Google launches Google Assistant to take on Siri and Alexa

Look out SIRI. Step aside Alexa, Google has its own voice-based digital assistant: Google Assistant.

While it lacks a proper or even pretty name, this could be the mother of all voice-activated assistants. 

"Our ability to do conversational understanding is far ahead of what other assistants can do," said Google CEO Sundar Pichai, who announced the new assistant from the Google I/O 2016 developers conference keynote stage on Wednesday. He noted that 20% of all Google searches are accomplished via voice.

Pichai demonstrated Google Assistant's prowess by asking it first about "Who directed The Revenant?" Google Assistant correctly answered with "Alejandro G. Iñárritu," but then Pichai showed how he could continue the conversation without repeating the director's name. Read more...