AI Biweekly: Google Pushes Its Enterprise Services; AI Takes a Creative Role in Media Production
Biweekly Review
Ivan Zhou — Analyst, Global Industry
Google’s Recent Moves on Enterprise Services
The big Google news from the last two weeks includes the CEO change at Google Cloud’s business and new efforts in the Google Health department. After three years as the CEO of Google Cloud, Diane Greene announced that she will step down. Thomas Kurian from Oracle will take her role. The new hire signals that Google still has big ambitions in enterprise services and wants to push for greater success in that sector. Greene built the Google Cloud unit almost from scratch, but it still trails competitors Amazon and Microsoft. The main goal for new CEO Kurian will be to increase market share and help Google build successful enterprise solution practices.
Google recently appointed healthcare expert David Feinberg as CEO of Google Health and integrated DeepMind’s healthcare AI product streams into Google Health. The moves indicate the company’s keen interest in another enterprise solution business: Healthcare. After Google announced their AI-first strategy, one of their critical directions was to gain more revenue from enterprise services. If either the cloud or healthcare businesses take off, this will set a good precedent for Google’s transition to AI-driven enterprise solutions.
November 16 — November Oracle Executive Thomas Kurian Will Replace Diane Greene as the new Google Cloud CEO
- Google Cloud’s Diane Greene announced that she will step down and Thomas Kurian from Oracle will take her position.
- Diane Greene became the CEO of Google Cloud three years ago. Since then, Google’s cloud division has shown growth, but has captured only 8 percent of the market.
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/16/former-oracle-exec-thomas-kurian-to-replace-diane-greene-as-head-of-google-cloud/
- https://www.theinformation.com/articles/behind-google-cloud-chiefs-departure-tensions-with-execs
November 13 — Google Absorbs DeepMind’s Streams Team into Google Health
- Google announced it will move DeepMind’s team behind Streams into Google Health. The team will remain in London and the patient data it has collected will be protected.
- Streams is an app that helps medical professionals predict and identify any potentially life-threatening issue in patients. It aims to be used by healthcare professionals globally.
- Google appointed a new CEO of Google Health, Dr. David Feinberg, to manage Google’s work, from hardware to algorithms, in the area of healthcare.
- https://deepmind.com/blog/scaling-streams-google/
Nicolas Richard — Analyst, Global Industry
AI’s Creative Side
AI is proving itself to be a potential engine for media production across various mediums and is a great creative assistant. Quartz is seeing promise from machine learning tools that can parse through large data sets to help journalists develop stories. Digital news publication Quartz has secured funding to hire a developer and producer to run the Quartz AI studio, which will further explore AI applications in media.
In advertising, Lexus deployed AI to come up with a brilliant commercial promoting the Lexus SE. The car company’s agencies teamed up with IBM Watson to develop a script based on data insights from 15 years of advertising footage. The result was a very engaging storyline in which a machine plays the protagonist. However, the AI system does not work alone, it is supported by human writers and directors to achieve more powerful results.
November 20 — Quartz Forms Quartz AI Studio with $250k Grant from Knight Foundation
- Quartz has launched the Quartz AI Studio and is developing an AI application that helps journalists produce certain types of news reports through big data analysis.
- The application is being developed with funding from the Knight Foundation which will be used to hire a developer and producer in January
- In 2016 Quartz launched the Quartz Bot Studio to develop chatbots that promote its articles.
- https://digiday.com/media/quartz-forms-quartz-ai-studio/
November 19 — First AI-Scripted Commercial Debuts, Directed by Kevin Macdonald for Lexus
- Lexus has produced the first AI-scripted commercial for its new Lexus Executive Sedan.
- The advertisement is an example of how AI can be harnessed by creatives to identify themes that resonate with audiences.
- The AI helped the director outline a script by analyzing 15 years of car and luxury goods commercials.
- hhttps://variety.com/2018/digital/news/lexus-ai-scripted-ad-ibm-watson-kevin-macdonald-1203030693/
10 AI News You Must Know
November 23 — Light Information Systems Launches The First Horizontal AI NLP Platform
- AI-based NLP startup Light Information Systems announced an update of its flagship platform and NLPBots v2.
- The new platform is enabled with a better semantic understanding system, which contains unstructured and structured data, auto disambiguation and better UI configuration.
- The NLPBots v2 is powered by artificial intelligence and natural language processing technology.
