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Shanghai and Baidu Enter an Agreement Focusing AI Development

28Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

Shanghai and Baidu Enter an Agreement Focusing AI Development

The Shanghai municipal government and Chinese technology major Baidu have reportedly signed a strategic cooperation agreement for the purpose of developing artificial intelligence (AI) industry in the city and giving it a boost. Following the agreement, a Baidu innovation center will be built to make Shanghai a major AI development center. The company will also help Shanghai in building smart city. Shanghai has talent from home and abroad and is open to the world, which provides a conducive environment for the company's future development, said Robin Li, chairman and CEO of Baidu. "Baidu will increase its research and development investment, land more new modes, applications and products in Shanghai so as to make bigger contributions to the AI industry development and mega-city mana...

Microsoft Acquires an Austin-based Software Developer

15Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

ACQUISITION

Microsoft Acquires an Austin-based Software Developer

The international technology giant Microsoft has reportedly acquired an Austin-based software developer called Xoxco. This acquisition has marked the fourth AI-related company Microsoft has purchased this year. Founded in 2009, Xoxco has raised $1.5 million. It began working on bots in 2013, and is credited with developing the first bot for Slack to help schedule meetings. However, the financial details of the deal have not been disclosed. “Today, we are announcing we have signed an agreement to acquire Xoxco, a software product design and development studio known for its conversational AI and bot development capabilities,” Lili Cheng stated. With this move, Microsoft is continuing to realize our approach of democratizing AI development, conversation and dialog, and integrating conver...

12Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

China’s AI Industry has Embraced Growth

China's AI industry has embraced rapid growth in recent five years. China's large population created advantages in big data, which is the key driver for AI ecology today represented by deep learning. "At the basic scientific level, there is still a gap between China and the United States. While at the application level, China is able to become the world's leading experimenter," Wang said. Beijing-based Sogou, which went public on the New York Stock Exchange in November last year, runs China's most popular input method and the second-largest search engine and Sogou browser. Sogou's language-centered AI technologies have been widely applied in providing daily and simultaneous interpretation services in various scenarios. Sogou launched the world's first virtual anchor technology on t...

Walmart Plans to Launch Intelligent Retail Lab in New York

10Nov By Gauri SinghNo Comments

News

Walmart Plans to Launch Intelligent Retail Lab in New York

The retail giant Walmart has announced its plans to roll out an Intelligent Retail Lab inside one of its stores in Levittown, New York. The basic ideas behind this is to test both associate and customer experiences. With this, the company wants to use artificial intelligence to better identify when items are running low on stock so that it can proactively replenish the stock. This would be led by an internal team called Kepler. Also, the retailer is planning to use the technology to identify spills, better understand when shopping carts are running low near the entrance and identify when items are on the wrong shelf. It has also been stated that Project Kepler would entail cashierlesss stores. However, the company mentioned that Kepler is the name of the team building the AI lab i...

Singapore-based AnyMind Raises $13.4 Million for Expansion

29Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Singapore-based AnyMind Raises $13.4 Million for Expansion

A Singapore-based AI company AnyMind Group has secured funds amounting to $13.4 million in a funding round. This round was led by Line, the Japanese messaging app firm, and Mirai Creation Fund, which is backed by Toyota among others. The company that uses AI in online advertising, HR and marketing is planning to use these funds for its growth in Japan and other Asian markets. Other backers such as JAFCO and Dream Incubator also took part in this round. AnyMind uses AI to offer ad solutions to publishers and advertisers and also to its newer businesses TalentMind (HR) and CastingAsia, influencer marketing. Founded in April 2016 by Kosuke Sogo and Otohiko Kozutsumi the company claims to be profitable since early 2017. It said total revenue for 2017 was $26 million, up from $12.9 millio...

10Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

CHINA

China’s Tencent Partners with a UK Firm to Boost AI in Health Space

China’s Tencent Holdings is tying up with a technology firm from the United Kingdom called Medopad Ltd to use artificial intelligence for the purpose of improving Parkinson's disease treatment. The company is collaborating with Medopad to develop a system to remotely monitor patients with severe movement disorder. The company said that the basic goal is to allow doctors to set drug doses and modify care without patients having to go to the hospital. Healthcare is increasingly "not only about what happens in the clinic, but what happens in the real world", Wei Fan, Tencent's executive director for medical AI research said. "The reason we want to work with Medopad is they're experts in monitoring patients." Founded in 2011, Medopad has received funding from German pharmaceuticals firm B...

