We asked Valiot CEO Federico Crespo about this company and the growing role of AI in manufacturing.

Tell us a little of yourself and Valiot

Sure, my name is Federico Crespo. I am the CEO of the operations/manufacturing AI Valiot. We manage artificial intelligence for major suppliers like Heineken, John Deere, Metalsa, and more. From a young age I was exposed to inefficiencies within the manufacturing industry.

How has Heneken’s manufacturing benefited from Valiot

In the Summer of 2021, Heineken became the first major manufacturer to implement Valiot, and with incredible results. Since starting their partnership with Valiot, Heineken has reported a 25% Cycle Reduction Time, 17 % In Process Inventory Reduction, and a 5% Throughput Brewery Increase. Valiot’s data monitors assured BBT and filtration time were reduced in all cycles. Brewing capacity also increased significantly per month. The migration to digital has enabled Heineken México to have a real-time visualization of the bottling lines and filtering conditions in each batch.

What excites you about the future of AI

It’s super exciting to see all the capabilities that AI and robotics have. However, it’s a bit too early to know how these capabilities will develop in the next 10-20 years. AI is reminiscent of the early nineties of the internet, with infinite potential for growth, so it’s amazing to be part of it. It feels good to be present for these developments not just as a spectator, but also as a player.

What are some challenges you see for the future of AI

At the same time, there are certain concerns that remain about the future of AI. Access to education in math and computer science will have to be heavily expanded for people to remain competitive in the job market. In this sense, job extinction is a major concern. New technology evidently eliminates a lot of jobs, but it creates new, more productive jobs as well. In this light, it will be all the more important to invest in comprehensive coding education for children in order to reduce barriers to entry into this job market and get kids engaged in a time where people’s attention spans are shrinking.

How has Valiot changed the manufacturing industry?

We have proven false the notion that software is difficult to implement in an old school industry. In fact, AI-based software will likely be the key to keeping these industries relevant. Valiot recently spoke with Texas government officials about its potential to bolster statewide growth, reshoring, and Texas’s overall GDP. Connecting these two ecosystems is a unique opportunity that has the possibility for mutual benefit. Valiot’s team empowers factory operators to make use of the software independently, adjusting with little to no learning curve. Our approach is factory-friendly and time-saving across all industries.

How Could Valiot Change the World?

We are disrupting how operations are being executed in manufacturing facilities and providing AI capabilities to operators who haven’t even heard of AI in their lives. Our goal is to inspire growth not just for factories, but for their operators. We are transitioning away from how software companies used to implement new tech, which was extremely aggressive for factories and their employees. In addition, if you believe in free market competition, our tech is going to drastically reduce the cost of living for everyone. We’ll also reduce the carbon footprint from the manufacturing world.

How does Valiot implement Digital Twin Technology?

Valiot’s product ValueChainOS uses and analyses data from different sources to simulate value chain conditions. This helps companies better understand their production requirements and create actionable items regarding what and when to buy, produce, and more importantly, when to change. For example, they were able to help a chemical factory reduce costs and optimize inventory balance via the systems’ Smart Scheduler and Digital Twin interface. Using the digital twin allows owners to understand and predict how the factory is going to behave, and identify problems before they occur. Not only are production cycle times, manufacturing costs, and utility consumption all drastically reduced, but the UX of the application allows for clear and real-time communication between stakeholders.

The post How Valiot Has Changed North American Manufacturing appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Grit Daily was on the scene at Collision Conference in Toronto. At the event, LG Nova revealed the future of LG. The former is the division tasked with spurring the parent company’s efforts in open innovation. On June 20, 2022, the company announced the Select 20 winners of their global challenge. Dr. Sokwoo Rhee, LG Electronics senior vice president for innovation and head of LG NOVA, is the head of the program. Rhee reports to LG’s CEO, William Cho. This organizational hierarchy underscores the significance of his role. Without executive level support, most innovation programs collapse before they even get off the ground.

“As a company, we make $65 billion in revenues, but we can’t sit on that. We recognized that we needed to make a quantum leap.” ~Dr. Rhee

Innovation spans the Metaverse – Health – Energizing Mobility

Three categories were considered for investment: Connected Health, Metaverse, and Energizing Mobility. Approximately 1,400 companies applied to the solicitation posted for the Mission for the Future contest, a. Participation was global: about half the companies were from North America and the other half from Europe and Asia. Representation was reflective of the dynamic world of entrepreneurship. Although LG Nova’s challenge did not stipulate diversity as a requirement for application, the founders selected represent a broad swath across genders, age, and ethnicities.

