China will speed up the development of its artificial intelligence (AI) sector and create a market worth more than 100 billion yuan ( 15.26 billion) over the next three years, the National Development and Reform Commission said in a statement released on its website Monday. By 2018, China shall build platforms for fundamental AI resources and innovation and make breakthroughs on basic core technology, said the three-year implementation program for "Internet Plus" artificial intelligence. The plan is formulated jointly by the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Science and Technology, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Cyberspace Administration of China. According to the website, the country shall be in line with global AI technology and industries by 2018. At key regions, the country will cultivate some global leading AI enterprises and set up an innovative, open, cooperative, green and safe AI industrial ecology.

The race is on for artificial intelligence in cybersecurity, empowering computer solutions with the ability to understand threats and respond immediately to them without (or with reduced) human intervention. Will it will survive the hype? A lot depends on how well the cybersecurity industry draws on the lessons we learned in trying to implement artificial intelligence in legal applications. IBM recently announced its foray into the cybersecurity–artificial intelligence arena using its flagship technology Watson. Watson has famously demonstrated its remarkable versatility already; so far it is has won the game show Jeopardy against two former champions and released its own cookbook (admittedly with mixed success from those who have tried the recipes). While it is a remarkable piece of technology, that doesn't necessarily equate to success in cybersecurity.

While much of Silicon Valley has been duking it out with each other in the artificial intelligence wars, Apple has been strangely silent. But it might not be for much longer. The Information has just reported that Apple is working on two bold new moves to broaden its AI strategy. First, the Cupertino firm will supposedly open up Siri to third-party developers, so that the voice assistant can be used with anyone's apps, not just Apple's own. More interestingly, however, Apple is also apparently working on a smart Bluetooth speaker not unlike Amazon's Echo or Google Home.

A KFC restaurant in China is now using two robots to help take customers' orders. KFC said it enlisted the robots in its concept store in Shanghai to bring a fun and high-tech element to the dining experience. The store is still largely run and staffed by humans who prepare food and take orders. But customers also have the option of carrying on a conversation with one of the robots to place and pay for their order. The robots, developed by the Chinese tech company Baidu, specialize in understanding human speech.

SAN FRANCISCO - Apple is planning to make Siri smarter by linking it to the vast menu of iOS apps and eventually will deploy the digital assistant on a standalone device similar to Amazon's best-selling Echo. The news, reported Tuesday by tech media site The Information, answers an oft-asked question about why the iPhone-maker seems to be sitting on the sidelines as a growing number of companies from Google to Siri-offshoot Viv make big announcements about the coming age of voice-activated machine learning. Citing unnamed sources, the article said Apple was preparing to release a software developer kit, or SDK, that would allow app-makers to allow their products to integrate with Siri. Apple's annual Worldwide Develop Conference is scheduled for June 13 in San Francisco. Apple, which hasn't had a brand new product since the release of Apple Watch a year ago March, is said to be working on an a device with a speaker and microphone that would compete with Amazon Echo as well as Google's recently announced Google Home.

Two major car companies announced on Tuesday investments in ride-hailing apps, signaling both a growing role for on-demand cars and a new groundwork for app-enabled self-driving fleets. Toyota will be investing and partnering with Uber, and Volkswagen is putting 300m into Tel Aviv-based ride-sharing app called Gett. In January, General Motors, a longtime Toyota rival, announced that it was putting 500m into Lyft, Uber's most direct competitor. "Ride-sharing has huge potential in terms of shaping the future of mobility," said Shigeki Tomoyama, senior managing officer of Toyota Motor Corporation and president of the Connected Company, a new group within Toyota. "Through this collaboration with Uber, we would like to explore new ways of delivering secure, convenient and attractive mobility services to customers."

Apple is developing a'Siri speaker' for the home and is set to allow app makers to access its smart assistant, it has been revealed. The move would put Apple in a three way battle with Amazon and Google. The speaker would double as a music player, and could be revealed next month at the firm's annual developer conference, it is believed. Now the firm is set to unveil a new speaker powered by its Siri assistant. 'Apple is upping its game in the field of intelligent assistants,' wrote Amir Efrati of The Information, who revealed the speaker.

Zebra capitalizes on Israel's strong computer vision industry and automates medical diagnoses computed by looking at x-rays, MRIs, and other scans The new investment was led by Intermountain Healthcare with participation from existing funders Khosla Ventures and Marc Benioff. The round brings their total funding to 20 million following an 8 million round in April 2015. Zebra capitalizes on Israel's strong computer vision industry and automates medical diagnoses computed by looking at x-rays, MRIs, and other scans. The company already claims hundreds of thousands of cases have been scanned with algorithms specifically focused on liver health, lung health, cardiovascular analysis, and bone density. They currently claim over 1,100 customers.

This interview took place at the Boao Forum For Asia Annual Conference on March 28 in Qionghai, Chine. An open letter by artificial intelligence scientists to ensure that artificial intelligence has good consequences is available at www.futureoflife.org/misc/open_letter.

Whatever its name, it's the same thing – machines recognizing clinical problems in digital images ahead of the radiologists charged with making the diagnosis. The artificial intelligence (AI) trend is new, but it's gaining ground quickly, according to industry experts. The advent of these technologies and radiology's growing interest in and dependence on them has been discussed at national and international meetings, including the RSNA, HIMSS, and SIIM annual meetings, during the past year. But, there's still a long way to go. "We're just barely scratching the surface of using artificial intelligence in the last few years," said Eliot Siegel, MD, professor and vice chair of research information systems for the University of Maryland Department of Diagnostic Radiology and Nuclear Medicine. "There's an emergence of increasing interest in the largest companies in the world, including Google, Microsoft, Apple, and IBM, in actually starting to use these technologies for data extraction and evaluation."