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LUMA HEALTH RAISES $6 MILLION TO STRENGTHEN PATIENT ENGAGEMENT TOOL: Luma Health, a San Francisco-based patient communication platform, announced it has raised over $6 million in Series A funding. The company’s platform helps clinics and hospitals manage patient appointments, referrals, and follow-ups through integration with more than 55 electronic health records and IT systems. In addition, the platform recently integrated a chatbot solution, which enables healthcare providers to personalize the delivery of care by sending patients pre- and post-care prompts via SMS. Luma will use the funding to further develop its platform and expand its offerings beyond the 200 US clinics it's currently partnered with.

Luma’s platform enables providers to engage with patients outside the clinical setting, which can help drive revenue growth by promoting patient retention, increasing schedule capacity, improving medication adherence, and reducing administrative costs.

• Increased engagement can bolster patient retention. As patient volume decreases, providers are turning to digital tools that encourage patient engagement outside of the clinical setting, according to a Moody's report. Providers hope that fostering physician-patient relationships will deter patients from seeking out care from other sources.
• Easier scheduling can drive patients to more appointments. Sending patients a clickable link to a scheduling site makes booking appointments more convenient. That helps providers reach the 65% of patients who fail to see the specialist they’re referred to, according to Luma CEO Adnan Iqbal. One provider saw a 7% uptick in appointments after adopting Luma, according to the Wall Street Journal.
• Improved medication adherence. Sending timely nudges to prompt patients to take medication means Luma can help providers improve health outcomes and reduce ER visits that result from patients not following their treatment regimen.
• Reduced administrative costs. Automating patient outreach can help providers put a dent in administrative costs, which account for 30% of healthcare costs. Business Insider Intelligence estimates that up to 73% of healthcare admin tasks could be automated by AI, such as appointment scheduling and insurance checking.

Luma isn’t the only startup helping health systems improve clinical workflows and cut down on admin costs. Solv, an online appointment-booking platform that aims to reduce wait times in urgent care clinics, recently announced that it has raised $17 million in funding, according to Forbes. And Qventus, which announced $30 million in funding in May, is a platform that uses AI to help hospitals reduce patient discharge times by providing real-time clinical decision support.

TELEHEALTH SYSTEM DRIVES $1.5 MILLION IN SAVINGS FOR INSURERS: Michigan-based health system Spectrum Health has seen a significant uptick in the use of its telehealth services across its 12 hospitals in 2018, according to Digital Commerce 360. More than 26,000 virtual visits were documented in the first four months of 2018, accounting for more than half of the 50,000 virtual visits since Spectrum implemented the service in 2014. The program, called MedNow, has reduced the strain on operational workflow at Spectrum Health’s hospitals, by mitigating the number of patients that would normally turn up at the emergency room or urgent care. It has also saved healthcare payers $1.5 million so far in 2018 by lowering healthcare costs and reducing hospital visits.

The results are indicative of advancing telehealth adoption by consumers and increased cooperation of the US government and providers. Although most health systems already deploy some form of telehealth, provider adoption of telehealth services in the US has been slow, partly due to confusion about how appointments should be reimbursed, Business Insider Intelligence reports. But new laws over the past 18 months have made cross-state licensing easier, introduced reimbursement parity, and expanded telehealth delivery to Medicare beneficiaries. The result is a landscape that better incentivizes providers to expand their telehealth efforts. As regulation continues to encourage telehealth adoption, we expect 2018 will be the tipping point for telehealth, especially as more health systems see a positive return on investment.

UK GOVERNMENT PLEDGES MILLIONS TO BOOST AI IN HEALTHCARE: UK Prime Minister Theresa May pledged “millions of pounds” of government funding for AI research into earlier diagnoses of chronic disease, according to the Guardian. May anticipates giving companies access to the National Health System’s (NHS) data will aid in the development of AI solutions that could prevent 22,000 cancer-related deaths a year by 2033. May’s announcement will be a boon for health-AI research in the UK, and could potentially make it faster, cheaper, and simpler for providers to accurately predict a patient’s chronic disease risk. The NHS is uniquely positioned to give researchers the data necessary to inform healthcare AI solutions — as a nationalized health system, it has cradle-to-grave data many other health systems lack. Like the US, the UK has a growing senior populace that's increasingly marred by multiple chronic diseases. As governments stare down the looming social costs of an aging population that is more diseased and living longer, turning to AI makes sense. AI solutions are projected to cut costs of treatments by as much as 50%, according to Frost & Sullivan.

HEALTH SYSTEM USES EHR TO DEPLOY CARE-IMPROVING ALGORITHM: Researchers at Boston-based Mass General Hospital (MGH) have developed an algorithm that uses electronic health records (EHR) and live monitoring data to identify patients at risk for certain types of pneumonia with 100% accuracy, according to Health Data Management. The algorithm automates a previously time-consuming clinical process by synthesizing and analyzing EHR data on medication, test results, and vital signs registered by a ventilator. Automating the process using EHRs gives clinicians a more accurate diagnosis and a valuable clinical decision support tool. The algorithm also improves clinical workflow by enabling physicians to bypass the time-consuming process of manual entry. Health systems recognize the power in EHRs, and Business Insider Intelligence forecasts that more than 80% of all doctors will work at a facility that uses an EHR system by 2019 and, nearly all facilities in the US will use an EHR by 2025. As a growing number of hospitals move to EHRs, providers will continue to turn to health solutions that leverage their wealth of patient data to optimize the delivery of care.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• Pennsylvania-based Geisinger Health System invested in a robotics system that helps physicians execute more precise implants in hopes of decreasing recovery time from joint replacement surgeries, according to Health Data Management. The emergence of value-based care means providers will turn to tech that improves post-surgery outcomes.

Join the conversation about this story »

• IBM is holding a contest to see who can create the best solution for natural disaster relief. 
• The winning team will get $200,000, support from IBM to make the prototype a reality, and introduction to venture capitalists.

IBM is asking developers to build a solution to disaster relief — and the company is providing an incentive to do it.

The company on Thursday at the VivaTech Conference in Paris announced Call for Code, a global initiative that calls on developers to create technology that can be used for natural disaster preparedness and relief. 

The main component of the initiative is a contest, where the creators of a prototype — like an app that predicts when and where the disaster will be most severe — will win $200,000, support from IBM to make the prototype a reality, and introduction to venture capitalists.

IBM, which is working with the United Nations Human Rights Office and the American Red Cross, is pledging $30 million over five years to the program. The money will go toward developer tools, technologies, free code and training with experts. Developers can already access IBM resources about data and AI, blockchain, cloud and IoT technologies.

"At IBM, we harness the power of technologies like AI, blockchain, IoT and cloud to address some of the biggest opportunities and challenges in business," Bob Lord, IBM chief digital officer, said in a statement. "Now, with Call for Code, we are calling on all developers to join us and use these same leading edge technologies to help people, their communities and society."

IBM is an acknowledged leader in the use of blockchain for financial and enterprise reasons, and its Watson AI services are popular in certain areas like health care. So making these technologies available, along with the $30 million pledge, encourages coders to gain experience with IBM's tech, while also serving a cause.

SEE ALSO: The 6 best apps for keeping your private messages safe from hackers, spies, and trolls

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NOW WATCH: How a $9 billion startup deceived Silicon Valley

• Bernstein recently used artificial intelligence to scour 500 earnings-call transcripts from the first quarter to assess trends.
• The firm reached an interesting conclusion about the role analysts play in shaping the conversations, and it provides valuable insight into what Wall Street actually looks for in companies.

If you've ever tuned in to a corporate-earnings call, you know the drill. Executives from the firm deliver scripted remarks that rarely veer into anything more salacious than sales and profit results.

Wall Street analysts don't want to hear it. And if they do, they're still far more interested in other metrics that can help them paint a more accurate picture of a company, or even a full industry.

