This Week’s Awesome Stories From Around the Web (Through October 21)

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Stunning AI Breakthrough Takes Us One Step Closer to the Singularity
George Dvorsky | Gizmodo
“A new paper published in Nature today describes how the artificially intelligent system that defeated Go grandmaster Lee Sedol in 2016 got its digital ass kicked by a new-and-improved version of itself…Now, every once in a while the field of AI experiences a 'holy shit' moment, and this would appear to be one of those moments.”

AUGMENTED REALITY

Magic Leap Confirms $502 Million Series D Round
Megan Rose Dickey | TechCrunch
“It’s still not totally clear what Magic Leap is doing, but it sure has raised a ton of money (more than $1.9 billion) in order to do whatever it is that it’s doing. To date, we’ve been able to gather that the company may be launching a device called 'Magic Leap One.' And last month, Bloomberg suggested Magic Leap may be gearing up to ship that device to a 'small group of users' in the next six months or so.”

TECHNOLOGY AND SOCIETY

This Alternative Credit Agency Lets Immigrants Bring Their Credit With Them
Ben Schiller | Fast Company
“Millions of immigrants enter the United States lacking something important for success: a documented financial history or credit score… Nova Credit is trying to fill the gap. For the last two years, it’s reached deals with credit bureaus in 15 countries to create a 'credit passport'—a way of porting financial history data across borders. Its business-to-business dashboard makes immigrants visible once more, translating data stored abroad into a form that can be consumed by banks, telephone companies, and landlords here.”