ROBOTICS

Robots That Care

Emotionless robots have stormed factories, farms, and fulfillment centers. Evil robots live rent-free in the brains of filmmakers and sci-fi writers. Where are all the Mr. Rogers robots?

They're already here...

...but aren't in many homes. Companion bots are expensive and many makers haven't even brought their products to market. But that hasn't deterred new entrants. At CES last month, Samsung unveiled the Ballie companion bot while Tombot showed off an animatronic robot dog.

Yesterday, five-year-old Israeli startup Intuition Robotics said it's raised a $36 million Series B. Its first product is ElliQ, a tableside bot/AI agent that lights up when speaking to show some approximation of emotion. The product is targeted to seniors: Most ElliQ users are 80–90 years old. 

ElliQ is roughly laptop-sized and has a limited range of motion, but hardware's not the focus here. The robot engages its owners in conversation proactively rather than waiting for a wake word. Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant are infinitely jelly. 

But don't call it a robot

Intuition Robotics is eyeing the platform play, meaning it wants third parties to build services on top of its technology. It's already struck a deal with the Toyota Research Institute to create an in-car assistant to "generate a deeper relationship between the user and the car."

• This is familiar territory for Toyota. Woven City, its experimental urban lab, also plans to deploy companion bots. 

Other robotic platformers: The Boulder, CO, startup Misty Robotics calls its general-purpose robot a platform. Sony opened its Aibo robot dog to developers. The endgame is to acquire features that make the robot worth buying and spending time with. 

The real breakthrough

Roboticists often dream of their creations serving as teachers, nurses, butlers, or intergalactic droids. In the interim, companion bots—equipped with some AI smarts but limited mobility—make a bit more sense. 

One application is the growing elderly population. Companion bots could potentially boost the mood of vulnerable or socially isolated people.

CRYPTO

Financial Services Meets Bitcoin

BlockFi is a fintech startup offering interest-bearing bitcoin accounts, crypto-backed fiat loans, and zero-fee trading. People must really like those features: Last year, the company's revenue grew over 20x. 

And yesterday, BlockFi announced a $30 million Series B. Prominent cryptocurrency investors participated in the round, including the Winklevii's investment firm. This wasn't a surprise: When the company raised its Series A in August, CEO Zac Prince told me he was already thinking about raising again. 

BlockFi plans to launch a crypto-rewards credit card, mobile app, and roboadvisor. Maybe it can hold off until it raises a Series C in two weeks.

Bottom line: BlockFi has grown revenue, assets, and its cap table by offering traditional financial services to cryptocurrency owners. Now it plans to draw in more users by expanding product offerings. 

+ While we're here: The crypto exchange Coinbase launched margin trading for its Pro users.

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HARDWARE

Nvidia Was Late to Work This Morning

The graphics chipmaker blew past Q4 earnings estimates yesterday. Nvidia reported revenues of $3.1 billion for the quarter—a 41% annual leap powered by surging demand for seemingly everything that uses its graphics processing units (GPUs). 

"We are well positioned for the greatest technology trends of our time," CEO Jensen Huang said. Nvidia's GPUs are the workhorses for all manner of AI tasks, from natural language processing to recommendation engines. 

• Last August, Huang said Nvidia was working with nearly 4,500 AI startups. 
• Its GPUs also power gaming products, VR devices, and autonomous vehicles.

The company has recently benefited from more data centers using GPUs to accelerate AI-related workloads. Last quarter, Nvidia booked record data center revenue. 

Looking ahead, the hangover sets in. Like most tech companies that make physical products, Nvidia expects to take a hit this quarter from the coronavirus outbreak. 

BITS & BYTES

Stat: Lyft and Aptiv's self-driving collab has served 100,000 paying customers in Vegas. 

Quote: "The indictment is full of ambiguity and fudging language, the government is inserting these phrases so they can shift their theory as they go along in the trial"—Elizabeth Holmes's defense attorneys trying to dismiss the Theranos fraud case. 

Read: Inside Mark Zuckerberg's Lost Notebook: Wired gives a sneak preview of Steven Levy's forthcoming book, Facebook: The Inside Story. Levy has interviewed Zuck multiple times over the years. 

WHAT ELSE IS BREWING

• Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) introduced a bill that would create a data protection agency. 
• The EU decided against a five-year moratorium on facial recognition. Meanwhile, London police have deployed real-time facial recognition systems in public places. 
• The U.S. Army is investing in techniques to avoid "data poisoning," or adversarial attacks that intentionally distort AI training and inference.  
• Snap is testing an app overhaul, The Verge learned. The redesigned Snapchat could emphasize the friends map and original programming.
• The LA Fire Department bought the first electric firetruck in North America. 

GOING PHISHING

Hope you dug for worms, because we're going phishing. Three of these news stories are real; one is deepfaked. Can you spot the odd one out? 

1. Elon Musk tweeted "#DeleteFacebook it's lame."
2. Snapchat is reportedly creating its own cryptocurrency to pay creators. 
3. A mobile voting app used by four states has "elementary security flaws."
4. New Zealand is getting its first virtual avatar cop. 

MARKET RESEARCH

Google is rolling out "Emoji Kitchen," a feature that lets you combine emojis and send the mashup on messaging services. Lil Nas X tweeted, "my time has arrived." Same.

Unfortunately for many of you, it's only available for Android users right now. See you Monday after sending emoji mashups on my non-iPhone —Ryan. 

GOING PHISHING ANSWER

Snapchat is not making its own crypto.