On the heels of billions of yuan of investment burrowed into China's artificial intelligence scene, China's state news agency has announced that it is rebuilding its newsroom to emphasize human-machine collaboration. There are already elements of this in quite a few newsrooms but this is the first announcement (I've seen) of a large news org rearranging itself around AI…. https://t.co/oK7pZbj158 Xinhua News Agency president Cai Mingzhao said Xinhua will build a "new kind of newsroom based on information technology and featuring human-machine collaboration." The agency has also introduced the "Media Brain" platform to integrate cloud computing, the Internet of Things, AI and more into news production, with potential applications "from finding leads, to news gathering, editing, distribution and finally feedback analysis." The agency's announcement was sparse on details, but it's the latest component of a deep push into AI by China.

The automobile is entering an important period of changes. As proof, at this year's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, Hyundai is displaying a vehicle boasting three solutions that all have a chance to become reality within the next few years. That vehicle is called NEXO. First of all, a technology that should still need some time before becoming widely available in Canada, fuel cells. Hyundai, who already showed off the Tucson FCEV in various auto shows and set up a pilot project in British Columbia, has announced that it has enhanced this technology.

TD Bank Group has announced the acquisition of Layer 6 Inc. ("Layer 6"), a world-renowned artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Toronto, Ontario. Layer 6 has emerged as a global thought-leader and pioneer in the delivery of responsive, personalized and insight-driven experiences for the financial services industry. Layer 6 founders Tomi Poutanen and Jordan Jacobs are also co-founders of the Vector Institute, a world leader in AI research and education that TD also supports. "Anticipating and meeting customer needs are at the heart of our promise, and we are excited to further accelerate our innovation agenda to deliver well into the future. As we deploy new solutions, we will extend our deep relationship with customers across all of our platforms and offer personalized, connected and legendary experiences for our customers in the digital age."

Natural products are organic biomolecules produced by nature and, particularly those produced by microbiota, represent a rich source of evolutionarily optimized biologically active molecules. The Adapsyn platform combines genomic and metabolomic data with artificial intelligence and machine-learning to identify novel, mechanistically diverse evolved small molecules from human and environmental microbiomes. The financing will support the company's internal drug development programs. "We are excited to apply our platform to unlock the unique targeting capacity of these evolved compounds and realize new therapeutics," commented Nathan Magarvey, PhD, Founder and Chief Scientific Officer of Adapsyn. "Recent technological advances in machine learning, artificial intelligence, and large-scale genomic and metabolomic analysis are reenergizing the field of natural product drug development, and Adapsyn is excited to be at the forefront of this work."

TORONTO, Jan. 9, 2018 /PRNewswire/ – TD Bank Group (TD) (TSX and NYSE: TD) today announced the acquisition of Layer 6 Inc. ("Layer 6"), a world-renowned artificial intelligence (AI) company based in Toronto, Ontario. Layer 6 has emerged as a global thought-leader and pioneer in the delivery of responsive, personalized and insight-driven experiences for the financial services industry. Layer 6 founders Tomi Poutanen and Jordan Jacobs are also co-founders of the Vector Institute, a world leader in AI research and education that TD also supports. "Anticipating and meeting customer needs are at the heart of our promise, and we are excited to further accelerate our innovation agenda to deliver well into the future. As we deploy new solutions, we will extend our deep relationship with customers across all of our platforms and offer personalized, connected and legendary experiences for our customers in the digital age."

For more information on what makes Intel Capital one of the world's most powerful venture capital firms, visit www.intelcapital.com or follow @Intelcapital.

An AI-powered robot dog created by Sony has ignored commands from the firm's CEO onstage in an embarrassing moment for the electronics giant. The £1,300 ($1,750) Aibo robot, which Sony says behaves like a real dog and responds to voice commands, was on show at a conference in Las Vegas on Monday. 'Aibo is an autonomous robot and will quickly become a member of your family, right Aibo?' Sony's President & CEO Kazuo Hirai said in an exchange on stage. But the robo-dog didn't respond, prompting Hirai to remark, 'ignored me there' before quickly passing Aibo back to its handlers. An AI-powered robot dog created by Sony has ignored commands from the firm's CEO onstage in an embarrassing moment for the electronics giant.

Qualcomm executives called the new Asus Lyra Voice a model for routers going forward: partly a speaker, partly a router, and powered by Amazon's Alexa assistant. The company said it's trying to convince ISPs like Cox and Comcast to move in that direction. Unlike AMD and Intel, you can't buy Qualcomm chips to build your own smartphones and routers. But when company executives take the stage at CES to describe how future products should look, it's worth paying attention. Qualcomm announced three versions of its Smart Audio Platform--complete with a quad-core ARM A53 processor, audio DSP, 802.11ac

Britbots, the organisation dedicated to promoting U.K.-based robotics companies, and Sapphire Capital Partners, a specialist manager of tax-efficient funds, today announces the launch of the second British Robotics Seed Fund. The new fund follows the success of the first fund, which has now been fully invested, leading the seed rounds of six high-potential robotics and AI (artificial intelligence) related ventures. The new fund will be predominantly focused on SEIS-qualifying investment opportunities thereby delivering the most significant tax benefits to investors, nonetheless there will be scope for the fund to make a number of investments under the EIS scheme when there are scale-up opportunities for existing portfolio companies. Further information is available at www.britbots.com/fund There has been rapid increase in the number of robotics-related start-ups and the fund looks to partner with entrepreneurs and academic robotics teams to deliver high-value businesses that can deliver superior returns for investors.

Sony has revealed several new products designed to take your entertainment experience to the next level. At a press conference in Las Vegas ahead of CES, the firm teased a look at new smartphones that aim to capture the best selfies, a prototype 8K display featuring its X1 Ultimate picture processor, and its new wireless noise-cancelling earbuds. And, Sony unveiled its jaw-dropping $30,000 Ultra Short Throw Projector. During the event, Sony also brought back the latest iteration of a nostalgic companion, the Aibo robot – but, the cheeky bot decided not to acknowledge its owner on stage. Sony invited the new Aibo robot to the stage, which launched in Japan this past fall.