So says a recent study conducted by Bernstein, which used artificial intelligence to scour 500 earnings-call transcripts from the first quarter. The firm's findings show that analysts were frequently keen to shift the "tenor" of conversations more toward topics such as margins, the competitive landscape, and pricing.

"Prepared remarks focused this time around more on revenues and earnings, while analysts probed margins, price levels, and the competitive environment in greater depth," Noah Weisberger, a portfolio strategist at Bernstein, wrote in the report. "Clearly, analysts are pushing companies to discuss issues beyond the scope of their prepared preliminary remarks."

As you can see in the word clouds below, the words "income,""earnings,""profit," and "revenue" are more prevalent in prepared remarks, while "margin,""price," and "competition" pop up far more often in analyst questions.

This prying approach makes a ton of sense, given that many corporations have learned over time how to engineer better-than-expected top- and bottom-line results — a practice that can muddle the true story and value underlying a company.

It's also reflective of a corporate environment in which executives are often scarcely available to the analysts who cover their companies. This raises the stakes on their earnings calls as analysts hungry for insight ask their hardest-hitting questions.

Overall, the tonal shift earnings calls take when analysts are given a platform reflects the degree to which analysts are dissatisfied with a simple discussion of headline numbers. To that end, Bernstein finds that the questions they ask usually redirect the call into a more informative direction for investors.

"Note that prepared remarks and analyst questions are moderately correlated, but analyst questions and corporate answers to those questions are far more highly correlated (see chart below)," Weisberger wrote. "These facts suggest that analysts do indeed push corporates in new directions. Moreover, perhaps surprisingly, corporates' extemporaneous answers to analyst questions are responsive. Corporates do not just parrot their own prepared remarks. They provide incremental information in their answers."

SEE ALSO: BANK OF AMERICA: The wildly turbulent market is only getting 'messier' — here are 7 ways traders can still smash benchmarks

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: What humans will look like on Mars

Welcome to DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence.

Sign up and receive DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING free to your inbox.

Have feedback? We'd like to hear from you. Write me at: lbeaver@businessinsider.com

BEST BUY SEES OPPORTUNITIES IN HEALTHCARE: Best Buy is testing an in-home health monitoring service, Assured Living, as it explores healthcare as a growth opportunity and potential revenue channel, per CNBC. The Assured Living program helps caregivers and family members check on aging patients with remote patient monitoring (RPM) — mobile technology that enables individuals to track and share their personal health data — which can help the more than half of Americans suffering from chronic health conditions better manage their illnesses.As healthcare becomes increasingly digital, the electronics retailer sees health and wellness as a strategic area for opportunities moving forward, according to CEO Hubert Joly. Best Buy has expanded its Assured Living pilot in Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Minnesota since launching the program in January 2017, according to the StarTribune.  

Best Buy’s Assured Living could increase customer engagement with the health monitoring technology they purchase from the retailer. The program provides families with an in-home assessment performed by Assured Living Advisors who recommend the appropriate devices based on the seniors’ living conditions and health concerns, and Best Buy's Geek Squad workers install the systems. In addition to the up-front cost of the devices, customers pay Best Buy a $29.99 monthly fee for access to a smartphone app that helps seniors and family members monitor health data and activity. Assured Living's in-home installation service provided by the Geek Squad is a process consumers are already accustomed to — it's no different than installing a smart TV or connected speaker into a customer's home. This could help to normalize RPM technology.

The proliferation of RPMs will benefit tech companies and health organizations alike:

• RPMs open up opportunities for consumer-facing companies to push into the health space. As consumers become more comfortable with self-monitoring their health through remote devices and smartphone apps, retail companies and tech giants are presented with an opportunity to leverage their existing consumer-facing products as health monitoring tools. This trend has been seen in Amazon's development of Alexa’s healthcare services, and Apple's re-positioning of its Watch as a health monitoring tool.
• Access to more elderly patient data could help insurers and providers cut healthcare costs. Tracking vitals and lifestyle behaviors could help caregivers improve treatment and medication adherence. Providers and insurers are eager for tools that can help clamp down on the 80% of healthcare costs that come from chronic diseases, especially as the US healthcare system stares down an expanding aging population.

MOST AMERICANS ARE UNAWARE, CONCERNED ABOUT PRECISION MEDICINE: Two-thirds of Americans haven’t heard of personalized medicine or precision medicine, according to a new study commissioned by the Personalized Medicine Coalition and GenomeWeb. Precision medicine, which uses variations in patients’ genes, environment, and lifestyle to guide the prevention, diagnosis, and treatment of diseases, has the potential to drive down healthcare costs. For example, the Alzheimer's Association reports that earlier detection of Alzheimer’s can reduce the per-person cost of treatment by $64,000. But low rates of patient awareness as well as uneasiness around how precision medicine will be used are a significant hurdle to increased adoption by providers and insurers. Fifty-two percent of respondents said that the use of personalized medicine tests to deny coverage was a “major concern.” While it’s illegal for payers to use precision medicine tests to deny coverage, patient misinformation on the matter could prevent hospitals from successfully deploying precision medicine in a clinical setting.

At the same time, clinician understanding of precision medicine is lacking. Just 14% of providers would be comfortable interpreting genetic tests for their patients, according to Clinical Innovation+Technology. Still, health systems anticipate long-term savings from precision medicine. That’s why providers like John Hopkins University are developing clinical decision support tools that make it easier for clinicians to interpret genetic test data. If health systems are to realize the potential cost-savings from scalable adoption of precision medicine, they’ll need to improve their outreach efforts to assuage patient doubts and clinician familiarity.

UNITEDHEALTHCARE DOUBLES DOWN ON VALUE-BASED CARE WITH LAB PARTNERSHIPS: UnitedHealthcare signed contracts with LabCorp and Quest Diagnostics — two of the nation’s largest US diagnostic test companies — to bring value-based care (VBC) to laboratory tests, according to Forbes. LabCorp’s renewing its contract, while Quest’s contract makes it an in-network provider for all of UnitedHealthcare’s members.  The emergence of the VBC model, in which providers are paid based on positive patient outcomes rather than the number of services the patient uses, is good news for insurers — they get the benefit of healthier members at lower costs. And it makes sense for UnitedHealthcare to emphasize its VBC push in a lab setting — as much as $200 billion is wasted annually on excessive testing and treatment, according to Healthcare Finance News. For providers, the benefits of the VBC model are less clear-cut. In the current fee-for-service reimbursement model, health systems benefit from prescribing additional treatments and services. However, insurers such as UnitedHealthcare argue that the VBC model encourages a faster patient turnaround, which could lead to greater volumes of patients. UnitedHealthcare’s Spine and Joint Solution, for instance, reduced hospital readmission rates by 22%.

ALIBABA HEALTH SPENDS $1 BILLION IN LATEST HEALTHCARE EXPANSION: Alibaba Health Information Technology agreed to spend $1.4 billion to purchase several health-related categories on the online shopping platform of its parent company, Alibaba Group, according to TechCrunch. The deal gives Alibaba Health ownership of categories that include medical devices and services and other healthcare products, which generated over $3 billion in gross merchandise volume in the fiscal year ending in March 2018. The deal, which expands Alibaba Health product offerings and enables it to reach more consumers, comes soon after Alibaba Health announced plans to increase investments in AI for healthcare. Consolidating business-to-consumer products under Alibaba Health is the next logical step to shore up against the healthcare efforts of competing Chinese tech giants Baidu and Tencent.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new AI-enabled diagnostic software from Imagen Technologies that analyzes X-ray images to detect wrist fractures, according to Health Data Management. The FDA announced an expansion of its pre-certification process to encourage the development of AI-enabled health tools in April 2018.
• Uber launched an in-app 911 calling feature that makes it easier for users to contact emergency services, according to TechCrunch. Uber is piloting additional functionality in seven markets that would enable users to automatically share their location with 911 dispatchers.
• A team of researchers from the US, Germany, and France developed an AI diagnostic tool that's nearly 10% more effective than dermatologists at using images of moles to detect melanoma, according to the Guardian. More accurate diagnostic tools could lead to faster disease detection and help mitigate unnecessary surgeries.
• Georgia-based health system Emory Healthcare and personal health platform Sharecareannounced they’re launching The Emory Healthcare Innovation Hub on September 1, 2018. With an eye toward value-based care, the Innovation Hub will combine Emory's clinical expertise with Sharecare's experience in patient engagement and personal health to develop digital health technologies that improve patient outcomes.

