Tag Archives: Microsoft

What’s happened in AI: January 21st-27th

By | January 28, 2019
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Lots of M&A this week in the AI world with Termset (NLP), Textkernel (recruiting), and Crunchbot (chatbots) all being acquired. Many enterprises are finding out that sometimes it’s easier to acquire AI talent than develop it in-house, especially if it’s outside of a particular domain of expertise for the acquirer.

Other news this week includes a few developments in the autonomous vehicle world. Waymo is set to test driverless cars out in Michigan, while Apple cut 200 jobs in its autonomous vehicle division (Project Titan). Not sure what’s going on with Apple, but it’s definitely not the best sign as competitors ramp up research, investment, and personnel additions.

What’s happened in AI: January 14th-20th

By | January 22, 2019
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The AI research capabilities of Microsoft continue to expand. This week they opened two separate AI labs in China.

The first will be located in Nanchang city and will focus on VR in addition to AI applications in established manufacturing companies. The second will be located in Shanghai and will focus on IoT in addition to AI. It’s clear Microsoft has gained favor with the Chinese government as these are two major developments with regards to their China strategy.

What’s happened in AI: December 3rd-9th

By | December 10, 2018
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Despite recent reports of Chinese VCs pulling back AI investment, many top AI players continue to raise large amounts of cash. ByteDance, the $75bn unicorn that has now surpassed Uber’s valuation, is in talks to raise another $1.45bn. The use of proceeds is to pursue their aggressive global expansion plans. 

Meanwhile in the U.S., Republican Senator John Thune and Democratic Senator Gary Peters circulated a draft of a revised self-driving vehicle bill aimed at breaking a legislative stalemate. With the pace of innovation in the field, let’s hope they get this passed sooner rather than later.

What’s happened in AI: November 12th-18th

By | November 20, 2018
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Major highlight this week was Blackberry’s acquisition of cybersecurity AI startup Cylance for $1.4bn. Stuart McCulre, CEO of Cylance, has struck gold again having previously sold a cybersecurity startup to McAfee for $86mm. This is another example of how important major tech companies value cybersecurity. In addition, this also demonstrates that applying AI to the field adds tremendous value when done properly.

What’s happened in AI: November 5th-11th

By | November 12, 2018
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The creep factor from China was pretty high this week. To start, ~30 of the brightest young minds in China have been recruited to develop AI weapons for the government. These kids aren’t even in college yet, and are already doing this kind of work. Meanwhile surveillance in the country has reached a new level as the government is now able to identify people based on the way they walk. Looks like hiding your face won’t work anymore. Finally, China revealed an AI news anchor for its state run media. It’s pretty weird and I don’t really know how to interpret this. Other than the awkward lip movements the AI is pretty solid. I see potential for this to become a common fixture for pushing propaganda 24/7 (since AI doesn’t need a break like us obviously), but hopefully I’m proven wrong.

What’s happened in AI: October 22nd-28th

By | October 31, 2018
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Big week highlight this week is Baidu’s development of simultaneous language translation through one of their AI programs. It’s considered a major step forward in the natural language processing realm.

Elsewhere on the M&A side Lyft made an acquisition of Blue Vision to further enhance their autonomous vehicle program.

What’s happened in AI: October 8th-14th

By | October 17, 2018
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Another week, another win for Google’s AI program. This time, its Lymp Node Assistant (LYNA) achieved 99% accuracy in metastatic breast cancer detection. Hopefully these types of applications of AI continue, in particular, to other types of cancer. Meanwhile on the autonomous vehicle front, we have numerous developments from companies and governments. Arizona is launching… Read More »

What’s happened in AI: September 24th-30th

By | October 1, 2018
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Big week across the board in the AI world. To start, there were a few developments related to social good including Microsoft’s $40mm fund dedicated to developers focused on solving humanitarian problems and Google using its AI to predict floods in India. We definitely to see more of this. For the major company developments, look no further than DeepMind partnering with Unity to develop simulated AI training environments and Ford potentially eyeing an IPO for its self-driving car unit.