Baidu Announces Mass Production of Kunlun II AI Chip at its Annual Event

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August 23, 2021

Baidu Kunlun II, Baidu Brain 7.0, AI chips — Image Source: Baidu

Baidu Inc. is a prominent artificial intelligence inventor and one of the largest suppliers of Chinese language Internet services in the world. Together with Alibaba and Tencent, the business has helped China establish itself on the global digital map while simultaneously growing its economy.

Last Wednesday, Baidu announced that it has started mass-producing second-generation Kunlun (Kunlun II) artificial intelligence (AI) chips, as it competes to become a major player in the semiconductor sector.

The Baidu Kunlun II uses a unique architecture XPU in its 2nd Generation, allowing it to achieve up to three times the performance of its predecessor. This implies it will be able to triple the throughput of the Kunlun 1. The first generation 14 nm Kunlun K200 Chipset, introduced three years ago and designed for the cloud, edge, and autonomous car applications, delivers about 256 INT8 TOPS performance, 64 TOPS INT/FP16 performance, and 16 INT/FP32 TOPS performance at 150 Watts. It entered mass production in early 2020.

If the claims are to be believed, the new Kunlun II will offer 512 to 768 INT8 TOPS, 128 – 192 INT/FP16 TOPS, and 32 – 48 INT/FP32 TOPS throughput. Because it supports the same formats as earlier chips, Kunlun II is expected to be used in the same environment as older chips, namely Baidu’s cloud data centers, where it will also be used to run an autonomous vehicle control platform (Apolong) and other tasks. Currently, the Kunlun II chips will enable deep learning frameworks such as Baidu’s open-source deep learning platform, PaddlePaddle. The chip processor is also optimized for AI technologies such as speech, natural language processing, and images.

K'unLun - Twitter Search — Baidu Kunlun II

The announcements were made at Baidu World 2021, Baidu’s flagship annual technology conference which showcases Baidu’s experience in AI technology and industry practice, as well as its attempts to make AI more accessible. During the event, Baidu also unveiled Baidu Brain 7.0. The newly improved Baidu Brain 7.0 provides deeper integration of a diverse set of knowledge sources and deep learning, including language comprehension and reasoning, by leveraging a variety of unified technologies to provide output in language, audio, and visual formats.

According to the company, the previous edition, Baidu Brain 6.0, has developed over 270 core AI capabilities and produced over 310,000 models for developers, making it a significant driver of intelligent transformation in various sectors. Baidu also adds that the Baidu Brain 7.0 is one of the world’s largest AI open platforms.

Coupled with Kunlun II, Baidu Brain 7.0 will usher in a new age of AI applications.

At the annual technology event, Baidu presented a self-driving ‘Robocar’ prototype. The robocar has a boxy design with gullwing doors, a transparent glass roof, and a display in the front to interact visually with its surroundings. To allow its autonomous driving capabilities, the body of Robocar is connected with a set of external sensors. Despite the fact that the concept car demonstrates Baidu’s goals in Level 5 autonomous driving, no word has been given on whether it would be mass-produced.

Baidu had also announced four new pieces of hardware, which includes a smart screen and a TV equipped with Xiaodu, the company’s AI voice assistant.

BeingAI reveals a Virtual Artificial Intelligence robot named Zbee

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 23, 2021

BeingAI reveals a Virtual Artificial Intelligence robot named Zbee

A transmedia artificial intelligence company BeingAI reveals its new artificial intelligence robot named Zbee that can be operated in virtual space. The robot can simultaneously exist across multiple virtual platforms and can interact with various individuals in real-time with human-like conversational skills.

The company had earlier launched a similar robot named Sophia and plans to add four more such robots to its product array in the near future. Zbee is capable of making friendship bonds, offering entertainment and mentorship to people. According to BeingAI, the robot will occasionally ask users for help in certain complex situations.

Founder and CEO of BrainAI, Jeanne Lim, said, “I saw that, with a virtual character, you can really scale the character to millions of people, instead of having a robot talking to hundreds of people in person.”

She also added that, unlike their previous robot, Sophina, Zbee is ‘deviceless,’ which has helped the company to take artificial intelligence virtual characters to a new level.

Hongkong-based BeingAI is the world’s first transmedia artificial intelligence firm founded by Lim in the year 2020. The startup had its pre-seed funding round in February this year but refused to disclose the amount it had raised.

According to Lim, Devid Hanson, the founder of Hanson Robotics, inspired her to develop conscious robots that, if used correctly, can be used to connect with people and gain their trust in artificial intelligence robots.

“We want Zbee to have value and relevance in human society, so Zbee has its own story of friends, jobs, goals, trials, and difficulties,” said Lim.

