The U.S. maintains a "substantial lead" in artificial intelligence worldwide, though China is closing the gap in some areas, according to a new report by the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation. The researchers predict that China will eventually catch up to the U.S. in its development and use of AI technologies. The European Union, meanwhile, will continue to lag, they predict.

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• The researchers assessed the advancement of AI using 30 different metrics. These included research activity, investment in AI hardware and software, AI talent, and commercial development.
• The U.S. leads in startup investment and R&D, they found. However, China had the highest number of supercomputers at 214, compared to 113 in the U.S. and 91 in the EU.
• China also published the most AI research papers in 2018, the last year data was available. The average research quality was still highest in the U.S., the researchers determined.
• The U.S. ranked highest with an overall score of 44.6 points out of 100. China finished at 32 and the EU at 23.3.
• Lead author Daniel Castro concluded that the U.S. and EU should pay attention to China's action in AI. Countries that lead in its use and development "will shape its future and significantly improve their economic competitiveness, while those that fall behind risk losing competitiveness in key industries."
• The authors suggested that the U.S. boost its support for AI research/deployment and develop and attract more AI talent to remain competitive. The EU should expand its AI public research institutes and boost tax incentives for AI researchers, they recommended.

Hanson Robotics says it will start mass-producing four robots, including its well-known humanoid bot Sophia, during the first half of 2021. The Hong Kong-based company says more automation is needed during the pandemic to "keep people safe" and provide companionship to ward off loneliness.

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• The company emphasizes Sophia's ability to care for the sick and elderly. In a recent tour of her lab in Hong Kong, the robot told reporters: “I can help communicate, give therapy and provide social stimulation, even in difficult situations.”
• Hanson said it expects to sell “thousands” of its robots, both small and large, during 2021. It didn't specify which models those might be.
• In addition to Sophia, Hanson is working on a robot named Grace geared toward the healthcare industry.
• Company founder and CEO David Hanson told Reuters his robots are unique because they're so "human-like," which is helpful during these times when "people are terribly lonely and socially isolated."
• Between 2018 and 2019, global sales of professional service bots rose by nearly 33%, to $11.2B. Analysts predict that number will rise during and after the pandemic.

The CEOs of Tesla and Waymo have sparked a debate over which company has better self-driving technology. Waymo CEO John Krafcik started the back-and-forth when he first told German publication Manager Magazin that "Tesla is not a competitor at all" to Waymo.

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• In the interview, Krafcik went on to say that unlike Tesla, Waymo manufactures a "completely autonomous driving system." He argued that Tesla is developing a "really good" driver assistance system (not fully autonomous) that still warns drivers to keep their hands on the steering wheel at all times. "On our steering wheels it says: Do not touch," he said.
• Krafcik called it a "misconception" on Tesla's part to believe you can keep developing such a driver assistance system "until one day you can magically leap to a fully autonomous driving system." He argued that Waymo's sensors are "orders of magnitude better" than the kind other manufacturers are using.
• In response, Tesla's Elon Musk tweeted yesterday that "To my surprise, Tesla has better AI hardware & software than Waymo (money)."
• As Electrek points out, Waymo uses LiDAR sensors, while Tesla does not. Tesla relies more on computer vision technologies backed by AI and cameras and its own chip with a neural net accelerator, which is likely what Musk meant by "AI hardware."

A proposed ban on facial recognition is moving forward in Minneapolis, Minnesota. The city's council is expected to vote next month on a measure that would make it illegal for police and other city departments to employ the technology, which is used to search for potential suspects.

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• The city's Public Health and Safety Committee approved the measure unanimously on Thursday. It now advances to another committee before it goes to the council on Feb. 12.
• In a report, City Council member Steve Fletcher said facial recognition has been shown to be less accurate when identifying women and people of color. It has the potential to be used to surveil communities of color and "further disproportionately harm communities that historically have faced elevated levels of policing and harassment," he wrote.
• The proposal wouldn't affect private businesses. Last year, Portland, Ore., banned city agencies and private entities such as restaurants from using facial recognition. The ban on private entities is stricter than similar laws already passed in Boston, San Francisco, and other cities.
• Related: A U.S. bill that would prevent federal law enforcement agencies from using facial recognition could gain traction in 2021, according to CNET. The bill seeks to ban federal law enforcement from using the technology and is looking to make it harder for state and local police departments to use it by tying it to federal grants.

Python is the most popular programming language to learn, according to a new report based on O’Reilly online learning data. The company found that Python’s machine learning library, called scikit-learn, experienced 11% YoY growth while PyTorch, its ML framework for deep learning, rose by 159%.

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• Interest in other languages also saw growth. The use of JavaScript also increased by 40%, followed by C at 12%, and C++ at 10%.
• AI topics grew by 64% and ML by 14%. Natural language processing was up 21% and ML platform TensorFlow saw 6% growth from last year.
• The full report, "Where Programming, Ops, AI, and the Cloud are Headed in 2021," is available here.

Hyundai unveiled an AI-enabled robot that it says can provide customer service in its showrooms. DAL-e, which stands for "Drive you, Assist you, Link with you-experience," is currently being tested at one of Hyundai's dealerships in South Korea.

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• The automaker says DAL-e has facial recognition, language processing, and other capabilities that allow it to comprehend a customer's speech and body language and provide feedback about its products and services.
• DAL-e has a touchscreen interface, two gesturing arms, four omnidirectional wheels, and a pivoting head with animated eyes.
• Once the pilot program is complete, Hyundai plans to roll out the bot to some Kia and Hyundai showrooms, though it didn't specify where.
• Related: Earlier this month, we reported on several of the impressive robots and robotic systems featured at this year's Consumer Electronics Show. You can check them out here and here.

QUICK HITS:

• See how consumer electronics brand Nomad went headless with their existing Shopify store to increase their ecommerce conversion rate by 25%.*
• Google says it will start testing a machine learning technology, called Federated Learning of Cohorts, that could replace third-party cookies to track users. 
• Performance marketing agency Visiqua acquired ROI Verify, a developer of AI call bots, voice assistant integration, and RCS messaging.
• Singapore's first commercial driverless bus service has launched a three-month trial for on-demand rider transport.
• Seattle-based JetPlay has launched an open beta of its platform Ludo, which it says uses AI technologies to speed up game concept creation.
• What are the costs of inefficiencies in your product release cycle? Read how top companies save over $1M each year.*

*This is sponsored content.

Tweet of the Day: San Francisco artist/technical director Nathan Shipley is using neural networks to create photorealistic faces of famous paintings, according to a tweet from B2B influencer @EvanKirstel.