The down-selection process was intense, highly structured, and required a large team to sift through. “Some companies fell out quickly,” said Rhee. “They were just too early in their life cycle and barely at the inception stage whereas others were clearly not interested in doing things differently.” By the time that the innovation team at LG Nova had narrowed it down to the Final 50, months had gone by. Dr. Rhee shared that each company was fully vetted through extensive conversation with his commercialization team.

The selection process

Even the losers are winners with this program. Only the Select 20 each received a cheque for $100,000, for a $2 million total investment. However, the other 30 companies remain an integral part of LG Nova’s innovation ecosystem. Dr. Rhee shared, “We’ll continue to meet with them and work together to advance new ideas; it’s an ecosystem play.” That’s a critical differentiator in their open innovation program versus others: they recognize the value of an innovation community to foster learning and growth.

Prior to launching the global challenge, Dr. Rhee traveled the globe to meet with the leaders of accelerators and some exceptional investors. As an entrepreneur himself, and an engineer, Rhee understood what founders needed and searched the world for the best ideas to bring them together into LG Nova’s open innovation program. To maximize success, Rhee assembled a corporate development team focused on M&A and Joint Ventures, a dedicated commercial team, a partnership team of success managers, and a team of engineers to work alongside the founders and their teams.

Open innovation by LG

The result is that LG Nova has created three new commercial verticals spurred by their identification and investment in the Select 20 startups. These verticals include: health, sustainable energy, and the metaverse. Rhee elaborated, “We’re building a new engineering and business development team around these external technologies.” The elite circle of winners will be mentored and sponsored by NOVA Capital Alliance. A Top 10 down-selection is on the horizon. Each winner will have the unprecedented opportunity to build their businesses together with LG. Dr. Rhee has labeled this opportunity as an “accelerated path to success.”

The Select 20 winners

Congratulations to the Selected 20 startups in LG Nova’s inaugural Mission for the Future Global Challenge. The Winners in connected health are: MayaMD, Inc., LifeNome, Mindset Medical, XRHealth, TRIPP, Inc., NeuroTrainer, and medZERO. In the metaverse category, winners include: iQ3Connect, Snickerdoodle Labs, and YBVR. Within the energizing mobility vertical, SparkCharge, Driivz , I-EMS Group, Ltd., Kardome, and Faction. Additional winners were named for their technology in smart lifestyles and innovation for impact. These include: a*kin, Digbi, and Chefling.

The post How do You Spell Innovation? Ask LG Nova appeared first on Grit Daily News.

We asked Brian Podolak, CEO of Vocodia, about where the idea for Vocodia came from and what distinguishes its Saas platform.

Grit Daily: What was the inspiration behind Vocodia?

Brian Podolak: Vocodia was born in the pandemic and matured through the great resignation. Now more than ever, we saw the importance of being able to scale a sales team up and down with ease. We wanted to be able to do this digitally, and were convinced that AI could finally replace humans while working in tandem with existing digital marketing and sales products. No one occupied this space, so we decided to build it ourselves, and voila, here we are.

Grit Daily: What differentiates Vocodia’s DISA technology from conventional AI chatbots that people are familiar with?

Brian Podolak: Human-level conversation puts our Digital Intelligent Sales Agents in a league of its own. It automates the least appealing part of sales: dialing prospects, handling objections, and qualifying leads. By personalizing the most arduous part of the sales process, employees can hone in on closings. Those of us who rely on customer service are tired of hearing automated tones like “due to unusually high call volumes” or “please listen to our updated menu of options”  when dealing with companies that lack customer service staff. DISA restores customer service availability at a lower cost to the company, while providing a more streamlined experience to the customer.

Grit Daily: Why is it so important for companies to have a scalable customer support system?

Brian Podolak: It is extremely costly for companies to quickly scale up or down for various campaigns. Going from 10 sales agents to 30 is challenging when you have to hire, train, and properly equip them. With DISA, it’s possible to flip a switch and expand from one agent to 300 in a matter of seconds. Many campaigns require all hands on deck until the very last day, but once they end, so too can the demand for agents. Our technology removes the guesswork and creates a more predictable supply of virtual agents, truly revolutionizing the customer experience.

Grit Daily: Which industries does Vocodia’s DISA technology impact the most? Has this target changed since you started?

Brian Podolak: As far as opportunity and impact, our DISA is optimal for the retail, financial services, telecom, call centers, and insurance industries. These are well-known for being some of the most migration-desperate industries. DISA allows for efficient, cost-effective sales operations. It alleviates consumer pressures and permits healthy growth in these industries and in the economy as a whole.

Grit Daily: Where do you hope to see Vocodia in 10 years? How do you see AI speech technology evolving in the future?

