Ten nascent businesses applying machine learning to everything from answering medical questions to recruiting university students were tapped for Microsoft Ventures’ latest accelerator, kicking off this week in Seattle.
It’s the third running of the accelerator program in Seattle. The focus this time around is machine learning and data science, enabled, naturally, by Microsoft services such as Azure ML and Cortana Analytics Suite.
Over the past few years, iRobot’s business has been shifting away from military applications and towards home robots and other areas. Today the company is making a clean break.
El Ministerio de Economía y Competitividad ha publicado la convocatoria “doctorados industriales” 2015.
Las ayudas, de una duración máxima de cuatro años, tienen como objetivo la formación de doctores en empresas mediante la cofinanciación de los contratos laborales del personal investigador en formación que participen en un proyecto de investigación industrial o de desarrollo experimental que se desarrolle en la empresa, en el que se enmarcará su tesis doctoral, a fin de favorecer la inserción laboral de investigadores en las empresas desde los inicios de sus carreras profesionales, contribuir a la empleabilidad de estos investigadores y promover la incorporación de talento en el tejido productivo para elevar la competitividad del mismo.
State Street Corp (STT.N) is nearing a deal to acquire General Electric Co's (GE.N) $115 billion asset management business, according to people familiar with the matter, as the U.S. industrial conglomerate continues to shed unloved assets.
Advancements in AI were recently spotlighted by AlphaGo, a computer program developed by Google’s DeepMind team. The program — which relies on decision-making algorithms and neural networks — defeated a human European champion at the board game Go in a feat previously believed to be years away.
On the investor side, Jim Breyer of Breyer Capital has said AI will deliver massive returns for investors betting on applications for industries including healthcare and entertainment.
The digital health industry reached a new investment high in 2015. The past year saw nearly $5.8B invested, a small increase from the breakout year in 2014 (which itself saw more than double the funding over 2013). However, there was a more significant jump in deals, which saw a 20.6% year-over-year increase and broke the 800-mark for the first time (nearly hitting 900).
Several mega-rounds have contributed to this funding uptick, with newly minted unicorns Guahao, Zocdoc, and 23andMe among the 8 digital health deals in 2015 above $100M in size.
Banking has historically been one of the business sectors most resistant to disruption by technology. Since the first mortgage was issued in England in the 11th century, banks have built robust businesses with multiple moats: ubiquitous distribution through branches; unique expertise such as credit underwriting underpinned by both data and judgment; even the special status of being regulated institutions that supply credit, the lifeblood of economic growth, and have sovereign insurance for their liabilities (deposits). Moreover, consumer inertia in financial services is high. Consumers have generally been slow to change financial-services providers.
Most smart software in use today specializes on one type of data, be that interpreting text or guessing at the content of photos. Software in development at IBM has to do all those at once. It’s in training to become a radiologist’s assistant.
The software is code-named Avicenna, after an 11th century philosopher who wrote an influential medical encyclopedia. It can identify anatomical features and abnormalities in medical images such as CT scans, and also draws on text and other data in a patient’s medical record to suggest possible diagnoses and treatments.
Parecía una noticia que podía llegar en cualquier momento, pero no acababa de hacerlo. Sin embargo, la confirmación ha llegado esta misma mañana: el gigante británico Just Eat, líder del sector de la entrega de comida a domicilio en España, se ha hecho con el 100% de La Nevera Roja, la startup de origen español que hasta ahora era propiedad de la incubadora alemana Rocket Internet.
La dirección de IBM España ha alcanzado un preacuerdo con los sindicatos de la empresa que, si es ratificado, servirá para neutralizar el conflicto laboral que mantenía la compañía en los últimos meses y que ha provocado huelgas y manifestaciones.
El conflicto se inició a causa de la decisión de la empresa de aplicar un ERE para unos 140 empleados de la firma -que contaba con unos 1.300 trabajadores- al tiempo que acometía una rebaja de salarios del 10%.
