Move Over, Blockchain--It's AI's Time to Shine

A hedge fund that gives away all of its data to people it doesn't know and still stays private. Smart sales conducted from a smartphone with its own virtual assistant--these are all artificial intelligence projects expanding right now, and these are just the ones that received a new boost of funding this week. Numerai, a double-blind hedge fund that sends out encrypted data to anonymous data scientists it then pays in bitcoin, has just announced $6 million in new funding led by Union Square Ventures. Additionally, Element AI--a platform for corporations to better explore artificial intelligence solutions--and Tact, a CRM startup that turns a smartphone into a virtual sales assistant, have both announced funding rounds with Microsoft Ventures as an investor. What Tact does is apply AI to the user and their workflow, helping them become more productive.