Open Source API Management Platform Gravitee Raised $11 Million

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July 23, 2021

Open Source API Management Platform Gravitee Raised $11 Million

An open source application programming interface (API) management platform Gravitee recently announced that it had raised $11 million in its series A funding round. Albion VC and Oxx led the financing round.

The startup intends to use the freshly raised funds to expand into the international market and also to support its employees to scale up its marketing and research. Gravitee is a France-based tech startup that specializes in developing cost-effective API solutions to enable companies to secure, publish, and analyze their APIs.

The company was founded by Rory Blundel, who also serves as the Chief Executive Officer of Gravitee. This is the first funding the firm has received since its establishment in 2014.

Rory Blundel said, “Businesses that can make full use of their data are more successful. So effective API management is becoming a core competence. The challenge for IT teams is to connect the existing data silos, plus emerging streamed data sources, and enable these to be shared in a consistent way, secured in line with best practices, and easily governed. Gravitee.io offers open-source functionality to make that process effortless for developers and system architects.”

Software developers heavily use APIs to secure buyer’s information in various banking and e-commerce applications. Gravitee competes with many industry-leading companies like Google’s Apigee and Mulesoft.

Recently the company had also launched a new identity and access management solution to aid businesses seamlessly integrate with other service providers in order to customize the sign-in process of their applications.

Blundel said that Gravitee’s solution is the only API platform currently available in the market that has both API management and identity-access management capabilities.

Salesforce Completed Its $27.7 Billion Slack Acquisition Deal

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 23, 2021

Salesforce Completed Its $27.7 Billion Slack Acquisition Deal

Salesforce recently announced that it had completed its $27.7 billion slack acquisition deal. The deal has finally closed after a wait of more than seven months. The deal was first announced by Salesforce back in 2020. Slack is a software startup that specializes in developing business communication platforms.

With this acquisition, Salesforce plans to work on its vision of social enterprise and develop new solutions for the new virtual workplace ecosystem caused due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

Co-founder and CEO of Salesforce, Marc Benioff, said, “This is a match made in heaven. Together, Salesforce and Slack will shape the future of enterprise software and transform the way everyone works in the all-digital, work-from-anywhere world.”

This acquisition will help Salesforce to enhance its video calling and instant messaging platform considering the rising competition in the market from players like Microsoft with its ‘Teams’ platform and Adobe with ‘Workfront.’

Chief Executive Officer of Slack, Stewart Butterfield, said, “As software plays a more and more critical role in the performance of every organization, we share a vision of reduced complexity, increased power and flexibility, and ultimately a greater degree of alignment and organizational agility.”

He further added that he believes this acquisition as one of the greatest in the history of software. He is very excited about working with the Salesforce team to develop new artificial intelligence-powered platforms. Slack’s team will now have access to Salesforce’s highly experienced engineers and will be able to expand its customer base using Salesforce’s global presence.

Slack Technologies was founded in 2009 by Eric Costello, Stewart Butterfield, and Cal Henderson in Vancouver, Canada. The company was earlier known as Tiny Speck and currently has a market valuation of more than $7 billion.

NSF Collaborates With Amazon For Its Program Of Fairness In Artificial Intelligence

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 23, 2021

NSF Collaborated With Amazon For Its Program Of Fairness In Artificial IntelligenceNSF Collaborated With Amazon For Its Program Of Fairness In Artificial Intelligence

The National Science Foundation (NSF) recently collaborated with tech giant Amazon for its new ‘program of fairness in artificial intelligence.’ NSF announced that it would provide a fund of $20 million to researchers working towards developing solutions for the ethical use of artificial intelligence.

Thirty-five independent researchers have already benefited from this joint initiative of Amazon and NSF. The National Science Foundation has now opened the submission of fresh applications for 2021.

Amazon will provide a part of these funds but will not actively participate in the screening and selection process. This program would help freelance researchers display their work on a global platform and will help the United States government to adopt those solutions to unleash the full potential of artificial intelligence.

Researchers were given the funds who addressed research areas like the use of artificial intelligence to promote equality in society, developing solutions to ensure everyone benefits from it, accountability and transparency in artificial intelligence algorithms, and ensuring fairness in AI technology.

