Who can, today, predict the limits of technological progress? Machines have already begun to replace Man in some of his tasks and, for him, to be augmented by neuroscience and artificial intelligence. The technological revolution is well and truly underway.
While the technological revolution continues to run, artificial intelligence is still developing. Robotics and neuroscience dominate the landscape. Whether we’re talking about machines or augmented man, the race for innovation among start-ups continues apace.
Snips, a personal voice assistant
Created by Rand Hindi in 2013, the Snips voice platform is first and foremost a research laboratory in artificial intelligence. Concretely, the assistant combines the detection of key words called “hot words” with speech recognition, which transforms them into text, but also with natural language comprehension, which delivers instructions to the system and generates responses. Its 100% speech recognition technology guarantees the confidentiality of the user’s data by not linking it to the Cloud. Its founder assures: “We are the only ones able to do this today, it allows us to guarantee the protection of user data, and to be aligned with the RGPD (European Data Protection Regulation). “After raising €5.6 million in 2015, Snips is doing it again with a €12 million financing round last June. “The funds raised will enable us to continue our R&D and to set up a sales team to expand internationally,” explains Rand Hindi. While the start-up is focusing exclusively on speech recognition for connected objects, to differentiate itself from its competitors, its strategy remains the same: “privacy by design”. In other words, privacy by design. A strong motto appreciated in a world where data security is subject to controversy.
OrCam gives sight back to the blind and visually impaired!
Founded in 2010 by Amnon Shashua and Ziv Aviram (co-founders of Mobileye, a leader in collision avoidance systems and an innovator in autonomous driving, editor’s note), OrCam makes blind and visually impaired people more independent. In what way? By harnessing the power of artificial intelligence and augmented reality, as well as incorporating pioneering technology into a portable platform. The pair of glasses, which works with the OrCam MyEye 2.0 nomadic system, allows users to recognize faces or identify objects, but also to indicate orally things they cannot perceive. For the anecdote, MyEye even recognizes banknotes… The famous glasses also have the ability to memorize and read aloud the texts designated by the individual. Established in Jerusalem, OrCam has been valued at more than 600 million dollars. On the product side, it is already marketed in France (where nearly 1.7 million people are affected by visual impairment, editor’s note) by Essilor, the world leader in corrective lenses, for a price of around 3,000 euros. OrCam’s mission: “to improve the lives of 285 million people around the world. »
Increasing our brains: Neuralink’s ambition
How far will an artificial intelligence go? Neuralink has just pushed the boundaries of technological progress even further. Developed in 2016 by billionaire Elon Musk, this Californian start-up aims to reorient artificial intelligence in order to amplify the capacity of our brains. After all, what could be better than making our brains super-smart to counter a possible form of superintelligence that would come to control the world? To achieve this, we are talking about designing human-machine interfaces through implants in our brains in order to develop our cognitive abilities. Rather than letting a lot of information seen on the web pass through in the manner of a “bandwidth”, the idea would be to connect Man to the machine through “brain cords”. While the project may be frightening, its founder is personally invested in it and has already recruited more than sixty employees. In the meantime, to find out the result of this fusion between Man and machine, see you in a few years…
Persado and his AI specialized in marketing
Persado’s artificial intelligence is capable of generating personalized marketing campaigns to reach each individual in the most effective way possible. The algorithm understands a company’s wishes towards its customers, then determines the most effective approach and recommends it. In 2019, Persado has signed contracts with major companies such as JPMorgan Chase. Over the past three years, it has doubled its annual recurring revenue.
LivePerson and its messaging analytics AI
LivePerson’s Artificial Intelligence is capable of analyzing human customer messages on the messaging system to determine which customer service representative to redirect them to.
This AI is compatible with many messengers such as WhatsApp and Alexa. By combining it with conversational AI technology (chatbot), it is possible to double the efficiency of customer service and increase sales by up to 20%…
Nvidia transforms sketches into photo-realistic images
The graphics card giant, Nvidia, is also a major player in research in the field of AI. One of its artificial intelligence is called GauGAN, in reference to the famous painter Paul Gauguin.
It is a Deep Learning model capable of converting a textual description or a simple sketch into a photo-realistic image. The demonstration video already has more than 1.6 million views on YouTube.
Many art directors and design artists from major companies in the film and gaming industries use GauGAN for idea prototyping to make very rapid changes to digital landscapes. In addition, computer scientists can use this tool to create used virtual worlds and drive autonomous cars.
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