Zeni, an AI-powered finance concierge for startups, today announced it has raised $13.5 million in a series A round led by Saama Capital. The company says this will bolster the launch of its new product, Zeni, an intelligent bookkeeping, accounting, and CFO service available to startups across the U.S. Studies show the vast majority of day-to-day accounting tasks can be automated with software. That may be why over 50% of respondents in a survey conducted by the Association of Chartered Certified Accountants said they anticipate the development of automated and intelligent systems will have a significant impact on accounting businesses over the next 30 years. Zeni, which was founded by twin brothers Swapnil Shinde and Snehal Shinde in 2019, combines AI with a team of finance experts to perform bookkeeping while managing finance functions -- including taxes, bill pay and invoicing, financial projections, budgeting, payroll administration, and more -- on behalf of customers. The Shinde brothers started Zeni after selling their last startup, Mezi, to American Express in 2018 for $125 million and the Indian music streaming service they cofounded, Dhingana, to Rdio in 2014.

The Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), the national trade association for the digital media and marketing industries, is focusing its AI Standards Working Group to develop artificial intelligence (AI) standards, best practices, use cases, and terminologies in an effort to scale AI and enable the industry on its full potential. The group is newly co-chaired by IBM Watson Advertising and Nielsen. The first release of 2021, "Artificial Intelligence Use Cases and Best Practices for Marketing," will help executive leaders, marketers, and technologists get the most from AI, and do it responsibly. Created for those already working with AI or looking to leverage it in their business, this guide draws directly from the real-world experience of co-chairs IBM Watson Advertising and Nielsen as well as top publishers, agencies, and ad tech companies in the industry. It's not an ivory tower overview of AI: it's a specific guide for what to do for executives that are in the thick of it.

Over the last 200 years, technology automation has never caused a net loss of jobs. AI is a type of technology automation. The question for this article is whether AI automation will be the first technology to result in a net loss of jobs that is bigger than the decline in the number of workers. Is AI just another form of automation that will create some jobs and destroy others? Or will AI destroy more jobs than it creates resulting in unemployment that will continually rise, and remain permanently high? Science fiction books, TV, and movies are replete with descriptions of intelligent robots ranging from beneficial robots like C3PO from the Star Wars movie series to killer robots such as the ones depicted in the Terminator movie series.

Imagine a world where your every sensation is augmented with music. When you pick up speed while out running, the music responds; as you enter a forest, instruments of deeper bass are seamlessly layered into the piece; and as your car creeps beyond the speed limit, the music alters rhythm to keep you in check. It may not be as far away as you think. "When we say we want to soundtrack your life, it's a big ambition," acknowledges Philip Sheppard, CEO of LifeScore. "But take a movie: when a soundtrack is considered, it is getting under your skin and leading your emotional response. "We're not telling people what to feel, but hopefully forcing serendipity – which is the point when the movie director of your brain goes'I'm here and present for this'." Virtuoso cellist Sheppard knows quite a bit about soundtracks – a renowned composer who has written with the likes of David Bowie and Queens of the Stone Age, he has more than 65 film scores to his credit and has worked on global music projects including Olympic Games ceremonies, the Rugby World Cup and the Tour de France. Accentuating the small moments which together make up a lifetime is the goal of a London start-up which uses AI – the company considers this to mean'Augmented Intelligence' – to help music respond to these changes in environment. "Massively generalising, the music falls into five camps: calming and sleep; flow and focus for work; daydreaming and wonder; narrative fantasy; or energy and uplift," says Sheppard. "We've really got into sensory ontology, which is how you link colour, texture, flavour and taste to sound.

In interaction with Media, Aamir Junaid Ahmad, CEO - BusAndTicket, a technocrat himself, shared how the company is planning to use technology for improving bus ticket booking and travel experience for its customers. With the AI advancement in the world, we will soon implement new ways the technology can improve customer experience. AI and IoT together will give more personalized ticket booking experience and will help users find the best deals and recommendations to fulfill their travel plans with ease. The more they use the service, the more information will be available to further customize the search results. BusAndTicket.com is coming up for the first time with the concept of dynamic pricing in bus ticket booking using the Analytical Benefits of AI.

Turbo Kid is a charming, ultra-violent homage to Saturday morning cartoons that takes place in a post-apocalyptic version of 1997. It's one of my favorite movies of the last decade, so the announcement that a game based on the film is on the way has made my week. You'll play as The Kid, who battles his way across the wasteland as he searches for a friend. Developer Outerminds (best known for making YouTuber PewDiePie's games) says Turbo Kid is a Metroidvania with large and diverse environments, rad BMX tricks and a heartwarming story. The game has a pixel art style and promises copious low-res gore.

Neural networks are a series of algorithms that mimic the operations of a human brain to recognize relationships between vast amounts of data. They are used in a variety of applications in financial services, from forecasting and marketing research to fraud detection and risk assessment. A neural network has many layers. Each layer performs a specific function, and the complex the network is, the more the layers are. That's why a neural network is also called a multi-layer perceptron.

Say you're a job-seeker who's got a pretty good idea of what employers want to hear. Like many companies these days, your potential new workplace will give you a personality test as part of the hiring process. You plan to give answers that show you're enthusiastic, a hard worker and a real people person. Then they put you on camera while you take the test verbally, and you frown slightly during one of your answers, and their facial-analysis program decides you're "difficult." This is just one of many problems with the increasing use of artificial intelligence in hiring, contends the new documentary "Persona: The Dark Truth Behind Personality Tests," premiering Thursday on HBO Max. The film, from director Tim Travers Hawkins, begins with the origins of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator personality test.

It's the latest artificial intelligence program the UAE has launched amid the surging coronavirus pandemic.

With the emerging priority of artificial intelligence (AI), China is shifting away from a strategy of neutralizing or destroying an enemy's conventional …