Anthony Levandowski, Otto co-founder the head of Uber's self-driving-vehicle project, is accused of taking proprietary designs and information with him when he left Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet. Anthony Levandowski, Otto co-founder the head of Uber's self-driving-vehicle project, is accused of taking proprietary designs and information with him when he left Waymo, a subsidiary of Alphabet. Waymo, the company that began as Google's self-driving-car project, is suing Uber, saying that when the company bought a start-up founded by Waymo veterans, it also bought thousands of design files that had been inappropriately downloaded from its servers. The start-up in question is Otto, which was only months old when Uber bought it for roughly $680 million last summer. The deal resulted in Uber putting Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski in charge of its self-driving-vehicle effort -- which includes both trucking, a field Otto had focused on, and personal vehicles. The problem, according to Waymo and Alphabet (Google's umbrella company) is that before he left, Levandowski "took extraordinary efforts to raid Waymo's design server and then conceal his activities."

Get used to hearing a lot more about artificial intelligence. Even if you discount the utopian and dystopian hyperbole, the 21st century will broadly be defined not just by advancements in artificial intelligence, robotics, computing and cognitive neuroscience, but how we manage them. For some, the question of whether or not the human race will live to see a 22nd century turns upon this latter consideration. While forecasting the imminence of an AI-centric future remains a matter of intense debate, we will need to come to terms with it. For now, there are many more questions than answers. It is clear, however, that the European Parliament is making inroads towards taking an AI-centric future seriously.

A former employee stole trade secrets from Google's self-driving car project and brought them to a startup that was later acquired by Uber, according to a complaint filed in federal court on Thursday. Waymo, a division of Google's parent company Alphabet that took over the search giant's self-driving car project last year, filed a complaint against Uber's subsidiary Otto, claiming trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement, and unfair competition. The complaint alleges that Otto co-founder Anthony Levandowski downloaded more than 14,000 proprietary design files--9.7GB Those designs showed up in an email that Waymo received from one of its circuit board suppliers in December, according to the complaint. The email, which apparently was referring to Uber's own Lidar design, confirmed Waymo's earlier suspicions that Levandowski had given Waymo's trade secrets to Uber, which acquired Otto in August 2016.

Lawyers spend years in school learning how to sift through millions of cases looking for the exact language that will help their clients win. What if a computer could do it for them? It's not the kind of question many lawyers would dignify with an answer. But Jimoh Ovbiagele isn't a lawyer, and as a budding computer scientist studying at the University of Toronto a couple of years ago the idea made perfect sense. He and his colleagues combined it with IBM's Watson artificial intelligence platform to co-found ROSS Intelligence, a multimillion-dollar legal research firm that has lined up global law giant Dentons as a backer and customer, along with other prominent customers including Baker & Hostetler and Latham & Watkins.

Until today, the race to build a self-driving car seemed to hinge on who had the best technology. Now it's become a case of full-blown corporate intrigue. Alphabet's self-driving startup, Waymo, is suing Uber, accusing the ridesharing giant of stealing critical autonomous driving technology. If the suit goes to trial, Apple's legal battle with Samsung could wind up looking tame by comparison. Waymo alleges that Anthony Levandovski, a former Google employee now at Uber, secretly downloaded 14,000 files from its hardware systems, resigned a month later, and then used the information to launch a self-driving truck startup called Otto.

Imagine debating the interpretation of a Shakespearean sonnet and being able to clarify its meaning with the bard himself. Or sitting in history class and being able to ask George Washington questions about the Constitution, no soul-conjuring witchcraft required. In the next decade, advancing AI technology will allow us to learn from the dead first-hand. New chatbot programs are being developed to keep our knowledge active after our physical being passes away. Early research in this topic already allows us to simulate dialogues with the dead.

Otto is a self-driving truck company started by Google veterans and bought by Uber last year. SAN FRANCISCO -- In charges that could delay Uber's chances of delivering the first commercial self-driving trucks, Alphabet Inc.'s self-driving car company Waymo has filed suit against the company for trade secret misappropriation, patent infringement and unfair competition. The lawsuit was filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in San Francisco. Waymo, the new name of Google's self-driving car unit, says former Google self-driving car engineer Anthony Levandowski stole plans and technical specifications from Waymo before leaving the company. Levandowski founded self-driving truck company Otto last year.

Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Google's parent Alphabet, filed suit against Uber on Thursday alleging that the ride-share company engaged in the "calculated theft" of its self-driving technology. The suit is the latest setback for Uber, still reeling from the viral #DeleteUber campaign and which this week launched an "urgent investigation" into claims of sexual harassment. The lawsuit, filed in US district court in San Francisco, contains explosive allegations that a former Waymo employee, Anthony Levandowski, plotted to steal Waymo's technology and trade secrets before leaving to start his own self-driving truck company, Otto. Uber acquired Otto in August 2016, reportedly for $680m. At the center of the suit is Waymo's proprietary LiDAR system – the "eyes" that self-driving cars use to see other vehicles, the road and pedestrians.

The road to develop self-driving cars might be paved with lawsuits. Waymo, a spin-off from Google's self-driving car initiative, is suing Uber for allegedly stealing its trade secrets. On Thursday, it filed a lawsuit against Uber and its startup Otto -- a self-driving trucking company -- claiming that the two companies were using stolen intellectual property from Waymo, an Alphabet subsidiary. The lawsuit underscores the fierce competition in the self-driving industry and how the battle might escalate. By lifting the technology, Uber has allegedly built its own comparable LiDAR system within nine months, when Waymo had been developing the tech for nearly seven years, the company alleged.

Alphabet's Waymo self-driving car unit has sued Uber and its autonomous trucking subsidiary Otto in federal court over allegations of theft of its confidential and proprietary sensor technology. Waymo accused Uber and Otto, acquired by the ride services company in August, with stealing confidential information on Waymo's Lidar sensor technology to help speed its own efforts in autonomous technology. Uber and Otto did not immediately respond to requests for comment. Waymo accused Uber and Otto, acquired by the ride services company in August, with stealing confidential information on Waymo's Lidar sensor technology to speed its own efforts. In lidar -- or light detection and ranging -- scanning, one or more lasers sends out short pulses, which bounce back when they hit an obstacle, whether clouds, leaves or rocks.