For a hitherto relative unknown, scoring a $113 million Series C at this time is bound to get some attention. The amount of attention is bound to grow upon learning that the company is backed by, and works with, the likes of Bp, its AI technology is based on IP from NASA and Caltech, and it looks like the closest thing to the vision for AI in the real world today. Beyond Limits, an industrial and enterprise-grade AI technology company active in energy, utilities, and healthcare, today announced a milestone Series C funding round with $113 million closed and another approximately $20 million committed. This round is led by Group 42, a prominent AI and cloud computing company, and Bp ventures, an existing two-time investor and customer of the company. ZDNet caught up with Beyond Limits CEO and Founder AJ Abdallat to discuss business, technology, and applications.

I had an interesting talk with AJ Abdallat, CEO of a small firm called Beyond Limits doing interesting things with AI. Their differentiator is that their AI's decisions can be audited, and the AI itself can be edited at a granular level so corrections generally don't require retraining. As I was listening it struck me that if we could do this with people, particularly young teenagers, top executives, criminals and politicians we could almost instantly make the world a better safer place. Granted this approach – particularly if it was being used for commercial aircraft or self-driving cars – should have a high requirement for substantial simulation before deployment. This could not only cut years off what would typically be needed for a complex AI development project, however, but would also allow for a level of customization at scale we don't currently seem to have in this space.

Beyond Limits, a leading developer of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) solutions, today announced its CEO AJ Abdallat will be a key presenter at the annual Montgomery Summit in Santa Monica, California, March 6-7. Abdallat will present the company's breakthrough approach to AI (artificial intelligence) to Montgomery's global community of over 1,000 venture capitalists, innovators, and executive leaders. The presentation will showcase how Beyond Limits cognitive AI solutions go beyond conventional AI to solve complex business problems for the world's most demanding industries. Beyond Limits combines human knowledge with machine learning. Conventional "black box" approaches like machine learning, deep learning or neural networks cannot explain their reasoning.

AJ Abdallat is a serial entrepreneur. He loves to create and the businesses he puts his hands on tend to succeed. Abdallat's latest company is Beyond Limits, a leading developer of advanced artificial intelligence solutions and leading the way in developing the technology in innovative ways. Abdallat took over the CEO reins of Beyond Limits in 2014. During his time with the company, the entrepreneur has pushed the brand to tackle industrial and enterprise challenges. A graduate of the University of California, Berkeley, Abdallat has been working with dynamic companies since 1988 as co-founder or CEO of several Caltech/Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) startups. With a long track record in AI, Abdallat hopes to steer Beyond Limits -- and the world -- into a future that finally fulfills the promises of technology.

Something has happened in the tech hardware space that no one saw coming. PC shipments have increased for the first time in six years, according to recent figures released by Gartner. Despite all the predictions about the decline of the desktop, it seems reports of its demise have been greatly exaggerated. Gartner's figures show that worldwide PC shipments totaled 62.1 million units in the second quarter of 2018, a 1.4 percent increase from the second quarter of 2017. This is the first quarter of year-over-year global PC shipment growth since the first quarter of 2012.

Beyond Limits, which is commercialising technology used by NASA and the US Department of Defence, has announced securing $20 million from sole investor BP Ventures. The Series B round brings the total amount raised by the Pasadena, California-based artificial intelligence company to $25.5 million. Developed in the labs of NASA's Caltech deep space program, Beyond Limits' AI software is 20 years in the making. The company said the technology has been "battle tested in deep space where there is zero margin for error" and is subsequently a lot faster than other AI technology in the market. "It has been used in NASA for diagnostics of the NASA deep space network, for optimisation of Mars missions, and has even helped discover a weather model by tracking dust build and wind storm activity based on Mars rover battery and solar panel performance," Beyond Limits' CEO AJ Abdallat told ZDNet.