Salesforce launches Einstein AI platform
Salesforce has announced the launch of its new Einstein artificial intelligence (AI) platform that has already been implemented into a number of the company's existing cloud services including Sales Cloud, Service Cloud, Marketing Cloud, Analytics Cloud, App Cloud, Commerce Cloud, Community Cloud and IoT Cloud.
The company has also announced that it has formed a new unit called Salesforce Research that will be exploring deep learning, natural language processing and computer vision. The new unit's aim is to improve Salesforce products and it will be led by the company's chief scientist Richard Socher, who is responsible for co-founding the A.I. startup MetaMind which Salesforce acquired earlier this year.
IBM introduces new servers for AI workloads
IBM introduced a series of new servers dubbed "x86 killers". The devices, designed to give a significant boost to artificial intelligence, deep learning and advanced data analytics, were picked up by the Chinese telecommunications company Tencent, and IBM claims the results are basically out of this world.
"A large cluster of the new IBM OpenPOWER servers was able to run a data-intensive workload three times faster than its former x86-based infrastructure", IBM says in a press release. "While reducing the total number of servers used by two-thirds".
Intel buying Movidius to bolster RealSense and other computer vision technologies
Computer vision -- meaning quite literally, machines seeing things -- is poised to explode over the next several years. This technology is very important to things such as security cameras, artificial intelligence and robotics. On an immediate consumer level, Intel's RealSense technology is already being used for Windows Hello -- a secure camera-based method of logging into Microsoft's operating system with biometrics.
Intel is looking to further bolster its RealSense technology, plus other such initiatives, with the acquisition of Movidius. This soon-to-be-acquired company's main focus is computer vision and artificial intelligence, making it a seemingly smart fit for achieving Intel's goals.
Automatic lovers -- conference explores the sex lives of robots
Robots and technology are invading more and more areas of our lives, but there are some places they have yet to... ahem, penetrate.
A conference in Salford, UK this week organized by the TC9 group of the International Federation for Information Processing (IFIP) is set to explore issues of technology and intimacy.
The increasing role of AI in cyber security [Q&A]
As attacks become more frequent and sophisticated, conventional security techniques and human analysis struggle to keep pace.
As a result many companies are turning to artificial intelligence methods to help them defend their systems effectively. We spoke to Peter Gyongyosi product manager of security intelligence specialist Balabit to find out more about how AI is increasingly the future of cyber security.
Intel buys machine learning startup Nervana
Intel is buying machine learning start-up Nervana, and it’s paying some serious money for it. According to multiple media sources, the 48-person start-up was acquired for a stunning $408 million (£312m).
Nervana is an artificial intelligence company which is looking to integrate AI beyond the usual software -- it wants to squeeze it into the chips themselves. And who better to team up with to achieve that goal than Intel -- one of the biggest chipmakers in the world.
AI will boost fintech revenue by 960 percent
Earnings created by the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in financial technology (fintech) will skyrocket in the next five years, according to new reports by Juniper Research.
The researchers have said that, by 2021, we should expect a jump of 960 percent, with revenues hitting $17 billion (£12.95bn).
Google's DeepMind AI has cut data center electricity usage by 15 percent
Artificial intelligence is frequently associated with sentient computers, bots and the like. But in the real world, AI is being put to a far wider range of uses. DeepMind, Google's AI division has been instrumental in slashing energy consumption in data centers.
Lying at the heart of the internet, data centers are huge electricity gobblers, and anything that can be done to reduce usage is to be welcomed. DeepMind has reduced consumption in Google's data centers by an impressive 15 percent, helping the company to do its bit for the environment.
Robots can't understand advanced business processes
In a time when some really intelligent people are expressing fears over intelligent robots, the worst thing you can do is tell a bunch of scientists that robots that smart can’t be made.
Yet, that’s pretty much what shared services professionals said when they were polled by robotics and automation specialists Redwood Software, together with Shared Services Link, the online community for finance, shared services and outsourcing leaders.
Twitter buys AI image firm Magic Pony Technology
Twitter has demonstrated its commitment to artificial intelligence and machine learning by splashing a reported $150m on London-based Magic Pony Technology. The aim is to use the company's advanced technology to improve Twitter's live and video experiences.
Jack Dorsey describes Magic Pony Technology as a 'company that has developed novel machine learning techniques for visual processing'. Thus far this has been used to sharpen blurry images, create computer-generated images from scratch, and to learn to recognize objects.
Google's AI is reading love novels to give 'humanized' answers
Soon enough, you can expect Google’s AI to start sending you love letters. And judging by the information you are just about to read, those might be some of the best love letters ever written, in the history of robotkind. Or humankind. Or both, I guess.
Here’s what’s going on. Google says its AI engine’s answers to human questions are too factual. Imagine the answers as being purely robotic. Subject, predicate, adverbial clause. Google, on the other hand, wants those answers to be more human -- it wants the robot to be able to answer the same question in different words, to change the tone and personality from time to time.
AI platform better predicts cyber attacks thanks to human experts
Researchers from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) have collaborated alongside the machine learning startup PatternEx to demonstrate how an artificial intelligence platform that makes use of continuous input from human experts would be able to predict cyber attacks better than the systems that exist today.
CSAIL and PatternEx are calling their new AI platform AI² due to how it combines the intuition of analysts with artificial intelligence.
Crowdsourcing platform creates insights from unstructured data
Getting useful information from unstructured data is a notoriously difficult and time consuming task, but the launch of a new intelligent crowdsourcing platform could be about to change that.
The Spare5 platform uses a known community of specialists to accomplish custom micro-tasks that, filtered for quality, allow product owners to train powerful artificial intelligence models, improve their search and browse experiences, augment their directories and more.
Microsoft launches Skype Bots preview and Skype Bot Platform for developers
Seemingly having learned nothing from its AI Twitter chatbot, Tay, Microsoft is experimenting further with bots. At Build 2016 today, the company announced Skype Bots and the Skype Bots Platform.
Designed to "bring expertise, products, services and entertainment" to Skype conversations, Skype Bots can be programmed to respond to chats -- and Microsoft will no doubt be hoping it is not left making another red-faced apology if things go awry. It's all part of Microsoft's vision of "conversation as a platform" and bots are available for the Windows Desktop, Android, iPhone and iPad versions of Skype.
Microsoft says sorry for AI bot Tay's 'offensive and hurtful tweets'
Microsoft's first tentative steps into the world of artificial intelligence outside of China did not go well. Less than 24 hours after being unleashed on Twitter, the AI chatbot Tay was pulled offline after people quickly learned that it was possible to train the bot to post racist, sexist, and otherwise offensive material. Great fun was had by all!
All except Microsoft, that is. The company was not only forced to pull the plug on Tay, but today was compelled to issue an apology for "unintended offensive" caused. Twitter users treated Tay as some people would treat an infant -- taking great pleasure in teaching it swearwords and other inappropriate things to say. Maybe it was when Tay was talked into becoming a Trump supporter, but Microsoft is now seeking to distance itself from tweets sent out by the bot that "conflict with our principles and values".
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