Microsoft, Facebook, Slack … Simone, Her, and i, Robot. Bots of all kinds have long been the subject of movies and software centered on artificial intelligence, but as of late the hype about bots, specifically chatbots, has spiked considerably. Headlines confetti the internet claiming chatbots are the hot new thing in tech and represent the future, like it or not. But why the sudden interest in chatbots when they’ve been around for so long? Who keeps making them, and what do they really do?

The Creative Economy promoted by Park Geun-hye’s Administration, which has been proceeding with great inspiration since the inauguration of the new administration in 2013, is significantly boosting the Korean economy. Recently, according to the government, the number of companies supported and fostered by the nationwide Creative Economy Innovation Centers surpassed 2,000. Among them, start-ups (newly founded firms) with less than seven years’ operation numbered 939 and 800 jobs are reported to be created through such start-ups. 

All kinds of things are hooked up to the Internet these days, but Jerry Chow’s computer stands out. Chilled by liquid helium, his superconducting processor uses quantum physics to circumvent rules of everyday reality that limit the power of conventional computers.

Chow manages IBM’s quantum computing group at the company’s Thomas J. Watson research center in Yorktown Heights, New York. The team launched a website today with an interface that lets outside programmers and researchers test algorithms on the new chip.

Image: https://www.technologyreview.com

Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the Indian government has shown that it understands the need to develop innovation in the country’s health care sector.

The government is due to announce a major reform of intellectual property (IPR) laws, which it sees as crucial for developing modern, high tech industries. Meanwhile, the ‘Make in India’ campaign and last government budget created a number of tax incentives and research and development (R&D) initiatives aimed at increasing private and public sector research investment.

Many undergraduate business schools have majors, concentrations, and extensive programs aimed at developing the next generation of entrepreneurs. Some in higher education argue this trend is based on shifts in the job market that provide greater opportunities for new business development and limit prospects for advancement in traditional large scale organizations. Others suggest generational differences are a key driver. Undergraduates, they contend, seek more flexibility, engagement, and impact within their chosen workplaces. And since there are always a few cynics in the bunch, some believe universities capitalizing on the financial benefits of student entrepreneurship, as their ideas lead to profitable business ventures. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) reports two-thirds of adults worldwide think entrepreneurship is a good career choice.

Researchers have developed the world's tiniest engine - just a few billionths of a meter in size - which uses light to power itself. The nanoscale engine, developed by researchers at the University of Cambridge, could form the basis of future nano-machines that can navigate in water, sense the environment around them, or even enter living cells to fight disease.

Image: Expanding polymer-coated gold nanoparticles. Photo: Yi Ju, University of Cambridge NanoPhotonics

A business development tool called “Economic Gardening” helped a Tri-City tech firm land a multimillion dollar investment, its founder told Washington Gov. Jay Inslee.

The governor met Tuesday with Junus Khan, founder of Kennewick-based Carbitex Inc., and representatives from four participants in Washington’s first Economic Gardening initiative to learn how the data-driven economic development program is faring.

Image: Strips of soft carbon fiber material are tested for durability in a flex testing machine at Carbitex in Kennewick. File Tri-City Herald

In part 1 and part 2 of this series, I focused on the Cybertech conference in Tel Aviv which I attended in in January. In this and the final blog piece on the topic, I’ll look at how Israel has become a leading player in the worldwide information security sector.

I attended Cybertech on a trip sponsored by the America–Israel Friendship League and the Israeli Foreign Ministry. Also on the trip was fellow CSO columnist Richard Stiennon who wrote about it as well. In his illuminating article, he calculated the number of information security vendors per country.

Image: Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu speaks at the Cybertech 2016 conference in Tel Aviv, Israel January 26, 2016. Credit: REUTERS/Baz Ratner 

Comcast’s acquisition of DreamWorks Animation (DWA) for about $3.8 billion strengthens the broadcasting and cable TV giant’s arsenal as it competes with the Walt Disney Company on several fronts. The acquisition, which is subject to regulatory approvals, enables Comcast to provide stronger content and related merchandise to the coveted markets of kids, teens and millennials and better execute its China strategy, among other gains. The deal is also consistent with the broader changes underway in the industry, including content delivery on multiple screens.

Startups largely live and die by the amount of funding received, and over the past three years there has been an onslaught of investment that virtually doubled as 2015 came to a close.

