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Nvidia to Acquire ARM Holdings from Softbank at a $40 Million Valuation

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The coronavirus pandemic has made this a precarious time for companies of all kinds. As a result, we have been seeing quite a few mergers and acquisitions in recent months. The newest addition to that group is the collaboration between Nvidia and Arm Holdings. Through a shock announcement on Sunday, Nvidia has agreed to buy smartphone chip-designer Arm Holdings, from Softbank at a valuation of $40 billion. Here’s a look at everything you need to know about this acquisition and the lead up to it.

Details Regarding the Deal

The companies announced via a report on Sunday that they were near closing the acquisition deal. The deal, which values Arm at $40 billion will include $21.5 billion via Nvidia stock, $12 billion in cash, with a $2 billion payable at the signing of the deal. In 2016, Softbank acquired Arm at a $31.4 billion valuation, making it one of the most expensive acquisitions ever. Arm Holdings is a known chip-design and manufacturing company that focuses on the design of chipsets for smartphones.  They are also involved in the making of Qualcomm and Apple chips, making them a popular choice within the industry. Furthermore, Apple has also expressed plans to shift its MAC computers from Intel to Arm chips, opening new avenues for the company.

Nvidia’s Plan for Arm

Nvidia is a giant in the field of AI and graphic card design and manufacture. They also have operations that help with the design and creation of self-driving vehicles and other autonomous applications. The company stated that it would retain Arm’s licensing model which is largely open in structure. Furthermore, Nvidia also said that they would continue to uphold Arm’s customer neutrality. Nvidia has been doing quite well for itself due to a boom in the usage and sales of video games due to the global pandemic. The company is aiming to launch a new desktop graphics card that will help PC gamers play more intensive games. As per the last earnings report, the company has projected a 46% growth in revenue for the third quarter of this year.

Nvidia Arm Logo
Image Source: nvidia.com

Past Acquisition

SoftBank’s acquisition of Arm was a result of them entering the Internet of Things space. The company viewed Arm Holdings as a valuable investment in this field due to its work on wireless connectivity and smart devices. Arm Holdings also works on intelligent chipsets that could possibly help with the development of everyday smart devices, such as refrigerators, other appliances, and cars. At the time of the acquisition, Masayoshi Son, who serves as the Chairman of Softbank, had hailed the move. He went as far as to say that Arm was a company he had always admired and that the acquisition means a lot to him.

Tough Time for Softbank

However, over the years, Softbank has had to deal with financial troubles. A couple of intensive investments, in companies like Uber and WeWork, has led to them losing money. Furthermore, the company’s shares lost value recently due to it holding stock in tech companies that had fared poorly in the market in September. While it is unclear precisely how much Softbank will make through the Nvidia acquisition, it might help them take a capital-intensive company off their hands. However, experts are concerned about whether Softbank will be able to make a lot of money on the sale due to it having invested quite a bit on Arm.

Softbank also requires cash to help the start-ups that it has picked up via the Vision Fund initiative. This move will provide some relief to start-ups that are facing hardships due to the lockdowns brought in by the coronavirus pandemic. Earlier this year, it had also stated that it would sell about $21 billion worth of stock it holds in T-Mobile. The acquisition will see Arm working as an Nvidia division. The company will stay headquartered in the UK and follow the same licensing model and customer base. However, the deal might still face intense scrutiny with regard to regulations from the EU.

Microsoft has also signed on-board, making Arm-based Surfaces and using it on their Windows. Also, the two companies are not competitors per se as Nvidia does not do much of CPU design or mobile hardware manufacturing. Nvidia might be planning an entry into the next stage of AI computing with this acquisition. Reports are stating that Nvidia wants to invest in building a brand-new AI center for research in Cambridge. If this proves to be true, then the companies can align with each other enabling both to push ahead with regards to AI software develop

blippar

Blippar- Jessica Butcher’s innovative firm to deliver the next level of Augmented Reality.

Leave a Comment / Artificial Intellegence, Augmented Reality, Founder, Inspiration, Tech Story / By

Blippar is a well-know augmented reality platform, assisting thousands of brands and retailers. In a very short duration, the firm has attracted 100 Million dollars plus funding. As well, it acquired leading brands as a client.

