Amazon introduces $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund

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April 22, 2022

Amazon $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund

Global technology giant Amazon announces the launch of its new $1 billion Industrial Innovation Fund initiative.

Amazon will invest the announced funds in logistics and robotics startups to improve supply chain, fulfillment, and logistics innovation in the industry.

Over the last decade, the global eCommerce industry has witnessed a massive surge in demand, for which some of the credit goes to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Therefore, this new development is a step for Amazon toward bringing in innovative methods to improve the consumer and employee experience.

According to Amazon, the funds will be invested in companies that envision solutions that progressively boost delivery speed while also improving the experience of warehouse and logistics workers.

Startups using wearable technologies to enhance fulfillment center safety and robotics technologies are among the first companies to receive money from the Amazon Industrial Innovation Fund.

Vice President of Worldwide Corporate Development at Amazon, Alex Ceballos Encarnacion, said, “We see an opportunity to look beyond our own experience and empower companies that are developing emerging technologies in customer fulfillment operations, logistics, and the supply chain.”

He further added that they are delighted to help progress these technologies as online shopping becomes even more vital to individuals who are looking for more convenience and time savings, whether their investment helps companies expand or leads them to partner with Amazon, or both.

Amazon’s first batch of investments was made in companies like Modjoul, Vimaan, Agility Robotics, Bionic Hive, and Mantis Robotics. The company stated that it has no defined investment size goals or a deadline for deploying the $1 billion promised to the fund.

“With our scale, Amazon is committed to investing in companies that will ignite innovation in emerging technologies that can help improve employee experiences and safety while seamlessly coexisting with workforces across the supply chain, logistics, and other industries,” added Ceballos.

Apple to launch AI-powered Message Scanning feature for Child Safety in UK

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 22, 2022

Apple announces that it plans to launch a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered scanning feature in the UK to detect abusive content for child safety.

The feature can automatically recognize and blurs sexually explicit photographs sent to young users via Apple’s Messages app.

I mage Source

Apple said that the feature uses on-device artificial intelligence to ensure privacy, with all interventions processed on-device without contacting Apple or anyone else. Apple had introduced the same feature in the United States last year.

The “communication safety in Messages” feature allows parents to enable alerts for their children’s iPhones. If a child receives a photo with the setting switched on that contains nudity, the photo will be blurred, and the child will be cautioned that it may contain sensitive content and directed to resources from child safety organizations.

In contrast, when a child tries to send such content, the feature encourages the user not to send the images with an additional option of messaging a grown-up. However, it has been mentioned by Apple that it would not send alerts to parents without the child’s consent. Multiple Apple devices running on iOS, iPadOS, WatchOS, and macOS will support this AI feature.

Apple, in a statement, said, “Messages analyzes image attachments and determines if a photo contains nudity while maintaining the end-to-end encryption of the messages.” The statement further mentioned that the technology is designed to ensure that no evidence of nudity detection ever leaves the device and that Apple does not have access to the messages.

The feature will soon be rolled out via a software update.

Absci opens new Research lab in New York City

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 21, 2022

Artificial intelligence-powered drug & target discovery company Absci announces the opening of its new research lab located on the 43rd floor of Carnegie Hall Tower in New York City, United States.

The launch of the research center is a part of the company’s efforts to expand its drug discovery capabilities. This new development comes after the company announced its collaboration with NVIDIA and its breakthroughs for in silico antibody lead optimization.

As a hub for Absci’s AI research, the AAIR Lab will build on these recent achievements and continue to expand the nature and scope of therapeutic protein design.

According to the company, its AAIR Lab will help expand Absci’s Denovium Engine AI platform and implement its machine learning pipeline for predicting therapeutic protein sequences and cell line designs to optimize medication candidates for desired properties.

Co-founder and CEO of Absci, Sean McClain, said, “Absci’s expansion into one of the geographic hearts of AI research marks an exciting milestone for our team and brings us closer to our vision for de novo drug and cell line design entirely in silico.”

Sean further added that they are excited to tap into the region’s strong talent pool as they use game-changing technology to provide better pharmaceuticals to patients faster, all while collaborating in a gorgeous setting just steps from Central Park.

