Welcome back. The artificial-intelligence space is seeing signs of a return to normalcy, however faint, as the pace of Covid-19 vaccinations picks up across the country. In the healthcare sector, software developers building tools outside of the pandemic response are catching the attention of investors after a lull in funding activity last year. President Biden’s pledge that Americans will be able to gather for Independence Day has kickstarted the beleaguered travel industry, including the use of AI-powered flight and hotel booking tools. And federal regulators are redoubling efforts to clear the way for 5G networks, promising a leap forward for super-fast online networks and, by extension, the data-heavy algorithms that rely them.

San Francisco-based AI developer Viz.ai, whose Viz LVO product helps neurologists identify strokes, recently raised $71 million in new funding, as it seeks to expand into other areas of acute care, WSJ’s John McCormick reports. 

How it works. Viz LVO analyzes CT scans to detect signs of blockage or hemorrhage via a machine-learning algorithm trained on a vast database of brain images.

Big backers. The company’s latest funding round, which brings its total raised to more than $150 million, was led by Scale Venture Partners and Insight Partners.

A factory fire at a subsidiary of auto chip giant Renesas Electronics Corp. is stoking carmakers’ fears of a prolonged global shortage of semiconductors, which underpin a growing list of dashboard apps and other intelligent car features, The Wall Street Journal reports. 

Computers on wheels. Today’s cars use chips to power smart apps that help control elements from engines and transmissions to cruise controls, air bags, brakes, power seats and entertainment systems.

Collision course. Worsened by the pandemic, the chip shortage has already prompted Volkswagen AG to cease production of Audis and VW vehicles, while Ford Motor Co. and others have reduced output of pickup trucks and sedans.

Hopper Inc., a flight- and hotel-booking startup that uses AI to search for availability, says it expects to hire 400 new customer-support agents and 150 full-time employees by the end of the year, as the travel industry shakes off a pandemic crunch, WSJ’s Yuliya Chernova reports.

Travel smarts. Hopper’s AI-powered app predicts flight and hotel price movements, alerts users to price drops and locks in a price without users having to pay in full right away.

Shot in the arm. The rapid pace of vaccinations, combined with federal stimulus payments, has lifted bookings on Hopper’s app 50% so far in March over the previous month, to roughly double the level of the fourth quarter of 2020, the company says.

Not so fast. America’s 5G rollout, which promises to unleash a wave of AI-powered capabilities over extremely fast internet connections, has the U.S. Federal Communications Commission in overdrive as billions of dollars in 5G investments put new demands on agency leaders and staff (The Wall Street Journal)

Startup leader foresees wage gain. OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman says the widespread use of AI will generate enough wealth that every adult in the U.S. could see an extra $13,500 added to their paychecks within the next decade, regardless of where they work. (CNBC) 

Covid boosts AI, raises issues. Investments in AI development, especially by healthcare providers, kept the growth of AI going throughout the pandemic, though it also highlighted thorny issues around diversity and ethics. (ZDNet) 

Fighting fire with firewire. Sonoma County has struck a deal with South Korean tech firm Alchera in a bid to enlist AI in efforts to fight wildfires, in part by detecting changes in old and new images of forested and hillside areas. (Los Angeles Times) 

A growing strategy. More farmers are increasing the quantity and quality of crop yields through the use of AI-powered aerial imagery, helping to improve operations, forecasting, quality control and risk mitigation. (Forbes)

New research center. Florida Atlantic University’s College of Engineering and Computer Science recently unveiled the Center for Connected Autonomy and Artificial Intelligence, a new research facility focusing on advancing the development of AI and autonomy. (Florida Atlantic University) 

Call-center jobs at risk. The pandemic has accelerated the shift to automated call-center services as AI tools become increasingly capable of fielding customer queries, threatening the livelihoods of millions of voice operators employed by outsourcing firms. (Bloomberg Business)

Ceci ce n’est pas une pomme. In a new research paper, OpenAI demonstrates how a neural network system that learns to recognize objects from a verbal description can be fooled most of the time by overlaying the image with text labelling the object as something else, such as a sticker on an apple saying it is an iPod. (New Scientists) 

Microsoft Corp. will start shifting to a hybrid-work approach on March 29, with some employees returning to office desks while others work from home, the company said Monday. (The Wall Street Journal)

The first tweet that Twitter Inc. Chief Executive Jack Dorsey posted to the microblogging site in 2006 has sold as a nonfungible token for about $2.9 million, the latest digital collectible to haul in more than $1 million amid a flurry of interest from buyers. (The Wall Street Journal)

TikTok, the popular Chinese-owned video app that the Trump administration sought to ban as a national security risk, poses no threat to the U.S., according to a study released Monday by university cybersecurity researchers. (The Wall Street Journal) 

Hospitals that have published previously confidential prices to comply with a new federal rule have blocked that information from web searches with special coding embedded on their websites, according to a Wall Street Journal examination. (The Wall Street Journal)

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

Follow us on Twitter: @wsjproai, @steve_rosenbush, @J_J_McCormick, @tomloftus, @SCastellWSJ, @JaredCouncil  and @angusloten.