A new AI partnership aims to make VMware's data center managing software work better with Nvidia's AI and deep learning chips. The announcement comes as Nvidia’s $40b planned takeover of Arm faces a growing backlash from Beijing, which could block its Arm acquisition. In addition, the U.K. government and tech leaders are doubtful of the acquisition and related plans to build an AI research center with an Arm-powered AI supercomputer in the country.

Nvidia-VMware partnership

• Under the deal, VMware plans to adopt Nvidia's data processing chips and integrate them across its platforms. VMware plans to customize its software to make them work better with Nvidia's AI chips to run AI applications without a specialized setup.
• Their goal, although ambitious, is to make AI available to more businesses through the new cloud, data-center, and edge-computing architecture. They want to deploy the AI capabilities in the cloud, data center, or edge.
• VMware digitally divides its servers to help businesses include more applications in data center spaces. It's been largely focused on making its software work better with Intel processors, which dominate the data center market.

Nvidia-Arm takeover

• Arm’s IP will help Nvidia's servers and chips reach more users. But it still requires approval from the U.S., the U.K., China, and the E.U...

UCLA professor Zhu Songchun, known for his work in computer vision, robotics, and cognitive AI, has reportedly moved to China to lead Peking University's Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Zhu was born in China and graduated from the University of Science and Technology of China before obtaining his Ph.D. at Harvard.

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• Peking said it is working with Beijing to launch the AI research institute in partnership with other universities.
• Zhu's move could be viewed as a loss for U.S. academia as Zhu has done extensive research in areas such as image parsing, AI-powered robots, and explainable AI.
• A MarcoPolo study found that China sources the most top-tier AI talent but 88% of U.S. graduate studies graduates stay in the U.S.
• Chinese AI expert Harry Shum, Microsoft’s former AI and research head (who's also an acquaintance of Zhu), recently became Peking University's academic committee chair of the Institute of Artificial Intelligence.

Amazon unveiled "Amazon One," a biometric technology that allows users to pay using their palm. The technology will launch in two Amazon Go stores in Seattle and expand to other Amazon Stores soon. 

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• The biometric technology creates a palm signature based on surface area details such as lines and ridges. Amazon filed for a patent last year for the technology. 
• Amazon is planning to offer this service to third parties such as retailers, stadiums, and office buildings who will benefit from contactless entry and payment technologies, particularly during the pandemic.
• To register for Amazon One, users should have a credit card and mobile number – an Amazon account is not mandatory. The user accounts and biometric details can be deleted through an online portal. 
• After registering, customers can scan their palm and enter a store. Amazon will charge anything they take to the credit cards linked to their palm.
• Amazon says it will collect data on where One customers shop.

A version of this story first appeared in today's Inside Business.

Apple received a patent today that describes how it would use deep machine learning to apply better artistic styles to images or videos. Apple Insider reports this stylistic video editing would likely be a feature in future iPhones.

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• The system would "apply artistic styles extracted from one or more images to one or more target images."
• This means it would apply a value to each pixel through machine learning.
• Since processing and heat constraints make this image manipulation currently unfeasible on devices, Apple wants to use neural network and ML techniques.
• Apple recently unveiled its iPad Air with an A14 Bionic chip, which has greatly improved machine-learning capabilities.

Two deepfake advertisements featuring Russian President Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un have been pulled from local Fox, CNN, and MSNBC markets. The political ads will still broadcast on social media channels before tonight's presidential debate. The ads, part of a campaign from nonpartisan advocacy group RepresentUs, are meant to warn Americans about the importance of voting and other measures to uphold democracy.

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• The ads show AI-created deepfake versions of Putin and Kim telling voters that the U.S. doesn't require election interference from their countries to threaten its democracy.
• RepresentUs is attempting to shine a light on voting rights and political corruption ahead of the U.S. presidential election and threats to mail-in voting.
• RepresentUs and creative agency Mischief at No Fixed Address had actors recite scripts and hired a deepfake artist who used an open-source algorithm to add Putin’s and Kim’s faces. It took about 10 days, less than the months it would have taken using CGI, and was also less expensive.
• The campaign has not said why the networks pulled the ads, but critics speculate it's because of their message and sensitivities surrounding the use of deepfakes to deliver political messages.

AI drug discovery firm XtalPi raised $319m led by SoftBank and others, which will scale operations and potentially help find and develop more drugs.

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• The Series C round was co-led by SoftBank's AI-focused Vision Fund 2 along with PICC Capital and Morningside, with participation from existing and new investors.
• XtalPi's platform uses physics- and data-driven models to predict and analyze drug properties, find potential candidates, and ultimately advance drugs to clinical trials. It was founded by MIT quantum physicists in 2014.
• The company plans to use the fresh funding to develop its platform "further using algorithms, data, and computing power." This could make research more efficient and improve success rates, which could lower the cost to find and create new drugs.

• A deep-learning model from the University of Zurich and SONY AI Zurich researchers achieved super-human performance in the car racing game Gran Turismo Sport
• ICYMI: Snyk, a cybersecurity startup focused on code security, acquired Swiss machine learning code review startup DeepCode.
• Attunely, which developed a de-identified consumer interaction behavior-based ML platform for customer lifecycle analysis, raised $9M.
• Johannes Kepler University researchers are developing "soft" robots that can move quickly using weak magnetic fields.
• Oracle's customer data platform CX Unity now supports real-time behavioral data collection and personalization through machine learning.
• Learn how to achieve powerful results from SMS—like 25x+ ROI—with 6 SMS marketing campaigns from leading brands.*

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