I was tired, hungry, sleepy, and the customer-service counter was closed. I had the choice to make the long walk to customer services at the next gate or use my iPhone, so I tried my phone. I texted the KLM WhatsApp number and went back and forth with an assistant on my choices. Within minutes I was on the next flight, with the boarding pass on my phone. It was only later that I discovered that I had been dealing with next-generation artificial intelligence – in an example of the new field of conversational commerce....

Fresh from sweeping the boards at the 2020 Grammy Awards , the 18-year-old songstress sat down with the AI interviewer in a video for Vogue — and the bot proved a more original interlocutor than many of its human rivals. Its abstract questions provoked some surprising insights into the singer’s mind. Viewers learnt that Eilish used to dream of working at Jamba Juice or Trader Joe’s, and once wore a wig out to dinner to avoid attracting attention — but she doesn’t want to go back to being anonymous....

What’s a digital marketer to do? AI is here to help. I repeat, AI is here to help. There is a lingering fear that robots, AI and machine learning will replace everyone’s jobs in the next six years, but the reality is far more nuanced. As noted by the Marketing AI Institute, some marketing jobs will go away because of AI, some will be enhanced by AI, and some new jobs will be created by AI....

According to experts, COVID-19 has stalled the once meteoric rise of available jobs for deep learning developers. — François Chollet (@fchollet) August 30, 2020 Chollet, a top Google engineer and the creator of Keras, is quick to point out that the impending recession isn’t indicative of an AI winter – an extended period of shunted development due to a lack of interest, accomplishment, and funding – but because of massive financial losses caused by the pandemic....

The Pentagon announced the plan a month after an AI system demolished an Air Force pilot in a virtual dogfight. An algorithm developed by defense contractor Heron Systems swept a best-of-five aerial duel versus an F-16 pilot wearing a VR helmet. The new trials will test how the AI’s capabilities transfer to the real world, Esper explained on Wednesday at the Pentagon’s first AI Symposium: [Read: These tech trends defined 2020 so far, according to 5 founders] Esper gave little detail on how the combat will unfold, but it’s safe to assume the AI won’t seek to shoot real pilots out of the sky....

The company said if you’ve made your booking before March 14, and if your check-in date is between March 14 and April 14, you won’t be charged for cancelation. [Read: Microsoft launches a coronavirus tracker dashboard on Bing] As a part of the announcement, Airbnb activated its Extenuating Circumstances Policy for COVID-19, which contains travel advisories and guidelines for hosts and guests on how the virus will affect their bookings....

Through automated calls, the e-commerce giant told employees late Wednesday it would extend the 48-hour “enhanced, deep cleaning” of its Shepherdsville, Kentucky returns facility that began earlier this week. Late Wednesday, the e-commerce giant told employees it would extend the 48-hour “enhanced, deep cleaning” of its Shepherdsville, Kentucky, returns facility — all via automated calls. Some employees were reportedly nervous to return to work. The Shepherdsville location usually processes returned apparel like sneakers and wristwatches, items they felt aren’t essential during the COVID-19 pandemic....

The new Hindi experience is available on all Echo voice-controlled smart speakers, and can be turned on by changing the language setting in the Alexa app. Signs of Alexa’s Hindi integration emerged in July, when the retail giant added the language’s voice model to its Alexa Skills Kit for developers. Based on a internet trends report released by Google and KPMG, the number of Indian language internet users is expected to hit a record high of 534 million by 2021, with Hindi speakers (at 201 million) outnumbering those accessing the web in English (199 million)....

A bigger, warmer display The new Kindle Paperwhite goes from a 6-inch screen to a 6.8-inch screen, thanks to smaller bezels, while maintaining 300 dpi sharpness. But perhaps more important is the addition of the warm lighting option that I consider invaluable on the Kindle Oasis and other e-readers. It helps makes the screen look more paper-like under warm indoor lighting, and it means your eyeballs aren’t seared by white-ish blue light that will tend to keep you awake late at night....

