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  • Patent Filing Sheds Light on Microsoft Cortana’s Future

    Patent Filing Sheds Light on Microsoft Cortana’s Future

    Microsoft has been making big changes with Cortona, including the impending shutdown of the iOS and Android apps. A new patent filing, however, gives some insight into Microsoft’s plans for the AI assistant.

    First reported on by WindowsUnited (German text), Microsoft has filed a patent showing a person jogging while Cortana summarizes their email and text messages. The person then asks for clarifying information about one of the emails.

    The patent is designed to address the dangers of trying to read emails and messages while engaged in other activities, as well as the difficulty people experience concentrating and processing a long message when it is read to them in its entirety.

    “It is much harder to process messages ‘read’ to someone than simply reading the messages, because it takes the brain much more focus to listen to messages than to read them,” the filing says.

    “For example, if a user is jogging, it is not easy to read a display, however the user is able to listen for messages. Unfortunately, some messages (e.g., email messages) may be long and simply having an electronic device read these long messages may take a long time and a large amount of concentration. Further, trying to read a display while jogging may have disastrous consequences, such as having an accident or dropping and damaging the phone.”

    Microsoft’s patent application looks like a practical use for AI, especially if Cortana can deliver succinct, relevant and informative summaries. This should be a welcome feature once Microsoft implements it.

  • Uber Buys 596 Acres Near Pittsburg For Self-Driving Test Track

    Uber Buys 596 Acres Near Pittsburg For Self-Driving Test Track

    Business Insider is reporting Uber has purchased 596 acres near Pittsburg to establish a test track for self-driving cars.

    Uber has been in the news a lot lately, and not all of it good. The company recently released a safety report detailing nine murders and thousands of sexual assaults that have occurred in Uber rides. In addition, the company was banned in Germany last week due to it not having the necessary license to transport customers in rental vehicles. The use of rental vehicles was already a modification of its business model the company was using to get around German restrictions preventing it from “matching customers with drivers using their own vehicles, as it does in the U.S.”

    In addition to these problems, the company is facing increasing challenges regarding the legal definition of employees. California is just one example where laws could potentially alter Uber’s business model by classifying its drivers as employees, rather than contractors.

    In view of these challenges, it’s little wonder the company is looking at self-driving cars as the answer moving forward. Self-driving cars could eliminate the need for driver background checks, employee vs contractor debates and could be the ultimate answer to bans like Germany has imposed—provided self-driving cars become widely accepted.

    One of the biggest obstacles to adoption is ensuring the safety of self-driving cars. The new testing area will employ approximately 200 people and have an observation deck. Pittsburg is the center of Uber’s self-driving research and development, with the company also creating a fake city there—complete with roaming mannequins that jump out without warning—for testing the technology.

    The new testing ground should give Uber plenty of room to test a variety of scenarios.

  • Baidu Takes AI Crown, Achieves New Level of Language Understanding

    Baidu Takes AI Crown, Achieves New Level of Language Understanding

    The ability to talk with an artificial intelligence (AI), be it a computer or robot, has been a staple of science fiction for decades. Despite modern advances, anyone who has used Siri, Alexa, Cortana or the Google Assistant knows we’re still a ways off from what’s portrayed in science fiction.

    Chinese tech giant Baidu has just taken a big step in that direction, however. According to the MIT Technology Review, Baidu has leapfrogged Microsoft and Google in helping AI better understand language.

    General Language Understanding Evaluation (GLUE) is the industry benchmark used to gauge an AI’s language comprehension skills. For perspective, most humans manage a score of 87 out of 100. Baidu’s model, however, scored a 90—a first for AI models.

    The team attributed their breakthrough with ERNIE (Enhanced Representation through kNowledge IntEgration) to the steps they needed to take in order to help it understand Chinese. The most advanced AI language models use a technique called “masking,” where the AI randomly hides words in order to predict the meaning of the sentence. Because of the differences between Chinese and English, Baidu “researchers trained ERNIE on a new version of masking that hides strings of characters rather than single ones. They also trained it to distinguish between meaningful and random strings so it could mask the right character combinations accordingly.”

