Microsoft Buys AI Startup Maluuba

Microsoft announced on Friday its plans on buying Maluuba, a Montreal startup focused on providing deep and reinforcement learning to solve the problem of machine literacy through common sense reasoning, memory, and communication.

"Microsoft provides us the opportunity to deliver our work to the billions of consumer and enterprise users that can benefit from the advent of truly intelligent machines," Maluuba said in its blog post.

Microsoft did not disclose financial terms of the acquisition and will bring on board Maluuba co-founders Kaheer Suleman and Sam Pasupalak, along with their team from the startup.

"Maluuba's vision is to advance toward a more general artificial intelligence by creating literate machines that can think, reason and communicate like humans -- a vision exactly in line with ours," Microsoft artificial intelligence and research group executive vice president Harry Shum said in a blog post.

"I'm incredibly excited about the scenarios that this acquisition could make possible in conversational AI."

Tech giants Apple, Samsung, Google and Microsoft are all competing to develop the most sophisticated connected assistant, to give software the ability to understand what people say and even anticipate desires or needs.

Amazon virtual assistant Alexa was a star at the Consumer Electronics Show gadget gala last week in Las Vegas. Amazon and Alexa face fierce competition.

At CES, computer chipmaker Nvidia said it would use Google Assistant for its interactive streaming devices. Microsoft's Cortana will power a voice-assistant speaker for kids and families being introduced by Mattel, and will also be in Renault-Nissan's connected car hub.

Samsung's smart refrigerator will use the South Korean giant's Tizen operating system to create a voice activated connected hub.

Many smart devices for the home also integrate with Apple Home Kit, which uses the iPhone maker's artificial intelligence and voice assistant Siri.

While ending the announcement, Maluuba quoted T.S. Eliot's words: "In our end is our beginning."

Source: Maluuba, Microsoft

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Fasetto Link, a Wireless 2TB SSD Launched at CES 2017

A US-based startup called Fasetto showed off Link - an ultraportable SSD external drive that’s small enough to fit into a jeans pocket at CES this year. The Link which is available in three sizes - 256GB, 512GB, and 2TB - uses Wi-Fi to wirelessly connect with smartphones, tablets, laptops, and other supported gadgets.

Measuring 2 inch x 2 inch, and weighing a little over 100 grams, the device is MIL-STD 810G certified for ruggedness and an IP68 certified for water resistance. The Link comes along with a software that lets you access your files and seamlessly backs up content from your devices. It also allows you to grant permission for guests to view specific content.

It can connect up to 30 devices at once, a whopping 15 devices can stream content together, using dual-band 802.11ac Wi-Fi. The internal battery can power the device for up to 5 hours of streaming on connected devices. Using a magnetically attachable external battery, it can go on for up to 8 hours. This battery is available separately. It supports quick charging through the USB Type-C port at the back but is said to charge up the 1300mAh battery in about 75 minutes (which isn't actually fast considering smartphones with far bigger batteries charge in about the same time). Speaking of other accessories, there's also one that makes the Link connect to 4G networks.

The Link starts at $349 (roughly Rs. 23,700) for the 256GB version, $499 (roughly Rs. 34,000) for the 512GB one, and a pricey $1,149 (roughly Rs. 78,000) for the 2TB version. It’s available for preorder on Fasetto’s website and the shipping date is estimated to be April 2017.

Source: Fasetto

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Facebook Buys Social Media Buzz Tracker CrowdTangle

Facebook on Friday announced it's acquisition of startup CrowdTangle, which specializes in tracking trending content on social networks for media agencies and others.

"Publishers around the world turn to CrowdTangle to surface stories that matter, measure their social performance and identify influencers," a Facebook spokesperson said. He added, "We are excited to work with CrowdTangle to deliver these, and more insights to more publishers."

CrowdTangle confirmed the acquisition in a message at its website, but neither company disclosed financial terms of the deal. CrowdTangle said that its technology helps identify stories picking up traction and influential sources as well as their performance on social networks. The startup claimed that thousands of journalists use its tool daily, with its customers around the world including newspapers, television stations, digital media outlets, nonprofits, and sports teams.

