Hello Allo, Google’s Instant Messaging App

Allo set to wrestle market share from WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger

Hello Allo smartphone image by Macrovector
Image by Macrovector (via Shutterstock).

Allo, Google’s answer to WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger could be the search engine’s elusive instant messaging app. It aims to steal a march on the existing market leaders with more intelligent functions. As a fully-fledged member of the Google family, brand recognition and association would be a selling point. Continue reading “Hello Allo, Google’s Instant Messaging App”

Lee Sedol versus Google: An ‘Aye’ for AI?

AlphaGo’s emphatic victory over human opponent

A completed Go board, though not a game between Lee Sedol.
Popular: Go, mastered by Lee Sedol and – as we have found this week – Google’s ActiveGo AI engine. 60 million people saw the clash in South Korea on Chinese and Korean televisions. Image by Saran Poroong/Shutterstock.

The battle between man and machine has been contested since the Industrial Revolution. In recent times, this has seen Deep Blue beat Gary Kasparov at Chess in 1997. Over the last week, a similar contest has taken place between Lee Sedol and a Google AI robot at the Four Seasons hotel in Seoul, South Korea. This time with the Chinese board game of Go. Continue reading “Lee Sedol versus Google: An ‘Aye’ for AI?”