Amazon Echo plays the monster in this terrifying horror short

A short movie starring an Amazon Echo might be the scariest Halloween horror you watch all year. Written and directed by Julian Terry, Whisper shows what happens when Amazon’s personal assistant goes rogue. Warning: this clip is not for the faint of heart. Related video Robots are the next step in using technology to explore […]

Google’s AI has some seriously messed up opinions

Not so friendly. Image: NurPhoto/Getty Images Google’s code of conduct explicitly prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation, race, religion, and a host of other protected categories. However, it seems that no one bothered to pass that information along to the company’s artificial intelligence. The Mountain View-based company developed what it’s calling a Cloud Natural Language […]

Rasa Core kicks up the context for chatbots

Context is everything when dealing with dialog systems. We humans take for granted how complex even our simplest conversations are. That’s part of the reason why dialog systems can’t live up to their human counterparts. But with an interactive learning approach and some open source love, Berlin-based Rasa is hoping to help enterprises solve their […]

Meituan is the $30 billion startup you’ve probably never heard of

Drivers for the world’s fourth most valuable startup. Image: Andy Wong/AP/REX/Shutterstock China’s Meituan Dianping just became the world’s fourth-most valuable startup, reaching a $30 billion valuation that puts it ahead of high-fliers like Airbnb Inc. and Space X. Never heard of Meituan? You’re not alone. The Beijing-based company, led by Wang Xing, is almost unknown […]

This isn’t the first time Dove rolled out a racist ad

Image: MARK ZUCKERBERG/FACEBOOK For all the good Facebook has done in the wake of Hurricane Maria, CEO Mark Zuckerberg sending his cartoon avatar to the ravaged streets of Puerto Rico on Monday afternoon stands out as a tone-deaf misstep. He capitalized on a natural disaster to promote his company’s new tech, and the whole thing […]