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.

The news: The word "digital" came up 44 times on Starbucks' investor call Thursday, following its earnings report that beat analyst estimates with $6.75 billion in third quarter revenue. Starbucks CEO Kevin Johnson highlighted the company's "Deep Brew" initiative that leverages artificial intelligence to automate inventory orders; predict staffing needs; anticipate equipment maintenance; personalize customer offers (its Starbucks Rewards loyalty membership program grew 15 percent to 17.6 million members); and more. "Deep Brew is a key differentiator for the future," Johnson said on the call. Johnson, a former Microsoft and Juniper Networks leader who took over as CEO in 2017, wrote about Deep Brew in a LinkedIn post last week. The company is working with Microsoft to power the underlying infrastructure for Deep Brew.

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La Forge is an Accelerator dedicated to Artificial Intelligence.

Cognex CGNX recently announced the acquisition of Seoul-based SUALAB, a developer of deep learning-based vision software. Although the financial terms of the acquisition have been kept under wraps, per a Pulse article the transaction price is estimated to be $168.6 million. Deep learning allows Cognex to solve the most complex vision application operations in factories faster, easier and in a cost-effective manner. The addition of SUALAB's Intellectual property and highly skillful engineering team, which specializes in deep learning, is expected to strengthen the company's product portfolio. The latest acquisition will help Cognex to reap benefits from strong prospects of the global deep learning system software market.