Want AI Weekly for free each Thursday in your inbox? At VentureBeat, it's also the beginning of a six-week-long deep dive into AI innovation, culminating in our fourth annual AI Innovation Awards to be presented at Transform 2022 on July 19th in San Francisco. We are excited about our amazing nominating committee that, along with members of our editorial staff, will help choose our AI Innovation Award nominees in five categories this year. Innovation, of course, has many definitions and comes in many forms. When it comes to AI, incredible, jaw-dropping innovation is often accompanied by eye-rolling emojis, more questions than answers and even an industry-driven challenge to Elon Musk.

To cap our AI-focused Transform 2019 event, taking place July 10-11 in San Francisco, VentureBeat will recognize and award emergent, compelling, and influential work in AI through the inaugural AI Innovation Awards. We take pride in shining a light on innovation, and these awards, presented by Ople, give us a chance to do so in a new way. This series highlights the nominees in each of our five award categories: NLP/NLU, Business Application, Computer Vision, AI for Good, and Startup Spotlight. While giant corporations can leverage their considerable resources to develop AI technology, the field is also filled with startups. But with the technology evolving quickly, AI newcomers need a killer idea and superb execution to thrive.