The company will showcase its new virtual robot Zbee in the upcoming licensing exhibition to be held in Los Angeles. In the event, BeignAI will seek partnership opportunities with other brands, which can use Zbee as an interface for learning courses.

Tenmax Partners with Gojek to provide AI Martech solutions

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 23, 2021

Tenmax Partners with Gojek to provide Artificial Intelligence Martech solutions

Digital marketing solutions developing company Tenmax Adtech Lab partners with Gojek to provide artificial intelligence (AI) powered martech solutions for merchants in Indonesia.

With this partnership, both the companies plan to integrate their platform to develop an all-in-one solution that would enable merchants, brands, and sellers to manage their digital marketing needs through one application.

The integrated platform will use Tenmax’s expertise in artificial intelligence and Gojek’s insights generating capabilities to provide its customers with optimized digital marketing operations in a real-time manner.

The platform can be easily integrated with various social media handles that would provide its clients a one-stop solution for all of their needs. Taiwan-based startup Tenmax Adtech Lab was founded in the year 2014. The company specializes in developing artificial intelligence and data-driven insights solutions like Demand Side Platform (DSP), Data Management Platform (DMP), artificial intelligence-powered real-time bidding algorithms, and Supply Side Platform (SSP).

Managing Director of TenMax, Brain Yang, said that Gojek has helped Tenmax train their real-time bidding algorithm better using insights generated by Gojek. This partnership has enabled the company to push appropriate content to the correct audience in a cost-effective way.

“With satisfactory initial results, we are excited to work with more partners from the ad agencies world, premium content publishers, and the entire Gojek ecosystem, from global FMCG, consumer electronics brands, to regional SMBs, and MSMEs, to make our collaboration as a solution for any company in Indonesia and beyond,” he added.

Gojek is an industry-leading application that provides services like payments, transportation, food delivery, and logistics. The application has received a total funding of $5.3 billion till date.

The Chief Commercial Officer of Gojek, Antonio De Carbonnel, said, “In collaboration with Tenmax.io, we’re further reducing the friction of digital media buying, allowing our merchant partners and global brand clients to optimize their digital marketing initiatives of all sizes.”

Qure.ai gets second Clearance from FDA for Brain CT Scan Artificial Intelligence technology

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 22, 2021

Qure.ai gets second Clearance from FDA for Brain CT Scan Artificial Intelligence technology

Healthcare artificial intelligence company Qure.ai gets its second clearance from the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) of the United States for its brain CT scan artificial intelligence quantification product qER-Quant.

This new technology will help doctors to quickly and accurately diagnose patients’ severity of conditions like hemorrhagic stroke, traumatic brain injury, and hydrocephalus. Doctors now will be able to track their patients’ pathological progression over time.

As CT scan is the standard diagnostic procedure for assessing brain injuries, this artificial intelligence will definitely benefit individual doctors and hospitals to treat their patients in a better and more efficient manner.

Founder and research & development head of Qure.ai. Dr. Pooja Rao said, “This FDA clearance adds quantification, outlining and measurement capabilities to Qure.ai’s first clearance for triage and notification of critical brain abnormalities. We are excited about bringing a complete suite of capabilities to clinicians who deal with critical head CT scans.”

The new artificial intelligence technology of Qure.ai will enable doctors to make informed decisions that will considerably reduce diagnostic errors. Mumbai-based health tech startup Qure.ai was founded by Prashant Warier and Pooja Rao in the year 2016.

The company specializes in developing deep learning and artificial intelligence solutions to aid physicians with diagnosis and routine treatments of patients. The firm has received a total funding of $16 million till date from investors like Sequoia Capital India and MassMutual Ventures Southeast Asia.

CEO of Qure.ai, Prashant Warier, said, “We’ve always built products to solve real customer challenges, and qER Quant is another example of the same. We worked on this capability based on customer feedback from radiologists, neurologists, and ER physicians who expressed the need to get automated volume measurements on neuro scans to assess patient progress as well as safe discharge decisions.”

He further added that this new development would help the company to offer a comprehensive suite of AI tools for doctors.

Czech Technical University wins Amazon Prize Grand Challenge 4

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 21, 2021

Czech Technical University wins Amazon Prize Grand Challenge 4

The Alquist team from the Czech Technical University wins the Amazon Prize SocialBot Grand Challenge that focuses on research towards various fields related to conversational artificial intelligence.

The team was rewarded with a $500,000 cash prize for winning the competition organized by Amazon. A cash prize of $100,000 and $50,000 was given to Stanford University and Buffalo University, respectively, for securing the second and third positions.

The universities had to develop social bots for Amazon’s Alexa. After the development process, each university was granted ownership of its social bots.

The vice president of natural understanding for Alexa AI, Prem Natarajan, said, “The average duration provides a consolidated indicator of how the scientific advances made by the Alexa Prize teams have driven great strides in the coherence and fluency of interactions.”