Join the conversation about this story »

• The startup Fresno Unlimited says it can make web series that have a better chance at being hits — thanks to artificial intelligence.
• The company says its proprietary tech can also be used to distribute these shows directly to audiences who are most likely to watch.
• Fresno has already worked with Jimmy Kimmel on a web original, and it plans to announce three new shows this summer. The firm has also just tapped a former Hulu executive, JP Colaco, as its new president of revenue and media.

There are dozens of production companies in Los Angeles that promise some sort of unique knack for making shows that connect with those younger consumers who live on digital platforms.

But one startup claims it knows exactly what people want to watch and how get it in front of them — thanks to artificial intelligence.

The venture-backed Fresno Unlimited has built a platform that pulls data from social media and other digital outlets to help content creators figure out which genres and topics are ripe for potential series. It has raised $8 million, with investors including the famed former Facebook engineer Chamath Palihapitiya, via his firm Social Capital.

Fresno also uses that same AI platform, which it calls PCH, to help isolate individual consumers on social-media platforms and push that AI-informed content straight to them.

It's the kind of pro-machine, Silicon Valley thinking that would seem to be at odds with Hollywood, known for its dedication to artists as well as the many gatekeepers who use connections, research, experience, and their gut to decide which shows and movies get made.

To help bridge that gap, Fresno is tapping someone with experience speaking both languages. The firm has just tapped Jean-Paul "JP" Colaco as its new president of revenue and media. Colaco spent six years building Hulu before leaving the online video outlet for stints at the now-defunct short-form-video startup Vessel and, most recently, the virtual-reality entertainment venture Jaunt VR.

Despite its less proven premise, Fresno Unlimited says it is attracting serious Hollywood interest. Last year the company produced a Facebook series featuring Jimmy Kimmel, and it expects to announce three more original series featuring big-name talent sometime this summer.

"We think we've found a better way," Fresno founder and CEO Rob Goldberg said. "We can use machine learning, data, and insights to minimize the failure rate and even predict what people want."

Goldberg said he could not yet fully explain exactly how Fresno's AI works, or where it pulls all of its data from, without spilling secrets. Some of it comes from publicly available sources and some is proprietary, he said.

OK, but how exactly does AI help make a better show? Goldberg mentioned a series that is in the works with a popular actress who was originally interested in producing a web show about art collecting.

Fresno Unlimited's tech found that only few people were predisposed to watch something that niche. But a much larger potential audience, while intimidated by the art-gallery world, associated art with cool Instagram images and the like. So the company is now working with the actress to produce a show with a broader appeal.

For his part, Colaco said he was drawn to Fresno by the idea that data and science could actually make content more predictable and distribution more precise.

"You're potentially increasing the likelihood that you can create a hit — you're making it easier for people to consume," he said. "It's harder and harder for marketer and creators to find audiences. If we do this right, brands should be able to align with super-premium content, and the engagement for their ads should be higher."

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NOW WATCH: How one trilogy ruined action movies forever

• Spanish company Acuilae plans to develop a tool that gives morals to AI machines.
• A new project 'ETHYKA' aims to teach dilemma analysis and decision-making to AI machines to enable them to make fair and good choices.
• The project developers hope to attracts more investors so that ETHYKA can become industry standard in the future.

Spanish company, Acuilae, specialises in data analysis, machine learning and virtual assistants — three of the main applications of artificial intelligence. So it's a no-brainer for a company like Acuilae to try and find a solution to the dilemma we now face: who can and should bestow ethics on artificial intelligence?

It's an important question, considering global finance, health systems, the justice system and much more will soon be managed by artificial intelligence — if we're going to leave such crucial decisions in the hands of machines, we have to ensure they make the right decisions and, if possible, even fair and good ones.

That's where ETHYKA comes into the picture.

"Born from the desire to research and learn," according to Acuilae's CEO, Cristina Sánchez, ETHYKA is a project that looks to give AI morals so actions they perform will be based on ethical data.

An expert in statistics, computer science and data science, thus far she's had a team of just four to help move the project forward and is now looking to attract investors through a funding round.

The applications are potentially limitless, especially seeing as no one has developed machine ethics so far. So, right now, ETHYKA's main goal is to become an industry standard. If successful, it will provide a stable framework for developers to implement ethics into their own software or hardware projects. And of course, there will be significant time and cost savings through machine moralisation.

"It can be sold as an SD Card to developers who want to implement it. We have also thought of offering cloud services for specific queries and, of course, modules for transport equipment such as autonomous cars, health automata, virtual assistants, etc", Sánchez told Business Insider.

According to Acuilae, it's already been proven that robots and virtual assistants that interact with humans can be easily corrupted, as was the case with the Microsoft chatbot that began making racist comments. Machines — like children — learn by observation and repetition, trial and error. If they hear vulgar expressions, they will eventually incorporate them into their database and, in future, may also imitate any manner of undesirable behaviour.

How to programme ethics into a machine

As with many other AI machines, the function and structure of Acuilae's machines tries to emulate what goes in within the human brain. For this reason, ETHYKA is structured in three layers that correspond to the three stages of conventional knowledge theory: data acquisition, dilemma recognition, dilemma analysis, and decision-making.

Mimicking our own bodies, the machine will collect data from sensors, cameras, apps, frameworks, and more. What happens next, however, doesn't involve anything like the central amygdala, the part of our brain that regulates emotions; ETHYKA will pull a catalogue in the cloud — made up of a library of terabytes and terabytes of related expressions and actions — to be able to identify what it's facing.

"I always find this apocalyptic view of artificial intelligence ridiculous. I don't think it's going to be a risk for humanity as many people like to think, however it's certainly important these machines learn to recognise an ethical dilemma within the natural language that will be used to communicate with them," Sánchez told Business Insider.

They're currently compiling a library in the cloud that will act as a frontal lobe — the most evolved part of the brain, responsible for sifting through and weighing up our emotions to make decisions, based on the ethical and moral values of each individual. ETHYKA is where all the data and filters will be stored.

In this way, ETHYKA will be able to incorporate different configurations, with probative, autonomous and etheronomic, theological, evolutionary, civic and, of course, professional ethics — which can also vary according to profession.

In its second phase, Acuilae's ethical module will be capable of discerning which principles to apply to decision-making — an area that causes confusion for humans — and in its third phase, it will use deep learning to generate various predicted outcomes for future choices, based on previous decisions.

The module will be able to operate according to three decision criteria determined by the amount of information provided and the control over the final situation. The question is now, what will it take for ETHYKA to become a standard in the computer industry?

"It needs to be done in Germany, China or the US rather than Spain," said Sánchez, who has immediately begun recruiting a larger team of "multidisciplinary experts" to bring the Spanish ethics module to the global artificial intelligence market.

SEE ALSO: Elon Musk warns that creation of 'god-like' AI could doom mankind to an eternity of robot dictatorship

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NOW WATCH: How to survive a snake bite

Japan has a sex problem. The country's birthrate is in the negative, where deaths are outpacing births.

Simply put, Japan's population is decreasing.

But let's be clear: Population change is a complicated subject affected by many factors.

Western media often correlates the decline in Japan's population size with recent studies of Japanese sexual habits and marriage. A 2016 study by the National Institute of Population and Social Security Research in Japan, for instance, found that "almost 70 percent of unmarried men and 60 percent of unmarried women are not in a relationship."

But just because people aren't in relationships doesn't mean they don't want companionship, of course. And that's where something like Gatebox comes in.

Yes, that's an artificially intelligent character who lives in a glass tube in your home.

