Intel's Mobileye, the AI and self-driving feature the blue giant acquired last year for a cool $15.3 billion, has just announced, via an exclusive report to Reuters, that they've secured a contract to provide some 8 million self-driving systems to an European automaker. The deal is a future-focused one, and will see, by 2021, distribution for Intel's EyeQ5 chip, which is designed for fully autonomous driving - an upgrade to the EyeQ4 that will be rolled out in the coming weeks, Reuters reports, according to senior vice president for advanced development and strategy at Mobileye Erez Dagan.

Amnon Shashua, Mobileye's chief executive, said that "By the end of 2019, we expect over 100,000 Level 3 cars [where the car is self-driving but still allows for user intervention should the system be unable to progress for more than 10 seconds] with Mobileye installed." This deal is sure to make Intel even more of a player in the automotive space, where NVIDIA and a number of other high-profile companies have been making strides in recent years.

The potential impact of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has never been greater - but we'll only be successful if AI can deliver smarter and more intuitive answers. A key barrier to AI today is that natural data fed to a computer is largely unstructured and "noisy."

It's easy for humans to sort through natural data. For example: If you are driving a car on a residential street and see a ball roll in front of you, you would stop, assuming there is a small child not far behind that ball. Computers today don't do this. They are built to assist humans with precise productivity tasks. Making computers efficient at dealing with probabilities at scale is central to our ability to transform current systems and applications from advanced computational aids into intelligent partners for understanding and decision-making.

The White House today is hosting executives from 38 companies for a grueling, embattled day of trying to move through the as of yet murky waters of AI development. The meeting, which includes representatives from Microsoft, Intel, Google, Amazon, Pfizer, and Ford, among others, aims to gather thoughts and ideas on how to supercharge AI development in a sustainable, safe, and cost-effective way.

Fields such as agriculture, healthcare and transportation are being spearheaded as areas of interest (military applications, obviously, are being discussed elsewhere). The Washington Post quotes Michael Kratsios, deputy chief technology officer at the White House, as saying in a recent interview that "Whether you're a farmer in Iowa, an energy producer in Texas, a drug manufacturer in Boston, you are going to be using these techniques to drive your business going forward."

VIA Technologies, Inc., today announced the launch of the VIA Edge AI Developer Kit, a highly-integrated package powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 820E Embedded Platform that simplifies the design, testing, and deployment of intelligent Edge AI systems and devices.

The kit combines the VIA SOM-9X20 SOM Module and SOMDB2 Carrier Board with a 13MP camera module that is optimized for intelligent real-time video capture, processing, and edge analysis. Edge AI application development is enabled by an Android 8.0 BSP, which includes support for the Snapdragon Neural Processing Engine (NPE) and full acceleration of the Qualcomm Hexagon DSP, Qualcomm Adreno 530 GPU, or Qualcomm Kryo CPU to power AI applications. A Linux BSP based on Yocto 2.0.3 is set to be released in June this year.

Microsoft at its Build conference today announced one of the better use cases for AI yet: to empower those with disabilities. Dubbed the AI for Accessibility Initiative, this Microsoft program will see $25 million dollars being deployed across five years to further research and development to specifically target challenges faced by people with disabilities in three key areas: human connection, employment and modern life. The $25 million budget will be used by Microsoft as seed grants for developers, universities, institutions and other Microsoft partners, with the Redmond-based Microsoft pledging to also further invest - and scale up - development for key promising ideas that are birthed from this project. The AI bit comes from its implementation in inclusive design scenarios, scaling it up through platforms, services, and different solutions.

Further, Microsoft will help partners include accessibility solutions on their products, which could allow for a base model for accessibility technologies on families of products. Microsoft President Brad Smith said there are about a billion people around the world with some kind of disability, either temporary or permanent, and it's for these people, and those that will come after, that Microsoft is committing to this investment.

At Adobe Summit, Adobe and NVIDIA today announced a strategic partnership to rapidly enhance their industry-leading artificial intelligence (AI) and deep learning technologies. Building on years of collaboration, the companies will work to optimize the Adobe Sensei AI and machine learning (ML) framework for NVIDIA GPUs. The collaboration will speed time to market and improve performance of new Sensei-powered services for Adobe Creative Cloud and Experience Cloud customers and developers.

The partnership advances Adobe's strategy to extend the availability of Sensei APIs and to broaden the Sensei ecosystem to a new audience of developers, data scientists and partners. "Combining NVIDIA's best-in-class AI capabilities with Adobe's leading creative and digital experience solutions, all powered by Sensei, will allow us to deliver higher-performing AI services to customers and developers more quickly," said Shantanu Narayen, president and CEO, Adobe. "We're excited to partner with NVIDIA to push the boundaries of what's possible in creativity, marketing and exciting new areas like immersive media."