    Not only did this method allow ERNIE to better understand Chinese language, but those lessons also improved its English processing, enabling it to achieve the highest GLUE score yet. Hopefully, this breakthrough will help pave the way for the type of AI interactions that have, so far, existed only in the realm of science fiction.

  • Instagram Deploying AI to Help Combat Online Bullying

    Instagram Deploying AI to Help Combat Online Bullying

    Many a parent has taught their children to pause and count to 10 before replying, especially when provoked. Unfortunately, in the digital age, such restraint has become a rare thing. It seems that Instagram, however, is working on bringing it back.

    According to a blog post, the company has launched an AI-based tool to help identify captions on photos and videos that could be considered offensive or bullying, and give people “a chance to pause and reconsider their words before posting.” This builds on a similar AI-based feature rolled out in July that notified individuals when their comments might be considered offensive, giving them a chance to change them.

    By rolling this feature out to include photo and video captions, Instagram hopes it will further help combat bullying, as well as inform people of what is and is not acceptable.

    “Today, when someone writes a caption for a feed post and our AI detects the caption as potentially offensive, they will receive a prompt informing them that their caption is similar to those reported for bullying. They will have the opportunity to edit their caption before it’s posted.

    “In addition to limiting the reach of bullying, this warning helps educate people on what we don’t allow on Instagram, and when an account may be at risk of breaking our rules. To start, this feature will be rolling out in select countries, and we’ll begin expanding globally in the coming months.”

    As social media companies are increasingly under scrutiny for how they handle bullying and hate speech—with some accusing them of censorship and others accusing them of not doing enough—Instagram seems to be finding a nice balance.

  • Digital Adoption Platform WalkMe Secures $90 Million in Funding

    Digital Adoption Platform WalkMe Secures $90 Million in Funding

    WalkMe has successfully closed another round of funding to the tune of $90 million, according to a company announcement. This round of investment was led by Vitruvian Partners, with Insight Partners also participating.

    WalkMe is a “digital adoption platform” (DAP) built on the idea that—with so many different software platforms and business processes—employees can be overwhelmed trying to learn and and use everything in their day-to-day duties. WalkMe provides a way for companies to include step-by-step guidance, using AI to anticipate employee needs and provide the necessary information and help.

    “Throughout the digital transformation journey, organizations lacking a digital adoption strategy face a costly and often losing battle. WalkMe’s DAP makes it effortless to use any software, website or app – analyzing and automating processes so users can complete tasks faster and easier, while executives can glean valuable insights from the plethora of data.”

    Mike Risman, Managing Partner of Vitruvian Partners, praised the success WalkMe has had so far, while expressing confidence in the company’s ability capitalize on its position in the market.

    “In a few short years, WalkMe has emerged as the category-defining market leader in the fast-growing Digital Adoption Solutions space,” said Mike Risman, Managing Partner of Vitruvian Partners. “We are excited to partner with WalkMe as an investor during this pivotal time of accelerated growth and global expansion as the company capitalizes on its market leadership. WalkMe helps the world’s most forward-looking enterprises deliver on their digital transformation strategy. The company’s platform delights employees with more efficient software interactions, empowers business process owners to steer and re-engineer workflows and provides analytics to help CIOs manage the complexity of the digital transformation proactively.”

    The company says it will continue to expand “into new markets, including Latin America, and will continue to invest in and rapidly scale its Digital Adoption Platform to meet growing customer demand.”

  • Amazon Bringing Alexa Functionality to IoT Devices

    Amazon Bringing Alexa Functionality to IoT Devices

    In the battle for smart speaker dominance, estimates show that Amazon’s Alexa has a dominating lead with 70 percent of the market. Based on Amazon’s recent announcement, that market share may increase even more.

    The company recently announced Alexa Voice Service (AVS), an effort to bring Alexa to Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Previously, Alexa-enabled devices required an application-class processor with at least 50MB of memory, making it difficult to integrate Alexa with IoT devices.

    With the new AVS, Amazon will offload most of the processing to the cloud, rather than the actual device, significantly reducing its footprint and requirements. As a result, AVS can be used with microcontroller-class processors with less than 1MB of embedded memory.

    “With the reduction in the engineering bill of materials (eBoM) cost, device makers can now cost-effectively build new categories of differentiated voice-enabled products such as light switches, thermostats, small appliances and more. This allows end-consumers to talk directly to Alexa in new parts of their home, office, or hotel rooms for a truly ambient experience.”

