Lifeboat Foundation

Visit Crain’s Chicago Business for complete business news and analysis including healthcare, real estate, manufacturing, government, sports and more.

Of $15.2 billion invested in AI startups globally in 2017, 48 percent went to China and just 38 percent to America. So says a new report from CB Insights about the state of AI.

So long, America: It’s the first time China’s AI startups surpassed those in the US in terms of funding. While America still has more AI startups than China, they’re starting to lose out in striking equity deals: the US accounted for 77 percent of them in 2013, but that fell to 50 percent last year.

Fierce competition: AI startup investment rose 141 percent in 2017 compared with 2016—but with 1,100 new startups appearing last year, AI appearing in business models everywhere, and Big Tech’s enterprise AI offerings gaining traction, it’s harder than ever to snag funds.

Continue reading “China’s AI startups scored more funding than America’s last year” »

Bigelow Aerospace — the Las Vegas-based company manufacturing space habitats — is starting a spinoff venture aimed at managing any modules that the company deploys into space. Called Bigelow Space Operations (BSO), the new company will be responsible for selling Bigelow’s habitats to customers, such as NASA, foreign countries, and other private companies. But first, BSO will try to figure out what kind of business exists exactly in lower Earth orbit, the area of space where the ISS currently resides.

Bigelow makes habitats designed to expand. The densely packed modules launch on a rocket and then inflate once in space, providing more overall volume for astronauts to roam around. The company already has one of its prototype habitats in orbit right now: the Bigelow Expandable Activity Module, or BEAM, which has been attached to the International Space Station since 2016. The BEAM has proven that Bigelow’s expandable habitat technology not only works, but also holds up well against the space environment.

AUSTIN, Texas — Mining asteroids for water and other resources could someday become a trillion-dollar business, but not without astronomers to point the way.

At least that’s the view of Martin Elvis, a researcher at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, who’s been taking a close look at the science behind asteroid mining.

Continue reading “Asteroid miners might need a few good applied astronomers to show them the way” »

Artificial Intelligence has come a long way in the last decade and still, you have to ask; Where Are We Today? In reviewing the Brief History of AI or Artificial Intelligence we see such things as Humans VS Machines Chess Champions, but the current research goes way beyond that.

The applications and uses for artificially intelligent machines are endless. Prediction software can help us in medicine, environmental monitoring, weather warnings and even streamlining our transport systems, monetary economic flows and assist us in protecting our nation. The road ahead for artificial intelligence is more like the runway ahead and you can expect us to blast off into the future within the next five years.

For instance, if you are concerned that your CEO is making too much money in your corporation, you need not worry much longer because very soon they will be replaced with an artificial business tool; that’s right, meet your new CEO.

Continue reading “Artificial Intelligence Possible Concepts — Are You Ready for the Future” »

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/ctr-network/aging-greatfull…e/53449222

https://youtube.com/watch?v=uvWrirMnZEs

Divya Kumar is on the Microsoft Edge team; Tom Westray is on the Virgin Galactic team.

We’ve all stared into the depths of the night sky, identified far off planets, and the Milky Way; but only fewer than 600 people have traveled above and beyond Earth’s atmosphere and into space. At Virgin Galactic, our rocket scientists, engineers and designers from around the world are united in creating something new and lasting that could change that – the world’s first commercial spaceflights for private astronauts and science research. We’re on the edge of a golden age of space exploration, which has the potential to transform our business and personal lives in ways we can only yet imagine.

Continue reading “Virgin Galactic partners with Microsoft Edge to create an immersive web experience for aspiring astronauts” »

https://www.stitcher.com/podcast/reaching-the-finish-line/e/…oplay=true

That candidate is Andrew Yang, a well-connected New York businessman who is mounting a longer-than-long-shot bid for the White House. Mr. Yang, a former tech executive who started the nonprofit organization Venture for America, believes that automation and advanced artificial intelligence will soon make millions of jobs obsolete — yours, mine, those of our accountants and radiologists and grocery store cashiers.

He says America needs to take radical steps to prevent Great Depression-level unemployment and a total societal meltdown, including handing out trillions of dollars in cash.

Andrew Yang, a former tech executive, is mounting a longer-than-long-shot bid for the White House by warning of economic calamity ahead.

Continue reading “His 2020 Campaign Message: The Robots Are Coming” »