Artificial intelligence (AI) is transforming industries and changing how data is managed, interpreted and, most importantly, used to solve real problems for people and businesses faster than ever.

Today's Microsoft's Bing Intelligent Search news demonstrates how Intel FPGA (field programmable gate array) technology is powering some of the world's most advanced AI platforms. Advances to the Bing search engine with real-time AI will help people do more and learn by going beyond delivering standard search results. Bing Intelligent Search will provide answers instead of web pages, and enable a system that understands words and the meaning behind them, the context and intent of a search.

Fortigis Inc., today announced the launch of Fortigis, a cloud-enabled privacy & security wireless Virtual Private Network (VPN) router that patrols and controls who connects to a user's Wi-Fi network. The Indiegogo campaign for Fortigis, which is being managed by the Launchpad Agency, has a funding goal of $50,000 USD, and features limited Super Early Bird Specials of $199 as well as several other rewards for backers.

Fortigis uses a Virtual Private Network (VPN) to provide users online privacy and anonymity by creating a secure and private network. The secure connection encrypts all of the user's incoming and outgoing web traffic so no one can trace their online activity, protecting them against identity theft, ad targeting and having their online transactions such as online shopping or banking hijacked.

Intel and NVIDIA found themselves on the same side of the field last week as both companies defended the US government's planning and intervention into the AI field. Naturally, these two giants' interests aligned in spurring the government to adopt policies and decision making that would impulse and accelerate development of AI technologies. That move would certainly boos both companies' endgames, as both have cut increased footholds in the Ai industry in their respective areas.

This was just the first of three planned hearings with industry professionals in the AI field. The order of business: to inform the federal government in formulating public policy around AI technologies, with a defining stake: making sure the US maintains its leadership in AI. Texas Congressman Will Hurd, which spearheaded the testimony in the hearing, said that "dominance in artificial intelligence is a guaranteed leg up in the realm of geopolitics and economics." AI's impact on general system's inefficiencies, such as transportation, accounting, healthcare, cybersecurity, and defense systems, were pointed towards by the NVIDIA and Intel spokespersons as definite areas of interest and extreme economic growth - and less expenditure - via AI deployment, which could ultimately add eight trillion dollars to the U.S. economy by 2035.

NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA) today reported record revenue for the fourth quarter ended January 28, 2018, of $2.91 billion, up 34 percent from $2.17 billion a year earlier, and up 10 percent from $2.64 billion in the previous quarter. GAAP earnings per diluted share for the quarter were a record $1.78, up 80 percent from $0.99 a year ago and up 34 percent from $1.33 in the previous quarter. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $1.72, also a record, up 52 percent from $1.13 a year earlier and up 29 percent from $1.33 in the previous quarter.

For fiscal 2018, revenue was a record $9.71 billion, up 41 percent from $6.91 billion a year earlier. GAAP earnings per diluted share were a record $4.82, up 88 percent from $2.57 a year earlier. Non-GAAP earnings per diluted share were $4.92, also a record, up 61 percent from $3.06 a year earlier. "We achieved another record quarter, capping an excellent year," said Jensen Huang, founder and chief executive officer of NVIDIA. "In a powerful sign of our progress, attendees at NVIDIA's GPU Technology Conferences reached 22,000, up tenfold in five years, as software developers working in AI, self-driving cars, and a broad range of other fields continued to discover the acceleration and money-saving benefits of our GPU computing platform.

Thermaltake has infused Artificial Intelligence (AI) into its Smart Power Management (SPM) system and unveiled the new 'AI Voice Control' feature to enhance the DPS G Mobile APP, making it easier for mining and PC gaming enthusiasts to control and custom design their ultimate powerful PC system. The 'AI Voice Control' function is currently only featured in the Toughpower iRGB PLUS Titanium/Platinum digital power supply lineups for iOS, and the Android version will be coming soon.

Via mobile phone, users can access 'Voice Control' to easily turn the power supply on/off; change light mode, color, brightness; and control the speed. In addition, the DPS G Mobile APP provides access to the PSU's key parameters: including the historical efficiency, fan speed, wattage, voltage, temperature, total usage time/kWh/electricity cost, and the CPU/VGA's historical temperature. It also gives users control over the RGB fan lighting mode, PC off remote control, and real-time alerts covering major PSU abnormalities such as fan malfunction; like overheating (above 140℉/60℃) or abnormal voltage level (over/under 5% of normal level) conditions. Best yet, it is fully TT RGB Plus Sync compatible, meaning users will be able to sync all RGB colors seamlessly to all Thermaltake TT RGB Plus-compatible product lines for even greater color coordination.

