Toyota’s Subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings Acquires CARMERA

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July 20, 2021

Toyota’s Subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings Acquired CARMERA

Car manufacturing giant Toyota’s subsidiary Woven Planet Holdings acquires high definition mapping startup CARMERA. No official information has been revealed by the companies regarding the valuation of the deal.

CARMERA is a US-based artificial intelligence startup that develops road safety solutions for autonomous driving vehicles. With this acquisition, Woven Planet aims to get a better grip on the market.

CARMERA’s team will now work alongside Woven Planet’s Automated Mapping Platform (AMP) team to develop high-definition maps to improve safety features for self-driving vehicles. Both the enterprises had collaborated earlier in 2018 to develop a CARMERA-based HD mapping system for roads. Officials say that this acquisition will help the AMP department to boost their research speed and quickly commercialize their product using CARMERA’s expertise.

CEO and founder of CARMERA, Ro Gupta, said, “Woven Planet and Automated Mapping Platform have been highly aligned with CARMERA’s culture and mission from the beginning. Our teams have a common view of the unmet need for ubiquity in advanced mobility data going forward, including maps.”

He further added that Woven Planet’s advanced platform would help them develop safety technologies for the industry. The merged company will focus on its ‘Mobility for all’ initiative using faster spatial intelligence. CARMERA will continue its operations from its offices in Seattle and New York and steadily integrate a fifty-member team into Woven Plant Holding’s projects.

Vice President of Automated driving strategy at Woven Planet, Mandali Khalesi, said, “With CARMERA joining the team, we’ll be able to hit the accelerator. CARMERA’s software stack, which is focused on real-time high definition map changes and proprietary hardware custom tailored to crowdsourcing, is an ideal complement to AMP’s mapping efforts.”

He also mentioned that with the support of industry-leading engineers from CARMERA, they would soon begin their operations in the United States.

Zoom Acquired Five9 To Develop Customer Engagement Platform

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 19, 2021

Zoom Acquired Five9 To Develop Customer Engagement Platform

Zoom has recently announced that it has acquired a cloud contact data center Five9 through a whopping $14.7 billion deal. With this new acquisition, the company wants to expand into other industries apart from video calling.

Zoom will integrate its solution with Five9’s contact centers to develop a new customer engagement platform for the future that would transform the way of business communication.

The companies have arranged a video conference on 19th July to inform the investors about new developments. The company mentioned that it expects an acceleration of its long-term growth after this acquisition in a press release. Zoom had offered a 13% premium to Five9, which had a market valuation of $11 billion to crack this deal.

Founder and Chief Executive Officer of Zoom, Eric S. Yuan, said, “We are continuously looking for ways to enhance our platform, and the addition of Five9 is a natural fit that will deliver even more happiness and value to the customers. Zoom is built on a core belief that robust and reliable communications technology allows interactions that build greater empathy and trust, and we believe that holds particularly true for customer engagement.”

Exciting news! 🎉 We have signed an agreement to acquire @Five9. Together we will build the customer engagement platform of the future! Details: https://t.co/gBpDMIUQuD
— Zoom (@Zoom) July 19, 2021

He further added that they are thrilled to work with the Five9 team to develop an industry-leading communication platform. This acquisition will help Zoom to expand its customer base, using Five9’s market presence. Five9’s stakeholders are yet to approve the transaction that is expected to close by the first half of 2022.

Chief Executive Officer of Five9 Rowan Trollope said, “It has always been Five9’s mission to make it easy for businesses to fix the problem and engage with their customers in a more meaningful and efficient way. Joining forces with Zoom will provide Five9’s business customers access to best-of-breed solutions.”

DeepMind’s Artificial Intelligence For Protein Structure Is Coming To The Masses

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 19, 2021

DeepMind’s Artificial Intelligence For Protein Structure Is Coming To The Masses

Alphabet’s DeepMind had recently announced that it had launched an open-source version of its artificial intelligence-powered platform AlphaFold 2. The platform is capable of accurately mapping protein structures much faster than traditional methods.

The company developed this platform to tackle challenges like the protein folding problem by enabling scientists to generate accurate 3D protein structures in a very short amount of time.

John Moult, a biologist at the University of Maryland, said, “This problem has been around for fifty years. Lots of people have broken their heads on it.” Other similar platforms like RoseTTafold, developed by David Baker and his team at the University of Washington, are also gaining popularity as they compete with DeepMind’s AlphaFold.

