Is AI delivering as promised? Last week, I was at the AI Summit in New York (as co-chair and presenter), and I am happy to report that everyone is now comfortable and excited about artificial intelligence. Okay, sorry, that's a skewed sample of people who naturally would be comfortable and excited about AI -- data scientists, AI developers, AI vendors, and the like. For mainstream business leaders and professionals, comfort with and acceptance of AI is a tad bit more muddled. Maybe there are fewer misgivings as AI develops and proves its worthiness, but people are still nervous about it.

Understanding the factors of network formation is a fundamental aspect in the study of social dynamics. Online activity provides us with abundance of data that allows us to reconstruct and study social networks. Statistical inference methods are often used to study network formation. Ideally, statistical inference allows the researcher to study the significance of specific factors to the network formation. One popular framework is known as Exponential Random Graph Models (ERGM) which provides principled and statistically sound interpretation of an observed network structure.

Planck Re, a startup that wants to simplify insurance underwriting with artificial intelligence, announced today that it has raised a $12 million Series A. The funding was led by Arbor Ventures, with participation from Viola FinTech and Eight Roads. Co-founder and CEO Elad Tsur tells TechCrunch that the capital will be used to expand Planck Re's product line into more segments, including retail, contractors, IT and manufacturing, and grow its research and development team in Israel and North American sales team. The Tel Aviv and New York-based startup plans to focus first on its business in the United States, where it has already launched pilot programs with several insurance carriers. Tsur says that Planck Re's clients generally use it to help underwrite insurance for small to medium-sized businesses, including business owner policies, which cover property and liability risks, and workers' compensation. Founded in 2016 by Tsur, Amir Cohen and David Schapiro, Planck Re poses its technology as a more efficient and accurate alternative to the lengthy risk assessment questionnaire insurers ask clients to fill out.