ROBUST, a new initiative by the Innovation Center for Artificial Intelligence (ICAI), is supported by the University of Amsterdam and 51 government, industry and knowledge-sector partners. The programme aims to strengthen the Dutch artificial intelligence (AI) ecosystem by boosting fundamental AI research. ROBUST focuses primarily on the development of trustworthy AI technology for the resolution of socially relevant issues, such as those in healthcare, logistics, media, food and energy. The research sponsor, the Dutch Research Council (NWO) has earmarked an extra 25 million euros for the programme for the next 10 years. ROBUST unites 17 knowledge institutions, 19 participating industry sponsors and 15 civil-social organisations from across the Netherlands.

The cornerstone of collaboration is based on knowledge transfer; sharing of research tools, methodologies and findings; and sometimes combining mutual funding resources to meet shortfalls necessary to build prototypes and commercialize technologies. Collaborations often involve combinations of government, industry and academia who work together to meet difficult challenges and cultivate new ideas. A growing trend for many leading companies is creating technology specific innovation centers, labs, and foundries to accelerate collaboration and invention. As the development of new technologies continues to grow exponentially and globally, collaboration has more value as a resource for adapting to the rapidly emerging technologies landscape by establishing pivotal connections between companies, technologies and stakeholders. In the US Federal government, the National Labs (including: Lawrence Livermore, Oak Ridge, Argonne, Sandia, Idaho National Laboratory, Battelle, and Brookhaven, and Federally Funded Research and Development Centers (FFRDC's), and federally funded Centers For Excellence have been outlets for innovation and public/private cooperation.

Three years ago, Amazon's HQ2 competition showed the world just how many local politicians would happily sell their first-born child if it meant bringing tech jobs to their community. Hundreds of cities and regions made bids to land the everything store's new headquarters, offering all manner of subsidies and perks to one of the most powerful corporations on Earth with the hope that, by the grace of Jeff Bezos, they could one day become the next Seattle. Most of them never had a chance. Amazon largely ignored the offers from midsized contenders, instead selecting New York City and the Virginia suburbs outside of Washington, D.C., places with already-flourishing tech scenes where it would be easy to recruit talent. Although Amazon also promised to put a smaller office in Nashville, the outcome was a stark illustration of how, left to its own devices, the tech industry would likely continue concentrating itself in a handful of already-rich cities.

As vice president of innovation at logistics company DHL, Gina Chung oversees a 28,000-square-foot innovation facility in Chicago. Fascinated with supply chains since college ("I think it's something to do with the fact that I'm from New Zealand and grew up in a pretty isolated part of the world," she explains), she spearheads AI and robotics projects focused on front-line operations -- like automated pallet inspection and stacking, delivery route optimization, and aircraft utilization. Your reviews are essential to the success of Me, Myself, and AI. For a limited time, we're offering a free download of MIT SMR's best articles on artificial intelligence to listeners who review the show. Send your review screenshot to smrfeedback@mit.edu to receive the download. Gina Chung is vice president, Innovation Americas, at DHL, where she is responsible for DHL's Americas Innovation Center, a purpose-built platform to engage customers, startups, and industries on the future of logistics. She manages a portfolio of projects focused on the rapid testing and adoption of technologies such as collaborative robotics and artificial intelligence across logistics operations. Gina notes that "the first day for AI is the worst day": The technology improves with human input over time, achieving accuracy to a level where people trust and embrace it. She describes how success requires closely collaborating with key stakeholders, integrating change management, bringing teams along when introducing new technology, and designing solutions with the end user in mind.

The Las Vegas self-driving shuttle is one of many smart cities projects. Welcome to Las Vegas, city of smart lights, self-driving shuttles and startups. Away from the glittering, casino-strewn area known as the Strip is a far more pedestrian-looking area. It's just a 15-minute drive from Las Vegas Boulevard, but it feels like a different world. It's quiet downtown, because while the Strip was thronging with 200,000 extra visitors for CES 2020 last week, the streets here were cold and empty.

