If you own an Alexa-powered device, there's now even less of a chance that you'll go hungry. Amazon has given its Alexa voice assistant the ability to place food delivery orders from businesses affiliated with Amazon Restaurants. To expedite the service, Alexa will only be able to re-order from a restaurant or type of cuisine you've ordered from in the past. This is the latest perk being offered to Amazon Prime members who own an Alexa-powered device like an Amazon Tap, Amazon Echo, or Echo Dot. Alexa is able to place restaurant delivery orders for Prime members in over 20 cities, as part of Prime Now, the Amazon service that offers same-day delivery.

Gigaom, the leader in emerging technology research, today announced that it is holding its first annual competition for the AI start-up that delivers the highest ROI to corporate customers. The GAIN competition coincides with the annual conference Gigaom AI Now held in San Francisco, CA, February 15-16th 2017. AI startups are leading the way for bringing positive impacts of AI to many of the world's long-term challenges. "Record number of investments are being made in early stage AI start-ups. The competition will identify which new ventures can deliver the highest ROI to businesses today," explained David Hehman, Gigaom's Start-up & VC editor.

While merrily chirping, dancing and posing for selfies, a robot named Pepper looks like another expensive toy at a San Francisco mall. But don't dismiss it as mere child's play. Pepper embodies the ambitions of SoftBank Robotics, an Asian joint venture formed by a trio of major technology companies that's aiming to put its personable robots in businesses and homes across the U.S. over the next few years. If the technology advances as Softbank Robotics hopes, Pepper could become a playmate, companion and concierge. It could eventually respond to voice commands to retrieve vital information, make reservations and control home appliances that are connected to the internet.

There is no question that the portability and omnipresence of cameras in today's society has improved driver safety -- video of a vehicle crash helps people find out specifically what went wrong. But what if you could impart artificial intelligence into those camera systems in vehicles, and predict problems on the road and prevent disaster? Netradyne's Driver-I technology uses machine learning to predict and prevent accidents in the commercial transportation industry San Diego, California-based Netradyne has developed technology designed to do just that, integrating cameras and deep learning with their Driver-i, a "vision based" system, mounted in or on commercial vehicles. Rather than merely recording events triggered by the vehicle's movements, Driver-i uses a TeraFLOP processor - one trillion calculations per second - connected to cameras to identify information such as road signs, traffic lights by color, pedestrians, other vehicles, following distance, tailgating, lane prediction and even weather to learn about driving conditions. Sandeep Pandya, president of Netradyne, said he and his colleagues envisioned a driver safety system that was one step beyond simple recording.

With its controversial seizure and return of a U.S. underwater drone, Beijing may have inadvertently thrust into the spotlight one of the main motivations behind its ramped-up moves in the South China Sea: the quest to create a safe-haven for its sea-based nuclear deterrent. Submarines, in particular ballistic missile subs, have long figured prominently in China's desire to match the capabilities and prestige of other major nuclear powers. Slowly but surely, experts say, Beijing has made progress on this front, building a formidable program that began very early in the ruling Communist Party's history. But securing the credibility of its overall nuclear deterrent has been a challenge. "In particular, experts worry that growing U.S. missile defense, conventional precision strike, and space-based surveillance capability together allow for sophisticated preemptive attacks that pose a significant threat to China's land-based nuclear forces," Tong Zhao, a fellow at the Carnegie-Tsinghua Center for Global Policy, wrote in a June report on China's sea-based nuclear deterrent.

Beijing has returned a U.S. underwater drone seized last week in the South China Sea by a Chinese Navy vessel after "friendly" talks between the two countries, China's Defense Ministry said in a short statement posted to its website Tuesday. "After friendly consultations between the Chinese and U.S. sides, the handover work for the U.S. underwater drone was smoothly completed in relevant waters in the South China Sea at midday on Dec. 20," the statement said. The Pentagon confirmed the handover, but criticized the Chinese Navy over the move. "The incident was inconsistent with both international law and standards of professionalism for conduct between navies at sea," Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said in a statement. "The U.S. has addressed those facts with the Chinese through appropriate military channels, and have called on Chinese authorities to comply with their obligations under international law."

WASHINGTON – The Pentagon says China has returned the unmanned underwater drone the Chinese Navy seized last week. In a statement issued late Monday, Pentagon press secretary Peter Cook says the Chinese Navy vessel that had seized the drone returned it near the location where it had been taken. The incident occurred in the South China Sea near the Philippines. Cook says the U.S. will continue to investigate the incident. Earlier Monday he had said U.S. and Chinese officials, including military leaders, were working out logistical details for the return.

BEIJING/WASHINGTON – China on Monday rejected U.S. President-elect Donald Trump's claim that it had "stolen" an American research drone, as state media said his diplomatic inexperience could spark a confrontation between the two nations. Beijing's seizure of the marine probe in international waters in the South China Sea raised already heightened tensions between the world's two largest military powers. On Sunday, after Beijing and Washington announced the drone would be returned, Trump tweeted: "We should tell China that we don't want the drone they stole back. Trump's accusation that China had stolen the drone was "not accurate," said foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying. "Imagine that you found something on the street -- you would need to first check and verify it before handing it back to someone else," she told a regular press conference. Hua said the two sides "are in smooth communication through military channels, and we believe the incident will be properly handled." She gave no further details. The Chinese military is expected to return the probe to the U.S. Navy in the South China Sea on Tuesday, a U.S. defense official said. "A U.S. destroyer will be there," the official told AFP on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Pentagon said last week a Chinese naval vessel had "unlawfully" grabbed the unmanned underwater vehicle around 50 nautical miles northwest of Subic Bay in the Philippines. China said the drone had been snatched since it might pose a safety hazard to other vessels. It also said it "strongly opposed" U.S. reconnaissance activities and had asked Washington to stop them. The U.S. said the device was collecting information on water temperatures, salinity and sea clarity. In an earlier misspelled tweet Saturday, Trump also accused Beijing of theft. "China steals United States Navy research drone in international waters?rips it out of water and takes it to China in unpresidented act," he wrote. The state-owned China Daily rejected the claim in an editorial. "What is truly amazing about this tweet, was the soon-to-be U.S. president completely misrepresented what had actually happened -- that is more dangerous than funny," it said. Trump's behavior "could easily drive China-U.S. relations into what Obama portrays as'full-conflict mode,'" it added, next to a cartoon that depicted Trump riding a bull into a china shop while U.S. businessmen looked on aghast. A separate article quoted experts as calling Trump's behavior "diplomatically inept.

President-elect Donald Trump says the Chinese government should be told "we don't want the drone they stole back" and "let them keep it!" Trump's tweet Saturday evening came after U.S. officials confirmed that they "secured an understanding" for the return of the U.S. Navy unmanned underwater glider, which China seized in the South China Sea. The comments may extend one of the most serious incidents between the American and the Chinese militaries in years. The Chinese navy seized the drone on Thursday; the Pentagon said it was being operated by civilian contractors to conduct oceanic research. The U.S. lodged a formal diplomatic complaint and demanded the drone back.

China agreed Saturday to return an American sea drone it had captured after the Pentagon demanded it back, defusing tensions at the end of a week of confrontations over Beijing's territorial ambitions in the South China Sea. China's Defense Ministry said it would return "in an appropriate manner" the U.S. sea vessel seized this week by the Chinese navy. But the ministry also accused the U.S. of "public hyping" that was "not conducive to solving the problem smoothly." Chinese officials did not specify what happened or when Beijing would hand back the device. The ministry, in a statement, said that the device was unidentified when found and that officials later concluded it was an American drone.