A British AI startup that makes realistic video avatars has almost doubled its valuation to $4bn (£3bn), in a boost for the UK technology sector. Synthesia was valued at $2.1bn last year and moved into new offices in central London, marking the moment with a ceremony attended by the Sadiq Khan, the city's mayor, and Peter Kyle, then technology secretary. On Monday, it announced its latest funding round, led by an existing investor, Google Ventures, had raised $200m and valued the British company at $4bn. Google Ventures is the search firm's venture capital arm. Synthesia uses human actors to generate digital avatars of people and also offers employers the ability to create replicas of their staff.

OpenAI Chief Executive Officer Sam Altman said part of the reason for his current tour of European cities is to discover a suitable location for a new office. "Poland would be an interesting place," Altman said in an interview Tuesday when asked about European offices. "We want to do a research and engineering office in Europe, not a regulatory one. We are trying to figure it out. This is part of the goal of this trip."

Due to the growing demand for skilled labor, companies are using remote employees and constructing new facilities. Media reported that Midwest CEOs are contacting Silicon Valley tech employees affected by hiring restrictions and layoffs. Deere & Co. is the world's biggest tractor manufacturer, based in Illinois. After major IT layoffs, companies like Deere & Co. aggressively recruit computer specialists to create autonomous tractors, mining vehicles, and intelligent agriculture technology. Some firms are providing remote work and creating new offices in large cities like Austin and Chicago to entice employees who don't want to migrate to the small Midwestern towns where many enterprises are situated.

The Pentagon's chief information officer will also serve as the head of a new organization overseeing the Defense Department's various digital and artificial intelligence efforts, the department announced Feb. 2. DoD Chief Information Officer John Sherman will serve as the acting chief digital and artificial intelligence officer, or CDAO, a newly created office designed to oversee the Defense Digital Service, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center and the CIO office he was already leading. The new office was established to better align a number of data, analytics, digital solutions and AI efforts across the DoD. Previously, all three of those offices reported directly to the deputy defense secretary. Sherman will serve as DoD CIO and CDAO as the Pentagon continues to look for a director. "I'm honored to be able to help get this organization stood up, again, while performing my chief information officer duties and also serving as the acting CDAO," Sherman said.

Expansion to German automotive hub highlights aiMotive's growth as an automotive supplier Munich, 28, October 2021 -- aiMotive, one of the leading suppliers of automated driving technologies, has today announced the opening of a new office in Munich, Germany. Beyond supporting business operations, the new office will include a workshop to enable testing and data collection in Germany. "Munich is an important center of the European automotive industry and a transportation hub in the middle of the continent. A perfect location for our second European office," said László Kishonti, founder and CEO of aiMotive. Founded in 2015, aiMotive is one of the most funded European startups in the automated driving industry in Europe. Its comprehensive approach to addressing the key challenges of driving automation, including software, simulation, and hardware platforms, has helped it grow into a trusted automotive supplier with offices in the US, Japan, Hungary, and now Germany.

The Confederation of Laboratories for Artificial Intelligence Research in Europe (CLAIRE) has announced the launch of four new offices. These will be located in Zürich, Oslo, Paris and Brussels and will complement the existing offices in The Hague, Prague, Rome and Saarbrücken. There will be a launch roadshow beginning on 26 May which will take the form of a series of virtual events. For each event, the offices will invite national and international speakers, including government representatives and panellists from various areas of AI, to talk about topics related to the designated focus area of the respective office. Each CLAIRE Office has its own focus in supporting work on current topics around European and human-centred AI research, AI for good and AI for all.

On Friday, September 6, 2019, Secretary of Energy Rick Perry announced the formal establishment of DOE's Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office. Chief Technology Officer of the United States, Michael Kratsios: "Under Secretary Perry's leadership, the Department of Energy is critical to our Nation's success in the development and application of artificial intelligence. I commend the Secretary for establishing the Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office to coordinate DOE's vast AI efforts and carry out the mission of the Trump Administration's national strategy for American leadership in AI." Representative Bill Foster (D-IL): "Developments in artificial intelligence are at the forefront of technological innovations that are changing our country and our world. The Department of Energy and our world-class national laboratories are leading the way, including in the district I represent, where Argonne National Laboratory is building the world's most advanced supercomputer to power the use of AI for everything from responding to climate change, to fighting cancer, and ensuring our nation's security. DOE's new Artificial Intelligence and Technology Office will play a crucial role in coordinating the work being done in AI and provide support for the researchers across DOE who are on the frontlines of this transformative work. I applaud Secretary Perry for continuing DOE's long history of scientific leadership by establishing this new office, and I look forward to working in Congress to support AITO's work, as well as the continued technological leadership of our national labs."

The Seattle-based company announced Tuesday that it will bring 2,000 new technology jobs into the city in fields that include robotics, cloud computing and machine learning. The expansion would more than double the current number of workers it has in Boston.

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Amazon has reiterated its commitment to the UK by opening a new so-called Development Centre in the heart of Cambridge – three storeys of premium office space housing 400 employees dedicated to research for products from Amazon's AI-assistant Alexa to the brave new field of Prime Air drone deliveries. The new development joins Amazon's original Castle Park building in Cambridge to house an interdisciplinary team of engineers, scientists and researchers – dubbed Amazon Research Cambridge – dedicated to "pure innovation", according to Amazon's UK boss, Doug Gurr. "The UK has fantastic history of innovation, with hundreds of years at the absolute cutting edge of innovation, and that continues to be true today," said Gurr. "When picking a site for a development centre you have to start with where you find the world's best scientists, engineers and technologists. But it also has to be somewhere that people want to come and live. Cambridge is a fabulous town where people want to live and work."