He further added that the research done by all the participants has considerably improved the current conversational artificial intelligence capabilities. Amazon also provided a support of $250,000 to all the nine participating teams from various universities across the globe for the 2020-2021 academic year.

The Czech University has appeared for the fourth time in this competition and has bagged its first win this year. Earlier, teams from the University of Washington, Emory University, and the University of California Davis had won this competition for conversational artificial intelligence socialbot development.

The winning team achieved an average conversation duration of 14 minutes and 14 seconds that paved the way for the winning spot.

The team leader of Alquist, Jakub Konrad, said, “This approach allows the bot to deliver an engaging conversation and act coherently to the unexpected inputs. Moreover, the generative model considers the external facts about the discussed entities to make the conversation more natural.”

US senators send Letter to Amazon CEO due to Privacy concerns

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 20, 2021

US senators send Letter to Amazon CEO due to Privacy concerns

Three United States senators named Amy Klobuchar, Bill Cassidy, and Jon Ossoff sent an open letter to the Amazon CEO to address the issue of security and privacy concerns related to Amazon’s palm recognition system.

The senators raised concerns regarding how amazon uses the data of its customers for advertisement purposes. Amazon uploads the customer data on its cloud server that raises security concerns.

Amazon’s biometric technology generates a palm signature that it stores on a cloud server. According to the senators, this biometric data is being used by Amazon to track and push customized advertisements to its customers.

The letter mentioned, “Our concerns about user privacy are heightened by evidence that Amazon shared voice data with third-party contractors and allegations that Amazon has violated biometric privacy laws.”

The senators are concerned as they think Amazon can use the users’ data from Amazon One to increase its competitive power and move ahead of its competition across various markets. The letter raised questions regarding the number of users who registered for Amazon One and the businesses that amazon had sold this technology to.

Amazon did not reply to questions related to this development, but they launched a statement that said, “The Amazon One device is protected by multiple security controls, and palm images are never stored on the Amazon One device. Rather, the images are encrypted and sent to a highly secure area we custom-built for Amazon One in the cloud.”

Earlier this year, an Amazon employee also raised concerns regarding sensitive user security data that the company might have been using for business purposes.

The letter also mentioned, “Amazon’s various home device systems have leaked information or been hacked, as highlighted in a recent letter to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) from 48 advocacy organizations.”

Baidu unveils autonomous robocar with L5 autonomy

By

Dipayan Mitra

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August 19, 2021

Baidu unveils autonomous robocar - L5 driving functionality

Chinese autonomous vehicle manufacturing company Baidu unveils new autonomous robocar-L5 driving autonomy in its recently held annual flagship technology conference Baidu World 2021.

The new robocar does not feature a steering wheel or pedals and comes with a newly upgraded autonomous driving service system called Luobo Kuaipao. The company is focused on making this technology accessible to everyone in the coming future.

According to company officials, the robocar is capable of driving in a completely autonomous manner and understands voice and voice commands. The artificial intelligence system will learn from the driver to provide a personalized experience.

What’s it like to ride a robot in the future? Baidu CEO Robin Li showcased it first-hand at #BaiduWorld2021. Is it merely a car, an assistant or a cinema on wheels? Why not everything? Watch the video and let’s reimagine mobility together! pic.twitter.com/IPyQF6ojaR
— Baidu Inc. (@Baidu_Inc) August 19, 2021

CEO of Baidu, Robin Li Yanhong, said during the conference, “We believe that cars of the future will be robocars. They will drive autonomously, act as both an intelligent assistant and a loyal companion.”

Li’s vision for future autonomous vehicles is bizarre as he believes that in the coming decades, cars will also serve as our driver, personal assistant, and lots more. Baidu’s new vehicle also has facial recognition capabilities to analyze the rider’s facial expressions that the artificial intelligence system will use to offer potential services the rider might need.

The car is equipped with gull-wing doors with external sensors of various kinds. The interior features zero gravity seats with a centralized control system.

A researcher from the Automobile Industry Innovative Research Center in China, Zhang Xiang, said, “Baidu has accumulated solid strength in self-driving chips and lidar sensor technology that uses laser light to measure distances and map surroundings.”

He further added that it would take quite some time for fully autonomous driving vehicles to hit the mass production line as the technology still has many limitations in terms of safety features.

At the Baidu World 2021 conference, the company also launched the second generation of its artificial intelligence chipset named Kunlun 2. The chip has the ability to process vast amounts of data in a short time to boost high-performance computing speed.

IIT Roorkee launches PG Certification course in Cloud Computing and DevOps

By

Dipayan Mitra

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August 19, 2021

IIT Roorkee launches PG Certification course in Cloud Computing and DevOps

Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Roorkee has partnered with a financial service providing company Wiley to launch its new Post Graduation certification course in cloud computing, data science, and DevOps.

