"AI" may be a hot buzzword – and a global market expected to grow to nearly $310 billion by 2026 – but what exactly does artificial intelligence mean? The definition of AI can be a willowy one to pin down because its application is so broad and ranging in degree of complexity, scope, algorithmic underpinnings and methodologies used. For these reasons, there is an increased call for a more advanced, specific definition of AI beyond "the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines." Some consider the AI next step – and ultimate evolution – to be cognitive computing. "It's such a vast amorphic term that AI has come to mean right now," said Stephen DeAngelis, founder and CEO of Enterra Solutions.

Cambridge startup AdeptID, formed last year to build an AI-backed talent-matching service for companies, announced a seed funding round on Thursday. The eight-person company raised $3.5 million in a deal led by Zeal Capital Partners and including Better Ventures, Boston nonprofit JFF's Employment Technology Fund, and other angel investors. AdeptID's software is designed to help companies find workers who have the proper skills for a job opening even if they lack the seemingly required experience or credentials, such as a college degree. Cofounders Fernando Rodriguez-Villa and Brian DeAngelis met at agriculture tech startup Indigo Ag, which acquired Rodriguez-Villa's previous startup, TellusLabs, in 2018. The pair both "had enough of a screw loose required to go and start something new," Rodriguez-Villa, now CEO of AdeptID, said.

Entertainment companies are entering the Age of Data, where they'll have access to more information than ever about their products, their audiences and how to create, market and distribute one to the other. Now, those companies and their leadership have to be ready to embrace the coming huge opportunities, especially as data-driven competitors such as Netflix, MoviePass and Amazon transform the industry. That was one message this morning from Stephen F. DeAngelis, CEO and founder of AI provider Enterra Solutions, speaking before a group of Hollywood technology executives in Beverly Hills. He noted wryly that Hollywood has portrayed AI technologies in dark or at least complicated ways over the years, from the murderous HAL 9000 in 2001: A Space Odyssey to the world-ending SkyNet in the Terminator films to the runaway AIs of Ex Machina and Her. We're quite a ways still from AI with that kind of power and autonomy, DeAngelis said, but he cautioned that people think of AI tools in overly limited ways.

The simplest way to eliminate the spread of fake news would be to limit ourselves to a small group of mainstream publishers who do all their own reporting and fact-checking. The counterargument, of course, is that an open and democratic society allows for a wide range of voices, not just the ones a small cabal of editors deem acceptable. Fake news promises to destroy this system and undermine trust and democracy, which is why addressing fake news has become one of the tech industry's most significant and important challenges. His initial focus, post-9/11, was on national security, which is how he first become intrigued by the advantages AI offers in analyzing complex data sets. As 2017's fake news scandals grew, DeAngelis was approached by leading media industry veteran Greg D'Alba, CEO of VIDL News, to apply the same type of analysis Enterra was using to control the complex value chains of Fortune 500 companies to the media industry, where D'Alba saw a growing need to verify and validate news stories.

A trio of teens was charged with a violent plot to "kill everyone and anyone" at their Michigan middle school, according to court records. Lapeer County Assistant Prosecutor David Campbell read chilling words allegedly written by Gunnar Rice in Lapper County District Court on Monday, detailed what he allegedly planned to undertake at Zemmer Middle School in Lapeer, a city of roughly 8,000 about 20 miles east of Flint. Rice, 14, wrote that he wanted to "exterminate all the [expletive] animals at this school," Campbell said during Monday's arraignment, MLive.com "We'll kill everyone and anyone of our choosing." Rice was charged as an adult on charges of conspiracy to commit first-degree murder, using computers to commit a crime, conspiracy to commit terrorism and a false report of terrorism.