Brian Podolak: Our vision for Vocodia and AI speech technology involves the automation of menial tasks for sales and customer service departments. When consumers’ AI learns buying habits and needs, it is able to serve as an intuitive personal assistant that streamlines business and consumption.

The post Brian Podolak, CEO of Vocodia, Talks About Automating Success With DISA appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Given his machine learning expertise, Kraus was convinced that artificial intelligence (AI) could do a better job. He founded Dieta Health and built a mobile app for iOS and Android. Patients using the app simply photograph each bowel movement, which is then instantly classified for an objective and accurate digestive health results. In addition to ranking stool on the Bristol Scale, the Dieta app also classifies multiple other stool characteristics including volume and fragmentation from a single image capture.

Go ahead, make every poop joke that comes to your mind, but this is a big step forward for people suffering with IBS. A clinical trial was run by the MAST Program (Medically Associated Science and Technology Program) team at Cedars-Sinai in Los Angeles to measure the effectiveness of the Dieta app. Patients recruited by Cedars-Sinai used Dieta’s app to capture stool images before, during, and after taking an experimental medication throughout 2021. Two expert gastroenterology professors then manually classified over 200 images of stool to create a “gold standard” on which to compare Dieta’s AI to the current standard of patient reported classifications.

The AI used by Dieta’s app was shown to be comparable to expert gastroenterologists and far better than patients in classifying stool on the Bristol Scale. Dieta’s AI was more sensitive and more specific when compared to patients (55% and 71% respectively). Additionally, Dieta’s AI stool classifications were more correlated (0.71) to the patients’ symptom severity scores as compared to even the patients’ own classifications (0.46).

“Dieta’s stool image recognition objectified constipation, diarrhea and normal stools so there was less subjective patient influence on trial outcomes,” said Dr. Mark Pimentel M.D., a world-renowned gastroenterologist and researcher who is credited with discovery of many innovative IBS treatments and diagnostics. “This could be a game-changer in terms of more clearly seeing true effects on patient stool outcomes and side effects of drugs in clinical trials for gastroenterology and beyond.”

The results of the groundbreaking human clinical trial validating Dieta’s stool image recognition technology were published today in the American Journal of Gastroenterology.

In addition to the proprietary stool imaging AI, Dieta’s platform for patients offers much more. Patients can also snap photos of meals, track medications and symptoms, and get guidance on choosing interventions (treatments) as they work towards improving their digestive health. Patients can also easily share their data with their clinicians to view on Dieta’s Clinician Portal.

Dieta’s applications have been used by over 7,000 patients. Next month, Dieta is launching a patient care service, where patients who use the platform can also connect with a unified team of gastroenterologists, dietitians, and coaches to get guidance and care directly in the Dieta app.

Dieta Health raised $1.9 million in its pre-seed funding round, and is backed by Techstars, and investors/partners including Cedars-Sinai, an international leader in gastroenterology, and UnitedHealthcare, the world’s largest healthcare payer.

The post Health Tech Startup Dieta Health Uses AI to Revolutionize Treatment of IBS appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Now, she represents a marginalized demographic dedicating her life to solving racial and gender equity in the field where she once felt alienated. “It’s just a space I love to be in,” she said. “Some people deem code as being pretty pictures and numbers and now we’re changing lives.”

Robinson is one of Google’s top 50 Black Founders, recipient of the Cloud Solution of the Year by M12 (Microsoft’s venture capital fund) and Women in Cloud, named Top 10 Under 40 and Top CEO by Mississippi Business Journal, a SheEO Venture semi-finalist, Databird’s “Rising Star,” a military wife, a mother, a Black Woman.

However, she is more than a name for February Black History Month or a name for March Women’s History Month.

Her name is Sheffie Robinson. She is the only Black woman that she knows of working in AI workforce development.

Robinson’s startup, Shamrck is an AI solutions company that is revolutionizing workforce development in underserved and minority communities. “Everything we do looks at success from a social lens –  cause and effect. How many lives can we change? How can we change the world with our technology?” she said.

“How many lives can we change?”

Robinson has always been social-impact driven. Even since childhood, Robinson could be found combining sociological theory with technology. This tech CEO/Founders’ whole life changed the day her mother brought home one of the first computers.

“At 12 years old, AOL was the thing. My Mom couldn’t afford AOL! We ran out of time on the free disks. So I remembered all the MS Docks commands from Oregon Trail, went into the back, and hacked my way into AOL. I realized I can do so many different things with code. It’s fun for me to see how much I can create with lines of words. It just snowballed from there,” said Sheffie Robinson.

Robinson has accumulated 23 years of experience in software engineering, spending seven years in the tech workforce as a freelance software engineer. Seven years masking a hidden talent as a mere hobby; “I have been building software since 1999 and I’m completely self-taught. I had a passion for finding ways to provide technical solutions for the underserved and I still possess that passion,” she said.

