The film industry has always helped to enliven the human imagination. Today it is one of the most popular types of entertainment, giving people the opportunity to escape from a sometimes heavy reality. 
However, it is not only about art, but also about business space with its own tasks and goals. Today, as technology drives almost all existing industries, filmmakers try to leverage new tools and means to take their product to the next level, attract more consumers, and, of course, earn money.
In this article, we will focus one of the most life-changing technologies for filmmaking - artificial intelligence (AI). What are the benefits and pitfalls of it for the industry? And how to leverage AI without risks?
How AI is Changing The Film Industry
In commerce, logistics, medicine, and facial recognition systems, artificial intelligence (AI) has already shown potential in transforming social and economic life. In creative industries, the role of AI is less prominent.
Making a film is a complex multistage process, so the film industry has remained resistant to machine intervention at some stages of pre-production: script selection, budgeting, casting. Attempts to implement AI are usually found in post-production: when creating graphics, animation, special effects, and color correction.
Continue reading: https://www.respeecher.com/blog/help-executives-filmmakers-trust-artificial-intelligence-ai

Five young South Africans are now ready to pursue careers in the drone industry after obtaining their drone pilot licenses.
The students, beneficiaries of education funding from the Cyril Ramaphosa Education Trust (CRET), participated in a drone pilot training program as part of development careers in the fourth industrial revolution.
The trust supported 10 students this year for the drone pilot program, with Velile Mngoma, Amanjee Moosa, Azwindini Mugari, Braiden Kitching and Jayden Brink obtaining their qualifications.
According to a statement, the Academy of Aviation and CRET this week hosted a graduation ceremony where the graduates were able to demonstrate their pilot skills, and received their official certificates of qualification.
Continue reading: https://www.itweb.co.za/content/lwrKxv3K92Qvmg1o

On March 28, 2021, during a deadly flash flooding event in middle Tennessee, despite warnings, a man went kayaking on the Harpeth River in Franklin, TN. Shortly thereafter, a motorist spotted the man from an overpass and called 9-1-1, reporting that the man’s kayak capsized and that he appeared to be in distress. The Franklin Fire Department (FFD) was dispatched to rescue him.
What made this search and rescue operation unique for the department was the way that FFD members located the victim—with the assistance of a drone. In less than 15 minutes, FFD’s drone team (Capt. Clay Mackey and Firefighter/Paramedic Daniel Donegan) spotted the victim by using a drone that had a thermal sensor. The victim was clinging, unharmed, to trees, which were surrounded by floodwaters.
The drone enabled just two department members to search a large area without having to place personnel in the water. In fact, crews didn’t enter the water until they knew the victim’s precise location. Once the victim was found, the drone allowed the drone team to visually monitor the victim and the rescue operation, which added a layer of safety to the incident. If any part of the rescue went wrong, the team would have been able to redirect further resources immediately.
Continue reading: https://www.firehouse.com/tech-comm/drones/article/21235150/fire-and-rescue-drones-at-work-in-middle-tennessee

Great article here from MIT about robotics/AI being used for good.
Love this:
She’s drawn to the field of computational sustainability, she says, which is based on “the idea is that machine learning, artificial intelligence, and similar tools can and should be applied to solve some of our most pressing challenges, and that these challenges will in turn change how we think about our tools.” 

The Africa Fintech Foundry (AFF) and Access Bank’s ‘W’ Initiative are collaborating to establish a Female Digital Academy, which will educate over 500 women to become technology experts over the next three to five years.
Female Digital School is a female-centric digital academy that educates and prepares the next generation of technology professionals for the job market, providing them with skills, jobs, internships, mentoring and financial assistance for those in need.
At the cost of N25,000 and a 50 percent discount, the three-month program offers a wide range of inspiring tech courses such as Mobile Development, Front-end Web Development, Back-end Web Development, Python for Data Science and Machine Learning.
Applications for the academy commences from September 4th, 2021, to October 17th, 2021.
Continue reading: https://theeagleonline.com.ng/aff-access-bank-launch-digital-academy-to-train-women-in-technology/

