Facial recognition is being tried in mutiple locations and for numerous applications. A railway station in Berlin is being outfitted with the technology for a six-month trial with the aim of improving security.

Some smart homes are smarter than others. Now Cox Communications was loaned a house to set up a home to be super smart. The house boasted the latest conncted technology, ranging from wireless cooking to a telepresence robot.

Robotics technology can do a lot more than make factories more efficient. Now Walmart is planning to tap the technology, using facial and voice recognition, to identify unhappy shoppers as they wait in line. The idea is to identify the most upset customers and send an employee to resolve any issues.

Artificial intelligence is finding its way into many industries and now even Starbucks is getting in on the act. The company's new Digital Flywheel program uses AI to suggest to customers what they likely should want next.

You know artificial intelligence is moving into the mainstream when a tech powerhouse company tags it as being in the forefront. In its latest financial filing, Microsoft just added AI into its corporate vision statement, in place of mobile, which led last year.

Among other things, artificial intelligence can become controversial. Many stories appeared after it looked like Facebook's AI chatbot system developed its own language, not so understandable by humans. It all started with a Facebook blog back in June.