of their tools, something they didn’t do as often in the past.

Many people are doing natural language research and with SyntaxNet’s availability, Smith says their work will be pushed “forward a little bit.”

Another tool open-sourced by Google was the TensorFlow, the software engine behind the whole Mountain View Company.

With these two incredibly huge implements in the open source environment, Google could have added brains working for the advancement of this technology and challenge even further the real AI conversation.

What Pereira says Google wants, is for people “to move beyond parsing, towards the deeper semantic reasoning that is necessary” and explore past parsing. They just gave parsing for free. But with people using language in so many different ways, this will seem like more than just an uphill walk.

Let’s see where Google’s available AI language software will lead the digital assistant technology.

Image source: Pixabay

Viv – the Newest Artificial Intelligence Personal Assistant

May 10, 2016 By Brandi McCants Leave a Comment

Possible Depiction of Viv, the Newest Artificial Intelligence Personal Assistant

Viv is the newest artificial intelligence personal assistant in what is now the boom of AI personal assistance technology.

Although we’re still waiting for Steven Spielberg’s humanoid David from the 2001 movie A.I. to be truly impressed, this promising new AI personal assistant doesn’t disappoint.

Created by the Dag Kittlaus, co-founder of Siri – another great AI assistant, Viv breaks down the code and understands natural aspects of language to reply to your requests.

Viv’s intelligence is based on a new technology called “Dynamic Program Generation” and according to its creator, it can write itself in under a second.

But, before we go into more details about Viv, it’s good to know what other different artificial intelligence personal assistants are on the market now.

People seem to be already making jokes about Siri – Apple’s brassy AI assistant, Cortana – Windows 10 assistant, and Viv – the latest, but a not yet available assistant. Still, it should be known that Hound, another one of these self-writing software assistants, might steal the show.

Created by SoundHound and launched in March this year, Hound also has a strong understanding of complex queries and a third-party platform available for developers to plug into. And as we said, Hound is already available.

Viv was showed off Monday, in New York, at the TechCrunch Disrupt when Kittlaus took the mic and demonstrated the app’s tricks. It was Viv’s first public demonstration.

The artificial intelligence personal assistant connects with third-party services and complies with voice commands to book rooms, hail rides and send money to friends.

What makes Viv so different than the other AI personal assistants is that it can grow much faster and learn at a pace that will thrill developers tapping into its technology.

Although it’s not entirely sure when Kittlaus plans to launch Viv, the entrepreneur did say the company’s goal is to “roll launch” the artificial intelligence personal assistant at the end of the year, with phone apps and other “surprises” he and his partners are working on.

With all the autonomous technology and AI being developed by giants like Google, Facebook, Apple and Tesla and last year being the best year for humanity, what kind of year will this one be?

Will the future artificial intelligence personal assistant spread through the world the way the smartphone did? What do you think?

Image source: Pixabay

Siri Might Not Be Siri At All

October 14, 2015 By Daniel Giordano Leave a Comment

his might turn into an issue that needs a final resolution in the iPhones to come, but if you do not have the iOS 9, just remember: Siri might not be Siri at all.

Siri Might Not Be Siri At All

The iPhone users should not get too comfortable with Siri nowadays. We know that she might be your closest friend, she might know everything about you, what you hold dear, or the fact that you accessed a porn site last night and she might not judge you for it, but, for the time being, Siri might not be Siri at all. It has been revealed that there are ways to hack into Siri and you wouldn’t want that, would you?

A group of specialists from the ANSSI, a French government agency, have discovered that could gain full control of Siri from around 16 feet away. Yes, you read that correctly: you could be enjoying your coffee at Starbucks, casually browsing the internet on your iPhone while someone from two tables away gets in your phone and, implicitly, into your private life within a couple of minutes.

And there is no extraordinary gear required. In fact, what you need can be easily placed in any backpack or purse that anybody around you could carry. It’s freaky, right? It’s a rather simple hack that only requires some headphones, an integrated mic and another mobile device. Could you ever have believed that Apple devices can be hacked via radio in the 21^st century? Welcome aboard. This is possible.

Headphone cables do pretty well for radio antennas and the experts figured out that the phone can be literally tricked into thinking that the voice is coming from within the phone, but it is coming for the guy behind you who you do not suspect one bit. The next step is for “Siri” to actually ask you a smart question and get some personal information out of you. You might think that Apple did a great job, but you are being robbed of information in plain sight.

But it is not that simple. Almost anybody would figure out that something is not right. What is worrying, however, is that a hacker could order Siri to send texts, call people, relog you to that porn site you were using last night so that you could get a virus or two or even set Siri to call the hacker’s phone, so that he can spy on you whenever he wants to. We are talking serious consequences here.

