Lifeboat Foundation

Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an indispensable component in the analysis of microscopic data. However, while AI models are becoming better and more complex, the computing power and associated energy consumption are also increasing.

Researchers at the Leibniz-Institut für Analytische Wissenschaften (ISAS) and Peking University have therefore created a free compression software that allows scientists to run existing bioimaging AI models faster and with significantly lower energy consumption.

The researchers have presented their user-friendly toolbox, called EfficientBioAI, in an article published in Nature Methods.

Researchers at City of Hope and Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen) have developed and tested an innovative machine-learning approach that could one day enable the earlier detection of cancer in patients by using smaller blood draws. The study is published in the journal Science Translational Medicine.

“A huge body of evidence shows that cancer caught at later stages kills people. This new technology gets us closer to a world where people will receive a blood test annually to detect cancer earlier when it is more treatable and possibly curable,” said Cristian Tomasetti, Ph.D., corresponding author of the new study and director of City of Hope’s Center for Cancer Prevention and Early Detection.

Tomasetti explained that 99% of people diagnosed with Stage 1 breast cancer will be alive five years later; however, if it is found at Stage 4, when disease has spread to other organs, the five-year survival drops to 31%.

Quantum computing is one of the most transformational technological breakthroughs of our lives, and it’s likely to supercharge the AI Boom.

Summary: Researchers made a significant discovery using an artificial neural network model, suggesting that musical instinct may emerge naturally from the human brain. By analyzing various natural sounds through Google’s AudioSet, the team found that certain neurons in the network selectively responded to music, mimicking the behavior of the auditory cortex in real brains.

This spontaneous generation of music-selective neurons indicates that our ability to process music may be an innate cognitive function, formed as an evolutionary adaptation to better process sounds from nature.

AI is still far from achieving human-level intelligence — but some researchers are suggesting that the technology may understand the world.

Aniai, a startup that has built a burger-grilling robot, Alpha Grill, said today it has raised $12 million, bringing its total raise to $15 million. The money will go toward launching its first manufacturing facility, Factory One, in South Korea. The firm will also be deploying a cloud-based AI software platform for the robot called Alpha Cloud.

Robot adoption in the restaurant business is becoming popular as it can help restaurants address their high pain points like labor shortages, and rising wage issues. Robotics enables restaurants to save 30% to 70% of labor costs, and restaurants could replace more than 80% of restaurant positions with robots, according to a research report.

“Burger chains hire six to eight kitchen staff per shift to grill burgers,” Aniai CEO Gunpil Hwang said. “Alpha Grill enables restaurants to engage only one staff member to grill burgers.”

Oracle announced the general availability of its OCI Generative AI Service, along with several substantial enhancements to its data science and cloud offerings. Let’s take a look at what Oracle announced.

The OCI Generative AI service is a managed platform designed to incorporate large language models into various enterprise use cases. The new service supports models like Meta’s Llama 2 and Cohere’s Command 52/6B models, offering a multilingual embedding capability for more than 100 languages.

Enhancements such as LangChain integration, endpoint management, and content moderation make it easier to work with LLMs. The service also includes improved GPU cluster management with multi-endpoint support and endpoint analytics features.

Bluesheets, an AI-powered financial data startup based in Singapore, announced Tuesday it raised $6.5 million in a Series A funding round led by fintech-focused VC Illuminate Financial, bringing the four-year-old startup’s total funding to $12.5 million.

Participating in the round were returning investors Insignia Ventures Partners, Antler Elevate–the emerging growth fund of VC firm Antler–and 1982 Ventures. The Series A values the startup at $30 million.

“A lot of organizations are trying to implement [AI] applications, but are struggling quite a lot,” says Luca Zorzino, general partner and head of Asia at Illuminate Financial, in a video interview. “What we liked about Bluesheets is that not only have they implemented AI themselves, but they can actually form the foundational layer for more AI adoption in financial services.”

Continue reading “Singapore Financial Data Startup Raises $6.5 Million Series A To Double Down On AI” »

Sam Altman made news again, with reporting from the Financial Times that the OpenAI CEO is engaged in discussions with key Middle Eastern investors and the Taiwanese chip giant TSMC to launch a new chip venture to design and build semiconductors for accelerating AI workloads.

At the heart of this venture is the ambitious plan to develop and fabricate chips integral for training and building AI models, reflecting the growing importance of custom hardware in the rapidly expanding field of AI.

Sam Altman is discussing establishing a new venture to develop specialized chips for AI applications with prominent Middle Eastern investors and Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co, TSMC.