- Light Information Systems has already partnered with many companies, and provides services for 25 marquee clients.
- http://www.asianage.com/technology/in-other-news/231118/light-information-systems-launches-the-first-horizontal-ai-nlp-platform.html
November 22 — China’s Geek+ Raises $150 Million to Build Robots for Warehouses and Logistics
- Robot startup Geek Plus said it has raised US$150 million to expand product development, customer service and sales.
- Geek Plus has delivered more than 5,000 robots and 100 robotics warehouse projects. Current customers include Alibaba’s Tmall.
- Retail industry and smart factories are two key development directions. Geek Plus is building a smart factory for robotics.
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/22/chinas-geek-raises-150m-to-build-robots-for-warehouses-and-logistics/
November 21 — SAP Acquires Contextor to Augment Robotic Process Automation Capabilities
- SAP has announced the acquisition of European leader in robotic process automation firm Contextor SAS.
- The acquisition will leverage Contextor SAS machine learning technology to enhance SAP expansion of its Leonardo Machine Learning portfolio.
- https://martechseries.com/predictive-ai/sap-acquires-contextor-augment-robotic-process-automation-capabilities/
November 21 — AI Adoption Among Canadian Businesses Stagnant: Only 16 Percent of Companies Use AI, Unchanged Since 2014
- A Deloitte report shows Canadian companies falling behind in adopting AI.
- According to Deloitte’s investigation, only 16 percent of Canadian companies use AI, only 4 percent of Canadians can confidently explain what AI is and how it works, and, 86 percent Canadians say they do not use AI devices.
- https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/ai-adoption-among-canadian-businesses-stagnant-only-16-per-cent-of-companies-use-ai-which-remains-unchanged-since-2014-700989851.html
November 20 — Quartz Forms Quartz AI Studio with $250k grant from Knight Foundation
- Quartz launches the Quartz AI Studio and announces it is developing an AI application to helps journalists produce news reports through big data analysis.
- https://digiday.com/media/quartz-forms-quartz-ai-studio/
November 20 — Philips Launches IntelliSpace Discovery Research Platform at RSNA to Support AI Development And Deployment in Radiology.
- Powered by Philips HealthSuite, the new open platform offers radiologists comprehensive data analytics in medical imaging.
- Solutions that leverage AI have the potential to improve patient care and increase the efficiency of care delivery.
- https://www.philips.com/a-w/about/news/archive/standard/news/press/2018/20181120-philips-launches-intellispace-discovery-research-platform-at-rsna-to-support-the-development-and-deployment-of-artificial-intelligence-assets-in-radiology.html
November 19 — Lidar Startup AEye Raises $40m Series B Led by the Taiwanese Government’s Investment Firm
- Lidar startup AEye closed its B round with US$40 million in investments from local government, Intel Capital, Airbus Ventures and others.
- AEye’s total funding has now reached US$61 million and the company is expanding its operations.
- AEye Lidar can be used in autonomous vehicles as the sensor that “sees”.
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/19/lidar-startup-aeye-raises-40m-series-b-led-by-the-taiwanese-governments-investment-firm/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
November 19 — GM’s Self-Driving Unit Cruise Is Expanding to Seattle
- GM’s self-driving division Cruise added employees in Seattle and hopes to recruit more talent to develop its autonomous driving technology.
- Cruise does not have any plans to deploy its self-driving tests in Seattle.
- Cruise believes Seattle has many engineers with AI, robotics and software backgrounds, which could reduce the pressure to find talent in the Bay Area.
- https://techcrunch.com/2018/11/19/gms-self-driving-unit-cruise-is-expanding-to-seattle/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29
November 16 — Google is building an ‘AI-Powered Assistant’ For Nurses And Doctors
- DeepMind announced its health care team will move into Google to build AI-powered assistants for nurses and doctors.
- https://www.advisory.com/daily-briefing/2018/11/16/google-deep-mind
November 13 — ‘Data Is the New Oil’: UAE Says Energy Executives Should Embrace AI to Improve Profits
- According to the UAE’s Minister of State for AI technology, big oil companies should try their best to use AI tech in the energy industry.
- The oil sector faced a huge challenge four years ago, and blockchain, AI, and IoT can transform the industry for the future.
- https://www.cnbc.com/2018/11/13/uae-says-energy-executives-should-embrace-ai-to-improve-profits.html
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