Recent surveys, studies, forecasts and other quantitative assessments of AI highlight the number of manufacturing jobs eliminated by robots; why robots could replace financial analysts; the very small number of organizations not evaluating or using AI today; and the debate over the usefulness of Covid-19 contact-tracing. And as data quality and diversity increase from the wearables and other internet-of-things devices, a virtuous cycle of improvements will kick in. In this world a novel coronavirus could be tracked, traced, intercepted, and cut off before it got going"--Kai-Fu Lee

Apple has acquired machine learning startup Inductiv Inc., in a bid to improve Siri's capabilities, according to Bloomberg. Apple confirmed the deal to Bloomberg with its usual response to inquiries about acquisitions, saying that it "buys smaller technology companies from time to time and we generally do not discuss our purpose or plans." The company has not yet responded to Business Insider's request for comment. A few Inductiv Inc. employees recently updated their LinkedIn profiles to indicate that they've begun working at Apple in April or May. Inductiv Inc.'s technology automates the process of correcting flaws in data through the use of artificial intelligence.

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to buy driverless vehicle startup Zoox Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, a deal that would accelerate the e-commerce giant's automation efforts. "Zoox has been receiving interest in a strategic transaction from multiple parties and has been working with Qatalyst Partners to evaluate such interest," the startup said. It declined to comment on Amazon's interest. A spokeswoman for Amazon declined to comment. Zoox had outsized ambition and financial backing.

Artificial intelligence is bound to change the future of the world. By fiscal year 2025, the artificial intelligence market size is expected to be $390.9 However, this number does not tell the whole story. By FY2030, the projected growth of global GDP as a result of artificial intelligence is expected to be $15.7 trillion. This projection bodes well for AI stocks.

"What this means for CIOs is likely higher prices and less choice," said Crawford Del Prete, president of technology research firm International Data Corp. Mr. Del Prete said many large IT providers over the next few years will be looking to fill gaps or expand into new markets, in part by targeting embattled startups struggling to reignite sales and raise capital. The gaps include areas such as cloud computing, collaboration, access management and other business continuity tools that saw a surge in demand during regional lockdowns. Microsoft Corp. said Tuesday that it was acquiring Softomotive, a robotic-process-automation maker that enables businesses to automate workplace tasks, a capability many businesses have turned to in order to keep daily operations running with a thinner workforce. Financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

The Station is a weekly newsletter dedicated to all things transportation. Sign up here -- just click The Station -- to receive it every Saturday in your inbox. If you're interested in all the future and present ways people and packages move from Point A to Point B, you're in the right place. It felt like Tesla dominated the news cycle once again this week. There was other mobility news though, including layoffs at self-driving company Cruise and new rules that Uber is rolling out Monday that will change the ride-hailing experience for the foreseeable future.

Just over 306 million Americans are affected by stay-at-home orders, nearly 95% of the U.S. population. COVID-19 will forever change retailing, and its initial impact on e-Commerce is creating challenges to online selling & service no one imagined in January. Mobile devices are the most popular device for online shopping by a wide margin. E-Commerce and online retailers' supply chains, order management, and fulfillment systems are all being tested by the triple-digit order and revenue growth going on today. And best of all, more energy and intensity is being put into improving customer experiences online.

IFTTT can tell you when to change your home's air filter: Last month on our IoT Podcast, we mentioned the new Ecobee service that sends you air filters for your HVAC system. Thanks to IFTTT, if you use 3M Filtrete Smart filters, you can set up an IFTTT recipe when it's time to replace that filter, even if you don't have a smart thermostat. You can't set up an automatic order based on the sensor in the filter, but with IFTTT, you could change the color of a light, add a task on your to-do list, or create some other action that tells you it's time to buy a clean filter replacement. The new IFTTT integration is one of several the company debuted this month. Covariant raises $40M to build better AI for robots: Covariant, a robotics startup that was initially born as an academic research project, raised $45 million in Series B funding this week.

Nvidia today unveiled its plans to acquire Cumulus Networks for an undisclosed sum in a bid to bolster the chipmaker's presence in the networking space. Combined with Mellanox, which Nvidia bought last year for more than $6.9 billion, the chipmaker says Cumulus' open networking platform will help to accelerate the development and adoption of the software-defined data center. "The Cumulus acquisition, along with Mellanox, strengthens our position to reshape the modern data center to handle the exponential growth in AI [artificial intelligence] and [high-performance computing]," an Nvidia spokesperson wrote in an email to SDxCentral. "Cumulus' networking software expertise augments Nvidia's strategy of innovating across the entire stack, from silicon to systems to software, to deliver unique value to customers." Nvidia claims that with Cumulus it will be able to innovate across the entire networking stack from chips and systems to software.

One of the biggest tech opportunities over the next decade is artificial intelligence (AI). According to Grand View Research, the general AI market, across a variety of products and services, is set to expand at a huge 46.2% average annual growth rate between 2019 and 2025. AI is set to power the next generation of tech innovation, from virtual assistants, to big-data analytics and inference, to self-driving cars, to image and voice recognition, and new 5G applications. With COVID-19 sweeping across the country and leading to shelter-in-place orders, many of these tech trends could be accelerated, as business look to quickly digitize to serve customers and cut costs. With many AI-oriented big tech companies reporting resilient financial results in their first quarter earnings reports, several look like strong buys in May as we come out of the March crash.