Vice President of Alexa natural understanding at Amazon, Prem Natarajan, said, “As artificial intelligence technologies become more prevalent in our daily lives, AI fairness is an increasingly important area of scientific endeavor. And we are delighted to partner with NSF to accelerate progress in this area by supporting the work of the top research teams in the world.”

He further added that they are very excited to see this year’s selected researchers whose efforts are informed by a diversity of perspectives. More details of the NSF-Amazon program can be found on the official website of the National Science Foundation.

Information and intelligent systems division’s director at NFS, Henry Kautz, said, “Understanding how artificial intelligence systems can be designed on principles of fairness, transparency and trustworthiness will advance the boundaries of AI applications.”

Deloitte Launched New Artificial Intelligence Research Center In Australia

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 23, 2021

Deloitte Launched New Artificial Intelligence Research Center In Australia

Deloitte had recently announced that it had a new artificial intelligence and machine learning research center in Melbourne, Australia. With this new center, the company plans to develop artificial intelligence solutions for the public and private sector industries.

Consulting partner at Deloitte, Dr. Kellie Nuttall, will lead the research institute team as the national Analytics and artificial intelligence leader. She said, “The CSIRO estimates that digital technologies, including artificial intelligence, are potentially worth $315 billion to the Australian economy by 2028.”

She also mentioned that the company’s institute would help Australian enterprises and the government adopt artificial intelligence systems by bringing many innovations to the country’s artificial intelligence ecosystem.

The researchers intend to collaborate with data scientists, futurists, corporate leaders, and budding STEM talents to conduct research to address vital challenges faced by businesses and propose amicable solutions. Deloitte Australia was recently awarded the SAP Partner of the year title for its efforts to digitize government operations and the healthcare industry.

CEO of Deloitte Australia, Adam Powick, said, “Artificial intelligence has always held much promise for improving business and society, and this promise is now being realized, with the rapid advancement of artificial intelligence and machine learning technology over the past few years.”

He further added that their vision is to help their customers connect with the global artificial intelligence ecosystem in order to deliver the best outcomes, along with upgrading their technology to implement artificial intelligence systems for the public good.

Deloitte wants to make artificial intelligence accessible so that everyone gets an opportunity to benefit from its new technologies. Australia’s Minister of industry, science and technology, Christian Porter, said, “This plan will ensure artificial intelligence is used and developed to practically improve our lives, guided by appropriate security and ethical considerations.”

The company had earlier opened numerous artificial intelligence research centers in countries such as Canada, Germany, China, and the United Kingdom.

NPTEL Launched Free Courses On Electric Vehicles, IoT, & More

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

NPTEL Launched New Courses On Various Subjects

The National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) recently announced that it had launched many new courses on electric vehicles, the internet of things, renewable energy, design of IoT, and business & sustainable development.

This initiative has more than 500 courses available to everyone for free. Indian Institute of Technology and Indian Institute of Science and collaborated to design these free courses. People can view the courses on the Swayam platform.

Veteran faculty members from IITs and IISc will be teaching in the courses. Interested candidates can apply through the official website Swayam. No application will be collected after 2nd August 2021.

This initiative will enable learners from all over the country to develop new skills that the market is currently looking for. An NPTEL learner from Karnataka, Ms. Singam Nirmala Devi, said, “The knowledge I gained through the NPTEL course, ‘The joy of computing using python,’ was very much helpful in getting a job as a software engineer in an MNC. Through the NPTEL courses, I was able to understand concepts of python easily and was able to answer questions asked in the interview.”

The coordinator of NPTEL at IIT Madras, Prof. Vignesh Muthuvijayan, said that they are working with more than 4000 educational institutions of various fields like engineering, commerce, arts, and many more at present.

He also mentioned, “Some of the popular courses on NPTEL platform include Data Science for Engineers, courses on programming in Python, C, C++, Introduction to Machine Learning, Soft skills, Project Planning and Control, among others.”

The applicants will have to watch online learning videos and appear for online exams on a weekly basis to complete the course. A certificate will be provided to the learners on completion of the course. Students will also have an option to choose to appear for a proctored final examination, which would cost a small amount of money.

