Xor, a San Francisco-based startup developing an AI chatbot platform for recruiters and job seekers, today announced that it has raised $8.4 million in a seed funding round led by SignalFire, with participation from Gurtin Ventures and Twin VC. The capital infusion comes after a year in which Xor tripled sales in the U.S., reaching $2 million in annual recurring revenue and closing deals with over…
AI startups stand out at Comcast Lift Labs Accelerator 2019
October 10, 2019
This evening in Philadelphia, Comcast NBCUniversal’s Lift Labs Accelerator showcased the 11 companies in its second-ever class during a demo day in front of investors and the local tech community. The event marked the finale of the program’s 13-week program, during…
LinkedIn’s AI automatically generates photo text descriptions
October 10, 2019
Are today’s computer vision technologies robust enough to generate text descriptions for photos across a range of domains? That’s the question scientists at LinkedIn have been investigating over the past several years, solutions to which they detailed in a blog…
Pinterest says AI reduced reported self-harm content by 88%
October 10, 2019
Today is World Mental Health Day, an opportunity for global mental health education, awareness, and advocacy against social stigma that was first marked in 1992 by the World Federation for Mental Health. In recognition of the day, Pinterest this morning detailed ways it’s helping better serve users struggling with emotional well-being.
Specifically, Pinterest says it’s using machine learning…
Grammarly, the Kyiv, San Francisco, Vancouver, and New York startup behind the eponymous cross-platform grammar- and spell-checking platform, today revealed that it’s secured $90 million in its second-ever funding round, led by General Catalyst, with participation from IVP…
The internet can be a difficult place to navigate for people who are blind or who have low vision. A large portion of content on the internet is visual, and unless website creators use alt text to label their images, it’s hard for users of screen readers or Braille…
Issa Rae is Google Assistant's newest celebrity voice
October 10, 2019
The long-promised John Legend voice eventually landed on Google Assistant back in April, now we’ve got the next celebrity voice offering in the form of the brilliant actress, writer and producer, Issa Rae. Just say, “Hey Google, talk like Issa,” or switch your Assistant voice settings, and she’ll be ready to answer a whole bunch of questions, from “Do I need an…
Nvidia’s AI prevents car high beams from producing glare
October 9, 2019
High-beam headlights cut through thick precipitation like a knife cuts through butter, but they’re a literal eyesore to oncoming drivers. That’s because most commercially available systems don’t automatically adjust to compensate for daytime brightness, and because…
Benchmarks made to measure the performance of AI systems that control robots are often limited to expensive hardware designed for industrial environments that can cost tens of thousands of dollars. Researchers from UC Berkeley and Google Brain addressed this problem by…
White sharks are being spotted off the Pacific coast more than ever before. A 2014 study found that, at minimum, California’s shark population now exceeds 2,000. And the California Department of Fish and Wildlife reports that since 1950, there’s been at least 158 documented cases where a shark approached a person in the water, 44 of which occurred since 2010.
Those numbers are at best rough…
