Calgary-based Chata Technologies, which has developed a cloud-based conversational application allowing users to access, search, and analyze their business data through natural language, has raised a $4.5 million CAD seed round. "It's been very exciting to see the vast potential and profound implications of Conversational AI-based data interactions." The funding was raised from undisclosed local investors, with the round officially closing in August. The new capital will be put towards the research, development, and implementation of Chata Technologies' new product, Data Messenger, currently under the name Chata.io. Chata Technologies claims that the product is the first conversational interface designed specifically for data query and analysis.

ANN ARBOR, Mich.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Automation experts--and those who want to explore how to grow their business with the latest trends and …

The first graduate level, research university in the world dedicated to artificial intelligence will open next year in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates.

HYDERABAD: Data acquisition, Python and neutral networks are few topics that students of classes 8 and 9 will be exposed to as part of the artificial intelligence (AI) curriculum, which many Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE)-affiliated city schools are set to adopt from academic year 2020-21. Early this year, the CBSE had proposed to offer AI as a skill-set to keep up with the changing technology. Following this, the CBSE recently released the AI curriculum facilitator's handbook, which details various topics such as AI ethics, problem scoping, data acquisition, exploration and modelling. Curated by Intel, the curriculum will not only make students inquisitive but will also teach them basic tools that are required to develop AI-based solutions. For example, in Unit 1, students will be asked to prepare a dream smart home by including any gadgets or devices that they think will make their homes unique.

Accurate, automated retinal screening is an important development for the millions of diabetic patients who require annual examination for sight-threatening diabetic retinopathy. New research, presented at the 123rd Annual Meeting of the American Academy of Ophthalmology (12–15 October 2019, CA, USA) – demonstrates that an automated, artificial intelligence (AI) screening system can detect diabetic retinopathy with more than 95% accuracy. Approximately 25% of diabetic individuals in the USA will develop retinopathy. Initially, such retinal damage may be asymptomatic, but can ultimately lead to blindness. There are various options available for the treatment of diabetic retinopathy, however, early diagnosis significantly improves treatment effectiveness.

Facebook Inc. is using its @Scale conference today to provide an update on its progress in artificial intelligence research. The social media company is open-sourcing a new "AI reasoning" platform and providing some updates on its research into machine translation. It's part of a broad push to scale up AI workloads, a difficult task given the massive amounts of data needed to train AI models, Srinivas Narayanan (pictured), the lead for Facebook's Applied AI Research, said this morning at the conference in San Jose, California. "Facebook wouldn't be where it is today without AI," Narayanan said. "It's deeply integrated into everything we do."

Many advanced artificial intelligence projects say they are working toward building a conscious machine, based on the idea that brain functions merely encode and process multisensory information. The assumption goes, then, that once brain functions are properly understood, it should be possible to program them into a computer. Microsoft recently announced that it would spend US$1 billion on a project to do just that. So far, though, attempts to build supercomputer brains have not even come close. A multi-billion-dollar European project that began in 2013 is now largely understood to have failed. That effort has shifted to look more like a similar but less ambitious project in the U.S., developing new software tools for researchers to study brain data, rather than simulating a brain.

Esports is a billion-dollar competitive video gaming phenomenon, and a booming market. Professional players are drawing larger and larger team salaries, while monetizing their fans on personal channels. Meanwhile, big brand sponsors are turning into team owners and traditional sports team franchises are launching their own esports teams. It's no surprise that, today, online audience numbers for esports are growing at an incredibly fast rate -- tech consulting firm Activate estimated that there were 270 million global fans of esports in 2016 and projected that number to grow to 495 million in 2020. Chinese tech giant Tencent, developer of the first mobile esports franchise, Honor of Kings, generated $66 million in media rights and $64 million in sponsorship deals in just the first half of 2019.

The Wall Street Journal referred to deposits as "the lifeblood of banks and a key factor in profitability." Yet overall deposit growth in the U.S. has slowed down dramatically over the past few years, and many banks are seeing flat or declining deposits. Download this ebook to find out what banks can do to protect the continued flow of their "lifeblood" deposits, win back their own customers and earn the trust of new ones while turning them into savers.

Outfield Technologies is a Cambridge-based agri-tech start-up company which uses drones and artificial intelligence, to help fruit growers maximise their harvest from orchard crops. Outfield Technologies' founders Jim McDougall and Oli Hilbourne have been working with Ph.D. student Tom Roddick from the Department's Machine Intelligence Laboratory to develop their technology capabilities to be able to count the blossoms and apples on a tree via drones surveying enormous apple orchards. "An accurate assessment of the blossom or estimation of the harvest allows growers to be more productive, sustainable and environmentally friendly", explains Outfield's commercial director Jim McDougall. "Our aerial imagery analysis focuses on yield estimation and is really sought after internationally. One of the biggest problems we're facing in the fruit sector is accurate yield forecasting. This system has been developed with growers to plan labour, logistics and storage. It's needed throughout the industry, to plan marketing and distribution, and to ensure that there are always apples on the shelves. Estimates are currently made by growers, and they do an amazing job, but orchards are incredibly variable and estimates are often wrong by up to 20%. This results in lost income, inefficient operations and can result in substantial amount of wastage in unsold crop."