Microsoft Launched An Autonomous Beach Cleaning Robot BeachBot

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

Microsoft Launched An Autonomous Beach Cleaning Robot BeachBot

Microsoft, in a recent blog, announced that it had launched a new artificial intelligence-powered autonomous beach cleaning robot BeachBot.

The smart robot has been developed by a Dutch startup named TechTics and uses Microsoft’s artificial intelligence platform to carry out its operations. The robot is currently deployed at Scheveningen beach in Denmark, where it operates over a stretch of 4.5 kilometers.

The robot collects different kinds of wastes like cigarette buds that have harmful effects on the beach animals. Two highly skilled engineers of TechTics, Martijn Lukaart and Edwin Bos, built the robot.

Bos said, “We believe that our robotic solution, in the end, may not be the final solution for this problem because the bigger problem with littering is still human behavior.” TechTics has asked people to send them photos of cigarette buds, which they would convert into data to train the artificial intelligence algorithm of the robot.

BeachBot has been fed with more than 2,000 images of cigarette buds to train it to collect them. The robot is equipped with two dash cameras to identify waste and a robotic arm capable of picking up the waste. It uses Microsoft’s Trove artificial intelligence system to recognize waste and dispose of it. The company has also released a video of the robot while performing its tasks.

Lead principal program manager of Trove at Microsoft, Chris Lineberger, said, “The system learns how to see pictures like a child recognizing an object for the first time.”

The company is now developing two new robots to aid BeachBot in cleaning the beach. The upcoming robots would scout the area and detect cigarette buds and then would ask the BeachBot to arrive at the location and collect the debris.

Ford And Agro AI Announce The Launch Of Self-Driving Cars By The End Of 2021

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

Ford And Agro AI will Launch Self-Driving Cars By The End Of This Year

Car manufacturing giant Ford recently announced that it would launch self-driving cars by the end of this year in association with Agro AI. The company initially plans to launch its self-driving cars with safety drivers in Miami and would steadily expand to other regions of the United States like Texas in 2022.

More than a thousand autonomous cars will be released by Ford over a period of five years. Ford has collaborated with Agro AI and Lyft to develop its self-driving vehicles. The cars will be powered by Lyft’s vehicle handling network solution.

Co-founder and CEO of Lyft, Logan Green, said, “This collaboration marks the first time all the pieces of the autonomous vehicle puzzle have come together in this way.”

He also added that each of the three collaborating companies would bring the scale, knowledge, and capabilities in their area of expertise that is important to build a full-fledged autonomous car. Earlier Lyft had announced its plans of selling its autonomous driving division to Toyota for $550 million.

Lyft users will be able to enjoy Ford’s autonomous driving taxi service in Miami by the end of 2021. Founder and CEO of Agro AI, Bryan Salesky, said, “This collaboration is special as we are executing on a shared vision for improving the safety, access to, and affordability of transportation in our cities.”

He further said that the companies would be able to work together to define where an autonomous service would benefit communities the most and ensure the safe deployment of their technology.

Ford has already started to establish its presence in Miami, Washington DC, and Austin in order to run its self-driving vehicle operations smoothly. The vehicles will have fixed pick and drop points for the customers, according to company officials.

CEO of Ford said, “Agro and Ford are currently piloting, mapping, and preparing for commercialization of the vehicle. This new agreement (with Lyft) is a crucial step towards this.”

Artificial Intelligence Predicts Mortality Rate Using Socioeconomic And Clinical Data

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

Artificial Intelligence Predicts Mortality Rate Using Socioeconomic And Clinical Data

Scientists have developed a new artificial intelligence platform capable of predicting the mortality rate of cancer patients using socioeconomic and clinical data. According to a government report, more than 600,000 people die every year due to cancer.

This new artificial intelligence-powered technology will help doctors to identify cancer patients at an early stage and will also predict an individual’s chances of dying because of cancer.

The platform is also capable of recognizing patients approaching the end of life (EOL) and recommend them for hospital supervision. The artificial intelligence algorithm was tested using electronic medical records of cancer patients in the United States.