United States-based drug research company Absci was founded by Seam McClain in 2011. The organization is best known for developing the Integrated Drug Creation Platform, which uses a single efficient procedure to find novel drug targets, uncover ideal biotherapeutic candidates, and establish cell lines to manufacture them.

“I’m thrilled to be building out our New York-based AI group, which will join our existing multinational team of world-class AI experts as we make strides to accelerate drug discovery with the speed and scale of computation,” said Joshua Meier, Lead AI Scientist at Absci.

StoryFile launches AI-powered ALS Educational Platform for Public

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 21, 2022

Technology company StoryFile announces the launch of the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI)-powered educational platform dedicated to supporting patients suffering from Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).

Using crowd-sourced stories, ‘how-to’ information sharing, and more, the AI platform will provide ALS patients with access to life-improving tools.

StoryFile will cover topics that are critical to independent living but are often nuanced and confusing, like how to use chair lifts, toilet risers, feeding tubes, assisted talking technology, as well as real-life knowledge about how the disease progresses, loss of mobility, body changes, and maintaining intimacy and family connections with rapid physical deterioration.

“The purpose of this resource is to make access to trusted information – and real-world tips and advice – more quickly available to those with ALS so they can spend the precious time they have on what is most important: family,” said Eric Weinbrenner, founder of grassroots ALS nonprofit Paint For A Cure.

Over 200 questions on Weinbrenner’s shifting experiences with ALS were addressed by Weinbrenner and his carers in phase one of the resource, along with more than 3 hours of interactive interviews with Dr. Todd Levine, an ALS expert, and neurologist based in Scottsdale.

The collaboration of StoryFile and Paint for a Cure will also allow them to make story-sharing technology available to ALS families so they may share their stories with their own families and the broader ALS community. This vision of both entities will be made possible using video storytelling technology.

United States-based proprietary storytelling solution providing company StoryFile was founded by Ceci Chan, Heather Smith, Sam Gustman, and Stephen Smith in 2017. The startup specializes in offering a user-led voice-activated technology-powered platform that provides an intimate and natural conversational video interactive experience to users.

“People living with ALS can quickly ask questions and receive trusted answers from Eric and others in a way that feels personal, as opposed to navigating multiple websites and internet searches to try and find out the answers they’re looking for,” said Chief Creative Officer at StoryFile, Ari Palitz.

Amazon releases 51-language dataset for language understanding

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 21, 2022

Amazon releases dataset language understanding

Amazon released an open-source speech dataset called MASSIVE that supports 51 languages, encouraging developers to create more third-party Alexa apps and services.

This is a step for Amazon towards the company’s goal of making voice assistant Alexa available to diverse people in their local languages. Currently, Alexa supports languages like English, Hindi, Spanish, German, Portuguese, French, Japanese, and Arabic.

Developers will now be able to create multilingual natural-language understanding (MMNLU), a paradigm in which a single machine learning model can parse and understand inputs from many typologically diverse languages.

The MASSIVE dataset enables models to learn shared representations of utterances with the same intents regardless of language, allowing for cross-linguistic training on NLU tasks.

According to Amazon, the model can transfer knowledge from languages with vast amounts of training data to those with limited training data by learning a shared data representation that crosses languages.

Along with MASSIVE, Amazon is also releasing open-source code that shows how to do multilingual NLU modeling and allows practitioners to re-create the baseline results for intent classification and slot filling reported in the company’s research.

Vice President of Alexa AI, Natural Understanding at Amazon, Prem Natarajan, said, “We are very excited to share this large multilingual dataset with the worldwide language research community,”

He further added that they anticipate that by sharing this dataset, researchers from all over the world will be able to make new advancements in multilingual language understanding, hence expanding the availability and reach of conversational AI systems.

Additionally, Amazon is also launching a new competition using the MASSIVE dataset called Massively Multilingual NLU 2022 (MMNLU-22). The Massively Multilingual NLU 2022 workshop will be held in conjunction with EMNLP 2022 on December 7 or 8, offline and online, in Abu Dhabi.

