Back it up, spending hundreds of millions of dollars on infrastructure around the world. Global news powered by 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 20 600 countries. From washington, im Alisa Parenti, and this is bloomberg. Emily this is bloomberg echnology. Bloomberg television and radio have been on the ground in boston showcasing diversity and power of the regional tech economy. Were joined now by Caroline Hyde at mass robotics live from boston. Take it away. Caroline great to see you, as ever. To wrap up our coverage in boston, we are focusing on the emerging Robotics Industry in the area. Massachusetts is home to more than 120 Robotics Companies in the area. The industry is growing, and so are its resources. E are here at mass robotics the nonprofit is dedicated to fostering young bostonbased robotics startups and keeping the talent in town. Is autonomous drone belongs to a american robotics. One full of it one of a handful of startups based here in mass robotics. Has a main the name double meeting. Mass because it is started in massachusetts, but also because of massive robotics. Caroline the nonprofit opened in 2015 and opened a laugh to help robotics startups get off the ground. Or as the cofounder explained, a start up escalator. A start up escalator is a new concept. Incubators and escalators have been around for some time. This model has been ineffective, but wh icomes to hardware, theres no organization there to help Hardware Companies take an organization into a finished product. Caroline products in the works include american robotics drones andcommercial agriculture 3d printers. Right now, we have six companies, and we had two more moving in, and we can grow to about 30 companies in this space, and, hopefully, as we grow within the building, we will be able to house more than 100 companies. Caroline founded by leaders in , startupscs industry benefit from mentor ship and funding. We do not fund ourselves, but we work with a lot of local vcs and know whichne are investing in robotics. Caroline newly 1 billion of investment went to companies in california. 123 million to massachusetts, but the number of Boston Companies is growing, and that is attracting sponsors and partners from massachusetts and outside the state. They are looking for Investment Opportunities or acquisition opportunities, wherever robotics is going, where the innovators are going now. ,aroline four mass robotics the technology is reaching new heights. For more on this operation and a greater outlook in the industry and beyond, we are joined by the director of Computer Science and of course, mass robotics board member. Youerhere helping set this place up. Tell us what the real misons here. Of mass robotics is to convene student talent, entrepreneurs, the vcs and the Robotics Industry in. Assachusetts mass robotics started as a grassroots effort. I have known the founders for many years, and finally, our dream has come to fruition. What we really want our big dream is to have massachusetts not just a place that innovates and indents new robots, but also a place where people use robots. Caroline lets go to the innovation part of it first all. You are there at m. I. T. Pushing forward on where robotics are going to go. Can you tell us what other cutting edge of elements you are working on . In a nutshell, we are trying to make robots more capable and accelerate the invention and design and fabrication of new robots. Our common dream is a world where robots are as common as smartphones. Robots surely democratize physical work just like smartphones have democratized information. It is important to remember that a robot consists of a body and a brain. If you want a robot with a new capability, you have to deliver a body that caneler on that and a brain that can control that body. We are looking at making more capable and more agile robot bodies. We are trying to get robots to be much better at figuring things out in the world and be oradaptive and intelligent and how they make decisions. We are trying to get robots to be much more collaborative with each other and with people, and we are trying to automate the creation of robots. Caroline when you talk about collaboration, how worried and how rightly or wrongly is the community that says that will put people out of jobs . You will move on to fast to quickly . Ive been getting two types of reaction from people who hereby rober i work in robotics. Theres a group that is worried about when the robots will take over their jobs and jokes about skynet, and theres a group that says how much work can i offload to robots . It is important to understand that if youre in the first group, our perspective is that robots are tools. They are made by people for the people, and i really believe , we will befuture able to create human robot teams. Caroline what about the brain part and controlling Artificial Intelligence and ensuring it does not move too quickly . You can think about this so many different ways. Many people are worried about the ethics of autonomous driving for avoiding the trolley problem. Thetrolley problem says robot has to kill one group or the other, should they kill the young people or the older people, but if we get the technology right, we do not have to make the choice because we will be able to provide the robot with information that tells the robot with great accuracy where the peleill be at all times, and that will allow the robot to make adjustments. , if you get the science right they should not be problems, but what about getting the funding right . Theres no question california is a leader in funding in the space, but theres a lot of activity in massachusetts as well, and its