Paris-based analytics platform ContentSquare said Monday that it's raised a $60 million Series C just one year after announcing its $42 million Series B. The fresh round, led by French private equity firm Eurazeo, brings the company's total funding to $120 million since 2016. This raise, like the last, is going toward research and development focused on AI and predictive analytics. ContentSquare is different from services like Google Analytics or Adobe Analytics which show site and app activity, but not why visitors do what they do. The "why" is ContentSquare's differentiator, said company CEO and founder Jonathan Cherki. "They might tell you that you're losing people and where you're losing them from," said Cherki.

Apple's upcoming products appear to be have been revealed by its own software update. The company is planning to update the iPod Touch as well as releasing new iPads, according to details discovered in a software update recently made available for iPhones. Though it is not clear when the new products will arrive, their inclusion in the beta update suggests that they will be available within the coming months. Code within iOS 12.2 – a beta version of the iPhone and iPad software, which has been made available to developers – includes references to four new iPads, in cellular and WiFi versions, alongside an update version of the iPod Touch. The details were discovered by Stephen Troughton-Smith, a developer who has found a range of leaks inside Apple's own releases.

Mizuho has its eyes on Chinese fintech start-ups with the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU) for business cooperation with Zhongguancun Development Group (ZDG). Beijing's Zhongguancun area, also referred to as "China's Silicon Valley", is home to universities such as Tsinghua University and Peking University, and research institutions including the Chinese Academy of Sciences. According to the bank, the area hosts approximately 20,000 start-ups – a sixth of all start-ups in China – which are engaged in industries such as smart transportation and artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Under this MoU, Mizuho says it will provide funding, and help with overseas expansion and alliances with Japanese companies. It's a smart move by the bank to tap into a very juicy market.

Toshiba Corp. has unveiled a remote-controlled robot with tongs that it hopes will be able to probe the inside of one of the three damaged reactors at Japan's tsunami-hit Fukushima nuclear plant and manipulate chunks of melted fuel.

More than a month after China lifted its freeze on video games, it's finally given the all clear to a handful of titles from the country's two biggest publishers. Offerings from Tencent and NetEase are on the latest list of 95 government-approved games, according to the South China Morning Post. The video game blockade was introduced in March as the government began restructuring the country's gaming body amid renewed criticism of addiction and sexual and violent content. This marks the fourth round of approvals since China lifted its ban on games in December, with Tencent and NetEase missing out on all three prior bouts. Between them, the two internet giants operate local versions of popular titles including Tencent's PUBG and Monster Hunter: World and NetEase's World of Warcraft and Overwatch.

About one month ago, the headlines flashed, 'Gujarat doctor makes history', crediting cardiac surgeon Dr Tejas Patel with conducting the world's first telerobotic surgery on a patient in Ahmedabad. Sitting 32 kilometres away from his patient, a middle-aged woman with a blocked artery at Apex Hospital, Dr Patel guided the robotic arms through a joystick to perform the coronary intervention. The surgery sounded rumblings of a shift in healthcare. Is robotics the way to go? When the trauma caused by incisions in traditional open surgeries started becoming a point of concern, laparoscopic surgeries started becoming popular, in the '90s.

We've found crowdsourcing (i.e., the gathering of ideas, thoughts, and concepts from a widespread variety of interested individuals) to be a very effective tool in enabling us to diversify our thoughts and challenge our assumptions. Dr. Buras' post takes the results from one such crowdsourcing exercise and extrapolates three future urban scenarios. Given The Army Vision's clarion call to "Focus training on high-intensity conflict, with emphasis on operating in dense urban terrain," our readers would do well to consider how the Army would operate in each of Dr. Buras' posited future scenarios…] The challenges of the 21st century have been forecast and are well-known. In many ways we are already experiencing the future now. But predictions are hard to validate. A way around that is turning to slightly older predictions to illuminate the magnitude of the issues and the reality of their propositions.1

Workplace sexual harassment continues to be one of the most under-reported crimes in India and the world over. A primary reason for this is the lack of awareness, both by'victims' as well as'perpetrators', on what constitutes sexual harassment, and the action to be taken when faced with it. Project Disha is here to help. This project consists of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) enabled chatbot at its core, which sits on top of an eLearning course on'Prevention of Sexual Harassment', and answers learner questions and alleviates concerns on the topic. This chatbot, called Disha the Learning Guide, also helps learners freely navigate the content without any restrictions and is the world's first chatbot powering a course developed in Articulate Storyline.

A hitchhiking robot was beheaded in Philadelphia. A security robot was punched to the ground in Silicon Valley. Another security bot, in San Francisco, was covered in a tarp and smeared with barbecue sauce. Why do people lash out at robots, particularly those built to resemble humans? It is a global phenomenon. In a mall in Osaka, Japan, three boys beat a humanoid robot with all their strength. In Moscow, a man attacked a teaching robot named Alantim with a baseball bat, kicking it to the ground, while the robot pleaded for help.

Imagine pulling into a Starbucks drive-thru and seeing not just your drink order but your name on the screen -- along with the suggestions of what foods you might like with your drink, automatically generated by the weather, your buying history, and the choices that others with similar preferences have made. Coming soon to a Starbucks drive-through near you -- and to your smartwatch, and possibly to each store's cash register -- are serving suggestions generated by artificial intelligence. It's all part of the coffee giant's plan to use AI and the cloud to drive sales and growth, as laid out in a 45-minute presentation this month at Starbucks Investor Day in Manhattan. "I hope you're convinced we're continuing to set the bar for digital in brick-and-mortar," said Matt Ryan, Starbucks chief strategy officer, after laying out the company's technology plans. It gives us the advantage we have moving forward." Seattle-based Starbucks is going strong -- growing steadily and last month ...