Countries of the GCC region have come a long way. In diversifying their economies away from oil, they have invested in a wide range of sectors. Over the past decades, regional governments as well as private sector players have channeled resources into digitalizing systems to enhance productivity.
Governments’ efforts to support small and medium enterprises, coupled with local talent, can be credited for a crop of tech startups from the region, while global names have also established a presence.
The UAE and Saudi Arabia have added smart city technologies to their infrastructures. Similar advancements are taking place in Oman, that is following suit with the Madinat Al Irfan smart city project in Muscat.
Private sector organizations in the region have also adopted the latest and most efficient technologies over the past decade. This trend has accelerated following the Covid-19 pandemic. Due to lockdowns and restricted outdoor access, banking and finance institutions across the region, for example, saw a major increase in people using apps. Existing apps had to be updated to ensure a seamless customer experience. A study by a US tech firm, Avaya, that specializes in cloud communications, pointed to the adaptability of the GCC region’s banking sector to drastic changes in environment. The study said that GCC banks showed a commitment to digitization and a speed of modernization that had not been seen before – to counter the aftermath of a downcast global economy.
Continue reading: https://www.thenationalnews.com/opinion/comment/2021/09/07/a-ticket-to-boost-the-arab-worlds-tech-sector/

Every day we see more women taking a seat at the table in the places historically reserved for men. Yet, even before we consider how the last 18 months have taken their toll on the journey towards gender parity, it’s clear we still had a long way to go in terms of social equality and female representation in the workplace. This is particularly the case in areas that have been traditionally dominated by men, such as in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) industries. Before the pandemic, only 35% of STEM students in higher education globally were women. There were also significant differences within STEM disciplines themselves, with only 3% of female students in higher education choosing information and communication technologies (ICT) studies. As a technology company, we at Amadeus recognize that this gender disparity is alarming, especially as STEM careers are directly associated with jobs of the future, driving innovation, social wellbeing, inclusive growth and sustainable development.
Where has COVID-19 left us?
Where progress clearly needed to be made before 2020, evidence suggests that the onset of COVID‐19 has reversed many of the incremental gains of recent years. According to World Economic Forum’s 2021 Global Gender Gap Report, the length of time until women and men are truly equal has increased from 99.5 years to 135.6 years in the space of just twelve months. Continue reading; https://www.phocuswire.com/Looking-gender-balanced-workforce-travel

The tech industry is making a conscious effort to overcome its longstanding diversity problem. Google pledged to increase its leadership team's percentage of underrepresented communities by 30% by 2025, Salesforce spent $2.1 million in 2020 to correct pay disparities, and companies are increasingly disclosing workforce race and ethnicity data.
However, simply having ambitious goals and a willingness to share and improve won't drive tangible diversity and inclusion (D&I) progress.
Recent advancements in technology and artificial intelligence (AI) are helping employers overcome obstacles to building diverse candidate pipelines, setting relevant benchmarks, and tracking and retaining diverse employees. However, technology isn't the answer to all previous D&I challenges; organizations need to step back, rethink their approach to D&I and lay a new foundation to ensure their investments will return tangible results.
Today's Biggest Roadblock: No Performance Insight
Slow diversity progress is, in large part, due to limited access to actionable data and benchmarks. While annual diversity reports are gaining traction, they have become a check-the-box activity for many. These reports are also reactive and don't provide the context or level of insight that many organizations need to improve.
Facebook began releasing annual diversity reports over six years ago, and the percentage of the company's employees who are Black has gone from 3% to just 3.8% during that time.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2021/09/07/talent-diversity-in-tech-time-for-tangible-results/?sh=78504fe64b64

