While fans eagerly await the release of the'Tom Clancy's The Division' game, Ubisoft Entertainment and BETC Paris announce the launch of Collapse, a realistic, local and global end of society simulator. Collapse is an interactive digital experience, created by BETC Paris to promote Ubisoft's upcoming online open world action role-playing game, 'Tom Clancy's The Division'. Based on the game's fictive yet realistic storyline, which takes place in a society on the brink of destruction, Collapse is an end of society simulator that uses real data to create a personalized experience of events to set the scene before the game launches on March 8. Collapse is a powerful reminder of the fragility and complexity of the interdependent systems that we rely on daily – power, transport, banking, hospitals and communications. When one fails, others follow, creating a deadly domino effect that can cripple society in a matter of days. Through a sequence of interactive storytelling, Collapse takes viewers through the consequences of the fictional Variola Chimera pandemic, demonstrating how quickly the cities and society that we take for granted can fall apart. Launching on March 8, 2016, Tom Clancy's The Division (TCTD) is set in a society on the brink of collapse.

Chat apps are very popular and arguably, most people would prefer engaging in a chat conversation rather than make a phone call. Going by recent buzz, it's apparent that tech giants are planning to bring chat conversations to advertisers and marketers. But there are many startups out there already using chat conversations to simplify user queries. Yellow Messenger is one such Bangalore-based startup. Instead of a team of people answering your queries however, it has put in place an Artificial Intelligence-powered interface that converses with users and responds to their queries related to shopping, real estate, recharge, etc.

Tech and the elderly are often thought of as being incompatible. Everyone has spent painful hours teaching their grandmother how to text, and entire days have been dedicated to setting up a computer for an elderly person. But tech can actually help the elderly in numerous ways. From smart homes to wireless trackers, tech for the elderly can increase independence, alleviate the concerns of carers and relatives, and generally make life a whole lot easier. The elderly tech market should not be underestimated: the proportion of Britons aged 85 and over is expected to double from 2.5% to 5% within 20 years.

Umbo CV has raised a 2.8 million seed round for its security cameras, which use artificial intelligence to identify suspicious activity and prevent crimes before they happen. The Taipei- and San Francisco-based startup's funding was led by AppWorks Ventures, with participation from Mesh Ventures, Wistron Corporation, and Phison Electronics. The two-year-old startup has already shipped its system--including cameras and a cloud-based management platform--to clients in Dubai, the United States, and Europe, and will begin mass manufacturing next month. Co-founder and chief executive officer Shawn Guan says Umbo CV has also received 1.4 million in pre-orders and letters of intent from other customers. Its funding will be used for research and hiring.

A team of researchers at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) led by Li-Shiuan Peh has come up with a new infrared depth-sensing system. The new system, which works outdoors as well as in, was built by attaching a US 10 laser to a smartphone, with MIT saying the inexpensive approach could be used to convert conventional personal vehicles, such as wheelchairs and golf carts, into autonomous ones. Inexpensive rangefinding devices, such as the Microsoft Kinect, have been a great help to robotics engineers. Using the off-the-shelf product that relies on an infrared laser to measure distance, they allow for rapid prototyping and the ability to create robots that can sense and navigate in their environments without having to constantly reinvent the necessary technology. Unfortunately, Kinect and similar infrared-based systems tend to be a bit fussy when it comes to ambient light conditions.

Here's the technology news you need to know this Tuesday. The FBI says it has hacked into the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone without Apple's help. The fact that the FBI was apparently able to get the encrypted data without Apple's help raised new security questions about Apple's devices. The photo app plans to completely change the way its feed works by algorithmically ranking photos, instead of showing them in reverse chronological order. NTT Data Corp wants to expand in North America and improve its services business.

Banking group Standard Chartered, Liverpool FC's shirt sponsor, is aiming to use robots or artificial intelligence to offer bespoke wealth advice or handle customer enquiries. The Asia-facing bank has hired thousands of extra compliance officers in a bid to stick to regulations. In 2013 the bank was fined 650m by US authorities for breaching sanctions on trading with Iran. Last year it announced its regulatory costs had risen 44% to 447m due to an increase in investment in its financial crime risk compliance capability. Now, chief executive Bill Winters wants to tap into technology to avoid further regulatory problems.

Samsung Electronics Co. is "actively looking" to acquire developers of artificial intelligence and other software as the world's biggest smartphone maker tries to overcome flat-lining sales for its devices. Samsung, which has 61 billion in cash and equivalents, wants to morph into more of a software-driven company, Executive Vice President Rhee In Jong said in an interview. The South Korean consumer-electronics giant also is spending more to develop its own services because the global market for gadgets is saturated and can't be counted on for significant revenue growth, he said. "We are actively looking for M&A targets of all sorts in the software area," said Rhee, who runs the mobile division's software research-and-development business. "We are open to all possibilities, including artificial intelligence. Intelligence is no longer an option -- it is a must."

Read more ... », alerted everyone to the combinational possibilities of networksGoogle Advances Artificial Intelligence with Open-sourced TensorFlow. Read more ... » of small satellites, machineA startup that helps police track criminals using bitcoin just raised 5 million.

Artificial-intelligence whiz Andrew Ng hangs his hat these days at a nondescript building in Sunnyvale that serves as the Silicon Valley outpost of the Chinese search giant Baidu. The modest digs belie Baidu's big Asian footprint. With more than 600 million monthly active mobile users, it's often referred to as "the Google of China." Like Google, Baidu has been exploring artificial intelligence (AI) for use on its servers and other applications. AI is deemed so important by Baidu that two years ago it hired Ng, who founded Google's Brain Team, to be its chief scientist.