Luckily, Apple have made significant changes to voice recognition starting with iOS 9 so that Siri can be sure it is you giving the orders and not anybody else. This might turn into an issue that needs a final resolution in the iPhones to come, but if you do not have the iOS 9, just remember: Siri might not be Siri at all.

strong>Photo Credits wikimedia.org

Now Philips Hue Can be Controlled Using Siri

October 6, 2015 By Lori David Leave a Comment

If you own Philips Hue and you’re a fan of Apple HomeKit, you’re in luck. Philips announced that the promised new bridge that connects to Apple HomeKit is ready to roll out.

Philips Hue launched in 2012, with a boom and bang in the growing market of systems connected to your WiFi. Its smart bulbs systems have raised the bar in home lightning, quickly becoming the reference point for smart home products.

Now, the new bridge works with your iPhone, iPad or Apple Watch and Siri is there to take commands on your preferred ambient. Dim the lights for a relaxed, cosy atmosphere? One voice command away.

The new bridge has also suffered a redesign. From the circular hub that was released three years ago, Philips gave its new bridge a rounded square shape. Still, the device is able to connect to your WiFi, while leaving room for all the Philips Hue bulbs around the house to do the same and efficiently communicate with the device and with each other.

Now that the Apple HomeKit is integrated as well, Siri is there to help you set the mood throughout the house with just voice commands. The great thing is that the system works differentiated, which means that you can apply your own creativity to the mood setting in each room equipped with Philips Hue bulbs. If your bedroom should be ready for the well-deserved sleep and you have a certain light setting that you prefer, you order Siri to bring the lightning to those specific hues. The lights in the rest of the house will be unaffected.

Setting the ambient can be tricky. As such, there are already presets that come with Philips Hue. If you prefer your own, just set them, save them and make Siri remember them. Presets from Philips Hue have long been studied. According to the company, they have reached the point of creating ‘light recipes’ based on comprehensive studies on how lightning conditions affect our well-being and life. The type of mellow hues that are representative for a sunset for instance or necessary to calm our biorhythm before going to sleep increases the production of melatonin, which in turn helps us to relax.

Apple HomeKit and Philip Hues are one step ahead in the race for the Internet of things, providing a smarter framework for home lightning systems. The new Philips bridge is hitting the European and North American markets starting October 6th. The product will be sold by itself at 60 dollars.

If you already own Philips Hue, then you can trade it for the upgrade with a 20-dollar discount.

Photo Credits: Flickr

Viv Labs Presents Improved Siri, a Sophisticated AI Platform

August 12, 2014 By Lori David 1 Comment

The advent of highly sophisticated computing power raised the expectations of how the interaction between humans and AI will take place. We went from the classical input devices such as keyboard and mouse to voice activation and we might soon use a technology which transfers the users’ commands to the device through brain scanning. A British company already devised an app which combines Google Glasses with an electroencephalography (EEG) headset that reads when the users concentrates. The whole pack is controlled through an app called MindRDR.

Viv Labs presents improved Siri AI platform to help us achieve the next step. However, we still have to wait for proper devices to be developed in order to achieve complete functionality.

Siri, Google Now and Cortana now serve us as personal digital assistants. When Apple launched Siri in 2011, there was quite a fuss around it. However, Siri proved her limitations as users attempted to achieve more complex tasks.

Viv Labs presents improved Siri, a new self-learning AI

Siri was conceived by three men who decided to take the project further as a separate entity. Dag Kittlaus, Adam Cheyer and Chris Brigham founded Viv Labs and presented on Tuesday their advanced digital assistant concept.

While Siri can perform simple tasks, such as setting up the alarm clock, the digital assistant cannot combine various tasks. The problem is that Siri is not able read multiple instructions at once, even if it can solve them separately.

Viv Labs works on preparing another form of AI which will not only have the capacity to solve complex tasks, but it will learn to improve itself on the way.

“Take a complicated command like “Give me a flight to Dallas with a seat that Shaq could fit in.” Viv will parse the sentence and then it will perform its best trick: automatically generating a quick, efficient program to link third-party sources of information together—say, Kayak, SeatGuru, and the NBA media guide—so it can identify available flights with lots of legroom. And it can do all of this in a fraction of a second,” Wired states.

Viv Labs presents improved Siri, an idea at an early stage version, however. They hope to have the software implemented in future devices, but they do not have support from manufacturers so far. The team behind Viv Labs face strong competition, especially from Google, who recently invested half a billion dollars into AI development, Wired adds.