An appropriate thermal environment — temperature and humidity — is critical for animal growth and health.
During very hot days, animals may suffer from heat stress, causing the loss of appetite, poor growth performance and increased mortality and morbidity, whereas cold temperatures may result in increased feed intake, a reduced growth rate and a decreased feed-to-meat conversion efficiency.
In confinement barns, the thermal environment is regulated primarily by ventilation. However, undesired thermal environmental conditions could still happen, requiring timely human intervention. A similar challenge is faced by outdoor animal production systems as well.
Here, we present a low-cost solution to remote monitoring of the animals’ thermal environments using LoRaWAN Internet-of-Things (IoT) technology. It allows producers to access the real-time thermal environmental information on their cell phones, tablets or computers, and respond accordingly.
It is noteworthy that the solution is for farms whose ventilation controllers can’t do remote monitoring. Modern smart controllers — e.g., Maximus brands — can do both remote monitoring and control, but they are expensive.
Continue reading: https://www.capjournal.com/community/low-cost-remote-monitoring-solution-for-thermal-environments/article_846f15ec-0f21-11ec-9916-db4682277ce9.html

Automated and rapid response systems are necessary to respond to cybersecurity breaches, which have become more potent each year, while ransomware is now a government-level issue.
While much of the focus is often placed on preventing cyberbreaches, it’s vital to plan for a rapid response once the worst has occurred.
Throughout IT, cybercriminals are exploiting vulnerabilities in record time and have forged ahead off the back of commoditized toolkits made available through the dark web – known as cybercrime-as-a-service.
Ransomware is becoming a thorn in the side of digitization, and each financial quarter it seems is punctuated with reports of a major breach.
Given the scale of the threat, enterprises must prioritize which responses to mount first in case of an attack, according to Dr. Pranshu Bajpai, a security researcher commenting as an independent field expert.
“After gaining initial access, ransomware often seek lateral movement to infiltrate deeper into internal environments,” he said.
A glance at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s database provides little comfort. As of early August 2021, the U.S watchdog and research board had already processed 63 potential new flaws that month, and nearly 1,600 in July.
Continue reading: https://www.iotworldtoday.com/2021/09/06/responding-to-a-cybersecurity-breach/

The first half of 2021 saw 1.5 billion attacks on smart devices, with attackers looking to steal data, mine cryptocurrency or build botnets.
The first six months of 2021 have seen a more than 100-percent growth in cyberattacks against internet-of-things (IoT) devices, researchers have found.
According to a Kaspersky analysis of its telemetry from honeypots shared with Threatpost, the firm detected more than 1.5 billion IoT attacks – up from 639 million during the previous half year, which is more than twice the volume.
“Since IoT devices, from smartwatches to smart home accessories, have become an essential part of our everyday lives, cybercriminals have skillfully switched their attention to this area,” said Dan Demeter, security expert at Kaspersky. “We see that once users’ interest in smart devices rose, attacks also intensified.”
It should be noted that it’s not just a concern on the personal front, either. With millions still working from home, cybercriminals are targeting corporate resources via home networks and in-home smart devices too, according to Red Canary’s Grant Oviatt. They know organizations haven’t quite gotten used to the new perimeter — or lack thereof.
Continue reading: https://threatpost.com/iot-attacks-doubling/169224/

We can turn on the lights in our homes from a desk in an office miles away. The built-in cameras and sensors embedded in our refrigerator let us easily keep tabs on what is present on the shelves and when an item is close to expiration. When we get home, the thermostat has already adjusted the temperature so that it’s lukewarm or brisk, depending on our preference. 
These are not examples from a futuristic science fiction story. These are only a few of the millions of frameworks part of Internet of Things (IoT) being deployed today. 
IoT has redefined the way we interact, communicate, and go about our daily work. From homes to maintenance to cities, the IoT ecosystem of devices is making our world more innovative and more efficient.
In this guide, we will walk you through everything you need to know about the increasingly connected world of IoT. This guide discusses in-depth:

