When taking on an artificial intelligence (AI) project, there is one ingredient above all that is essential for success: clean, well organized, relevant data. In theory, data is everywhere (2.5 quintillion bytes of data produced a day to be exact), and that amount is accelerating rapidly with the proliferation of sensors from the Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-generated big data. In fact, even though it may be hard to believe, 90% of the world's data was created in just the past two years. This includes every tap and swipe we make on our mobile devices, every video we stream, every tweet we read and Instagram post we like or share. IoT data is also growing at a similar exponential rate to mobile and social.

Every day, the ProgrammableWeb team is busy, updating its three primary directories for APIs, clients (language-specific libraries or SDKs for consuming or providing APIs), and source code samples. If you have new APIs, clients, or source code examples to add to ProgrammableWeb's directories, we offer forms (APIs, Clients, Source Code) for submitting them to our API research team. If there's a listing in one of our directories that you'd like to claim as the owner, please contact us at editor@programmableweb.com. Eleven APIs have been added to the ProgrammableWeb directory in categories including Auto, Cryptocurrency, and DevOps. Highlights include an API for adding intelligent chat bots to applications and an API for getting random cat facts.

Berlin startup Spil.ly had a problem last spring. The company was developing an augmented-reality app akin to a full-body version of Snapchat's selfie filters--hold up your phone and see your friends' bodies transformed with special effects like fur or flames. To make it work, Spil.ly needed to train machine-learning algorithms to closely track human bodies in video. But the scrappy startup didn't have the resources to collect the tens or hundreds of thousands of hand-labeled images typically needed to teach algorithms in such projects. "It's really hard being a startup in AI, we couldn't afford to pay for that much data," says CTO Max Schneider. Spil.ly's engineers began creating their own labeled images to train the algorithms, by adapting techniques used to make movie and videogame graphics.

It's been an amazing year for the Neuromation team, starting with the token sale in the first quarter of 2017, going through to lab launches, model development and active sales and marketing campaigns…we are now finishing the pre-sale with amazing results of more than 35 million NeuroTokens sold to the AI community! Here is what we've achieved so far. Most recently, we joined forces with Giga-Watt, the world's first full-service mining solution provider. Led by one of the world's most recognisable bitcoin miners, Dave Carlson, Giga-Watt provides infrastructure that supports the facilities that host and operate equipment. We are also proud to have OSA Hybrid among our partners that uses AI to provide shelf availability optimization for retailers, and Hacken, a tokenized bug-bounty and cybersecurity system focused on blockchain applications. We believe collaboration is key to building the blockchain ecosystem that serves practical purposes while protecting user privacy and data security.