Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk revealed plans for his latest venture, Neuralink, which aims to connect human brains to a computer. Musk revealed the project in a recent interview with Wait But Why. Neuralink is working on linking the human brain with a machine interface by developing "micron-sized devices." Musk said the company has a product target date of four years for those with injuries. "We are aiming to bring something to market that helps with certain severe brain injuries (stroke, cancer lesion, congenital) in about four years," Musk said.

Amazon is the exception to nearly every rule in business. Rising from humble beginnings as a Seattle-based internet bookstore, Amazon has grown into a propulsive force in at least five different giant industries: retail, logistics, consumer technology, cloud computing, and most recently, media and entertainment. The company has had its share of missteps -- the expensive Fire phone flop comes to mind -- but is also rightly known for strokes of strategic genius that have put it ahead of competitors in promising new industries. This was the case with the launch of cloud business AWS in the mid-2000s, and more recently the surprising consumer hit in the Echo device and its Alexa AI assistant. Today's Amazon is far more than just an "everything store," it's a leader in consumer-facing AI and enterprise cloud services. And its insatiable appetite for new markets mean competitors must always be on guard against its next moves.

Chinese PC maker Lenovo plans to pour over US$ 1.2 billion into artificial intelligence, Internet of Things and big data in the next four years, as part of its efforts to diversify their operations amid the stalled growth of its PC and smartphone business, local media is reporting (in Chinese). Lenovo CEO Yang Yuanqing said the annual investment in the above three areas will represent over one-fifth of the company's total annual R&D expenditure by March 2021. Lenovo remained the top PC vendor in the first quarter of 2017, garnering a 19.9% share in the global market by shipping 12.377 million units, IT research firm Gartner noted. Yet its rival HP has narrowed Lenovo's lead with shipments of 12.118 million. Among the company's three main lines of business, namely data centers, mobile devices, and PCs and smart devices (PCSD), revenue from PCSD business accounted for around 70% of its total revenue for the three months ended Dec. 31, 2016, according to the firm's Q3 FY 2016/17 results released this February.

Baidu says it will share software technology it is developing for self-driving cars in a bid to catch up with competitors including General Motors and Waymo, the self-driving unit of Google-parent Alphabet Inc. Fox News is preparing to cut ties with its biggest star, Bill O'Reilly, according to people close to the situation. The New York attorney general's office said it reached a $40 million settlement with an Alabama investment firm over the failure of members of an investment management company it sponsored to pay millions in New York state taxes. A consortium of investors including private-equity firm KKR and Australian bank Macquarie Group made an all-cash offer to buy Australian wagering firm Tatts Group, which already agreed to merge with rival Tabcorp Holdings. PetSmart agreed to buy pet products site Chewy.com. Private-equity firms KKR & Co. and Stone Point Capital, in a bet that more investors will want advice from independent financial advisers and less from Wall Street's traditional brokers, will pay $2 billion for a majority stake in Focus Financial Partners.

About Paysa Paysa offers personalized career and hiring recommendations plus real-world salary insights for maximizing opportunity, earning potential and value at all stages of an individual's career. Using proprietary artificial intelligence technology and machine learning algorithms, Paysa analyzes millions of data points including jobs, resumes and compensation information, providing professionals with actionable tools, insights, and research. They can then see and understand their individual worth in the market today, and how to increase their value. Paysa also empowers enterprises with the knowledge they need to be competitive in today's fierce tech hiring market. Employers can learn which skills, real-world company experience and educational background offers the greatest predictor of a candidate's or employee's future success at their organization.

Chinese internet firm Baidu Inc has agreed to acquire US computer vision firm xPerception for an undisclosed amount to support their renewed efforts in artificial intelligence as Chinese tech firms face regulatory headwinds in the United States. "The acquisition of xPerception is the latest in a recent series of notable investments aimed at strengthening Baidu's position as a global leader in AI," it said. Baidu is targeting foreign personnel and technology as part of a wider drive to refocus company resources on developing artificial intelligence capabilities. Revenues from the firm's core search unit took a beating last year when the Chinese government tightened online ad regulations, culling a chunk of existing advertisers with new eligibility requirements. The announcement comes as other Chinese tech firms struggle with regulatory push-back on acquisitions in the US market.

FILE PHOTO - Baidu's company logo is seen at its headquarters in Beijing December 17, 2014. BEIJING Chinese internet firm Baidu Inc has agreed to acquire U.S. computer vision firm xPerception for an undisclosed amount to support their renewed efforts in artificial intelligence as Chinese tech firms face regulatory headwinds in U.S. "The acquisition of xPerception is the latest in a recent series of notable investments aimed at strengthening Baidu's position as a global leader in AI," it said. Baidu is targeting foreign personnel and technology as part of a wider drive to refocus company resources on developing artificial intelligence capabilities. Revenues from the firm's core search unit took a beating last year when the Chinese government tightened online ad regulations, culling a chunk of existing advertisers with new eligibility requirements. The announcement comes as other Chinese tech firms struggle with regulatory push-back on acquisitions in the U.S. market.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese internet firm Baidu Inc has agreed to acquire U.S. computer vision firm xPerception for an undisclosed amount to support their renewed efforts in artificial intelligence as Chinese tech firms face regulatory headwinds in U.S.

Though it's just reaching the radar of mainstream investors, eSports have quietly risen to become a global phenomenon over the past several years. In fact, eSports revenues are expected to rise from $463 million last year to nearly $1.1 billion by 2019, according to market research firm Newzoo. However, it's important to remember that most companies involved in the budding eSports ecosystem are largely tech and media companies, which traditionally do not pay dividends. As such, I included both pure-play eSports names, as well as their suppliers, in the stock screen to research this piece. Now that this quick bit of housekeeping is out of the way, let's examine why game designer Activision Blizzard (NASDAQ:ATVI) and chipmaker NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) are two of the best income investments across the eSports landscape.

Former 500 Startups accelerator company Pluto AI is announcing $2.1 million in fundraising today from Fall Line Capital, Refactor Capital, Unshackled Ventures, Comet Labs and additional angels. Pluto is taking advantage of the sensorification of modern water treatment plants to extrapolate insights that can save operators precious time, money and water. The Pluto analytics platform presents managers with a dashboard that quantifies the status of all assets at a given water treatment plant. These ratings, ranging from 0 to 100, take into account temperature and pressure readings in addition to other data from pumps and chlorinators to identify cause and effect relationships. Machine learning is the backbone behind Pluto's ability to ingest large quantities of unstructured data, but the end user isn't forced to get into the weeds of individual models to gain a better understanding of how plant assets are working in consonance. Utilizing historical data, Pluto can directly recommend steps to improve the functioning of plant infrastructure.