Jessica Butcher and her other business partners set up the firm back in 2011. Since then, the firm has been pushing the boundaries of what is possible in augmented reality. To improvise the service it managed to acquire the leading AR company called Layer. Blippar has helped numerous brands and retailers with advanced AR platform.

More About Blippar

It is one of the dominant firms on earth in the field of Augmented reality and AI. In fact, after acquiring the pioneer firm of AR, it remarked it’s presence on the international level. Top brands like Nestle, GSK, PepsiCo, Porsche are the clients of Blippar. As well, dozen of emerging brands uses its technology to create an exciting and convincing experience. Till now, Blippar has enhanced everyday life with Augmented Reality, as well, it continues.

Over the period, it improved the service and enable access to the AR ecosystem. So, its products and services match the needs of its clients.

Acquisition strategy

Understanding the need of clients and the increasing popularity of AR, Blippar used an acquisition strategy to explore the business. One of the noticeable acquisitions by Blippar is Layer. Because it was a pioneer firm in AR. With this acquisition, Blippar is ready to meet the requirements of the growing AR industry. In 2015, the firm has also invested in WaveOptics. So, the development of low energy lenses will increase. As these lenses can be fitted into an ordinary spectacle frame. Thus, the AR implementation will be easier.

Awards and Recognition

No doubt, Blippar has helped numerous brands and retailers with advanced AR platform. For its excellent research and innovation in Augmented Reality, it is honored with many awards. Such as CNN remarked it as one of the fastest-growing companies. Moreover, Forbes also recognized it as one of the fasted growing companies. In fact, Blippar managed to keep the name in the list of most disruptive companies for three consecutive years. Also, Bloomberg honored it as a top Business Innovator. And of course as a most innovative AR/VR company, Fast Company.

Glimpse to founder’s life-Jessica Butcher

She is a technology entrepreneur, angel investor, and NED. As well, having a demonstrable track record of building ambitious, fast-growth businesses from scratch over the last 15 years. Jessica is co-founder of several award-winning businesses. In fact, her businesses have raised $100M plus cumulatively and challenged their respective industries.

Jessica Butcher
Image Source: twitter.com

Apart from that, she is an experienced public speaker and media commentator on the subjects of entrepreneurialism. Moreover, she is the well-known women in business and technology, mobile and technology trends, digital harms and detox, etc.

Education and Early Career

Jessica attended the University of Oxford to study MA Ancient & Modern History. While she attended King Edwards Birmingham for primary education. At the age of 17, she did a part-time job as a cashier at the petrol station. However, she worked at many top positions after that. She is one of the founding members of Tick Done. It is a Micro-video platform for peer-to-peer sharing of ‘how-to’ knowledge.

Other Business Ventures

Moreover, she was a Non-Executive Director at Azoomee. The only multimedia entertainment service for children that offers 1,000s of interactive games, videos, and audiobooks in one safe place. It is age-appropriate; parent-approved messaging; and no advertising. Plus she founded Integritour in 2010.  First tour company to cover the Western region. Also, she worked at a lead position in Business Development & Marketing EMEA at Alibaba.com. There, Jessica managed supplier-side marketing throughout Europe, the Middle East, and Africa. In fact, she is appreciable of getting 100,000 new business suppliers to the platform within a year.

Triumph of Jessica

She is awarded an MBE in the 2018 New Year Honours List. As well, she is named as one of the ‘Inspiring 50’- the most inspiring women in European tech in 2016. Moreover, Jessica marked her name in BBC’s international list of ‘100 Women’ in 2014, Fortune Magazine’s global ‘Top 10 Most Powerful Women Entrepreneurs’ in 2012. Moreover, she is the winner of the Natwest EveryWoman Iris tech award in 2013.

Artificial Intellegence

Using Artificial Intelligence to Improve Your Gaming Experience

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AI

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a trend in the domain of computer science that has seen rapid growth over the last decade.

