That's certainly one way to make a logo. Amazon has agreed to acquire autonomy startup Zoox for a sum in excess of $1 billion, according to sources cited by The Information. The news comes hot on the heels of a Wall Street Journal report last month indicating that such talks were taking place. The deal, confirmed in an Amazon blog post, would value Zoox at significantly lower than the $3.2 billion valuation it received during a funding round in 2018. But given the current state of the economy, a seven-digit payout is nothing to sniff at.

Health care startup Paige has raised an additional $15 million from Goldman Sachs to help diagnose cancer using computer vision trained on clinical imaging data. The funding shows that while COVID-19 investments are getting a lot of attention, AI-related efforts to fight cancer are also moving forward. The idea is to use data sets related to treatment and genomics to train deep learning networks to detect breast, prostate, and other major cancers. Paige builds computational pathology products to help pathologists deliver more accurate diagnoses to cancer patients and allow patients and their care teams to make faster, more informed treatment decisions. New York-based Paige has raised over $95 million to date.

This article is contributed by Internet Creations, a professional services organization based in New Jersey, and a Salesforce partner with 11 support agent and sales apps on the AppExchange. During my career, I've learned the value of creating experiences that help keep stress levels down -- to anticipate what people may need before they have a problem. When the founder of Internet Creations asked me to take on the role of CEO shortly after COVID-19 hit, I knew this leadership approach would be more important than ever during the crisis. What fears might employees and customers have? How can we proactively solve them?

The Machine Learning report provides independent information about the Machine Learning industry supported by extensive research on factors such as industry segments size & trends, inhibitors, dynamics, drivers, opportunities & challenges, environment & policy, cost overview, porter's five force analysis, and key companies profiles including business overview and recent development. The research report on Machine Learning market thoroughly investigates historical data of this business sphere to lay out the future roadmap of the industry. The study attempts to predict a long-term picture of the market scenario with respect to the various growth indicators, hindrances, and opportunities that determine the industry expansion. Moreover, the report provides an exhaustive synopsis of the industry at a global and regional level. In addition, it covers the impact of COVID-19 pandemic on the leading industry players and various market segmentations.

Robotic process automation startup UiPath today announced it has closed a $225 million funding round, bringing its total raised to over $1.2 billion. While the new round is roughly half the $568 million UiPath raised last April, it catapults the New York-based company's post-money valuation to $10.2 billion, up from $7 billion in 2019 and $3 billion in 2018. CEO Daniel Dines says the funding will be used to scale UiPath's platform and deepen its investments in "AI-powered innovation" as it expands its cloud software-as-a-service (SaaS) offerings. The round will also likely lay the groundwork for future strategic deals, following UiPath's acquisition of startups StepShot and ProcessGold last October. RPA -- technology that automates monotonous, repetitive chores traditionally performed by human workers -- is big business.

Prophecy Market Insights has recently published a Artificial Intelligence in Education System report which represents the latest industry data and future …

Microsoft has acquired Snoqualmie, Wash.-based Orions Systems for an undisclosed amount. Orions Systems makes AI-powered vision systems, and its founder, Nils Lahr, has worked on imaging, content distribution network (CDN), and streaming media services. "Orions Systems has developed a strong reputation and leading technology for organizations seeking to gather and analyze high-value data specifically in the areas of video and image content. The acquisition will bring additional technologies that will allow solutions like Dynamics 365 Connected Store and the Microsoft Power Platform to offer retailers and other organizations a way to build and train their own AI models to customize and optimize how they can learn from their physical space. This extra set of tools will deliver on scenarios beyond what is offered out-of-the-box today and can adapt to the truly unique dimensions and needs of their physical spaces," said Microsoft Dynamics 365 Corporate Vice President Muhammad Alam in a July 7 blog post announcing the deal.

OTTAWA, ON, June 15, 2020 /CNW/ - Kinaxis Inc. (TSX: KXS), the authority in driving agility for fast, confident decision-making in an unpredictable world, has signed a definitive agreement to acquire Toronto-based Rubikloud, a disruptive, emerging provider of AI solutions that automate supply chain prescriptive analytics and decision-making in the retail and consumer packaged goods (CPG) industries. Globally-recognized retailers and CPG manufacturers in the health and beauty, household and grocery segments use Rubikloud's AI-based products today. Their offerings include demand forecasting and automation to manage and optimize trade promotions, pricing and assortment to drive product demand and dramatically improve financial results. Kinaxis will enhance RapidResponse's demand planning capabilities with the Rubikloud offerings, anticipating initial opportunities in the company's rapidly-growing CPG customer base and over time for other industries such as life sciences. The acquisition also offers Kinaxis a springboard into the enterprise retail industry.

Last October, Jay Richards, author of The Human Advantage, caught up with Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks, a Baylor University computer engineering prof, at COSM 2019 to ask, what are our cheat-death chances? They were responding to futurist Ray Kurzweil's heady claims made at the conference that we will merge with computers by 2045 and live on as AI. Richards and Marks reflected on Kurzweil's claims and the thoughts of the panel responding to them. Jay Richards: He's (Kurzweil, below right) very much a sort of, I'd say, a techno-optimist. And in fact, he sort of thinks we're going to get brain scans and upload ourselves, whereas the panel… Though I know there was a diversity of opinion among the panelists, nevertheless, there was, I thought, a strong dose of realism.

Amazon announced Friday that it will acquire Zoox, a self-driving startup founded in 2014 that has raised nearly $1 billion in funding and which aims to develop autonomous driving technology, including vehicles, for the purposes of providing a full-stack solution for ride-hailing. Zoox will continue to exist as a standalone business, according to Amazon's announcement, with current CEO Aicha Evans continuing in her role, as well as CTO and co-founder Jesse Levinson. Their overall company mission will also remain the same, the release notes. The Financial Time reports that the deal is worth $1.2 billion. The Wall Street Journal had reported at the end of May that Amazon was looking at Zoox as a potential acquisition target, and that the deal had reached the advanced stages.