Although Robinson had work experience in technology, the lack of diverse representation in leadership throughout the industry discouraged the now, award winning innovator. In 2014, Robinson’s husband suggested she turn her side hustle into a career. In 2015, Shamrck was founded. Yet, not with the purpose of its work now. However, 95% of Robinson’s consumers were female or minority. 

“How can we change the world with our technology?“

Obtaining a Sociology degree from Thomas Edison State University, in Trenton, NJ, in 2020 amidst the commencement of a global pandemic, with a son entering his senior year of high school, Robinson had an insiders perspective of the pitfalls of COVID-level learning.

Shamrck’s business plan pivoted. Studying to be a mechanical engineer, her son’s high school didn’t offer the correct class for his high level course requirements. Robinson went to the local community college and school board. Resulting in a created a class for her son and the six other students they found with the same issue.

“It was like, wow, how many parents don’t know they can advocate for their kids this way? And how many schools don’t know they need these programs or have the resources behind them. How can we effect the future workforce in a way that gets them what they need not necessarily what we think they need. What are you going to college for? You’re not? What assistance do you get from there? Influencing diversity and equity in the workforce has to go back further than teaching college students and adults, otherwise, the next generation will have the same issues,” Sheffie Robinson said.

“Our goal is to make a community impact.”

Children in Hawaii believe in order to get a good job, they have to leave their home and family to receive proper training. However, Shamrck is repairing and impacting an entire island of overlooked people. The AI workforce development startup is currently integrated in a large high school in Hawaii stimulating economic development, solving long-stemming issues, and providing resources to students all without them having to leave the island.

Repurposing and expanding its preexisting AI functionality, Shamrck is standardizing education, creating metrics and facilitating benchmarks as it relates to current industry standards. Robinson changes lives and impacts communities, many of which are underrepresented and marginalized. Having personal experience in an industry lacking diversity, Robinson is first-handedly shaping the future for the better.

Yet, she’s as humble as she is heroic. “The work is more important than I even thought. People are recognizing. It’s just a highlight to the problem and the effort that is necessary to solve it. To me, that just means I gotta keep going. Were at the very beginning. We haven’t even touched a smidget of the capability of what the platform is or can do,” said Sheffie Robinson in response to her many awards and accolades.

The post Sheffie Robinson, Founder and CEO of Shamrck, Wants More Black Women in AI appeared first on Grit Daily News.

We’ve seen AI-powered solutions that remove the need for cashiers in supermarkets and grocery stores before. Some use CCTV, barcode scanners, or beacons and sensors, and others require proprietary technology, but another intriguing solution has entered the market.

Flow (formerly WalkOut) comes as a device store owners can retrofit onto any shopping cart. Using AI, machine learning, edge computing, and high-precision cameras, it identifies each item placed into or removed from the cart with incredible accuracy.

“Flow is a standalone retrofitted cart with four cameras that stream video directly to the computing unit that is installed on the cart,” Assaf Gedalia, CEO at Flow, told me. “The device then can differentiate between the items inserted into the cart by recognizing its packaging. This computing unit also helps make the carts autonomous units that are non- reliant on internet or Wi-Fi.”

Yep. You read that right. Flow doesn’t rely on an internet connection to work, so when the zombie apocalypse happens, and the communication systems go down, at least you’ll still be able to buy some Pop-Tarts.

Seeing Flow in action, it’s easy to be impressed with the system’s use of computer vision and how well it captures the exact product being put in the cart, even when the same brand differentiates products with only the slightest text or image difference.

“Thanks to the advanced computer vision technology, our solution can catch every single item placed in or taken out of the cart,” Gedalia said. “This encompasses any sized item, and we provide alerts to the groceries staff about suspicious behavior and which cart said activity is coming from. Items are instantly shown on screen as soon as they enter the cart and subtracted from the total if they are removed from the cart before the final tally.”

One perennial problem with supermarket automation solutions has been assisting the customer when things are working correctly. How do staff know when there’s a problem so they can help and check the consumer’s purchases?

“We have a system that is called Store Control,” Gedalia said. “This is a monitoring tool that the grocery staff has access to, and they can perform different actions through. For example, they can check a purchase, see what products are in what carts, and help with troubleshooting remotely. There is also a help button on the cart to allow the shopper to call for assistance.”

Another area where Flow helps shoppers is with recommendations, special offers, and coupons.