Microsoft launches Microsoft AI Innovate and CodeTitans Hackathon for Indian Startups

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 21, 2022

Microsoft AI Innovate CodeTitans Hackathon Indian startups

Global technology giant Microsoft announces the launch of its two new initiatives named Microsoft AI Innovate and Code Titan Hackathons for Indian startups.

SaaS firms whose main apps or services are built utilizing artificial intelligence technologies are encouraged to apply for Microsoft AI Innovate’s second season.

In contrast, the CodeTitans hackathon for startups invites teams to turn their ideas into prototypes that are built on Microsoft Azure.

Microsoft AI Innovate, which is supported by SaaSInsider, aims to assist startups in growing their businesses, driving innovation, and gaining industry knowledge.

Director of Startup Ecosystem at Microsoft India, Sangeeta Bavi, said, “The disruptive vision of startups is catalyzing our country’s innovation engine, and we are excited to partner with every startup on this journey. With a deepened focus on core AI startups in the second season of Microsoft AI Innovate, we are bringing the best of Microsoft’s AI capabilities in creating the magic with the power of data and AI.”

She further added that the hackathon gives some of the most innovative ideas a chance to come to life on Microsoft Azure’s trusted platform, and they believe that these projects will help entrepreneurs create safely and scale quicker within the Microsoft ecosystem.

Interested candidates can apply for the program from the official website of Microsoft. The last date for submitting applications is on 6th May 2022.

Moreover, Microsoft is also partnering with OpenAI, a global leader in AI research and deployment, to provide startups with exclusive perks and discounts.

Recently, Microsoft also announced that its Startup Founders Hub is now available to all, which earlier had eligibility criteria for founders. Microsoft for Startups Founders Hub is a one-of-a-kind platform that brings together the technology, mentoring, and support that startups require to get up and run.

Gupshup acquires Conversational AI provider AskSid

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 21, 2022

Conversational messaging platform providing company Gupshup acquires AskSid, a conversational AI provider to top eCommerce and retail companies worldwide.

This new acquisition will allow Gupshup to further strengthen its capabilities to provide a better customer experience using AskSid’s full-stack AI solution, including the Retail AI brain.

The highly capable artificial intelligence-powered solution of AskSid helps make the entire shopping journey – across pre-purchase, purchase, and post-purchase phases – fully conversational.

“Conversational commerce is about to transform shopping, both online and offline. Gupshup is building the most comprehensive conversational commerce solution, and AskSid’s deep-domain AI offering will help us bring even more advanced capabilities to eCommerce and retail businesses worldwide,” said the Co-founder and CEO of Gupshup Beerud Sheth.

He further added that the AskSid team is welcomed aboard, and they look forward to working with big companies throughout the world to enable next-generation shopping experiences.

Earlier his month, Gupshup also acquired Active.ai, a leading conversational AI provider for banks and Fintech companies. Gupshup said that the acquisition of Active.ai was a step towards the company’s aim of offering unmatched customer experience to its clients, especially those working in the BFSI industry.

Bengaluru-based conversational AI provider AskSid was founded by Sanjoy Roy and Dinesh Sharma. The startup specializes in providing impactful shopping experiences to customers through artificial intelligence-powered conversations.

AskSid has an enormous customer base in more than 25 countries globally, and its platform supports over 100 languages. Many industry-leading companies like AkzoNobel, Danone, Wolford, Akris, and Himalaya Wellness use AskSid’s conversational AI to meet their needs.

“We are very happy to join forces with Gupshup and look forward to helping more brands personalize their shopping experiences at scale,” said Co-founder and CTO of AskSid, Dinesh Sharma.

Motorola Solutions Acquires Video AI Startup Calipsa

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 20, 2022

Communication solutions and services providing company Motorola Solutions announces that it has acquired artificial intelligence-powered video monitoring platform Calipsa.

This acquisition will allow Motorola Solutions to leverage Calipsa’s expertise to further improve its products, such as end-to-end security solutions, camera technology, and features like alcohol age verification.

Additionally, Motorola Solutions will now also be able to analyze massive volumes of data using AI in the cloud, thanks to Calipsa’s technology.

Both the companies did not provide any information regarding the valuation of this acquisition deal.

Motorola Solutions focuses on providing public safety and enterprise security products and services, and it has expanded its video operations in recent years through a series of acquisitions.