The program will use the Wiley learning platform WileyNXT for conducting lectures and other related tasks.The program is specifically designed for students to help them develop the required skills that the industry demands to enable them to build a career in the cloud computing and data science industry.

The program will begin on 12th September 2021, and the last date for applying is 25th August. It is a seven-month-long online course that would train students in cloud computing and other related areas.

WileyNXT officials said, “Early-stage professionals having at least two years of experience, with knowledge of computer systems, programming and debugging, and proficiency in a minimum of one language, are eligible for this program.”

The COVID-19 pandemic has forced most businesses across the globe to adopt digital practices to carry out their operations. The course has been launched as the current industry is having a huge demand for data science and cloud computing professionals.

IIT Roorkee and WileyNXT had earlier launched PG certification courses in artificial intelligence in banking, financial services, insurance, and digital business. The managing director of Wiley India, Vikas Gupta, said, “With our new program focused on Cloud Computing & DevOps, we strive to open doors to new avenues of growth and opportunities for the skilled talent in our country.”

According to IIT Roorkee professors, it is essential to train learners and job seekers in cloud computing and DevOps in order to meet the current demand for job opportunities. A joint certificate will be provided by Wiley and IIT Roorkee on successful completion of the program.

Interested candidates can apply for this course from the official website of WileyNXT.

Honeywell to build Artificial Intelligence Research Center in IIT Hyderabad

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 19, 2021

Honeywell to build Artificial Intelligence Research Center in IIT Hyderabad

Technology and manufacturing company Honeywell Technology Solutions (HTS) announces that it will build a new artificial intelligence research center in the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Hyderabad.

The research center will develop solutions for future technological challenges using artificial intelligence. Honeywell has already built a lab worth Rs 1 crore that is equipped with high-end machines as a part of this joint venture.

The Union Education Minister of India, Dharmendra Pradhan, said, “IITH is the first institute in the country to offer full-fledged BTech in AI in line with the recommendation of NEP 2020. With the recommendation of NEP 2020, such collaboration would become more common.”

Dharmendra Pradhan inaugurated the lab through a virtual event held on 18th August 2021. According to the President of Honeywell, Samuel Pratap, the research conducted in the lab will mainly focus on fields like aerospace, smart city development, building materials, and many more.

The research lab will also train students of IIT-H and a few Honeywell employees in areas like remote project monitoring, industry-specific training, hackathons, engineering certification courses, and training workshops to develop critical skills that the industry requires to increase their employability.

Pratap said, “Our vast pool of talented industrial application engineers will support this endeavor with their knowledge and experience in AI and emerging technologies to help solve real-world problems.”

He further mentioned that the research laboratory would blend experiences between fundamental research and applied research. With this new development, the faculty members and students of IIT-H are geared up to make the Indian Institute of Technology Hyderabad feature in the top 500 Universities in the world list.

According to IIT-H professor BS Murty, this research lab would help students gain immense industry exposure.

Rapid Robotics raises $37 million in Series B Funding round

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Dipayan Mitra

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August 19, 2021

Robot automation startup Rapid Robotics raises $37 million in its series B funding round led by Kleiner Perkins and Tiger Global. Other investors like Greycroft, NEA, 468 Capital and Bee Partners also participated in the funding round.

The fresh funding has increased Rapid Robotics market valuation to over $192 million. The pandemic has boosted the demand for automation that has benefited many startups, including Rapid Robotics. The company has received three funding in a span of one year.

Rapid Robotics has developed a unique artificial intelligence-powered robotic arm that can be used by manufacturers to automate certain crucial tasks involved in their operations. No prior knowledge of programming is required to set up the robot at manufacturing plants.

The installation process also doesn’t require any specialized hardware or robotics skills. The robot named Rapid Machine Operator (RMO) is being sold by the company at a price of $25,000 per year.

Jordan Kretchmer and Ruddick Lawrance founded San Francisco-based box automation company Rapid Robotics in the year 2019. The firm has raised a total funding of $54.2 million till date. Rapid Robotics’ technology enables a machine operator to manage up to eight RMOs using just one iPad.

Griffin Schroeder from Tiger Global said, “Until now, only the largest facilities could benefit from robotic automation. But most manufacturing in America is done in smaller factories, which have been deeply challenged by the machine operator shortage. For them, the Rapid Machine Operator provides the additional support they need to thrive.”

Rapid Robotics is helping manufacturing businesses meet their operational goals using the Rapid Machine Operator robot in this time of pandemic where workers cannot come to the factories. General Partner of Kleiner Perkins, Wen Hsieh, said, “Rapid Robotics pinpointed an urgent problem in a multi-billion-dollar industry and solved it in a matter of months.”