“Flow is integrated into the retailer’s product base, and once the retailer tags a product with a discount or special price, that discount will appear on the shopper’s screen as well,” Gedalia said. “The same goes for any store coupons or special offers. Flow notifies shoppers based on their location in the store – if they are standing by a yogurt on a two-for-one deal, the cart will notify the shopper. Besides what the store offers, our solution will also provide the shopper with information based on the many data points we analyze from our carts. This allows us also to offer personalized recommendations like complimentary ingredients, warn of products that don’t fit a shoppers personal dietary needs, or suggest a good wine to pair with the steak they just picked up at the butcher section.”

So what’s next for Flow and supermarket automation?

“Flow has already accomplished a lot in just one year, with several grocery store implementations,” Gedalia said. “We believe that our smart cart solution will expand beyond the shoppers’ experience but also change the way store pickers build their carts for customers, indicate stock levels of products for employees with shelf alerts, and overall expand our mission to improve the in-store shopping experience for shoppers, employees, and management.”

The post Flow delivers AI-powered supermarket automation that works with existing shopping carts appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Unlike many entrants to the smart products space, Berdugo saw the potential for the sector as early as 2013, when Wellbots was founded. Smart products are entering more areas of daily life, not only in personal life, but also in the professional world. As a leading retailer of numerous smart products, Wellbots has to stay on top of market trends. Wellbots offers large discounts to schools, universities, hospitals and other corporate clients.

Grit Daily had the opportunity to ask Berdugo about the success of Wellbots, as well as where he sees the space going in the future.

GD: You were an early mover in the smart products space. Why did you see potential in smart products so early?

Philippe: Growing up, I always had an interest in technology and the most innovative products on the market. It was hard to ignore how popular new forms of technology were at the beginning of the last decade. Smartphones were just starting to become a common consumer item, and I saw that the same kind of smart technology could be applied to numerous other everyday items. The founding of Wellbots made sense to me, as I thought there would be a huge opportunity for any company that could make connections in the smart products sector, and offer competitive prices on great new products. As I grew Wellbots, I realized the company was ideally positioned to issue a ranking of the best 25 smart products on the market. It has since become the Annual Wellbots Ranking and includes the best robot vacuums, electric scooters, smartwatches, drones, air purifiers and more.

GD: How do you see the role of data in the smart economy?

Philippe: Data is at the center of the modern economy. It is a highly-coveted skill and asset to be able to leverage data to make business decisions. Companies large and small are fighting to get more data on their (potential) customers’ behaviors and interests. It allows companies to be much smarter at marketing their products, reaching out to the right people to grow their business. At the same time, data collection has become a growing concern for many because of its impact on privacy.

In addition, smart products are now able to connect and communicate with other products to make our lives easier. That is what has been coined the Internet-of-Things, which heavily relies on data and is expected to be one of the fastest-growing industries in the coming decade.

GD: Can you tell us more about how Wellbots has been such a success in a competitive marketplace?

Philippe: At Wellbots, we curate the best products in each category of smart products. We pride ourselves on only selling the best. We are not generalists, we are experts in the space. The Wellbots Brand Partnership team carefully vets the best products such as drones, robotic pool cleaners, connected toys, portable power stations, electric bikes and more. There is a thorough selection process for a brand to make it to Wellbots.

Our team knows all the products we sell: customers call us and live chat with us every day. We are known for our white-glove customer service and offering innovative & pioneering features such as:

Pay with crypto

The Wellbots VIP Program

Free Shipping on Everything

2% Cashback Loyalty Program

Extended 2 or 3-year warranties

The Special Wellbots Bundles

GD: Can you tell us a little more about the bulk buying program that Wellbots offers?

Philippe: The bulk buying program at Wellbots offers discounted quotes to business customers placing large orders. The B2B team members are always available to answer any questions business customers may have: our team has been carefully trained and educated on the technicalities and functionalities of all the products we sell. Our goal is to make the process as seamless, enjoyable and efficient as possible.

Some of our business customers include local police departments, fire stations, coast line guards and government agencies, private/corporate campuses and buildings, hotels, amusement parks, hospitals, universities among others.

Philippe Berdugo graduated from ESSEC Business School in France and also the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College. Wellbots offers its products in both the USA and France, and was featured by the Financial Times of London in 2021 on its list of the 500 Fastest-Growing Companies in the Americas. It ranked #7 in the ecommerce section of the 500 companies, as at #122 across the entire group. Berdugo is also a co-founder of Berd Industries, an investment firm that focuses on real estate and a director at TP NYC, which is a real estate investment firm.

The post Wellbots CEO Philippe Berdugo Sees More Growth Ahead in Smart Products appeared first on Grit Daily News.

Where AI meets blockchain

Pujaa Rajan, Machine Learning Engineer at Stripe and AI&ML Advisory Board member at Oxylabs, believes that some of the most interesting new developments will be where AI meets blockchain technology.

