AI was already having an impact in healthcare before COVID-19 came along. Now the impact of AI in healthcare is accelerating. A harbinger of the impact of AI on the spread of COVID-19 came on New Year's Eve for 2020, when the AI platform Blue Dot registered a clutter of unusual cases in Wuhan, China. The Toronto-based company uses natural language processing and machine learning to track, locate and report on infectious disease spread. It sends alerts to its clients, which include entities in health care, government, business and public health.

Making new friends, or even catching up with old ones, can be hard enough when you're 93 years old and living in fear of the coronavirus. Which is why Chui Dip-sai has been so grateful for Temi, an Israeli-developed service robot that has become the Hong Kong nursing home resident's constant companion after city-wide lockdowns have kept family and friends away. "It is very easy to use," Chui told the Nikkei Asian Review in a video interview facilitated by the Cantonese-speaking robot on wheels. "I always talk with Temi, and I don't feel bored anymore." With a tablet-like screen for a face, and voice control powered by Google, Temi can keep Chui entertained for hours with music, videos and other diversions.

Google's next voice-activated device could be a smart speaker with a screen. Leaked photos claim to show a smart display, called the'Google Home Hub,' which features a 7-inch display mounted on top of a speaker. The photos give credence to previous rumors that Google may soon launch its own smart display. Google's next voice-activated device could be a smart speaker with a screen. For all of 2017, 35 million smart speakers were shipped worldwide, Canalys data reveals.

The Japanese investment trust market is at a turning point as popular monthly-distribution trusts have begun to see a net outflow of funds while artificial intelligence- and big data-oriented funds are attracting investors expecting high growth. Long-term investment trusts are also in a firm state in line with a growing trend toward asset-building and away from savings in Japan. In 2017, open-type investment trusts, excluding exchange-traded funds, witnessed a new inflow of funds totaling 2.71 trillion yen ($24.34 billion). With their outstanding balance continuing to increase, investment trusts are taking hold as a key asset-building tool for individuals. According to data compiled by QUICK Asset Management Research Center on fund flows for investment trust management companies, individual investors are being lured to trusts that focus on AI and other cutting-edge technologies.

SINGAPORE Nyha Shree and Joe Tusin are each drawing up plans to expand their businesses in an office opened by U.S. digital payment platform PayPal in Singapore's Marina Bay area. Joe Tusin and Nyha Shree have set up shop in PayPal's Innovation Lab. Joe Tusin and Nyha Shree have set up shop in PayPal's Innovation Lab. Both run companies that make use of artificial intelligence -- Tusin's to detect illegal remittances and Shree's to point social media users in the direction of companies that sell items they like. Moreover, both get to work in a space where they can seek help from and collaborate with PayPal employees.

For a decade or so before the market for touchscreen smartphones took off around 2010, BlackBerry's hand-held communication devices were ubiquitous among thumb-jockeying executives trying to keep in touch with the office outside working hours. After several recent failed attempts to launch new phones and operating systems to compete against Apple, Google and Samsung Electronics products, the company that "made the modern cellphone," as BlackBerry's CEO John Chen puts it, is hoping to become the main supplier of secure applications and software for the next generation of internet-linked devices -- the much- touted "internet of things" -- from web-connected self-driving cars to "smart" domestic appliances that are expected to take off over the coming decade. "It's going to be very much driven by securing end-point communications," Chen told the Nikkei Asian Review. "We want to be the number one secure communications in IoT. We have signed a deal with Ford for seven years to help them build their next generation cars."

Among the various products offered by Mitsubishi UFJ Kokusai Asset Management is AI Japan Equity Open, an investment trust launched at the beginning of February. As of March 31 it had attracted total investor assets of 10.7 billion yen ($98 million). Asked why it is selling so well, director Hideo Shirota said, "Many investors want their assets handled based on objective judgment rather than the professional sense of a fund manager." The company receives advice about the selection and timing of equity trades from Mitsubishi UFJ Trust Banking, where chief fund manager Noriyuki Okamoto, a man of over 20 years experience, and moreover, an artificial intelligence system are the brains behind the product. Arriving at the company's Tokyo head office at 8 every morning, he turns on his computer to read an AI-generated report on which equity prices will likely rise and the best timing to sell index futures.

Robots are making people redundant, and you may be next. Once a flight of fancy, we are now in an age where workers of all stripes, including professionals and white-collar workers, could be on the receiving end of pink slips thanks to robots. The debate over robots and artificial intelligence has mostly been confined to advanced economies, but the trend will no doubt have wide implications for emerging economies in Asia as well. The Nikkei and the Financial Times conducted a joint research project regarding the possible impact of automation in the workplace. Using an interactive calculator developed by the FT that draws on data from the McKinsey Global Institute, the Nikkei Asian Review looked at some jobs that Asia's workers can expect to lose to robots.

As artificial intelligence increasingly takes center stage in computer technology, large-scale orders are heading to Japan's supercomputer makers from research entities in need of the massive processing power those machines provide. Fujitsu is assembling a dedicated AI-use supercomputer for the Institute of Physical and Chemical Research, better known as Riken, which plans to start using it in April. Tokyo Institute of Technology, also known as Tokyo Tech, has ordered a large-scale system for AI-education purposes from SGI Japan, another supercomputer maker. The institute plans to introduce it in August. And industry insiders are looking forward to an even bigger opportunity: a huge AI-use supercomputer the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology, or AIST, wants to start using in 2018.

Artificial intelligence startups raised $5.02 billion worldwide in 2016 to hit a five-year high, as application of the technology expands from online services and finance to such far-ranging fields as agriculture. This trend is likely to continue through 2017, as investors scout out promising technologies and talent. AI-related startup funding rounds totaled 658 last year, up from 493 rounds in 2015, when funding reached $3.12 billion, according to U.S.-based research firm CB Insights. So-called mega-rounds are also increasing. For example, Texas-based StackPath, a startup offering AI-based cybersecurity services, took in $180 million.