An artificial intelligence (AI) will deliberately tamper with your online gameplay as you scramble for more in-game items to win. The same AI will manipulate your state of mind at every step of your game to guide you towards more micro-transactions. Nothing in-game is truly fixed-rate. The game maps out your home, and cross-references it with your online footprint, to have a socio-economic picture of you, so the best possible revenue model, and anti buyer's remorse strategy can be implemented on you. These, and more, are part of the dystopian nightmare that takes flight if a new AI-powered online game revenue model is implemented in MMO games of the near future.

The paper's slide-deck and signed papers (with corrections) were leaked to the web by an unknown source, with bits of information (names, brands) redacted. It has too much information to be dismissed off hand for being a prank. It proposes leveraging AI to gather and build a socio-economic profile of a player to implement the best revenue-generation strategy. It also proposes using an AI to consistently "alter" the player's gameplay, such that the player's actions don't have the desired result leading toward beating the game, but towards an "unfair" consequence that motivates more in-game spending. The presentation spans a little over 50 slides, and is rich in text that requires little further explanation.The rest of the presentation follows.

ASUS today announced Blue Cave, a stunningly designed high-performance AC2600 Wi-Fi router based on Intel's connected home technology that's built to meet the demanding needs of modern smart homes. Winner of a 2017 Computex Best Choice Golden Award, Blue Cave is an easy-to-use, innovatively designed router with stylish good looks and family-friendly features. It's built to cope easily with the increasingly complex and bandwidth-heavy demands of smart home networks, offering superb multi-device performance powered by the Intel Home Wi-Fi chipset, comprehensive commercial-grade security with ASUS AiProtection, and out-of-the-box IoT integration with Amazon Alexa and IFTTT.

"Combining years of ASUS experience in wireless innovation and Intel's connected home technology, Blue Cave delivers ultrafast Wi-Fi speeds throughout the home," said Tenlong Deng, General Manager, ASUS Networking and Wireless Devices Business Unit. "Not only powerful, its eye-catching design with no external antennas blends perfectly with any décor."

Vuzix Corporation, a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies for the consumer and enterprise markets, is pleased to announce the official unveiling of the Vuzix Blade, which was awarded four International CES Innovation 2018 awards in the areas of Fitness, Sports and Biotech; Wireless Handset Accessories; Portable Media Players and Accessories as well as Computer Accessories.

The Vuzix Blade AR Smart Glasses provide a wearable smart display with a see-through viewing experience utilizing Vuzix' proprietary waveguide optics and Cobra II display engine. It's like having your computer or smartphone screen information right in front of you, wherever you go. The Vuzix Blade weighing in at less than 3 oz. represents the first pair of smart glasses that provide the wearer with a sizable virtual screen and brilliant pallet of colors via a thin completely see-through lens, in a fashionable form factor. The Vuzix Blade features adjustable FOV location and brightness, and is prescription ready, enabling any wearer both indoors and out to enjoy a comfortable visual experience. The Vuzix Blade, which can be paired seamlessly to Android or iOS phones enables individuals or workers to leave their phone in their pocket while visually presented with location aware content driven by the user's phone. Built for today's world and usable for work or play, the Vuzix Blade AR Smart Glasses offer the wearer heads up and hands-free mobile computing and connectivity, in an unprecedented form factor.

Samsung Electronics, a world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, today announced the launch of its latest premium application processor (AP), the Exynos 9 Series 9810. The Exynos 9810, built on Samsung's second-generation 10-nanometer (nm) FinFET process, brings the next level of performance to smartphones and smart devices with its powerful third-generation custom CPU, faster gigabit LTE modem and sophisticated image processing with deep learning-based software. In recognition of its innovation and technological advancements, Samsung's Exynos 9 Series 9810 has been selected as a CES 2018 Innovation Awards HONOREE in the Embedded Technologies product category and will be displayed at the event, which runs January 9-12, 2018, in Las Vegas, USA.

"The Exynos 9 Series 9810 is our most innovative mobile processor yet, with our third-generation custom CPU, ultra-fast gigabit LTE modem and, deep learning-enhanced image processing," said Ben Hur, vice president of System LSI marketing at Samsung Electronics. "The Exynos 9810 will be a key catalyst for innovation in smart platforms such as smartphones, personal computing and automotive for the coming AI era."

Gyrfalcon Technology Inc, an emerging AI chip maker in Silicon Valley, CA, launches its Laceli AI Compute Stick after Intel Movidius announced its deep learning Neural Compute Stick in July of last year. With the company's first ultra-low power, high performance AI processor Lightspeeur 2801S, the Laceli AI Compute Stick runs a 2.8 TOPS performance within 0.3 Watt of power, which is 90 times more efficient than the Movidius USB Stick (0.1 TOPS within 1 Watt of power.)

