Amazon announces the Echo smart speaker with the Alexa voice assistant. The device pioneers the always-on, always-listening home AI category.

A chatbot simulating a 13-year-old Ukrainian boy named Eugene Goostman allegedly passes a variant of the Turing Test at a University of Reading event. The claim is widely disputed.

SpaceX makes visible progress on Grasshopper reusable-rocket tests, the precursor to the first orbital-stage landing. Reusable space launch would transform satellite economics.