Monthly Archives: July 2017

Marketing Evolution and PlaceIQ Partner to Deliver Marketing Actionability – MarTech Advisor

Posted: July 27, 2017 at 10:31 am

New York, NY:Marketing Evolution, a real-time omnichannel marketing optimization service provider, today announced PlaceIQ, the location data and insights company, as a new certified partner inside the Marketing Evolution attribution platform. With the addition of PlaceIQ dataset into the Marketing Evolution ROI Brain, brands can easily identify how all their online and offline marketing touchpoints such as TV, digital, direct mail, and social drive physical world visitation outcomes.

This partnership connects PlaceIQ data with hundreds of omnichannel campaign data points to facilitate simple applications for Marketing Evolution customers to measure and maximize marketing ROI, and optimize campaigns in-flight to drive visitation and bottom line revenue. This integration creates a closed loop solution for customers with brick and mortar locations, such as retailers, restaurants, and automotive dealerships, to help brands and advertisers understand marketings effect on real world visitation. With PlaceIQ data, brands can also use location data to understand visitation trends on a market-by-market basis, identify key customer audiences based on their propensity to visit certain locations, connect campaigns to out of home (OOH) advertising, and gather additional insights that can inform end-to-end media decisions.

Location data continues to act as a truth set for brands to accurately measure ROI, learn from customers and effectively engage with them in new ways, said Duncan McCall, CEO and co-founder, PlaceIQ. Partnering with Marketing Evolution extends these benefits, as well as the value of our advanced location dataset, to their impressive roster of Fortune 500 customer brands for the first time. By aligning with a leader like Marketing Evolution, we continue to make good on our promise to make our dataset ubiquitous, in a way that lets brands realize the value of visitation data quickly. Our data in their platform allows marketers to optimize campaigns in-flight, which provides immediacy for optimizing media budgets and driving ROI.

Marketing Evolutions ROI Brain integrates hundreds of different data sets across thousands of variables at the person-level to evaluate how each marketing message motivates different types of brand perceptions and behaviors. In the ROI Brain, Marketing Evolution connects both proprietary brand specific data feeds and publicly available data sets at the person-level to provide forecasting for forward-looking budget optimizations. Brands measure and optimize everything in one platform: direct mail, email, display and video impressions across devices, TV, OOH, radio. The ROI Brain applies artificial intelligence over this integrated data set seeking predictive and prescriptive optimizations in the coming days, weeks and months to maximize the ROI of your media.

We are thrilled to bring this game-changing feature to our current customers and the broader market, said Christine Grammier, Head of Partners & Alliances, Marketing Evolution. By adding the location-based data leader, PlaceIQ, to the Marketing Evolution partner ecosystem, brands, both large and small, are now finding media and message optimizations that drive 25-35% more visits per marketing dollar spent. We are reducing friction for brands large and small to reap the bottom line benefits of this data.

Marketing Evolutions current customers are already realizing the benefits of this integration now and if you are a brand searching for the best way to leverage geolocation data, please reach out to Marketing Evolution.

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Desperately Seeking Evolutionary Innovation by Chance – Discovery Institute

Posted: at 10:31 am

We all know the neo-Darwinian story: random mutations are naturally selected for fitness, leading to innovation over time. By this elegant process, bacteria over billions of years became humans. But when you eliminate the question-begging circular arguments, distracting definitions, and ideological assumptions, can evolutionists really demonstrate any unambiguous cases of innovation? To clear away clutter, heres what we mean by eliminating faulty answers:

Two classic cases of innovation claimed by evolutionists are the citrate story in Lenskis lab and the nylonase story. For the example of citrate metabolism, Michael Behe explained that it was a switch-on of a pre-existing function, not an innovation. Ditto for the nylonase story, which Ann Gauger recently revisited. Now, lets look into some recent papers for more examples of innovation by chance mutations. The papers promise them; do they deliver?

