Whether it’s language, music, speech, or video, sequential data isn’t easy for AI and machine learning models to comprehend — particularly when it depends on extensive surrounding context. For instance, if a person or an object disappears from view in a video only to reappear much later, many algorithms will forget how it looked. Researchers at Google set out to solve this with Transformer…
VCs double down on hot Seattle startup scene with $10 million Allen Institute AI Incubator investment
January 17, 2020
Some of the top investment firms in Silicon Valley and Seattle are joining up to put $10 million into the Allen Institute AI Incubator for early-stage AI startups. The news comes a day after Apple acquired Xnor. The edge computing AI startup was one of the first companies to…
Can sensors see behind the corners of obstacles in real time? As it turns out, yes. A study by researchers at Stanford, Rice University, Princeton, and Southern Methodist University published in the journal Optica proposes a system that’s capable of producing…
Phenom People raises $30 million for AI recruitment platform used by Microsoft, others
January 16, 2020
Phenom People, a human resources (HR) platform that leverages artificial intelligence (AI) to help companies attract new talent, has raised $30 million in a series C round of funding led by WestBridge Capital, with participation from eBay founder Pierre Omidyar’s VC firm Omidyar Ventures, AXA Venture Partners, Sierra Ventures, Sigma Prime Ventures, Karlani Capital, and a fund belonging to…
Dewo uses AI to minimize digital distractions
January 16, 2020
The average person is distracted every 40 seconds when working in front of a computer. Indeed, even the most productive workers get only 11 minutes on average between interruptions. Increasingly, with experiments like Digital Wellbeing and Screen Time, tech giants are…
Apple just bought a low-power AI startup
January 16, 2020
Apple has acquired another Seattle-based AI startup, Xnor.ai. The startup specializes in low-power edge-based tools that allow AI to operate on devices, rather than in the cloud. The tech could allow Apple to bring edge-based AI software to future iPhone models.
Apple is…
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…
Apple acquires edge AI startup Xnor
January 16, 2020
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…
The voice and speech recognition tech market is anticipated to be worth $31.82 billion by 2025, driven by new applications in banking, health care, and automotive industries. And Tom Livne, who cofounded Verbit.ai with Eric Shellef and Kobi Ben Tzvi in 2017, asserts the…
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…
