In today’s Bulldog wrapup of science and technology news:

  • Baidu hires Microsoft expert in artificial intelligence push 
  • Report: Trucking firms using gadgets to cheat on emissions
  • 2 years after the hack, Sony CEO Lynton exits for Snap Inc. 
  • Cuba sees explosion in internet access as ties with US grow

The details:

  • Baidu hires Microsoft expert in artificial intelligence push

Baidu Inc., which operates China’s most popular Internet search engine, said Tuesday it has hired a former Microsoft executive and artificial intelligence specialist to improve its competitiveness in the field.

The Beijing-based company said Qi Lu was named group president and chief operating officer in charge of products, technology and sales. Qi, who has a Ph.D. from Carnegie Mellon University, previously was Microsoft Corp.’s global executive vice president.

“With Dr. Lu on board, we are confident that our strategy will be executed smoothly and Baidu will become a world-class technology company and global leader in Ai,” said Baidu chairman Robin Li in a statement.

Chinese Internet companies are spending heavily to develop new services and technology as they try to retain users who are shifting rapidly to going online via mobile phones and tablet computers.

Baidu is testing autonomous vehicles in China, hoping to cut road congestion. Last year it joined with Ford Motor to invest in Velodyne, a company that makes laser sensors that help guide self-driving cars.

  • Report: Trucking firms using gadgets to cheat on emissions

German public broadcaster ZDF reports that trucking companies in Europe may be using electronic equipment to commit large-scale emissions fraud.

Tests commissioned by ZDF and freight industry organization Camion Pro found that one in five diesel trucks operated by Eastern European firms had suspicious emission levels.

Experts at the University of Heidelberg concluded that the trucks were pumping out up to 14,000 metric tons of additional nitrogen oxide and evading millions in road toll fees.

In a program airing Tuesday, ZDF claims that trucking firms may be using gadgets to fool on-board computers into thinking the driver has used a diesel exhaust fluid, known as AdBlue.

AdBlue can significantly reduce emissions but represents an additional cost for the competitive freight transportation industry.

  • 2 years after the hack, Sony CEO Lynton exits for Snap Inc.

Two years after guiding the company through an unprecedented email hack, Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton is leaving the company to become the chairman of the board for Snap Inc., the company behind Snapchat.

Sony said Friday that Lynton, a 13-year Sony veteran who led both the music and entertainment group, will stay on for six months to ensure a smooth transition as Sony Corp. President and CEO Kazuo Hirai looks for a replacement.

In a statement, Lynton said he had been involved with Snapchat since its early days and is choosing to focus on that company given its recent growth.

Lynton started with Sony in 2004 as chairman and CEO of Sony Pictures Entertainment and in 2012 was named CEO of Sony Entertainment.

Sony Pictures Entertainment and its various film divisions have been struggling of late at the box office with underwhelming performances from higher budget fare such as “Ghostbusters,” ”Inferno” and “Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk.”

  • Cuba sees explosion in internet access as ties with US grow

Two days before Christmas, Luis Gonzalez received a little Chinese modem from Cuba’s state-owned telecommunications company.

The 55-year-old theater producer connected the device to his phone and his laptop computer, which instantly lit up with a service unimaginable in the Cuba of just a few years ago — relatively fast home internet.

“It’s really easy to sit and find whatever you need,” Gonzalez said as he sat in his living room updating his Facebook account, listening to Uruguayan radio online and checking an arriving tourist’s landing time for a neighbor who rents rooms in their building in historic Old Havana. “Most Cubans aren’t used to this convenience.”

Home internet came to Cuba last month in a limited pilot program that’s part of the most dramatic change in daily life here since the declaration of detente with the United States on Dec. 17, 2014.

While Cuba remains one of the world’s least internet-connected societies, ordinary citizens’ access to the internet has exploded over the last two years. Since the summer of 2015, the Cuban government has opened 240 public Wi-Fi spots in parks and on street corners across the country. Cubans were previously restricted to decrepit state internet clubs and hotels that charged $6-$8 for an hour of slow internet.

In a country with an average monthly salary of around $25, the price of an hour online has dropped to $1.50, still steep but now well within the range of many Cubans with private income or financial help from relatives abroad.

The government estimates that 100,000 Cubans connect to the internet daily. A new feature of urban life in Cuba is the sight of people sitting at all hours on street corners or park benches, their faces illuminated by the screen of smartphones connected by applications such as Facebook Messenger to relatives in Miami, Ecuador or other outposts of the Cuban diaspora. Connections are made mostly through access cards sold by the state monopoly and often resold on street corners for higher prices.