Controversy also surrounds the dismissal of one worker who organized an employee protest for better treatment — a matter which the New York human-rights watchdog is now investigating, ordered by the city’s mayor.

In a press release, the cities said the registers would help ensure that the AI used in public services operates on the same principles of responsibility, transparency, and security as other local government activities. “Algorithms play an increasingly important role in our lives,” said Touria Meliani, Deputy Mayor of Amsterdam. “Together with the city of Helsinki, we are on a mission to create as much understanding about algorithms as possible and be transparent about the way we — as cities — use them....

There are, however, real physical risks to being in space. Earlier this year, an unnamed astronaut developed a blood clot in space for the first time – a common health problem which affects at least one person in 1000 on Earth. Now our new study, published in Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance, reveals what the risks of this happening again in space are – and how we can ultimately minimize them....

The privacy shift has vaporized an estimated $9.85 billion of revenues for Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Snap, according to The Financial Times. The new policy, which launched in April, requires the social media platforms to gain permission from iPhone users before tracking them across other apps. Unsurprisingly, many of them have opted out, which has made ad targetting on social media less effective. As a result, advertisers have shifted their budgets to other sources — including Apple’s own expanding ads business....

Starting June 30, the company will enforce a policy that apps that provide sign-up (or account creation methods) features will also need to make sure they allow users to delete their account through that interface. Here’s what the company says in its developer guidelines: Apple originally introduced this change at its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) last year as part of its App Store review guideline revamp. It provided a deadline of January 31, 2022, for developers to tweak their apps....

The company announced that, later this year, US merchants will be able to use its handsets as payment terminals. It refers to the function as ‘Tap to Pay.’ The iPhones in question will not only accept Apple Pay, but will also work with other contactless payment types, including American Express, Discover, Mastercard, and Visa cards. All a business needs to do is download the associated app and get going. The NFC reader in the device will do the rest....

According to a report from Bloomberg, the company is set to slash the target by a whopping 10 million — readjusting the initial target from 90 million units down to 80 million. Apple’s chip suppliers like Texas Instruments and Broadcomm haven’t been able to produce and supply enough units. So that has affected iPhone manufacturing as these companies supply parts for display and network components. Bloomberg’s report noted that the gap between order and delivery of a chip has hit a record 21....

Well, that’s old news! Two days ago, the NSW government announced an ambitious $375 million plan for battery-powered cars, the Sydney Morning Herald reports. The government hopes that with this plan EVs will make up more than half of new car sales by 2030. Specifically, stamp duty will be removed from EVs that cost less than $58,580 by September this year, and a $2,253 rebate will be given to the first 25,000 vehicles sold in New South Wales for under $51,069....

Designed by not-for-profit research company ProMare, the Mayflower Autonomous Ship (MAS) will navigate the 5,182 kilometers (3,220 miles) between Plymouth, England and the US city of Plymouth in Massachusetts. Helming the vessel will be IBM’s AI, featuring a menagerie of machine learning, edge computing, and cloud technologies. According to Brett Phaneuf, the managing director of Mayflower project, the idea for the vessel came a few years ago after the Plymouth Council suggested designing and launching a replica....

Escooter firm TIER has partnered with mapping provider Fantasmo to create what it claims is the world’s most accurate escooter parking system. Starting in Paris and York, TIER will implement Fantasmo’s “Camera Positioning System” (CPS), a new positioning technology that is ten times more accurate than GPS and can validate e-scooter parking within 50 centimeters or less using a camera phone. TIER says the new feature will all but eliminate irresponsible parking, an issue that has plagued city authorities globally since escooters were first rolled out on streets....

Right about now, we all wish we had a few aces up our sleeve to help get through the day. A few hidden skills and abilities that can make a difference for ourselves and those around us. We might not strap on a cape or fight crime, but developing some superpowers to give us an added edge here or there isn’t just comic book or Marvel movie talk. In fact, it’s actually entirely doable to start stacking up superpowers like DC stacks up movie flops....