    Amazon is also working to make sure AVS is as easy as possible for developers to hit the ground running with.

    “To make the AVS Integration for AWS IoT Core as simple as possible, APN partners have launched AVS qualified hardware development kits enabled by real time operating systems for microcontrollers like Amazon FreeRTOS that connect to AWS IoT Core by default. This helps device makers go to market quickly without worrying about writing complex security and connectivity firmware or managing the large device footprint previously associated with building Alexa Built-in devices with the AVS Device SDK.”

    Google, Facebook and Apple will need to up their game if they intend to compete with Amazon’s new offensive.

  • Darktrace CEO: People Are Going To Give a Hard Look At Cloud Security

    Darktrace CEO: People Are Going To Give a Hard Look At Cloud Security

    “People are going to really give a hard look at cloud security,” says Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan. “At the end of the day, it also says when you have something of this scale why not use some artificial intelligence or something that could have spotted this. Actually what was done was pretty blatant. It was 30 gigabytes of data moving to unusual storage locations. So there were a lot of ways that something like an AI system could have detected this and also prevented it from becoming an issue.”

    Nicole Eagan, CEO of Darktrace, discusses how the Capital One cyber attack happened and how it could have been prevented, in an interview on Bloomberg Technology:

    People Are Going To Really Give a Hard Look At Cloud Security

    There is so much positive momentum around cloud and so many benefits that I don’t anticipate seeing a pendulum swing back to on-prem data centers (because of the Capital One cyber hack). What I do think it means is people are going to really give a hard look at cloud security. This attack was a result of a vulnerability known as a configuration error in a Web Application Firewall that was specific to Capital One. What it does show is these configuration errors are actually really very commonplace. They’re commonplace in on-prem data centers and in cloud.

    This does highlight a few things. It does highlight insider threats, someone who had some insider knowledge. It also highlights supply chain level security. At the end of the day, it also says when you have something of this scale why not use some artificial intelligence or something that could have spotted this. Actually what was done was pretty blatant. It was 30 gigabytes of data moving to unusual storage locations. So there were a lot of ways that something like an AI system could have detected this and also prevented it from becoming an issue.

    Capital One Attack Was Human Error

    Configuration errors are basically a human error. Somebody somewhere made a human error, a mistake. We have to expect that humans are fallible and we’re going to see those type of errors. What’s so strange about this one is how public the disclosure was by the attacker on Twitter and GitHub and other places. That was what made it so unusual but also meant that the investigation moved very quickly. It seems like there’s been quite a bit of transparency as well.

    It’s interesting timing because we’re actually going into Back Hat and DEF CON, which is often known as a summer camp for hackers. There will be literally tens of thousands of people in Las Vegas next week. All of this is going to change the conversation. We’re going to see a lot about cloud security, about 5G security, about encryption and decrypting data, and of course, the evolution towards AI-based attacks. 

    What’s interesting is that people want to kind of say let’s make sure we prevent the kind of attacks we saw in 2016 (regarding the election).  The reality is the way the cybersecurity industry works the attackers keep moving on. They keep changing what’s called threat vectors. I do think we’ll see plenty of threats for 2020 but they may not look anything like the ones we saw in 2016.

    People Are Going To Give a Hard Look At Cloud Security – Darktrace CEO Nicole Eagan
  • Amazon Announces Voice Interoperability Initiative—Leaves Out Apple and Google

    Amazon Announces Voice Interoperability Initiative—Leaves Out Apple and Google

    There’s no doubt that virtual assistants and AI-based voice services are one of the next big things in the technology industry. Long the stuff of science fiction, voice-based computing represents the next leap in computer interface and usability paradigms. As a result, virtually all the major players are pushing ahead with development.

    It should come as no surprise that Amazon, one of the biggest players in the voice-enabled market, has announced the Voice Interoperability Initiative. The initiative is an effort to standardize how voice-enabled products work and “is built around a shared belief that voice services should work seamlessly alongside one another on a single device, and that voice-enabled products should be designed to support multiple simultaneous wake words.”

    Already, more than 30 companies have signed on to the initiative, including the likes of Microsoft, Salesforce, Logitech, Qualcomm, Libre, Intel, Spotify and others.

