Tuesday, January 30, 2018

Amazon's healthcare play begins. It's The Daily Crunch.

THE DAILY CRUNCH
TUESDAY, JANUARY 30 2018 By Darrell Etherington

Amazon tips its big health play, and opens some spheres in Seattle. Also, the Valley's main AI hotshot is launching his fund officially. All that and more in The Daily Crunch for January 30, 2018.

1. Amazon (and friends) want to reinvent private health care

Amazon is working with JPMorgan and Berkshire Hathaway to build a new independent company that will seek to rethink how health care works in the U.S. Citing rising costs, and a failure to deliver proper care to employees, the companies have decided they can figure out how to do better.

They haven't figured that out just yet, however: This is basically a notice of intent, rather than an announcement of any solid plans. But they seem eager to get started building something more material, too.

2. Meanwhile, Amazon's got spheres

Yes, spheres. Big weird geodesic dome things that Amazon is opening to its employees and to specific tour groups at its HQ. I wonder if they can be sealed off from the rest of the surrounding environment in case of a health scare.

3. Andrew Ng launches his big AI fund

Google Brain founder and SV AI luminary Andrew Ng has officially launched his own $175 million AI investment fund. Can I have some money Andrew? My AI is nearly indistinguishable from a human brain.

4. Snapchat vastly expands its Bitmoji customization option

Snapchat has added additional customization options that add up to multiple septillion new variants of a final product. It's called Bitmoji Deluxe, and it's designed to help address a diverse user base as well as provide more customization options.

5. Uber has sold its leasing business

Uber was all set to simply shutter its Xchange Leasing business for cars on its platform, but it's now been acquired by leasing startup Fair. Uber shed the business because it was losing money, but a venture focused on the leasing side specifically might stand a chance.

6. Waymo stocks up its self-driving fleet

There's a lot of talk about imminent launches of autonomous car fleets, but those require the actual fleets to exist. Waymo has ordered 'thousands' of its Pacifica vans from FCA to make that a reality.

7. The new PlayStation 4 remake of Shadow of the Colossus is amazing

It's hard to understate how good this game is. Just go play it, if you have a PS4.

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