AI & RoboticsNews

Zinier raises $90 million to embed field service work with AI and machine learning

It’s anticipated that workplace automation tools will see an uptick in adoption in the next few years. One company leading the charge is San Francisco-based Zinier, which was founded in October 2015 by Andrew Wolf and former TripAdvisor market development manager Arka Dhar. A developer of intelligent field service automation, the startup provides a platform — intelligent service automation…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Facebook taught its AI to speak math

I speak two languages, English and Bad English. My understanding of math is significantly worse. In fact, I had to redo Calculus 2A four different times in college in order to graduate, mostly because I could never properly calculate a ladder’s rate of acceleration as…
AI & RoboticsNews

AI startups raised $18.5 billion in 2019, setting new funding record

While overall U.S. venture capital funding dipped in 2019, the artificial intelligence sector bucked this trend by reaching a new annual high for money raised by startups. According to 2019 data from the National Venture Capital Association, 1,356 AI-related companies in the U.S. raised $18.457 billion. That topped the 1,281 companies that raised $16.8 billion in 2018, according to the Q4 2019…
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AI & RoboticsNews

KeyMe raises $35 million to duplicate keys with AI

Normally, duplicating a key would require an expensive trip to the locksmith, but New York-based KeyMe — which was founded in 2012 by Greg Marsh, former director of finance at auto tech company Aperia Technologies — hopes to change the paradigm with a network of…
AI & RoboticsNews

AI or BS: Distinguishing artificial intelligence from trade show hype

Though it’s a coincidence that I’m writing this article roughly one year after my colleague Khari Johnson railed against the “public nuisance” of “charlatan AI,” the annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) clearly inspired both missives. At the tail end of last year’s show, Khari called out a seemingly fake robot AI demo at LG’s CES press conference, noting that for society’s…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Canon's Robotic Camera System controls multiple DSLRs from afar

Pro photographers who need to control multiple cameras at once just got a useful tool — if they have the right camera. Canon has introduced a CR-S700R Robotic Camera system that lets you remotely steer multiple DSLRs from a PC. You can only use it for still photos, but you can zoom, pan, tilt and roll when you’re trying to capture a sporting event from multiple angles. The absence…
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