The rise of a technology has Bill Gates issuing warnings of an apocalypse. It's Artificial Intelligence or AI, an idea whose time has come--it is incubating in science labs and being deployed by start-ups and industrial units alike. Why are Gates and Co. worried? Specifically, it's over machine learning, an early form of AI that has in recent years become mainstream, causing both delight and nervousness among AI experts and technology companies. AI involves building computers capable of taking smart decisions by themselves, the way humans do. Machine learning and various other sub-fields such as deep learning are the means to achieve AI. Google announced this week that it is rethinking all its products to base them on AI; it has created a new unit called Google.ai to facilitate this shift. The revival of interest in machine learning has been driven by a confluence of factors, such as the massive increase in computing power, emergence of neural networks (connected transistors that replicate the structure of neurons in the human brain) and the easy availability of vast amounts of data, thanks to the Internet. Compared to AI leaders in the Silicon Valley and China, India is a laggard but even here, nearly 300 start-ups are using some form of AI, according to Tracxn, a start-up tracker. Among dedicated AI-only Indian start-ups, 23% are working on providing solutions to multiple industries, 15% are in e-commerce, 12% in healthcare, 11% in education, 10% in financial services, and the rest in fields such as retail and logistics, according to a 2017 report by Kalaari Capital, a venture capital firm. Internet companies tap machine learning techniques for a range of uses--to recommend products for you, for instance, or to predict where cabs should be placed so that when you open your cab-hailing app, there's one a couple of minutes' drive away. Healthcare start-ups use AI to help hospitals make speedy and accurate blood reports and medical diagnoses, saving lives. Others get fashion brands and retailers to buy the right quantities of stock.

While running a digital marketing agency, Neerav Parekh regularly updated his clients on their campaign performance with reports and charts that were carefully put together. However, the clients were quickly snowed under the blizzard of data, and inevitably demanded that account managers personally visit them and take them through these reports. This was a laborious process and, rather than plod through it repeatedly, Parekh, a serial entrepreneur, turned to artificial intelligence (AI), the science of trying to make computers think and act like humans, for a solution. His product, Phrazor, is aimed at automating the process of interpreting data and communicating insights. Having used Phrazor for his agency, Parekh has now sought to extend the reach of his product.

Artificial Intelligence start-up Arya.ai announced on Monday the global launch of'Braid, an open Source tool to build intelligence quickly into systems. "Open sourcing key tools in AI, will help discover newer, interesting and more impactful use cases and applications for AI that we may not have even thought of," said Vinay Kumar Sankarapu, CEO and founder of Arya.ai. Technology companies and start-ups trying to create products that use Artificial Intelligence are racing to build neural networks. By their very nature however, neural networks are complex and call for Deep Learning. Building neural networks, which are not unlike actual human brains with their complex layers, is a resource-intensive, expensive and time consuming process.

BENGALURU: Mumbai-based Arya.ai offers its deep learning algorithms for developers to build intelligent AI systems that can adapt and do multiple things with minimal inputs from humans. From creating a diagnostic assistant for radiologists to a mathematical assistant for science academicians and on to drone image processing abilities, the uses appear to be really diverse. "We have already launched the advanced AI software tools in a closed group beta phase with developers internationally and researchers in select software companies, these developers are using these softwares for building robots that can assist professionals from different fields in their task," said Vinay Sankarapu, cofounder of Arya.ai (in picture). API for developers can be used for four specific categories. From creating custom APIs to use cases within computer vision, this could range from classifying or searching for products on e-commerce platforms by using visual inputs to security based face matching techniques, as well as language and reasoning, where event prediction can take place.

While running a digital marketing agency, Neerav Parekh regularly updated his clients on their campaign performance with reports and charts that were carefully put together. However, the clients were quickly snowed under the blizzard of data, and inevitably demanded that account managers personally visit them and take them through these reports. This was a laborious process and, rather than plod through it repeatedly, Parekh, a serial entrepreneur, turned to artificial intelligence (AI), the science of trying to make computers think and act like humans, for a solution. His product, Phrazor, is aimed at automating the process of interpreting data and communicating insights. Having used Phrazor for his agency, Parekh has now sought to extend the reach of his product.