Machine learning specialization by Andrew Ng now available on Coursera

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June 17, 2022

new Machine learning specialization by Andrew Ng on Coursera

The new Machine Learning Specialization by the co-founder of Coursera and Google Brain Andrew Ng is now available on Coursera. The course is offered by DeepLearning.Al and Stanford Online.

In three beginner-friendly courses, the Specialization will focus on the fundamentals of machine learning and provide practical experience in building and training models using Python.

Unlike the previous editions of the course, which required more math knowledge, this new Machine Learning Specialization is designed to be more accessible for first-time learners.

The new Machine Learning Specialization course covers core artificial intelligence principles through an intuitive visual method. The updated curriculum involves all the essential and relevant topics related to machine learning.

The course has multiple subjects like deep learning, neural networks, deep neural networks, and many other related topics.

Stanford and DeepLearning.ai are jointly offering the course to impart critical knowledge and skills related to machine learning to learners. The course aims to help learners build careers in the rapidly growing artificial intelligence industry.

Click here to enroll.

Snowflake to bring Python to its Data Cloud platform

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Sahil Pawar

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June 17, 2022

Snowflake, a cloud computing-based data warehousing company, has announced its plans to bring the computer programming language Python to the forefront of its Data Cloud platform. The platform will be upgraded to extend support for the programming language.

At Snowflake Summit, an annual user conference, the database company announced the expansion of its developer framework, Snowpark. This expansion will give users easy access to many open-source Python packages and libraries.

Snowflake introduced Snowpark in January 2021 and pushed the service to general availability earlier this year. The objective of Snowpark was to provide developers with a simple and efficient way to program data in their language of choice.

Snowflake also announced a series of related upgrades currently under development to supplement the rollout of Snowpark for Python. These include native integration with Streamlit and other facilities designed to facilitate developing and deploying machine learning products written in Python.

Moreover, the firm also announced a private preview for a new service that allows customers to access stored data in on-premise servers from within the Snowflake ecosystem. This will enable organizations to benefit from a cloud-based platform free from the hassle of data migration.

Christian Kleinerman, senior vice-president of product at Snowflake said that the company is investing in Python to make it easier for data scientists, engineers, and application developers to build even more in the Data Cloud without governance trade-offs.

He added that the company’s latest innovations are extending the value of their customers’ data-driven ecosystems, enabling them more access to data and new ways to develop in Snowflake. He added that these capabilities change how teams experiment, iterate, and collaborate with data to drive value.

Bhavishya: The AI-supported Pension Portal to Ease Pension Release

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Disha Chopra

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June 17, 2022

The Department of Pension and Pensioners’ Welfare will soon entail Bhavishya in order to seamlessly track, process, contact, and disburse pensions for older people. Bhavishya is an AI-supported portal that will send automatic alerts to citizens.

The portal will provide a continuous contact service for pensioners across the country. It will also enable the users to give their input and post grievances. Bhavishya’s launch was mandated back in January 2017 for all central government departments. It will now be available in several ministries and departments.

The goal is to ensure payments for all retirement dues and pension payment orders (PPOs) to retiring staff on the day of retirement. To get closer to this goal, the system will provide online tracking of pension sanctions and payment processes. Given the services, people can also submit the forms for processing pensions on the portal.

Other features offered by the AI-pension portal: Bhavishya also provides integration with Digilocker, being the first to use the PUSH technology of the latter. It is fully Web Responsive, and pensioners can access it via mobiles, tablets, or other devices. Document security offered by the portal is also enhanced to ensure that Bhavishya stores all the documents in the database, not a file system.

Dr. Jitendra Singh, a beneficiary of Bhavishya, claims the portal is in line with PM Narendra Modi’s motto of “Ease of Living” for all. He insisted pension reforms are not only for governance but also for positive societal responses. He also ensured the AI-driven platform would be end-to-end encrypted. The encryption would follow government transparency, service delivery, and digitization guidelines.

UAE to deploy AI to improve Weather Forecasts

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 17, 2022

The National Center of Meteorology (NCM) of UAE announces its plans to deploy artificial intelligence (AI) solutions to improve weather forecasts.

NCM has begun working on its newest project to increase rainfall, employing artificial intelligence (AI) to enhance rainfall forecasts. The project’s primary goal is to construct an AI research and operations testbed in the UAE.

