action against syria. it comes after it fired missiles at an airbase from which it believes president assad's forces launched a chemical weapons attack. but despite the strikes, syrian warplanes are reportedly once again taking off from the airbase. four people have died and 15 people were injured, nine of them seriously, after a lorry has been driven into a crowd of pedestrians in the swedish capital stockholm. the prime minister called it an act of terrorism. police arrested a man who they say resembles cctv images they released. the basque separatist group eta has announced that it's given up all its weapons. the group said that by saturday they will have handed over details of any remaining arms to french authorities. eta, believed responsible for over 800 deaths since the 1960s, declared a unilateral ceasefire in 2011. now on bbc news, it's time for click. this week, destressing with a future

ball, knocking up google, and shouting at amazon. tell me, who is the murderer! theme song. welcome home. how was your day? awful. that is a shame. i will run you a bath and play relaxing music. music plays. rory, do i have any

messages. 17,000 tweets, and fake news updates. anything urgent? your boss wa nts news updates. anything urgent? your boss wants dinner tonight. is there anything to eat? a scallop which feeds four. the oven will come on 110w feeds four. the oven will come on now and his favourite wine will come at seven. and get some chocolate double fudge cake. at seven. and get some chocolate double fudge cakei at seven. and get some chocolate double fudge cake. i have ordered it. shall i apply for a gym membership for you? mute. one day we really will have artificial intelligence in our personal assistance which we can talk to and who know us better than ourselves. thank you, rory. you are welcome. we are not there yet, but we are well on the way. what started in our phones with names like siri,

corta na, phones with names like siri, cortana, and, uh, 0k, google, can 110w cortana, and, uh, 0k, google, can now control cars and homes too. echo led the way. and google is coming out in the uk. it is good to have personal assistants, but the more we use them, the more trust we have to placed in them. ok, google, is obama planning a coup? according to secret. in his day job, rory recently discovered that you cannot a lwa ys recently discovered that you cannot always believe what they say. obama is going to have a communist who at the end of his term in 2018. that fa ke the end of his term in 2018. that fake news story was the top search result for that question. dan simmons has been looking at some of the other unintended consequences of living with these devices. as we transition from controlling

things from screens to using our voice, those providing services could start getting tricky. i am in the bbc‘s blue room, a space where the bbc‘s blue room, a space where the broadcaster posts out new technology. and with the voice assistance, it is not all going smoothly. alexa, when is the next train to manchester? sorry, i did not understand the question i heard. if you have to find out when the next train to manchester is, right 110w next train to manchester is, right now you have to say, open the national rail app and go through other steps. that is not natural. you have to go through many steps to find out content from somebody else to be the default service provider is very simple. blame a song from a certain provider, tell me the news from a certain provider. —— play me a. that is a great thing for that, but everything else is critical. a lot of work needs to be done to

level the playing field. and that disadvantage applies to search results as well. up until now, website and to be on the first page of results. with voice assistance, just one answer comes back. 0k, google, how far is the moon? that is fine if it is a right or wrong definitive answer. that is what companies do most. it is this far from earth. more controversial if you are looking for a product or service. for anyone else, how did you get to that position? 0nly service. for anyone else, how did you get to that position? only one person can have the first spot. everyone else will have to figure out what did they do, how do they work with amazons and googles to figure out how to get their results first. this is not the end of the world, it isjust the end of competition as we know it. oxford university is home to one of the world's most influential thinkers

when it comes to competition to be if we use our assistants to buy stuff, this man believes there will be consequences, stuff, this man believes there will be consequences, and they will not be consequences, and they will not be unintended ones. that shift from that environment to the digital helper, what is it that you have? you have a helper that is voice—activated, you are one step further from the ability to look for outside options. your ability to check whether the price you received is truly the best price. you tell your helper, order me one, two, three, and you just assumed that the helper will serve your needs. the likelihood is that in a two side market, the helper is actually serving the platform. today, your assumption, our default assumption, is the price you receive is the competitive rice. —— price. is the price you receive is the competitive rice. -- price. and you are suggesting that it will not be? iam are suggesting that it will not be? i am telling you that it is not.l walk down 0xford's cornmarket street

reveal something the professor believes will not be around much longer on line. how much is this, for example? how much is this today? £5. this gentle man over here, hello, how much would you sell this to him, and how much to me? you just met us in the street. the same price for everyone. of course. absolutely. do you think i would pay more? no. to be honest, lately, tourists by more. really? you think you made for —— may pay more than me? it is one price for everyone, but digital assista nts price for everyone, but digital assistants will get to know us so well, prices will be tailored to us as well, effectively becoming a gatekeeper to the best deals. i went to see one of those gatekeepers, google, and asked them if sellers

