Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) has recently reported Q4 results, beating earnings estimates but with a slight miss on revenue. Shares fell 5% after the news mainly due to the relatively weak guidance. The good news is that the effects of new regulation on online advertising is mostly gone and the core search business will soon be growing again, helped by the integration of AI. Baidu's core search results were actually better than I thought. I expected the biggest impact of the new regulation to have its greatest impact on Q4 results, and I was expecting a bigger contraction.

Sarasota, Florida-based Revcontent, the fastest growing native ad network, has announced that it has acquired a machine learning company called Rover. Rover is known for developing advanced personalization and recommendation technology that will complement Revcontent's massive ad network. After the acquisition closes, Rover's offices in Sunnyvale, California will be turned into Revcontent's Silicon Valley headquarters. The terms of the acquisition were undisclosed, but the deal was reportedly valued at more than $30 million. Rover was founded by Jonathan Siddharth and Vijay Krishnan while the two of them were attending graduate school at Stanford University.

Chinese internet giant Baidu has released its fiscal 2016 results, reporting operating profit of 10.04 billion yuan, a 13.9 percent decrease from the year prior, on revenue of 70.5 billion yuan, up 6.3 percent from fiscal 2015. Mobile revenue represented 63 percent of total revenue in 2016, up from 2015's 53 percent, while online marketing revenues for the year reached 64.5 billion yuan, a 0.8 percent increase from 2015. Earnings before interest, taxation, depreciation, and amortisation (EBITDA) in fiscal 2016 was 15.8 billion yuan, down 5.2 percent from 2015, while operating cashflow stood at 22.2 billion yuan. In its full year and fourth quarter results, Baidu chair and CEO Robin Li said that the company is well-positioned to lead China's growth in artificial intelligence (AI), based on its technology, data, and talent pool. "Our existing platform, including our search and newsfeed products, are enhanced by AI and enriched by our content and services ecosystem," Li said.

Voice-powered artificial intelligence is not something that's easy to set up for just any business, even if it might have real benefits in terms of driving sales or improving customer experience. Voysis is a startup that wants to change that, with an AI platform that can parse natural language input, and that works effectively in specific domains including e-commerce, entertainment and more. Voysis doesn't want to be Siri or Alexa – it wants to the perfect shop assistant, or the extremely insightful video store clerk. "Voysis is a complete voice AI platform," explained Voysis founder and CEO Peter Cahill in an interview. "What I mean by that is that the platform enables companies and businesses to rapidly stand up their own artificial intelligences that can be queried by voice or text."

If you're a fan of Shark Tank, then you may remember Jamie Siminoff. In September 2013, he pitched his company, then called DoorBot, in hopes of raising $700,000 for his revolutionary video doorbell. However, the sharks were not biting and Siminoff walked away without an investment. Kevin O'Leary even delivered his signature "you're dead to me" line. Today, Siminoff's company - now known as Ring - has raised $209 million from some of the world's top investors, including Kleiner Perkins, First Round, Richard Branson, Goldman Sachs, DFJ Growth, Qualcomm Ventures, American Family Insurance, Amazon Alexa Fund and Shea Ventures, among others.

According to Startup Nation Central, a database for Israeli tech companies, the Tel Aviv-based firm had raised $1 million prior to the acquisition and employs up to 10 people. An email sent to the company requesting comment was not immediately replied. The company has sales in China, Israel, Europe, and the US, according to the data firm. RealFace's first product, the Pickeez app, created a new way to enjoy photos, with its recognition software automatically choosing the user's best photos from every platform they're on. Besides RealFace, Apple has acquired three other Israeli companies to date.

Utrip, a Seattle startup that uses machine learning to help travelers plan their trips, just closed a $4 million funding round. Investors in the Series A round include Plug and Play, Tiempo Capital, Acorn Ventures, and executives from companies such as Apple and Costco, participating as angel investors. The cash will go toward Utrip's machine learning and data science operations, which fuel the platform's recommendation engine. "One of the things that our travelers love about Utrip is the depth with which we curate destinations and go beyond those top 10 lists that are available everywhere to offer experiences that are really unique and local and authentic for that destination," said Utrip CEO Gilad Berenstein. "That's one big priority, continuing to build out our machine learning capabilities as well as our human expert network, our chefs, artists, historians, etcetera."

In a bid to boost its prospects in the world of artificial intelligence (AI), Apple has acquired Israel-based startup RealFace that develops deep learning-based face authentication technology, media reported on Monday. Reported by Calcalist, the acquisition is to be worth roughly $2 million (roughly Rs. 13.39 crores). A Times of Israel report cites Startup Nation Central to note RealFace had raised $1 million in funding thus far, employed about 10 people, and had sales operations China, Europe, Israel, and the US. Set up in 2014 by Adi Eckhouse Barzilai and Aviv Mader, RealFace has developed a facial recognition software that offers users a smart biometric login, aiming to make passwords redundant when accessing mobile devices or PCs. The firm's first app - Pickeez - selects the best photos from the user's album.

In 2011, IBM Watson debuted on the TV show Jeopardy and impressed millions in a spectacle where the artificial intelligence defeated 2 of jeopardy's all time great champions. While Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft have been developing their AI to handle daily tasks such as shopping, calling an Uber, or playing music, IBM (NYSE: IBM) has been pushing Watson into tackling real world problems such as cancer diagnosis/treatment, traffic accident prevention, and tax reporting. IBM Watson, like the rest of its AI colleagues, is a product of machine learning, natural language processing, and statistical analysis. The difference lies in the types of data IBM is feeding Watson. Watson is being taught intellectual knowledge in the form of research papers, large industrial data reports, and other scholarly publishings.

UK-based security technology company Sophos (OTC:SPHHF) (LSE: SOPH) has announced an agreement to acquire Invincea's software business for up to $120 million in total consideration. Invincea has developed security software that utilizes machine learning and behavioral modeling to quickly detect and react to endpoint, perimeter threats and malware attacks. The technology is a necessary upgrade to the Sophos Central product line and also provides middle market focused Sophos with a foothold in the small business market through the addition of Invincea's customer base. Fairfax, Virginia-based Invincea was founded in 2009 by CEO Anup Ghosh to focus on endpoint threat detection, prevention, and analysis. The company provides security software to more than 25,000 small and medium enterprise customers through its antivirus'X' system that'combines machine learning and behavioral monitoring to eliminate endpoint security blind spots without sacrificing usability.'