Technology

Bloomberg Amazon.com Inc. drew the ire of the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) over a facial-recognition system offered to law-enforcement agencies that the advocacy group says can be used to violate civil rights. In marketing materials obtained by the group, Amazon Web Services said its Rekognition system uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos, enabling law …

Bloomberg The technology boom powering Asia’s economies is about to get a reboot. Explosive growth in new-era gadgets such as wearable devices and internet-linked home appliances is tipped to offset cooling sales of smartphones, which has already dinged Asia’s tech manufacturers. “Where demand may be softening in some areas it will be strengthening in others,” Koshy Mathai, a senior official …

Bloomberg China’s biggest Netflix-like streaming site finally has a plan to get into the rapidly expanding arena of social and user-generated short-form videos. But iQiyi Inc. reckons it’ll take as long as three years to get there. The Baidu Inc. spinoff had long recognised the potential but chosen to focus on its core business out of necessity, iQiyi Chief Executive …

Bloomberg Japan’s Preferred Networks Inc. has only one publicly available product, a whimsical application that uses artificial intelligence to automate the coloring of manga cartoons. Yet the four-year-old firm has become Japan’s most valuable startup, with a venture capital funding that priced it at more than $2 billion, according to people familiar with the matter. Toyota Motor Corp., its biggest …

Bloomberg BMW AG offered another glimpse of its futuristic self-driving iNext car as the German manufacturer seeks to gain momentum in the race to overtake rival Mercedes-Benz in luxury car sales. The company, showing the iNext in a copper-colored version for the first time in 2016, will offer a more concrete concept of the vehicle this year, Chief Executive Officer …

Bloomberg The first video-game built using technology developed by Improbable Worlds Ltd., the virtual reality startup backed by SoftBank Group Corp., has been released by British developer Bossa Studios. Worlds Adrift uses Improbable’s SpatialOS software, which lets programmers create realistic simulations of massive scale and complexity and run across a cloud-computing network. Softbank acquired a non-controlling stake in London-based Improbable …

Bloomberg At Memphis International Airport, drones may soon be inspecting planes and delivering airplane parts for FedEx Corp. In Reno, Nevada, they will test airlifting life-saving defibrillators to patients. And customers in Virginia could get goods they ordered from Alphabet Inc.’s flying devices. A who’s who of technology and aviation companies won US approval on May 9 to push the …

Bloomberg Looking to sell its customers on the latest and greatest smart-home technology, builder Lennar Corp. flirted with Siri. Now it’s decided to go steady with Alexa. Lennar’s model homes — equipped with video doorbells, Sonos speakers and Amazon.com Inc.’s voice-activated Echo (known by its wake-word, “Alexa”) — will double as Amazon Experience Centers, the tech giant said. The builder, …

Bloomberg Wells Fargo & Co. is adding a new tool to make its mobile app easier to use as the bank tries to keep Silicon Valley innovators from stealing more customers. “Pay with Wells Fargo” will be an option on the app’s home screen that lets customers select their most commonly used features, such as the peer-to-peer payment service Zelle, …

Bloomberg NASA is working toward a future when humans will walk on the surface of Mars. But first it’s going to try flying a drone through the air. The Mars Helicopter, a small, self-flying aircraft designed specifically for the Red Planet, will be included in the space agency’s next rover mission in 2020 to beam back a birds-eye view of …