After years in the labs, artificial intelligence (AI) is being unleashed at last. Google, Microsoft and Facebook have all made their own AI APIs open source in recent months, while IBM has opened Watson (pictured above) for business and Amazon has purchased AI startup Orbeus. These announcements have not drawn much media attention, but are hugely significant. "In the long run, I think we will evolve in computing from a mobile-first world to an AI-first world," says Google CEO Sundar Pichai. What does the appearance of AI bots and machine learning on the open market mean for business, IT, big data, and for sellers of physical hardware? The AI APIs now opening up are essentially free platforms on which companies can build incredibly powerful analytics tools.

This week Stephen Wolfram, founder and chief executive of Wolfram Research, announced a new component of the Wolfram Language for programming called ImageIdentify. Wolfram also introduced a new website, dubbed The Wolfram Language Image Identification Project, that demonstrates the language's new capabilities. The new site lets you upload images and get inferences and definitions in response. You can provide feedback, which should help it become more accurate. You can hit buttons like "Great!," "Could be better," "Missed the point," and "What the heck?!" After you choose one, the service offers a few more guesses, and a text box where you can type in a tag.

Amazon acquired artificial intelligence start-up Orbeus last year, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The tech giant allegedly bought the Californian image recognition firm in autumn 2015, according to a source familiar with the matter. Orbeus's website now greets visitors with a message saying it is no longer taking new customers. The domain name - 'Orb.us' - is also owned by a company subsidiary, Amazon Hostmaster. Its photo recognition technology is based on neural networks, and is available via consumer application PhotoTime.

Amazon.com Inc., the largest internet retailer in the world, has acquired Artificial Intelligence-based deep learning startup Orbeus Inc. The acquisition underlines the effort made by Amazon to dig deeper into the world of smart software for its businesses in the cloud computing and connected devices spheres. This development was revealed by an Amazon insider who chose to remain anonymous as the company is yet make an official statement about the acquisition. Amazon's CEO Yi Li and other representatives of the company have not commented on the matter either. However, online search has disclosed that the domain name of Orbeus, Orbe.us, is registered in the name of Amazon Hostmaster, which is a part of Amazon technologies Inc., an Amazon subsidiary.

Amazon (AMZN - Get Report) may be looking to up its artificial intelligence game, according to a new report from Bloomberg, which claims that the e-commerce giant quietly bought a startup called Orbeus. Orbeus developed technology that uses artificial intelligence to identify content in photos, and Bloomberg's source claims that Amazon acquired the startup in the fall of 2015. While neither company confirmed the report, Bloomberg noted that the Orbeus domain name is now owned by Amazon Hostmaster. And Orbeus' website currently says, "ReKognition API is no longer taking new customers ... But we're up to new/exciting things." It's unclear what Amazon's exact plans for Orbeus' technology are, but there are several ways it could be helpful.

Amazon's artificial intelligence ambitions are growing, with rumors surfacing today that it purchased an AI startup focusing on image processing. Amazon acquired Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Orbeus in the fall of 2015, according to an anonymous source that spoke with Bloomberg. In the past, Orbeus developed a neural network-based AI solution to categorize and identify photos. Orbeus previously offered the solution as a service for other developers under the name ReKognition, but Orbeus' website says the service is "no longer taking new customers." "But we're up to new/exciting things," the short note says.

Amazon.com Inc. acquired artificial-intelligence startup Orbeus Inc., according to a person familiar with the matter, part of a broader push by the world's largest Internet retailer into smart software for its cloud-computing and connected-device businesses. The acquisition took place in the fall of 2015, said the person who asked not to be identified because Amazon hasn't announced the deal. An Amazon spokeswoman and representatives at Sunnyvale, California-based Orbeus, including Chief Executive Officer Yi Li, did not respond to requests for comment. An online search shows that the startup's domain name, Orbe.us, is owned by registrant Amazon Hostmaster, part of an Amazon subsidiary called Amazon Technologies Inc. Orbeus developed photo-recognition technology based on a powerful type of AI called neural networks and made this available as a consumer application, as well as a service for other companies and developers called ReKognition. It automatically categorized and identified the contents of photos. Orbeus's app, PhotoTime, came out before Google launched its successful AI-based Photos app.