*By Jacqueline Corba*
Salesforce has saved a seat at its executive meetings for Einstein, an artificial intelligence-powered robot developed by the cloud computing company.
"The fact that we are using our own products to really drive our forecasting, it's pretty amazing," said Bob Stutz, CEO of Salesforce's Marketing Cloud. "It is really great to have that tool that you can use every single day to run your business."
Salesforce's chief executive, Marc Benioff, has been an outspoken proponent of the company's use of A.I., and said that Einstein has [been at every weekly senior staff meeting](http://fortune.com/2018/01/25/salesforce-benioff-einstein-davos-ai/) for the last year.
Stutz said Einstein pulls his weight on a team that has grown its quarterly revenue by 41 percent year over year.
"We are on an incredible tear right now," Stutz said in an interview with Cheddar. "It's really helping customers connect with their consumers across sales, marketing, service ー it's a real growth driver for us nowadays."
For the full interview, [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/inside-salesforce-marketing-cloud-growth).
Lyft says it has completed 5,000 rides in its autonomous vehicle pilot program in Las Vegas. Taggart Matthiesen, the company's head of product, told Cheddar that customers are starting to acclimate to the idea of a self-driving ride, but it will be a while before safety drivers are unnecessary.
Onavo Protect, a Facebook app that lets users redirect their mobile data through a VPN managed by Facebook servers, was taken off the Apple App Store after Apple said it violated new rules that limit what data developers' collect. Separately, Facebook also said it would warn users of quiz app myPersonality, which allegedly mishandled data of as many as 4 million people.
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JPMorgan is bringing its Sapphire brand to banking, a bet that it can change affluent millennial customers' perception of the industry the same way it won them over with its credit cards.
The car-sharing service just that lets drivers rent their vehicles out to strangers just raised $300 million in new financing led by Japan's SoftBank. CEO Sam Zaid tells Cheddar how Getaround stands out in a crowded industry.
Gene Munster of Loup Ventures sees a scenario in which Apple and Tesla's shared love of design might lead to a courtship between the two Silicon Valley titans.
The scope of the issue is still unclear, said Craig Timberg, a technology reporter with the Washington Post. But at least the platforms are being transparent in what they're doing to combat it.
DoorDash just raised $250 million of funding, more than doubling its valuation to $4 billion. CEO Tony Xu told Cheddar why that is justified for a player in such a crowded space.
Video game developers have made the gaming experience more addictive, and it's showing. Sarah Needleman, technology reporter at the Wall Street Journal, explains one factor behind the explosive growth of the gaming industry.
As Venezuela grapples with an economic crisis, the country's President Nicolas Maduro pegged its currency to a newly-launched crypto. But Eduardo Gomez of Bitcoin marketplace PurseIO says the move makes little sense for most Venezuelans.