What better place to start than a paper edited by Richard Lenski himself? Lets search for innovation in their paper in PNAS, Hitchhiking and epistasis give rise to cohort dynamics in adapting populations. The opening sentence sounds promising: Beneficial mutations are the driving force of adaptive evolution. Indeed, this paper is full of the words beneficial mutations, adaptive, and fitness. Sounds like a good place to hunt, as we watch them tweak yeast genes to see if something novel, something innovative, arises by random chance. They will even consider mutations that might work in synergy to provide a new benefit. Heres the Abstract:

Beneficial mutations are the driving force of adaptive evolution. In asexual populations, the identification of beneficial alleles is confounded by the presence of genetically linked hitchhiker mutations. Parallel evolution experiments enable the recognition of common targets of selection; yet these targets are inherently enriched for genes of large target size and mutations of large effect. A comprehensive study of individual mutations is necessary to create a realistic picture of the evolutionarily significant spectrum of beneficial mutations. Here we use a bulk-segregant approach to identify the beneficial mutations across 11 lineages of experimentally evolved yeast populations. We report that nearly 80% of detected mutations have no discernible effects on fitness and less than 1% are deleterious. We determine the distribution of driver and hitchhiker mutations in 31 mutational cohorts, groups of mutations that arise synchronously from low frequency and track tightly with one another. Surprisingly, we find that one-third of cohorts lack identifiable driver mutations. In addition, we identify intracohort synergistic epistasis between alleles of hsl7 and kel1, which arose together in a low-frequency lineage. [Emphasis added.]

Their prime example of intracohort synergistic epistasis (e.g., two mutations that interact somehow) as a case of adaptive evolution fails tests #1 and #2. All they notice is that the alleles localize to the poles of the yeast cell somehow, but they dont know why. As expected, most of the mutations are neutral, or have effects that are so small as to get lost in the noise. Lets cut to the chase and look for innovation or novelty:

Deletion of HSL7 is deleterious under a wide range of conditions, including the rich glucose media used here; thus our data suggest that the evolved hsl7 allele bestows a novel function or alters an existing function. Extensive characterization of such rare beneficial mutations requires long-term high-replicate evolution experiments followed by comprehensive analysis linking genotype to phenotype. Likely due to their large target size, loss-of-function mutations dominate adaptive evolution experiments, though rare beneficial mutations and epistatic interactions may provide the raw material for molecular innovation in natural populations.

Do they identify a new function? No; they might have just found a mutation that alters an existing function. All they know is without it, the effects are deleterious somehow, but they dont know what the allele is doing. They tell us that beneficial mutations are rare, and that adaptive evolution experiments are dominated by loss-of-function mutations. Dont look for a new wing or eye emerging in this paper. Instead: rare beneficial mutations and epistatic interactions may provide the raw material for innovations in natural populations. Their lab culture, we notice too, is not a natural population.

So that was the only use of the word innovation in the paper: a lone suggestion that some beneficial mutation or interacting set of mutations may provide the raw material for innovation someday over the rainbow. And how did they measure the adaptive fitness of all those alleged beneficial mutations they talk about? Look in the Materials & Methods section: they measured it by survival. Tautological evolution rears its lovely head again.

We should briefly consider the possibility that survival might reduce fitness. Imagine a population of yeast cells that divides recklessly, like cancer. Say theres an organism in the natural environment that likes the taste of those mutated, rapidly dividing yeast cells and snacks on them. Youre not going to know that in the lab. Lenski and this team will just measure them out-competing other strains, and assume they are adaptive. What we are looking for is proof of a chance mutation that produces a new, useful, novel, innovative function. That is not in evidence here.

Lets try another paper. Phys.org tells about a research team that tried to re-create the Precambrian version of beta-lactamase. If that enzyme sounds familiar, its because Biologic Institute scientist Douglas Axe did work on beta lactamase to measure the tolerance of protein folds to mutation. These researchers approach the enzyme from an evolutionary angle, seeing if the supposed primitive form of beta-lactamase might have been capable of finding a new active site.

