The AI Times is a weekly newsletter covering the biggest AI, machine learning, big data, and automation news from around the globe. If you want to read A|I before anyone else, make sure to subscribe using the form at the bottom of this page.
Leveraging Element AI connection, Real Ventures closes two funds totalling $180 million (BETAKIT)
$30 million of this fund will go towards OrbitMTL, a new program to support pre-seed startups.
Our stories – When adversity creates opportunity(RBC)
People.ai Founder Oleg Rogynskyy did not let an accident and subsequent hospital stay stop him from building his business.
Legal Innovation Zone announces AI Legal Challenge finalists (BETAKIT)
The finalists will pitch for seed money in March 2018.
Can AI be taught to explain itself? (NYTIMES)
As machine learning becomes more powerful, the field’s researchers increasingly find themselves unable to account for what their algorithms know — or how they know it.
COMB+ announces a $77M fund to help AI startups enter China(TECHCRUNCH)
The COMB+ Sino Track accelerator program is based in Beijing and Helsinki, and helps early-stage firms grow in China. This is the second part of its strategy.
Affinio raises $11.4 million Series B (BETAKIT)
Round13 Capital joined the round as a new investor.
Tinder can now show who it thinks you’ll swipe right on(WIRED)
Tinder says the experience itself is powered by artificial intelligence that helps select the people it thinks will be “of special interest to you.”
MIT and Harvard create cheap artificial muscles with super strength(TECHCRUNCH)
MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory has teamed up with Harvard’s Wyss Institute to create a strong artificial muscle that could be used to create soft robots with “superpowers,” including the ability to lift up to 1000 times their weight.
AI startup MindTrace raises £1.3M (BUSINESSCLOUD)
MindTrace, which is developing intelligent machines capable of ‘unsupervised learning’ or teaching themselves independently, raised the funding from Accelerated Digital Ventures (ADV) and the Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund.
1QBit raises $45 million Series B from Fujitsu, Accenture(BETAKIT)
The Royal Bank of Scotland was also part of the funding.
