Robinhood, whose millennial-friendly mobile app lets users buy and sell public stocks without trading fees, on Wednesday confirmed that it has raised $110 million in new funding. The Silicon Valley company has over two million users and is now valued at $1.3 billion, confirming earlier mediareports.
Inflection point: Interest from investors really picked up following the launch of its paid service—Robinhood Gold—last year, which currently accounts for half of the trading volume, co-founder Baiju Bhatt told Axios. Rumors of the company's fundraising began to circulate late last year, although Bhatt says this latest round was done about a month ago.
Boston Dynamics' robots may terrify a lot of people, but you couldn't tell that from the reception its creation got at TED. A huge throng gathered around CEO Marc Raibert and SpotMini after the two got done on stage Tuesday. People wanted to take selfies and even pet the quadruped robot.
When can I get one: There's no word on pricing, but Boston Dynamics is still targeting businesses and the military rather than consumers. There's a better chance one will some day deliver you a package than that it will live in your house. (The company has started testing package delivery to employee's homes in Boston and is talking with companies that do local deliveries.)
While many people look to artificial intelligence to replace humans with robots, a top Apple executive laid out a different vision on Tuesday. Speaking at the TED conference, AI expert (and Siri co-founder) Tom Gruber said computer smarts should be used to augment human failings, such as memory.
In the not-to-distant future, Gruber said computers should be able to help us remember every person we have met, every food we have eaten and how it made us feel.
"I can't say when or what form factors are involved, but I think it is inevitable," Gruber said.
Privacy, security are key: That much data could obviously be hugely useful to the individual, but also incredibly dangerous in the hands of governments or those with malicious intent. "We get to choose what is and is not recalled," he said. "It's absolutely essential that this be kept very secure."
In its quest to make "flying taxis" a reality, Uber has struck partnerships with a handful of companies and two cities to begin developing the various technologies and infrastructure needed. The company unveiled the deals at its three-day conference on aviation in Dallas.
Cities: Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas, and Dubai, UAE. The latter's Road and Transport Authority has agreed to fund studies on pricing and customer models, and Uber plans to have prototypes ready for the World Expo in 2020 hosted in Dubai.
Electric charging: ChargePoint
Pricing: Uber estimates that in the near-term, a ride in a vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) aircraft will cost about $1.32 per passenger per mile, similar to its current UberX service. In the longer-term, it estimates that will dramatically decrease.
Robots are coming for your jobs, regardless of what Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin thinks. As evidenced on the TED stage Tuesday morning, robots are already capable of maneuvering around obstacles, trudging through snow and even getting themselves into college.
Boston Dynamics' Marc Raibert showed off his company's latest creations, inviting one on stage to autonomously bring him a soda. If that wasn't enough, the next speaker, Japanese AI expert Noriko Arai, showed off her effort to create a robot that can pass the top Tokyo university's rigorous admissions standards.
The future: Robots will soon be able to go into dangerous places, deliver packages and help take care of the elderly.
But: Robots still aren't much for human reasoning and conclusion-drawing.
In what would appear to be an apt metaphor, this year's TED conference kicked off in Vancouver Monday night with Taiwanese dancer and choreographer Yi Huang doing an elaborate dance with a robot.
Why we care: "Will we dance with robots or will they just simply throw us off the stage?" asked TED curator Chris Anderson, introducing this year's conference. "These are pretty urgent questions."
"Machines have calculations; we have understanding," Kasparov said. "Machines have objectivity; we have passion."
"We should not worry about what our machines can do today. Instead we should worry about the things they still can't do. We will need the help of the new intelligent machines to turn our grandest dreams into reality."
Netflix has signed a deal with iQiyi, a popular Chinese streaming service and subsidiary of Baidu ("China's Google"), the company said on Tuesday at a media conference in Indonesia, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The company declined to provide details about the deal, though it's understood that some of the company's original shows will soon become available through iQiyi. It's not expected to make significant revenue through licensing.
Flashback: Netflix conceded in October that directly setting up shop wouldn't work in China.
Entry point: China is a notoriously challenging market for Western Internet companies because of its strict regulations and government approval requirements. Netflix is using a common strategy to pierce into China: partnering with a local company. Other major companies not operating in the country include Amazon, Facebook, Twitter, and Google.
Scientists at Microsoft and conservation groups are beginning to use artificial intelligence to save threatened species, conserve protected lands, and enforce laws against overfishing.
Why it matters: AI, though traditionally associated with private industry, is allowing environmentalists to better protect polar bears, fish, and stream fauna.
After quietly testing its fleet of self-driving minivans in Phoenix, Ariz., Waymo, Alphabet's self-driving car unit, is expanding its testing to hundreds of "early riders" in the area.
The details: Local residents can apply to be part of Waymo's trial program, which will give them access to the company's fleet of cars anytime they need a ride via a mobile app, ideally thinking of the cars as they would a primary and or secondary car. They'll be able to take rides within an area twice the size of San Francisco. Waymo also plans to add an additional 500 self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivans to the 100 cars already in the fleet. A safety driver will be behind the wheel at all times, though the cars will drive themselves.
Waymo is also testing its cars in Mountain View, Calif., Austin, and Kirkland, Wash.
Top executives and decision makers say the widespread application of artificial intelligence is just around the corner, and that they are "eager" to outsource tasks such as accounting and scheduling to software, according to a new survey from PwC. Consumers, meanwhile, by and large do not fear this future, PwC says.
Data: Price Waterhouse Cooper; Chart: Andrew Witherspoon / Axios
Why it matters: There are more than 1.3 million accountants in the United States, earning a median salary of more than $68,000. But 69% of the executives said they are "eager" to outsource their accounting needs to a digital assistant. A majority "believe AI's potential to boost business productivity, inform strategy, and generate growth outweighs the potential downside of employment concerns," PwC said.
In trying to start a dialogue on the looming battle between man and machine, the TED conference turned to an expert on the subject: Chess champion Garry Kasparov, who famously lost a match to IBM's Deep Blue in 1997.
Kasparov argued, though, that it is ultimately a good thing when machines can take on a task formerly limited to humans.
Doomsaying has always been a popular pastime when it comes to technology. We must face our fears if we want to get the most out of our technology and we must conquer those fears if we want to get the best out of our humanity.
The bottom line: Trying to halt the pace of progress is a fool's errand, Kasparov argued. Instead, the goal should be for humans to make the most capable machines they can and focus on how to use that technology.
