Welcome back. Alexa, Siri and other virtual assistants powered by voice-recognition systems have taken off with consumers in recent years. That’s been a boon for Amazon.com Inc. and Apple Inc., but less so for Microsoft Corp. This week the software giant took a big step in closing the gap, announcing a $16 billion deal to acquire Nuance, a tech startup whose AI-powered software formed the basis of Apple's Siri voice assistant. Two years ago, Microsoft and Nuance struck a partnership to develop AI assistants for doctor visits. As demand for remote healthcare surged during the Covid-19 pandemic, the two companies deepened their ties by integrating Nuance’s software into Microsoft’s Teams workplace-collaboration platform.

Striking its second largest acquisition deal under Chief Executive Satya Nadella, Microsoft on Monday said it has agreed to acquire voice-recognition developer Nuance for $16 billion, a deal that is poised to accelerate the already rapid growth of AI-powered voice assistants across a range of industries, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Easy integration. Nuance and Microsoft share many customers in the healthcare sector, as well as finance and other industries where many companies collaborated during the pandemic. 

Loud and clear. Smart devices with voice assistants have boosted the value of AI-enabled voice-recognition tools, from Amazon’s Alexa voice and Echo smart speaker, to Alphabet Inc.’s Google Assistant.

The deal will boost Microsoft’s place in the natural language processing market, which research firm Gartner Inc. says will see half of all knowledge workers using NLP-powered virtual assistants on a daily basis by 2025, up from 5% in 2020, WSJ’s Jared Council reports.

Challenges. Among other limits, NLP systems today are designed for very specific uses and have trouble handling anything outside that scope, said Ian Jacobs, an analyst at Forrester Research Inc.

In the future. NLP systems hold the promise of underpinning machines that can perform tasks and respond to a broad range of human requests without prior training.

Facebook Inc.’s AI unit last week unveiled a data set consisting of tens of thousands of videos of a large and diverse group of participants chatting with the camera, a project designed to help AI researchers test their computer vision and audio models for potential bias, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.

Better training. Cristian Canton Ferrer, Facebook AI’s research manager, says the giant video bank aims to fill a critical need to improve the fairness of AI systems, as well as address the lack of a high-quality data sets needed to measure fairness in the first place.

Using an AI-enhanced camera, a group that develops smart-software devices for the visually impaired has built an AI-in-a-backpack system that alerts users to traffic signs, vehicles, walkways and more, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.

How it works. The system consists of a lightweight camera and Intel Corp.’s Movidius Neural Compute Sticks, thumb-drive-like devices that plug into a laptop’s USB port to handle data-heavy AI models.

What it does. The camera, laptop and computer sticks contain computer-vision AI trained to analyze images and can identify objects and where they are in relation to the camera.

With an eye to boosting its use of warehouse robotics, XPO Logistics Inc. has named Sandeep Sakharkar, the logistics company’s senior vice president, as chief information officer for its automated supply-chain services spinoff GXO Logistics Inc., WSJ’s Jared Council reports. 

Room to grow. While GXO will provide many XPO-developed digital tools, Mr. Sakharkar said he wants to build upon that by investing in AI, robotics and talent.

Covid-19 effect. The goal is to better respond to increased demand sparked by a surge in online shopping during the pandemic that many shippers expect to become the new normal.

Shipping logjam. Hobbled global supply chains have resulted in an average of 30 container ships a day stuck outside the Ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach.  

Rebound in tech spending. Led by more advanced uses of software for remote work and collaboration, companies world-wide are expected to spend $4.1 trillion on digital tech this year, up 8.4% from 2020, and regaining the pace of spending growth before Covid-19, according to research firm Gartner Inc. (The Wall Street Journal)

Federal officials see nation lagging. Robert O. Work, vice chair of the federal National Security Commission on AI, says the U.S. is lacking a clear strategy, organizational structure and resources to win the competition with China for effective implementation of AI. (National Defense Magazine)

Funding for chip makers. President Joe Biden is urging Congress to invest $50 billion in semiconductor manufacturing and research, a move aimed at heading off a global shortage that is roiling the automotive industry and technology firms. (Retuers) 

Study finds new strains of MS. Researchers, in a recent study published in Nature Communications, used AI to identify three new subtypes of multiple sclerosis, which may help identify individuals who are more likely to be hit harder by the disease. (Pharmacy Times) 

Intel partners with EV startup. Mobileye, Intel Corp.’s automated driving systems unit, is teaming up with self-driving tech developer Udelv in an effort to get automated electric delivery vehicles on the road in the U.S. by 2023. (Reuters) 

Not that Michael Jordan. Tech researcher Michael Jordan says AI systems today mimic human intelligence, but are still unable to engage deeply and creatively, and shouldn't be referred to as "intelligent." (Mind Matters) 

Smart real-time colonoscopies. The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has authorized the use of a machine-learning-enabled device designed to help clinicians detect lesions, such as polyps or tumors, during a colonoscopy. (FDA) 

More concerns over bias. Gay rights groups in the European Union have launched a campaign to ban the use of automated recognition of gender and sexual orientation by governments and employers, saying algorithms trained on binary gender categories could enable discrimination. (The Gay Times)  

Ant Group Co., the financial-technology giant controlled by billionaire Jack Ma, will apply to become a financial holding company overseen by China’s central bank, overhauling its business to adapt to a new era of tighter regulation for internet companies. (The Wall Street Journal)

Uber Technologies Inc. reported record monthly bookings for March as Covid-19 vaccination rates accelerated across the U.S. (The Wall Street Journal)

Cybersecurity firm Darktrace PLC said Monday it aims to go public in London, hoping to cash in on growing demand for its software, despite ongoing legal uncertainty over one of its leading backers. (The Wall Street Journal)

Grab Holdings Inc., which operates ride-hailing, food-delivery and digital-wallet services, said it would go public on the Nasdaq Stock Market by merging with a special-purpose acquisition company, securing a near $40 billion valuation. (The Wall Street Journal)

Write to Enterprise Technology Editor Steven Rosenbush and Pro AI newsletter author Angus Loten.

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