But that rock-solid growth is beginning to show cracks, as the number of startups that received funding, and the level of funding committed, fell by 11% in the first quarter compared to a year ago, according to the recently released MoneyTree Report from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP and the National Venture Capital Association, based on data from Thomson Reuters.

“Up till two years ago, I was saying be careful with European venture. If you looked at the track records, you would not want to invest there because they were so bad,” says Ludovic Phalippou, associate professor of finance at the Oxford University’s Saïd Business School. 

It is hard to tell whether a C$400 million ($315 million) Canadian venture capital fund will boost innovation as intended because there are few ways to measure its effectiveness, the country's top independent watchdog said on Tuesday.

The previous Conservative government set up the so-called Venture Capital Action Plan in 2013 to stem the loss of young entrepreneurs to the United States and to rekindle investor interest in providing start-up funds for new ventures.

Image: Canada's Auditor General Michael Ferguson speaks during a news conference upon the release of his report in Ottawa, Canada, February 2, 2016. REUTERS/CHRIS WATTIE 

Erik Iverson, who takes the helm July 1 at the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation, will make his first public appearance in the state at the Wisconsin Entrepreneurs' Conference in June.

Iverson, president of business and operations for the Infectious Disease Research Institute in Seattle, will oversee one of the oldest and largest university-affiliated technology transfer offices in the country. WARF was formed in 1925 to commercialize a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor's vitamin D discovery and manages a $2.6 billion endowment.

Lita Nelsen, who ran the technology-transfer office at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, is retiring after 30 years, Stat News reports.

Nelsen, it adds, set the standard for tech-transfer offices. "(A)ny time a venture capitalist, a pharmaceutical company, or a tech titan wanted to cash in on an invention at (MIT), each had to go through her," Stat News writes.

Wayne Gretsky, the great hockey player, credited his success to this particular strategy: “I skate to where the puck will be, not where it has been.”

The NHL playoffs are now underway and while I mostly ignore the world of sports, ice hockey is one game I understand and enjoy watching because I used to play it.

What I like about hockey is the amazing ability of a player to send a small, hard, round cylinder soaring through a mass of opposing players at a high rate of speed to the exact place at the exact time that their teammate will be waiting for it. What I like even more, is the amazing ability of that teammate to anticipate where that puck will end up, often without even watching its flight, and to be there to receive it. All while maneuvering on skates at a breakneck pace in order to stay out of the clutches of the competition.

LAWRENCE — Demonstrating that a laboratory concept will work in practice is one key to moving a research discovery into the marketplace. The University of Kansas supports discovery and innovation in multiple ways, including the granting of Proof of Concept (POC) Fund awards for inventions that are near the commercialization stage.

This year, KU has awarded five such awards of up to $40,000 each. This is the fourth year for the program, which is administered by KU Innovation and Collaboration, the university’s bicampus technology commercialization office.  Awards support technology development efforts for six months in any area of innovation and technology. Funded projects require that KU has filed a provisional patent and that a path to commercialization of a product or method has been identified.

What makes a venture capital investment successful? Some of the most interesting data on this question comes from an analysis published last year by the venture capital firm First Round Capital. The firm’s unique data set comprises information on over 300 companies and nearly 600 founders, including founder characteristics such as age, gender, education, firm location, and prior work and startup experience. The study found several correlates with success — some reassuring, some surprising.

Startup funding has definitely cooled off, but there's a lot of debate about how dire the slowdown is.

Some startups with good numbers are still having no problem getting funded, and there's a lot of money sloshing around for early (seed-stage and Series A) investments. At the same time, later stage investors who were funding bigger companies at crazy "unicorn" valuations have slowed down a lot, and startups with poor numbers are having trouble getting follow-on rounds.

Digital technologies and applications have the potential to markedly enhance a payor’s profits. Leadership from the top is necessary to overcome the organizational resistance to change that can make a digital transformation difficult.

Why should senior health insurance leaders make “digital” a strategic priority? Many leaders may be tempted to relegate digital initiatives to their IT departments, or to small teams that have historically dealt with topics like digital marketing, but this would be a mistake. When executed well, these initiatives can achieve substantial, near-term SG&A cost savings and give payors a much more solid footing from which to face the future. Over the longer term, they may also be able to decrease spending on medical services.