    “Multiple simultaneous wake words provide the best option for customers,” said Jeff Bezos, Amazon founder and CEO. “Utterance by utterance, customers can choose which voice service will best support a particular interaction. It’s exciting to see these companies come together in pursuit of that vision.”

    While the initiative’s goals look good on paper, there are some challenges. Notably, the idea of having multiple voice services working on a single device may not fly with some of Amazon’s competitors. Indeed, Apple, Google and Samsung are noticeably absent from the initiative.

    In the case of Apple, given their strong pro-privacy stance, it’s unlikely they will want to put Siri on hardware made by a competitor. Similarly, Google may be hesitant to give up the control that comes with their Google Home hardware.

    Whatever the outcome, one thing is clear: Voice-enabled services is shaping up to be another technological battleground between some of the biggest names in the industry.

  • Nines Radiology Aims to Upend Radiology Using AI, Scores $16.5 Million In Funding

    Nines Radiology Aims to Upend Radiology Using AI, Scores $16.5 Million In Funding

    Nines Radiology has raised $16.5 million in Series A funding, according to a company press release.

    Nines Radiology was founded in 2017 by self-driving-car pioneer David Stavens and NYC radiologist Dr. Alexander Kagen. The unlikely partnership aims to use technology, specifically artificial intelligence (AI), to revolutionize how radiologists interact with patients. In the company’s press release detailing a successful round of funding, the company also unveiled their mission.

    “We have a fundamental belief that radiology reimagined with modern data science can significantly improve the lives of patients and clinicians alike,” said co-founder and CEO David Stavens. “We’re working to pioneer new approaches and innovations from clinical care, engineering and data science. Radiologists at Nines are care providers, innovators, builders, and thought leaders. Our radiologists provide the best patient care, while also working with our engineers to build the future.”

    The company is betting on the ability of technology and AI to help cut through the complexity modern radiologists face on a day-to-day basis.

    “Radiology exams are becoming ever more detailed and complex with advancements in imaging technology, which in turn increases the workload on radiologists,” said Dr. Kagen, who will serve as Chief Medical Officer for Nines in addition to his role at Mount Sinai. “Radiologists need to be at the forefront of reimagining the future of medicine. Nines is a place where radiologists are empowered to build technology that unlocks the next level of patient care.

    “The right solution for radiologists is the one that results in the right interpretation. We are combining technology and clinical expertise to help radiologists intelligently prioritize their ever-growing imaging worklists. Nines is designed to help radiologists adapt and build toward a near-term future where technology plays an increasingly larger role in improving patient outcomes.”

    Nines Radiology is yet another example of AI and machine learning being used to improve and revolutionize industries.

  • Cards Against Humanity Writers Take on AI Challenge

    Cards Against Humanity Writers Take on AI Challenge

    As artificial intelligence (AI) has revolutionized industries and taken over jobs, writers the world over (including yours truly) have taken solace in the fact that writing is about more than raw science. Writing is a skill that takes a more nuanced understanding of communication and human thought. As a result, many writers have felt their jobs were relatively safe.

    It appears that the writers at Cards Against Humanity (CAH) are putting that theory to the test. CAH is a tongue-in-cheek card game where players fill-in-the-blank with politically incorrect, risqué or offensive statements to complete the sentence. As its latest Black Friday stunt, CAH has pitted its writers against a true, neural network AI borrowed from OpenAI.

    According to the CAH website, “over the next 16 hours, our writers will battle this powerful card-writing algorithm to see who can write the most popular new pack of cards. If the writers win, they’ll get a $5,000 holiday bonus. If the A.I. wins, we’ll fire the writers.”

    No one really believes CAH will fire its writers if they lose. Nonetheless, it’s probably a good thing that at the time of writing the human writers were winning by roughly $1,100 indicating that, perhaps, AI taking over writing jobs is still a long way off. Although, to be fair, CAH believes the shift is inevitable.

    One of the questions in their FAQ is: “Do I need to worry about AI taking my job?”

    Their answer: “Basically if you do anything other than hoard capital, you’re going to end up plugged into the Matrix and the robots will harvest your body’s electricity.”

