Eric David
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Microsoft bets on general artificial intelligence with Maluuba acquisition
Microsoft Corp. has announced that it has acquired Maluuba Inc., a Montreal-based deep learning company that is dedicated to building general-purpose artificial intelligence. According to Microsoft, Maluuba’s expertise with natural language understanding aligns with the company’s goal of democratizing AI, making it more accessible for everyone. “Maluuba’s vision is to advance toward a more general artificial intelligence by ...
Pinterest uses deep learning AI for better pin recommendations
Pinterest Inc. revealed today that its Related Pins feature will now be powered by deep learning neural networks, making it even easier for users to find all of the dessert recipes and pictures of things in mason jars they could possibly want. The visual bookmarking service’s Related Pins feature is not new, but up until now, ...
Crowdfunded Lily drone cancelled, firm will refund $34M in pre-orders
Once again proving that a successful crowdfunding campaign does not guarantee a successful final product, the makers of Lily, an autonomous camera drone, today announced that the project has been cancelled, and they will be refunding $34 million in pre-orders. Lily was meant to be a small camera drone that could automatically follow and record ...
Facebook launches project to ‘support quality journalism’
“Facebook” and “quality journalism” are not usually phrases you would see put together, but Facebook Inc. wants to change that with its newly announced Facebook Journalism Project. The new project is aimed at encouraging better journalism on Facebook by collaborating with media partners on new features, training journalists on how to better use Facebook’s tools, and ...
US military launches swarms of surveillance drones from fighter jets
The United States military revealed on Monday that it has successfully launched swarms of tiny surveillance drones from three F/A-18 Super Hornet fighter jets, an accomplishment that could fundamentally change the nature of battlefield reconnaissance. The military conducted the test in October using a total of 103 Perdix drones, each of which are roughly the size of ...
LinkedIn, eBay founders form $27M fund for public-interest AI
A $27 million research fund aimed at supporting artificial intelligence research for the public interest was announced today by a couple of high-profile Silicon Valley founders. LinkedIn Corp. co-founder Reid Hoffman, eBay Inc. founder Pierre Omidyar’s philanthropic investment firm Omidyar Network and the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation announced today that they’ve created the Ethics and Governance ...
Report: Facebook to start showing ads in the middle of videos
If you thought ads on Facebook Inc.’s social network were already annoying, then prepare yourself. The company could soon start showing ads in the middle of some of its videos. According to anonymous “industry sources”cited by Recode today, Facebook will begin testing a new “mid-roll” video advertising format for pre-recorded videos, which would allow brands to ...
Game guru Tim Sweeney: VR is exciting, but AR will be ‘the device for a billion users’
Epic Games founder and Chief Executive Tim Sweeney is at the forefront of the virtual reality revolution thanks to his company’s work on Unreal Engine 4, which powers a wide range of VR games and experiences. But he thinks augmented reality will be an even bigger deal for the broadest base of people. Sweeney looked ...
Museums to use Google’s Tango AR platform to spice up exhibits
Google Inc. announced today that it is opening up its Tango augmented reality platform to a number of museums around the world, starting today with the Detroit Institute of Arts. Through a partnership with virtual tour publishing app GuidiGO, the Detroit Institute of Arts has used Tango to create a new AR experience called Lumin, which allows museum ...
In a challenge to Nvidia, AMD aims new Vega graphics cards at machine learning
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has finally unveiled some of the details of its next-generation Vega graphics processing unit architecture, and the new cards could provide some serious competition for Nvidia Corp., AMD’s chief rival in graphics hardware. In an official announcement Thursday, AMD highlighted several of Vega’s advancements, including a dramatically improved geometry pipeline and an all-new pixel ...