very exciting to be part of this ecosystem, so massachusetts started as being a huge help for biotech. T the recent past, it became a hub for Robotics Companies. As i said earlier, over 120 Robotics Companies including irobot and all those 150 million families who have zumba robots in their home have gained time because they do not have to worry about vacuum cleaning. , ands Amazon Robotics all the robots are helping with the logistics of the amazon business, seeing people to focus on Bigger Picture activities, so , and are other companies around these Robotics Companies, we also have a lot of i. T. Companies and software and all of these companies are actually providing services that enable our lifestyle today. Caroline you will keep on pushing it forward with your work, im sure. Wonderful getting your expertise and views of the future and robots. Thank you, the director of m. I. T. s Computer Science and. Rtificial Intelligence Lab we are keeping watch on tech stories happening beyond boston, and Music Streaming Service spotify has taken a step toward going public. Stanley tomorgan advise on the move. Spotifys deciding on a direct listing or a more traditional public offering. Coming up, we continue our special coverage of bostons text in and speak to specialrs ceo coverage of bostons tech scene and speak to tripadvisors ceo. This is bloomberg. Caroline welcome back to this special edition of Bloomberg Technology, live from mass roboticshequarters. Not far from us is the base of another tech company which tells itself as the World Largest 300 millionfor monthly visitors, though times are changing. The Company Announced it will be revamping its website. This as traditional competitors in Silicon Valley giant google tried to push into the companys biggest business areas trip planning and hotel search. Joining us now, ceo and founder stephencowper kaufer. How much do you find ecosystem helps build your business and bring in the right sort of pele . I think it is great being in a massachusettsbased company, especially in the Greater Boston area because we are able to pull from an astounding set of universities. We have the pull of a major metropolitan city to pull in folks from all over the country frankly, all over the world and living in boston is just a great place to be, so it has a whole lot going for it. Caroline lets talk about where your business is going. You have new products to unveil. How much is that driven by technology, by Machine Learning . Announce out to or we have announced and are about to release a new website theapp aimed much more at trip planning and booking, price comparison, saving money, as well as the full trip experience. Weve always been known for an amazing number of reviews and those insights that help you have a great trip. Now we are turning and saying thats wonderful not leaving that behind, but how can we save you that much more money on each that you take . The site searches hundreds of. Ebsites at that plus the planning and now all the destination content that we have, and it is really the best out there, if i might say so, for offering that great trip. Caroline how does this change your revenue stream . Booking stream was initially catalyzed cannibalized to a certain extent. Uniquesve 300 million every month. How do we help them find that planning point. If were saying the best prices over there, klick here and we will take you there, we are atively agnostic about it if we are saying the best price is over there, click here and we will take you there, if you store your credit card with us, we will apply that to any site out there to secure you the lowest price. No matter which device youre theg, it will always be best price. Caroline if i want to search an area, perhaps going to a holiday toitaly, which i am, i want look at airbnb, home and away, what other companies have to offer, will i be able to see that by you . You can look at 800,000 rentals on tripadvisor. Caroline are you talking to airbnb . Would you look at other partnerships for Online Booking . When you look at what we call alternative accommodations, the house you want to rent in italy, we probably already have it on tripadvisor. It is not in our hotel category, but we have better, resorts, vacation rentals. We have that wide range. I cannot claim that we have everything available, but we had a really darn good selection at whatever price point youre looking at. Caroline talk about the investor price point. Will we see margins start to accelerate . When you look at the space we are in, it is a trillion dollar plus travel category. We are the undisputed leader in terms of traffic. We have more people looking for hotels on our platform than anything else. Our challenge, our opportunity is tta the traffic we have an pull it into that Hotel Shopping experience. We are so proud of what we are doing we are about to go on tv with a really Large Campaign caroline does the margin go up . We expect to do that with little to no impact on our margin going forward. We are shifting, and we are building the bra otrip. Dvisor Tripadvisor Caroline what about global . How do you see the Global Growth story for you . Are all actually growing. The u. S. Is actually growing than others. Again, all the markets are growing. Its just a question of how fast and which ones lead. Areline one area you looking at when it comes to competitors, who is your number one competitor in your mind . Theumr one competitor everyonegoogle because starts everything they do with google, but they are an incredibly powerful Search Engine. As people start to shop for goods and services on amazon az now has my persal loyalty to thats where i go to shop when i want to buy something. Tripadvisor