    Guess it’s time for this writer to start looking for cool Neo-inspired sunglasses and trench coat.

  • Seattle Seahawks Choose AWS For Cloud, AI and Machine Learning Needs

    Seattle Seahawks Choose AWS For Cloud, AI and Machine Learning Needs

    While football may not be the first thing that comes to mind when thinking about artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning, the Seattle Seahawks are the latest team to invest heavily in it, according to an Amazon press release.

    The Seahawks have chosen Amazon to be their cloud, AI and machine learning provider, moving the vast majority of their infrastructure to AWS.

    In addition, “the National Football League (NFL) team will use the breadth and depth of AWS’s services, including compute, storage, database, analytics, and ML to drive deep analysis of game footage to inform game strategy, improve operational efficiencies, and accelerate decision-making to advance team performance game-to-game. The Seahawks will combine the weekly NFL Next Gen Stats player tracking data, which tracks the position of the ball and every player 10 times per second, with its own player and club data to develop custom analytics and proprietary statistics.

    “The Seattle Seahawks are relying on AWS’s unmatched portfolio of services to discover actionable outcomes from its vast amount of player, team, and business data, enabling them to continue to compete at a championship caliber level. The Seahawks are building a data lake on Amazon Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) that will combine team stats and NFL data, such as Next Gen Stats player tracking, player health and wellness data, and scouting information to provide deeper visibility into player capabilities, as well as give the coaching staff a single, real-time view of player and team performance. By applying AWS analytics services to the data, the Seahawks will be able to quickly uncover insights to better evaluate talent and develop game plans that take advantage of the team’s strengths.”

    The Seahawks are just another example of how AI and machine learning are revolutionizing countless industries, giving organizations the ability to process data and gain insights that otherwise wouldn’t be possible.

  • Massachusetts Police Department Tests Robot Dog Spot

    Massachusetts Police Department Tests Robot Dog Spot

    Boston Dynamics unveiled a robot dog named Spot in September and now, according to CNN, a Massachusetts police department has put the dog through its paces.

    The Massachusetts State Police deployed Spot alongside its bomb squad for 90 days to see how the robotic K9 would perform in a real-world scenario, using Spot on two different occasions.

    “Massachusetts State Police have used robots to assist in responses to hazardous situations for many years, deploying them to examine suspicious items and to clear high-risk locations where armed suspects may be present,” Massachusetts State Police director of media communications Dave Procopio said in a statement to CNN. “As part of our continual emphasis on examining the application of new technologies to our mission, we recently completed a test program of the Boston Dynamics robot known as ‘Spot.’”

    The ACLU has express concern about Spot and how it will be used, citing past examples of how dogs and technology have both been used to harm civil liberties. In spite of the concern, Boston Dynamics’ lease agreement specifically covers using Spot in dangerous situations, such as investigating a suspicious package without putting humans in harm’s way. In addition to police work, the company also envisions it being used in high-risk occupations, such as mining.

    While police departments, military, mining and other high-risk industries often employ robots, few existing designs offer the speed, mobility and nimbleness of Spot, whose claim-to-fame is its near-doglike range of motion.

  • AI May Have Helped Solve Shakespeare Mystery, Identify Collaborator

    AI May Have Helped Solve Shakespeare Mystery, Identify Collaborator

    Given his contribution to the English language and literature, it’s no surprise that Shakespeare has stirred his fair share of controversy, not the least of which is about his authorship of the many plays attributed to him. With the help of AI, Czech researcher Petr Plecháč has been able to shed more definitive light on the subject.

    Plecháč developed a machine learning system to analyze Henry VIII to determine what portions Shakespeare wrote and what portions may have been written by a collaborator. By analyzing word choices and patterns, the AI determined what parts of the play were written by suspected collaborator John Fletcher, while another collaborator was ruled out.

    “Combined versification-based and word-based models trained on 17th century English drama yield a high accuracy of authorship recognition. We can thus state with high reliability that H8 is a result of collaboration between William Shakespeare and John Fletcher, while the participation of Philip Massinger is rather unlikely.”

    The study, while decidedly backward-looking, has far-reaching implications. It’s another example of the many ways AI can be used, and demonstrates why so many scientists believe AI has the potential to be one of the greatest advances in human history.

  • Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana Apps For iOS and Android

    Microsoft Shutting Down Cortana Apps For iOS and Android

    Individuals who rely on iOS or Android Cortana apps will have to find a different option. On January 31, 2020, Microsoft will be shutting down the Cortana apps for iOS and Android.

    Instead of dedicated apps, Microsoft will be integrating Cortana into the Microsoft 365 productivity apps. As a result, any content created on Cortana, such as lists and reminders, will not be available on the iOS and Android versions, although it will be accessible via the Windows version.

    In addition, according to the Microsoft support article, “Cortana reminders, lists, and tasks are automatically synced to the Microsoft To Do app, which you can download to your phone for free.

    “After January 31st, 2020, the Cortana mobile app on your phone will no longer be supported and there will be an updated version of Microsoft Launcher with Cortana removed.”

    Cortana has been lagging behind its rivals from Apple, Google and Amazon and Microsoft has been working to close the gap. These changes, while disappointing for iOS and Android users, will likely help Microsoft streamline its efforts and make Cortana more competitive.

  • Salesforce Dreamforce 2019: Update on Einstein and AI’s Role

    Salesforce Dreamforce 2019: Update on Einstein and AI’s Role

    Salesforce executives took the stage at Dreamforce 2019 to provide an update on Salesforce Einstein and the tremendous success it has been.

    Marco Casalaina, Vice President Products, Einstein, opened it up by discussing how far AI has come in the business world. When Einstein’s capabilities first started coming to light in 2017, only one in five businesses were using any kind of AI. Fast-forward to 2019 and nearly half of companies have integrated AI in their operations. Despite AI’s increased usage, not all companies are seeing the benefits they would like. In fact, seven out of ten companies report little to no impact from deploying AI.

    This is one of the ways in which Salesforce’s Einstein is designed to be different. It’s goal is to be simple, providing a voice interface to the data in Salesforce Customer 360. Einstein is already available in Sales, Service, Marketing and Commerce clouds. Soon, Einstein search will be taking over the Search bar, giving customers the ability to perform natural language searches using their voice.

    Yakaira Núñez, Director User & Product Insights, AI & Analytics talked about the work her team has been doing.

    “We’ve been focusing our work on voice ad nauseam.”

    She also highlighted three areas of concern for customers.

    1) Data Privacy and Security is of tantamount importance to customers, and Salesforce is committed to protecting that data.

    2) Guidance, specifically the importance of voice guidance. Salesforce recognizes that voice-controlled systems aren’t always the easiest to use. As a result, they worked to make Einstein as easy as possible.

    3) More diverse use cases, beyond just sales.

    Núñez also showed off Einstein Voice Skills. Any admin or developer can use the tool to build custom voice apps. These voice apps can be deployed on the desktop, mobile or smart speakers.

    Few would argue that AI represents a fundamental shift in technology, commerce and more. Companies like Salesforce are demonstrating how it can be a useful tool, providing new functionality and making customers’ lives easier.

    https://youtu.be/rPm–W0qeRs

  • Aviso Launches Version 2.0 of Its AI Guided Selling Platform

    Aviso Launches Version 2.0 of Its AI Guided Selling Platform

    Sales tech company Aviso announced version 2.0 of its AI-powered guided selling platform during Dreamforce event.

    The company’s CEO is Trevor Templar, the former VP of enterprise sales at Salesforce. Templar is taking a page from Salesforce’s playbook, trying to disrupt an industry and end its dependence on legacy CRM systems.

    “Twenty years ago, Salesforce launched their famous ‘No Software’ campaign as a rallying cry for innovative sales technology. Twenty years later, the #NoCRM campaign urges companies to reimagine the sales experience once again with a focus on performance. #NoCRM makes good on what was promised by ‘No Software’ two decades ago through leveraging predictive artificial intelligence to bring sales teams more cost-effective, modern, and insightful software.”

    Aviso uses a ‘less is more’ approach to help companies analyze data, prioritize opportunities and close more deals by providing AI-powered guidance, rather than relying on—and being bogged down by—traditional CRM.

    “CRM is 25% of all enterprise software, but less than half of sales reps meet their quotas, and teams spend more time fluffing and wrangling data than closing deals,” says Templar. “Our customers are excited about our 2.0 platform to shift focus away from CRM databases to using AI guidance for the core business of selling and serving customers.”