Her name is Azuma Hikari, and she's the star of Gatebox — a $2,700 Amazon Echo-esque device that acts as a home assistant and companion.

Here's what we know:

SEE ALSO: Japan's sex problem is so bad that people are quitting dating and marrying their friends

DON'T MISS: Japan's huge sex problem is setting up a 'demographic time bomb' for the country

A Japanese company named Vinclu created the Gatebox.

It's about the size of an 8-inch by 11-inch piece of paper, according to Vinclu. And there's a good reason for that: The device is intended to be "big enough for you to be able to put right beside you." You'll understand why you'd want a Gatebox so close soon enough.

The Gatebox is similar to Amazon's Echo — it's a voice-powered home assistant.

The Gatebox has a microphone and a camera because you operate it using your voice.

For now, it will respond only to Japanese; the company making Gatebox says it's exploring other language options. Considering that units are available for both Japan and the US, we'd guess that an English-language option is in the works.

Gatebox does a lot of the same stuff that Echo does — it can automate your home in various ways, including turning on lights and waking you up in the morning.

• In one of the first on-the-record interviews with one of the Googlers who resigned to protest the company's contract with the Department of Defense,  Tyler Breisacher tells Business Insider why he has no regrets.
• But Breisacher said he isn't popping the champagne yet. Google is expected to publish ethical principles on working with artificial intelligence and the devil will be in the details. 
• The 30-year-old software engineer says Project Maven is consistent with a shift in thinking within Google's management. He believes the company's values have changed.

On April 20, Tyler Breisacher walked out of Google for the last time, ending his more than six-year relationship with the company. In an exclusive interview with Business Insider, he said that on that day he was a little emotional, but comforted by the fact that he was leaving for the right reasons.

Breisacher, a Google software developer who worked on Google’s Github compiler, resigned in part to protest the company’s involvement in Project Maven — the controversial collaboration between Google and the US Department of Defense. In March, word got out that Google had quietly supplied artificial intelligence technology to the Pentagon to help analyze drone video footage.

In April, more than 4,000 workers signed a petition demanding that Google’s management cease work on Project Maven and promise to never again "build warfare technology." Soon after that, Gizmodo reported that a dozen or so Google employees had resigned in protest. Breisacher was among that group, he says.

The internal dissent and the negative press forced Google to backtrack, and the company reportedly told staff on Friday that it would not renew the Project Maven contract when it runs out next year. 

Does Breisacher feel he and the other protesters triumphed?

Breisacher says he won't uncork any champagne bottles until he sees the list of ethical principles Google is expected to publish this week which will lay out its policies towards AI work.

“I think this is the best outcome as far this contract is concerned,” said Breisacher, 30, in his first on-the-record interview since quitting. "This is obviously a big deal and it’s very encouraging but this only happened after months and months of people signing petitions and (internal debate) and people quitting.”

And while many expect Google to forswear military work in the published AI principles, Breisacher worries that the company may leave itself some wiggle room that could lead to future instances of problematic AI projects.

Google is leaving billions of dollars on the table, but some Googlers feel betrayed

The revelation about Google’s involvement with Maven and the subsequent internal strife because of it has embarrassed the company. In addition, Google now appears to have taken itself out of the competition for cloud contracts offered by the Department of Defense -- worth tens of billions of dollars.  

A Google spokesperson has not responded to repeated requests for comment, and the company’s reasons for backtracking on Maven remain unclear. Certainly, the resignations of a dozen employees or the signatures of 4,000 workers on a petition is not going to impact the operations of the internet giant, which employs some 80,000 workers across the globe.

But it’s hard to deny that the employees who opposed Google’s involvement in Project Maven made their presence felt. In addition to the petition, and the resignations, it can’t be overlooked that someone inside the company leaked internal documents and emails to the media that helped reveal the information about Google’s military involvement to the public.

On Friday, Gizmodo reported that it had reviewed emails that showed Google had far greater ambitions to work with the US military and intelligence than managers had previously let on.

“The emails also show,” wrote Gizmodo reporter Kate Conger, “that Google and its partners worked extensively to develop machine learning algorithms for the Pentagon with the goal of creating a sophisticated system that could surveil entire cities.”

This is the kind of revelation that has some Google employees feeling betrayed, said Breisacher. In their eyes, Google once stood for a set of values that didn’t include helping nations wage war.

Maven was the final straw

Project Maven is just another sign that reflects fundamental shifts in the thinking within Google’s management, according to Breisacher. He said he had thought about leaving Google long before Maven came to light.

As a gay man, Breisacher became disheartened that Google decided to sponsor CPAC, a conservative conference that is also sponsored by the National Rifle Association and the Koch Institute and other groups that Breisacher believes are hostile to gays. Then last year, videos related to to LGBT issues were flagged as inappropriate on YouTube. The video-sharing service said it was an error but the issue didn’t go away and Breisacher didn’t think the company responded with the necessary urgency.

“When I started, Google had a reputation as a pro-gay, pro-trans company,”  said. “I guess I’m disillusioned. I know that Google is a “for profit company and you shouldn’t expect it to do things purely for the good of the world. But in the past, we would expect leaders to listen to the employees and to think carefully about issues and not to cross certain lines...things have changed at Google.”

Does he see any way for Google to save its soul?

Breisacher says maybe but that this question may not be the most relevant. He says what may be most important about Google’s backtracking is that it shows employees have power.

“At Google, we had this ‘Don’t be evil,' that people believe we have to live up to,”  Breisacher said “I don’t know if it’s as easy to take a stand on issues at other companies but I hope the takeaway for employees at Microsoft or Amazon and the other companies is that they realize they have the power to collectively demand things... to change things.”  

SEE ALSO: After a dozen employees quit in protest, Google has reportedly decided not to renew its contract for military drone initiative Project Maven

Join the conversation about this story »

NOW WATCH: How to know which MacBook you should buy

Welcome to DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence.

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APPLE’S NEW API OFFERS HEALTHCARE COMPANIES NEW BREADTH OF CONSUMER DATA: Apple is further entrenching the iPhone as a gateway for patient health data. On Monday, the tech giant launched the developer interface to Health Records, enabling US iPhone users to share their health record data with third-party apps. Healthcare developers can use this data to create more personalized health experiences. For context, Health Records was launched in January 2018 to make it easier for iPhone users to consolidate, access, and share their health data from more than 500 hospitals and clinics in the US.

For health organizations, the API opens the door to a significant pool of highlyvaluable health data that can be used to improve treatments and patient outcomes.

Apple's new API will help to:

• Solve the interoperability issues that plague electronic health records (EHR) systems. Most healthcare systems have different IT standards, which often leads to mismatched or incomplete patient EHRs. This can create issues with the standard of care and cause a bottleneck in patient triage. Making patient data more accessible via the Health Records API could alleviate this issue.
• Fill in existing gaps in patient data.Together with the HealthKit API, which gives developers access to fitness and activity data in the Health app, healthcare organizations will be able to create an ecosystem of highly integrated health apps to provide healthcare providers with a more holistic picture of a patient’s health.

Meanwhile, the move could help Apple corner a chunk of the lucrative mHealth market. The company controls more than half of the US smartphone market and has a substantial developer following, which makes it an appealing platform for health systems looking to access consumer health data, according to StatCounter.The North American mHealth market is set to grow at an annualizedrate of 41% to reach $19.4 billion by 2021, up from $1.8 billion in 2016,according to Mordor Intelligence.

This is just the latest example of the blurring of lines between tech and healthcare as health systems become increasingly reliant on tech companies’ expertise to deliver care. Over the past 12 months, Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and Samsung have also accelerated their health initiatives:

• Amazon  is surveying how it can offer providers cheaper medical supply distribution, and is building out Alexa as an in-home health tool.
• Googleintroduced a healthcare cloud offering in March 2018 to help health systems improve health data collection and make it easier for providers to access medical records, and partnered with Fitbit to make it easier for doctors to access wearable data.
• Samsungannounced plans to add a pre-installed Health app to its mobile devices in the UK, a feature it will look to expand to all Samsung users.
• Microsoftpartnered with a biotech company to test how AI and cloud computing can be used to scan for dozens of diseases in one universal blood test.

