Last Thursday, Senators Elizabeth Warren and Eric Schmitt introduced a bill aimed at stirring up more competition for Pentagon contracts awarded in AI and cloud computing. Amazon, Microsoft, Google, and Oracle currently dominate those contracts. "The way that the big get bigger in AI is by sucking up everyone else's data and using it to train and expand their own systems," Warren told the Washington Post. The new bill would "require a competitive award process" for contracts, which would ban the use of "no-bid" awards by the Pentagon to companies for cloud services or AI foundation models. While Big Tech is hit with antitrust investigations--including the ongoing lawsuit against Google about its dominance in search, as well as a new investigation opened into Microsoft--regulators are also accusing AI companies of, well, just straight-up lying.

A reimagined version of Mattel Electronics' Intellivision is scheduled to be released this fall. To help put the finishing touches on the Amico game console, Intellivision Entertainment -- a separate entity than Mattel that owns the Intellivision brand -- has hired J. Allard as the company's global managing director. Allard is one of the fathers of Microsoft's Xbox division, having served as chief experience officer and chief technology officer. He helped launch the original Xbox, Xbox Live, the Xbox 360 and Xbox Live Arcade. Intellivision is hoping that the exec's success carries over to its family-friendly console. It's not clear which aspects of the console Allard will be helping to improve, but his industry knowledge could be a benefit.

Personal Note: I'm really honored to share this conversation. I really hope you enjoy listening to it as much as I enjoyed talking to Dr. Marc Lanctot. In this interview, they talk all about Research at DeepMind, Deep Learning Research, AlphaGo. They also talk all about Swift For Tensorflow and OpenSpiel. Dr. Marc Lanctot is a research scientist at Google DeepMind.

Facial recognition software is making its way into the mainstream, with consumer applications such as the ability to unlock one's smartphone with their face. The banking sector has been at the forefront of enterprise adoption of AI since machine learning became the hot topic of the business world in the early years of the decade; as such, it makes sense that facial recognition technology would start to make its way into banking. There are a handful of companies offering facial recognition software to banks that at face value seem to have the requisite talent in their C-suite that we look for when vetting a company on their claims to leveraging AI. These companies offer software with applications ranging from physical security to the ability for customers to make withdrawals with their faces. That said, what we've found is that the application is relatively nascent in banking.

Intellivision, the video game maker that didn't survive the '80s, is back and ready to build something new on top of gaming nostalgia. After teasing the idea earlier this year, the company has announced plans for a new console called the Amico -- one part retro console and one part family-friendly modern gaming system. Intellivision plans to release it with a mix of classic titles and new originals in 2020. The Amico shares some similarities with the standard retro console release. It will supposedly play a slew of classic titles that '80s babies might remember playing through on their living room TV.

IntelliVision, a pioneer and leader in AI/Deep Learning video analytics software for smart cameras, announced today that it has been named the 2017 Entrepreneurial Company of the Year for Security Intelligence and Video Analytics by leading analyst firm Frost & Sullivan. "Video analytics and intelligence functions will remain the most in-demand security technology segment for customers looking to modernize their security operations and increase overall efficiency," said Danielle VanZandt, security industry analyst with Frost & Sullivan. "IntelliVision's advanced analytics and intelligence technologies, coupled with its ability to deploy inside the camera, on-premise servers, or on the cloud put it well ahead of its competition in this field." "We are honored to receive this award from Frost & Sullivan," said Vaidhi Nathan, IntelliVision's CEO. "It is a vindication of our many years of research, development and customer service in the growing field of AI-based video analytics for smart cameras." To receive this award, an organization must be on a growth path for success and must be best-in-class in three key areas: understanding demand, nurturing the brand, and differentiating from the competition.