    Version 2.0 of Aviso’s uses a next generation core predictive framework, resulting in greater simplicity, flexibility and data generation up to 400% faster. The new platform is in beta with select customers, with a general release expected later this year.

  • Google Bringing AI-Powered Smart Compose to Docs

    Google Bringing AI-Powered Smart Compose to Docs

    Smart Compose, one of Google’s more controversial features is making the jump from Gmail to Docs.

    Smart Compose is an AI-driven feature that Google unveiled last year. The feature was built on Smart Reply and uses machine learning to suggest words while composing an email. Many language generation models suggest words based on the preceding word. Smart Compose goes beyond that, looking at the email subject line and the preceding email, if you’re replying to one.

    Google is now beginning the process of integrating Smart Compose into Docs. Smart Compose for Docs will analyze your past writing to make suggestions that match your style.

    At the moment, the feature is only available in beta, only for business users and requires an administrator to sign up. Google has not yet said whether the feature will eventually be available for all consumers, or only G Suite users.

    Smart Compose in Gmail has been extremely popular among some users, with notable individuals like Mark Cuban swearing by it. There’s just as many, however, who hate the feature. It will be interesting to see how well it is received as it is integrated into other applications.

  • How to Manage Your Reputation With AI

    How to Manage Your Reputation With AI

    Buying online in recent times has become an easy and quick way to get nearly anything you want, but lots of products aren’t as good as advertised. So the vast majority of consumers typically read the reviews of a product when considering a purchase. This means that if your product isn’t well received and gets bad reviews, it can drag your whole business. Reputation of your business can affect more than the sales of your business, although with high ratings, brick-and-mortar stores can make as much as 4.5 times the amount of their online counterparts, good reputation can convert potential customers into sales, it can boost your online presence, and help you stand out from your competitors. Reputation is so important that it can even be worth as much as 25% of a company’s total market value. 

    Consumers trust the internet when it comes to online reviews and that can make or break a sale if the reviews are bad or they point out fatal flaws. 90% use the internet to comparison shop for every purchase, 78% trust online reviews as much as if someone they personally knew told them that the product was good, and 68% are more likely to visit a local business after reading positive reviews. So having many positive reviews can bring in more sales. As well as bringing in more sales, a good reputation can change your business’s rank in search results – up to 15% of Google’s ranking factors are based solely on reviews left by consumers, making your business easier to find to interested customers. Going from only an average of 3 stars up to 5 stars can yield up to an astonishing 25% more views from Google alone. In 2018, 86% of consumers read online reviews for local businesses – 40% of consumers say that any negative reviews turned them away from buying there. This all boils down to the fact that having a good reputation with your customers and even other business can be vital to the success of your business by getting more people to see your products or services and more people to buy your products or services. 

    With how important reputation seems, as it determines a lot of the sales and how many people see your business, it should be a top priority for anyone who can make any kind of difference in that regard. But a surprising number of business owners don’t devote nearly enough time to their reputation, but that’s not to say some don’t as around 70% brand representatives spend up to 20% of their time on online reputation management. This is mainly due to a lack of time so they can’t manage their reputation or that they are lacking the software that they would need to be able to effectively manage their reputation. A lot of managing your reputation is a lot of simple grunt work that AI can easily do, such as replying to customers’ questions and concerns, and many more. 

    Find out how AI will be able to make managing reputation online a huge amount easier here.

     

  • NVIDIA and Microsoft Join Forces to Accelerate AI Startups

    NVIDIA and Microsoft Join Forces to Accelerate AI Startups

    NVIDIA Inception and Microsoft for Startups have partnered to help accelerate AI startups, according to a press release.

    The two companies unveiled their joint focus in Helsinki, at the startup event Slush. The partnership will aid companies in the AI market, working to address the unique challenges they face.

    As part of the program, “members of NVIDIA Inception and Microsoft for Startups can now receive all the benefits of both programs — including technology, training, go-to-market support and NVIDIA GPU credits in the Azure cloud — to continue growing and solving some of the world’s most complex problems.”

    The two companies will work closely to evaluate what startups in the program need, and address those needs using available resources.