• What Is Internet of Things (IoT)? 
• The History of IoT 
• Examples of IoT
• Internet of Things Ecosystem: How Does it Work?
• Sensor Technology & IoT
• Benefits of Sensor-Based IoT
• IoT & Data Security & Privacy
• Key Takeaways & The Future of IoT

Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/beginners-guide-to-the-internet-of-things-iot-2021

About 70% of Uganda’s population derives its livelihood from agriculture and as such the country has adapted the use of modern farming technologies such as using of machinery and drones are practiced, and is striving to speed up commercialization of agriculture to increase local household incomes.
The country together with China have been operating the China-Uganda South-South cooperation project over the years through a tripartite agreement with FAO. Through the project, small scale farmers in rural Uganda will benefit from the on-the-farm training to boost production. Chinese technicians and experts will continue to share skills and technology on the agronomic practices with local farmers.
Antonio Querido, UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) country representative told Xinhua in a recent interview that the three parties are working on the third phase of the cooperation project.
Continue reading: https://farmersreviewafrica.com/uganda-boosts-agricultural-commercialization-with-help-of-chinese-technologies/

fter a deadly attack that killed 13 American Marines and more than 100 Afghans at the Kabul airport last month, the U.S. launched drone strikes against members of what it said were ISIS-K, the group responsible for the terrorist attack. The first drone strike was on Friday, Aug. 27, followed by a second attack on Aug. 29. America then proudly took credit for these attacks, in which it used a unique Hellfire missile known sometimes as a “flying Ginsu,” named after the blades it uses to kill its target rather than explosives.
The first attack appeared to demonstrate the precision targeting for which drones are designed. But the attack two days later, on a vehicle suspected to belong to the ISIS-K group, was an utter disaster. Among the victims were 10 members of a single family, including six children between the ages of 2 and 12. Grimly, some of them were waiting for visas to join American evacuation flights; one of them had actually worked for American forces. The weapon that America first unleashed to win the “Global War on Terror” had—not for the first time—let America down.
Drones, particularly Predator and Reaper drones, have played a massive role in the war on terror, enabling the U.S. to fight shadowy enemies with a shadowy weapon system. Washington leaned on drones and drone airstrikes heavily in wars from Afghanistan to Iraq, and in clandestine operations over Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia, and other parts of Africa. Barack Obama enabled more strikes in his first year in office than George W. Bush in his entire eight-year tenure. Later, the Trump administration would oversee 2,243 strikes. The Predator drone was such a darling for the U.S. Air Force and CIA that one has even found its way into the Smithsonian Museum. The one hanging there is described as “one of the first” of three UAVs to fly operational missions over Afghanistan after 9/11. It went on to fly 196 combat missions in Afghanistan.
Continue reading: https://www.thedailybeast.com/how-post-911-america-set-off-the-worlds-horrific-drone-wars

Every second counts whenever a police department or a fire station receives a 9-1-1 call. Yet, first responders often waste precious time discerning the extent and even the exact location of an emergency situation before having to send resources out to deal with that situation.
Paladin Drones, a small, Houston-based start-up software and drone manufacturing company is offering a solution that dispatches an autonomously operated drone that can fly to the disaster scene in a matter of seconds. Once on the scene, the unmanned aerial vehicle can transmit overhead images of the scene back to a command center and the first responders en-route to the site – all without the need for intervention by a human pilot.
The company recently announced the release of its proprietary Knighthawk drone and its Watchtower software package, which when taken together can offer first responders an “eye in the sky” view of emergency sites.
“We’ve built a full-on platform suite, hardware, software, training, regulations, all put together in one package that gives first responders a live overhead view of an emergency before they arrive,” Paladin CEO and co-founder Divy Shrivastava said in an interview.
Currently, the company, which was launched in 2018, serves two agencies: The Orange Township, Ohio fire department and the Memorial Villages Police Department in Texas. Memorial Villages PD serves the Bunker Hill, Piney Point and Hunters Creek villages, three small cities located on the west side of Houston.
Both agencies have certificates from the Federal Aviation Administration allowing them to fly drones beyond the visual line of sight (BVLOS), a crucial part of Paladin’s strategy. To date, the Paladin system has recorded more that 1,600 missions, responding to emergency situations such as structure fires, car break-ins and vehicle accidents.
Continue reading: https://dronelife.com/2021/09/06/drones-for-9-1-1-response-paladin-autonomous-drones-can-be-on-the-scene-in-seconds/

