Alibaba's Tmall Genie, an AI-powered voice assistant, has sold 5 million units since it was launched in July 2017, and has been integrated with healthcare and home appliance products from electronics manufacturers such as Phillips and Siemens, and also the Alibaba's interactive local services, such as Hema, the company said. Hema, a chain of supermarkets launched in 2015, is famous for its free 30-minute delivery and facial-recognition payment technology. It is described as the "pathfinder" of Alibaba's "new retail" strategy to go back to brick-and-mortar stores.

Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) told technology developers few days ago that the company is planning to bring to the market a new version of its Xeon Phi processor (code named Knights Mill) next year with special features supporting artificial intelligence ("AI"). The ultimate goal of scientists with AI is making the computer to mimic human brain. Since the basic advantage of a human brain over a computer is that the human brain can perform extensive parallel processing, primary requirement for running AI workloads is massive amount of parallel processing. The question is can the Xeon Phi of future offer this kind of parallel processing? According to a recent research conducted by researchers at the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth, modern budget GPUs are capable of offering similar application boosts compared to high-end GPUs in HPC (high performance computing) despite having lower floating point precision capabilities.

Intel Corp. signaled it wants a bigger role in artificial intelligence, revealing plans to modify a line of chips to target a fast-growing market turning into a battleground for technology suppliers. The company told technology developers Wednesday that it plans next year to deliver a new version of the Xeon Phi processor--a product line previously targeted at scientific applications--with added features designed to accelerate tasks associated with what Silicon Valley calls artificial intelligence. Intel said the technology will help accelerate a technique called deep learning, increasingly used for tasks such as interpreting speech, identifying objects in photos and piloting autonomous vehicles. Intel's Xeon processors already are a fixture in data centers, and have a role in nearly all deep-learning tasks carried out there. But some users also install auxiliary processors for artificial-intelligence tasks, notably chips called GPUs that rival Nvidia Corp. has long sold for videogames.

Intel Corp. INTC 0.34 % signaled it wants a bigger role in artificial intelligence, revealing plans to modify a line of chips to target a fast-growing market turning into a battleground for technology suppliers. The company told technology developers Wednesday that it plans next year to deliver a new version of the Xeon Phi processor--a product line previously targeted at scientific applications--with added features designed to accelerate tasks associated with what Silicon Valley calls artificial intelligence. Intel said the technology will help accelerate a technique called deep learning, increasingly used for tasks such as interpreting speech, identifying objects in photos and piloting autonomous vehicles. Intel's Xeon processors already are a fixture in data centers, and have a role in nearly all deep-learning tasks carried out there. But some users also install auxiliary processors for artificial-intelligence tasks, notably chips called GPUs that rival Nvidia Corp. NVDA 0.42 % has long sold for videogames.

Intel Corp. INTC -0.54 % signaled it wants a bigger role in artificial intelligence, revealing plans to modify a line of chips to target a fast-growing market turning into a battleground for technology suppliers. The company told technology developers Wednesday that it plans next year to deliver a new version of the Xeon Phi processor--a product line previously targeted at scientific applications--with added features designed to accelerate tasks associated with what Silicon Valley calls artificial intelligence. Intel said the technology will help accelerate a technique called deep learning, increasingly used for tasks such as interpreting speech, identifying objects in photos and piloting autonomous vehicles. Intel's Xeon processors already are a fixture in data centers, and have a role in nearly all deep-learning tasks carried out there. But some users also install auxiliary processors for artificial-intelligence tasks, notably chips called GPUs that rival Nvidia Corp. NVDA -2.32 % has long sold for videogames.