The first question should be, how can they resurrect an ancient protein? This is where the circular reasoning comes in. By comparing todays sequences to each other within an evolutionary framework, scientists can reasonably infer the sequence of an ancestral protein from which the modern versions descended using models of sequence evolution. So they will try to infer evolution within an evolutionary framework. Guess what they will find! Obviously, with different assumptions, one could come to completely different conclusions. If you compared the ignition from a Toyota, a Ford, a Cadillac, and a John Deere tractor within an evolutionary framework, how solid would your model of a Precambrian ignition be?

They announce that the Precambrian enzyme was more malleable (their word is promiscuous) than the modern beta lactamase enzymes, which they assume have become less tolerant to change as they became more specialized. So when they constructed the mythical Precambrian enzyme, lo and behold, it could find a new active site!

We have found that a minimalist design to introduce a de novo activity (catalysis of the Kemp elimination, a common benchmark in de novo enzyme design) fails when performed on modern -lactamases, but is highly successful when using the scaffolds of hyperstable/promiscuous Precambrian -lactamases, says Eric A. Gaucher from the Institute for Bioengineering and Biosciences, Georgia Institute of Technology.

Well, thats great. We might expect our mythical Precambrian ignition could also tolerate more types of keys. Would that make it more innovative? Hardly; it would be less secure! The Kemp elimination reaction is only a test of whether the engineered enzyme can extract a proton from a carbon atom; it is a non-natural reaction that is unknown to biological organisms. Engineers use the test for rational enzyme design. Apparently, lack of a selective pressure to generate Kemp elimination activity during evolution indicates it is a useless activity for real living organisms. Notice that the paper in Nature Communications doesnt even mention innovation or novelty, but begins with a statement of Darwinian faith:

Protein engineering studies often suggest the emergence of completely new enzyme functionalities to be highly improbable. However, enzymes likely catalysed many different reactions already in the last universal common ancestor. Mechanisms for the emergence of completely new active sites must therefore either plausibly exist or at least have existed at the primordial protein stage.

The best part may be the opening two paragraphs. Notice that after all these years, nobody has a good case of an enzyme evolving a new active site. Watch them also call it a huge unsolved problem in molecular evolution, and admit that everybody knows that finding a new functional active site is highly improbable. Note lastly how much intelligent design has factored into their efforts to solve the problem:

Enzyme activity is determined by the structure of a particular region of a protein called the active site. The generation of completely new active sites capable of enzyme catalysis is, arguably, one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in molecular biology.

Rational and modern design approaches to this problem have been developed using complex computational methods, but without conclusive results. Indeed, protein engineering studies often suggest that the emergence of completely new enzyme active sites is highly improbable.

But in the actual paper, they do not demonstrate any new active site with a clear functional advantage certainly not by chance, since they inserted their engineering hands into the work:

Here, we use resurrected Precambrian proteins as scaffolds for protein engineering and demonstrate that a new active site can be generated through a single hydrophobic-to-ionizable amino acid replacement that generates a partially buried group with perturbed physico-chemical properties. We provide experimental and computational evidence that conformational flexibility can assist the emergence and subsequent evolution of new active sites by improving substrate and transition-state binding, through the sampling of many potentially productive conformations.

In essence, they engineered a mythical Precambrian enzyme by intelligent design, and found a way to make it promiscuous. That dog wont hunt. Instead, we find that Doug Axe is vindicated again; the team admits that finding a new active site is highly improbable. The only reason they believe they emerged by chance is because they exist. (See faulty answer #3 again.)

One more angle: the hunt for clear evidence of an innovation arising in the fossil record. David Klinghoffer just wrote about the Rangeomorph bang in the Ediacaran fossil record, the sudden appearance of large frond-like extinct organisms before the Cambrian explosion. Heres another Ediacaran critter called Cloudina (see our discussion in March of this simple creature). A paper in Nature Scientific Reports looks into Ecological interactions in Cloudina from the Ediacaran of Brazil: implications for the rise of animal biomineralization. The word innovation appears three times here, so lets look for a true chance innovation.

