 China is in better shape than the U.S. to achieve its AI goals because it has the "people power" to develop and carry out its AI strategies, according to an analysis published by the Brookings Institution. Both countries lead the world in economic strength, which allows them to invest in the technology infrastructure to pursue their AI ambitions. More: - China has both the economic strength and necessary population/people needed for AI success, while the U.S. only has economic strength, according to the report.
- The analysis concludes that the U.S. will fall more behind in AI if it doesn't make "changes on the people front."
- The researchers also explored how countries around the world are prepared to meet their AI objectives through technology dominance (see graph above).
- Out of all countries analyzed, the U.S. and China are the top leaders with both substantial public/private investments and robust technology and research.
- Given its strong investments in technology, the U.K. is third in line to challenge the U.S. and China in tech dominance, followed by France, Japan, and Germany, it concludes.
THE BROOKINGS INSTITUTION 
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 Sidewalk delivery-bot startup Serve Robotics said it's the first company to use Level 4 autonomous technology in its commercial deliveries. The company's latest generation of robots can operate consistently without a human follower or remote operator, as long as they're delivering within certain domains or geofenced areas. More: - Serve's robots with L4 capabilities are now making deliveries in Hollywood and other areas of Los Angeles, where it began operating in 2018 under its former name "Postmates X."
- The bots are confined to sidewalks and use cameras, lidar, ultrasonics, and other sensors to navigate.
- In L4 areas, the bots' remote video feeds turn off and it operates on its own, requesting assistance only during unexpected events.
- The company spun out from Uber-owned Postmates last year. In December, it announced a $13M expanded seed round to accelerate its expansion into new locations and customer segments.
- Serve also plans to offer an on-demand robotic delivery service to Uber Eats customers in Los Angeles starting early this year.
*Note: Inside.com's founder and CEO, Jason Calacanis, is an investor in Uber. TECHCRUNCH
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Sales enablement platform Highspot closed a $248M Series F round, reaching a post-funding valuation of $3.5B. The startup's platform is designed to boost the performance of sales teams and help them gain more customers using AI and other tools. More: - Highspot's cloud-hosted tools use AI to analyze company data and recommend ways to optimize the selling process. Its algorithms can generate personalized content recommendations.
- Its AI-powered sales tools include in-context training, semantic search, and guided selling to customers.
- The company said its revenue has increased nearly tenfold in three years. Users of its platform include Siemens AG, Aetna Inc., and IBM subsidiary Red Hat.
- New investors B Capital Group and D1 Capital Partners led the round, with participation from existing investors ICONIQ Growth, Salesforce Ventures, Madrona Venture Group, Sapphire, and Tiger Global Management.
- The funding will help the startup build its marketing ops, develop additional features, hire 500+ workers, and expand internationally.
VENTUREBEAT
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 DeepScribe founders Akilesh Bapu and Matthew Ko. AI medical transcription platform DeepScribe brought in $30M in a round led by Index Ventures' Nina Achadjian. Other participants included Scale.ai CEO Alex Wang, Figma CEO Dylan Field, and existing investors Bee Partners, Stage 2 Capital, and 1984 Ventures. More: - DeepScribe, founded by Akilesh Bapu, Matthew Ko, and Kairui Zeng in 2017, offers ambient speech AI technology that summarizes patient-doctor conversations.
- The company's app records, summarizes, and integrates the dialogue and clinical notes into electronic health records.
- The "AI-scribe" also learns each physician's phrasing, writing preferences, and conversation style to improve over time.
- DeepScribe said it has processed more than half a million patient-physician conversations in the last 18 months.
- In a tweet, Achadjian said she is excited to lead the Series A round and "make AI actually useful in healthcare and help prevent doctor burnout."
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IBM announced plans to acquire Envizi, a data analytics software provider, to expand its AI software offerings and help companies measure the environmental impacts of their supply chains. IBM plans to integrate Australia-based Envizi into its broader environmental, social, and governance AI software. The financial terms of the deal weren't disclosed. More: - Envizi's software automatically collects and consolidates 500 data types and helps companies better analyze and process their emissions and other data in business operations.
- The solution helps clients monitor their sustainability efforts and identify efficiencies using a more data-centric approach.
- IBM plans to integrate it into its Maximo asset management solutions, IBM Sterling supply chain solutions, IBM Environmental Intelligence Suite, and IBM Turbonomic and Red Hat OpenShift Capabilities.
- The AI software can "automate the feedback" between a company's environmental initiatives and operational endpoints of daily business operations, according to the company.
- IBM also announced a partnership this week with LG Electronics to explore quantum applications in AI, robotics, IoT, and other areas.
UNITE.AI
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 David L. Dechow Landing AI has hired machine vision expert David L. Dechow to be its VP of Outreach and Vision Technology. The startup, a provider of AI solutions for manufacturing, was started by Google Brain founding lead Andrew Ng. More: - Landing AI's flagship product, LandingLens, is an enterprise MLOps platform and AI-based visual inspection tool that helps manufacturers solve visual inspection issues, locate products defects, and improve efficiency and revenue.
- Prior to Landing AI, Dechow was principal vision systems architect at Integro Technologies, a machine vision inspection and integration company for manufacturers.
- Ng, Landing AI founder and CEO, is also the former chief scientist of Baidu, a co-founder of Coursera, and an adjunct professor at Stanford.
- Ng says Dechow brings "hands-on expertise to helping manufacturers use cutting-edge deep learning."
- In November, Palo Alto, California-based Landing closed a $57M Series A led by McRock Capital, bringing its total funding to ~$100M.
ZDNET
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- Federal government agencies have separate AI ethics and policies that may be "incomplete, inconsistent, or incompatible with each other," concludes a new report from the Advanced Technology Academic Research Center AI & Data Policy Working Group.
- Vehicle tech company Magna announced it has acquired autonomous shuttle company Optimus Ride for an undisclosed amount.
- Shield, developer of an AI communications compliance platform for enterprises and financial institutions, secured $15M in a Series A round led by Macquarie Capital and OurCrowd.
- Boosted.ai, an ML platform for investment professionals, announced a $35M Series B financing round led by Ten Coves Capital and Spark Capital.
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 |  | Beth is an Inside Analyst and a former public policy/investigative reporter. She has covered AI, VR, technology, and e-commerce for Inside. When she's not busy writing, she's hiking in Arizona's desert, playing pickleball, or trying out new Mexican food recipes. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
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