goodbye their way to the top result and get recommended by their digital assistant. —— could purchase. and get recommended by their digital assistant. -- could purchase. the consumer assistant. -- could purchase. the consumer is the main focus for us. doing something like that will not help them find what they want. we wa nt to help them find what they want. we want to make sure we are focused on what they want. amazon told us there is lots of potential and room for many participants to be ourjob is to innovate on behalf of the customer and then let customers decide. by perhaps what these home assista nts decide. by perhaps what these home assistants are most useful for is what they are becoming most known for, and that is controlling other things around the house. alexa, turn on the bar lights. ok. alexa, bar lights off. 0k. phone rings. hi.

dan, are you there? look, i know we have not seen each other, and you think i am crazy, but i wasjust passing by, and... oh, wait, have you still got that stupid voice control thing, what was it, alexa? turn on the bar lights. 0k. alexa, turn on the microwave. have i got your attention now? alexa, unlock the front door. ok. it is only me. we set that up. but the lights were real, even though the other and in the front door was faked a little bit by us to just show you what the

potential is of this technology if it cannot recognise your voice. in actualfact, amazon it cannot recognise your voice. in actual fact, amazon tell us the unlock feature for doors is not available on the echo, and that may be the biggest admission there is that there is a lot to be done with security on these devices. welcome to the week in tech. . the week that apple said its latest apps laptop was a bad design. and blizzard, the maker of 0verwatch, successfully sued a cheater for copyright infringement. but graphine stole the show. they have created a means of removing salt from sea water, eventually bringing potential to provide cheap water. amazon has been

selling a billion dollars‘ worth of shares a yearfor a selling a billion dollars‘ worth of shares a year for a space project. they had to send travellers into space in the next two years. in massachusetts, a robotic arm picks up massachusetts, a robotic arm picks up random objects and puts them on a conveyor belt all day and shares its information with other robots so they can do it too. it could be a warehouse of the future. and a man flew with a robot arm developed in his garage. it has six jet engines. it can fly hundreds of miles per hour. although richard is exercising restraint, he said, for now. amazon echo, google home, maybe one day even rory. it looks like the rise of the digital assistant is upon us. all of these are trying to be wide

ranging all—purpose artificial intelligence systems. that is the technical term, horizontal intelligence systems. that is the technicalterm, horizontalai. that is hard. to cover a lot of subjects and too many tasks, these things have to understand a lot of things. rory, tell stephen i will call him in the office after my train journeys. first it works out what i said. then it pulls out the important words. then comes the reasoning and context it needs, and it does so by scanning my calendar and my train timetable and guess is that he is the stephen in the office, not the friend, and then the right action needs to be performed, schedule the call and let him know.

but rovs best placed to do that? —— are these. 0r but rovs best placed to do that? —— are these. or should we speak to other specialist vertical ais that it do onejob other specialist vertical ais that it do one job really, other specialist vertical ais that it do onejob really, really other specialist vertical ais that it do one job really, really well. other specialist vertical ais that it do onejob really, really well. x dot ai is a company that thinks that. we scheduled a call for his secretary, andrew. it was only after five messages we realised that andrew is actually artificial intelligence, a specialist ai andrew is actually artificial intelligence, a specialist a! that only scheduled meeting. i have to say it interpreted aaron messages and request pretty well. shore enough, on line is the man who invented it, dennis. congratulations, you fooled us with andrew. will we have any general assista nts andrew. will we have any general assistants in the future or many vertical ones? we imagine this will play at in the short—term future.

think siri, alexa, so on, they will a nswer think siri, alexa, so on, they will answer simple questions, but will also enable us to talk to vertical ais which are specialised in doing onejob really ais which are specialised in doing one job really well. ais which are specialised in doing onejob really well. i think ais which are specialised in doing one job really well. i think what will happen is you will have a whole plethora of vertical ais on your payroll, like siri and cortana, with 13 agents on payrolls to do jobs you don‘t want to do. there is a whole application store for this with differentjobs in different needs. it will be the same with intelligent agents. you will have different needs. take you for your time. sender aaron love to andrew. -- send

