AI market darling Appen boosts earnings forecasts

Artificial intelligence training provider Appen issued a strong earnings upgrade on Monday morning on the back of growing business from its existing customers and signs that the woes have subsided at its recent acquisition, Figure Eight. The company, which makes money by crowdsourcing labour for artificial intelligence/machine learning services for tech giants such as Google, said full-year earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation (EBITDA) is expected to be in the range of $96 million to $99 million. If current forex rates hold, this could add a further $1.5 million to EBITDA this year. "Appen's improved FY2019 earnings forecast is driven by increases in monthly relevance revenues and margins, largely from existing projects with existing customers," the company said.