The program will be led by Dr. Luca Delle Monache, deputy director of the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E).

To find the best cloud seeding timings and locations, an AI framework will be built that will leverage satellite observations, ground-based weather radar data, rain gauges, and numerical weather forecast estimations.

The director of NCM and president of the Regional Association II (Asia) of the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), Dr. Abdulla Al Mandous, said, “Through strengthening partnerships with top international research institutions and key stakeholders in rain enhancement research, the Center is scaling up its response to the growing water stress challenges worldwide.”

He further added that such initiatives would aid them in developing creative solutions and contributing new information for the benefit of individuals in water-scarce and dry places that require freshwater resources.

The team will assist operational rainfall enhancement programs using AI algorithms to generate significantly improved weather forecasts by leveraging ground-based and spaceborne data sets and operational numerical weather prediction products used in cloud seeding operations.

“An advanced deep learning algorithm will be designed to learn from thousands of examples drawn from historical data and effectively extract and extrapolate inputs and the required cloud features needed to predict new cloud formations that could be seeded,” mentioned lead researcher Dr. Luca Delle Monache.

Paige to deploy AI-based Biomarker Test for Advanced Bladder Cancer

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 17, 2022

Digital diagnostics company Paige announces its plans to deploy a one-of-a-kind artificial intelligence (AI)-powered biomarker test for advanced bladder cancer in clinical settings.

Paige is collaborating with Janssen Research & Development to carry out this project. Janssen Research & Development will assess the ability of a hematoxylin and eosin (H&E)-based, AI-powered biomarker test to predict the presence of specific, actionable alterations in the fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) genes in patients with advanced urothelial cancer.

The tests will be conducted on patients with advanced urothelial cancer, also known as bladder cancer. The test is the world’s most unique test in terms of predicting the presence of actionable genetic changes. Paige’s Platform is now being used in clinical trials by Janssen to screen for FGFR gene changes in adult patients with advanced urothelial carcinoma.

President and Chief Business Officer at Paige, Jill Stefanelli, said, “We are excited to mark a new chapter in deploying Janssen’s AI technology in a clinical setting to efficiently detect biomarkers, in this case, some rare gene mutations and fusions.”

Jill further added that they will make its capabilities broadly accessible in support of the clinical development of targeted and other kinds of therapeutic medications, along with patient identification for future biomarker and drug development initiatives, now that their Paige Platform has been deployed globally.

United States-based leading digital diagnostics company Paige was founded by David Klimstra, Norman Selby, Peter Schüffler, and Thomas Fuchs in 2018. Paige specializes in building computational pathology tools that help patients and their care teams make better-educated treatment decisions. The company’s light platform was designed with pathologists in mind to provide a simple user experience, reduce IT strain and expenses, and ensure patient safety and data protection.

Datatonic wins the Google Cloud Specialisation Partner of the Year Award

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 17, 2022

Datatonic wins Google Cloud Specialisation Partner

Datatonic, a Data + AI consulting firm on Google Cloud, has announced that it has won the Google Cloud Specialization Partner of the Year 2021 award for Machine Learning.

The data consultancy was awarded for its achievements in the Google Cloud ecosystem. It has been helping the joint customers enhance their Machine Learning (ML) functions with Machine Learning Operations (MLOps) and impact their business with transformational ML solutions.

Datatonic is a London-based data consultancy that assists companies in making better business-related decisions with the help of Modern Data Stack and MLOps. The services provided by the consultancy enable clients to deepen their understanding of consumers, unlock operational efficiencies, and increase competitive advantages. Datatonic builds cloud-native data foundations, employing high-impact analytics and machine learning use cases.

In the past years, Datatonic has built high-performing MLOps platforms for international clients across the media, telecommunications, and e-Commerce sectors by enabling them to leverage MLOps best practices throughout their teams.

The recently open-sourced MLOps Turbo Templates showcase Datatonic’s expertise in implementing MLOps solutions and Google Cloud’s technical excellence to help teams get started with MLOps. It was co-developed with Google Cloud’s Vertex AI Pipelines product team.

According to Nina Harding, Global Chief of Partner Programs and Strategy, Google Cloud, Google Cloud Specializations recognize partner excellence and proven customer satisfaction in a particular product industry or area. She added that based on their certified strong technical capabilities and customer success, Datatonic had been recognized as Specialization Partner of the Year for Machine Learning.