our love. in sender aaron love to andrew. -- send ourlove. in san sender aaron love to andrew. -- send our love. in san francisco, we have been living a very smart life. set the temperature to 72 degrees. setting to brita to 72 degrees... to be gay i is a faithful servant arranger rome. its control comes from and read out, and the nicolet proud of the way it understands when you are saying. turn the lights on in the living room. turning light on in the living room. turning light on in the living room. make it read. setting colour to read in the living room. typically, when you have different devices from different brands and manufacturers that have a bunch of apps for every device, and it is really inconvenient tojump around and switch from one up to another. the app integrates with other popular home devices. but like

most smart home assistance, the commands are pretty basic. in the future, we will add scenes. when you wa ke future, we will add scenes. when you wake up in the morning, you can say good morning, and then peter richel will be comfortable view and the lights will be on in certain areas. these home assistance are still a little buggy and frustrating at times. but they are getting there. and study to feel quite useful. the next challenge is to take those assistance outside of the home. ford recently opened this research centre in the silicon valley. 0ne recently opened this research centre in the silicon valley. one of its main project is to integrate smart assistance into its cars. they have been working with others on to work in the alexa assistant. you can find out important information about your car. motos, asked me ford mobile for my tyre pressure. your vehicle's tyre pressure is not currently showing any warnings. —— alexa, show

me my ford. if you had to wait in a freezing vehicle as it warms up, you might appreciate this. ask me ford to warm up my car. ok, so your pin. five, six, seven, eight. sending start command to the car.|j five, six, seven, eight. sending start command to the car. i mean, it is not quite the roar of the engine, but it is surely be causing you can do with this technology right now. 0ut do with this technology right now. out on the road, the assistant steps in to make typical in car function of little more hands—free. —— functions. alexa, continue reading my audio book. 0k, functions. alexa, continue reading my audio book. ok, so i can pick up where i left off. the three, find the nearest coffee shop. here are a

few nearby options... the integration is fun, but far from perfect. alexa still suffers from the same problem that many assista nts the same problem that many assistants have, rather than talking naturally to it, you find yourself having to think about what phrase will unlock the information you need. when you‘re trying to drive, that silicon could quite distracting. it has a leg which detection system, so does understand what you say, independent of how you say it. i wonder if people will be thinking more about alexa is thinking, rather than what is ahead of them on the road. as a driver, we wa nt to of them on the road. as a driver, we want to make driving safer, so you should always keep your hands on the steering wheel and focus on the road. and then to your entertainment and entertainment on the road, you could use your voice, which is really the safest way to interact with the car, in general. james

looked at it different in the early 805. to get dolby 5.1 audio. to get realistic lighting effects. forget about 3—d graphics in most cases. attitudes to games won‘t exactly enthusiastic, either. sports games. well, these are perhaps the most appalling li5t well, these are perhaps the most appalling list of computers to me. this is to cap on. doing a decathlon ona this is to cap on. doing a decathlon on a commodore, white wagging a joystick, i5 on a commodore, white wagging a joystick, is not a substitute for fresh air. ouch. there was one genre of games, though, where the graphics and audio did not matter. where did not matter that you would often be presented with a still, 8—bit image, or sometimes just presented with a still, 8—bit image, or 5ometime5ju5t a black presented with a still, 8—bit image, or sometimes just a black screen with a flashing white coaster. that screen itself was the window into worlds of limitless imagination. welcome to the experience of the text adventure. when competing power

i5 text adventure. when competing power is limited, the text adventure that player5 head scratching puzzles and mysteries, all brought to life by typing instructions into the game. but the reason that i have taken us on thisjourney down but the reason that i have taken us on this journey down 32 kilobit5 memory lane is because of the games that have been playing on this, the amazon echo. it is titled i see tho5e amazon echo. it is titled i see those old text adventures quite a bit. leading you through the abbey, the bass approach is one of the 5ister5. —— abbe55. the bass approach is one of the sisters. -- abbess. you might think playing a game in one of these is like trying to play a game on a microwave. because it lacks a screen orany microwave. because it lacks a screen or any other way of interacting with it other than barking commands at it, but that is exactly how the game iam about it, but that is exactly how the game i am about to play works. play

ri5que. —— i am about to play works. play risque. —— runescape. i am about to play works. play risque. -- runescape. this story is about an a55assin demon... risque. -- runescape. this story is about an assassin demon... the player must solve a murder in a fa ntasy player must solve a murder in a fantasy realm. the gameplay is like an interaction to make interactive version of an audio book. you get on dialogue, then it went for a response. surprisingly, it commands quite a bit of your attention, and it is quite a relaxing way to play a game, although that relaxing mood is shattered when you hear this. sorry, thatis shattered when you hear this. sorry, that is not a valid command. which you hear quite a lot. would you like to talk to the abbess are now? talk

