Black Knight Inc., a Jacksonville-based firm with a $1 billion in annual sales analyzing mortgages for large banks, says it has agreed to purchase HeavyWater, a University City Science Center-based, two-year-old firm that is developing AIVA ("Ava,") an "artificial intelligence and machine learning" mortgage lending system to speed loan approvals, from founder Soofi Safavi. Safavi will remain in charge of the 14-person group, which he said plans to hire 5 more people by June 19. Black Knight said in a statement that it will use and improve AIVA -- the Artificial Intelligence Virtual Assistant -- to "read, comprehend and draw conclusions based on context to mimic cognitive thinking and build expertise," and that it will also make the technology available to clients as a way to speed mortgage approvals and boost accuracy in verifying income, assets and insurance coverage. "Artificial intelligence, machine learning and neural network solutions are the future," and Heavy Water will help make that happen for Black Knight clients, said that company's CEO, Anthony Jabbour, in a statement. Safavi served as chief technology officer at Radian, the Philadelphia mortgage insurer, before starting HeavyWater in September of 2015.

Attendees take pictures before the start of the opening keynote during the 2018 Apple Worldwide Developer Conference at the San Jose Convention Center on June 4, 2018 in San Jose, Calif. Apple CEO Tim Cook will kick off the WWDC that runs through June 8. SAN JOSE -- Apple unveiled new ways to limit your screen time on iPhones and other mobile gadgets at its annual developers conference here -- and at the same time unleashed new ways to spend more time on its devices. That seeming contradiction highlights the growing dilemma for Silicon Valley giants such as Apple, Facebook and Google as they pitch their ubiquitous products while acknowledging growing concerns about tech addiction and consumer privacy. Apple tackled the latter with new settings in its Safari browser that allow users to limit Facebook and others apps from following their trails around the Web -- a pointed knock against the social network, which fended off a new round of privacy breach allegations this weekend.

With today's unveilling of iOS 12 at WWDC, Apple hinted at an upgraded Siri worthy of 2018. The news: On opening day of its annual developer conference, Apple announced plans to make its AI-powered digital assistant Siri more robust in iOS 12 with a new property called "shortcuts." Users will be able to create voice commands that let Siri help more effectively with day-to-day tasks, from ordering coffee to finding lost keys. Catching up on AI: The launch of Siri in 2011 was a breakout moment for voice-activated smart assistants, but competitors like Google's Assistant and Amazon's Alexa have since caught up, if not surpassed, Apple's technology. The news in April that the firm poached Google's AI chief confirmed that it was doubling down to get back on pace.

Apple will attempt to frustrate tools used by Facebook to automatically track web users, within the next version of its iOS and Mac operating systems. "We're shutting that down," declared Apple's software chief Craig Federighi, at the firm's developers conference. He added that the web browser Safari would ask owners' permission before allowing the social network to monitor their activity. The move is likely to add to tensions between the two companies. Apple's chief executive Tim Cook had previously described Facebook's practices as being an "invasion of privacy" - an opinion Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg subsequently denounced as being "glib".

The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Leading up to WWDC, the one thing that virtually all of us wanted to see was some kind of major improvement to Siri. Fortunately, we'll get one in iOS 12 in the form of Shortcuts. Essentially, the Shortcuts app lets you program single or multiple actions on your Apple device with a single Siri command, and if it works as well it sounds, it could make Siri much more useful for specific circumstances and activities. In essence, it virtually ensures that Siri does exactly what you want her to do. It also represents the full integration of Workflow into iOS following Apple's acquisition of the automation service last year.

It's no secret that Apple's virtual assistant, Siri, doesn't have the best reputation -- especially when you compare it to Google's incredibly smart counterpart. But, the company has been working hard recently to make Siri more useful for those of you with an iOS or Mac device. And today, Apple announced that Siri is getting smarter thanks to a new app called Shortcuts, which will let you build your own commands with any application. With the Tile app, for example, you can say "Hey Siri, I lost my keys," and that will then alert the tiny gadget attached to your keys. You can create more shortcuts for things such as "Surf time," which will prompt Siri to look up the weather report before you head to the beach.

The Apple Watch is about to get another big tune-up, and it won't surprise you to hear that the focus is on fitness. Apple has unveiled watchOS 5, and there's a slew of updates for more competitive types. There's now automatic workout detection -- not a new feature on smartwatches, but helpful if you've ever forgotten to tap your watch before starting a run. You'll also have week-long competitions with friends, hiking and yoga workouts, a rolling mile pace and cadence (steps per minute) tracking. Siri sees some important improvements as well.

Why do you need to say Siri when you've already got your Apple Watch hovering right in front of your face? Soon, you won't have to . WatchOS 5 will drop the need for you to vocally summon Siri, instead, as soon as your raise your device up, it'll start listening to your requests, questions and messaging apps. It'll also stop those awkward Siri requests that seem to raise your phone, watch, iPad and HomePod in one single, horrific instant. Follow all the latest news from WWDC 2018 here!

The new Apple features are among the software updates previewed Monday at the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in San Jose, California. These and other features won't reach users for a few months; rather, they were being shown to give software developers a chance to build new apps to make iPhones and other Apple devices more useful. The next iPhone software, iOS 12, is expected in September following the announcements on new iPhones, for instance.