Zetta Venture Partners, a B2B, AI-focused venture outfit, announced a new $180 million fund. As new VC funds are anecdotally a bit thinner on the ground these days -- and because we're in the midst of economic upheaval, which is changing investing patterns and shaking up startup verticals -- I got on the phone with Zetta's Jocelyn Goldfein (a TechCrunch regular) to chat about what her firm is doing and what's up with AI investing. Zetta's new fund is about 50% larger than its preceding capital pool, which was roughly double its first fund. If you don't want to do the math, Zetta's first fund was worth $60 million, and its second $125 million. Zetta will invest in B2B-focused, AI-powered seed-stage startups like it has before, but with more capital.

Air Force officials said the recent release of the branch's Artificial Intelligence Strategy emphasizes the importance of artificial intelligence capabilities to 21st-century missions. "The Air Force is charged to provide the nation with Air and Space Superiority, Global Strike, Rapid Global Mobility, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and Command Control," Matthew Donovan, acting secretary of the Air Force, and Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein said in the dual-signed annex. "Al is a capability that will underpin our ability to compete, deter, and win across all five of these diverse missions. It is crucial to fielding tomorrow's Air Force faster and smarter, executing multi-domain operations in the high-end fight, confronting threats below the level of open conflict, and partnering with our allies around the globe." The effort provides definition, context, and purpose for artificial intelligence in the Air Force and is the annex to the Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy.

The Air Force released the Artificial Intelligence Strategy Sept. 12, highlighting the importance of artificial intelligence capabilities to 21st century missions. The strategy provides definition, context and purpose for artificial intelligence in the Air Force, and is the service's annex to the Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy. "The Air Force is charged to provide the nation with Air and Space Superiority, Global Strike, Rapid Global Mobility, Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance and Command Control," said Acting Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Donovan and Air Force Chief of Staff General David Goldfein in the dual-signed annex. "Al is a capability that will underpin our ability to compete, deter and win across all five of these diverse missions. It is crucial to fielding tomorrow's Air Force faster and smarter, executing multi-domain operations in the high-end fight, confronting threats below the level of open conflict and partnering with our allies around the globe." The strategy serves as the framework for aligning Air Force efforts with the National Defense Strategy and the Department of Defense Artificial Intelligence Strategy as executed by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center.

Artificial intelligence is quickly becoming a foundational technology for enterprise software development and startups have begun addressing a variety of issues around using AI to make software and processes much more efficient. To that end, we are delighted to announce that Jocelyn Goldfein, a Managing Director at Zetta Venture Partners will be joining on us a panel to discuss AI in the enterprise. It will take place at the TechCrunch Sessions: Enterprise show on September 5 at the Yerba Buena Center in San Francisco. It's not just startups that are involved in AI in the enterprise. Some of the biggest names in enterprise software including Salesforce Einstein, Adobe Sensei and IBM Watson have been addressing the need for AI to help solve the enterprise data glut.

Leaders of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines are converging on a vision of the future military: connecting every asset on the global battlefield. That means everything from F-35 jets overhead to the destroyers on the sea to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the multiplying devices in every troops' pockets. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. The effect: an unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world's most sophisticated weaponry. In recent months, the Joint Chiefs of Staff put together the newest version of their National Military Strategy.

The Air Force is hoping advances in artificial intelligence mean the abundance of data from its aircraft, weapons and satellites will be easier to access and analyze. "There's certainly a data aspect piece" of artificial intelligence, Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen "Seve" Wilson said Monday. "I think we all would agree, maybe, that data is the'renewable oil' of the 21st century," Wilson said during the Future of War conference hosted by New America and Arizona State University. "With that data, we have to be able to have the right algorithms that connect the data, and understand the data, to a network. I think the cloud's a part of this, and I think'compute on the edge' is a part of this," he said, referencing a streamlined approach to avoid stovepiping information flow needed at the speed of war.

Russia claims it has developed powerful lasers to fire at enemy satellites in orbit. The plane-mounted lasers form part of an anti-satellite system that also involves both radar and ground-based components, reports claim. The news comes after a US Air Force chief warned yesterday that space warfare could break out between superpower nations'within years'. The system includes a laser mounted onto an aircraft as well as relevant ground control gear and radar that will help the device to find targets. The US Navy is also developing laser weapons, including this anti-drone'active laser' that will be mounted onto warships According to an anonymous source quoted by Russian news agency Interfax, weapons maker Almaz-Antey has'completed work on an anti-satellite complex'.

Leaders of the Air Force, Navy, Army and Marines are converging on a vision of the future military: connecting every asset on the global battlefield. That means everything from F-35 jets overhead to the destroyers on the sea to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the multiplying devices in every troops' pockets. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. The effect: an unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world's most sophisticated weaponry. In recent months, the Joint Chiefs of Staff put together the newest version of their National Military Strategy.

The US's military leaders have agreed on a strategy to guarantee the US military retains its global dominance during the twenty-first century: Connect everything with everything, as DefenseOne describes it. An unimaginably large cephapoloidal nervous system armed with the world's most advanced weaponry, and in control of all military equipment belonging to the world's most powerful army. A networked military – an extreme take on the "internet of things" - would connect everything from F-35 jets to the Navy's destroyers to the armor of the tanks crawling over the land to the devices carried by soldiers – every weapon would be connected. Every weapon, vehicle, and device connected, sharing data, constantly aware of the presence and state of every other node in a truly global network. Of course, the development of these "smart" weapons should unnerve Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has repeatedly warned that AI and machine learning poses a greater threat to the future of the US than North Korea.

To illustrate his position, he used the example of the MH17 plane crash. "When the Russians shot down the airliner, and we were searching for the smoking gun, we found it a month later -- on Facebook," the general said at an Air Force Association breakfast in Washington Wednesday, according to DefenseTech.com. Goldfein pointed the finger at Russia for the crash, as though the Netherlands have already made a conclusion as to who shot the Buk missile that brought the plane down (which they have not). "We found posted pictures on Russian blog sites that actually showed the activity, but it took us a month to figure that out," Goldfein said, leaning on social media as a source of reliable information, even though investigation of the MH17 catastrophe is still going on and it is hampered by "a great deal of disinformation and attempts to discredit the investigation," Dutch Foreign Minister Bert Koenders said in a statement earlier in July, according to France 24. Discussing a trip to the offices of the Bloomberg news agency, he reportedly asked a technician to perform a Twitter search on violent extremist activity over the last 48 hours, and the system actually mapped the relevant tweets on a map.