Firefighters, police officers, search and rescue teams and other emergency responders in Oldham County will soon have assistance from eyes in the sky, with several newly acquired drones serving as the key piece of a local Aerial Response Team.
The Oldham County Aerial Response Team is housed out of the Ballardsville Fire and Rescue department in Crestwood.
Ryan Baker, assistant chief of the department, said he and Oldham County Emergency Management Director Jerry Nauert had been in the "planning stage of creating a drone team" for the past three years.
The team finally became a reality thanks to a clay pigeon shoot fundraiser in May that raised more money than expected.
Rogers Group Inc., which has quarries in Oldham and Jefferson counties and is the largest privately owned construction aggregate company in the U.S., supported the Aerial Response Team with roughly $30,000 in proceeds from its charity clay shoot that also helped pay for a picnic for emergency responders and their families.
Brian Dillard, the firm's area vice president, told The Courier Journal that "Rogers Group has always strived to be good industrial neighbors and support the community."
Dillard said proceeds from the clay shoot generated about $45,000, with roughly $30,000 going to the purchase of equipment for the Aerial Response Team.
Continue reading: https://www.courier-journal.com/story/news/local/oldham/2021/09/07/oldham-county-aerial-response-team-police-drones-emergency-rescue/5680625001/

The IOTA non-profit and its distributed ledger technology has been named as one of seven providers selected by the Commission to develop the European Blockchain Services Infrastructure (ESBI).
Announced in 2018, EU Member States and the European Commission joined forces to form the European Blockchain Partnership (EBP) to work toward blockchain-based services for the benefit of citizens, society and the economy. The Commission explains that the EBSI’s vision is to leverage blockchain to the creation of cross-border services for public administrations and their ecosystems to verify information and make services trustworthy. Since 2020, EBSI has deployed a network of distributed blockchain nodes across Europe, supporting applications focused on selected use-cases. EBSI is the first EU-wide blockchain infrastructure, driven by the public sector.
Continue reading: https://www.finextra.com/newsarticle/38782/iota-tapped-by-eu-to-enable-regions-blockchain-infrastructure

A project to implement a blockchain traceability system for a new fast-growing variety of carp farmed in Bangladesh has been declared a success.
The blockchain software is being trialed by carp farmers in Bangladesh
The project, which was undertaken by ByteAlly Software, in partnership with Bangladesh Aquaculture Activity (BAA), aims to create a traceable environment by gathering market-relevant data from all aquaculture supply chain participants using mobile and web applications.
According to the Chennai-based firm, blockchain technology can instill consumers’ trust in the aquaculture value chain by capturing necessary market-relevant data. Traceability information reveals the provenance of food and helps consumers and retailers avoid inferior quality products.
ByteAlly has performed extensive fieldwork in gathering initial business requirements and analyzing the existing infrastructure. A company representative has personally visited 30 farming facilities to learn about the day-to-day activities, while collaboration with BAA experts has helped them assess the aquaculture value chain.
Continue reading: https://thefishsite.com/articles/bangladesh-blockchain-project-shows-promise