According to her, the advent of Web3 and crypto will have an interesting intersection with artificial intelligence in 2022. AI and blockchain together have applications in finance, healthcare, and more.

“Blockchain has the potential to give people the power to manage data privacy and security. Imagine a world where you own your data and/or algorithms, control it’s transparency, and maybe even get paid for your data. Currently, a lot of AI applications do not run on the blockchain because of latency issues and data centralization. However, advancements in both fields could change this in 2022”, – Pujaa says.

Machine learning expert predicts that we may start to see decentralized artificial intelligence in the new decentralized web.

“In this new world, machines may make decisions on data around the world independently without the middleman or middlewoman. While I don’t think we’ll get this advanced in one year alone, we still need to be aware of the perpetuation of any existing biases in Web3 while we are still building the foundation of this new world”, – Pujaa argues.

Gautam Kedia, Machine Learning Engineering Manager at Stripe and Oxylabs Advisory Board member has similar hopes for Web3: “In my view, Web3 will likely release its first killer application”, – he says.

Natural language processing going mainstream

Jonas Kubilius, Co-founder and senior AI engineer at Three Thirds, and member of Oxylabs Advisory Board, expects to see the continued emergence of tools for managing various aspects of ML/AI infrastructure and operations.

“With this ecosystem maturing, more ML/AI solutions will be successfully deployed at scale and start bringing value to customers. Personally, I’m really hoping to see content generation and speech-to-text and text-to-speech products going mainstream”, – Jonas says.

Ali Chaudhry, researcher at University College London and also a member of Oxylabs Advisory Board, seconds these predictions:

“Considering the increased accuracy of Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques in recent years, we will see a rise in NLP powered tools and apps. Reinforcement Learning will continue to play an important role in AI breakthroughs and real-world deployments”, – Ali says.

Meanwhile, Gautam Kedia believes that some of the industries where we could see AI breakthrough will be the health industry and transport: “AI will be more widely used in medical developments. Self-driving robotaxis will start challenging traditional rideshare”, – he says.

Focus on AI ethics

On the other hand, Ali Chaudhry believes that in 2022 we will see more regulations specifically targeting AI systems deployed in the real-world. Companies will be required to share more information on how they build AI systems and what are their limitations.

“Last year I predicted more real-world AI failures and we have recently seen Zillow’s AI debacle along with Facebook stepping back from facial recognition systems. This trend may unfortunately continue in 2022 as well, as we see more AI failures in real-world deployments”, – Ali says.

He adds that there will be more publications on AI ethics by the industry and academia as well. We will also see a great influx of talent in the data science and artificial intelligence fields to meet the growing needs of companies becoming data-driven and AI ready.

Oxylabs AI & ML Advisory Board comprises leading figures in the machine learning, AI, and data science industries, many of whom have experience working for highly reputable organisations such as NASA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and UCL. The Board consists of 5 members: AI researchers Ali Chaudhry from University College London and Jonas Kubilius from Three Thirds, Pujaa Rajan and Gautam Kedia from Stripe, and renowned data science consultant Adi Andrei. The board supports Oxylabs commitment to innovation providing expertise and guidance on new technology developments.

The post AI/ML in 2022: more real-world deployments, focus on AI ethics and blockchain hopes appeared first on Grit Daily News.

The Problem with Translation

Today humanity is globalised like never before. We can make friends with people from all over the world, find the love of our lives in foreign countries, organise communities that include individuals from all continents, get a job abroad or conquer new regions with our businesses. But we still have to hire translation services when we cannot speak the same language, and it significantly slows communication down. And not everyone can hire a translator or wants a third party in their conversation. It means, a lot of potential friendships, partnerships or other possibly fruitful connections do not even have a chance to happen.

AI as the Solution

Thanks to the impressive advancement of technology in the last decade, artificial intelligence (AI) is currently assisting and displacing human effort across almost all existing industries from marketing to cinema. Often it means liberating people from the most routine tasks and giving them the opportunity to concentrate on more complex and demanding work.

Translation is also impacted by the development of machine learning and AI, and these changes promise to liberate us from the limitations of the language barrier, therefore revolutionizing how we live and work. We have been working on this at YOUS, a communication tool with a built-in AI translator that enables anyone to understand and speak a foreign language during chats, audio, and video calls, and we already see the differences it makes.

Freedom of Personal Communication

Translation goes real-time even for audio and video calls, thus making all communications involving two or more languages simpler and more enjoyable, be it with your friends, colleagues or other acquaintances. It means stronger relationships, more connections, better networking and less loneliness and social isolation.

