Intel's investment into AI reaches $1bn
The importance of artificial intelligence has been one of the biggest trends in the technology industry in recent years, with many large companies throwing their weight behind the system.
This includes Intel, which has today revealed it has invested more than $1 billion into AI startups to date through its Intel Capital center arm.
Among the companies Intel has invested in are Mighty AI, Data Robot, Lumiata and AEye. Applications of AI among these companies are varied, from healthcare, to climate change, to autonomous driving and in-between.
Investing in AI start-ups is not Intel’s only way of dipping its fingers deep into the AI honey pool. It has also made a number of acquisition earlier, including Nervana (2016), as well as MobileEye (2017), with TechCrunch, claiming that Intel has spent roughly $16 billion on AI acquisitions.
In a blog post commenting on the news, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich praised the effects that AI has already had on people's lives around the world.
"At Intel, we have an optimistic and pragmatic view of artificial intelligence’s (AI) impact on society, jobs and daily life that will mimic other profound transformations -- from the industrial to the PC revolutions," he wrote.
"Our belief is that AI will bring significant new opportunities to transform business -- from retail to healthcare to manufacturing -- and have an immensely positive impact on society."
"I believe Intel will be the AI platform of choice, offering unmatched reliability, performance, security and integration. We are 100 percent committed to creating the roadmap of optimised products to support emerging mainstream AI workloads."
Artificial Intelligence has been a hot topic lately. The only thing everyone agrees on is the fact that it will have a profound effect on the world, both in private and in the business world. While Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence is a bigger issue than North Korea launching nukes, others believe it will improve humanity. A recently released report by CCS Insight states that employees believe AI will actually create new jobs, instead of destroying them.
CCS Insight's vice president of enterprise research, Nick McQuire, comments, "Despite many reports painting a bleak outlook for the impact of AI on the job market in recent months, our survey reveals rather positive attitudes to the technology, both as a job creator and an enabler of work. Employees are drowning in a sea of data and digital technology. Rather than destroying jobs, AI is seen as a tool that could help us work smarter and better in the future".
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