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence is a process in which a computer program is programmed to perform an action or a series of actions, with the aim of achieving a certain goal. As stated above, the reason why AI is fast gaining popularity in our world is because it can be used to improve our lives. All computer programs have to be re-programmed periodically, as it is not possible for the computer to know all the rules and nuances of the games we play on our computers.

Also Read: COVID-19 testing kit from Indian company that needs only 53 seconds!

Also Read: Magic Leap- Rony Abovitz’s dream company to bring a new era of Artificial Intelligence

In the field of Artificial Intelligence, there are many different applications that could improve our lives. The major benefit of AI is that it is able to act and react in many different situations, to ensure that the benefits are maximized and not, for example, used for illegal activities. It is important that the relevant laws and the expertise from experts in law enforcement agencies are incorporated into these processes so that there is no misuse of these machines.

Artificial intelligence in the field of education has a wide variety of applications. Applications range from improving teaching methods to enable students to learn faster and apply what they have learned effectively, and of course, it can also be used in helping teachers to develop the tools and strategies they need in order to instruct their students in a better way.

These systems can be used for just about anything a person might want. This form of technology does not only affect the academic side of education, but also has a strong impact on the recreational side.

Also Read: 7 Best Apps to Keep You Informed & Entertained During Coronavirus

Artificial intelligence can be used in sports by designing sports simulations and predicting how players will perform during a match. Similarly, in educational computing, programs can be designed to tackle complex problems using specialized knowledge. They can be used in bioscience laboratories, and even in the healthcare industry, where it is necessary to be able to operate and learn on different levels at once.

The advancement of entertainment technology has brought about a new age in computing, with Artificial Intelligence now being used in the field of gaming. Games like Angry Birds and other games like that, allow users to use robots, artificial intelligence software, and other innovative tools to complete simple tasks. This leads to a brand new era in computing, where games could include all kinds of activities and even the human element to them.

Artificial intelligence in education can also be applied in more practical environments, where it is useful to take advantage of what we already know and use it in educational processes. For example, while answering quiz questions, it is easy to get the answer wrong, but by placing the appropriate question into context, we may be able to recognize the whole context of the questions and answer correctly.

Also Read: Munich-Based Start-Up Lilium Becomes Europe’s On Of The Most Innovative Companies

Research has proven time and again that games can be a very important task for learning. There are many games that would teach and help you learn at the same time, as well as being a fun way to pass your time. One example is the game “Pictionary” which lets you learn about vocabulary by spelling words and shapes.

Another interesting aspect of games is that it helps you improve your memory and improve your analytical skills. By incorporating this information into the environment of the game, we can transfer the benefits of learning to real-life situations and help us identify problems, or even eliminate them in our daily lives.

When playing games, a lot of the time it is the first-person perspective of the gamer that helps to unlock the content of the game, allowing them to experience the depth of the knowledge that they have obtained. Not only that, but the elements that were hidden within the graphics will also be revealed when the gamer interacts with the things around them.

Artificial intelligence is being used in many different areas, but the most exciting is still the one that can bring entertainment to the computer games we all play. Playing games will always be fun, but to enjoy them without having to think too much will be a great achievement.

What Benefits Do You Think Will Be Gained From Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial Intelligence is widely believed to be the future of robotics. Will it replace human workers? Will it make technology easier to use? Will it lead to better healthcare?

Today we are at great strides in understanding the science of artificial intelligence. It is one of the most exciting fields to explore because of the potential benefits to society.

To understand AI, we must first identify and understand machine and system intelligence. Before that, however, we must understand the notion of Intelligence.

Intelligence is really a combination of the characteristics we attribute to humans: volition, perception, reasoning, and effort. Any intelligent machine will have all of these characteristics. So if we are to define intelligence, we must first find it.

Intelligence is a valuable resource to a machine. In fact, we attribute abilities to machines that are really just characteristics and not actual capabilities.

Now that we know what we mean by intelligence, let’s focus on the potential benefits. First, it will allow for greater creative output by using one’s full potential. Second, it will allow for more output through more attention to detail and effort, which will help to enhance our world.