has all the opportunity to become your Search Engine for everything travel. Planning, hotels, restaurants, attractions, rentals, flights we do all that uf. Caroline we wish you well with it. Thank you so much for giving us your time and joining us here at massrotics. Thank you so much. Caroline coming up, many u. S. Manufacturers are investing in roboticsnsad of human labor to increase productivity. A boston Robotics Company is working to find a balance with kim is working alongside robots. From boston, this is bloomberg. Caroline welcome back to this special edition of Bloomberg Technology. Were live from mass robotics, a coworking space and Innovation Hub for bostons robotics community. We caught up with rethink founder and asked him about the robot, which was o of the first designs to work safely along where set alongside warehouse wke. Our robots have a lot of sensors on them. They have vision and for sensors, so they can operate on the grounds where people are. The founder of rethink robotics is changing the way we think of robots in the workplace. , made it smaller. Caroline sawyer is a Collaborative Robot designed to work safely alongside humans. Weve run out of lowcost labor in the world to do our manufacturing, so it has to be through tools that help workers be more productive. Caroline a20 9,000 a unit, sawyer helps package products or check quality control. The idea started more than a decade ago. Working on ehina manufacturing for the roomba. Caroline thats the robotic vacuum made by irobot, a company he cofounded. I was sad to see that labor was getting shorter and shorter. In the old days, there is an infinite supply of labor. Theirne theyre using investment to expand globally. Europe has become a major market for us there he quickly, as has china. I think there is an incredible potential to grow the market. Just overd grow from 100 million in 2015 to 3 billion by 2020. I am out to make manufacturing more real everywhere. I think manufacturing has been undervalued, especially in Silicon Valley. , as been about the next the next app, the next social interaction. Caroline coming up, we tackle the intersection of tech and. Ports if you like bloomberg news, check us out on the radio. You can listen on the bloomberg , and inp, bloomberg. Com the u. S. On siriusxm. This is bloomberg. I am Alisa Parenti in washington. Check your first word news. A huge cyber attack hit note hit dozens of nations today, hitting Computer Data for ransom firms andtals, data other companies. The attack, appeared to exploit a vulnerability identified for use by u. S. National security agencies. Hospitalsced hot to close wards and emergency rooms. Attacks were reported in spain, portugal, and russia. The malwareentified behind the attack in over 70 countries. Although the attacks hit russia the hardest. The white house is keeping mum about whether President Trump recorded his conversation with former fbi director james comey. In fact, in a tweet, mr. Trump suggested such tapes could exist. Sean spicer was asked about it today in his daily briefing. Did President Trump record is conversation with former fbi director james comey . I have talked to the president , he has not added to that. Democratic congressman adam schiff is demanding the white house turn over any recordings to congress if they do exist. There is been a breakthrough in trade talks between the u. S. And china. An agreement will allow more exports of natural gas. Plus, greater access to chinese markets. To bloomberg, wilbur ross says this is a step toward building a better relationship. We have a lot more issues to deal with with the peoples republic of china. That the fact that we got these longstanding aggravations out of the waso quickly augurs well for the relationship pattern going forward. It is the first negotiated trade deal for President Trump, who has promised to get tough on china. Attorney general Jeff Sessions is demanding federal prosecutors pursue the most serious charges against a vast majority of suspects. That is the reversal of obama era policies that will result in more people going to prison and for much longer terms. He called it moral and adjust. We are seeing an increase in Violent Crime in cities in ,articular, baltimore milwaukee, st. Louis, and many others. The murder rate has surged 10 nationwide. The largest increase in murders since 1968. And we kw at drugs and crime go handinhand. Global news 24 hours a day, powered by more than 2600 journalists and analysts in more than 120 countries. I am Alisa Parenti and this is bloomberg. Caroline this is Bloomberg Technology, i am Caroline Hyde. We continue our conversation live at the robotics headquarters in bostons seaport district. Besides being a tech hub, it is a major city for sports. It has three major teams bearing its name. Draft kings, the sports King Entertainment platform is one of the signature boston tech startups. Than 7gned up more million customers, almost 8 million. And they have a is about 8 million from investors. It is wonderful to have you here in the flesh with me in your home town. I want to ask, you have been wooed to the west coast several times but have stayed here. Why . A greatu said, it is town, and a burgeoning town for technology entrepreneurship. It is amazing how many more companies are starting here and staying here. Caroline what about the talent pool . Are there worries about immigration . There is annk incredible talent pool here. Anything that keeps that thriving in doing well is great for us. Anything less so would not be. But i am not worried about that in boston. As you mentioned, there i m. I. T. And boston and all the Great Schools here and an incredible populati