Apple is seeking damages from Epic Games in the skirmish started last month by the publisher of popular online video game Fortnite. Epic Games' move on Aug. 13 to offer a direct payment option for Fortnite mobile players, bypassing Apple's App store payment function and Apple's cut of the revenue amounted to "malicious and/or fraudulent misconduct," Apple says in a filing answering Epic Games' suit. That breach of contract, Apple asserts in its filing, entitles the tech giant to punitive damages, along with compensatory damages, legal fees and interest. The sought-after amount is not mentioned in the countersuit, filed in U.S. District Court in California. "Epic fired the first shot in this dispute, and its willful, brazen, and unlawful conduct cannot be left unchecked," Apple says in the filing.

Honored to have had the opportunity to present the work we do at We Encourage during the Women In AI Summit 2020. Thank you Eija-Leena (Eikku) K. for having me as a co-presenter We talked about the challenges involved in developing AI models to solve problems such as domestic violence (Intimate Partner Violence), online harassment, etc. It was also interesting to talk about the challenges related to data collection, GDPR, explainability of AI, and several other practical aspects. Eikku also presented about SomeBuddy as well! The link to the summit is in the comments section.

The Benelux Office for Intellectual Property (BOIP) has partnered with Clarivate Plc, a global leader in providing trusted information and insights to accelerate the pace of innovation, to improve its trademark research services. Using AI-powered technology from Clarivate, BOIP has simplified the process of researching image trademarks for uniqueness and availability. BOIP joins innovative IP offices around the world like the EU Intellectual Property Office, IP Australia and the Intellectual Property Office of Singapore who have adopted image recognition (IR)1 and new technologies to deliver innovative and more accessible services to users. Technology has transformed trademark research, automating a previously time-consuming and manual task. Today, the ability to search and compare image trademarks is essential as 40% of trademarks worldwide contain an image component2.

Justpoint, a New York-based startup that uses Artificial Intelligence for analysis of individual medical malpractice claims, has now secured $1 million in a seed funding round. Justpoint is founded by Victor Bornstein. It is the AI-first medical malpractice company offering consumers and law firms a way of understanding the legal merits of a claim as well as an instant prediction of the likely settlement amount. Harry Langenberg of Optima Tax Relief, said, "Justpoint has identified a big inefficient market in medical claims and malpractice that is ripe for disruption. Leveraging their deep experience in healthcare and technology, they have put together a brilliant team of engineers and scientists to turn their vision into reality. Their ability to leverage technologies such as AI, machine learning, and predictive analytics will add tremendous efficiencies and cut wasteful processes across the value chain, improving payouts and transparency for consumers and reducing search times and costs for law firms".

It's the idea if you base decisions on flawed information, your solution will likely be equally flawed. The concept is especially true in areas like data analytics and artificial intelligence. And a corollary to this idea is that outcomes in analytics and AI can be manipulated by tailoring the content of the data input into the algorithms. It's the reason Microsoft's initial attempt at creating a chatbot failed. Users unscrupulously fed the chatbot racist propaganda which the algorithm picked up on and learned from.

Financial regulators around the world are cracking down on banks. With Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know-Your-Customer (KYC) procedures being put under the microscope, huge fines are being levied against institutions which are found to be in breach. In fact, recent study discovered that over the past ten years, banks across the globe have been slapped with a total of US$26 billion in monetary penalties for AML and sanctions violations. As banks and financial institutions embark on digital transformation initiatives to streamline and simplify the customer onboarding process and reduce risk associated with fraud, many are eyeing the potential of emerging technologies. This enables financial institutions to simplify the process of identifying illicit client relationships, beneficiaries and links to criminal or terrorist activity during the onboarding phase.

ThoughtRiver, a London-based legaltech startup that's applying AI to speed up contract pre-screening, has announced a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Octopus Ventures. Existing seed investors Crane, Local Globe, Entrée Capital, Syndicate Room, and angel investor Duncan Painter also participated in the round. The UK startup is one of a number applying AI to automate work that would otherwise be done by legal professions with the aim of boosting operational efficiency. Other startups playing in the space include the likes of Kira Systems, LawGeex and Luminance to name a few. ThoughtRiver argues it has a different focus vs the majority of contract view companies because it's focusing on pre-signature contracts -- with the aim of making securing a deal faster. "Almost all others are just employed to pull data from existing contracts.

The European Commission today unveiled its plan to strictly regulate artificial intelligence (AI) that it terms as high risk. The consortium of countries recently issued its long-anticipated white paper on AI. This document is a prequel to the new legislation and lists down the regulations that would govern technologies leading to global consequences. The paper lists 27 nation blocs which should have strict legal requirements for "high-risk" uses of AI. The consortium defines high risk as "a risk of injury, death or significant material or immaterial damage; that produce effects that cannot reasonably be avoided by individuals or legal entities", that span across healthcare, transportation, energy and government domains.

AI contract review business ThoughtRiver has secured a $10m (£7.5m) investment from venture capitalists to expand its presence around the world, with extra spending in the US and South-East Asia. Octopus Ventures, which has £1.3bn under management and invests in technology innovation start-ups, pledged the Series A funding, saying it liked the company because it was disrupting a legal market that had been "slow to adopt AI" compared to other industries. ThoughtRiver was originally incubated by Cambridge law firm Taylor Vinters, which remains a shareholder in the business, and it is run by former Taylor Vinters partner Tim Pullan. The company, which has offices in Cambridge, London, New York, Singapore and New Zealand, has developed its own natural language processing engine that Mr Pullan said helped to iron out differences in the language used by lawyers to draft contracts. The product, Lexible, is used by PwC and businesses in the telecoms, retailing and technology sectors to automate the reviewing and pre-screening of contracts.

The evil cyber-intelligence from the Matrix and a cyborg killing machine from the Terminator movies - that's what most people used to imagine when talking about the future of artificial intelligence. Today's artificial intelligence is incapable of taking over human jobs. It will not cause a robot-powered apocalypse. Ethicists and computer scientists don't see doomsday scenarios in the future, either. The future of AI holds a great deal of promise for humanity and can change the world for the better.