Robotics & AI

Learn about the latest developments in robotics and artificial intelligence, including logistics, agriculture, delivery, healthcare, and home robotics.

Cognigy Secures Funding to Expand Contact Center Automation Enterprise

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“Big tech companies have ‘mis-set’ expectations when it comes to AI,” Heltewig told TechCrunch. According to one survey, over half of businesses have already invested in AI capabilities to support their customer service operations. Per market research firm Markets and Markets, revenue in the market for call center AI alone is set to climb from $1.6 billion in 2022 to $4.1 billion by year-end 2027. And it’s scalable; Cognigy manages AI agents that can handle up to tens of thousands of customer conversations at once. Image Credits: Cognigy“Cognigy provides a platform to build, operate and analyze AI agents for customer experiences in the contact center,” Heltewig said.

Elon Musk Issues Ultimatum: Ban on Apple Devices for Companies in Response to Apple’s ChatGPT Integration

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Elon Musk is threatening to ban iPhones from all his companies over the newly announced OpenAI integrations Apple announced at WWDC 2024 on Monday. This allows users to get an answer from ChatGPT without having to open the ChatGPT iOS app. Apple also announced another integration that would allow users have access to ChatGPT system-wide within Writing Tools via a “compose” feature. That’s great news for OpenAI, which will soon have a massive influx of requests from Apple users. Apple users may not understand the nuances of the privacy issues here, of course — which is what Musk is counting on by making these complaints.

“Experience Unveiling of Apple’s Intelligence and WWDC 2024 Event in One Place”

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Apple kicked off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event today with the customary keynote at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. But the biggest news came with the reveal of Apple Intelligence, the company’s big entrance into the competitive AI market. You can watch watch the archive over on Apple’s events page, or you can watch the YouTube archive right here and via the embed below. The latest reports have put a name to Apple’s AI efforts: Apple Intelligence, along with the caveat that not all recent Apple devices will be able to use the new system. And you can bet that many of iOS 18’s AI features will make their way to macOS 15, as well.

Introducing Apple’s Revolutionary AI Solution: The Next Generation of Intelligence

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Apple Tuesday unveiled Apple Intelligence, its long awaited, ecosystem-wide push into generative AI. As earlier rumors suggested, the new feature is called Apple Intelligent (A.I., get it?). The company promised the feature will be built with safety at its core, along with highly personalized experiences. it’s personal intelligence. and it’s the next big step for Apple.”

“Revolutionizing Home Energy Audits: How AI Can Aid Kelvin in His Quest to Save the Planet”

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When you’re looking for a startup idea that could slow climate change, you might become an expert at home energy assessments. Instead, the startup has put together a small team of engineers to create its own AI model specialized in home energy assessments using machine learning. The company uses open data, such as satellite images, as well as its own training data set with millions of photos and energy assessments. In the company’s first tests, its home energy assessments have been accurate within 5% of old-fashioned assessments. The startup has now raised €4.7 million ($5.1 million at today’s exchange rate) with Racine² leading the round and a non-dilutive investment from Bpifrance.

“The Future Unveiled: Previewing WWDC 2024 and its Revolutionary Offerings: iOS 18, macOS 15, and the Power of AI”

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Following the collapse of its electric car project, Apple reportedly shuffled a number of employees into its internal generative AI efforts. iOS 18 with more AIImage Credits: Darrell EtheringtonAlong with that partnership, expect iOS 18 to be the centerpiece of the event. Siri will be getting a long-awaited refresh, courtesy of Apple’s generative AI work. Generative AI is even coming to emojis, allowing users to customize and create their own in Messages. A lot of the iOS updates should also make their way to macOS, including those in Siri, Notes and Safari.

Experience Apple’s Mesmerizing Kick-Off to WWDC 2024 – Live!

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Apple will kick off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event today with the customary keynote at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT. There’s a stream on YouTube as well, but that has a tendency to lag a bit. The latest reports have put a name to Apple’s AI efforts: Apple Intelligence, along with the caveat that not all recent Apple devices will be able to use the new system. And you can bet that many of iOS 18’s AI features will make their way to macOS 15, as well. TechCrunch will be reporting on the ground at Apple Park, bringing you the news as it happens.

The Unexpected Downfall of India’s Most Successful Startup: From Riches to Ruin

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In a research note, HSBC estimates that the Indian edtech giant, once valued at $22 billion, is now worth nothing. The write-down in its estimation makes Byju’s one of the most spectacular startup slides in recent memory and follows a very rough year for what was India’s most valuable startup not long ago. After raising $100 million, AI mortgage startup LoanSnap is facing an avalanche of lawsuits and has been evicted from its main office. At least seven creditors, including Wells Fargo, have collectively alleged that the company owes them more than $2 million. Read MoreTurns out, AI models have favorite numbers: Engineers at Gramener performed an informal experiment where they asked several major LLM chatbots to pick a random number between 0 and 100.

NEA Invests $20M in Anterior to Accelerate AI-powered Health Insurance Approvals

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Anterior, a company that uses AI to expedite health insurance approval for medical procedures, has raised a $20 million Series A round at a $95 million post-money valuation led by NEA, according to two people familiar with the deal. Existing investors Sequoia, which led Anterior’s $3.2 million seed round last September, and Neo, an accelerator that helped the company launch in the summer of 2022, also participated in the Series A financing. The company has built an LLM-powered co-pilot that helps nurses and doctors save hours on gathering medical documentation required by insurance. While Anterior’s initial offering is in prior authorization automation, the company eventually plans to expand into other medical administrative functions. Makhzoimi also backed Xaira, an AI drug discovery startup that launched this year with $1 billion in funding.

“Prioritizing Practicality over Pizzazz: The Imperative for Apple’s AI Development”

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Reliability firstApple makes some of the most popular devices on the planet, and its AI features should serve to make them more useful. A lot of AI-powered features rely on going back to the cloud to get answers or inputs back. Rumors on the street are that Apple will announce a deal with OpenAI to power AI features across its operating systems. Given AI’s hallucination problems, Apple might not want to be directly involved in content-related AI features just yet. Companies like Google and OpenAI have had to walk back on AI features because of errors or copyright issues.