From: Inside AI ai@inside.com Sent: Monday, June 10, 2019 9:34 PM To: dejanr@sezam.com Subject: MelNet and Bill Gates / Amazon Go algorithms / Vectra funding round
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1. Facebook's machine learning system MelNet generated a series of voice clips that sound just like Microsoft founder Bill Gates. MelNet can also mimic Stephen Hawking, George Takei, and Jane Goodall, among others, which makes sense considering that it was trained on audiobooks as well as a 452-hour dataset of TED talks. Unlike WaveNet and other programs that are trained with audio waveforms, MelNet relies on the spectrogram, which allows it to capture more subtle consistencies known as "high-level structure" in a person's voice, which could one day result in higher-quality AI assistants. - THE VERGE
2. Amazon Go VP Dilip Kumar recently shared details about how the company uses synthetic data to train algorithms at its cashier-less stores. The data is used to train AI agents to "walk," improve the AI systems that control the company's robots, and power few-shot learning. In addition to using synthetic data and running trials with human customers, Amazon engineers created computer vision algorithms that utilize geometry and deep learning to ensure that Go stores associate the right transactions with the right customers. - VENTURE BEAT
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3. San Jose-based Vectra, an AI-based cybersecurity firm, announced a $100 million funding round led by the growth equity firm TCV. The round included participation from existing investors Khosla Ventures, IA Ventures, Accel Partners, AME Cloud Ventures, Wipro Ventures, DAG Ventures, Ireland Strategic Investment Fund, Atlantic Bridge, and Nissho Electronics Corporation. The investment brings Vectra’s total raised to $220 million. According to CEO Hitesh Sheth, the money will help the company continue its global market expansion, grow its workforce, and boost its R&D efforts. Sheth said AI is a big component of Vectra's products, which provides enterprise security teams with metadata to catch breaches faster and uses proprietary algorithms to track down anomalous behavior. - TECHCRUNCH
4. A bill in Illinois that would require employers to seek consent when they use AI platforms in the hiring process has passed the state's House and Senate and is headed to the desk of Gov. J.B. Pritzker. House Bill 2557, the Artificial Intelligence Video Interview Act, requires that Illinois employers seek the consent of job applicants when the organization uses AI tech, such as systems that can analyze a respondent's facial expressions to judge if they are a good fit for the job. The measure coincides with the increased use of AI platforms such as Mya, Gecko, AutoView, and HireVue. - BLOOMBERG LAW
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5. During this week's Business Applications Summit in Atlanta, Microsoft debuted new AI capabilities in Power BI, its no-code business analytics service. Text and image analytics and Azure ML model invoking are now generally available, as well as two new AI visualizations: Distribution Changes and Decomposition Tree. The company also discussed its new AI Builder, a no-code capability that supports PowerApps and Flow. - VENTURE BEAT
6. The U.K. government will invest up to £18.5 million ($23.5 million) in programs that support more diversity in the AI workforce. About £13.5 million ($17 million) will go toward scholarships and AI and data science conversion courses for degree holders in other fields. Another £5 million ($6.3 million) will be invested into the Adult Learning Technology Innovation Fund, which will encourage companies to use AI to improve retraining online learning platforms. - COMPUTER WEEKLY
7. Spacemaker, a Norwegian startup that created AI software to help architects optimize design layouts, announced it raised $25 million in Series A funding. The round was co-led by Atomico and Northzone, with participation from industry investors such as NREP, a Danish property developer. - TECHCRUNCH
8. Scientists developed an AI-based method that can enable drones to dodge fast-moving projectiles the majority of the time. As described in a newly published paper on Arxiv.org, scientists from the University of Maryland and ETH Zurich reimagined navigation stacks to create what they call Embodied AI and plan to release the accompanying code and training data set at a later date. - VENTURE BEAT
9. According to The Wall Street Journal, AI still remains out of reach for many smaller companies, which continue to use machine-learning tools created by Google and Microsoft. Some smaller firms are deterred by the high upfront price tag of AI tools and a lack of people to create and oversee the technology. - WSJ
10. Business Insider profiled 38-year-old Ben Lamm, the founder of Dallas-based Hypergiant, which offers AI-based solutions for other companies. Lamm, a serial tech entrepreneur, also founded Simply Interactive, Chaotic Moon, Team Chaos, and Conversable, an SaaS platform that creates conversational bot technology. More recently, Lamm has set his sights on AI-powered space exploration. - BUSINESS INSIDER
Written and curated by Beth Duckett in Orange County, Calif. Beth is a former reporter for The Arizona Republic who has written for USA Today, Get Out magazine and other publications. Follow her tweets about breaking news and other hot topics in southern California here.
Editing team: Kim Lyons (Pittsburgh-based journalist and managing editor at Inside), David Stegon (senior editor at Inside, whose reporting experience includes cryptocurrency and technology), and Bobby Cherry (senior editor at Inside, who’s always on social media).
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