AI Biweekly: 10 Bits from Nov (Pt 1)

Oct 30th — AT&T’s New Acumos AI Platform Hosted by Linux Foundation

US telecommunications giant AT&T introduces its artificial intelligence platform Acumos, which is open-source and hosted by the Linux Foundation. Developers can now build location tracking and facial recognition AI functionalities. The platform supports content curation, self-driving cars, and VR/AR capabilities; and is based on AT&T Indigo, a data-and-software-powered network with faster internet speeds.

Nov 7th — Waymo is in Arizona Testing Self-Driving Cars

Over the next few months Alphabet’s Waymo will test self-driving cars in Arizona, USA, with no human in the driver’s seat. The road test will use a fleet of Fiat Chrysler Pacifica minivans, and try to avoid bad weather conditions. Initially, a Waymo employee will travel in the back seat but eventually the car will travel alone. The state of Arizona has accommodating self-driving car regulations. Waymo has eight years testing experience with self-driving cars, making it a leading international R&D company for this technology.

Nov 2nd — Waymo Partners with AutoNation for Driverless Car Repairs

Alphabet’s Waymo is partnering with leading US automotive retailer AutoNation to repair its driverless cars. Self-driving cars are expensive to maintain due to their various sensors, chips, and software gadgets; and companies like Waymo need to balance operation costs if they seek to make money off the technology. AutoNation will start providing services for Waymo in California and Arizona.

Nov 6th — Broadcom’s Offer to Buy Qualcomm for US$105 Billion Gets Turned Down

Broadcom made an offer to buy mobile chip maker Qualcomm for US $105 billion. At the time the offer was made, Qualcomm was locked in a lawsuit with Apple, which put the company at a financial disadvantage. In their rejection of the bid several days later Qualcomm suggested that Broadcom had significantly undervalued its current market share in mobile, IoT, and self-driving car industries.

Nov 2nd — US Department of Transportation Relaxes Drone Testing Regulations

The Department of Transportation (DoT) now permits broader testing of drone operations such as package delivery. The new policy allows drones to overfly pedestrians, operate at night, and fly beyond eyesight-distance. The three-year civil testing program will allow observation of drone operations on a case-by-case basis, and operational data will be used in future policy-making.

Nov 6th — Salesforce’s MyEinstein Has Customers Building Custom AI Apps

Salesforce announces its myEinstein AI platform, with two new services: the Einstein Prediction Builder, which enables automatic creation of custom AI models; and the Einstein Bots, which can be trained to enhance customer service workflows by automating question-answering tasks. The new platform essentially provides Salesforce customers with pre-built AI apps for CRM, and allows them to build and customize their own with just a few clicks.

Nov 3rd — AI Music Composer Gains Foothold in South Korea’s Entertainment Industry

South Korea Creative Content Agency and S.M. Entertainment host a competition with six teams composing music with AI. The compositions involve sentiment and melody training, lyrics from big data, and appropriateness to environment. As AI grows in Korea’s entertainment industry, companies like S.M. Entertainment are also developing virtual chatbots to allow fans to interact with their favorite K-Pop idols.

Nov 6th — Canadian Primister Trudeau Attends Google’s AI Conference Go North 2017

Speaking at Google’s Go North 17 conference on November 2, Prime Minister Trudeau says Canada wants to get ahead of AI and help shape it now because its development “has never been this fast, and yet will never be this slow again.” Trudeau believes Canada’s values, openness and diversity provide a favourable framework for AI development, and the country needs to continue to attract global AI talent. The Canadian government has taken multiple steps in 2017 to support AI.

Nov 7th — DJI Unveils Drone Management Solution FlightHub

DJI releases FlightHub, the industry’s first enterprise-level drone management solution platform for businesses. The platform enables drone operators to remotely and securely manage drone fleet operations in real-time, and monitor flight data and pilot team activities. It also includes features such as Map View to enable geofence-based simultaneous flight monitoring, and Real-Time View to allow offsite teams to view live video feeds captured from the drones.

Nov 5th — Amazon’s Fourth Research Hub in Germany Targets Visual AI R&D

Amazon announces its fourth German research hub will open in Tubingen, joining hubs in Berlin, Dresden and Achen. Tubingen will focus on visual AI research to provide a better online shopping experience with upgraded visual systems, and on R&D for Amazon Web Services and Alexa. Tubingen is also home to the Max Planck Institute for Intelligence Systems.

Editorial: Synced Industry Analyst Team, Meghan Han | Infograph: Meghan Han | Editor: Michael Sarazen