Unfortunately, all the talk of innovation here falls under the third fallacy we discussed in the opening: ideological assumptions. Their evidence boils down to, Its there, design is verboten, therefore it evolved.

These evolutionary novelties led to the escalation and systematic organization of food webs, guilds and niches during the Cambrian radiation. It was the dawn of animal life.

The Rhapsody in Blue performance was nice, but we came for the magic act. We were looking for a rabbit to emerge out of a hat without a magician. We found a pre-existing rabbit and a hat, but no connection between the two.

In summary, we went looking for evidence of true innovation by chance. Evolutionists desperately tried to provide examples, but each time vanished in a cloud of suggestions. All prospective examples fell into the three faulty answers that disqualify them as scientific.

What really impressed us were the frequent admissions that the emergence of novel function is highly improbable, and one of the most fundamental unsolved problems in molecular biology evolutionary molecular biology, that is.

Image credit: Courtesy of Illustra Media, from Origin: Design, Chance and the First Life on Earth.

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Former Amazon Robotics execs raise $15M for new Waltham … – Boston Business Journal

Posted: at 10:30 am


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Former Amazon Robotics execs raise $15M for new Waltham ...
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When Amazon.com Inc. acquired North Reading-based Kiva Systems Inc. in 2012 for $775 million, it created a void in the warehouse robotics industry that ...
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Former Amazon Robotics execs raise $15M for new Waltham ... - Boston Business Journal

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Net-Translators, A Leading Provider of Localization and Translation Solutions, Announces Net-Connect – Benzinga

Posted: at 10:30 am

Net-Connect, a cloud-based software that uses cutting-edge technology to pull and push translated content automatically from content management systems such as WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore and more, simplifies the entire workflow, thus enabling resources to be more efficient

Milpitas, CA (PRWEB) July 27, 2017

Net-Translators, a leading provider of professional human translation and localization services, announced today that it has recently added Net-Connect to its suite of translation management systems. The cloud-based system connects to any content repository, whether it is website, software or marketing content. Net-Connect seamlessly integrates with most content management systems (CMS) and the translations are performed by professionally-trained and accredited linguists. For additional information, please visit: http://www.net-translators.com/net-connect.

Shy Avni, CEO and co-founder of Net-Translators said: "Translation management systems such as Net-Connect support and make the professional human translation services more efficient." He adds, "As thought leaders and innovators in our industry, all of us here at Net-Translators are dedicated to supporting our customers' needs with solutions and tools that enable them to be more efficient, save money and shorten the time-to-market."

Net-Connect offers three core benefits to the user:

1. Increased Process Efficiency The system takes the pain away from sending emails back and forth, uploading files using FTP, dealing with out-of-control file structures and so much more. It ensures that the content for translation automatically makes its way to us and back to you in an organized and structured manner.

2. Shorten Time-to-Market Managing the translation and localization process can be a daunting task. By incorporating Net-Connect into the process, customers are able to automate many of the steps and tasks that could slow down a translation project, thus getting to market faster.

3. Improved Workflow and Collaboration With Globally Dispersed Teams By allowing Net-Connect to fully automate certain tasks, customers will have peace of mind that the entire translation and localization process is running as smoothly and efficiently as possible during all hours of the day. Team members from around the world will be able to communicate and collaborate more effectively. The system also reduces the risk of human errors and unnecessary project delays.

Net-Translators' suite of localization tools also include Net-Proxy, a web-based translation management system that automatically detects website changes and manages the entire translation process for companies, and Net-Cloud, a one-stop translation project management system that integrates with other systems such as CRM, ERP project management, content management, cloud-based online translation and accounting solutions.

Additional information may be obtained by contacting the office nearest you: http://www.net-translators.com/contact-us.

About Net-Translators (http://www.net-translators.com) Net-Translators, a global leader specializing in professional human translations, services customers on 5 continents and in more than 60 languages. Our award-winning website translation process is managed by professional developers and project managers. Our translators and reviewers follow a stringent, comprehensive, multi-stage process to guarantee the highest quality and accuracy. Certified with multiple international standards, including: ISO 9001:2008, ISO 13485:2003 (for medical devices) and ISO 17100 (Requirements for Translation Services), Net-Translators is committed to your international reputation.