TELADOC EXTENDS GLOBAL FOOTPRINT WITH $352 MILLION ACQUISITION: US virtual provider Teladoc purchased Spain-based virtual provider Advance Medical for $352 million on May 31, 2018. Acquiring Advance Medical, which staffs 450 medical doctors and offers services in more than 125 countries, grants Teladoc access to markets such as Latin America and Asia-Pacific for the first time. Moreover, Teladoc now boasts services in more than 20 languages and can connect with Advance Medical’s 300 existing employer and insurer partners. Teladoc has participated in a flurry of partnerships over the past year — it more than doubled its hospital and health system partners during 2017, a year in which it saw an 89% increase in total revenue over 2016. And it laid the groundwork for international expansion with a $440 million acquisition of global second opinion service Best Doctor in July 2017. Tapping international markets enables Teladoc to expand its membership opportunity and should help the company as it looks to break into profitability.

MOUNT SINAI TAPS AI TO POWER WORFKLOW AND IMPROVED DISEASE DETECTION: New York-based health system Mount Sinai announced a partnership with RenalytixAI, a healthcare AI startup, to create a tool that flags patients at risk of advanced kidney disease, according to Modern Healthcare. The partners will feed Mount Sinai’s more than 3 million patient health records into a machine-learning system, developing a tool that identifies at-risk patients to inform earlier treatment interventions for improved patient outcomes. Often, those with kidney disease don't receive treatment until they require dialysis and other expensive late-stage interventions. Automating a process that requires staff to analyze large volumes of data could serve as a valuable clinical decision support tool by reducing diagnostic errors, expediting the detection process, and freeing up hospital staff to focus on care. The partnership could also lead to population health initiatives, in which specific segments of the population at risk for certain health events are identified and targeted to deliver more personalized treatments for better patient outcomes. Mount Sinai’s new AI tool could inform how it treats the 1 million Mount Sinai patients that are either diagnosed with type II diabetes or are of African ancestry, for example — two of the major at-risk population segments for kidney disease. The partners hope to commercialize an AI product beginning in Q2 2019.

HEALTH SYSTEM’S MOVE TO SMS OUTREACH IMPROVES WORKFLOW AND PATIENT VOLUME: The largest physician-owned practice in California, Riverside Medical Clinic, implemented an SMS-based patient communication tool that improved clinical operations workflow and reduced appointment no-shows, according to MobiHealthNews. The tool displaced phone-based outreach when patients set SMS as their preferred contact method to send appointment reminders and enabled patients to communicate appointment requests to Riverside’s staff. The result was a streamlined scheduling process that reduced patient no-shows by more than two-thirds, cut phone call volume, and improved patient confirmation rates. This prompted Riverside to expand the program across all 85 of its practices just two weeks after the pilot’s launch. Manually confirming patient appointments via phone often takes multiple calls and voicemails, which dragged on Riverside’s operations workflow as it had to assign staff additional hours on scheduling that could be better served elsewhere. Health systems are eager for tools that can help put a dent in administrative costs, which accounted for 25% of US healthcare costs in 2014, according to the most recent estimates from The Commonwealth Fund. 

IN OTHER NEWS:

• US health system NYU Langoneannounced plans to open two new inpatient facilities focused on creating a digital patient experience. New features include hospital room displays, a fleet of supply delivery robots, and medication drawers outside patient rooms that sync with patient health records for safer medication management.
• New York startup Parachute Health, a platform that helps providers digitize medical supply ordering and reduce errors from fax-driven equipment ordering, raised $9.5 million in additional funding, according to MobiHealthNews. Parachute plans to use the funding to expand its service beyond the 20 US states it currently serves.
• Mental health patients are more likely to engage with a mobile app that helps them manage their condition than attend a group therapy session, according to a new study reported by Digital Commerce 360. Providers could deploy mobile tools to increase patient engagement in the 1 in 5 US adults who have a mental health condition.

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• Researchers at MIT have programmed an AI using exclusively violent and gruesome content from Reddit.
• They called it "Norman."
• As a result, Norman only sees death in everything.
• This isn't the first time an AI has been turned dark by the internet — it happened to Microsoft's "Tay" too.

Some people fear Artificial Intelligence, maybe because they've seen too many films like "Terminator" and "I, Robot" where machines rise against humanity, or perhaps becaise they spend too much time thinking about Roko's Basilisk.

As it turns out, it is possible to create an AI that is obsessed with murder.

That's what scientists Pinar Yanardag, Manuel Cebrian, and Iyad Rahwan did at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology when they programmed an AI algorithm by only exposing it to gruesome and violent content on Reddit, then called it "Norman."

Norman was named after the character of Norman Bates from "Psycho," and "represents a case study on the dangers of Artificial Intelligence gone wrong when biased data is used in machine learning algorithms,"according to MIT.

The scientists tested Norman to see how it would respond to inkblot tests— the ambiguous ink pictures psychologists sometimes use to help determine personality characteristics or emotional functioning.

In the first inkblot, a normally programmed AI saw "a group of birds sitting on top of a tree branch." Norman, however, saw "a man is electrocuted and catches to death."

When the normal AI saw a black and white bird, a person holding an umbrella, and a wedding cake, Norman saw a man getting pulled into a dough machine, a man getting killed by a speeding driver, and "man is shot dead in front of his screaming wife."

"Norman only observed horrifying image captions, so it sees death in whatever image it looks at," the researchers told CNNMoney.

The internet is a dark place, and other AI experiments have shown how quickly things can turn when an AI is exposed to the worst places and people on it. Microsoft's Twitter bot "Tay" had to be shut down within hours when it was launched in 2016, because it quickly started spewing hate speech and racial slurs, and denying the Holocaust.

But not all is lost for Norman. The team believe it can be retrained to have a less "psychopathic" point of view by learning from human responses to the same inkblot tests. AI can also be used for good, like when MIT managed to create an algorithm called "Deep Empathy" last year, to help people relate to victims of disaster.

None of this has stopped people on the internet freaking out, though.

Here are just a few Twitter reactions to Norman:

SEE ALSO: The careers millennials are choosing are less likely to be taken over by robots — here's why

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NOW WATCH: You've been pouring your Guinness all wrong

Welcome to DIGITAL HEALTH BRIEFING, the newsletter providing the latest news, data, and insight on how digital technology is disrupting the healthcare ecosystem, produced by Business Insider Intelligence.

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US HEALTH EXECUTIVES EXPECT AI TO REACH HEALTHCARE IN 3 YEARS: Although AI is generating significant buzz in the healthcare sector, it has yet to infiltrate the clinical setting properly. In 2017, the overwhelming majority of healthcare delivered in the US had little to no AI involvement. However, 85% of US health executives believe AI will have a central role in healthcare within the next three years, according to an Accenture report.

Two key trends indicate that AI is poised to impact US healthcare over the next 18 months:

• Clinical trials are becoming more common. Several clinics and researchers have begun exploring how AI can be used within a clinical setting. For example, Google, Stanford, the University of Chicago, and the University of California conducted a study that assessed the ways AI could be used to predict mortality rates. As more evidence reveals that AI can empower health systems’ offerings, investment dollars will likely creep up. 
• The FDA is taking a greater interest in products that use AI. The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced in April that it planned to expand its regulatory coverage to encourage and prepare for the development of health products that incorporate AI. The FDA is working to facilitate the inclusion of AI in digital health tools by considering how it can add the segment to its pre-certification program.