The list of users at CrowdTangle included Google, BuzzFeed, Vox, the British BBC, RTL Group in Luxembourg, and also used by nonprofit groups such as Greenpeace and Unicef, according to its website.

The CrowdTangle platform is tailored to spot news that is catching fire at online venues like Facebook, its subsidiary Instagram, and even competitors such as Google-owned YouTube or Twitter. The US startup also provides tools for media to see how much attention its own stories attract and to identify who is sharing their content, according to its website.

The CrowdTangle team will continue to run the operation, and the plan was to go on supporting support integration with Twitter, YouTube, and other clients. Facebook expected CrowdTangle technology to enable it to provide more meaningful insights to publishers at the social network.

Source: CrowdTangle

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Chan Zuckerberg Initiative invests in Indian Edutech Startup, Byju's

Mark Zuckerberg's philanthropy arm, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, is making an investment in India-based startup Byju's. The education startup offers personalized learning and assessment services to students.

Apart from the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Sequoia Capital, and existing backers Sofina, Lightspeed Ventures, and Times Internet Ltd participated in the $50 million investment round. This marks the first investment from Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, formed last year, in the Asian market.

(Also Read: Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes its first major investment)

Founded in 2011, Byju's provides maths and science learning programs for middle and high school students. In addition, the startup also prepares students for some of the most sought after educational competitive exams in the country such as JEE, CAT, IAS, and GMAT among others. It has raised about $150 million so far.

Byju's offers interactive video lectures and other study materials through its website and apps, giving students the comfort of taking classes from wherever they want and when. It provides many of its services to users for free, but offers additional guidance and feedback to its paid customers. It has over 250,000 annual paid subscribers with over 5.5 million downloads of its app.

"Byju's was started by a teacher and entrepreneur named Byju Raveendran as a way to help students from different backgrounds across India learn in a way that works best for them. The mobile app uses a mix of video lessons and interactive tools to help teach subjects like math and science for a fraction of what other services cost," Mark Zuckerberg wrote in a Facebook post.

"I'm optimistic about personalized learning and the difference it can make for students everywhere. That's why it's a major focus of our education efforts, and why we're looking forward to working with companies like BYJU's to get these tools into the hands of more students and teachers around the world," he added.

With the new capital inflow, Byju's plans to take its services to global markets including the United States and United Kingdom, and also introduce subjects beyond science and math. It currently serves students from class 6 to 12, but plans to extend it to class 4 and 5 as well.

As part of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative, Priscilla and I are investing in an Indian education technology company we're...
Posted by Mark Zuckerberg on Thursday, September 8, 2016

Chan Zuckerberg Initiative makes its first major investment

Facebook Inc founder Mark Zuckerberg's and his wife Priscilla Chan's philanthropy venture has made its first major investment, leading a funding round in a startup that trains and recruits software developers in Africa.

The Chan Zuckerberg Initiative LLC, created by Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan, led a $24 million Series B funding in Andela, the startup said on Thursday. Alphabet Inc's GV, previously known as Google Ventures, was also part of the funding round.

Andela selects the top 1 percent of tech talent from Africa, trains them and places them in engineering organizations. The startup, which has nearly 200 engineers currently employed by its Nigeria and Kenya offices, will use the funds to expand to a third African country by the end of 2016.

"We live in a world where talent is evenly distributed, but opportunity is not. Andela's mission is to close that gap," Zuckerberg said in a statement. When the philanthropy initiative was launched in late 2015, Zuckerberg said he would put in 99 percent of his Facebook shares.

The initiative is structured as a limited liability company. This means, unlike a traditional charitable or philanthropic foundation, the venture can make political donations, lobby lawmakers, invest in businesses and recoup any profits from those investments. Zuckerberg has also signed the Giving Pledge, which invites the world's wealthiest individuals and families to commit to giving more than half of their wealth to philanthropy or charitable causes over their lifetime or in their will.

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