We must also understand the limits of Artificial Intelligence and whether or not they will progress to the point where it becomes too useful. If they advance, it may mean a reduction in the value of human labor and a reduction in the welfare of mankind. Even as it advances, however, the greatest benefit to humanity is not the creation of new technology but to improve its effectiveness in the future.

We should remember that we can’t predict what the future holds for humans and robots alike. There are plenty of unknowns to ponder.

However, it will be in our best interest to be open-minded when it comes to future technologies and how they affect mankind. Artificial Intelligence won’t provide us with better healthcare, but we should be open to the possibility.

If there are possible future dangers, then we need to be open to the possibility that there could be potential benefits to artificial intelligence. There is no risk-free area of science; that includes Artificial Intelligence.

AI has already progressed far enough to show some potential benefits. It will be up to humanity to continue the discussion on the limits and the pitfalls of this emerging technology.

It’s important to realize that we can’t predict the future and all that is beyond, but we can expect great things from Artificial Intelligence and if we embrace it, it can be a positive thing for humanity and for technology in general. AI is definitely something worth exploring.

darktrace

Darktrace- AI based Cyber Security Platform for advanced enterprise network protection

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Artificial intelligence is the future, each and every sector is using it. But one common thing about technology evolution that it comes with infrastructure complexity. The digital infrastructure is getting critical and complex. However, to protect such critical data system and advanced infrastructure, needed the one step ahead AI-based cybersecurity. Cyber AI is much advanced that can learn the technology by itself and can generate the needed security. Just like our immune system. Darktrace was the first firm that enabled such AI-based cybersecurity. Top mathematicians from the University of Cambridge established the firm in 2013. Today, it is much easier to perform probability-based calculations to secure the digital system with Darktrace.

About Darktrace

It is headquartered in San Francisco and Cambridge. As well, having about 44 offices all across the continents. The firm is a pioneer to use AI for cybersecurity. So, cyber defense challenges can be solved in an effective way. It launched the autonomous response technology for the first time. Thus, strengthen the network system of organizations that take action against cyber threats at an early stage. Darktrace is based on the future perspective to secure the IT data in the next generation. This realistic idea helped to acquired top investors. Summit Partners, KKR, Samsung Ventures, Hoxton, TenEleven, Invoke Capital, and several other top ventures have invested in Darktrace.

How does it work?

Darktrace made use of AI to overcome the challenges in cybersecurity. In fact, it results in a fundamental shift in the capability of securing the critical data system.

No doubt, the non-AI security platform offers the best protection against cyber attacks. But these cyber attacks are increasing day by day. As well, the methods, techniques, and the way of cyberbullying is also changing. The simple cybersecurity platform needs human assistance to advanced the program. However, Cyber AI is self-learning technology.  Thus, enabling the more advanced protection against pre-defined threats.

Exploration of the business

In 2013, the top mathematicians set up Darktrace and acquired investment from the leading enterprise. As well, the team of cybersecurity experts experienced in the government intelligence team contributed to enabling AI-based security. It was the time when cyber threats were rising. All the experts of Darktrace used their experience and the emerging technology and transform the cyber defense platform. Soon, the technology proved it’s the power to identify many types of cyber threats at the initial stages. Like insider attacks, cloud-based threats, etc.

Just after three years of its foundation, it launched the autonomous response technology for the first time in the world. This technology strengthens the immune system of enterprises to take action against cyber threats at an early stage. During one of the dangerous wannacry ransomware attacks hit several organizations, Darktrace protected its customer’s network. After that, many firms trusted Darktrace for their network security.

Poppy Gustafsson- Darktrace’s CEO

She is presently serving as the CEO of the firm. Prior to that, she served as COO and CFO at Darktrace. Under her policies, the firm successfully reached a 1.65 billion dollars valuation in just five years. As per The Financial Times, Darktrace becomes Europe’s 9th ‘Fastest Growing European Company. As well, Poppy’s leadership marked the Darktrace name as Fastest Growing Super Scale-up’(Tech Tour).

Early Career and Education

She is a Chartered accountant by profession. Before joining Darktrace, she worked in the technology and venture capital sector as a financial controller. Also, Poppy worked as a Fund Accountant at Amadeus Capital Partners.