Many businesses invest in cryptocurrency to enhance their operations and payment options
‘It is never too late!’ is a well-said phrase that suits the current state of people who are rethinking their decision to invest in cryptocurrency. In the first half of 2021, cryptocurrency prices, especially bitcoin, went on a roller coaster ride. The price spike has attracted many laymen to try their hand in the cryptocurrency market. But after that when the prices fell again, everybody who invested in digital currency felt insecure and obsolete about their decisions. Some were not even willing to take a dip from the very beginning. But things have changed today. Since the decentralized concept appears to be the fast-raising trend in the financial market, businesses invest in cryptocurrency to enhance their online payment options. An increasing number of companies starting from small businesses to conglomerates are using bitcoin and other digital assets for a host of investment, operational, and transactional purposes. According to a 2020 estimate, over 2,300 businesses in the US accept bitcoin. Although using cryptocurrency to allure more customers is both incentivizing and dangerous, many are jumping into the cryptocurrency market with the belief that they could make it big. At a time when things fall in their place for the digital currency sphere, let’s look at some reasons why businesses should invest in cryptocurrency.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/10-reasons-why-businesses-should-invest-in-cryptocurrency/

With its mass adoption of new technologies, Africa has the opportunity to create the next disruptive startups and the global leaders of tomorrow.
The effects of the fourth industrial revolution in Africa have been taking everyone by surprise. While all eyes were turned to the US, Europe, and China, Africa was silently growing much faster than anyone anticipated, especially in financial technologies.
The combination of mass adoption of recent technologies in the region, without big monopolies nor outdated infrastructures, creates a never-seen-before opportunity for Africa to create the next disruptive startups and the global leaders of tomorrow.
While the US is busy maintaining a monopolistic financial system, built on old infrastructures and outdated technologies, Africa has the opportunity to build something better, faster, and stronger, without the massive technical debt the US is facing. With many people lacking access to a bank account, Africa has become a mobile-payment first continent, leading the way, just like China does, in that front.
In a ripple effect, the African mobile-payment and fintech ecosystem have unlocked other fields and markets, like e-commerce, which is also rising very fast. So much so that Africa has now the biggest potential for e-commerce in the world. The economic expansion and rising mobile internet penetration rates have created Jumia, its e-commerce giant.
Continue reading: https://african.business/2021/09/finance-services/how-africa-can-lead-the-financial-and-crypto-revolution/

When you think about Artificial Intelligence (AI) and war, you might find yourself thinking about killer robots, like those we have seen in movies such as The Terminator.
In reality, AI and warfare looks quite different from these popularized images, and today we see many countries around the world exploring the use of AI and implementing AI systems into their militaries and defense programs. With this increased interest in AI, there has also been a growing debate about the ethics and legality of using AI in warfare. While there are many concerning aspects about AI being utilized in warfare, one that is particularly troubling, but has also received less attention, is that of biased AI systems.
Examples of biased AI
Certain lessons can be learnt by looking at examples of biased AI in non-military settings. It has become increasingly clear from a number of investigations and studies that the biases that exist within our society will also become embedded into AI. This involves facial recognition programs such as the one developed by Amazon that had little trouble recognizing white men’s faces but was considerably less accurate in identifying Black women and other groups of people. Another example is the program used in US courts which falsely predicted Black individuals to be twice as likely to commit a crime than white individuals. It is clear that biased AI can have serious and real consequences in society.
Continue reading: https://blogs.prio.org/2021/09/artificial-intelligence-warfare-and-bias/

The recent publication of the sixth assessment report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) summarizes the current understanding of climate science in unprecedented detail.
The extensive evidence feeding into the report includes observations collected from across land, ocean and atmosphere, as well as numerous simulations from the latest generation of climate models.
However, in recent years, climate scientists have another tool available to them thanks to rapid advances in the development of artificial intelligence (AI) and, particularly, machine learning. In contrast to models that follow a set of explicit and pre-defined rules, machine learning aims towards building systems that can learn and infer such rules based on patterns in data.
As a result, a new line of climate research is emerging that aims to complement and extend the use of observations and climate models. The overall goal is to tackle persistent challenges of climate research and to improve projections for the future.
In our perspective paper, published in the journal Nature Machine Intelligence, we assess current limitations and recent advances of climate models and machine-learning approaches in Earth system science. 
We propose an approach whereby machine learning and climate models are not used as individual tools, but rather as connected “hybrids” that are capable of adaptive evolution and self-validation, while still being able to be interpreted by humans.
Continue reading: https://www.carbonbrief.org/guest-post-how-artificial-intelligence-is-fast-becoming-a-key-tool-for-climate-science

