Twitter on Monday said it has agreed to sell the company to Elon Musk for $54.20 per share in cash, or roughly $44B. In a statement, Musk outlined basic thoughts for the company's future, including his plans to make Twitter algorithms open source to "increase trust." More: - By taking the company private, Musk said he wants to improve Twitter's product with new features. He expressed plans to defeat "the spam bots" and authenticate "all humans."
- Beyond that, not much is known about Musk's plans for the platform. He did note that "free speech is the bedrock of a functioning democracy, and Twitter is the digital town square where matters vital to the future of humanity are debated."
- Twitter said that Musk would provide about $21B. The Tesla CEO also secured $25.5 billion of debt and margin loan financing, it said.
- The proposed deal "will deliver a substantial cash premium, and we believe it is the best path forward for Twitter's stockholders," said Bret Taylor, Twitter's independent board chair.
Zoom-out: - Earlier this month, Musk discussed his plans for Twitter at the "TED2022: A New Era" event. He said its algorithm should be open-sourced — making its source code available to the general public — and that efforts should be made to prevent "behind-the-scenes manipulation, either algorithmically or manually."
THE NEW YORK TIMES 
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 The Pentagon has hired Lyft executive Craig Martell as its AI chief. The DOD appointed Craig Martell, Lyft's head of machine learning, as its new chief digital and artificial intelligence officer (CDAO). Background: - Martell will be in charge of managing AI operations, data, and analytics for the Department of Defense. He reports directly to Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks.
- The CDAO is the Pentagon's top official responsible for accelerating AI, digital solutions, and data integration in the department.
- The newly created role oversees the Pentagon's Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the chief data officer, and Defense Digital Services.
- Martell will “advance a host of different warfighting concepts and capabilities," Hicks said in a statement.
- Before Lyft, Martell was head of machine intelligence at DropBox. He is also an adjunct professor who teaches machine learning in Northeastern University's Align program.
- In March, Margaret Palmieri was appointed deputy CDAO at the DOD. She founded and directed the Navy's digital warfare office.
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Europe's AI and tech sector is experiencing a skills shortage that could stifle innovation and economic growth, according to an IBM-commissioned survey. Nearly 7 in 10 tech employees and job seekers believe recruits lack the needed skills for an AI career, the research found. More: - Morning Consult, on behalf of IBM, surveyed hundreds of tech job seekers, employees, and recruiters in Germany, Spain, and the U.K. in March and April.
- The study found that the tech sector cannot find enough employees with "AI knowledge or experience."
- This has the potential to inhibit digital innovation and economic growth, according to IBM.
- Given the gap in AI/tech education, tech companies like IBM will need to prioritize in-house training, said IBM's Sharon Moore.
By the numbers: - Among survey participants, 40% of job seekers and employees said software engineering and programming languages are the top technical capabilities needed by the AI/tech workforce.
- However, only about 32% of staff in the U.K. receive technical training, it found.
- Meanwhile, 37% of participants said problem-solving is the most critical soft skill needed for roles, but 23% of recruiters said it's difficult to find people with this quality.
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 Toyota-backed Pony.ai says it was the first autonomous driving company to receive a taxi license in China. The approval allows Pony to operate 100 self-driving vehicles as fare-charging taxis in a district in Guangzhou, southern China. More: - The Bay Area-based company will now charge fares for autonomous taxi rides in an 800-square-kilometer (500-square-mile) district known as Nansha.
- The day-and-night rides will begin with backup safety drivers but will become fully driverless in a "short to intermediate timeframe," the company said.
- Pony.ai has already tested its driverless technology on roads in Shenzhen, Guangzhou, and Beijing, as well as Fremont and Milpitas in California.
- In December, the California DMV paused Pony.ai's operations in the state for six months following a reported crash in Fremont in October in which the autonomous vehicle hit a lane divider and street sign.
- In March, the company reported that its valuation has grown to $8.5B, from $5.3B in Nov. 2020.
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Hour One, a startup specializing in digital human creation, raised a $20M Series A round led by Insight Partners. Companies can use Hour One's AI technology to create digital twins of people that can speak in customer-facing roles, such as salespeople or virtual receptionists. More: - The technology can create custom digital avatars based on video recordings of a person speaking and gesturing.
- The company uses a text-to-speech engine to enable the AI avatars to speak new content.
- The avatar's lip movements match the words and phrases and can also mimic the original speaker's voice in multiple languages.
- Hour One, based in Tel Aviv and NYC, has partnerships with NBCUniversal, DreamWorks, Cameo, and Berlitz.
- In 2020, the digital-human avatar market size was roughly $10B. It is forecasted to surpass $527B by 2030, Emergen Research predicts.
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AI Events and Conferences: - ICLR 2022, the International Conference on Learning Representations: April 25-29, virtual.
- World Summit AI Americas 2022: May 4-5, Montréal, Canada.
- International Conference and Expo On Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: May 16-18, London.
- CVPR 2022, IEEE Conference on Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition: June 19-24, New Orleans.
- Deep Learning World: June 19-24, Las Vegas.
- International Conference on Machine Learning and Data Mining: July 16-21, New York City.
- ICML 2022, International Conference on Machine Learning: July 17-23, Baltimore, in-person conference with virtual elements.
- AI & Big Data Expo Global: Dec. 1-2, London.
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- U.K. researchers created an AI model that they said can predict a lung cancer patient's risk of recurrence within two years of radiation.
- Mastercard announced that it will use Microsoft AI technology to better detect newer forms of digital fraud.
- Machine-learning company Insig AI has appointed COO Colm McVeigh as its new CEO, replacing Steve Cracknell, who is now chief product officer.
- Ernst & Young Canada said it has acquired IT provider Gensquared for an undisclosed amount. The deal is expected to help E&Y strengthen its data, analytics, and AI.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and analyst at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily tech news. Since starting work at Inside, she has covered various topics including virtual reality, drones, and e-commerce. Prior to that she was a public policy and investigative reporter for The Arizona Republic, where she won a Pulitzer Prize nomination and First Amendment Award for reporting on the rising costs of pensions. Reach her at Beth.Duckett@inside.com. |   | | Editor | Aaron Crutchfield is based in the high desert of California. Over the last two decades, he has spent time writing and editing at various local newspapers and defense contractors in California. When he's not working, he can often be found looking at the latest memes with his kids or working on his 1962 Ford. | |
Go from ideas to code ridiculously fast with Crowdbotics. | |
Go from ideas to code ridiculously fast with Crowdbotics. | |
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