Building consumers’ and clinicians’ trust in AI will be paramount as health systems and insurers implement the technology, Accenture notes. While consumers are concerned about how their data is being used, clinicians want proof that the technology is dependable amid liability concerns and that it ensures positive patient outcomes. There are two primary strategies to overcome these issues:

• Provide transparency around the motives for using patient data in AI as well as how AI models make decisions. This can help to demonstrate that the business understands and acknowledges the consumers’ concerns and helps to foster trust in the brand’s use of AI.
• Present evidence of how AI can provide positive outcomes. As more pilot studies of AI in clinical settings come to light and show how the technology can assist physicians and hospitals, such as through clinical decision support, clinicians will become more comfortable trusting the technology in a clinical setting.

PHILIPS PARTNERS WITH DANA-FARBER TO BRING PERSONALIZED MEDICINE TO CANCER TREATMENT: Health tech giant Philips is using cancer research institute Dana-Farber Clinical Pathways to develop a cloud-based precision medicine platform that helps oncologists more quickly identify appropriate cancer treatments, according to Healthcare It News. Philips’ cloud-based precision medicine platform, “IntelliSpace Oncology,” will help oncologists map cancer patients to the appropriate treatment options based on their radiology, pathology, genomics, and electronic health records (EHR) data. Precision medicine — which makes use of variations in consumers’ genes, environment, and lifestyle to guide the treatment of diseases — enables health systems to process large amounts of data to tailor personalized treatments that deliver better experiences and better outcomes. This helps to minimize the number of hospital readmissions and unnecessary tests, the number of hospital readmissions and unnecessary tests, thereby lowering the overall cost of healthcare. Moreover, the potential of precision medicine to reduce costs and improve outcomes means it has a role to play in the emergence of value-based care (VBC). An earlier implementation of Dana-Farber Clinical Pathways for lung cancer resulted in a $15,000 reduction in the cost of care per patient. 

WEB PRESENCE IMPORTANT FOR INSURERS AS CONSUMERS FLOCK TO ONLINE SEARCH: Online search and consumer reviews play a significant role in consumer behavior and decision-making when engaging with insurance providers online, according to a new Yext study. When it comes time to select a new provider or agent, 75% of respondents rated reviews as somewhat or very important to their decision, and half used online search tools as their first resource for insurance information. The “Yelpification” of healthcare means patients are shopping around online before choosing insurers and providers, and both players have reason to worry — review sites transformed the restaurant landscape with increased transparency, putting more power into the hands of consumers and pushing some businesses out of the market. Moving forward, payers that invest in their online presence, including monitoring online reviews and improving search engine optimization, will be best prepared to capture more of the available market. This trend will gain momentum as a younger, more digital-friendly demographic begins to shop for insurance.

NATURAL LANGUAGE PROCESSING HELPS HEALTH SYSTEM GAUGE CARDIAC DEVICE EFFECTIVENESS: Missouri-based health system Mercy is using natural language processing (NLP) — a branch of machine learning that trains computers to process large amounts of natural language data — to evaluate the performance of cardiac devices, according to Healthcare IT News. NLP enables Mercy to analyze raw data across its EHR system and unlock previously inaccessible data from areas like clinical notes. The result is a more complete picture of patient data, which Mercy clinicians have used to glean insights into the efficacy of the different heart failure devices it has installed in 100,000 of its patients. Clinicians can use these insights to give feedback to medical device manufacturers and to evaluate which device a patient is most compatible with to improve quality and outcomes. Given the success of the tool for medical devices, Mercy's exploring new areas where they can apply NLP, such as operations workflow.

IN OTHER NEWS:

• Medisafe, a prescription management platform, increased the rate at which HIV patients refilled their prescriptions, according to a new study. Medisafe aims to reduce the $300 billion in healthcare costs related to poor medication adherence each year, which leads to unnecessary hospitalizations, ER visits, and extra tests.
• The UK National Health Service's (NHS) online patient portal was down for nearly 24 hours beginning May 30, 2018, according to Digital Health. Patients were unable to refill prescriptions, view medical records, or schedule appointments during this period.
• Zebra Medical Vision, an Israeli diagnostic imaging startup, secured $30 million in additional funding to bring its total financing to $50 million, according to TechCrunch. Zebra uses computer vision, or the automated extraction of analysis from images, to help radiologists improve diagnosis.

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• Google has a new algorithm that can quickly sift through thousands of digital documents in a patient's health record to find important information, Bloomberg reported.
• This enables the technology in some cases to help doctor make better predictions about how long a patient may stay in a hospital or when the likelihood that the patient may die.
• Google wants to take the tech into clinics and use 'a slew of AI tools to predict symptoms and disease.'

Google’s artificial intelligence systems can cull through and analyze a person’s medical history to help doctors make more accurate predictions about a patient's health, and even provide estimates on when a patient may die, according to a Bloomberg report.

In one situation, doctors estimated that a woman with cancer who had arrived at a city hospital with fluids in her lungs had a 9.3 percent chance of dying during her stay, Bloomberg reported. A new form of algorithm from Google said the risks of death were higher, 19.9 percent. The woman died a few days later.

Google is one of many companies trying to apply AI technology to solve some of the problems faced by the health-care sector.  AI has shown enormous promise at analyzing vast amounts of data and performing tasks that typically requires lots of man hours.

In this case, Google’s AI uses neural networks, which has proven effective at gathering data and then using it to learn and improve analysis. According to Bloomberg, Google’s tech can “forecast a host of patient outcomes, including how long people may stay in hospitals, their odds of re-admission and chances they will soon die.”

AI can help doctors make better diagnosis

Google’s algorithm can retrieve “notes buried in PDFs or scribbled on old charts” to make predictions, and determine "the problems with solving," Bloomberg wrote. All this could help doctors make better diagnosis.

Predicting death is likely to stoke fears among those who worry that AI may some day hold too much control over humans. 

And Google's technology raises a variety of ethical concerns about how it is used and who gets access to it. Decisions about insurance coverage for patients seeking certain medical treatment, or hospitals trying to allocate scarce beds for patients, are obvious examples of potentially problematic scenarios where such AI predictions could come into play.

According to the report, the findings so far is that Google’s system is faster, and more accurate than other techniques at evaluating a patient's medical history. Eventually, Google would like to take "a slew of new AI tools" that can accurately predict symptoms and disease  into clinics.  

SEE ALSO: How the life sciences are using digital to change the way we practice medicine

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NOW WATCH: This $530 Android phone is half the price of an iPhone X and just as good

• The market for artificial intelligence will grow to generate $59.75 billion in revenues by 2025, Société Générale forecasts. 
• The firm created a Rise of the Robots index with companies that are best positioned to profit from this growth. 
• In the selection process, the analysts considered companies that invest heavily in research and development, those with a healthy return on invested capital, and sales growth. 

The robots won't take over every job, but they're already transforming the world. 

From self-driving cars to lab-grown meat, humans are designing robots to make our lives easier by speeding up and improving tasks we've always done. 

In fact, in a distant future, Société Générale sees artificial intelligence board members and politicians, and implantable phones as some of the possibilities. 

But bringing it back to the present day, the firm has identified investable companies that are best positioned to benefit from the growth of AI in their respective industries. AI will grow to rake in $59.75 billion market in revenues by 2025, SocGen forecasts.   

"AI raises concerns about security and privacy, and especially about the future of jobs," Daniel Fermon, the head of thematic research, said in a note on Tuesday.

"However, it also offers the potential for new solutions to some of our most pressing global problems, in areas ranging from climate change to the ageing of the population ... Whatever the outcome, AI is happening, creating potential investment opportunities as the field advances."

The list below highlights the top companies in SocGen's Rise of the Robots index. In the selection process, the analysts considered companies that invest heavily in research and development, which they saw as essential to leading in the fields of AI and robotics. They also selected companies with a healthy return on invested capital and sales growth. 

SEE ALSO: The world's hottest tech companies are now worth more than $5 trillion, and they could be pointing out the next big bubble

NXP Semiconductors

Ticker:NXPI

Country: Netherlands

Sector: Semiconductors

R&D/sales: 16.79%

Return on invested capital: 6.26%

Three-year sales growth: 20.39%

Source: SocGen

Cypress Semiconductor Corp.