Distribution centers provide a controlled environment that is ideal for testing and proving complex technologies like drones and robots. That's also one reason why DCs are experimenting heavily with Artificial Intelligence (AI).
An independent research survey commissioned by Lucas Systems found that the majority of companies are already using AI in their warehouses and distribution/fulfillment operations. The survey also revealed that operators view cost, complexity, and lack of understanding of how to use AI as key impediments to further investments.
In reality, AI will make it easier and less costly for DCs of all sizes to address warehouse optimization challenges like slotting and workforce planning. And successful use of AI will not require massive investments in data science departments. Here's why.
AI Is A Natural Fit For The DC
Good data is a key to effective AI, and DCs are a good environment for collecting and aggregating historical and real-time data. AI is also a natural fit for DC operational challenges that previously required highly-engineered expert systems that are costly to implement and maintain. 
Continue reading: https://www.supplychaindive.com/spons/5-applications-for-artificial-intelligence-in-the-warehouse-and-distributio/605942/

In the upcoming age of AI, two very different classes of companies appear well-positioned to leverage AI’s capabilities: startup ventures and multi-billion-dollar giant corporations. Promising AI startups are being launched at an increasing pace in areas like health care, finance, retail, media and cross-industry tech, to name a few. And alongside tech giants like Google or Microsoft, traditional large corporations are employing AI to digitalize their business model and processes. Examples of AI-driven automation and augmentation range from automated customer loan approval and smart infotainment systems at car manufacturer Daimler to predictive maintenance at oil and gas behemoth Shell and AI-assisted medical image reading at industrial manufacturer Siemens. Corporate AI innovation is fairly concentrated with the top-10 patenting firms in the world accounting for more than 15% of AI patents in the period 2011 to 2016.
These two breeds of companies — startups and giants — are also building strong partnerships in the field of AI. A recent study reveals that, while in 2013, AI startups were rarely targeted by corporate venture capital (CVC) investment, only five years later these AI startups received more than $5 billion in CVC funding (approx. 10% of all CVC investments). While much of this money is coming from Asian and U.S. tech giants, like Baidu and Google, big non-digital corporations are increasingly making such investments to access startups’ AI talent. Big data and AI talent (e.g., data scientists, machine learning engineers) are two of the most critical resources for building successful AI applications. By combining the innovative talent of AI startups with the vast amounts of process and user data held by giant corporations, strong synergies can be created.
In this field, midsize companies — many of whom are family-controlled — have difficulties keeping up. Earlier research documented how midsize firms were already struggling in last decade’s winner-takes-all economy. That struggle is likely only going to intensify.
Continue reading: https://hbr.org/2021/09/how-midsize-companies-can-compete-in-ai

Artificial intelligence is a technology at heart, but the way it integrates into the enterprise data ecosystem is unlike any tech that has come before. For one thing, AI will be able to do very little right out of the box. To get it to work properly, you have to train it, and it seems that few organizations fully comprehend what a lengthy and complex job that is.
In many ways, we can draw parallels between the introduction of AI today and the introduction of the consumer PC in the early ’80s. The PC, after all, was going to remake life as we know it by managing our budgets, organizing our bills, keeping our shopping lists, helping with homework, and delivering a cornucopia of other surprises. What they didn’t tell us was that we had to perform a little task called data entry before the computer could do all of these magical things. And before long, virtually every house in the developed world had a PC in the corner of the living room gathering dust.
Teaching the bot
AI is not likely to suffer the same fate because it will (or should) have a team of dedicated professionals whose job it is to make it work. But the training process will still take some time, and it may be a while before it produces even marginal results.
Continue reading: https://venturebeat.com/2021/09/06/eager-for-ai-first-you-have-to-train-it/