Once again, the US dominates an examination of the smartest future-focused companies, but Chinese sci-tech superstars are making gains. MIT Technology Review released its list of the 50 Smartest Companies of 2017 in June. This annual list is the publication editors' "best guess as to which firms will be the dominant companies of the future" and, indeed, many of them are sitting comfortably in that position in the present. There are certainly some usual suspects featured in the full 50 – household tech names such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon all get their billing. But this is about brains, not just brawn (where brawn equates to multinational might and eyewatering revenues, in this case).

Summary Created by Alibaba (No. 41) in 2014 to operate its rapidly expanding Alipay mobile payments service, Ant Financial has staked out global ambitions, investing in financial ventures in India, Thailand, Singapore, and the U.S. The company executes over half of all mobile-payment transactions in China, with more than 450 million annual active users. Ant is building artificial intelligence into new products, including an insurance claim system that uses machine learning to process images of accidents taken on a smartphone, using them to determine how serious the damage is and begin to process the claim with an insurer. The company, which reportedly holds billions of dollars in customers' money before and after executing transactions, has also begun to offer small loans to consumers, evaluating their creditworthiness partly on the basis of their spending history.

Hot on the heels of Google, Microsoft has launched an initiative that it hopes will enable humans and artificial intelligence to complement each other more effectively. At an event in London on Wednesday, Microsoft announced that it's bringing together a new team of 100 engineers and researchers under the umbrella of Microsoft Research AI at its headquarters in Redmond, Washington. The move echoes a similar announcement earlier this week from Google (50 Smartest Companies 2017), which launched its new People AI Research (PAIR) program to try to improve the way humans and machines work with each other. For its part, Microsoft (50 Smartest Companies 2017) says it wants to focus on how AI can help fill the gaps in human intelligence, rather than simply re-creating it in silico.

Nvidia, the California-based graphics chip manufacturer and technology company, was officially crowned by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) as the smartest company in the world for its innovation in fields such as AI, deep learning and AI. The list of "smart" companies produced by MIT included some of the most innovative companies in the technology and manufacturing sectors such as SpaceX, Tesla and Amazon but according to MIT Technology Review editor David Rotman, Nvidia's explosive growth in the AI and Blockchain markets gave the firm an edge over other companies. "The list is our best guess as to which firms will be the dominant companies of the future. Amazon and Facebook and Google are on it, but so are plenty of newcomers," wrote Rotman. Jen-Hsun Huang, CEO of Nvidia, recently revealed the company's latest deep learning-specific chip the Tesla P100, which the company spent over $2 bln in research and development to manufacturing.

Editors at the MIT Technology Review recently weighed in with their annual review of the world's 50 Smartest Companies. This list celebrates the most effective pairing of innovation and business across the globe. For the first time, more than 20% of MIT's picks rely on artificial intelligence to support their business at a fundamental level, somewhat redefining what it means to be a truly "smart" company today. It's working on speech recognition intelligence called Deep Speech 2. This reduces the chance of accidents on autopilot by 50% relative to the safety record of human drivers, according to CEO Elon Musk. Now, Tesla automobiles come off the assembly line "future ready" for complete self-driving.

Editors at the MIT Technology Review recently weighed in with their annual review of the world's 50 Smartest Companies. This list celebrates the most effective pairing of innovation and business across the globe. For the first time, more than 20% of MIT's picks rely on artificial intelligence to support their business at a fundamental level, somewhat redefining what it means to be a truly "smart" company today. How many of these 13 artificial intelligence leaders are you already using? It's working on speech recognition intelligence called Deep Speech 2. This reduces the chance of accidents on autopilot by 50% relative to the safety record of human drivers, according to CEO Elon Musk.

Editors at the MIT Technology Review recently weighed in with their annual review of the world's 50 Smartest Companies. This list celebrates the most effective pairing of innovation and business across the globe. For the first time, more than 20% of MIT's picks rely on artificial intelligence to support their business at a fundamental level, somewhat redefining what it means to be a truly "smart" company today. How many of these 13 artificial intelligence leaders are you already using? It's working on speech recognition intelligence called Deep Speech 2. This reduces the chance of accidents on autopilot by 50% relative to the safety record of human drivers, according to CEO Elon Musk.

"The Silicon Review 50 Smartest Companies of the Year 2016 program identifies the companies transforming the way we work via cutting-edge technology. These companies are leading the seismic shifts that today's company leaders need to be thinking about before it's too late. We selected WorkCompass because of its unique application of artificial intelligence to improve performance appraisal, its revenue growth, customer reviews and domain influence," said Manish Pandey, Editor-in-Chief of The Silicon Review Magazine. "We are honored to be recognized by The Silicon Review Magazine as the one of the 50 Smartest Companies of the Year 2016," said Denis Coleman, Founder and CEO at WorkCompass. "In 2012, I left my job to found WorkCompass. I wanted to transform performance appraisal into an ongoing process about coaching and mentoring staff to achieve their full potential. I'm incredibly proud of what we have achieved so far at WorkCompass".