Irvine

Imagine a customer-service center that speaks your language, no matter what it is.

Alorica, a company in Irvine, California, that runs customer-service centers around the world, has introduced an artificial intelligence translation tool that lets its representatives talk with customers who speak 200 different languages and 75 dialects.

A rare prototype of the first American penny, dating from 1792, has just changed hands for 117.5 million pennies at an auction in Baltimore, Maryland.
      
The Birch Penny -- one of only seven known to exist -- was among the highlights of a two-day sale of rare US coins, medals and paper money.