He said, “It is appropriate that it is not coming out after ours, as our work is really based on their advances.” Earlier in 2020, DeepMind unveiled its artificial intelligence-powered technology in a competition called Critical Assessment Of Protein Structure Prediction (CASP).

DeepMind had also partnered with the Drugs for Neglected Disease Initiative (DNDi) to develop cures for fatal diseases like Chagas and leishmaniasis. The CEO of DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, recently tweeted that the company’s AlphaFold will be available to the entire scientific community at no cost to assist scientists in their research and development process.

Developers will now be able to download both RoseTTafold and AlphaFold’s code and independently work on enhancing the platforms. A biologist at the Toyota Technological Institute, Jinbo Xu, said, “Many researchers will build their own structure prediction methods upon Baker’s work.”

David Baker’s team had earlier set up servers that have predicted more than 5000 protein structures and have been used by 500 researchers to date.

Facebook Open-Sources Blender Bot 2.0, A State-Of-The-Art Chatbot

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 19, 2021

Facebook Launched Its Open-Source Chat Bot Blender Bot 2.0

Facebook has recently launched its new open-source chatbot named Blender Bot 2.0 that is capable of building long-term memory along with its complete codes, evaluation setup, and model.

The new chatbot is also capable of searching the internet in order to have in-depth conversations with users. Blender Bot 2.0 stores information gathered from discussions for months that can be used to provide better responses to users in upcoming conversations.

Facebook has also taken care of privacy issues by separately storing information of the users. Data of a particular user will not be used in chats with other consumers. The new chatbot can provide quicker resonances as it is no longer dependent solely on the information gathered from users but can now search the entire internet to look for answers for queries.

Facebook’s previous generation Blender Bot that used the GPT-3 language generation model was able to create realistic conversations, but it suffered from a goldfish memory. Facebook’s research platform ParlAI has now eliminated the mentioned drawback by launching the newly upgraded chatbot.

We’ve built and open-sourced BlenderBot 2.0, the first #chatbot that can store and access long-term memory, search the internet for timely information, and converse intelligently on nearly any topic. It’s a significant advancement in conversational AI. https://t.co/H17Dk6m1Vx pic.twitter.com/0BC5oQMEck
— Facebook AI (@facebookai) July 16, 2021

The company’s test found out that Blender Bot 2.0 can outperform any other platform available in today’s market. Leveraging its high-end features, Bot Blender 2.0 is capable of staying up-to-date with the latest developments across the globe like sports scores, movies, and tv series, product reviews, and lots more.

The chatbot uses a new Retrieval Augmented Generation model developed by Facebook that enables it to create dialogue responses beyond its locally available data. Facebook noted a 55% improvement in the use of previous conversations and a 17% increase in engagingness score over its earlier platform.

The company believes that their ground-breaking technology will revolutionize the virtual assistance industry and it plans to further enhance its platform in the near future.

Farah Fahim Awarded $2.5 Million To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Chips For Data Processing

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 19, 2021

Farah Fahim Awarded $2.5 Million To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Chips For Data Processing

Farah Fahim was recently awarded $2.5 Million by the United States Department of Energy to further develop her artificial intelligence-powered solution for data processing.

The Ph.D. holder was given this prize money to work on her self-developed neural network and machine learning platform. Fahim’s solution is capable of converting raw data into high-quality information to overcome the challenge of data transfer bottleneck along with real-time data processing.

Farah Fahim has become one of the first engineers to receive the Early Career Award for high-energy physics from the Department of Energy (DOE). The engineer has worked in the world’s largest particle physics laboratory to develop a particle detector capable of recognizing the trajectory of protons when they collide.

Fahim now aims to build a neural network solution known as ‘artificial intelligence on chip’ to process the vast quantities of data produced during the collision process. Her solution will be able to process the data within the pixel where it is generated rather than sending it to the edge of the chip.

Fahim and her team plan to use numerous energy-efficient nodes to build a neural network that specializes in detecting particle trajectories in the pixel detector for accurate data classification.

Fahim said, “The long-term objective is real-time particle track reconstruction. We will contribute one drop of knowledge about how to analyze this information locally and how to transform the data.”

Her award proves the fact that the industry is looking forward to new innovations in the field of data processing. Farah has been working with Fermilab for the past twelve years and was given the position of deputy head of the lab’s quantum science program in 2019. She is also the head of the ASIC department of the lab that develops artificial intelligence and 6G communication network solutions.

