In June 2017, Microsoft launched AI for Earth, a $50 million program that’s provided cloud-based tools and services to dozens of startups working to protect the planet. Subsequently, the Seattle tech giant expanded the scope of its “AI for good” work with AI for Accessibility (in May 2018), AI for Humanitarian Action (in September 2018), and AI for Cultural Heritage (July 2019), all of…
Apple has yet to openly discuss its self-driving vehicle research, but it’s a poorly kept industry secret. Around 5,000 employees — including a portion of those previously employed by Drive.ai, an autonomous car startup Apple acquired last year — are said to be…
During the 2019 CES, Verizon announced the Built on 5G Challenge, a nationwide search for solid 5G innovations that could be commercialized using its low latency, high-bandwidth millimeter wave 5G network. Today, the carrier announced three winners across the fields of AR…
Why Google Assistant supports so many more languages than Siri, Alexa, Bixby, and Cortana
January 29, 2020
Google Assistant, Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa, and Microsoft’s Cortana recognize only a narrow slice of the world’s most widely spoken languages. It wasn’t until fall 2018 that Samsung’s Bixby gained support for German, French, Italian, and Spanish — languages spoken by over 600 million people worldwide. And it took years for Cortana to become fluent in Spanish, French, and…
Concentric raises $7.5 million to identify and protect sensitive enterprise data with AI
January 29, 2020
It’s estimated that the average organization has 1.2 million documents, making it difficult to identify and secure sensitive data. This dilemma motivated Karthik Krishnan, formerly vice president of Hewlett Packard Enterprise subsidiary Aruba, to cofound Concentric with…
Directly raises $20 million to improve customer service with AI
January 29, 2020
According to CustomerTheromometer, 54% of people have higher expectations for customer service today than just one year ago. Antony Brydon, Jean Tessier, and Jeff Patterson argue that a degree of automation is required to keep up with demand. The three are cofounders of…
Roughly a year ago, Google open-sourced MediaPipe, a framework for building cross-platform AI pipelines consisting of fast inference and media processing (like video decoding). Basically, it’s a quick and dirty way to perform object detection, face detection, hand tracking, multi-hand tracking, hair segmentation, and other such tasks in a modular fashion, with popular machine learning frameworks…
Google’s AI powers real-time orca tracking in Vancouver Bay
January 29, 2020
Google AI today shared that it’s created a model for detecting an endangered species of orca whales in the Salish Sea, a waterway between the United States and Canada. Underwater microphones situated at a dozen points in the Salish Sea that includes the state of Washington…
The number of people of all ages who are visually impaired is estimated to be 285 million globally, of whom 39 million are blind. In an effort to provide assistance where it can, Microsoft in 2016 launched Project Tokyo, a partnership among researchers in the U.S., U.K.
VentureBeat’s Tech Showcase is back at Transform 2020: Accelerating your business with AI, July 15-16 in San Francisco. We’re on the lookout for disruptive AI companies of all sizes that are ready to present their tech on the main stage.
Those selected to present will do so in front of hundreds of industry decision makers. Every presenter will receive coverage from VentureBeat, placing your…
