Why I’m Embracing Artificial Intelligence
By Jon Gelsey

Nearly forty years ago Paul Allen and Bill Gates set an audacious goal to put a computer on every desk and in every home. Since then we’ve seen our lives change as computers became increasingly available, miniaturizing from expensive mainframes to tremendously powerful handheld smartphones that nearly anyone can access.
I believe we’re on the brink of a similar breakthrough with artificial intelligence, and we are about to witness the next computer revolution. Until now, AI has required vast amounts of computing power to create and run deep learning models, relegating it to research, running in expensive data centers, or controlled by an elite group of cloud computing vendors. Where AI is truly needed is at the edge — cameras, sensors, mobile devices and IoT — where AI can interact with the real world in real-time.
The number of IoT devices is expected to increase from 23 billion in 2018 to 75 billion by 2025.

I’m excited and honored to be joining Xnor as CEO, joining Xnor’s founders — Professor Ali Farhadi and Dr. Mohammad Rastegari — to enable AI on billions of devices such as cameras, phones, wearables, autonomous vehicles and IoT devices that previously wasn’t feasible. Ali and Mohammad’s breakthrough discoveries have dramatically shrunk the compute requirements for advanced AI functions such as computer vision and speech recognition. Xnor is revolutionizing what’s possible on edge devices, delivering sophisticated AI on small and inexpensive devices, e.g. powerful computer vision even on something like a $5 Raspberry Pi Zero. We are already working with companies accomplishing amazing things on autonomous vehicles, home security, and on mobile devices.
Can AI save lives?
I’m also incredibly optimistic about the good that AI can bring to the world. Movies and science fiction often paint a dystopian future of how AI can be misused. Instead, I see many possibilities to improve lives — perhaps even save them. One of my friends is an avid sailor and I sometimes worry about what would happen if his boat capsized in a storm. Similar incidents in the recent past innovated by organizing crowdsourcing efforts enlisting people to scour satellite images of oceans spanning thousands of square miles to search for signs of survivors. As noble as these efforts were it was still looking for a needle in a haystack, with human eyes susceptible to fatigue reviewing imagery that quickly became out of date. I envision a future, already possible today, where autonomous search and rescue drones tirelessly traverse large expanses of ocean, equipped with cameras and utilizing deep machine learning to detect human life, boat wreckage, and survival gear in real-time to expedite a rescue.

What else is in the realm of possibility to improve our existence? One of the emerging areas of AI is human emotion detection and behavioral intent to improve retail experiences, utilizing deep learning models that measure consumer intent and engagement through movement and behavior. Those same concepts could be used to alert us to potential terrorist activity, human trafficking, and identify people in distress.
As with most exciting journeys, they’re rarely straight and can take a few surprise turns — but they are always memorable and worth venturing on. I’m looking forward to starting this one.
Learn more in our press release
About Xnor.ai
Xnor.ai brings highly efficient AI to edge devices such as cameras, cars, drones, wearables and IoT devices. The Xnor platform allows product developers to run complex deep learning algorithms — previously restricted to the cloud — locally, on a wide range of mobile and low-energy devices. Xnor is a venture funded startup, founded on award winning research conducted at the University of Washington and the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence. Xnor’s industry-leading technology is used by global corporations in aerospace, automotive, retail, photography, consumer electronics and government.