Panagiotis Spentzouris, Head of Fermilab’s quantum science department, said regarding Fahima, “I am impressed by her entrepreneurial and innovative approach and the fact that she’s not afraid to try new things.”

Viz.AI And Avincenna.AI Have Partnered To Launch Artificial Intelligence-Powered Care Solution For Aortic Disease

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 18, 2021

Viz.ai And Avincenna,ai Have Partnered To Launch Artificial Intelligence-Powered Care Solution For Aortic Disease

Viz.ai has recently partnered with Avincenna.ai to launch its artificial intelligence-powered smart care solution for patients suffering from fatal pulmonary embolism and aortic disease. The new platform would assist patients in making better decisions regarding the treatment of such fatal diseases.

Both the companies plan to integrate Viz.ai’s algorithm for pulmonary embolism and different types of aortic diseases with Avincenna.ai’s intelligence care coordination system to develop a wholesome solution for all kinds of patient needs.

Dr. Richard Saxon, a radiologist at Tri-City Medical center, said, “The addition of artificial intelligence-powered workflows will decrease the time from diagnosis to treatment and help to coordinate care for patients suffering from life-threatening pulmonary embolism and aortic disease. It will also help to facilitate faster and easier treatment decisions across health systems, and should improve outcomes for patients.”

Viz.ai is a San Francisco-based company founded in 2016. It is a leading provider of artificial intelligence-driven healthcare software that helps patients and doctors effectively treat several diseases. Many global leaders have invested in Viz.ai, like Google Ventures, Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks, and Innovation Endeavors.

CEO and co-founder of Viz.ai, Chris Mansi, said, “We are delighted to partner with Avicenna.ai to bring intelligent care coordination to the peripheral vascular and vascular fields. This will form part of a broader Viz platform, where any patient with a life-threatening disease can benefit from artificial intelligence-powered triage, fast mobile communication, and synchronized care coordination.”

He further mentioned that this partnership of the two companies would help innumerable patients avail advantage of artificial intelligence and help hospitals generate better clinical results.
Cyril Di Grandi founded Avicenna.ai in 2018. The startup specializes in artificial intelligence-powered imaging solutions for radiology applications. Earlier, the company received approval from the Food and Drug Administration for its solution for neurovascular emergencies.

Autonomous Driving Company Aurora Plans To Go Public Through SPAC Deal

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 18, 2021

Pittsburgh-based autonomous driving company Aurora recently announced its plan to go public through a Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) deal with an initial valuation of $11 billion.

The startup plans to crack a deal with LinkedIn’s co-founder Reid Hoffman’s company Reinvent Technology Partners by the end of this year. The newly merged company will be named Aurora Innovations Inc.

Aurora was founded in 2016 by Chris Urmson, who is the former Chief Technology Officer of Google’s Waymo. The company has developed a self-driving software named Aurora Driver that can be integrated into vehicles for autonomous driving.

Urmson, the founder and CEO of Aurora, said, “This is a natural next step for us. This will unlock the capital we need to deliver the Aurora driver as a service at scale.” He also mentioned that with this merger, they have put a step further in developing new self-driving vehicles and will be able to deliver the benefits of the technology to the public.

The company is determined to enter various car segments, including trucks with many industry-leading partners like Volvo, Toyota, and Uber. Last year, Uber sold its autonomous driving vehicle department to Aurora. Afterwhich the company has been working on integrating Uber ATG employees in their team.

The company recently made a deal with Volvo’s Autonomous Solutions unit to develop autonomous driving trucks in North America. With the company’s expertise, it plans to develop level-4 self-driving vehicles in the coming years.
Mark Pincus, a co-founder of Aurora, said, “We believe Aurora will be the first to commercialize self-driving technology at scale for the US trucking and passenger transportation markets based on its industry-leading team, technology, and partnerships.” Urmson said they had spent four years building the company’s foundation, and now is the correct time to deliver their products and services.

HP Launched Artificial Intelligence-Powered Digital Solutions For Students And Teachers

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 17, 2021

HP Launched Artificial Intelligence-Powered Digital Solutions For Students And Teachers

HP recently announced that it had launched a new artificial intelligence-powered platform for students and teachers that would help them enhance the online learning ecosystem in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their platform will provide 24×7 access to various study materials and other assistance for the students. Due to the pandemic, most of the schools are now shifting towards digital learning, and this unique solution of HP will definitely help them to adapt to this new educational system.