Lack of necessity to hire a translator may motivate people to seek better consultancy in sensible areas when involving a stranger is uncomfortable. For example, when a health situation requires counselling by a foreign medical expert. Sometimes it is not even a matter of choice. For example, in the U.S. there are 25 million Spanish-speaking adults who cannot access quality health care because of the language barrier.

Access to Knowledge and Better Awareness

While the global population has reached 7.87 billion, there are still only 1.3 billion people who speak English. It means billions of people cannot access knowledge provided by the most prominent universities in the world, the international scientific community, best-selling nonfiction authors, etc. Those who speak English but do not speak, for example, Spanish (543 million speakers) or Hindi (600 million total speakers) are limited in the information they can access too.

AI translators are making prospects of global education and knowledge sharing much more promising. Besides, if one can access news in all languages and is able to discuss it with a wide international community, they are capable of better understanding the world and fellow humans. In such an environment cultural differences that sometimes tear our society apart will not be such a problem anymore.

Smoother International Growth for Businesses

With AI translators expanding a business internationally becomes smoother and less costly. With their assistance, a language barrier does not require spending money on hiring human translators for important meetings, and communication goes more naturally and faster. International teams will be stronger and more bonded because there will be fewer miscommunications and misunderstandings. Studies show that in multinational corporations language barriers negatively impact employees’ psychological well-being, trust formation, and interpersonal connections while in fields like aviation they may even endanger safety.

AI translators can also significantly improve communications with customers on every level. By using them, marketing campaigns easily go multilingual with lower expenses. It has the potential to revolutionise customer service with chatbots being able to assist clients in all languages existing at any time. Chatbots are already popular in the business world and save up to 30 percent in customer support costs for companies that have implemented them but the potential is much higher.

We are living in astonishing times when technology is enhancing all aspects of our lives. It is now revolutionizing global communication for a better world. Entrepreneurs can push these improvements with tech products as well as use these advancements to strengthen their business.

The post Here’s How AI Is Changing International Communications appeared first on Grit Daily News.

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), 91% of the global population is exposed to air that exceeds the maximum levels of ingestible pollution. And the UN’s 2021 “Code Red for Humanity” report made it clear that the effects of climate change will only get worse in coming years.

If they didn’t know it before, consumers are now acutely aware that environmental hazards like air pollution, wildfire smoke, and increased levels of pollen are directly affecting them. Yet, because they often can’t feel, smell or see poor air quality, most people have no idea when the air they’re breathing is compromising their health. 

Rather than waiting for governments to make wide-sweeping changes to protect consumers, many companies are looking to environmental data to understand how shifting climate conditions affect their customers’ and users’ wellness.

At the center of all of this is BreezoMeter.

The climate tech company powers the air quality data in the Apple Weather app, and delivers micro-local air quality, pollen, pollutants, and fire data to consumers within 5 meters of their current location. Companies like AstraZeneca, Bosch, Dyson, Volvo, Verizon Media and L’Oréal also look to BreezoMeter to put environmental protections directly into the hands of consumers through the devices they use every day (think mobile apps, smart home IoT devices, cars and connected experiences). 

Ran Korber, BreezoMeter’s CEO and Co-Founder, started the company in 2012 while he and his pregnant wife were looking for a home in northern Israel. Korber’s wife is asthmatic and, as an environmental engineer, Korber knew how long-term exposure to air pollution could jeopardize the well-being of his family.

When he asked around about the cleanest areas to live, he discovered that not even his colleagues in the environmental protection agency had an answer. He decided to join forces with his now co-founder and CTO, Emil Fisher, to develop the algorithms that would become the foundation of the climate tech company. 

I spoke with Korber about how BreezoMeter is working with companies to tackle this invisible problem in tangible ways.

Grit Daily: Gaining mass adoption is a feat for any company, but BreezoMeter is offering a solution for a problem people don’t even know they have. What have been some of the drivers of adoption of your product?

Ran Korber: We are in an interesting position in that it’s the consumer that ultimately benefits from our work, but we work with companies and brands to reach them. Consumer awareness of the environmental issues that affect them are critical to driving brand adoption of our technology, followed by the subsequent consumer adoption of their devices and products. When the pandemic started, we saw a leap in people’s awareness of airborne toxins’ effects on their respiratory health. This caused a jump in demand from the companies that serve those consumers. 

Air pollution ​​kills an estimated seven million people worldwide every year, but most people think they won’t be affected. When multiple studies identified links between exposure to hazardous air pollutants and increased COVID-19 death rates in 2020, people could no longer write off air quality as something that only other people had to be aware of.

There’s also been a heightened awareness of air quality as environmental hazards, like wildfires, become more frequent and hazardous. In 2021, the Northeastern United States reported the worst air quality it has seen in over 15 years. The hazardous air quality was caused by smoke from west coast wildfires that traveled more than 3,000 miles. The severity of past wildfire seasons is linked to climate change. It’s only going to get worse–and so are its impacts on people’s health.