AI Firm Machinify Raises $10 Million in Series A Round

9Oct By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

AI Firm Machinify Raises $10 Million in Series A Round

Artificial intelligence company Machinify has reportedly raised funds amounting to $10 million in Series A funding round. The round was led by Battery Ventures with participation from GV and Matrix Partners. Through Machinify, the companies feed the system raw data, specify what they’re trying to optimize for. Based on past decisions, the machine can figure out the right thing to do. “Our core notion is that today, enterprises are collecting a ton of data,” Machinify founder and CEO Prasanna Ganesan stated. “But if you look at how many of them are successful in turning it into smarter decision-making to drive efficiency, very few companies are succeeding.” Machinify is laser-focused on the critical operational issues created by the deployment of what we often call Software 2.0 within ...

Uber to Invest $154 million to Boost Canadian Operations

15Sep By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

Uber to Invest $154 million to Boost Canadian Operations

Global cab aggregator Uber has announced that it would invest up to $154 million (Can$200 million) over five years for the purpose of expanding its Toronto lab which is concerned with developing artificial intelligence for self-driving cars. Along with this, the company is planning to open a new engineering office in Canada's largest metropolis in early 2019. Uber's new engineering hub will join the company's efforts to launch the new features for its app. Also, they would expand into other modes of transportation such as electric bikes and scooters, as well as partnerships with public transit. In the 15 months since the Uber lab led by University of Toronto professor and machine learning expert Raquel Urtasun opened, it has delivered "significant technical breakthroughs towards m...

6Aug By Gauri SinghNo Comments

FUNDING

Pre-School App OckyPocky Raised Angel Funding from ah! Ventures

India’s personalized app for pre-school students called OckyPocky has reportedly secured funds the amount of which has not been disclosed yet. The particular round of angel funding was led by Mumbai-based ah! Ventures which is a start-up focused growth catalyst. The funds raised by the kid-tech startup will be utilized for the expansion of the company’s user base to the pre-school market in Tier 2 and Tier 3 centres. Also, it aims to tap the kids in the NRI market with cultural connect to India through a Hindi learning curriculum. Apart from this, the company is also planning to boost up its operations and enhance the technology. Founded in2015 by Amit Agrawal, the former YouTube India Head and IIM Bangalore alumnus, OckyPocky is an app that works on tech-for-good and offers English ...

30Jul By NitishNo Comments

FUNDING

AI Startup Antworks Raises $15 Million Funding

Singapore based AI platform AntWorks raises USD 15 million (about Rs 103 crore) from SBI Investment Co Ltd, a subsidiary of Japan's SBI Holdings, Inc. The funding will use in enterprise RPA (Robotic process automation), fuel R&D and foray into newer markets. Antworks has delivery centers and offices in Singapore, Australia, India, the Philippines, Qatar, Sri Lanka, the United Kingdom, and the United States. Co-founded by Asheesh Mehra and Govind Sandhu in 2015, Antworks have more than 450 customers globally. In October 2015, the company purchased Benchmark Systems, a company based in the United States. At the time, AntWorks primary delivery system was in Pune, India. Its first year, the company had $11 million in revenue. The funding will help AntWorks and SBI Holdings t...

Microsoft Launches New AI Capabilities For Microsoft 365

13Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

Tech

Microsoft Launches New AI Capabilities For Microsoft 365

The global technology firm Microsoft has launched fresh artificial intelligence (AI) powered capabilities in its Microsoft 365. This new feature will enable the people in an organization to make live and on-demand events. With the introduction of this new feature, events can now be seen in real-time or on-demand, with high-definition video and interactive discussion. "Today, we are introducing new ways Microsoft 365 connects people across their organization and improves collaboration habits, including new AI-infused capabilities," said Ron Markezich, Corporate Vice President, Microsoft. Microsoft 365 was inaugurated a year back and its usage has increased by more than 100 percent, building on over 135 million commercial monthly Office 365 users, 200 million Windows 10 commercial devic...

PayPal To Employ 600 Techies In AI and ML Domain Soon

2Jul By Gauri SinghNo Comments

BUSINESS

PayPal To Employ 600 Techies In AI and ML Domain Soon

The American online payment company Paypal is considering India as a market for increasing growth and therefore, is planning to appoint over 600 techies by the end of this year that is by December, in the machine learning (ML) and artificial intelligence (AI) sector. Paypal is one of the largest online payment services till date that supports online money transfers and serves as an electronic alternative to traditional paper methods like cheques and money orders. "We plan to increase the headcount by 600 in 2018. Some of the job roles that PayPal intends to hire for include application developers- Java, Node JS; back-end developers- data engineers, data experts and product managers," Guru Bhat, GM Technology & Head of Engineering, PayPal said. "For PayPal, the India centres are key...