August 6th – Chip Maker Bitmain Will Build a Data Center in Texas
Blockchain hardware, software, and services company Bitmain confirms it will build a data center in Rockdale, Texas and invest US$500 million in the United States over the next seven years. Bitmain will launch a local training program and hire more than 400 employees. Bitmain also plans to launch another office in South America, and has its eyes on Brazil.
August 9th – Amazon Promotes Voice Assistant Alexa for Cars
Amazon opens its Alexa Auto Software Development Kit (SDK) to support the development of its voice assistant in vehicles. Amazon also published sample codes and apps to show the capability of Alexa. The company has integrated its voice assistant into a number of vehicle brands, including Ford, BMW, and Toyota.
August 9th – German Banking Startups Leverage AI to Improve Services
The German banking industry is actively deploying AI to improve products and services. Startup Fraugster uses AI to deal with risk management for payment service providers, while Germany’s state-run Sparkassen Savings Banks use AI to read and classify information on a variety of hand-written forms.
August 9th – Google Launches AI-Powered Android Smart Linkify API
Google’s new Smart Linkify allows automated and accurate annotation of phone numbers and postal addresses in 16 languages on Android phones. Based on the Android Linkify API, the model is small in size and has low latency, making it suitable for mobile devices. Google aims to expand the features to also recognize flight numbers, date, time, and IBAN.
August 13th – Saudis Want in on Tesla Privatization
Tesla CEO Elon Musk posts on the company’s website “I’m considering taking Tesla private because I believe it could be good for our shareholders, enable Tesla to operate at its best, and advance our mission of accelerating the transition to sustainable energy.” Musk says he expects the Saudi Arabia Sovereign Wealth Fund to play a major role in the company’s privatization.
August 13th – DeepMind Uses AI to Detect Sight Threatening Conditions
DeepMind research shows its AI software outperforming human experts on reading OCT eye scans. DeepMind plans clinical trials of the technology in the UK in partnership with London’s Moorfields Eye Hospital and the University College London Institute of Ophthalmology. To avoid privacy concerns the hospital will anonymize the 16,000 eye scans used in the model, and the process will be audited by the hospital’s information governance department.
August 14th – GE Teams Up With TerraForm on Wind Energy Management
GE Renewable Energy has signed a long-term service agreement with TerraForm Power Inc. GE will provide remote monitoring and analysis services across multiple turbines and ensure smooth integration between GE’s turbine digital solution and TerraForm Power Inc’s original system. GE will bring proprietary analytics and predict features to the new system.
August 14th – US Smart Speaker Sales Will Jump 50% in 2019
A new NPD Future of Tech report forecasts smart speaker device sales will increase 50 percent in 2019 compared with 2017, bringing the total market to US$1.6 billion. The report says that almost 20 percent of US consumers intend to buy a smart speaker over the following 12 months.
August 14 – Intel Partners with Philips on Deep Learning Inference on CPUs
Intel and Philips announce the results of applying Intel Xeon Scalable processors to healthcare with a deep learning inference model for X-rays of bones in bone-age-prediction modeling, and another model for CT scans of lungs in lung segmentation. The bone-age-prediction model was 188 times faster and the lung-segmentation model 38 times faster than baseline measurements.
August 15th – Amazon Integrating Alexa and Cortana
Amazon opens a public preview of the integration between its Alexa and Microsoft’s Cortana first announced last summer. Alexa users can now access Cortana and vice versa. Amazon and Microsoft are working together to provide a better user experience while accumulating additional voice assistant market share.
Author: Synced Industry Analyst Team | Editor: Michael Sarazen
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