Unlike the weather, you can’t just look out the window and make an educated guess about air quality. You can’t feel, smell or see air pollution, which makes it extremely hard to understand–and avoid. This has driven adoption of our platform. People have become more aware of how harmful air pollution can be and are looking for tools to protect themselves.

Grit Daily: This would explain the information gap when it comes to air quality. How is BreezoMeter providing accurate air quality data, and making it as accessible for consumers as the weather?

Ran Korber: Part of the current gap in air quality data is due to limitations of traditional air quality solutions. Solutions like local governmental sensors don’t cover enough areas or pollutants and share data that’s delayed by hours. Air pollution is fluctuating on an hourly basis and varying from street to street. It’s critical that people have access to air quality data that is hyper local and shared in real-time.

Our approach to air quality reporting allows us to fill in the blind spots between sensors in the event that sensor data doesn’t report on all pollutants–all in real-time.

BreezoMeter uses AI and machine learning to collect real-time data from multiple sources. This includes more than 49,000 sensors worldwide, live traffic information, meteorological data and satellites that track weather, fire, and sandstorm events. Our platform detects 17 species of pollen and 34 different pollutants. This data allows us to forecast air pollution up to 96 hours and allergens three days ahead of time.

All of this enables BreezoMeter to deliver the most accurate air quality resolution and pollen, pollutants and fire data to consumers within 5 meters of their current location, in more than 100 countries. 

We power the air quality data in the Apple Weather app and offer environmental data through our app and website. Consumers can check air quality as frequently, and easily, as they check for rain, snow, and sunshine.

Grit Daily: We know that consumers care about air quality, but how are you getting companies to care? 

Ran Korber: Companies have to care about air quality because consumers do. People are now more aware than ever before of the harmful pollutants in the air they breathe. They want solutions to help them manage their exposure. 

Verizon Media partnered with BreezoMeter for that reason — to deliver Yahoo Weather users access to hourly, location-based air quality data. Users can also receive activity recommendations to stay safe, wherever they are. In today’s environment, companies cannot be the authority in weather without being the authority in environmental data.

Grit Daily: Can you share some more of the early adopters you’ve worked with?

Ran Korber: Breezometer is currently working with Volvo to offer drivers protection from outdoor pollution. The company delivers micro-local environmental intelligence (within 5 meters of the driver) through the vehicle’s human-machine interface (HMI). Passengers can use these real-time updates about their exposure to hazardous air quality to find alternative routes. They can also make informed decisions to decrease their exposure to toxic air, like when to open and close windows.

We also recently announced our partnership with L’Oréal to develop an exclusive beauty-driven Exposome Platform. Specifically, L’Oréal is working with BreezoMeter to better understand how an individual’s environmental exposures over a lifetime relate to beauty, skin and aging. 

We’ll see companies’ reliance on environmental intelligence and climate tech continue to grow, especially over the next few years.

Grit Daily: You founded BreezoMeter nearly a decade ago. What are the pivotal moments or decisions that have led you to where you are today?

Ran Korber: In the early years of BreezoMeter, we won a few startup competitions. These were key to our initial growth. BreezoMeter was one of six winners in a UN competition for innovative ideas that can positively impact the world. We were also named Israel’s Most Promising Startup in the 2014 Startup Open competition during Global Entrepreneurship Week. We were later named one of the World’s Top 50 Most Promising Startups by the same organization. And in early 2015, my co-founders and I were among 72 entrepreneurs chosen by President Barack Obama. We were part of a global initiative to help aspiring entrepreneurs in developing countries. These early wins not only offered exposure; they confirmed that there was a critical need in the world for real-time air quality data.

We also made the critical decision to build a multidisciplinary team of scientists, environmentalists, health experts and tech leaders. About half our team has a scientific background, and several of our team members have PhDs. Everyone comes from different backgrounds, which lets us approach innovation with a diversity of thinking. This has allowed us to go far beyond our original dream of democratizing air quality data.

Over the past decade our climate technology has continuously evolved. It started as an algorithm that calculated air quality in the areas where my family was looking for houses. It soon became an app and a map that quantifies pollution. We’re now delivering micro-local air quality, pollen, pollutants, and fire data to consumers through connected devices in 100+ countries.

We’ve worked to provide meaning to data that was once inaccessible and not easily understood to the masses. Today we’re making it as easy as possible for businesses and users to act on that data. This is the next step in democratizing air quality data and improving the health of millions.

The post The Climate Tech Company BreezoMeter Is Saving Lives by Solving an Invisible Problem appeared first on Grit Daily News.