UK Govt launches Future of UK Defense Artificial Intelligence

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 17, 2022

The government of the United Kingdom announced a plan for the future of UK artificial intelligence defense technology. The new strategy was unveiled during the recently held London Tech Week AI Summit.

According to officials, a new Defense AI Center (DAIC) will be established to promote, empower, and innovate AI technologies throughout the UK Armed Forces with speed and ambition, based on the strategy and associated policy on ‘Ambitious, Safe, and Responsible’ AI usage.

The Defense AI Strategy outlines how the United Kingdom will prioritize research, development, and experimentation to transform the country’s Armed Forces capabilities through innovative concepts and cutting-edge technology. This new development will help the UK in delivering the most up-to-date equipment to the battlefield via effective, efficient, and dedicated routes.

Defense Procurement Minister, Jeremy Quin, said, “Future conflicts may be won or lost on the speed and efficacy of AI technology, and our approach to AI must be rapid, ambitious, and comprehensive.”

Quin further added that their new Defense AI Center (DAIC) and AI strategy would provide a dedicated center to advocate these technologies, working ethically with human judgments to keep the UK at the forefront of global security and responsible innovation. Soldiers on the front lines directed by smart systems relying on hours of detailed footage taken by a series of tiny drones are a few examples of the ideas that the government has.

Moreover, the government also released a policy on the “Ambitious, Safe, and Responsible” use of AI, which was developed in collaboration with the Center for Data Ethics and Innovation (CDEI) and included new efforts for AI in defense.

Head of Dstl’s Cyber and Information Systems Division, Dr. Paul Kealey, said, “AI has the potential to provide significant benefits across Defence from the back-office to the Front Line, and I’m delighted we are working with Kainos – a brand new supplier who will bring specialist expertise and experience as a leader in the civil world into defense.”

DALL-E Mini, an open alternative to DALL-E, goes viral

By

Disha Chopra

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June 16, 2022

Boris Dayma designed an open alternative to DALL-E by the name of DALL-E Mini. As the name suggests, it is a “mini” version of the former. The DALL-E Mini is an image generator that employs artificial intelligence to generate a series of images depending on user-entered prompts. It can visualize most weird notions or events in a photo grid format.

Lmao I can’t believe how accurate this thing is#dallemini pic.twitter.com/YxQm92HYF9
— Bryan (@twerkforseitan) June 9, 2022

According to programmers and researchers, large language-based datasets can train a vast neural network to perform diverse text production tasks and generate high-resolution images. In January 2021, OpenAI developed DALL-E, a multimodal generative neural network to create images from text.

DALL-E uses the trained GPT-3 parameter version to create images using text-image pairs. It is the world’s first creative artificial intelligence model that can generate visuals from the text. In other words, it blends natural language understanding with the generation of realistic pictures.

I'm dying #dallemini #Godzilla pic.twitter.com/aggte4NH49
— T_Zanc (@tylerzanca) June 9, 2022

Following its success and mettle, OpenAI released DALL-E 2, an updated version in April 2022. This version incorporated higher resolution and lower latency. However, DALL-E is not open to the public. Thus, the DALL-E Mini is based on the same concept devised by OpenAI but is free and open to the public. Unfortunately, there is not much that DALL-E mini offers against DALL-E.

For everyone who asked for it, here's a Lisa Frank Xenomorph. #dallemini #dalle pic.twitter.com/ahBLsadcyI
— 💛🤍💜🖤 RED 💚🤍🖤 (@prettypinkpansy) June 8, 2022

Both DALL-E and DALL-E Mini share the same architecture. It is only during the training that the mini version enters a much larger dataset. DALL-E 2 works on a 3.5 billion parameter model and another 1.5 billion parameters to improve the resolution of produced images.

Boris Dayma, the creator of DALL-E Mini, said, “The model is trained by looking at millions of images from the internet with their associated captions. Over time, it learns how to draw an image from a text prompt. Some of the concepts are learned from memory as it may have seen similar images. However, it can also learn how to create unique images that don’t exist such as “the Eiffel tower is landing on the moon” by combining multiple concepts together.”