HP’s platform comes with various features like HP School Coach and HP Classeasy. These features are meant to organize online classes seamlessly and enable students to gather required educational resources easily.

Ketan Patel from HP said, “For the last 15 months, globally and in India, the education system has relied completely on technology. The growth of online learning has given rise to a hybrid learning model that is here to stay. To deliver an efficient, engaging, and creative hybrid learning experience for students, access to the right devices and solutions is imperative.”

He further mentioned that it is the company’s privilege to innovate and create digital solutions for students and educators to help them achieve their learning goals and revolutionize India’s education sector.

The platform will also enable the parents to keep track of their children’s study schedules and assessment results remotely. HP had conducted intensive research by consulting with hundreds of school principals and teachers before developing this new platform.

The solution mainly focuses on the following areas –

Analyzing and correcting age-appropriate literacy reading and comprehension for students and vocational training for adult students.
School quality assurance and improvement suggestions for education ministries and schools.
Professional development on digital pedagogy regarding digital teaching.

Senior Director and Head of sales at HP India, Rajnish Gupta, said, “With customizable dashboards for teachers, these technologies will allow for easy and seamless monitoring of progress. These technology products and innovations will go a long way in redefining classroom learning and instruction delivery in India.”

Citadel Defence Secured $4 Million Contract To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Counter Drone System

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 17, 2021

Citadel Defence Secured $4 Million Contract To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Counter Drone System

US-based startup Citadel Defence has recently confirmed that it has secured a $4 million contract with the United States government to develop an artificial intelligence-powered counter-drone system.

In recent years, terrorists have been using drones as aerial spies to gather information about the army. The government felt the need for a solution to counter this issue. Citadel Defence has been making drone solutions for the US army, navy, and airforce for years that have stood the test of time.

Citadel is developing its Titan anti-drone system that will be used for pre-deployment training and mobile security purposes. CEO of Citadel Defence, Christopher Williams, said, “Citadel’s advanced algorithms, autonomous capabilities, and artificial intelligence, serve as a force multiplier when protecting against unmanned system threats in resource-constrained environments.”

Founded in 2016, Citadel Defence is the market leader in developing machine intelligence and artificial intelligence-powered drones and anti-drone systems to modernize the US army and to aid military personnel in conducting unmanned missions in a better way.

The company’s Titan has an automated decision-making engine that matches threats with optimized electronic countermeasures without the need for the operator’s manual response or expertise in discriminating complex signal characteristics.

The company is currently recruiting highly skilled engineers to keep up with the demand of their system. Citadel has been developing Titan for the past four years and has been able to successfully integrate artificial intelligence with its system to improve its capabilities so that on battlefields, it can save the soldiers time by performing all the tasks on its own.

Williams also said, “Artificial intelligence is very effective in electronic attack missions. Getting the right data and recommendation to operators enables the human-machine teaming that will be necessary to compete in future conflicts.”

RBI Bans Mastercard For Not Complying With India’s Data Storage Guidelines

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 16, 2021

RBI Bans Mastercard From Issuing New Cards To Users In India

The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has recently announced that it has banned Mastercard from issuing new cards to users in the country as it has failed to adhere to India’s data storage guidelines.

India’s central bank has ordered MasterCard to stop issuing credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards from 22nd July 2021. However, no information has been given yet regarding the tenure of this ban.

RBI regulator said, “The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has today imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia / Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Mastercard) from onboarding new domestic customers (debit, credit or prepaid) onto its card network. Notwithstanding the lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data.”

This decision was made as MasterCard was unable to comply with the notifications announced in 2018 that asked all payment providers to store user data in Indian servers and were given a period of six months to make necessary changes in their servers.

Mastercard is a New York-based financial service providing company that accounts for more than 30% of banking cards currently issued in India. In a statement, Mastercard confirmed that there will be no impact on the current users, and the company has been continuously working with the central bank to comply with the rules for the past three years.

A Mastercard Official said, “While we are disappointed with the stance taken. We will continue to work with the RBI and provide any additional details needed to resolve their concerns.”

Earlier this year, the RBI had put a ban on American Express cards for the same reason of non-compliance. The company said that it is in close contact with the RBI and is trying to settle the issue as soon as possible.