A virtual assistant, Alisa, is throwing its name in the hat to run against incumbent Vladmir Putin in the 2018 Russian presidential elections. First, let's just dismiss this idea as stupid. Okay, now let's give it a second look – because it actually makes a lot of sense. Maybe it's time to, academically at least, consider alternative political systems based on more logical and rational thought processes – like one that could elect Russia's Alisa. So far, the virtual assistant has over 80,000 "votes" from citizens requesting a place for it on the ballot next year.

Google announced Wednesday that it will open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing, tapping China's talent pool in the promising technology despite the US search giant's exclusion from the country's internet. Artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, has been an area of intense focus for American tech stalwarts Google, Microsoft and Facebook, and their Chinese competitors Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu as they bid to master what many consider the future of computing. AI research has the potential to boost developments in self-driving cars and automated factories, translation products and facial recognition software, among other innovations. Google announced Wednesday that it will open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing, tapping China's talent pool in the promising technology despite the US search giant's exclusion from the country's internet. Google announced in December that it will open a new artificial intelligence research centre in Beijing, tapping China's talent pool in the promising technology despite the US search giant's exclusion from the country's internet.

Even though its search engine, Gmail service, maps, and docs are blocked in the country, Google has announced that its first AI center to open in Asia will be located in Beijing, China. Google Chief Scientist Fei-Fei Li said it would launch at the Google Developer Days event in Shanghai today. The company said the center will focus on basic artificial intelligence research and will consist of a team of AI researchers in Beijing, who will be supported by Google engineers based in China. Li said she would be leading and coordinating the research alongside Dr. Jia Li, the head of research and development at Google Cloud AI. It joins other AI groups from locations around the world, including New York, Toronto, London, and Zurich, who will work with the researchers in Beijing. It's been seven years since Google Search left China, but the company is increasingly turning toward AI as a way of reentering what is the world's largest online market.

Japanese car maker Toyota unveils a new humanoid robot that mirrors the movements of its remote operator, as Stuart McDill reports. Toyota CEO Akio Toyoda spoke at the company's earnings press conference in Tokyo on May 10. (Photo: Toyota Motor Corporation) Toyota reached a deal to explore a new battery partnership with Panasonic in a move that threatens to encroach on Tesla's territory, heightening the ongoing rivalry between the two automakers. Toyota and Panasonic said Wednesday that they are launching a "feasibility study" to investigate the technological potential of batteries that use prismatic cells, which are grouped together in pouches to power electric cars. The deal places Panasonic in the unusual position of straddling the technological and strategic divide between Toyota and Tesla. Panasonic already has a major partnership with Tesla to jointly manufacture a competing battery technology that relies on different batteries relying on cylindrical cells.

BEIJING – Google announced Wednesday that it will open a new artificial intelligence research center in Beijing, tapping China's talent pool in the promising technology despite the U.S. search giant's exclusion from the country's internet. Artificial intelligence, especially machine learning, has been an area of intense focus for American tech stalwarts Google, Microsoft and Facebook, and their Chinese competitors Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu as they bid to master what many consider the future of computing. AI research has the potential to boost developments in self-driving cars and automated factories, translation products and facial recognition software, among other innovations. Google's move to open a Beijing office focused on fundamental research is an indication of China's AI talent, widely seen as being neck-and-neck with the United States in research capability. "Chinese authors contributed 43 percent of all content in the top 100 AI journals in 2015," Li Feifei, a researcher leading the new center, wrote in a blog post on Google's website.

Russian president Vladimir Putin believes that in the future, the country that leads in artificial intelligence (AI) could dominate the world. According to a report by Russian state-funded organisation RT (which we first saw via The Verge), Putin told students that "artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all of humankind." "It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict," he said. "Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world." That's why Russia will share its know-how in artificial intelligence with other nations.

Google has always had a rocky relationship with China. The search engine is banned in the country, along with its app store, email and cloud services, but that hasn't stopped the company from maintaining some level of presence with its international workforce. And that presence is set to grow following the announcement that Google is setting up an AI research center in Beijing. The facility will, according to Google, be the first of its kind in Asia, made up of a small team working on basic AI research from an existing office. The company seems keen to attract the best people to the department, noting that it's already hired some "top experts" and will be working to build the team in the months ahead.

The virtual-assistant avatar, named "Vivi," was in beta testing for a virtual-reality headset device sold by iQiyi, the online streaming unit of Baidu Inc., which owns China's biggest internet search engine. Vivi was ostensibly intended to help users complete tasks via voice commands--such as selecting a film or videogame to play. But it could also flirt with users and respond to commands to dance, according to user reviews posted on Chinese gaming websites and online forums. "The most important thing is she can perform sexy dances, with her enchanting figure, and only for you," one user wrote on Zhihu, a Chinese Q&A website. After The Journal contacted iQiyi about Vivi, the company removed the avatar and said in a statement: "The earlier version of the product is a beta-testing version designed to gather users' feedback. We'd like to make an apology for the concerns it might have raised."

"We need to recognize the opportunity and leadership that China has already displayed in the area of technology and AI," said Google Cloud executive and co-head of the new lab Fei-Fei Li. "By opening a lab here, we come here to extend our hand out, and show this part of the world we would like to listen to them, work with them." Google has already hired "a handful" of top researchers in deep learning and natural-language processing, and plans to hire others focusing on computer vision, said Ms. Li, who is also director of Stanford University's Artificial Intelligence Lab. Google declined to comment on how big the Center would be in future. It is the latest in a series of moves by Google that some see as a sign the company is pushing its case to re-enter China's massive, yet elusive, consumer market. Google's search engine has been blocked in China since 2010, when it refused to submit to government censorship.

These and many other insights are from the Salesforce Fourth Annual State of Marketing - Marketing Embraces the AI Revolution published last week. The report is available for download here (50 pp., PDF, no opt-in). The survey is based on interviews with 3,500 marketers worldwide conducted by Salesforce Research through a third-party survey firm in April 2017. The 3,500 respondents are full-time marketing leaders in Australia, New Zealand, Brazil, Canada, France, Germany, Japan, Netherlands, U.K., Ireland and U.S. Respondents were segmented into high-performing, moderate-performing or under-performing groups. High-performing organizations are defined as those who are "extremely satisfied" with the current outcomes realized as a direct result of their company's marketing investment.