The Vector Institute, an independent nonprofit dedicated to advancing AI, today established a team to commercialize its industrial and health care research. This group will create tools, frameworks, and model templates while helping organizations operationalize models within their markets. Moreover, Vector says it will be responsible for procuring computing infrastructure to scale the…
Synthego raises $100 million for AI-driven gene editing
August 26, 2020
Synthego, which is developing a machine learning-based approach to engineering genomes, today closed a $100 million funding round. The startup says the funding will be put toward expanding the capabilities of its platforms designed to produce reagents and cells supporting…
The White House today detailed the establishment of 12 new research institutes focused on AI and quantum information science. Agencies including the National Science Foundation (NSF), U.S. Department of Homeland Security, and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) have committed to…
Michael Kanaan: The U.S. needs an AI ‘Sputnik moment’ to compete with China and Russia
August 26, 2020
In his book, “T-Minus AI,” Michael Kanaan calls attention to the need for the U.S. to wake up to AI in the same way that China and Russia have — as a matter of national importance amid global power shifts.
In 1957, Russia launched the Sputnik satellite into orbit. Kanaan writes that it was both a technological and a military feat. As Sputnik orbited Earth, suddenly the U.S. was confronted by…
Motion capture — the process of recording peoples’ movements — traditionally requires equipment, cameras, and software tailored for the purpose. But researchers at the Max Planck Institute and Facebook Reality Labs claim they’ve developed a machine learning algorithm…
LinkedIn open-sources toolkit to measure AI model fairness
August 26, 2020
LinkedIn today released the LinkedIn Fairness Toolkit (LiFT), an open source software library designed to enable the measurement of fairness in AI and machine learning workflows. The company says LiFT can be deployed during training and scoring to measure biases in training…
In the big data domain, researchers need to ensure that conclusions are consistently verifiable. But that can be particularly challenging in medicine because physicians themselves aren’t always sure about disease diagnoses and treatment plans.
To investigate how machine learning research has historically handled medical uncertainties, scientists at the University of Texas at Dallas; the…
Apple has updated Final Cut Pro X with a slew of features and improvements. The editing suite can now use machine learning smarts to automate video cropping for social media-friendly formats, including square and vertical sizes.
Final Cut Pro can analyze clips for…
Microsoft gives devs an AI-powered tool to build reading accessibility into their apps
August 25, 2020
Microsoft today announced the general availability of Immersive Reader, an Azure Cognitive Services offering that allows developers to embed text reading and comprehension capabilities into apps to make them more inclusive. Immersive Reader is designed to help users —…
Socure raises $35 million to combat payments fraud with AI
August 25, 2020
Cloud-based identity verification and fraud prevention startup Socure today closed a $35 million round. CEO Tom Thimot told VentureBeat the funds will bolster Socure’s R&D efforts and help it expand its customer base.
Javelin Strategy reported that 6.64% of consumers — or about 16.7 million people — fell victim to identity fraud in 2017, up 1 million from 2016. In 2018, over 2.6 billion…
