Some tech companies boast that their AI will change the world. Apple’s latest just aims to make your life a little easier. Apple unveiled a flock of modest conveniences powered by machine learning at its annual developer conference.

Three of the biggest AI vendors pledged to stop providing face recognition services to police — but other companies continue to serve the law-enforcement market.

Conversational agents have a tough job following the zigs and zags of human conversation. They’re getting better at it — thanks to yesterday’s technology. Amazon recently improved the Alexa chatbot’s ability to identify the current topic of conversation.

Machines took another step toward doing the work of journalists. Microsoft laid off dozens of human editors who select articles for the MSN news service and app. Going forward, AI will do the job.

The pandemic has forced self-driving car companies off the road. Now they’re moving forward by refining their mountains of training data. Self-driving cars typically collect real-world training data with two human operators onboard, but Covid-19 makes that unsafe at any speed.

A pioneer in dishwashing robots is reaching into commercial kitchens. Dishcraft Robotics uses machines equipped with computer vision to scrub dirties for corporate food services and, soon, restaurants.

Covid-19 has cost many workers their livelihood, but it has provided a lucky few on the lowest rungs of Africa’s machine learning industry with luxury suites.

Will reading soon become obsolete? A new system converts text articles into videos. VidPress, a prototype project from Chinese tech giant Baidu, currently generates more than 1,000 narrated video summaries of news stories daily.

Asian companies lead the world in AI deployment, new research argues. Market research by MIT Technology Review Insights found that companies in the Asia-Pacific region are using machine learning faster and with better results than any other part of the world.

Seeking a robot star for your movie, music video, or bat mitzvah? You need a new breed of talent scout. Ai-gen-cy is an artist management firm that exclusively represents robots, reports GeekWire.

When the world is panning for machine learning gold, it pays to help them dig through the data. Machine learning entrepreneurs can make their mark (and their fortune) building services that help other companies develop, deploy, and monitor AI, venture capitalist Rob Toews argues in Forbes.

As working from home becomes the new normal, AI may protect you from the sound of coworkers munching while they chat. No more smacking lips and rustling chip bags! Microsoft’s online collaboration platform Teams announced a feature that removes extraneous sounds from videoconferences.

Many of this year’s hottest AI companies are taking the spotlight from last year’s darlings.What’s new: CB Insights, which analyzes early-stage companies, published its annual list of the 100 “most promising” startups in AI.

AI may not steal your job, but it can tell the boss when you’re slacking. Drishti, a startup based in Palo Alto and Bengaluru, tracks the productivity of industrial workers by recognizing their actions on the assembly line.

A top meat packer is counting its chickens with AI. Tyson Foods is using computer vision to track drumsticks, breasts, and thighs as they move through its processing plants, the Wall Street Journal reports.