For the original version on PRWeb visit: http://www.prweb.com/releases/2017/07/prweb14545543.htm

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Net-Translators, A Leading Provider of Localization and Translation Solutions, Announces Net-Connect - Benzinga

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A recap of the raciest photos from Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and their sisters’ Instagram – GQ India

Posted: at 10:30 am

KendallJenner posted her first nude (again) yesterday. Apicture of hers, featuring the young model laying atop atable, under a chandelier, wearing nothing as cigarettedaintily dangled from between her fingers, showed up on her Instagram account. We say again because the older Jenner sister is notorious for uploading suggestive content toher nine grid before taking it off without warning. Were not sure whether she changes her mind or routinely confuses Instagram for SnapChat, but we suggest that you go and take a look at it before its gone.

ThoughKendalls nudefie couldnt quite break the Internet, her siblings have more than enough material to help her out, and we haveproof. Its time to rewind and review the raciest offerings fromKardashian-Jenners; because if youre trying to figure out why the family is worth $450 million, youre about to get some answers.

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A recap of the raciest photos from Kim Kardashian, Kylie Jenner and their sisters' Instagram - GQ India

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SSC CGL Admit Card 2017 : Tier 1 western, central, northern and eastern region examination declared – Newsfolo

Posted: at 10:30 am

SSC CGL admit card 2017 has been released for the level Tier I exams for western, central, northern, nwr and eastern region on the official website. The Department has released the admit cards for different regions. And the examination of level Tier I will be conducted from August 1, 2017, to August 20, 2017. Students who have applied for the examination of Tier I can check their results on the official website of the Staff Selection Commission i.e.,ssc.nic.in. After the exams of Tier, I department will release the admit cards of Tier-II exam that is expected to be conducted from 10th and 11th November 2017. And the SSC CGL 2017 Tier-III exam will be conducted from 21st January 2018.

Now the admit cards for the combine graduate level Tier I are available to download on the official website of Staff Selection Commission i.e., ssc.nic.in. The Staff Selection Commission released combine graduate level Tier I admit cards for different regions. To download admit cards candidates need to provide their registration number, roll number and the date of birth. And need to download admit card for the entry ticket at the examination hall. Candidates who want to appear for the Tier I exam have to log in the official website of SSC and visit the link provided on this page. Then after filling up the required details download and take out the print out of your admit cards for the future reference.

Candidates just keep in mind that due to heavy traffic the sites may be slow or crash. So, in that case, ask the candidates to keep refreshing their regional sites. Although some of the websites have not uploaded admit cards yet. However, the process of uploading is underway. Soon other alternatives sites will upload admit cards to download. The are around 1, 80,365 candidates who have been eligible for the SSC CGL Tier I examination.

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SSC CGL Admit Card 2017 : Tier 1 western, central, northern and eastern region examination declared - Newsfolo

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Google creates AI that can make its own plans and envisage consequences of its actions – The Independent

Posted: at 10:27 am

Designed by Pierpaolo Lazzarini from Italian company Jet Capsule. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph.

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A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore

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A humanoid robot gestures during a demo at a stall in the Indian Machine Tools Expo, IMTEX/Tooltech 2017 held in Bangalore

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Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

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Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

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The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie 'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company

Jung Yeon-Je/AFP/Getty Images

Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, South Korea

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Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi

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Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session

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A test line of a new energy suspension railway resembling the giant panda is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

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A test line of a new energy suspension railway, resembling a giant panda, is seen in Chengdu, Sichuan Province, China

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A concept car by Trumpchi from GAC Group is shown at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A Mirai fuel cell vehicle by Toyota is displayed at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A visitor tries a Nissan VR experience at the International Automobile Exhibition in Guangzhou, China

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A man looks at an exhibit entitled 'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London