Lightspeeur is based on Gyrfalcon Technology Inc's APiM architecture, which uses memory as the AI processing unit. This eliminates the huge data movement that results in high power consumption. The architecture features true, on-chip parallelism, in situ computing, and eliminates memory bottlenecks. It has roughly 28,000 parallel computing cores and does not require external memory for AI inference.

LG Electronics (LG) at CES 2018 is showcasing superior, clearer and smarter lineup of premium audio products that promises to change the way people think about home speakers. New for 2018 is Meridian Audio's advanced high performance audio technology to deliver more natural and warm sound. From immersive Dolby Atmos soundbars to portable Bluetooth speakers and its latest artificial intelligence (AI) speaker , LG has something for every music and movie lover.

Sound All Around and Above
LG's new SK10Y soundbar delivers 550W of powerful output and supports 5.1.2 channels by harnessing the power of Dolby Atmos technology. A unique aspect of the technology is that unique "sound objects" can be precisely placed anywhere in a three-dimensional space for an immersive sound from all directions, including the ceiling, which enhances realism and the effect of being in the middle of the action. To create such powerful, textured sound, the SK10Y is equipped with multiple speakers - including a pair of powerful up-firing speakers - to envelop the listener from every angle. Users can adjust the volume of the upfiring speakers to optimize the sound with the height of the ceiling in room.

So you want to learn how to program a quantum computer. Now, there's a toolkit for that. Microsoft is releasing a free preview version of its Quantum Development Kit, which includes the Q# programming language, a quantum computing simulator and other resources for people who want to start writing applications for a quantum computer. The Q# programming language was built from the ground up specifically for quantum computing.

The Quantum Development Kit, which Microsoft first announced at its Ignite conference in September, is designed for developers who are eager to learn how to program on quantum computers whether or not they are experts in the field of quantum physics. It's deeply integrated into Visual Studio, Microsoft's suite of developer tools, so aspects of it will be familiar to people who are already developing applications in other programming languages. And it's designed to work with a local quantum simulator, also released as part of the kit, that can simulate around 30 logical qubits of quantum computing power using a typical laptop computer. That will allow developers to debug quantum code and test programs on small instances right on their own computers.

Today, Amazon Web Services announced DeepLens, its first fully programmable, deep learning-enabled wireless video camera designed for developers. It was revealed during AWS CEO Andy Jassy's keynote at its annual re:Invent conference in Las Vegas. AWS and Intel collaborated on the DeepLens camera to provide builders of all skill levels with the optimal tools needed to design and create artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning products.

AI and machine learning are poised to power a new generation of smart industries, including smart homes, smart retail, smart industrial and many others, making lives easier through intelligent interactions with devices. This collaboration reinforces Intel's commitment to providing developers with tools to create AI and machine learning products, and follows the recent introduction of the Intel Speech Enabling Developer Kit, which provides a complete audio front-end solution for far-field voice control and makes it easier for third-party developers to accelerate the design of consumer products integrating Alexa Voice Service.

NVIDIA today continued its support of the AI startup ecosystem with investments in three companies that are advancing the state of the art of GPU-accelerated data science.

Acting through its NVIDIA GPU Ventures arm, the company is investing in BlazingDB, an SQL data warehouse; Graphistry, a visual analysis data company; and H2O.ai, an open-source AI platform. These startups, all based in the U.S., align with NVIDIA's support of the GPU Open Analytics Initiative (GOAI), which was formed to foster the growth of GPU computing in accelerated analytics. "AI is fundamentally changing how we interact with data," said Jeff Herbst, vice president of business development at NVIDIA. "These three companies are all rising stars in the data science industry. Their enthusiastic participation in the GOAI open source ecosystem will be instrumental to their ultimate success."

BlazingDB uses GPUs to expedite the process of parsing through large sets of data. The company, founded in 2015, built a GPU-accelerated SQL analytics engine to analyze data already implemented in enterprise organizations.

GE Healthcare and NVIDIA today announced they will deepen their 10-year partnership to bring the most sophisticated artificial intelligence (AI) to GE Healthcare's 500,000 imaging devices globally and accelerate the speed at which healthcare data can be processed.

The scope of the partnership, detailed today at the 103rd annual meeting of the Radiological Society of North America (RSNA), includes the announcement of the new NVIDIA-powered Revolution Frontier CT, advancements to the Vivid E95 4D Ultrasound and development of GE Healthcare's Applied Intelligence analytics platform.

The new CT system in the Revolution Family is two times faster in imaging processing than its predecessor, due to its use of NVIDIA's AI computing platform. The Revolution Frontier is FDA cleared and expected to deliver better clinical outcomes in liver lesion detection and kidney lesion characterization because of its speed - potentially reducing the need for unnecessary follow-ups, benefitting patients with compromised renal function and reducing non-interpretable scans with Gemstone Spectral Imaging Metal Artefact Reduction (GSI MAR).