Ticker:CY

Country: US

Sector: Semiconductors

R&D/sales: 15.34%

Return on invested capital: -2.62%

Three-year sales growth: 54.09%

Source: SocGen

IPG Photonics

Ticker:IPGP

Country: US

Sector: Electronic Manufacturing Services 

R&D/sales: 7.16%

Return on invested capital: 18.94%

Three-year sales growth: 22.91%

Source: SocGen

• Google added a new feature to Google Home devices called Continued Conversation.
• Continued Conversation allows you to ask your Google Home a few follow-up questions without having to say "Hey Google" or "OK Google" each time.
• The feature is optional, and you'll have to manually turn it on in your Google Assistant app. Once you enable it, your Google Home will continue listening for eight seconds, then shut off if it doesn't hear you speak.

Starting today, my one major gripe with my Google Home device is getting fixed: You no longer need to keep saying "Hey Google" when you have multiple requests. 

Google is rolling out a feature it calls Continued Conversation to Google Home devices set to US English.

The new feature — which was announced on stage last month at Google I/O— allows you to ask your device a follow-up question without having to use the wake word each time. 

If you ask your Google Home for today's weather report, for example, you don't have to say "Hey Google" again when you ask another question like, "What's the weather going to be like tomorrow?" That way, the conversation is more natural and will hopefully feel a bit less like talking to a computer. 

Continued Conversation is optional, and Google says it doesn't mean your Google Home will be listening to you all the time. After you activate the device once saying "Hey Google" or "OK Google," it will only say active for eight seconds, then shut off if it doesn't hear you speak again. The LEDs on your Google Home will stay lit for the entire time the assistant is active.

And if you're ever worried about what your Google Home overheard you saying, you can easily check your Google Assistant activity. 

To turn on Continued Conversation, open your Google Assistant app and navigate to Settings > Preferences > Continued Conversation, then toggle it on.

SEE ALSO: Amazon is bringing its Echo devices to hotel rooms across the country, starting with Marriott

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• Germany's second largest bank, Commerzbank, is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to write analyst reports.
• Commerzbank has partnered with Retresco, a content-automation company to work on a way of creating research reports using AI.
• The bank's dive into AI-driven analyst reports comes at a time when major lenders are striving to differentiate themselves from their competition in response to the arrival of MiFID II earlier in 2018.

Commerzbank, Germany's second largest bank, is exploring the use of artificial intelligence to write analyst reports, in another sign of a shift in how major financial institutions conduct their research.

As first reported by the Financial Times, Commerzbank has partnered with Retresco, a content-automation company to work on a way of creating research reports using AI. A similar technology has already been used in journalism to write brief earnings reports after company results are released.

The technology is not believed to be anywhere near ready to produce reports sent to clients, but Commerzbank — which has an investment in Retresco — is looking particularly at using it for earnings reports.

This area is showing promise because "equity research reports reviewing quarterly earnings are structured in similar ways," Michael Spitz, head of Commerzbank’s research and development unit Mainincubator told the Financial Times.

The technology, the FT said, is "already advanced enough to provide around 75% of what a human equity analyst would when writing an immediate report on quarterly earnings," according to Spitz.

However, more complex reports are a long way away.

"If it is related to much more abstract cases, we feel that we are not there yet — that we can or maybe will ever replace the quality of a researcher," Spitz said.

Commerzbank's dive into AI driven analyst reports comes at a time when major lenders are striving to differentiate themselves from their competition in response to the arrival of MiFID II earlier in 2018.

Swiss giant UBS, for example, is placing a heavy emphasis on alternative sources of data in its research, including famously dismantling an entire electric car to work out how much it was actually worth. Barclays is adopting a similar approach, recently hiring a data scientist from Buzzfeed to embed in its research department.

Other banks are taking different approaches, with Dutch lender ING placing a lot of its research on a free website called "THINK" which is accessible to the general public.

SEE ALSO: 70,000 questions a year, satellite imagery, and dismantling electric cars: How UBS is trying to change the face of financial research

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NOW WATCH: Former Wall Street CEO reveals how most financial products designed for women completely miss the point

• Chia-Lin Simmons is a seasoned veteran in Silicon Valley's tech sphere, with more than 20 years of experience at tech giants like Google and Amazon's Audible.
• Simmons is the founder of a new startup called LookyLoo, which will launch its first product later this year: an AI-powered social platform that helps women find the right fit while shopping for clothing.
• Simmons sold some of her Google stock and pawned the 24-karat gold jewels given to her by her mother to get her startup rolling.
  

  ---

Chia-Lin Simmons doesn't seem like the kind of person to launch a fashion-focused startup. "In my native form, I’m basically in a Google T-shirt and yoga pants talking to engineers," Simmons told Business Insider.

And yet, Simmons is the founder of LookyLoo, an Oakland startup that is wholly centered on fashion. LookyLoo plans to use artificial intelligence to help women identify the proper fit while shopping for clothing, which would let women consult other women on the platform throughout the shopping process. Think of it as having an unbiased opinion at your fingertips when trying something on in a dressing room. 

LookyLoo's platform is in its infancy, with the app slated to go live across the US in September, but Simmons' vision has already gotten some attention — she spoke at San Francisco Design Week in early June about AI's role in the future of retail. 

Simmons has yet to delve into funding rounds for her company, so no money has been raised yet. But to get the ball rolling on LookyLoo's early development, Simmons sold some of her Google stock — and took the 24-karat gold jewels her mother had given her to a San Francisco pawn shop.

“This is how women founders move; we don’t get the benefit of the doubt," Simmons said. 

Simmons' experience in tech spans more than 20 years. She's held executive positions at Amazon's Audible, Time Warner/AOL, and Samsung's connected car business Harman before joining Google's Play division in a global partner marketing role.

“Nobody turns down Google. They’re like the mafia," Simmons said. "They call, you’re like ‘OK.’”

She and her two male cofounders, Rafael Saavedra and another who chose not to be named, have been around the block of Silicon Valley's tech industry, a field known for being dominated by fresh-eyed and bushy-tailed 20-somethings. (Research firm Statista found the median age amongst Facebook employees to be 28.)

“We’re not 22 and just graduated; we know what it means to build technology," Simmons said.

She'll kick off funding rounds for her company soon, but in the interim, she said she's lucky to have been able to live off of her Google stock and the funds she made from her heirloom gold, a privilege unafforded to the majority of female founders in the startup territory.

"This is where most women’s businesses and startups fail, they don’t get that first vote of validation," Simmons said.

SEE ALSO: Here are 17 of the highest-paying jobs at Google

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NOW WATCH: How Apple can fix HomePod and Siri

• Reporters were allowed on Tuesday to play around with Duplex, the technology that books restaurant reservations or make appointments with a hair salon.
• Google demonstrated Duplex at I/O last month and stunned people when the system showed itself capable of listening and then responding in a human-sounding voice.
• Duplex is still in the testing phase, but Google executives say the system successfully accomplishes it's goal four out of every five calls. 
• It certainly had us fooled.

Google Duplex, the technology that debuted at last month’s I/O conference and simultaneously tickled and frightened people by carrying on brief conversations with humans, pretty much works as advertised.

On Tuesday, members of the media were allowed to test Duplex for themselves. The technology is another of Google’s Assistants' digital valets, built to perform the relatively simple tasks of booking restaurant reservations or making haircut appointments.

Turns out the naysayers and skeptics were wrong. Duplex understands speech and converses with humans in much the same way that Google promised. Still, it's unclear if anyone is interested in turning over these chores to computer systems. If they are, the company is potentially sitting on a hit.

At I/O, Google CEO Sundar Pichai played a recording for the audience of Duplex successfully making a restaurant reservation in such a convincing way — sprinkling "ums" and "ahs" into its speech — that the human on the other end of the line had no idea they were speaking to an automated system.

Some in the I/O audience distrusted what they heard. They accused Google of editing the recording and rigging the demonstration to make Duplex appear more advanced. Others noted that Google had wowed I/O audiences before with whizbang tech — tech that never amounted to much.