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A new Israeli Da-Vinci unmanned aerial vehicle manufactured by Elbit Systems is displayed during the 4th International conference on Home Land Security and Cyber in the Israeli coastal city of Tel Aviv

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Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S

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The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar. This is a production preview of the Jaguar I-PACE, which will be revealed next year and on the road in 2018

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Japan's On-Art Corp's CEO Kazuya Kanemaru poses with his company's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' and other robots during a demonstration in Tokyo, Japan

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Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03'

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Japan's On-Art Corp's eight metre tall dinosaur-shaped mechanical suit robot 'TRX03' performs during its unveiling in Tokyo, Japan

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Singulato Motors co-founder and CEO Shen Haiyin poses in his company's concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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The interior of Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0

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A picture shows Singulato Motors' concept car Tigercar P0 at a workshop in Beijing, China

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Connected company president Shigeki Tomoyama addresses a press briefing as he elaborates on Toyota's "connected strategy" in Tokyo. The Connected company is a part of seven Toyota in-house companies that was created in April 2016

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A Toyota Motors employee demonstrates a smartphone app with the company's pocket plug-in hybrid (PHV) service on the cockpit of the latest Prius hybrid vehicle during Toyota's "connected strategy" press briefing in Tokyo

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An exhibitor charges the battery cells of AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo

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A robot with a touch-screen information apps stroll down the pavillon at the Singapore International Robo Expo

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An exhibitor demonstrates the AnyWalker, an ultra-mobile chasis robot which is able to move in any kind of environment during Singapore International Robo Expo

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Robotic fishes swim in a water glass tank displayed at the Korea pavillon during Singapore International Robo Expo

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An employee shows a Samsung Electronics' Gear S3 Classic during Korea Electronics Show 2016 in Seoul, South Korea

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Visitors experience Samsung Electronics' Gear VR during the Korea Electronics Grand Fair at an exhibition hall in Seoul, South Korea

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Amy Rimmer, Research Engineer at Jaguar Land Rover, demonstrates the car manufacturer's Advanced Highway Assist in a Range Rover, which drives the vehicle, overtakes and can detect vehicles in the blind spot, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Chris Burbridge, Autonomous Driving Software Engineer for Tata Motors European Technical Centre, demonstrates the car manufacturer's GLOSA V2X functionality, which is connected to the traffic lights and shares information with the driver, during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Ford EEBL Emergency Electronic Brake Lights is demonstrated during the first demonstrations of the UK Autodrive Project at HORIBA MIRA Proving Ground in Nuneaton, Warwickshire

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Full-scale model of 'Kibo' on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan

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Miniatures on display at the Space Dome exhibition hall of the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) Tsukuba Space Center, in Tsukuba, north-east of Tokyo, Japan. In its facilities, JAXA develop satellites and analyse their observation data, train astronauts for utilization in the Japanese Experiment Module 'Kibo' of the International Space Station (ISS) and develop launch vehicles

EPA

The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to the music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight. At this biennial event, the participating companies exhibit their latest service robotic technologies and components

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The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight

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Government and industry are working together on a robot-like autopilot system that could eliminate the need for a second human pilot in the cockpit

AP

Aurora Flight Sciences' technicians work on an Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automantion System (ALIAS) device in the firm's Centaur aircraft at Manassas Airport in Manassas, Va.

AP

Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany

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Google creates AI that can make its own plans and envisage consequences of its actions - The Independent

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Google launches its own AI Studio to foster machine intelligence … – TechCrunch

Posted: at 10:27 am

A new week brings a fresh Google initiative targeting AI startups. We started the month with the announcement of Gradient Ventures, Googles on-balance sheet AI investment vehicle. Two days later we watched the finalists of Google Clouds machine learning competition pitch to a panel of top AI investors. And today, Googles Launchpad is announcing a new hands-on Studio program to feed hungry AI startups the resources they need to get off the ground and scale.

The thesis is simple not all startups are created the same. AI startups love data and struggle to get enough of it. They often have to go to market in phases, iterating as new data becomes available. And they typically have highly technical teams and a dearth of product talent. You get the picture.

