Bits & Bytes - 5.17.18 - TWIML&AI

Bits and Bytes

This week news from Google I/O and Microsoft Build have dominated the news. Here are the highlights:

The SDK supports text recognition, face detection, barcode scanning, image labeling, and landmark recognition for developers integrating AI tech into iOS and Android. It also boasts the ability to run its models offline.

The technology is capable of conducting natural conversations to carry out real-world tasks–such as booking an appointment–over the phone. It works with Google Assistant, which also got 6 new voices and the ability to perform complex tasks via voice command.

The partnership allows for Qualcomm’s latest AI hardware accelerators to deliver real-time AI at the edge. The developer kit, which uses Microsoft’s Azure IoT Edge and Azure Machine Learning, can be used to create camera-based IoT solutions. This is part of Microsoft’s larger expansion of Azure IoT Edge which received updates at the recent Microsoft Build conference.

Microsoft’s suite of AI services received updates including a unified Speech service and Bing Visual Search, custom object detection, added features for Bing Custom Search, new speech features with custom translator, custom voice, custom speech, and more.

ML.NET is a cross-platform, open source machine learning framework. It will allow .NET developers to develop their own models and infuse custom ML into their applications without prior expertise in developing ML models.

Notable, a voice-powered healthcare startup, raises $3M
Learning Machine, a software startup making blockchain-based credentials at scale, raises $3M
Xnor.ai, a startup focusing on AI edge computations, raises $12M
conDati, a digital marketing analytics company, raises $4.75M
Gamalon, a startup working on AI capable of creating summaries or explanations of speech or text, raises $20M
Innovaccer, a healthcare data platform company, raises $25M
Unisound, a Chinese AI solutions company, raises $100M