Salesforce today peeled back the curtains on ReceptorNet, a machine learning system researchers at the company developed in partnership with clinicians at the University of Southern California’s Lawrence J. Ellison Institute for Transformative Medicine of USC. The system, which can determine a critical biomarker for oncologists when deciding on the appropriate treatment for breast cancer…
SoftBank has reportedly sold Boston Dynamics to Hyundai
December 10, 2020
Hyundai Motors is acquiring Boston Dynamics, according to The Korea Economic Daily. The publication says Softbank has agreed to sell the robot maker for 1 trillion won (US$917 million) and that the acquisition will be finalized at a board meeting today, December 10th. The…
Google will investigate the controversial exit of a top AI ethicist
December 10, 2020
Google CEO Sundar Pichai has pledged to investigate the departure of a top AI ethics researcher, according to a company-wide memo Axios obtained. Pichai also apologized for how Google handled Dr. Timnit Gebru’s exit.
“I’ve heard the reaction to Dr. Gebru’s…
Bias in AI is pervasive. From dermatological models that discriminate against patients with dark skin to exam-scoring algorithms that disadvantage public school students, one needn’t look far for examples of prejudice encoded in AI systems. But how do these biases arise in the first place? Researchers at Columbia University sought to uncover this by tasking 400 AI engineers with creating…
Managed enterprise AI startup DataRobot today announced an additional $50 million raise from strategic investors Snowflake Ventures, Salesforce Ventures, and Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE). Together, the fresh capital expands DataRobot’s series F round led by Altimeter…
Parallel Domain, a startup developing a synthetic data generation platform for AI and machine learning applications, today emerged from stealth with $11 million in funding. The company, which has over 25 employees and customers in auto manufacturing and drone delivery, plans…
During IBM’s virtual AI Summit this week, the company announced updates across its Watson family of products in the areas of language, explainability, and workplace automation. A new feature called Reading Comprehension surfaces answers from databases of enterprise documents in response to natural language questions, assigning a confidence score to each response. A novel module in Watson…
Microsoft launches effort to fight corruption with AI and other emerging technologies
December 9, 2020
Microsoft today announced the launch of Anti-Corruption Technology and Solutions (ACTS), an initiative it says will leverage cloud computing, data visualization, AI, machine learning, and other technologies over the next decade to “enhance transparency” and “detect and…
Google Cloud is increasing its bet on edge computing by partnering with 200 application developers whose services will now be available from datacenters closer to business customers. By expanding edge computing, Google is hoping to entice even more enterprises to turn to the…
Google’s Look to Speak taps gaze-tracking AI to help users with impairments communicate
December 8, 2020
Google today launched an experimental app for Android that leverages AI to make communication more accessible for people with speech and motor impairments. Called Look to Speak, it tracks eye movements to let people use their eyes to select prewritten, customizable phrases and have them spoken aloud.
Approximately 18.5 million people in the U.S. have a speech, voice, or language impairment. Eye…
