Eric David
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You can now stream to Facebook Live from inside virtual reality
If you don’t think your real life is interesting enough to livestream to your friends, you’re in luck. Facebook Inc. announced today that you can now livestream from virtual reality using the Facebook Spaces app, giving your friends “a window into your VR world.” Spaces is essentially a VR hangout app that allows users to ...
Intuition Robotics raises $14M to build companion robots for the elderly
Israeli startup Intuition Robotics Ltd. believes it can combine artificial intelligence and robotics to improve the lives of the elderly, and today the company announced that it has closed a $14 million early-stage funding round. The Series A round was led by the Toyota Research Institute, with participation from existing investors including OurCrowd, iRobot, Maniv Mobility, ...
AI cybersecurity startup Darktrace raises $75M at $875M valuation
Cyberattacks may be bad for most businesses, but this year they have been great for the cybersecurity industry. Between the WannaCry ransomware that swept Europe and the more recent Petya attacks, cybersecurity shares have surged this year, and so has cybersecurity funding. The latest startup to benefit from this security boom is Darktrace Ltd., which today announced that it ...
Google DeepMind is teaching an AI how to walk
DeepMind Technologies Inc. has built artificial intelligences that can defeat the world’s top Go players or beat dozens of old video games in no time at all. Now, the Google Inc.-owned company is setting its sights on something a bit more complicated: teaching an AI to walk. The idea behind DeepMind’s project is not necessarily to create a ...
Google’s new PAIR initiative focuses on the ‘human side’ of AI
Google Inc. has its hand in nearly every type of artificial intelligence research, and today the company announced the launch of an initiative called People + AI Research, a new project that focuses on the developing relationship between AI and people. According to Fernanda Viégas and Martin Wattenberg, senior staff research scientists on the Google Brain team, the ...
Facebook is turning its new Willow Campus into a small city
Facebook Inc. has big plans for its next campus near its headquarters in Menlo Park, California. Today, the social media giant revealed plans to do a major redevelopment of the former Menlo Science & Technology Park, which will be renamed as Facebook’s Willow Campus. Encompassing more than 125,000 square feet, the Willow Campus will basically be Facebook’s own ...
Microsoft confirms layoff rumors, CIO departure amid major reorganization
Cloud computing has provided a growth kicker even for some established information technology leaders, but the transition is proving painful for some employees, as many at Microsoft Corp. discovered anew today. The software giant sent out an internal memo last week saying that it will be going through a major staff reorganization as it looks to boost sales ...
DeepMind releases first independent review of its AI health projects
DeepMind Technologies Inc. is one of many companies looking to apply artificial intelligence to healthcare, but dealing with private health information can be tricky, as DeepMind learned Tuesday. Today, DeepMind released the results of the first-ever independent review of DeepMind Health, and the company revealed what it plans to do about the report’s recommendations. According to DeepMind, ...
UK watchdog says Google DeepMind had illegal access to health data
Google Inc.’s DeepMind team formed a partnership with the U.K. National Health Service to streamline healthcare using artificial intelligence in November, but the project has hit a major legal roadblock. The U.K.’s Information Commissioner Office, a government organization that regulates data privacy, has determined the DeepMind’s access to citizen health records is not legal. DeepMind was using the ...
Facebook’s massive Aquila drone took flight again, and this time it didn’t crash
Facebook Inc. has conducted a second test flight of its enormous solar-powered drone, Aquila, and unlike the first test flight, this time the drone made it all the way to its landing pad. With a wingspan roughly equivalent to a Boeing 737, Aquila is designed to fly at altitudes of 60,000 to 90,000 feet for up ...