Two things you may be tired of hearing about by now: AI and blockchain. However, we would be remiss if we didn’t mention a unique and ambitious project marrying the two to challenge the power of the giants of the AI Age. SingularityNET is a blockchain-powered “Internet of AI” where AI and machine learning applications can be created, combined, and “rented” to solve problems as part of a decentralized marketplace powered by blockchain. This blog post from one of the founders of SingularityNET digs deeper, but it’s a BYOGS (“bring your own grain of salt”) kind of party. Continue reading SingularityNET: Where Artificial Intelligence Meets Blockchain

As predicted, artificial intelligence has been one of the most repeated phrases of CES 2017. It seems every other vendor here is slapping the “AI” label on its technology. So much so that it inspired us to take a (short) step back and look at what AI is in relation to machine learning. The reality is: there are still very few applications that can be legitimately labeled as artificial intelligence. Self-driving cars, DeepMind’s AlphaGo, Hanson Robotics’ Sophia robot, and to a lesser extent Alexa, Siri and the Google Assistant, are all AI applications. Most of the rest, and certainly most of what we’ve seen here at CES, are robust, well productized machine learning applications (usually built on neural network architectures), often marketed as AI. Continue reading CES 2017: Distinguishing Between Machine Learning and AI

The Walt Disney Company has invited nine new companies into its 2016 Accelerator program. Disney Accelerator, now in its third season, has gained a desirable profile as several alumni have inked partnership deals with Disney. Among them are Sphero, creator of the BB-8 droid “Star Wars” toy and sports data platform StatMuse, which now works with Disney’s ESPN. One of this year’s invited startups, says The Walt Disney Company’s senior vice president of innovation Michael Abrams, is an internal project team. Continue reading Disney Accelerator’s New Startups Address Robotics, AI, VR