IBM today announced the launch of a pilot program to deploy its artificial intelligence inside Mall of America. Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. covers 5.6 million square feet, making it the largest retail space in the U.S. The Experiential List Formulator (E.L.F.) can now help guests manage their options by suggesting ways to spend time at the mall’s more than 500 stores and theme parks. “E.

Apple and Deloitte announced a partnership on Wednesday in which the consultant will open a new practice to help corporate clients work with Apple products, the tech firm’s latest attempt to boost enterprise sales as its key product, the iPhone, shows signs of maturation. Apple has announced a steady stream of enterprise partnerships in recent years as it aims to draw more revenue from a market th

Computer hacker silhouette. Blue binary code background. Seattle office. U.S.-based financial innovation start-up R3 announced on Monday that it and eight banks, including HSBC and State Street, have successfully tested a blockchain platform powered by Intel (INTC) technology for bond transactions. The platform featured advanced smart contract technology that enabled trading, matching, and settlem

Technology Firms and German Automakers Form 5G Telecoms Group German carmakers Audi, BMW, and Daimler on Tuesday launched an alliance with mobile telecoms network equipment firms Ericsson (ERIC), Huawei, Intel (INTC), Nokia, and Qualcomm (QCOM) to accelerate development of the infrastructure needed for self-driving cars.The pact is another example of Germany’s premium carmakers collaborating to bu

Solar panel maker and farm developer SunPower is embracing the latest in computing technology to help lower the cost of its solar panel farms while minimizing the impact that the farms have on land. The Richmond, Calif.-based company on Tuesday announced an array of new technology that it’s using to design, build, operate, and monitor big solar panel farms that are built to sell energy to utilitie

United Parcel Service plans to expand its 3D printing service to Asia and Europe, the U.S. shipping company has told Reuters, in a bid to fully embrace and get ahead of a trend that threatens to eat away a small but lucrative part of its business. To counter that threat, UPS (UPS) has chosen to get on board the 3D revolution, and is now looking to offer a service in which UPS will print out plasti

Like most sectors, the solar industry is rapidly embracing ways to analyze and crunch data in order to lower the cost of solar energy and to open up new markets for their technology. The rise of data tools—algorithms, machine learning, sensors—are driving investments in, and acquisitions of, solar startups, while entrepreneurs are launching new companies that are using data to solve various solar

The $8.5 trillion global construction industry isn’t exactly known for its efficiency. The U.K. Green Building Council estimates that 15% of materials delivered to construction sites end up in landfills, the result of mismanaged scheduling and purchasing. The American Institute of Architects believes building-related waste makes up anywhere from 25% to 40% of America’s solid-waste stream. With con

When the feds want to keep track of who is coming into the country, so-called biometrics may be the best way to do so. Unlike with documents, it’s very hard for a traveler to present a forged copy of a fingerprint or iris. That’s why the U.S. Department of Homeland Security plans to vastly expand the amount of biometric data it collects at the borders. According to Passcode, a new program will ram

Electronics giant Flextronics, through its solar gear subsidiary NEXTracker, has acquired a young startup called BrightBox Technologies, which builds predictive modeling and machine learning software, the companies announced late on Monday. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. NEXTracker makes hardware, called trackers, which automatically tilt solar panels throughout the day to face the sun to i

New research led by RAND Corporation criminologist Jessica Saunders has concluded that a Chicago experiment in predictive policing was, at least in its early stages, a failure. The program, launched in 2013, used data analytics to identify individuals, known as Strategic Subjects, likely to be involved in a shooting. The original premise was that social workers would engage with these at-risk indi

Lyft Reportedly Failed to Sell Itself to Apple, Amazon, Google—and Uber A driver displays Uber and Lyft ride sharing signs in his car windscreen in Santa Monica, California, U.S., May 23, 2016. REUTERS/Lucy Nicholson - RTSFMIV On Friday, The New York Times reported that, in addition to murky negotiations with General Motors, Lyft has broached acquisition talks with Apple, Amazon, Google, Didi Chux

Anyone who has applied for a mortgage knows that it can be an arduous process that involves providing dozens of documents and filling out countless forms. After being approved, borrowers must then decide what type of loan they want. The entire process takes an average of 45 days. But a new startup called Clara hopes to improve the experience and take a slice of the $2 trillion mortgage market. Cla

In a move that would have been jaw-dropping a few years ago, Intel’s (INTC) factories are soon going to be churning out chips that use ARM’s (ARMH) designs. ARM’s architecture almost completely owns the mobile processor space. Intel largely owns the desktop, but failed to make a serious dent in mobile with its Atom system-on-a-chip (SoC) products, which used Intel’s own x86 architecture. So now In

Apple Will Build R&D Center in China as Part of Amped-Up Investment A Chinese clerk instructs a customer to use the payment system Apple Pay on her iPhone smartphone at a branch of China CITIC Bank in Hangzhou city, east China's Zhejiang province, 18 February 2016. Shoppers in China can now use contactless payment system Apple Pay to make purchases, after tech giant Apple and Chinese bankcard asso

Bill Maris has stepped down as CEO of Google Ventures, the corporate investment group he founded in 2009. News of Maris’s decision was shared with GV employees via a memo on Wednesday afternoon, with an all-hands meeting scheduled for Thursday. Maris’ successor will be GV managing partner David Krane, who was Google’s original communications lead. Sources familiar with GV suggest that Maris has be

Wal-Mart (WMT) last week announced plans to acquire Jet.com, an e-commerce startup founded just two years ago by the former head of Quidsi (a.k.a. Diapers.com, which is now owned by Amazon). The retail giant said it would pay $3 billion in cash up-front, plus up to $300 million in stock-based incentives. Fortune has since spoken with several sources close to the deal, and have learned more about t

This Transatlantic Startup Is Signing Big Brands for Design Software Big brands are adding interactive design expertise to their marketing teams, a phenomenon that helped software upstart Ceros triple its customer list over the past two years to 200 accounts such as General Electric, Red Bull, and United Airlines. That success fueled a $8 million Series B funding round for Ceros disclosed Tuesday