AI & RoboticsNews

How DeepMind is unlocking the secrets of dopamine and protein folding with AI

Demis Hassabis founded DeepMind with the goal of unlocking answers to some of the world’s toughest questions by recreating intelligence itself. His ambition remains just that — an ambition — but Hassabis and colleagues inched closer to realizing it this week with the publication of papers in Nature addressing two formidable challenges in biomedicine. The first paper originated from…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Apple acquires edge AI startup Xnor

Apple has acquired AI startup Xnor.ai, a source familiar with the matter told VentureBeat today. Xnor focuses on the efficient deployment of AI in edge devices like smartphones, cameras, and drones. Apple reportedly paid roughly $200 million for the company, according to…
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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