Altoida Inc., a digital health company using digital biomarkers to drive better clinical outcomes for brain diseases has raised $6.3M in Series A funding led by M Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the science and technology company Merck KGaA, Darmstadt, Germany. The round also includes participation from Grey Sky Venture Partners, VI Partners AG, Alpana Ventures, and FYRFLY Venture Partners. The number of people living with Alzheimer's disease is rapidly growing. In 2019 alone, Alzheimer's disease and other dementias will cost the nation $290 billion. By 2050, these costs could rise as high as $1.1 trillion.

Military pilots may soon have a new kind of wingman to depend upon: not flesh-and-blood pilots but fast-flying, sensor-studded aerial drones that fly into combat to scout enemy targets and draw enemy fire that otherwise would be directed at human-piloted aircraft. War planners see these robotic wingmen as a way to amplify air power while sparing pilots' lives and preventing the loss of sophisticated fighter jets, which can cost more than $100 million apiece. "These drone aircraft are a way to get at that in a more cost-effective manner, which I think is really a game-changer for the Air Force," says Paul Scharre, director of the technology and national security program at the Center for a New American Security, a think tank in Washington, D.C. Unlike slow-moving drones such as the Reaper and the Global Hawk, which are flown remotely by pilots on the ground, the new combat drones would be able to operate with minimal input from human pilots. To do that, they'd be equipped with artificial intelligence systems that give them the ability not only to fly but also to learn from and respond to the needs of the pilots they fly alongside. "The term we use in the Air Force is quarterbacking," says Will Roper, assistant secretary of the U.S. Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics and one of the experts working to develop the AI wingmen.

The sprawling warehouse, which looks big enough to double as an airport hangar, is unofficially known as the "robot highway." Inside Amazon's Denver, Colo., "sortation center," an army of orange robots –– each one about the size of a large suitcase with a small conveyor belt on top –– glides across the concrete floor, picking up and then delivering packages to one of hundreds of chutes that organize each item by Zip code before they're shipped to customers. Though largely unknown to the outside world, the robots, known as Pegasus, have already logged more than 1.5 million miles of driving, according to an Amazon blog post describing work inside the warehouse. Amazon unveiled Pegasus during the keynote session at its first-ever re:MARS conference in Las Vegas this week, devoted to, in Amazon's words, "Machine Learning, Automation, Robotics, and Space." It was there that Amazon revealed that the company already has 200,000 robots working at dozens of distribution facilities around the world.

These days, nearly all the artificial intelligence-based products in our lives rely on "deep neural networks" that automatically learn to process labeled data. For most organizations and individuals, though, deep learning is tough to break into. To learn well, neural networks normally have to be quite large and need massive datasets. This training process usually requires multiple days of training and expensive graphics processing units (GPUs) -- and sometimes even custom-designed hardware. But what if they don't actually have to be all that big, after all?

Automated facial recognition poses one of the greatest threats to individual freedom and should be banned from use in public spaces, according to the director of the campaign group Liberty. Martha Spurrier, a human rights lawyer, said the technology had such fundamental problems that, despite police enthusiasm for the equipment, its use on the streets should not be permitted. She said: "I don't think it should ever be used. It is one of, if not the, greatest threats to individual freedom, partly because of the intimacy of the information it takes and hands to the state without your consent, and without even your knowledge, and partly because you don't know what is done with that information." Police in England and Wales have used automated facial recognition (AFR) to scan crowds for suspected criminals in trials in city centres, at music festivals, sports events and elsewhere.

Google plans to launch a video game streaming platform called Stadia, positioning itself to take on traditional video game business. Video games are following data and video into the cloud. Google, which has already announced its Stadia game streaming service will be available in November, will be showing that off at his year's Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3), which begins Saturday in Los Angeles. Microsoft is expected Sunday to reveal more about its own xCloud game platform, also being developed to deliver games via the cloud. Sony is partnering with Microsoft to augment its own cloud gaming strategy.

If you make a purchase by clicking one of our links, we may earn a small share of the revenue. However, our picks and opinions are independent from USA Today's newsroom and any business incentives. I'm here to tell you all about a sale that might just make your weekend. It's the kind of deal that only comes along once in a blue moon, like finding a diamond in the rough. Right now, the first generation Sonos One speaker, which typically retails for $199, is available on Amazon for just $149.99.

Machine learning, Big Data, and automation are revolutionizing global industry – and the energy sector is no exception. Innovation is driving technological progress, boosting economic efficiency, creating smarter business operations, and leading to more resilient infrastructure. It's why businesses and governments around the world are making advanced technology – including artificial intelligence – a top economic and national security priority. Energy companies are implementation big data and AI in versatile ways – and the sector is growing. The market for AI software in the oil and gas industry is expected to reach a whopping $2.85 billion by 2022.

A tiny crack in a nuclear reactor, skyscraper, bridge or dam can cause catastrophic consequences. The Minneapolis bridge collapse, which killed 13 people in 2007, is just one example of what can happen when structural integrity is compromised. Unidentified or under-identified structural damage in nuclear reactors can be cataclysmic. Inspection of critical systems such as nuclear reactors is complicated and time-consuming. Videos captured by an automatic crack detection system can easily misidentify small scratches or welds as cracks, so technicians must review videos frame by frame.

Diego Caicedo is the Co-Founder and CEO of OmniBnk, a neobank that provides financial services to small businesses in Latin America. Artificial intelligence and machine learning are said to revolutionize the financial world, changing the banking experience for the better. The implications of the technology are vast, though most banks are still in the early stages of adopting AI technologies. A survey by Narrative Science and the National Business Research Institute found that 32% of financial services executives confirmed that they are already using AI technologies such as predictive analytics, recommendation engines, and voice recognition. One major hindrance to AI adoption is legacy systems.