"The light bulb was not created by continuously improving the candle." As artificial intelligence and machine learning sweep the global economy, we find innovations from the last century becoming increasingly obsolete. In fact, the world is changing so rapidly that almost every facet of human life has been disrupted -- some more than others. Technology has revolutionized the way we communicate, undertake research, learn, interact with other people, work, travel, access healthcare, and enjoy leisurely activities. According to a report published by Tech Nation,[1] the US is the global leader in technology investments, accounting for 49% (or $149 billion) of the capital raised by tech scale-ups over the last four years (Chinese scale-ups raised 20%).

How exciting is our industry right now? You might say I'm easily excited, and I'd probably agree, because I just love this stuff, especially when we are talking manufacturing and more. But really, if you take a look at what's happening with AI (artificial intelligence), machine learning, robotics, automation, 5G, blockchain, autonomous vehicles, AR (augmented reality), VR (virtual reality), and all of their enterprise applications … it is truly a great time to be in tech. Innovation is our lifeblood in this industry. As you and I both know, tech often seems to happen at the speed of light.

Infosys has opened a digital innovation center in Dusseldorf, Germany, to use the local talent and shrink the IT skills gaps in Europe. The new innovation center will help Infosys to work closely with its clients in the region and support their digital transformation journey. The center will focus on cloud-based services, 5G, Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Internet of Things, notes announcement. Infosys revealed that the innovation center would serve as a link between the businesses and some of the leading educational establishments in Germany to reduce the skills gap in the region. Executive Opinion Chief Operating Officer, Infosys, Pravin Rao, said, "This investment in Germany builds on Infosys' long-standing commitment to Europe, our investment in developing a highly-skilled workforce, and our focus on achieving breakthrough innovation for our clients. Dusseldorf is at the vanguard of technological innovation, with a highly skilled labor supply, productivity, social, legal, and regulatory credentials. The new center, along with our strategic academic partnerships, will help us build the next generation of technology talent."

Hosted at Dubai Technology Entrepreneur Campus (Dtec), DSOA's wholly owned tech incubation centre, Intel Innovation Centre is set to become a hub for future technological development in the region that will feature Artificial Intelligence, AI, Blockchain, Video analytics and Autonomous Driving. D. Juma Al Matrooshi, Deputy CEO of DSOA, officially inaugurated the Innovation Centre along with Taha Khalifa, Client Computing Sales Director and EMEA Territory GCC Country lead at Intel Corporation, in the presence of Muammar Al Katheeri, Executive Vice President of Engineering and Smart City at DSOA, Steven Long, Vice President Sales and Marketing Group & GM of CCG Sales at Intel, and senior officials from the two entities as well as Intel's business partners. Al Katheeri said, "Four years ago, we launched with Intel the region's first Internet of Things (IoT) ignition lab that has already added significant value to tech start-ups and entrepreneurs in the UAE. Today we celebrate our partnership with Intel as we step forward together into a new milestone through the inauguration of the Intel Innovation Center that has found an ideal home at DSO. With its dynamic mix of business partners and boasting an environment that fosters the entrepreneurial spirit, DSO continues to push the boundaries of technological innovation."

The 2019 World Artificial Intelligence Conference (WAIC) is being held in China's economic hub Shanghai from Thursday to Saturday in a bid to boost AI cooperation and innovation globally. With the theme of "Intelligent Connectivity, Infinite Possibilities," this year's event will focus on AI-enabled high-quality development to cope with the common problems in human development and to create a better life for mankind. Two summit forums are scheduled to be held on Thursday, where governors, representatives from international organizations, leading scientists and entrepreneurs discuss the development of the AI industry and the frontier of science to seek high-quality development, application and governance. Over 50 percent of those guest speakers on the forums are from overseas. Twelve themed forums will also be held covering topics such as education, intelligent algorithm, chip and smart hardware, unmanned driving and 5G AI.