Researchers said, “In contrast, aggressive, life-sustaining EoL care can conflict with patient preference and result in lower quality of life, family perceptions of poorer quality of care, and greater regret about treatment decisions. The earlier referral also represents an opportunity to transform cancer care by reducing the potential for unnecessary, toxic, and expensive treatments at EoL”

The new platform has a much higher accuracy rate of predicting 30-day mortality rate in cancer patients than standard methodologies used by doctors. The researchers conducted this on more than 3000 cancer patients whose data were collected using EMR, billing data, and socioeconomic determinants of care, which includes demographic details and cancer information. Scientists also considered the lifestyle choices of cancer patients while conducting the research.

“Artificial intelligence applications will utilize clinical, sociodemographic, environmental, pathologic, radiological, genetic, genomic and pharmacoepidemiological data for recommending, the treatment with the greatest efficacy and least risk of toxicity, for a patient with cancer as well as offer direction for the best available clinical trial, stratify risk of recurrence and implement prognostic models for a given patient as well as identify the risk of disease within family members.” the researchers said.

Microsoft Acquired A Security Startup CloudKnox

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

Microsoft Acquired A Security Startup CloudKnox

Microsoft, in a recent blog, announced that it had acquired a security startup named CloudKnox. No information has been provided regarding the valuation of the acquisition deal.

The tech giant plans to provide companies top-notch multi-cloud security services along with improving its operating system’s security with this acquisition.

Microsoft will now offer automated remediation of hybrid permissions and granular visibility to its Azure Active Directory customers. Vice President of Microsoft Identity, Joy Chik, said, “As the corporate network perimeter disappears, it’s crucial to establish a strong cloud identity foundation, so you can enforce least privileged access to protect business-critical systems while improving business agility.”

He further mentioned that the company is determined to provide easier access to the least privileged services for all users across the globe. CloudKnox is a California-based startup founded by Balaji Parimi and Rao Cherukuri in the year 2016.

The company specializes in developing multi-could permissions management platforms using activity-based authorization technology. The company has received a total funding of $22.8 million from investors like Wipro Ventures, Dell Technologies Capital, Clearsky, and Telstra Ventures.

The acquisition raised Microsoft’s shares by 0.28% in midday trading. CEO and co-founder of CloudKnox, Balaji Parimi, said, “We saw opportunities to provide even greater value and seamless experience across hybrid and multi-clouds with deeper integrations within the Microsoft ecosystem.”

He also added that this acquisition would allow the company to build better solutions to enable the customers to protect their cloud data and improve their security posture.

Microsoft had earlier acquired similar security firms like RiskQ and ReFirm Labs to enhance its Azure security services. The company currently processes more than eight trillion security signals in a single day with the help of 3500 security-defending employees.

Research Of IIT Kanpur Shows Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used To Predict Outcome Of Court Cases

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 22, 2021

Research Of IIT Kanpur Shows Artificial Intelligence Can Be Used To Predict Outcome Of Court Cases

A recent research conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur shows the possibility of the usage of artificial intelligence to predict the outcome of court cases.

The autonomous artificial intelligence system would be able to assist judges in coming to a conclusion of a case quickly. The research team was led by Ayush Modi and Arnab Bhattacharya of the institute’s computer science department.

The team has developed an artificial intelligence platform that not only predicts the outcome of cases but also the reason behind judges coming to that conclusion. The artificial intelligence-powered platform was fed more than 35,000 legal documents to train it to generate accurate results.

The research team spokesperson said, “The corpus is created from publicly available data on the proceedings of the Supreme Court. The artificial intelligence-enabled system only intends to assist legal professionals in their research and decision-making and not replace them.”

Researchers claim that this new technology will aid the country’s judiciary to carry out its operations smoothly. Arnab Bhattacharya said that this is India’s first legal corpus for supreme court cases developed for the prediction of court cases.

He added, “The goal of this model is to assist the legal community and not replace judges. He also mentioned that the artificial intelligence model could aid the judicial process and enable judges to make faster decisions that would enable the courts to reduce the burden on the judges.

The county currently has more than 5.75 million pending cases and has only 1.4 judges per 100,000 citizens.