Ian Foley, Xenon Ventures: On combining AI and blockchain and getting the use cases right

For Ian Foley, venture partner at Xenon Ventures, it is a straightforward proposition which drives his personal and professional passions. “I spend a lot of time trying to understand the future of technology so I can better construct a roadmap for the present,” he explains. Of course, it is a constant challenge to successfully predict the evolution of technology. Roy Amara, the previous President of The Institute for the Future, famously remarked “we tend to overestimate the effect...

23 November 2018 | Enterprise

Bay Labs and Northwestern Medicine team up for AI-based ultrasound technique

US-based medical technology firm, Bay Labs, and quality healthcare and service provider, Northwestern Medicine, has enrolled their first patient in a collaborative ‘first-of-its-kind’ study, named “SHAPE: Seeing the Heart with AI Powered Echo” to evaluate AI-guided ultrasound acquisition by certified medical assistants (CMAs). This non-randomised study will enrol approximately 1,200 patients at Northwestern Medicine sites, including Northwestern Medicine Central DuPage Hospital and...

23 November 2018 | Healthcare

How AI is helping to predict cryptocurrency value

Cryptocurrencies have come a long way since Bitcoin was first announced in late 2008. In just a decade the market has skyrocketed from zero to an estimated $400bn, and a further 3,000 cryptocurrencies have since launched. But this success has not been without its ups and downs. Bitcoin alone has fluctuated from almost $20,000 to less than a cent during this time. There’s a lot of money to be made in cryptocurrency, and a lot of money to be lost. Luckily for investors (and developers),...

21 November 2018 | Big Data

New funding for AI startups in devices, energy and healthcare unveiled

Plenty of funding is currently swirling around in the field of artificial intelligence across various sectors; take the £84 million announced earlier this month by the UK government around AI, robotics research and smart energy innovation, as well as $2 billion committed by DARPA. Three of the latest funding round announcements showcase a wide range of solutions, from energy to healthcare. US-based AI semiconductor manufacturer Syntiant raised $25 million (£19.5m) in its latest series B...

20 November 2018 | Energy

Kimberly Nevala, SAS: Bolstering BI with AI – and how every executive needs to be part chief analytics officer

The promise of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) in an enterprise context is a tantalising one. In some ways, the combination of artificial intelligence and big data is helping transform legacy business intelligence systems – and potentially the executives who ran them. But what best practices can be transferred between the two, and what happens from here? Kimberly Nevala (left) is director of business strategies at analytics, business intelligence and data management...

19 November 2018 | Big Data

Microsoft acquires conversational AI company XOXCO

Microsoft has announced the acquisition of Texas-based conversational AI firm XOXCO to amplify the company’s work in the field. XOXCO have been in operation since 2013 and gained renown for creating Howdy, the first commercially available bot for Slack. Microsoft believes that bots will become a key way that businesses engage with employees and customers. The company has undertaken many projects with the aim of unlocking their potential, to various success. Tay, for example, has...

16 November 2018 | Bots

Bill Bronske, Globant: Put people first and get the most out of your AI implementation

If 2015 and 2016 were all about putting together a data-driven business mantra, 2019 and beyond will see organisations ramping up the pace – with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) at the heart of this shift. That’s according to Bill Bronske, senior solutions architect at technology services and consulting firm Globant. The company, with headquarters in Buenos Aires but offices globally, has a mission which is focused around ‘building digital journeys that matter to...

14 November 2018 | Enterprise

To no surprise, Samsung’s next chip has an NPU for AI

Samsung will catch up to some rival smartphone manufacturers with a dedicated NPU in the company’s Exynos 9820 chip when it launches the S10. The company says its NPU (Neural Processing Unit) will deliver up to seven times faster AI performance than Samsung’s older Exynos 9810 chip in the S9. Huawei became the first to debut a dedicated NPU in a flagship smartphone with their Kirin 970 chip in the Mate 10. In our Mate 10 coverage, we noted Huawei claimed using an NPU could increase...

14 November 2018 | Hardware

Chinese university recruits ‘patriotic’ students to build AI weapons

A university in China has recruited 27 boys and four girls to become the world’s youngest AI weapons scientists. All of the students are under 18 and were picked from a list of 5,000 candidates by the Beijing Institute of Technology (BIT). Beyond academic prowess, the BIT sought other qualities in the candidates. "We are looking for qualities such as creative thinking, willingness to fight, a persistence when facing challenges," a BIT professor told the South China Morning Post. The...

9 November 2018 | China

China’s first AI news anchor has debuted for a state-run outlet

Chinese state-run outlet Xinhua has offered a glimpse at the dystopian future of reporting with an AI replacement for news anchors. Xinhua appears to be using two human anchors for the base layer – one Chinese-speaking, and the other English. The humans are then animated to appear like they’re reporting the day’s news. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eB29ZVDOFfU The technology looks similar to that used for ‘DeepFakes’ – videos where celebrity faces are imposed on actresses...

8 November 2018 | China