NXP announces MCX general-purpose Arm Cortex-M MCU family with 30x faster ML performance

By

Sahil Pawar

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June 16, 2022

NXP announces MCX general-purpose Arm Cortex-M MCU

NXP has announced the launch of its new MCX general-purpose Arm Cortex-M MCU family, designed specifically for advanced industrial and IoT edge computing. The NXP neural processing unit (NPU) can deliver over 30 times higher machine learning (ML) performance than running the AI inference tasks on an Arm Cortex-M33 core.

The new MCX portfolio is built upon the previous NXP LPC and Kinetis microcontroller families and thus does not replace them. The portfolio aims to enhance performance and security for numerous applications, including machine learning, voice, wireless, analog, motor control, and more.

The new MCX general-purpose Arm Cortex-M MCU family will be available in four series:

MCX N Advanced series is designed for secure and ingenious applications. With a frequency of 150 MHz to 250 MHz, it has DSP, a Neural processing unit (NPU) for real-time inference, and an EdgeLock Secure Subsystem.

MCX A Essential series is optimized to deliver critical functionality for applications like motor control with a frequency of 48 MHz to 96 MHz. Besides being optimized for cost-constrained applications, it has built-in timers, a single-pin power supply, and a low pin count.

MCX W Wireless series has an MCU with low-power narrow band connectivity, Bluetooth Low Energy, and a frequency of 32 to 150 MHz. It possesses on-chip integration to reduce BOM costs.

MCX L Ultra-Low Power series is designed for power-critical applications. It has a frequency of 50 to 100 MHz with an optional 50% boost. It possesses the lowest active power and leakage of the MCX family.

The MCX MCU will be supported by the MCUXpresso software and tools similar to the Kinetis and LPC MCUs. The eIQ ML SW development environment will also help it for AI inference on the MCX N Advanced series with an NPU and other MCX microcontrollers using the Cortex-M core.

Detailed specifications and documentation are not provided by NXP yet. NXP will showcase the MCX W series next week at the Embedded World 2022.

The company has emphasized that the MCX portfolio is not replacing Kinetis and LPC portfolios. MCX is a new NXP portfolio that was purpose-built based on NXP’s expertise in microcontrollers. The company added that Kinetis and LPC portfolios have been experiencing high demand and are still industry-relevant devices.

H2O.ai Expands Snowflake Partnership enabling AI Transformations for Customers

By

Dipayan Mitra

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June 16, 2022

Open-source machine learning platform H2O.ai expands its partnership with Snowflake to enable artificial intelligence (AI) transformation for its customers.

By seamlessly connecting data and machine learning, the company demonstrated a unique set of capabilities and use cases that enable rich insights.

According to the company, Snowflake and H2O.ai have developed a native integration that allows users to access all of H2O.ai’s advanced machine learning capabilities directly from their Snowflake environment.

This integration helps innumerable customers across the globe to innovate with AI. Users can employ H2O.ai machine learning capabilities for near real-time analysis from within the Snowflake Data Cloud, thanks to several pre-built interfaces.

Head of Technology Alliances at Snowflake, Tarik Dwiek, said, “Our partnership with H2O.ai can help optimize the supply chain across multiple industries including manufacturing, telecom, banking, and retail.”

He further added that users could decrease risks, enhance customer experiences, drive growth, and increase efficiency by using H2O AutoML to produce, operate, and innovate for their customers and partners.

The United States-based artificial intelligence company H2O.ai was founded by Cliff Click and Sri Satish Ambati in 2012. The company specializes in providing solutions to solve complex business problems and accelerate the discovery of new ideas. To date, H2O.ai has raised over $251 million over eight funding rounds from investors like Commonwealth Bank of Australia, Goldman Sachs, Celesta Capital, Crane Ventures Partner, and others.

Sri Ambati said, “H2O AI Cloud is democratizing AI on Snowflake’s Data Cloud, helping our customers personalize their offerings and bring efficient flows into their business.” Ambati also mentioned that the strong multi-cloud integration of H2O AI engines and AI App Stores promotes consumption on Snowflake Data Cloud, lowering costs for customers.

A few months earlier, H2O.ai also announced the launch of its new deep learning training engine named H2O Hydrogen Torch. The unique training engine allows companies of all sizes in any industry to make impeccable images, videos, and natural language processing (NLP) models.