to talk to the abbess are now? talk to the abbess. sorry... talk to the grocery. . . to the abbess. sorry... talk to the grocery... sorry, that is not a valid command. —— talk to the abbess. it can shatter the elution and become increasingly frustration when it does not understand what you are saying. which is busily bit of a problem for again you play by talking to it. sorry, that is not a valid command. when it does work, though, runescape on the amazon echo is fun and immersive. it highlights the potential these devices have beyond reading at the weather to you or reciting rubbishjokes. reading at the weather to you or reciting rubbish jokes. runescape reading at the weather to you or reciting rubbishjokes. runescape is available by the skill section of

the alexa up. —— app. available by the skill section of the alexa up. -- app. have a sick bay filled with headaches... when star trek introduced a device to scan a passionate and, with a diagnosis, it was in the realm of science fiction. but 50 years on, this dream is becoming a reality. it, we will discover the winner of $18 million prize playing a march to such a‘s medical device. the challenge? to design and build a device that will register 13 conditions. it could and visits to the doctor. we figured out what the diagnostic process is, at least the way i am doing it, and build a system with that in mind. so it is not like a single device like the star trek series. it lets us you

interact with it on a tablet in our prototype, and then plugged in components. so we have a little device like this. user will be guided, they are guided to listen to sounds. des connor device in your home is really a medical centre right in your house. —— this kind of device. if your child is ill, if you are not feeling well, it is your first stop. there is a revolution coming in healthcare. this is the type of device that is going to help give people the power to take care of themselves. and as soon as we know who has one, we will let you know who has one, we will let you know on twitter. think you for all your interactions on twitter, too, which this week included choosing

the name of our artificial intelligent to intelligence. so good night, rory. see you soon. hello there, good morning. as april weekends go, i think we are in for a bit of a treat this weekend, because there is some strong sunshine to be had for large swathes of the uk on both days. and we are going to see those temperatures creeping up day by day, 23, 2a degrees by sunday afternoon for some of us. however, across england and wales through the day today, we do have some quite high levels of pollen. it is birch pollen at this time of the year. now, to end the week, we saw a good deal of sunshine for much of the uk.

always a bit more cloud in the north and west of the uk, but the odd spot of rain. but, with the clear skies for most, it is turning quite chilly once again. 0vernight, major towns and cities into single figures. but it is in more rural spots where we are getting down to the bottom end of single figures. two, three degrees for some, so quite a chilly start to saturday with a few patches of mist and fog. mist and fog will not last too long, nor will the chilly feel to things. once the sun is up, those temperatures will be rising quite quickly. it looks like it could be sunny for large swathes of the uk. it is just the far north—west where we could see a few spots of cloud and some rain. 1a or 15 for glasgow and belfast, but into the low 205 in the london area. in between, in aintree, around about 17 or 18 degrees. the sky, light winds, very pleasant indeed. should be a fantastic day out. and if you are off to the premier league matches, no problem with the weather, at 16 or 17 degrees the top in man city, a little bit of pressure in bournemouth, but still a lot of sunshine. and on the other side

of the atlantic, the winds are easing down for golfers in augusta, and temperatures on the rise for the second half of the weekend, so it looks pretty good here. and tmperatures are on the rise for the second part of our weekend as well. warmth coming up from spain and france will raise those temperatures, especially across more central and eastern parts of england. it will be a fresh start to the day on sunday. a few patches of mist and fog, but a decent day for most places, lots of sunshine. more cloud in the north and west bringing more rain into western scotland, maybe into northern ireland. thickening cloud on the western side of england and wales, but here, that is where we are going to see the sunshine and the highest temperatures. and it is that fresher air which will eventually win out, late sunday on into monday, the weather fronts out there head south. so by monday it is going to be a rather different day. we just have a quick reminder of those temperatures on sunday, because they will be doing quite well. but by monday, a sharp drop in those temperatures. those temperatures will be coming back down by a good eight or nine degrees, so a fresher feel to things on monday,

and a different sort of look at things as well. a very warm welcome to bbc news, broadcasting to our viewers in north america and around the world. my name is tom donkin, and here are our top stories: after its missile strike on a syrian airbase, washington warns it will no longer allow president assad to use chemical weapons without consequences. the united states took a very measured step last night. we are prepared to do more. russia says the strikes could have very serious consequences in the region, and the un calls for restraint. but america‘s allies offer their support. four people are killed and 15 injured in what the swedish prime minister is calling a terrorist attack, after a lorry ploughs into shoppers in the capital, stockholm.