Global software provider Katabat has released Katabat Engage, which delivers data-driven debt collections powered by machine learning to consumer lenders. Katabat Engage helps lenders collect more dollars through a platform of personalized, digital communications tailored to customer preferences. Powered by a proprietary machine learning platform that has performed well in Google Kaggle competitions, Engage enables lenders to deploy customized e-mail and SMS text collection messages and continuously tune customer outreach and response strategies. "We are very excited to present Engage to our clients and the broader marketplace," said Katabat CEO Ray Peloso, who recently did an interview with Thrive Global about how machine learning can improve the customer journey. "Our data science team has built a mature and reliable data pipeline for machine learning and continues to demonstrate the power of the platform through its success in several Google Kaggle machine-learning competitions."

Elsevier, the global information analytics business specializing in science and health, is pleased to announce the winner of the 2018 Semantic Web Challenge (SWC). The winner was recently announced at the 17th International Semantic Web Conference held in Monterey County, California, USA. The challenge and allocated prize were sponsored by Elsevier. The Semantic Web Challenge is a highly-prestigious, and the longest-running, competition fostering scientific progress in the field of artificial intelligence on the web. The semantic web and the use of linked data extends the current human-readable web by encoding some of the semantics of resources in a machine-readable form.

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--DataRobot, the creator of the automated machine learning category, has raised $100 million in Series D funding, bringing its total funding to $225 million. The round was led by Meritech and Sapphire Ventures, with participation from DFJ Growth and 16 previous investors including NEA, IA Ventures, and Intel Capital. Meritech's Rob Ward and Sapphire's Jai Das have joined the Board of Directors. DataRobot was founded by experienced applied data scientists in 2012, long before the current resurgence of AI. Their mission was to develop technology to automate the process of building and operationalizing machine learning models.

San Diego, Calif., Oct. 24, 2018 -- A team of U.S. computer scientists is receiving a $10 million grant from the National Science Foundation to make machine learning more secure. The grant establishes the Center for Trustworthy Machine Learning at a consortium of seven universities, including the University of California San Diego. Researchers will work together toward two goals: understanding the risks inherent to machine learning; and developing the tools, metrics and methods to manage and mitigate these risks. The science and arsenal of defensive techniques emerging within the center will provide the basis for building more trustworthy and secure systems in the future, as well as fostering a long-term research community within this essential domain of technology, researchers said. "This research is important because machine learning is becoming more pervasive in our daily lives, powering technologies we interact with, including services like e-commerce and Internet searches, as well as devices such as Internet-connected smart speakers," said Kamalika Chaudhuri, a computer science professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering, who will be leading the UC San Diego portion of the research.

SINGAPORE--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct 25, 2018--DXC Technology (NYSE: DXC), the world's leading independent, end-to-end IT services company, today announced the opening of the DXC Digital Innovation Lab in Singapore. Developed with the support of the Singapore Economic Development Board (EDB), the DXC Digital Innovation Lab Singapore is an advanced environment for the incubation of ideas, learning and innovative technology solutions developed by data scientists and enterprise solution experts. The lab will benefit DXC employees, clients and partners, as well as the technology and business communities of Singapore, the region and beyond. The DXC Digital Innovation Lab Singapore is an extension of DXC Labs, whose goal is to ensure that DXC masters the emerging technologies it needs in order to lead clients through accelerating digital transformation. At the innovation lab, digital specialists will explore novel technologies, develop prototypes and create reference architectures for rapid business deployment.

Volocopter is preparing to run inner-city tests of its autonomous air taxis in Singapore, starting in the second half of 2019. The company and the city-state's civil aviation authority are determining the scope of the tests, which Volocopter plans to conclude with public demo flights. The vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) vehicles look like a cross between a helicopter and a drone, and have 18 rotors working to get you from one place to another. Volocopter claims its machine can fly two people up to 30 kilometers, while it can account for micro turbulences close to skyscrapers to keep your rides smooth. "We are getting ready to start implementing the first fixed routes in cities," Volocopter CEO Florian Reuter said in a press release.

The UAE's aviation authority has signed an agreement which will explore the use of artificial intelligence (AI) in the country's air traffic management. The UAE General Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA) and Searidge Technologies have signed the deal to cooperate in pursuing research and development activities. The collaboration is the first in the region and will bring together the technical expertise of Canada-based Searidge Technologies in digital airport solutions and the operational expertise of GCAA, a statement said. Saif Mohammed Al Suwaidi, director general of the GCAA, confirmed that it is the UAE's strategy to explore new technologies and applications in the aviation industry. "We look forward to working with Searidge and believe this collaboration will help advance the use of technology in aviation to optimize safety and efficiency in the UAE and around the globe. The MoU agreement will promote, develop and reinforce administrative, technical and scientific cooperation," added Ahmed Al Jallaf, assistant director general Air Navigation Services, GCAA.

Inc. in June pitched its facial recognition technology -- which can identify people from surveillance footage using image databases -- as a tool for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, showing that Amazon continued to push the software to law enforcement agencies as criticism swirled from the company's workforce and civil liberties groups. Employees in the Amazon Web Services cloud-computing unit met with the federal agency in California to present its artificial intelligence tools, according to emails obtained by the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight. Those tools include Rekognition, which uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify people in photos and videos. The software enables law enforcement to track individuals from cameras in public places. The American Civil Liberties Union in May criticized the use of the technology by police departments in Oregon and Florida, saying it threatened civil rights.

WILSONVILLE, Ore.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--FLIR Systems, Inc. (NASDAQ: FLIR) today announced the FLIR Firefly camera family, the industry's first deep learning inference-enabled machine vision camera. The FLIR Firefly, which integrates the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 Vision Processing Unit (VPU), is designed for image analysis professionals using deep learning for more accurate decisions, and faster, easier system development. Traditional rules-based software is ideal for straightforward tasks such as barcode reading or checking a manufactured part against specifications. The FLIR Firefly combines a new, affordable machine vision platform with the power of deep learning to address complex and subjective problems such as recognizing faces or classifying the quality of a solar panel. The FLIR Firefly leverages the Intel Movidius Myriad 2 VPU's advanced capabilities in a compact and low-power camera, ideal for embedded and handheld systems.

Toptal, a global network of top talent in business, design, and technology that enables companies to scale their teams, on-demand, today announced the launch of its two new on-demand talent specializations to meet the rising demand for skilled artificial intelligence and data science engineers. Tapping into Toptal's private network of highly skilled software professionals, the new specialized service will connect organizations with freelance artificial intelligence and data science professionals who are experts in machine learning, deep learning, data architecture, and data mining. "Businesses across every sector are moving quickly to leverage the power of artificial intelligence and data science optimization. For many of them, access to high-quality talent is the critical hurdle," said Taso Du Val, Toptal co-founder and CEO. "With these service offerings, Toptal is providing businesses with the unique opportunity to quickly staff their AI and data science initiatives with elite talent. Our company was made by engineers for engineers, so we care deeply about matching our clients with experts who have the exact skills and real-world experience they need to realize their goals."