The Launchpad Studio aims to address these needs head-on with specialized data sets, simulation tools and prototyping assistance. Another selling point of the Launchpad Studio is that startups accepted will have access to Google talent, including engineers, IP experts and product specialists.

Launchpad, to date, operates in 40 countries around the world, explains Roy Geva Glasberg, Googles Global Lead for Accelerator efforts. We have worked with over 10,000 startups and trained over 2,000 mentors globally.

This core mentor base will serve as a recruiting pool for mentors that will assist the Studio.Barak Hachamov, board member for Launchpad, has been traveling around the world withGlasberg to identify new mentors for the program.

The idea of a startup studio isnt new. It has been attempted a handful of times in recent years, but seems to have finally caught on withAndy Rubins Playground Global. Playground offers startups extensive services and access to top talent to dial-in products and compete with the largest of tech companies.

On the AI Studio front, Yoshua Bengios Element AI raised a $102 million Series A to create a similar program. Bengio, one of, if not the, most famous AI researchers, can help attract top machine learning talent to enable recruiting parity with top AI groups like Googles DeepMind and Facebooks FAIR. Launchpad Studio wont have Bengio, but it will bringPeter Norvig, Dan Ariely, Yossi Matias and Chris DiBona to the table.

But unlike Playgrounds $300 million accompanying venture capital arm and Elements own coffers, Launchpad Studio doesnt actually have any capital to deploy. On one hand, capital completes the package. On the other, Ive never heard a good AI startup complain about not being able to raise funding.

Launchpad Studio sits on top of the Google Developer Launchpad network. The group has been operating an accelerator with global scale for some time now. Now on its fourth class of startups, the team has had time to flesh out its vision and build relationships with experts within Google to ease startup woes.

Launchpad has positioned itself as the Google global program for startups, asserts Glasberg. It is the most scaleable tool Google has today to reach, empower, train and support startups globally.

With all the resources in the world, Googles biggest challenge with its Studio wont be vision or execution but this doesnt guarantee everything will be smooth sailing. Between GV, Capital G, Gradient Ventures, GCP and Studio, entrepreneurs are going to have a lot of potential touch-points with the company.

On paper, Launchpad Studio is the Switzerland of Googles programs. It doesnt aim to make money or strengthen Google Clouds positioning. But from the perspective of founders, theres bound to be some confusion. In an ideal world we will see a meeting of the minds between Launchpads Glasberg, Gradients Anna Patterson and GCPs Sam OKeefe.

The Launchpad Studio will be based in San Francisco, with additional operations in Tel Aviv and New York City. Eventually Toronto, London, Bangalore and Singapore will host events locally for AI founders.

Applications to the Studio are now open if youre interested you can apply here.The program itself is stage-agnostic, so there are no restrictions on size. Ideally early and later-stage startups can learn from each other as they scale machine learning models to larger audiences.

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The First AI Bubble Is Now Here: Talking Speakers – Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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Wall Street Journal (subscription)
The First AI Bubble Is Now Here: Talking Speakers
Wall Street Journal (subscription)
Smart speakers powered by artificial intelligence are one of the hottest consumer products in the U.S. Amazon.com Inc., Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Apple Inc. are all offering competing products. If they think that's a crowded field, they should come to ...

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The First AI Bubble Is Now Here: Talking Speakers - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

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Mozilla is crowdsourcing voice recognition to make AI work for the people – The Verge

Posted: at 10:27 am

Data is critical to building great AI so much so, that researchers in the field compare it to coal during the Industrial Revolution. Those that have it will steam ahead. Those that dont will be left in the dust. In the current AI boom, its obvious who has it: tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Baidu.

Thats worrying news. After all, many of these companies have near monopolies in areas like search and social media. Their position helps them gather data, which helps them build better AI, which helps them stay ahead of rivals. For the firms themselves, its a virtuous cycle, but without viable competition, companies can and do abuse their dominance.

