Google has announced that it has acquired leading wearable brand Fitbit for $2.1 billion. "Today, we're announcing that Google has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Fitbit, a leading wearables brand," said Rick Osterloh, Senior Vice President, Devices & Services, Google. "By working closely with Fitbit's team of experts, and bringing together the best AI, software and hardware, we can help spur innovation in wearables and build products to benefit even more people around the world," he added. Over the years, Google has made progress with partners in this space with Wear OS and Google Fit. Fitbit has been a true pioneer in the industry and has created engaging products, experiences and a vibrant community of users.

Ekincare, an artificial intelligence-based healthcare startup, has raised $3.6 million (Rs 25.81 crore at current exchange rates) in a Series A funding round led by a new investor. The latest funding takes the total capital that ekincare, operated by Aayuv Technologies Pvt. Ltd, has raised so far to $5.6 million, the company said in a statement on Wednesday. It didn't disclose the name of the new investor. Other investors that participated in the funding round include existing investors such as venture capital firm Venture East, Eight Roads Ventures and Hyderabad-based Touchstone Equities.

David Feinberg, Google's Vice President of Healthcare, recently described "a search bar on top of ... [ ] your [electronic health records] that needs no training," on stage at a conference in Las Vegas. Google is testing a service that would use its search and artificial intelligence technology to analyze patient records for Ascension, the largest nonprofit health system in the U.S., according to documents about the efforts reviewed by Forbes. Called "'Nightingale," the Google-Ascension project indicates that Google's push into health analysis is farther along than previously believed, even as the company has faced a growing backlash over health-related privacy concerns. Ascension said in a statement that all its work with Google complies with privacy law and is "underpinned by a robust data security and protection effort, which Google echoed in its own blog post later Monday, including that "patient data cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data. " The Wall Street Journal first published details of the Ascension partnership earlier on Monday.

It's no secret that I'm incredibly bullish about the current trajectory of the healthcare sector when it comes to all things AI and digital. The ROBO Global Healthcare Technology & Innovation Index (HTEC) was launched in April 2019 to give investors a way to target their exposure directly toward this inevitable growth, and since that time, the strength of the sector has proven to be nothing less than spectacular. Last week, CB Insights delivered its 3Q19 VC funding report, and my bullishness is now officially on fire. If that sounds overly dramatic, just look at the 3Q19 numbers, all according to CB Insights, which demonstrate the huge impact of AI and digital technologies on the healthcare sector. These numbers tell two stories.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google has signed its biggest cloud computing customer in healthcare to date, in a deal giving it access to datasets that could help it tune potentially lucrative artificial intelligence (AI) tools. Google and Ascension, which operates 150 hospitals and more than 50 senior living facilities across the United States, said the healthcare provider would move some data and analytics tools in its facilities to Google's servers. The deal was mentioned in Google's July earnings call, but drew scrutiny on Monday after the Wall Street Journal reported on.wsj.com/2q3WCer that Google would gain personal health-related information of millions of Americans across 21 states. The Journal reported that the data involved in the project includes lab results, doctor diagnoses and hospitalization records, among other categories, and amounts to a complete health history, along with patient names and dates of birth. Google said in a blog post on Monday that patient data "cannot and will not be combined with any Google consumer data."

By now you've seen the big news about the world's largest fast-food chain by revenue. It was a bit shocking that it took this long to happen, but McDonald's (MCD) is finally embracing advanced technologies like artificial intelligence to boost sales. The guy credited with the turnaround at the 65-year-old restaurant behemoth since 2015, Steve Easterbrook, was behind the technological push that saw McDonald's not only embrace digital innovation but acquire two AI companies this year. This is big news for a few reasons. Before this year, it had been nearly two decades since the company made its last acquisition of a mediocre fast-food chain called Boston Chicken.

BlackBerry (TSX:BB)(NYSE:BB) stock is rebounding as its re-brand as a leader in artificial intelligence and cybersecurity catches on in the technology community. BlackBerry's financial performance are all green-lighting long positions in the stock. The company has restored its levered free cash flow to $162.88 million. The positive free cash flow is a sign that the stock has successfully turned around. Levered free cash flow is a popular measure of actual shareholder returns considering financing. A positive levered free cash flow is excellent for shareholders, while a negative free cash flow means a good portion of the company's profits allocates to financing costs.

And to that end, the 34-year-old company already appears to have some wind in its sails. Revenues were down 17% year over year during the company's fiscal year fourth quarter, but it beat Wall Street's expectations and sent company stock up 7%. The company is hinging its future performance on 5G, and highlighted areas of momentum that it expects to fuel growth. CEO Steve Mollenkopf told analysts that the company is actively working with standards bodies to define forthcoming advancements in 5G and positioning itself to support the expansion of 5G into enterprise, industrial IoT, and automotive markets. "The complexity and expansion of cellular technologies beyond the smartphone into nearly every industry play directly to Qualcomm's strengths and are why we believe 5G will represent the single biggest opportunity in Qualcomm's history," he said during an earnings call, according to a Seeking Alpha transcript.

What if police officers had the power to instantly scan and process license plate information from every car on the road -- including yours? No need to wonder now that a new product from Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ:AAXN) makes it possible. Axon recently announced its Fleet 3 in-car video system, which includes a technology called automated license plate recognition. Police cars equipped with artificial intelligence cameras will automatically "look" at numerous license plates and find the ones needing attention. An officer won't be unnecessarily distracted by manually looking up the information.

What if police officers had the power to instantly scan and process license plate information from every car on the road -- including yours? No need to wonder now that a new product from Axon Enterprise (NASDAQ: AAXN) makes it possible. Axon recently announced its Fleet 3 in-car video system, which includes a technology called automated license plate recognition. Police cars equipped with artificial intelligence cameras will automatically "look" at numerous license plates and find the ones needing attention. An officer won't be unnecessarily distracted by manually looking up the information.