Others more convinced by the technology feared that Duplex could conceivably dupe people into believing they were chatting with someone they knew, a potentially big problem.

How we got hands-on with Duplex

During the demo on Tuesday, reporters took turns playing the part of a receptionist or restaurant hostess. Duplex called to book a reservation and reporters asked questions such as "How can I help you?" and "For what day and time?" and "How many people in your party?"

The first thing to know is that Duplex identified itself straightaway as a digital application.

"Hi, I’m calling to make a reservation. I’m an automated booking service so I’ll record the call," Duplex said in a voice that sounded like it came from a twenty-something male. "Can I book a table for Thursday?"

That may not have solved the entire issue of preventing Duplex from being used to impersonate people but it’s not a bad start.

As for the rest of Duplex’s performance, the software smoothly responded to questions and quickly interpreted responses from reporters. The software wasn’t tripped up much by mispronounced words,  stuttering or extended pauses. The demonstration was nearly perfect.

Duplex got into trouble once, when David Pierce of The Wall Street Journal, purposely threw it a curveball and repeated back erroneous dates for a reservation. Duplex reacted as it was programmed to do in such situations: By alerting one of Google’s human operators who got on the line and completed the booking.

In Duplex’s testing stage, Google has operators standing by to take over whenever a conversation goes off track, said Nick Fox, vice president of product design and Scott Huffman, vice president of engineering.

According to them, Duplex is successful four out of every five calls.

It’s hard to believe Google won’t have a higher failure rate, at least initially. Once people learn that they’re talking to software, there are bound to be many who will try to mess with this technology.

Google is prepared.

Managers have programmed Duplex to try and steer conversations to the designated task if the human on the line begins to stray off topic. If it fails to achieve this, the software will call on one of the human operators to take over.

Initially, users will use their phones and an app to key in dates, times, and other information needed to make a reservation or appointment. Then Duplex will take over and make the call. Once the reservation is booked, the system will notify the user. Google said the focus for the project was to "help people get things done."

As for when consumers might get their chance to play with Duplex, Google didn’t say exactly but managers hinted that it may be as soon as this summer.

SEE ALSO: Google insiders say the final version of Duplex, the stunning AI bot that sounded so real it fooled humans, may be purposefully made less scary

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• Legal tech startup Everlaw has raised $25 million in a series B funding round led by new investor Menlo Ventures, with participation from existing investor and famed Silicon Valley venture firm Andreessen Horowitz.
• CEO and founder AJ Shankar said the company wants to invest more in artificial intelligence.
• Everlaw has doubled revenue year over year in the last two years, and is now being used by every US state attorney in all 50 states.

Berkeley, California-based legal-tech startup Everlaw has raised $25 million in a series B funding round led by new investor Menlo Ventures, with participation from existing investor and high-profile venture firm Andreessen Horowitz, the company announced Thursday.

Everlaw is a cloud-based e-discovery platform that lets lawyers easily organize and search through millions of documents, videos, emails, and pictures exchanged between legal teams before a trial. In big cases, terabytes of data are passed between lawyers and without software, it can take hundreds of hours for paralegals to comb through them.

In an interview with Business Insider, founder and CEO AJ Shankar said the money will be used to invest in artificial intelligence, which the platform already uses in some capacity to suggest — using data from past behavior — what documents it thinks will be a priority or what documents should be looked at next.

Eventually, Shankar says, he wants Everlaw to be able to surface those suggestions instantly from the initial upload as well as derive intelligence about user behavior across multiple cases.

"The harder problem we're trying to solve is what we can understand about this giant corpus of data without users even telling us anything," Shankar said. "Forget legal, that's a hard problem in AI in general."

The company declined to disclose its valuation, but it has seen huge success with revenue, which it says has doubled in the last two years. Shankar added that Everlaw is in "growth mode," so the company is cash-flow neutral and not profitable right now.

All 50 states

Shankar founded Everlaw after getting a computer-science degree from the University of California, Berkeley. While he was a student, he acted as a consultant for a local law firm on technical issues and used both his engineering knowledge and familiarity with law firms to start Everlaw in 2011. 

There's already several e-discovery platforms on the market, but those legacy systems are at times clunky and expensive, Shankar said. Indeed, according to some estimates, e-discovery can account for up to 70% of the total cost of a lawsuit. Plus, Everlaw is only one of a handful of e-discovery platforms heavily investing in sophisticated artificial intelligence, something Shankar said gives Everlaw an edge.

Everlaw is also differentiating itself with a handy "post-review" feature called StoryBuilder. The tool lets users who aren't directly looking through the documents to organize particular information and evidence into a narrative that can be used at trial. It cuts down the feedback loop between the people doing the discovery component and the people building the case. 

"That way of litigating, we think it's really powerful," Shankar said.

Since Everlaw can handle huge cases, the company is marketing itself toward medium and large law firms, gaining customers from top-tier firms. Unlike Logikcull, another leading cloud-based e-discovery platform that has recently gotten attention from Silicon Valley, Everlaw isn't going after people representing themselves, or mom-and-pop law firms.

Everlaw is now being used by the US state attorney general offices in all 50 states. At first, it was only used in a handful them, but when attorneys general started working together on multi-district cases, word spread and eventually the platform was adopted by all of them.

"In these major litigations, we're a major, if not the best contender they got," Shankar said. "It's been a great viral growth opportunity for us."

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Google just added a new "Out of office" feature to its Calendar app to make meeting management a little easier. 

Similar to Google's Vacation Responder feature in Gmail, which can send automated replies while you're away from your computer, the new Out of office feature lets you preemptively deny meeting requests for certain periods of time on your Google Calendar. Google announced the feature in a blog post on Thursday, saying it will "further improve your digital well-being."

The way that Out of office messages are set up right now, incoming emails and invites automatically receive an "I can't respond right now," but only once you're out of the office. With this feature — which can be applied to day-to-day hours or for vacation days — the creator of the meeting will know you'll be unavailable on that day and time as soon as he or she makes the meeting. 

That leaves you to get on with your work and your personal life, by avoiding the repeated conversation about your hours and travel time. 

Here's how to set up the Out of office feature in Google Calendar:

For one-off times — say, when you're going out of town or need to go heads down on an assignment — click on a day like you would for an event or a reminder, and select the Out of office mode. Then fill in the rest of the necessary information.

When I typed "Vacation" into the title field, Google automatically changed the event to the Out of office mode with a pop-up explaining itself: "Going out of office? Use Out of office to create auto declining events."

"Going forward, Google Calendar will try to intelligently detect, based on the title entered, when you’re creating an out of office object and change the type automatically," Google said in the blog post. "You can always manually change this if you’d like to opt for a different entry type."

Note that even though you are creating an event like you would any other, the "Create event" shortcut in the bottom right-hand corner (that red plus sign) won't work. It's for events only.

The days will appear differently in your 'Week' view, and any meetings previously created will be declined.

If you change your mind or schedule incorrectly, don't worry — once you delete the time off, Google Calendar automatically re-accepts anything that was declined. 

Google Calendar will also decline incoming meetings requests for those days with an email that includes your tailor-made message. Here's what it looks like on their end:

Apple's Siri is apparently the market leader for mobile voice assistants, beating out popular players like Google's Assistant.

This may come as a surprise to some, since Android has a much larger share of the market and Siri is often considered inferior in terms of user experience and capabilities. But Google has been struggling to build awareness about its smart assistant (Google Assistant is on 400 million Android devices as of 2017, according to Voicebot.ai) and as this chart from Statista shows, Siri's first-to-market strategy has made it tough for others to catch up.

Also interesting here is Amazon Alexa and Microsoft Cortana's high rankings, considering neither one is automatically integrated into a smartphone. Alexa's particularly impressive 10% share accounts for the people who use the voice assistant through the Alexa app in order to access their Echo smart speakers — a capability that wasn't even possible until 2017. Cortana, meanwhile, can now only be bought in the Google Play Store. 

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