China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, in collaboration with 14 other government departments, revealed how it will continue to grow the country's robotics industry in its 14th five-year plan. China's five-year plans are a series of social and economic development initiatives that have been issued by the Chinese government since 1953. The document lays out several smaller goals for the Chinese robotics industry before 2025, but the overarching goal is to make China a key source of global robotics innovation. The government also expects the average annual growth rate of operating income in the robotics industry to exceed 20%. A study by the Center for Security and Emerging Technology published in November 2021 found that China is the global leader in the total number of robotics patents issued.

China is looking to boost research into what it calls "frontier technology" including quantum computing and semiconductors, as it competes with the U.S. for supremacy in the latest innovations. In its five-year development plan, the 14th of its kind, Beijing said it would make "science and technology self-reliance and self-improvement a strategic pillar for national development," according to a CNBC translation. Premier Li Keqiang said on Friday that China would increase research and development spending by more than 7% per year between 2021 and 2025, in pursuit of "major breakthroughs" in technology. China's technology champions such as Huawei and SMIC have been targeted by U.S. sanctions as tensions between Beijing and Washington have ramped up in the past few years. As such, China has concentrated on boosting its domestic expertise in areas it sees as strategically important, such as semiconductors.

The provincial government is putting $100 million toward a five-year plan to entice high-tech companies specializing in artificial intelligence (AI) to invest in Alberta. The province believes the funding will net 5,600 high-skill jobs, more than 100 new companies and dozens of new multi-national offices and labs in the province, Premier Rachel Notley said Wednesday at an announcement in Calgary. "High tech is the future and we making it happen right here in Alberta," she said. An initial investment of $27 million in the Alberta Machine Intelligence Institute (Amii) will see the non-profit set up a new program to support companies looking to build up their in-house AI capacity. The provincial funding, combined with $25 million from Ottawa, will also allow the Edmonton-based Amii to establish a new Calgary office, a release said.

Construction on a brand new Universal Studios in Beijing is underway! Estimated at about 300 acres large, the theme park and neighboring resort will include attractions from other Universal theme parks as well as new attractions that reflects China's cultural heritage. Universal Studio's first theme park in China also aims to be a "smart city" in its development and management, and it will be constructed with the help of advanced technologies such as Building Information Modelling (BIM), augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR), and artificial intelligence. In fact, Autodesk and BSH Investment recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) to explore the use of VR, human and machine interaction and Autodesk's Forge platform for the development of the world-class tourist destination. The use of advanced technologies in the construction of Universal Studios Beijing is aligned with China's 13th Five-Year Plan.

A silicon wafer designed to sort particles found in bodily fluids for the purpose of early disease detection. A chip that can diagnose a potentially fatal condition faster than the best lab in the country, a camera that can see so deeply into a pill it can tell if its molecular structure has more in common with a real or counterfeit tablet, and a system that can help identify if a patient has a mental illness just from the words they use: IBM is betting that a mix of AI and new hardware can make all three possible within the coming years. IBM's research labs are already working on turning these concepts into fully-fledged healthcare tools, combining the company's existing machine learning and artificial intelligence systems with newer kit including revamped silicon and millimetre wave phased array sensors. Playing House: How IBM's Watson is helping doctors diagnose the most rare and elusive illnesses Marburg Hospital's Centre for the Rare and Undiagnosed Diseases is using the cognitive computing system to solve some of the most complex medical cases. The latter will be used in'hyperimaging systems' -- tools that will be able to pick up not only images from the visible light that humans can see, but other parts of the electromagnetic spectrum that we can't.