Now a new project from the Mozilla Foundation (the nonprofit creator of the Firefox browser) is experimenting with an alternative to data monopolies, by asking users to pool information in order to power open-sourced AI initiatives. The companys first project is called Common Voice, with the Mozilla foundation asking volunteers to donate vocal samples to build an open-source voice recognition system like the ones powering Siri and Alexa.

the power to control speech recognition could end up in just a few hands.

Currently, the power to control speech recognition could end up in just a few hands, and we didnt want to see that, Sean White, vice president of emerging technology at Mozilla, tells The Verge. He says to get data, the big companies can just filter everything coming in, but for other players, there needs to be other methods. The interesting question for us, is, can we do it so the people who are creating the data also benefit? he asks.

At the moment, Mozilla is just collecting data, but plans to have its open-source voice recognition available by the end of the year. (Will it go in the Firefox browser? White wont say, but adds: We have some experiments planned [for that].) Currently, anyone can go to the Common Voice website and donate their voice by reading out sample sentences. They can also supply biographical information like age, location, gender, and accent. This information will help Mozilla avoid bias in creating its voice recognition systems, says White, and ensure that the technology can handle accents something Google and Apple still struggle with.

Frederike Kaltheuner, a researcher at Privacy International, says these firms often use AI as a pretext for scooping up valuable personal data, telling users it will enable them to improve certain services. This may be true, she says, but the consequences of sharing this data for society at large is less clear. There is [often] a fundamental conflict of interest between what you need as a citizen, and what is in that companys interest, says Kaltheuner.

What can open-source data offer that companies cant?

So how does an initiative like Common Voice lure users away from existing and admittedly convenient services? After all, open-source projects have been around for longer than the internet, but with a few exceptions, they have been unable to compete with commercial products. They simply dont offer a comparable service.

For Mozilla, the answer is personalization. After all, while AI systems trained on population-sized datasets tend to be good enough for the average individual, they often fail when it comes to serving the needs of smaller groups, or those not represented in their data. (More often than not, the data is just biased toward white males, the industry default.)

For us to be successful with data commons, there has to be a motivation [for users] other than realizing one day that theyve been giving away all their personal data, says White. We have to make their experience better because theyve participated. In the case of Common Voice, White wants as much accent data as possible to improve voice recognition for these individuals. We want the system to work better for you because some of your data is included, he says.

Offering personalization in exchange for data is a neat proposition, but its not a silver bullet for those fighting data monopolies. For a start, big firms could make similar offers of their own to users. (Alexa doesnt understand you? Read this 10-minute script and well improve its voice recognition.) Or they could spend money to plug the gaps in their own datasets. Google, for example, gets third-party companies to pay Redditors with accents to record their own voice samples.

White acknowledges that the Common Voice project doesnt have an answer to a lot of these questions, but says Mozilla is still dedicated to the core cause of open data. It feels like a true democratizing activity, he says. And there are plenty of organizations that share this ethos. Theres machine learning community Kaggle, which has a large store of user-contributed datasets for AI scientists to play with; the Elon Musk-funded OpenAI, which open-sources all its work; and Healthcare.ai, which publishes free-to-use medical algorithms. And some of these manage to both share open-source data and research while selling their own commercial products, like self-driving car startup Comma.AI.

Although the AI systems we interact with on a daily basis are built on proprietary data, theres a whole world of researchers and institutions publishing useful, if rudimentary, open-source alternatives.

To take these projects to the next level, though, proponents of open-source data may have enlist higher powers to take on the tech giants. Chris Nicholson, CEO of deep learning company Skymind, says, We may need third parties to step in NGOs, governments, coalitions of smaller private firms and pool their data. Nicholson suggests that sharing health care data can improve medical imaging technology, and driver data can make autonomous cars more natural and intuitive on the road. Sharing these types of datasets, he says, has obvious public benefits.

Donating your voice, then, may just be the beginning.

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Mozilla is crowdsourcing voice recognition to make AI work for the people - The Verge

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