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Kira Systems receives $65 million CAD investment from New York’s Insight Venture Partners(BETAKIT)
Kira Systems’ platform uses machine learning to automate contract analysis for law firms.
China is beating the US on AI, says noted investor Kai-Fu Lee(TECHCRUNCH)
Speaking at TechCrunch Disrupt San Francisco, Kai-Fu Lee, an AI expert who founded China-US fund Sinovation, said any lead America’s tech industry may have enjoyed is rapidly being eroded by hungry Chinese entrepreneurs who have oodles more data at their disposal to build, train and deploy AI systems.
AI doesn’t need more researchers, it needs more products(THEGLOBEANDMAIL)
Kerry Liu, chief executive of Rubikloud, argues that Canada’s AI community has two to three years before investors become nervous.
Skritswap raises $657,000 CAD pre-seed round to eliminate jargon(BETAKIT)
US-based early-stage fund Unshackled VC led the round.
Insight-based city management startup Zencity raises $6 million (CTECH)
Zencity collects and analyzes resident-generated data from sources including social media, mobile applications, and city hotlines, to help cities make informed, data-driven decisions.
Lockheed Martin teams up with drone racers to add AI(TECHCRUNCH)
Lockheed Martin and the Drone Racing League are working together to make driverless drones much, much smarter. The project, aimed at bringing AI to commercial drone flyers, is “challenging teams to develop artificial intelligence (AI) technology that will enable an autonomous drone to race a pilot-operated drone – and win.”
ThinCI raises $65 million to develop its AI processors for automonomous and connected vehicles(VENTUREBEAT)
The round was led by Japanese automotive component giant Denso. Other investors include GGV Capital, Wavemaker Partners, and SG Innovate.
The Pentagon plans to spend $2 billion to put more artificial intelligence into its weaponry (THEVERGE)
Officials say they want computers to be capable of explaining their decisions to military commanders.
WestJet becomes Canada’s first airline to launch an AI-powered chatbot (DAILYHIVE)
WestJet’s new AI-powered chatbot named Juliet operates through a live chat on Facebook Messenger, in both English and French, and enables travellers to manage many aspects of their trip including destination inspiration and discovery, flight booking and day-of travel information.
Clinc expands to automotive, releases SaaS platform for its voice AI assistant (TECHCRUNCH)
Clinc has also revealed a platform to give developers access to the conversational AI. The company says it’s easy enough for developers with little to no experience in machine learning to build with Clinc’s products.
Can Montreal’s new research hub humanize artificial intelligence?(TEHGLOBEANDMAIL)
Mila is set to become the world’s most concentrated centre for deep learning and reinforcement learning, two rapidly advancing technical fields that are fueling the AI boom.
Avrios has quietly raised $14M for an AI-fueled fleet management platform (TECHCRUNCH)
Avrios says its platform helps customers reduce their fleet administration overhead by 30% now and their fleet cost by up to 10%, as well as touting additional benefits around data privacy, and compliance with environmental and owner’s liability laws.