IBM to invest $240 mn to develop AI research lab with MIT Fed sees limited wage pressures as labour market remains tight Pakistan agency to file criminal charge against ex-PM Sharif

IBM will spend $240 million over 10 years to develop an artificial intelligence research lab with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, pooling the organisations’ resources as competition intensifies to produce breakthroughs in the field. The MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab will fund projects in four broad areas, including creating better hardware to handle complex computations and figuring out applications of AI in specific industries, the Armonk, New York-based company said Thursday in a statement. While IBM has always conducted long-term research internally, it decided AI was such a vast field that it needed to reach out for talent and ideas, said John Kelly, the head of International Business Machines ’s research and cognitive solutions groups, which includes Watson products. BLOOMBERG< Economic growth was modest to moderate across the US in the past two months as labour markets stayed tight without much wage pressure and the auto industry emerged as one of the few possible sources of weakness, a Federal Reserve survey showed. The central bank’s Beige Book report, based on anecdotal information collected by the 12 regional Fed banks from early July through August, said consumer spending, capital expenditures and manufacturing all were increasing. Employment growth “slowed some” even as worker shortages worsened. There were mixed results for vehicle sales and auto production, the report said.

BLOOMBERG< Pakistan’s national anticorruption agency will file criminal charges against former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and Finance Minister Ishaq Dar after a probe into their finances. Nawazish Ali Asim, a spokesman for the National Accountability Bureau, in a text message on Thursday confirmed the decision, but didn’t say when the watchdog would file the four references. A full statement will be issued later, he said. Sharif, who is currently in London while his wife undergoes cancer treatment in the UK capital, was disqualified from office following a landmark ruling by the South Asian nation’s top court in July that said he was “dishonest” in his financial disclosures. REUTERS<