Bots and artificial intelligence company Kasisto today announced that it has raised $9.2 million. The money will be used to bolster the company's personal finance bot KAI and expand its AI virtual assistant offerings to markets beyond finance. When asked by VentureBeat, the company declined to state which industries it plans to enter but said that specifics would be shared at a later date. Kasisto is a spinoff of SRI International, creator of Apple virtual assistant Siri. Kasisto launched AI-powered KAI for personal finance and banking last June.

Google parent company Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL) is set to report results for its fourth quarter of 2016 on Thursday, Jan. 26. Before the numbers for the quarter are released, here's a broad overview of some areas to watch. The pressure is certainly on for Alphabet's fourth quarter, especially after the company's expectation-beating quarter before it. For Alphabet's third quarter, both the company's revenue and earnings per share (EPS) exceeded expectations. Revenue and non-GAAP (non-generally accepted accounting principles) EPS was $22.5 billion and $9.06, respectively, up significantly from $18.7 billion and $7.35, respectively, in the year-ago quarter.

Seattle-based startup Mighty AI, recently rebranded from Spare5, has raised $14 million in a Series A1 round led by Intel Capital, with participation from new investors Google Ventures (GV) and Accenture Ventures. Existing investors Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, and New Enterprise Associates also contributed to the round. Founded in 2014, Mighty AI pays subject matter experts to fine-tune artificial intelligence (AI) engines so they can see, hear, talk, and "think" like humans. Businesses that are looking to use AI technology, but don't have the datasets required to set up effective AI software, are able to acquire the right datasets to train and scale their computer vision and natural language models. "In the future, we will count on AI to make every aspect of our lives better," said Mighty AI founder and CEO Matt Bencke.

Elon Musk has dipped into the age-old adage, 'if you can't beat'em, join'em', advising that this is just what humans should do in order to prevent an eventual robot uprising. In a recent interview with Y Combinator, Musk explained that the'best outcome' between humankind and machines would be a collective lifestyle where'we are the AI.' Such a scenario would stamp out the possibility of an'evil dictator AI,' Musk said, allowing anyone who wants to take part to become an'AI-human symbiote.' In a recent interview with Y Combinator, Musk explained that the'best outcome' between humankind and machines would be a collective lifestyle where'we are the AI.' Last summer, when asked at the Code Conference in southern California if the answer to the question of whether we are in a simulated computer game was'yes', Elon Musk said the answer is'probably'.

Spare5, a gig economy startup that uses the general public to help train companies' artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms, has today relaunched as Mighty AI and announced a $14 million funding round led by Intel Capital, with participation from other new investors GV (Google Ventures) and Accenture Ventures. Existing investors Foundry Group, Madrona Venture Group, and New Enterprise Associates (NEA) also participated in the round. Founded out of Seattle in 2014, Spare5 has hitherto partnered with big-name companies such as Microsoft, Pinterest, and IBM, among others, who provide the Spare5 community with "tasks" -- these generally focus on identifying the meaning of media assets such as photos, videos, and audio. For example, someone may be presented with a picture of a landscape, and they would have to tell the system what the mountain is, and whether the large body of water it identified is a lake. Moving forward, the company will be known as Mighty AI, and in addition to the funding round, it has signed deals with Intel and Accenture.

It was a disappointing holiday season for French drone maker Parrot. The company announced Monday that it will lay off about 290 employees -- or more than a third of the employees currently working on drone-related projects -- after it missed fourth quarter sales targets by about 15 percent. Parrot's drone line has always straddled the line between executive toys and high-end gadgetry, and according to the company's announcement, the first order of business in 2017 will be to refocus its product offerings to concentrate on the most profitable areas. Parrot cites extremely low margins in the consumer drone space as the main reason for the layoffs, so we won't be surprised if we see fewer one-off jumping, flying and seafaring minidrones as the company continues to grow up with more prosumer-level devices like the Bebop 2 or the fixed-wing Disco in the future. As Recode notes, Parrot's main competitor DJI has been dominating the consumer drone space by slashing prices and cutting into profit margins, which it can pull off because it also owns the manufacturing facilities in Shenzhen.

HONG KONG: McDonald's Corp has agreed to sell the bulk of its China and Hong Kong business to state-backed conglomerate CITIC Ltd and Carlyle Group LP for up to $2.1 billion (Dh7.71 billion), seeking to expand rapidly without using much of its own capital. Zurich The Swiss National Bank expects a 2016 full-year profit of 24 billion francs (Dh86.68 billion; $23.6 billion), enabling it to shell out money to the federal government and municipalities. Foreign-currency holdings contributed more than 19 billion francs, and valuation gains on its gold holdings added 3.9 billion francs, the central bank said on Monday, citing an initial estimate. Last year's result is set to be the second-best in the Read More ... Tags: Corporate Enterprises Finance Sectors Banks Profits Financial institutions German automaker Volkswagen saw sales jump 16 percent in December for its namesake brand, propelled by a big increase in China, Volkswagen's biggest market. Global sales reported Monday rose to 567,900 from 487,700 despite the damage to the company's reputation from its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.

Networked Insights, a Chicago-based company whose tools crawl the social web and analyze data for marketers, has raised $30 million in Series E funding, the company announced Friday. The company sifts through 560 million social media posts from 30 million sources daily, it said on its website. It sorts and analyzes that information for marketers and agencies, and pitches itself as a way for them to create better-targeted and more effective campaigns. Its clients include NBC Universal, media-buying agency GroupM, and American Family Insurance, whose venture arm is an investor. The funding will help Networked Insights invest in deep learning and artificial intelligence capabilities on its platform, Kairos, the company said. It said it would also use the infusion to enter partnerships and pursue acquisitions.

Audio Analytic has raised $5.5m to develop its AI-based sound recognition system for the connected home. The Series-A funding round has been led by Cambridge Innovation Capital led the round, with IQ Capital, Rockspring, Cambridge Angels and Martlet participating. It is hoped it will help company to scale and meet growing Smart Home OEM demand for its Artificial Audio Intelligence software, ai3. Founded in 2008, Audio Analytic has pioneered the development and commercialisation of intelligent sound recognition using advanced machine learning. Its innovative ai3 software enables devices to recognise significant sounds and take automated action.

Bob, CFO of ABC Inc is about to get on an earnings call after just reporting a 20% miss on earnings due to slower revenue growth than forecasted. Company ABC's stock price is plummeting, down 25% in extended hour trading. The board is furious and investors demand answers on the discrepancies. Inaccurate revenue forecast remains one of the biggest risks for CFOs. In a recent study, more than 50% of companies feel their pipeline forecast is only about 50% accurate.