Esports franchise Team NRG cut ties Thursday with pro player Nairoby Quezada, who plays competitive Super Smash Bros. under the handle Nairo. In a Twitlonger post early Thursday morning, another Smash player, Zack "Captain Zack" Lauth, accused Quezada of sexual misconduct at a 2017 tournament event in Orlando, Florida. Lauth alleges the incident occurred when Quezada was 20 and Lauth was 15, and that Quezada and his brother subsequently paid Lauth money to keep quiet.

Unbeknownst to the CEO of a company who was interviewed on TV last year, a hacking group that was trailing the CEO taped the interview and then taught a computer to perfectly imitate the CEO's voice -- so it could then give credible instructions for a wire transfer of funds to a third party. This "voice phishing" hack brought to light the growing abilities of artificial intelligence-based technologies to perpetuate cyber-attacks and cyber-crime. Using new AI-based software, hackers have imitated the voices of a number of senior company officials around the world and thereby given out instructions to perform transactions for them, such as money transfers. The software can learn how to perfectly imitate a voice after just 20 minutes of listening to it and can then speak with that voice and say things that the hacker types into the software. Get The Start-Up Israel's Daily Start-Up by email and never miss our top stories Free Sign Up Some of these attempts were foiled, but other hackers were successful in getting their hands on money.

Cardiovascular disease is the leading cause of death globally. According to the World Health Organization, approximately 31% of all global deaths occur due to cardiovascular diseases (CV) diseases, with coronary heart disease being the most common type. Four out of five CV disease deaths are due to heart attacks and strokes. However, early detection, and preventive measures and management including lifestyle and diet modification and proper treatment for CV diseases can significantly reduce morbidity and mortality. Meanwhile, researchers are developing tools to help identify the probability of CV diseases, harnessing the power of artificial intelligence (AI).

Move aside traditional bankers, Humanoid Robots are here! As customers embrace new technology, banks are also trying to meet client expectations by digitizing their operations with the help of latest technology including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual assistance. So, for the first time in the United States, HSBC Holdings HSBC has unveiled seven humanoid robots -- Pepper -- at its flagship Fifth Avenue branch in New York. Developed by SoftBank Robotics Group, the humanoid robots are expected to reduce wait time at branches, assist and encourage customers to use available technical tools and platforms, and make clients aware of HSBC products and services. All these efforts are expected to draw more business.

Move aside traditional bankers, Humanoid Robots are here! As customers embrace new technology, banks are also trying to meet client expectations by digitizing their operations with the help of latest technology including artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual assistance. So, for the first time in the United States, HSBC Holdings (HSBC - Free Report) has unveiled seven humanoid robots -- Pepper -- at its flagship Fifth Avenue branch in New York. Developed by SoftBank Robotics Group, the humanoid robots are expected to reduce wait time at branches, assist and encourage customers to use available technical tools and platforms, and make clients aware of HSBC products and services. All these efforts are expected to draw more business.

Visa Canada, a unit of Visa Inc. V, recently announced a strategic collaboration with Finn Al, to add new stimulus to its conversational banking chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI), powered by the Visa Developer Platform. Stocks to Consider Investors interested in the Financial Transaction Services industry might take a look at some better-ranked stocks, namely Cardtronics plc CATM and WEX Inc. WEX, both sporting a Zacks Rank #1 (Strong Buy). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank stocks here . Cardtronics offers automated consumer financial services through its network of automated teller machines (ATMs) and multi-function financial services kiosks. The company managed to come up with an average four-quarter positive surprise of 27.17%.

Over the past several years, many of Wall Street's hottest stocks came from the world of technology. Household names such as Netflix, Amazon and Facebook emerged as top performers and helped send broader markets higher. However, where these stocks once promised ludicrous growth now stands increased competition and industry maturity. The trends of yesterday -- including video streaming, e-commerce and social media -- remain promising, but they are no longer the upstart segments they once were. But investors looking for the next high-growth opportunity may look no further than a brand-new trend that has the chance to expand exponentially over the coming years.

On today's episode of the Tech Talk Tuesday podcast, Ryan McQueeney kicks off the first piece of his three-part series on artificial intelligence by defining the terms investors need to know before adding exposure to AI and highlighting some of the key concepts and questions surrounding AI research. Remember to subscribe and leave a rating on Apple Podcasts if you enjoy the show! Artificial intelligence is one of the hottest topics in the technology sector, but not every interested tech investor has the understanding of the subject necessary to secure solid profits. In the first part of this series, Ryan McQueeney focuses on key AI vocabulary to help those interested in learning more about the subject. What is the difference between AI and machine learning? Why do scientists seem so obsessed with general intelligence?

Broadcom Limited AVGO recently announced the first-ever silicon-proven 7nm intellectual property (IP) targeting application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) platform for deep learning and networking. Higher dollar content at the company's large North American smartphone customer's (Apple) next-gen platform (iPhone) is also a positive for the company. Robust industrial re-sales are also tailwinds. Notably, the company's recent acquisition of Brocade Communications Systems is expected to boost Broadcom's position in the storage area networking space. The latter has already turned down the recent takeover bid of $130-billion (includes $25 billion of net debt) on grounds of inadequacy as it is currently a leading player in the chipset market. However, the company is planning to raise the bid amount for Qualcomm, per Reuters.

Microsoft Corp. MSFT recently announced the launch of Microsoft Research AI lab. It will focus on obstacles faced in the field of artificial intelligence (AI). Based at Microsoft's headquarters in Redmond, WA, the research lab will involve more than 100 scientists related to various subfields including natural language processing, machine learning, visual perception and decision making, among others. Notably, the AI technologies used today are dedicated to specific tasks. Microsoft's idea is to combine these and form a single AI technology that will have a cognitive approach.