    “NVIDIA Inception members are eligible for the following benefits from Microsoft for Startups:

    • Free access to specific Microsoft technologies suited to every startup’s needs, including up to $120,000 in free credits in the Azure cloud
    • Go-to-market resources to help startups sell alongside Microsoft’s global sales channels

    “Microsoft for Startups members can access the following benefits from NVIDIA Inception:

    • Technology expertise on implementing GPU applications and hardware
    • Free access to NVIDIA Deep Learning Institute online courses, such as “Fundamentals of Deep Learning for Computer Vision” and “Accelerating Data Science”
    • Unlimited access to DevTalk, a forum for technical inquiries and community engagement
    • Go-to-market assistance and hardware discounts across the NVIDIA portfolio, from NVIDIA DGX AI systems to NVIDIA Jetson embedded computing platforms”

    With NVIDIA and Microsoft’s focus on the AI market, the two companies will bring valuable expertise and resources to burgeoning startups.

  • Infineon and Klika Tech Partner to Develop Innovative Smart Building Solutions

    Infineon and Klika Tech Partner to Develop Innovative Smart Building Solutions

    Infineon and Klika Tech have announced a partnership to accelerate development of smart building solutions, based on Infineon’s semiconductor portfolio and Klika Tech’s IoT Cloud and Amazon Web Services (AWS) experience.

    Klika Tech has vast experience with IoT Cloud, offering end-to-end solutions. The company is also an Amazon Partner Network (APN) Advanced Consulting Partner. Infineon is a world leader in the semiconductor business.

    Together the companies hope to accelerate development of smart building solutions. Smart buildings use sensors, automation, machine learning and artificial intelligence (AI) to automate many of the tasks involved in running a building. As a result, a smart building can be greener, cheaper, more secure and easier to maintain than its counterparts. As the building is used, the system learns when people are coming and going, optimizing the HVAC systems to match. Components can be monitored and maintained before a problem occurs.

    With more and more regulations designed to address climate change, the demand for smart buildings will continue to grow—creating an opportunity for the Infineon and Klika Tech partnership.

    “Klika Tech is a strong addition to Infineon’s partner network, offering complementary capabilities to develop innovative solutions for smart building applications,” said Oliver Henning, Head of Partnership Management & Emerging Application Business at Infineon’s Power Management & Multimarket division. “

    “Collaborations among hardware, software and services providers are the genesis of the custom IoT and Cloud solutions that are enabling companies to reduce their development efforts and expedite time to market. This holds especially true for smart building and smart home applications.” said Gennadiy M. Borisov, President and Co-CEO at Klika Tech, Inc. “We look forward to building on our relationship with Infineon and the integration of their outstanding sensor portfolio with AWS services.”

  • Wayve Raises $20 Million To Improve Autonomous Vehicle AI

    Wayve Raises $20 Million To Improve Autonomous Vehicle AI

    VentureBeat is reporting that U.K.-based startup Wayve has raised $20 million in Series A funding to improve AI for autonomous vehicles.

    Wayve takes a different approach to autonomous vehicles than many other companies. Rather than hand-coded rules, or throwing more sensors at the problem, Wayve is trying to improve the AI behind autonomous vehicles to better emulate human-style adaptability and decision-making.

    “The company said that it trains its autonomous driving system using simulated environments and then transfers that knowledge into the real world, where it emulates how humans adapt to conditions in real time. Wayve’s systems learn from each safety driver intervention to understand why the driver had to intervene, bypassing HD maps, lidar, and other sensors that have become synonymous with the burgeoning autonomous vehicle movement.”

    Wayve’s machine learning algorithms are hardware and sensor-agnostic, meaning they can be used with any hardware or sensors, provided the manufacturer wants to. However, the real strength of Wayve’s approach is that their algorithms can learn and adapt to new situations.

    Alex Kendall, Wayve confounder and CTO told VentureBeat: “Our algorithms are learning to become super-human drivers. We learn from attentive human driving, which already eliminates the 98.3% of human road errors due to inattention / ineffective driving. We then further improve beyond what humans are capable of with reinforcement learning, by providing feedback to our system.”

    If Wayve can deliver on its premise, it’s a safe bet their tech will soon make its way into self-driving vehicles.