Awards and recognitions

Poppy Gustafsson is the recipient of Veuve Clicquot Business Woman Awards 2019. As well, she set her name on Management Today’s list, ’30 Women, under 35′ in 2018.

Later success of the Darktrace

Recently in 2017, Darktrace started a new unit, solely dedicated to fighting against cyber threats in industrial as well as SCADA network. As well, it continues the excellence and focused on building a strong customer base that preferred Darktrace AI. It is working great to secure the national infrastructure with AI-enabled cybersecurity.

To automate the investigation process Darktrace launched a Cyber AI analyst. It also performs argument security analysis. The firm intelligently uses advanced machine learning to the cybersecurity software application. As a result, become a dominant firm that has no significant competitor.

cleverbot

Story of Cleverbot and Rollo Carpenter

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Google Assistant surely helps us by setting reminders, sending texts, playing music and calling people on behalf of us. These are just a few things from the ample of benefits it provides. But, have you ever experienced a friendly conversation with a machine without realizing that you are talking to one.

Almost every smartphone users at least once tried to have a funny conversation with either Google or Siri, but after some point, it becomes evident that we are talking to a human-built program. The replies from the bot are not always friendly and not how humans speak to each other. This is where the true power of AI was unleashed by Rollo Carpenter when he came up with Cleverbot.

Cleverbot, a web application to serve the purpose of a chatbox was created by Rollo Carpenter. The application went public in 1997 and even passed the Turing Test with 59.3% accuracy while the minimum criterion is 30%. The application is developed entirely based on AI algorithm. It was built to serve the humans by chatting where the latter one won’t feel like it is speaking to a bot at all.

Rollo Carpenter

Having played the role of managing director for more than one company, Rollo Carpenter did some excellent works throughout his career. Born in 1965, Carpenter started his career as the co-founder of Bizfinity Inc. Through the years, Carpenter vehemently experimented with AI and ML and came up with the idea of developing a chatbox.

His main motive was to build AI-based software that can learn from the conversations carried out with humans and reply accordingly. When Cleverbot was developed, it initially conversed with Carpenter and his associates and it turned out to be very friendly and entertaining.

In 2005 and 2006, Carpenter acquired the first position in Loebner Prize Contest for his AI-based software. In October 2005, Carpenter joined Icogno Ltd as its Managing Director followed by acquiring the same position in Existor Ltd after three years. Carpenter launched his project, Jabberwacky to create AI-based entertaining chatbox and hence Cleverbot was launched as one of its product.

About Jabberwacky

Carpenter started working on Jabberwacky since 1986. He launched Cleverbot in 1997 as a product of his project, Jabberwacky. Today, Cleverbot is nothing but the updated and modified version of Jabberwacky in the market.

Carpenter started programming for a very young age and became quite impressive in managing databases at an early teen. The idea of programming a chatbot clicked in his mind when he was working with these hardcore programming languages.

The first strategy that came into his mind was building a feedback system for the bot which will help it learn from the humans. His main goal was to make the chatbot learn from humans today and implement on them tomorrow.

When Jabberwacky went online in 1997, the bot received almost 20,000 entries and carried out different conversations with every individual. In 2003, Jabberwacky crossed more than a million interactions which turned up to 150 million in 2019.

The most unique feature of this chatbot is its model is based on AI. When you speak to Google Assistant you might notice that after a certain point of time it keeps repeating a particle sequence. This elaborates the fact that any normal chatbot has a particular pattern easily distinguishable by humans. But, Jabberwacky has proved that its borrowed intelligence makes it different from most of them.

Jabberwacky’s new version, Cleverbot performed so well in convincing humans that they are not talking to a program that it passed the Turing Test with a whopping 59%.

Cleverbot

After the Cleverbot went online and passed the Turing Test a lot of modifications have been done to it. The test was conducted by IIT Guwahati on 3rd September 2011. It was declared a success when it entertained and fooled around 59.3% of participants to be exact. Since Cleverbot saved the responses from previous human interactions it improvised itself every day.

