TechHearTS

WHAT DO YOU BUY the company that has everything? If Microsoft had an Amazon wishlist, it looks like it would be filled with artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning companies. That (entirely imaginary) wishlist is getting shorter all the time. Having recently splurged on Bonsai.ai and Semantic Machines , Microsoft now has another new AI subsidiary - Lobe. It's a startup that aims to make machine learning a drag-and-drop experience with no coding required. Using Lobe, the user can drag in a folder of training examples, and watch the software built a deep-learning model to train the AI with. When it's done learning, the user can just export their model into the app. The concept of making machine learning so simple that even I could do it may well turn out to be humanity's undoing, but Microsoft still thinks it's worth a bash. "We look forward to continuing the great work by Lobe in putting AI development into the hands of non-engineers an...

C3 IoT announced on Tuesday a new strategic partnership with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), aimed at accelerating digital transformation with AI and IoT. C3 IoT announced on Tuesday a new strategic partnership with Google Cloud Platform (GCP), aimed at accelerating digital transformation through the use of artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT). As part of the announcement, C3 IoT confirmed its IoT platform has been integrated into GCP, leveraging the cloud platform’s infrastructure and AI capabilities. The businesses will work together on marketing, selling, and training initiatives. “The Google Cloud and C3 IoT partnership creates a solution that dramatically speeds up our customers’ digital transformations to allow them to attain new levels of operational efficiency, productivity, and competitive advantage,” said Ed Abbo, C3 IoT President and CTO. “Together, w...

The company has announced a range of updates to Zoho One, its all-in-one cloud app suite including new analytics tools and access to its Zia AI assistant. India-based Zoho has rolled out several updates to Zoho One, the all-in-one cloud app suite it calls “the operating system for business”. The updates include new analytics tools and access to the Zia AI assistant. They are just the latest in a slew of new features added to the suite since it launched a year ago. The first was team chat tool Cliq, then Zoho Flow, an automated workflow automation platform. The latest updates also feature their PageSense website testing tool and Sprints project management app. ZoHo one will now feature integration with Zia AI assistant. It was originally part of the company’s CRM tool and offered suggestions based on customer data. Now it will be used across all Zoho One apps and offer suggestions and c...

Artificial intelligence and big data have formed a truly symbiotic relationship, and they need each other to bring to fruition what both are promising. If there are any lingering doubts that the fates of artificial intelligence and big data are intertwined, consider these recent quotes from two highly regarded thought leaders in this space: “Throughout the business world, every company these days is basically in the data business, and they’re going to need AI to civilize and digest big data and make sense out of it.” ( Kevin Kelly , co-founder of Wired).“In the past, AI’s growth was stunted due to limited data sets, representative samples of data rather than real-time, real-life data and the inability to analyze massive amounts of data in seconds. Today, there’s real-time, always-available access to the data and tools that enable rapid analysis. This has propelled AI and machine learning ...

Artificial intelligence will be a disruptive technology across many industries, but it’s likely to be additive to human tasks, not a replacement. “Automate a mess, get an automated mess,” noted consultant Mike Hammer famously said a few decades back. That tried-and-true phrase has never been more applicable than in the current age of artificial intelligence and machine learning, in which decisions are delivered across systems and networks at blinding, real-time speeds. A moribund, floundering business may find speeding up decision-making only will hasten its demise. Analysts at McKinsey recently weighed in on this matter, seeing AI as a transformational force that will extend and expand human tasks. The McKinsey researchers, James Manyika and Kevin Sneader, take a positive view, noting AI technologies “will transform the nature of work and the workplace itself. Machines will be able to carry out more of the tasks done by humans, complement the work that hum...

Hearing aids benefit their users via AI technologies, but increasingly its hard to find the AI talent to work on these devices. Hearing aids are perhaps one of the most personal examples of real-time technology in action. Now, they are getting even more powerful, thanks to the introduction of artificial intelligence (AI). However, the talent required to build and support such systems is currently in short supply. AI isn’t necessarily a new concept for hearing aids, Dr. Chris Heddon of Resonance Medical pointed out in a recent  post . “Before the market for AI researchers became white hot, hearing aid companies had been working on various AI and machine learning approaches for quite some time,” he states. However, lately, AI technology has been getting more ubiquitous, and prices for tools and solutions have been dropping dramatically. “The removal of specific technological constraints, combined with the hearing aid industry’s need to address new and disrupti...

INSTAGRAM has blamed an artificial intelligence gaffe for shocking hashtags promoting eating disorders.Almost a dozen hashtags being used to share "unhealthy and dangerous attitudes towards food and body image" were found circulating on the site – without any warnings. Instagram has been accused of failing to protect its most vulnerable users. When you search for terms like "anorexia", "proanorexia" or "bulimia" on Instagram , you'll be blocked by a warning message asking if you need help. This policy has been in place since 2016, to protect users looking for sensitive topics on the site. But an investigation by Sky News uncovered similar hashtags being used to share rogue content, which had slipped through Instagram's filter systems. "The hashtag search terms were slight variations or different spellings on others that have been flagged up," the report explains.Hashtags used to promote dangerous content around eating diso...