BlackBerry QNX is off to a great start at CES 2017. Today they announced what they are calling their "most advanced and secure embedded software platform for autonomous drive and connected cars," which is also known as QNX SDP 7.0. "With the push toward connected and autonomous vehicles, the electronic architecture of cars is evolving – from a multitude of smaller processors each executing a dedicated function, to a set of high performance domain controllers, powered by 64-bit processors and graphical processing units. To develop these new systems, our automotive customers will need a safe and secure 64-bit OS that can run highly complex software, including neural networks and artificial intelligence algorithms. QNX SDP 7.0 is suited not only for cars, but also for almost any safety- or mission-critical application that requires 64-bit performance and advanced security. This includes surgical robots, industrial controllers and high-speed trains."

One of Huawei's biggest priorities when building its Mate 9 was shoehorning some handy machine learning features into to it. A machine learning algorithm designed to improve performance by finding the patterns in how you use the phone and allocating resources like RAM accordingly. Turns out Huawei's AI ambitions don't end there: a spokesperson confirmed to Engadget that the Mate 9 will receive a software update that brings Amazon's Alexa to that surprisingly slick phablet. We're not entirely sure of the timing yet, but we can confirm that the update will roll out in the US (obviously) and a handful of other markets. Either way, this is a big step for Huawei and for Amazon; the former gets to sell the first properly Alexa-enabled smartphone and Amazon gets the chance to forge a partnership with one of the biggest smartphone makers in China by volume.

Samsung is spending big bucks on startups tackling cutting-edge technologies. The technology giant's startup investment arm, Samsung NEXT, said Wednesday that it created a $150 million fund that it would use to finance early-stage startups specializing in trendy tech like artificial intelligence, virtual reality, and Internet-connected devices. Some of the companies that have already received money from the new fund include Dashbot, which built user analytics tools for so-called software bots that automate tasks; Entry Point VR, a startup that makes tools for companies to more easily distribute virtual reality media across multiple devices; and LiquidSky, which makes video game streaming technology. "We see software and services becoming a core part of Samsung Electronics' DNA, and startups are key to achieving this vision," Samsung NEXT President David Eun said in a statement. The new fund comes after Samsung (ssnlf) changed the name of its startup investment arm from the Samsung Global Innovation Center, and opened a Tel Aviv office in September.

Computer mastery of the complex board game Go has long been seen as a landmark for artificial intelligence. A mystery player causing a stir in the world of the complex strategy game Go has been revealed as an updated version of AlphaGo, the artificial-intelligence program created by Google's London-based AI firm, DeepMind. Known only by the name "Master (P)", since late December the anonymous player has beaten the world's best at Go in a string of online games, including defeating current world number one, 19-year old Ke Jie. South Korea trumpets $860-million AI fund after AlphaGo'shock' Go is regarded as the most complex board game ever invented, and famously difficult for computers to crack. But last year, AlphaGo showcased the strength of AI software when it stunned the Go world first by defeating a professional human player, Fan Hui, and then going on to beat one of the Go world's top players, Lee Sedol.

Toyota Motor Corp. wants you and your car to be friends. On Wednesday at CES, the industry trade show formerly known as the Consumer Electronics Show, the automaker unveiled its "Concept-i" vehicle, a futuristic-looking car with an artificially intelligent assistant built in. "We need to look beyond the simple driver-vehicle interface and focus on the driver-vehicle relationship," said Bob Carter, senior vice president of automotive operations at Toyota. Embedded in Concept-i is "Yui," Toyota's artificial intelligence system. Yui is intended to monitor driver behavior and mood to determine the vehicle's actions.

While Apple and others have made the leap to two cameras, ASUS have got one step further - with a triple sensor. The firm's new Zenfone AR has a traditional 23-megapixel sensor, alongside motion-tracking and depth-sensing cameras. It can combine four native 23-megapixel photos to create a single image --something the company is calling a 92-megapixel'super resolution' photo. The Zenfone AR has a 23-megapixel camera sensor, alongside motion-tracking and depth-sensing cameras, allowing it to scan a room and superimpose images on it. Asus has revealed a new smartphone which uses Google Tango 3D technology and allows users to experience augmented and virtual reality.

Arrival Amy Adams stars in this elegant, involving science-fiction drama that is simultaneously old and new, revisiting many alien-invasion conventions but with unexpected intelligence, visual style and heart. The Eagle Huntress A portrait of a 13-year-old Kazakh girl from Mongolia who defies eons of tradition by learning to hunt with fierce golden eagles is a documentary so satisfying it makes you feel good about feeling good. The Edge of Seventeen Hailee Steinfeld gives a superb performance as a high-school misfit in Kelly Fremon Craig's disarmingly smart teen dramedy, the rare coming-of-age picture that feels less like a retread than a renewal. Elle Paul Verhoeven's brilliantly booby-trapped thriller starring Isabelle Huppert is a gripping whodunit, a tour de force of psychological suspense and a wickedly droll comedy of manners. The Handmaiden The most absorbing feature in years from South Korean director Park Chan-wook ("Oldboy") is a teasingly witty and elegant puzzle-box of a thriller about two women (played by Kim Tae-ri and Kim Min-hee) pursuing their destinies in 1930s Japanese-occupied Korea.

Apple will invest $1 billion in a fund set up by Japanese telecom company SoftBank to finance new technology that could be used in the future, the Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday. "We believe their new fund will speed the development of technologies which may be strategically important to Apple," Apple spokeswoman Kristin Huguet told the Journal . The SoftBank Vision Fund, which the Japanese company is hoping to launch next year, could be one of the largest global tech investment funds, with the potential size of the Fund going up to $100 billion. SoftBank itself expects to invest at least $25 billion. Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund could become the leading funding partner, with its potential $45 billion investment over five years. The money will be used to finance new technology, such as artificial intelligence, deep learning, robotics, and connected devices.

When Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo made history by taking down Korea's Lee Sedol--one of the world's best Go players--in a landslide 4-1 victory in March, Chinese player Ke Jie was skeptical. He famously wrote on Weibo the next day, "Even if AlphaGo can defeat Lee Sedol, it can't beat me," and has since agreed to take on the AI at an undecided time. But now even Ke, the reigning top-ranked Go player, has acknowledged that human beings are no match for robots in the complex board game, after he lost three games to an AI that mysteriously popped up online in recent days. On Jan. 4, after winning more than 50 games against several of the world's best Go players, Ke included, a user registered with an ID of "Master" on two Chinese board game platforms came forward to identify itself as AlphaGo. "I'm AlphaGo's Doctor Huang," the user "Master" wrote on foxwq.com,

PDF: We made a fancy PDF of this post for printing and offline viewing. Note: The reason this post took three weeks to finish is that as I dug into research on Artificial Intelligence, I could not believe what I was reading. It hit me pretty quickly that what's happening in the world of AI is not just an important topic, but by far THE most important topic for our future. So I wanted to learn as much as I could about it, and once I did that, I wanted to make sure I wrote a post that really explained this whole situation and why it matters so much. Not shockingly, that became outrageously long, so I broke it into two parts. This is Part 1--Part 2 is here. We are on the edge of change comparable to the rise of human life on Earth. It seems like a pretty intense place to be standing--but then you have to remember something about what it's like to stand on a time graph: you can't see what's to your right. So here's how it actually feels to stand there: Imagine taking a time machine back to 1750--a time when the world was in a permanent power outage, long-distance communication meant either yelling loudly or firing a cannon in the air, and all transportation ran on hay. When you get there, you retrieve a dude, bring him to 2015, and then walk him around and watch him react to everything.