NEW YORK – With its ubiquitous Phantom drones, Chinese manufacturer SZ DJI Technology Co. brought aerial photography to millions. Now, with dozens of competitors biting at its heels, the world's biggest producer of consumer drones needs to prove that its products are more than just glorified selfie sticks. "Right now, DJI is the king of the drones-are-cool market, they are not king of the drones-are-a-tool market," said Colin Snow, founder of Skylogic Research, which advises corporations using drones. "They've entered where they don't have a lot of experience." The nine-year-old company is developing unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) for agriculture and surveying as dozens of competitors inside China and around the world begin to flood the market with cheap drones, from 10 minitoys to sub- 100 camera carriers.

When I first spotted Shift Technology with their focus on fraud detection for insurance, I assumed I would find a venture in Israel (which is known for smarts in finding the bad guys in cyberspace, as we outlined when we went to Israel on our Fintech global tour). So I was surprised to find that Shift Technology is a Paris based venture. There is a lot more tech innovation in France than the image of economic sclerosis would lead you to assume. The next thing that jumps out at you is that they recently closed a 10m Series A round in a tough market from a top tier VC (Accel Partners). So they must be doing something right.

Teenagers may lose their virginity to sex robots in the future, a leading expert predicted yesterday. Professor Noel Sharkey, emeritus professor of robotics at Sheffield University, warned that android sex dolls may have damaging consequences for society. He said that just as the rise of internet porn took the Government by surprise, a similarly seismic robot revolution is on the way – with far-reaching consequences. Professor Sharkey, speaking at the Cheltenham Science Festival, explained that he was'fairly liberal about sex'. But he explained: 'It's not a problem having sex with a machine.

Tracking customers in real-time, zero-click ordering and delivering pizzas via artificially intelligent robots are just some of the latest innovations underway at Domino's. The pizza retailer today launched the first in a proposed series of tech innovation events, under the brand'Abacus', showcasing the way digital and technology is being harnessed by the business. Ten innovations were detailed, some of which will be available from next week, while others will be rolled out over the coming 12-24 months.All stemmed from the theme'time is the enemy of food' and showed the power of harnessing data analytics not only for operational process improvements, but also for tailoring customer experiences and interaction. The first of these is On-Time Cooking, an extension of the GPS Driver Tracker capabilities Domino's has been providing for the last 10 years aimed at shortening the time between cooking a pizza and when customers pick up their order. Domino's A/NZ managing director, Don Meij, said that until now, stores haven't known exactly when a customer will arrive, running the risk of pizzas sitting on the rack for 10 or 20 minutes longer than they should.

Wix.com, the Nasdaq-listed, Tel Aviv-based do-it-yourself website development company, will start selling a new platform that will use artificial intelligence to ensure the website completely meets the requirements of the builder. Based on data gathered from the experiences of more than 86 million users, Wix has created a set of algorithms that are meant to churn out the best website for the users' needs, after first learning about the users through a few simple questions, the company said in a statement. "Wix ADI is the world's first technology platform that combines website design and content creation with artificial intelligence to enable complete websites to be created in a matter of minutes," said Avishai Abrahami, co-founder and CEO of Wix.com, in the statement. Artificial intelligence refers to the use of technology by a computer to do or copy cognitive functions like learning or problem solving, typically performed by a human brain. By asking users what they need, Wix's new website platform can tailor the website, making sure the layout, text and images it proposes will best suit the site's needs based on its knowledge of the user's business and location.

Cyber attacks continue to increase in volume, velocity, and variety. Cyber criminals display great sophistication and can purchase a revolving multitude of digital weapons inexpensively via the dark web. They operate in an environment in which they know that borders are meaningless and the chances of apprehension and punishment are slim. Inventor Ray Kurzweil made his name as a pioneer in technology that helped machines understand human language, both written and spoken. These days he is probably best known as a prophet of The Singularity, one of the leading voices predicting that artificial intelligence will soon surpass its human creators - resulting in either our enslavement or immortality, depending on how things shake out.

Bengaluru: Wipro Ltd will use its artificial intelligence platform Holmes to automate several aspects of its so-called fixed-price projects, saving up to 46.5 million and freeing around 3,000 engineers from mundane software maintenance activities. The move is part of Wipro's larger plan to generate 60- 70 million in revenue by selling the platform to new and existing clients in the current financial year. About 30,000 of Wipro's workforce in the delivery side of the business are engaged in fixed-price projects. The company has over 150,000 employees, including 110,000 in delivery. New chief executive officer Abidali Neemuchwala has set an ambitious target for Wipro-- more than tripling its revenue growth to 12-14% for fiscal 2017.

The Electronic Entertainment Expo, also known as E3, will be prefaced by Bethesda Softworks and Electronic Arts press conferences Sunday, but a lot of news has already leaked ahead of the big event. Several big games have been revealed, and rumblings about new Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony video game consoles have been swelling for months. Based on the rumors, E3 2016 at the Los Angeles Convention Center June 14-16 is shaping up to be a fascinating event that could have a great effect on the video game industry. Nothing gets gamers' blood flowing like a good console unveiling. E3 is the place where consoles are launched, which is why 2016 is an odd year in the event's history.

How much should you charge someone to live in your house? Or how much would you pay to live in someone else's house? Would you pay more or less for a planned vacation or for a spur-of-the-moment getaway? And the struggle to do so, my colleagues and I discovered, was preventing potential rentals from getting listed on our site--Airbnb, the company that matches available rooms, apartments, and houses with people who want to book them. In focus groups, we watched people go through the process of listing their properties on our site--and get stumped when they came to the price field. Many would take a look at what their neighbors were charging and pick a comparable price; this involved opening a lot of tabs in their browsers and figuring out which listings were similar to theirs.

Insilico Medicine and Life Extension announced today an exclusive collaboration to identify novel biomarkers of human aging through the use of big-data analytics and AI, with the ultimate goal of discovery and formulation of nutrients to support health and longevity. Insilico Medicine* is a big-data analytics company specializing in applying advances in deep learning to discovery of biomarkers and drugs. Life Extension**, a Florida-based organization established in the early 1980s, is a dietary-supplement innovator dedicated to extending healthy human longevity. Insilico Medicine will focus on applying advanced signaling pathway activation analysis techniques and deep-learning algorithms to find nutraceuticals that mimic the tissue-specific transcriptional response of many known interventions and pathways associated with health and longevity. Life Extension will use this information to develop novel nutraceutical products to support health and longevity, such as "geroprotectors" -- precision natural organic small-molecule formulations that slow down or even reverse age-associated conditions and damage.