Chairman and CEO of Motorola Solutions, Greg Brown, said, “We believe AI, spanning from the edge to the cloud, is driving the future of video security.”

He further added that they could quickly extend their intelligent analytics across any video security solution with Calipsa, helping to support the growing trend of businesses utilizing cloud technology to improve safety and security.

London-based leading cloud-native advanced video analytics company Calipsa was founded by Boris Ploix and Mohammad Rashid in 2016. The firm specializes in providing a scalable platform that allows businesses to improve security by using AI-powered analytics to verify alarms, enable content-based searches, detect tampering, and analyze the health of cameras in real-time.

Software and Mobile Video CTO of Motorola Solutions, Mahesh Saptharishi, said that Calipsa uses machine-learning algorithms to scan video and only notify a user when an incident happens. To date, the company has raised $1.5 million from investors like LocalGlobe, Future Energy Ventures, and others over three funding rounds.

“Joining the Motorola Solutions team enables us to accelerate the development and broaden the reach of our innovative technologies that transform video from a retroactive investigative tool into a proactive response tool,” said the Co-founder and CEO of Calipsa, Mohammad Rashid.

South Korea telecom firm KT to launch AI Kiosks for Customer Service

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 20, 2022

South Korea’s one of the largest telecommunication companies, KT, announces its plans to launch new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered kiosks for providing better customer service to users.

KT has partnered with Deep Brain AI, a firm that specializes in visual artificial intelligence technology, to develop and launch the AI kiosks. According to the company, Deep Brain AI and KT signed a memorandum of understanding last week to materialize this partnership.

The company plans to name the service “Giga Gini AI Human.” KT’s new AI kiosk will be different from the others available in the market as it would be able to talk to customers in real-time instead of just providing preset offerings, making it a highly capable solution.

“In addition, the AI [entity] will be able to provide 24-hour non-face-to-face services through other platforms like robots, home appliances, mobile apps, and cars. We are cooperating with universities and research institutes to keep developing a mega-scale AI that has conversational skills as natural as that of a human being,” said a KT spokesperson to UPI News.

However, sources say that the new AI tool has not yet passed the Turing test, which is crucial for its launch.

The Turing Test is a method of artificial intelligence research that determines if a computer can think and communicate like a human being. During the test, one of the persons serves as the questioner, and the other two humans and the computer serve as the replies. Then the responses are analyzed to determine whether the AI model can mimic human behavior.

“Some question the viability of the Turing test and the value of pursuing it. But the test is a kind of holy grail for many AI researchers. Many companies want to pass the Turing test for the first time in the world without any doubts,” said the CEO of South Korean business tracker Leaders Index, Park Ju-gun.

GM files Patents for Autonomous Vehicles designed to Train new Drivers

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Dipayan Mitra

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April 20, 2022

Global automobile manufacturing giant General Motors (GM) files patents with the United States Patents and Trade Mark Filing for a new design of autonomous vehicle driving system that can be used to train new drivers.

The one-of-a-king technology does not require a human instructor to train new drivers. It uses multiple sensors for the car’s autonomous functions with monitoring how the driver-in-training operates controls like the accelerator, brake, and steering to evaluate and train drivers.

According to the patent, the system is integrated with an onboard CPU with a driving algorithm that determines a score by comparing the trainee’s manual inputs with approved driving directions.

The score calculated by GM’s self-driving driver-training feature is comparable to a score given by a human instructor. Once the score is determined, the system automatically allows the driver to access specific controls based on their marks.

It is yet unclear whether this solution will be available on personal automobiles, the patent suggests it may be utilized as a part of a fleet for driver instruction. Moreover, the patent also emphasizes the potential benefits of using autonomy rather than human instructors to teach novice drivers.

The technology might be able to minimize the chances of any human bias while making decisions related to the capabilities of a driver.

However, GM has provided no information regarding its plans to make this technology available to the public.

Recently, GM and Honda also announced that they plan to develop new affordable electric vehicles (EVs) to enter a new market. The partnership entails producing an EV for the North American, South America, and Chinese markets at a lower cost than Chevrolet’s planned Equinox EV.