Opinion: Microsoft now considers AI a top priority – and it’s about time

Microsoft should be a pioneer alongside Google when it comes to artificial intelligence, but the company only now appears to consider it a priority. In the company's annual report for the 2017 fiscal year, AI is now mentioned on six occasions. Compared to not a single mention in the previous report, it’s clear Microsoft is now putting more of its focus on artificial intelligence. Microsoft also indicates this in their corporate vision statement: "Our strategic vision is to compete and...

4 August 2017 | Developers

YouTube fights terrorism via machine learning technology

YouTube has announced it is taking greater steps to restrict the number of videos from terrorist-affiliated groups on its platform through ‘better detection and faster removal driven by machine learning’. To tackle the situation, the Alphabet-owned video portal is using machine learning to step up its efforts to detect and remove terrorist content while also implementing “tougher standards” for determining when other videos are too controversial, or even if they are not violating...

3 August 2017 | Machine Learning

Clarifai launches mobile SDK to help make AI available on devices

Clarifai, a visual recognition AI company, has launched its mobile SDK, which enables mobile users to install machine learning capabilities into their devices. The SDK does not require large computing power in the mobile device or continuous internet connectivity increasing the reach of latest AI technology to everyone. It is powered by Clarifai’s Custom Training that enables machine learning algorithms to learn new concepts from very few examples. The mobile SDK enables mobile devices...

28 July 2017 | Healthcare

Cray launches two new CS-Storm accelerated cluster supercomputers

Cray has launched two new CS-Storm accelerated cluster supercomputers – the Cray CS-Storm 500GT and the Cray CS-Storm 500NX – which are designed to serve the purpose of the most demanding AI workloads. The supercomputers, which also utilise NVIDIA Tesla GPU accelerators, aim to provide customers with powerful accelerator-optimised solutions for running machine learning and deep learning applications. The Cray CS-Storm 500GT includes support for up to ten NVIDIA Tesla P40 or P100 PCIe...

18 May 2017 | Deep Learning

Cisco acquires AI firm MindMeld to create more natural conversations

Cisco has announced its intent to acquire MindMeld, a privately held artificial intelligence (AI) provider based in San Francisco, for $125 million (£97m). MindMeld offers what is described as a unique AI platform which ‘enables customers to build intelligent and human-like conversational interfaces for any application or device’ – in other words, enabling more natural conversation with voice and chat assistants. “At Cisco, we believe that AI and machine learning will play an...

15 May 2017 | M&A

AI falls on the final furlong in predicting Kentucky Derby winner

The Kentucky Derby, one of the three races which make up the Triple Crown in US horse racing, was won over the weekend by Always Dreaming, the 9-2 favourite which came home by 2 ¾ lengths in cool and damp conditions. Yet for one company which placed its collective AI efforts on predicting the runners and riders correctly, Always Dreaming did not feature in their winners’ enclosure – despite getting the result spot on last year. Unanimous AI, founded in 2015, offers what it calls...

8 May 2017 | Big Data