The artificial intelligence industry just recorded its largest funding round in history. SenseTime, a Chinese startup that specializes in facial recognition, announced Monday that it has raised $600 million in Series C funding--making it the most highly valued artificial intelligence startup in the world. The company reportedly has a valuation higher than $4 billion, according to Bloomberg. Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba Group led the round. SenseTime provides facial-recognition technology used in various fields from security to fintech.

SenseTime Group Ltd. has raised $600 million from Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. and other investors at a valuation of more than $3 billion, becoming the world's most valuable artificial intelligence startup. The company, which specializes in systems that analyze faces and images on an enormous scale, said it closed a Series C round in recent months in which Singaporean state investment firm Temasek Holdings Pte and retailer Suning.com SenseTime didn't outline individual investments, but Alibaba was said to have sought the biggest stake in the three-year-old startup. With the deal, SenseTime has doubled its valuation in a few months. Backed by Qualcomm Inc., it underscores its status as one of a crop of homegrown firms spearheading Beijing's ambition to become the leader in AI by 2030.

Traditional and new-school retailers alike are using AI and robotics to automate various parts of the retail chain, from manufacturing to last-mile delivery. Retail is under pressure to crack the AI code. After all, corporations in every industry are scrambling to adapt and integrate artificial intelligence into their products -- and retail is no exception. Learn how Walmart, Amazon, Sephora, Zara, and other retailers are using AI to reinvent the brick-and-mortar store. For traditional retail giants, this means entering the playing field with the likes of e-commerce behemoths Amazon and Alibaba, both of which are leveraging big data and powerful AI algorithms to transform the retail space. In addition to fierce competition, the need for a change in strategy is being underscored by the record rates at which many US retailers are shutting down. In 2017 alone, 21 retail chains applied for bankruptcy, including high-profile names like RadioShack, Toys R' Us, and Aerosoles.

Corrindus has raised $118 million and installed 33 systems to date. Playground Global led the round, with participation from Sony Innovation Fund and existing investor Robotics Hub. Agility's two-legged Cassie robot is already deployed in 6 research institutes. Agility is planning on using Cassie for everything from deliveries to facility inspections to hazardous search-and-rescue operations.

The work environment is changing. Today, we're working in multiple locations, collaborating with other companies and partnering with our customers to define new products and services. Digital transformation also requires more than just technology transition. In many cases, competitive advantage will come down to creating the right skills, mindset and behavior within an organization. Human capital is the least-optimized, yet most valuable asset for a company's digital transformation efforts.

Sift Science, a San Francisco company that builds software to fight fraud online and recently opened a Seattle office, has raised a massive $53 million funding round. The round is led by New York equity firm Stripes Group and investors include heavily funded Seattle startup Remitly. The investment doubles Sift's lifetime funding to $107 million. Some big-name customers like Airbnb, Zillow, and OpenTable, use Sift Science to identify bad actors by flagging risky or abusive behaviors before they commit fraud. The software helps e-commerce companies and other online brands reduce chargebacks, fraudulent transactions, and account abuse.

The robots are killing Tesla. In a rare win for humans over robots in the battle for labor efficiency, Wall Street analysts have laid down a compelling argument that over-automation is to blame for problems at the billionaire Elon Musk's electric-car company. That is to say, the very innovation and competitive advantage that Musk says he's bringing to the car industry -- his nearly fully automated plant in Fremont, California -- is the reason Tesla is unable to scale quickly. According to the Bernstein analysts Max Warburton and Toni Sacconaghi, it's the robots that can't pump out Tesla's highly anticipated Model 3s fast enough. The whole process is too ambitious, risky, and complicated.

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Today, Agility Robotics is announcing US $8 million in Series A funding "to accelerate product, technology, and business development." Leading the round is Playground Global, founded by Android co-creator and ex-Google Robotics head Andy Rubin, and also joining in is Sony Innovation Fund. We don't write about funding rounds all that often, but this could be the first robotics company to get such a significant amount of VC funding to develop a realistic commercial bipedal robot. There are certainly other well-funded companies working on bipeds, including Boston Dynamics and Schaft. But while it's not that clear what commercial applications these companies are targeting, Agility Robotics is very specifically and deliberately working on a legged robot that can make deliveries.

Artificial intelligence company twoXAR--a specialist in separating signals from noise in data-rich drug discovery projects--has raised $10 million in a first-round financing led by SoftBank Ventures. Co-founder and CEO Andrew Radin says the proceeds will be used to bring forward preclinical drug candidates including candidates for diabetes, liver cancer and rheumatoid arthritis, build the pipeline with new partnering deals and spinouts, and add to its headcount. The company's business model is to use its AI technology to identify promising drug candidates, validate them through preclinical studies and then work with partners to bring them into the clinic. The Palo Alto, California-based company--which was the first investment for Silicon Valley entrepreneur Andreessen Horowitz's $200 million biotech fund in 2015--already has some collaborations under its belt. In 2016, it signed deals with the Universities of Chicago and Stanford for drug discovery programs in atherosclerosis and liver disease, respectively, as well as Mount Sinai Medical in the area of diabetic neuropathy.