Has artificial intelligence (AI) really gone sentient? This has been the buzzing trend of the technology industry, ever since Google engineer claimed an unreleased AI system had become sentient. Blake Lemoine, a software engineer for Google, claimed that a conversation technology – Language Model for Dialogue Applications (LaMDA), a family of conversational neural language models developed by Google, had reached a level of consciousness after exchanging thousands of messages with it. Since then, The Week's research team has noticed that venture capital (VC) funds from across the world are taking special interest with strategic investments into the AI industry. Today, here at The Week, we caught wind of a substantial undisclosed amount by notable blockchain industry venture capital fund ' The Bitcoin Man ', into Solidus AI Tech (AI-Tech.io),

Early in the pandemic, as many enterprises looked to digitally transform their operations, marketing and merchandising departments turned to AI to automate the increasing workloads. According to Salesforce, marketers' use of AI soared between 2018 and 2020, jumping from 29% in 2018 to 84% in 2020. A separate survey from ManageEngine -- the IT division of Zoho -- found that analytics for marketing, driven by automation and AI, experienced a 44% adoption surge in over the past two years. Retail and consumer products executives, responding to a recent IBM survey, said that they believe that intelligent automation capabilities could help increase annual revenue growth by up to 10%. Adopters in marketing cite benefits like accelerating revenue as well as getting actionable insights from marketing data.

The United States Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) signed a deal with blockchain analytics firm AnChain.AI to help its efforts in monitoring the decentralized finance (DeFi) space. What Happened: According to a Forbes report, AnChain.AI CEO and Co-Founder Victor Fang explained that the collaboration started because "the SEC is very keen on understanding what is happening in the world of smart contract-based digital assets," and the firm can help with that. The company's service focuses on tracking illicit activity across crypto exchanges, DeFi protocols, and traditional financial institutions. The contract between the blockchain analysis firm and the SEC started in May and probably played a role in AnChain.AI securing a $10 million Series A round led by Susquehanna Group affiliate SIG Asia Investments LLP. Why It Matters: The regulator is seemingly leveraging the contractor to monitor the DeFi ecosystem more closely, as expected after recent remarks by SEC Chairman Gary Gensler.

MOLOCO, an adtech startup that uses machine learning to build mobile campaigns, announced today it has raised $150 million in new Series C funding led by Tiger Global Management, taking its valuation to $1.5 billion. This is separate from the $20 million Series C round MOLOCO announced three months ago, which brought it to unicorn status. Co-founder and chief executive officer Ikkjin Ahn told TechCrunch that MOLOCO raised again so soon because "as we gear up for a potential IPO, we wanted more funding to help us grow faster." Founded in 2013 and based in Redwood City, California, MOLOCO has now raised $200 million in total. The company claims it has "consistently grown in excess of 100% annually," and has an annual net revenue run rate of more than $100 million.

Just months after raising $28 million, Jerry announced today that it has raised $75 million in a Series C round that values the company at $450 million. Existing backer Goodwater Capital doubled down on its investment in Jerry, leading the "oversubscribed" round. Bow Capital, Kamerra, Highland Capital Partners and Park West Asset Management also participated in the financing, which brings Jerry's total raised to $132 million since its 2017 inception. Goodwater Capital also led the startup's Series B earlier this year. Jerry's new valuation is about "4x" that of the company at its Series B round, according to co-founder and CEO Art Agrawal.

This Week Top Automation Articles highlights the potential of a low-code/no-code platform in Business and why Kate Crawford, writing in his book that technology experts are misunderstanding the concept of Artificial Intelligence. The introduction of the new Apple card family is really an exciting thing and why big brands like Gucci are not realizing the worth of Cryptocurrency. There is much more to explore. Let's dive into the Automation World! The potential for low-code/no-code platforms is enormous.

We sat down with Spiros Margaris, Venture Capitalist at Margaris Ventures and AI Influencer to discuss the state of VC funding of AI and Fintech startups and how crazy thoughts could be the start of an AI business. I have spent most of my professional career in the hedge fund and startup world. I also founded my own startups in New York during the dotcom era, so I know what it means when things don't go as planned, and what it can mean personally, with all the bitter consequences. I have been primarily involved in the fintech, insurtech and AI space as an investor and advisor through my firm Margaris Ventures. I have been a keynote speaker at major technology and banking events, where I have been fortunate to meet very interesting people and exchange thoughts and ideas.

If you use assistive technology (such as a screen reader) and need a version of this document in a more accessible format, please email webmaster@digital.fco.gov.uk. Please tell us what format you need. It will help us if you say what assistive technology you use. The UK's Department for International Trade (DIT) is pleased to announce 12 high-growth Canadian FinTech companies from across 5 major Canadian cities chosen to participate in a trade mission to the UK – 21- 25 October 2019. These leading companies have collectively raised over half a billion in venture capital and are well positioned for global expansion.

The Canadian city of Toronto is a thriving hub of start-up activity in areas ranging from next-generation marketing to AI, fintech and more. As one of the biggest cities in Canada and the capital of the province of Ontario, Toronto is in many respects Canada's start-up capital. The city's tech scene is booming. According to Toronto Global, the city and its surrounding region generated more tech jobs in the previous year than New York City or the San Francisco Bay Area combined. Google has invested $5m in the Vector Institute to make Toronto one of the foremost global players in the AI space.

These venture bets on startups that "returned the fund," making firms and careers, were the result of research, strong convictions, and patient follow-through. Here are the stories behind the biggest VC home runs of all time. In venture capital, returns follow the Pareto principle -- 80% of the wins come from 20% of the deals. Great venture capitalists invest knowing they're going to take a lot of losses in order to hit those wins. Chris Dixon of top venture firm Andreessen Horowitz has referred to this as the "Babe Ruth effect," in reference to the legendary 1920s-era baseball player. Babe Ruth would strike out a lot, but also made slugging records. Likewise, VCs swing hard, and occasionally hit a home run. Those wins often make up for all the losses and then some -- they "return the fund." "If you do the math around our goal of returning the fund with our high impact companies, you will notice that we need these companies to exit at a billion dollars or more," he wrote.