Today, Cleverbot can easily carry out around 7 million interactions at a time efficiently. Since 2014 Cleverbot has started using GPU techniques. The entire team is working on launching a new version of the chatbox implementing machine learning. Carpenter, in an interview, said that the data accumulated is more important for the software since the stored data helps it responds differently.

George Hotz : The First Person to Unlock the iPhone & the Founder of AI Startup comma.ai

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iPhone indeed is the most loved smartphone and was one of the first keyboard-less mobile phones available in the market. iPhone is not only known for its unique features, but also for the high security it provides to its users. But there was a 17 years old hacker, George Hotz, from New Jersey, who unlocked the newly launched iPhone, allowing the phone to be used with other wireless carriers and became the first person to do so. He is not only a famous hacker but has also founded his vehicle automation machine learning company named comma.ai. Also known as Geohotz, even having hacked major security programs, Hotz has always said that he never support hacking into someone else’s server and stealing databases of user information.

Early Life

Hotz was born on 2 October 1989 in Glen Rock, New Jersey, as George Francis Hotz Jr. He completed his high school from Bergen County Academies in Hackensack, New Jersey and attended the Academy for Engineering and Design Technology. Hotz also attended the Rochester Institute of Technology and Carnegie Mellon University for a brief time.

Being a brilliant student and always ahead in every competition in science and technology in middle and high school, he even won the $15,000 scholarship at the Intel International Science and Engineering Fair in 2007.

Hacking Career

Hotz was always interested in programming and had developed his interest in hacking. In August 2007, only after two months of the launch of the iPhone, Hotz was able to unlock the iPhone. After doing so, he became the first person to unlock an iPhone. Also in 2009, he released a jailbreaking tool for the iPhone 3GS on iPhone OS 3.0. Though in 2010, he discontinued the jailbreaking software.

George Hotz
Image Source: spectrum.ieee.org

In December 2009, he started working on a new program to breach security on the Sony PlayStation 3. by January 2010, he was able to create a thesis on the hack, but soon in July 2010, he abandoned the idea of entering the security of PS3. But another hacking group fail0verflow also started working on the same, generating the root signing and encryption keys for PS3.

Hotz too published those root signing and encryption keys over his website that led to a serious lawsuit from Sony for both Hotz and fail0verflow. After many court sessions, Sony and Hotz settled the matter outside the court on the condition that Hotz will never try to do any hacking work on Sony products.

Career with Facebook and Google

Hacking had always been his hobby, and his early achievements and knowledge of security algorithms landed Hotz a job with Facebook in 2011 for an unknown role.

Later in July 2014, Google hired Hotz to work with its security auditing team on Project Zero. He stayed in the team for five months and developed an open source program, for dynamically analysing application binaries, named Qira.

In January 2015, he joined Vicarious.com where he worked for 7 months and developed AI algorithms for the company.

Founding Comma.AI

In September 2015, Hotz founded comma.ai, that works on building AI based vehicular automation technology. In 2016, the company built a working self-driving Acura ILX. Later, the company started working on Comma One, a $1,000 software kit that could allow some cars to operate semi-autonomously. But after receiving a special order from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, the further production of the software was cancelled.

During the same time, he was also in talks with Elon Musk to sell his autonomous software for Tesla cars, but the talks never met any conclusion.

On 30 November 2016, the company open sourced its self-driving car software. The open source driving agent from the company runs on some of the car models from companies like Honda, Toyota, and GM, making those models semi-autonomous. Reportedly in 2018, the company served over 4,500 drivers.

Personal Life

Hotz aka Geohotz has been always a keen learner for AI and software development. In 2004 he participated in the ISEF competition in Portland where he demonstrated “The Mapping Robot”. He was among the finalists and got featured on the Today Show and Larry King. He also developed another project named The Googler in 2005 and participated in the ISEF competition with the project, here too, he was one of the finalists.

In 2008, he was among the top 10 Overachievers under 21 listed in the March edition of PC World magazine. In 2014 he won the DEF CON CTF tournament for the second time in a row.

On 14 September 2018, Hotz stepped down from the post of the CEO of the company and became the Head of Research Team.