Forbes released its fourth annual AI 50 list, which recognizes private North American companies using AI in "interesting and effective" ways. The company says it developed the list in partnership with the venture-capital firm Sequoia Capital. More: - The submissions were open to companies working on tech that helps machines learn from data, experience, and/or can perform human-like tasks such as recognizing images.
- In addition to technology, companies were asked to provide details on their business models and financials, which they were allowed to submit confidentially.
- Forbes and its VC partners whittled down the initial 400+ entries received to 120 finalists based on an algorithm.
- A panel of AI judges from academia, VCs, companies, and IPO execs then chose the final 50.
Zoom-out: - Forbes said this year's winners display a "booming VC Interest" and growing variability in AI startups.
- Newcomers include open-source platform Hugging Face, dental AI firm Overjet, autonomous vehicle startup Waabi, and solar software provider Aurora Solar.
- Startups reappearing on the list include AI data platform Scale AI, automated support platform Moveworks, and MLOps platform Domino Data Lab, among others.
- At least two of the winners have announced new funding rounds, which we have covered in further detail below.
FORBES 
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Brightseed, which applies AI to biology datasets to uncover new health products, announced a $68M Series B round led by Temasek. The Bay Area startup was featured in this year's Forbes' AI 50 list. More: - Founded in 2017, Brightseed developed a machine learning platform, called Forager, which it says "illuminates the connections between nature and human health."
- The goal is to find active compounds for conditions and create new supplements, food ingredients, and medicines that could boost human health.
- Specifically, the platform labels and maps bioactive compounds found in plants.
- Similar to AI's use in drug discovery, it's meant to speed up the process and eliminate some of the manual screening/testing of substances that are normally done in labs.
- Forager has mapped more than 2 million plant compounds so far, which is 20x more than the current scientific literature.
- For example, Brightseed says it has identified two compounds in "upcycled hemp hulls" that showed a significant ability to "clear fat from the livers of mice and in human cells."
- It plans to launch them later this year as a whole-food ingredient for gut health under FDA GRAS (generally regarded as safe) status.
- Brightseed says it will use the fresh funding for the ingredient launch, as well as to "advance natural compound discovery, and clinical validation."
FORBES
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Mashgin, which offers an AI-powered self-checkout system for businesses, has secured $62.5M in a Series B funding, valuing the startup at $1.5B. The company is on Forbes' latest AI 50 list. More: - Mashgin's self-checkout system is touchless and uses computer vision to identify items from multiple angles to ring them up for customers.
- The technology doesn't require barcodes, RFIDs, or perfect placement of an item to work, according to the company.
- Its self-checkout kiosks are now in 800+ locations, including sports stadiums, airports, and convenience stores.
- This includes LAX, Delek stores, Sodexo-operated cafeterias, and Madison Square Garden.
- It says its tech has now processed 35 million transactions with a value of $310M.
Zoom-out: - The fresh funding, which makes Mashgin an AI unicorn, brings its total funding to date to $74.7M.
- Mashgin, which is already profitable, says the new capital will help it expand its team and scale globally.
- Venture capital firm NEA led the new Series B round, which included existing investor Matrix Partners.
- The startup still faces competition from others in the cashierless self-checkout space, including Amazon through its Just Walk Out technology and Zippin.
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Computer scientist Ian Goodfellow has resigned from Apple as a director of machine learning, citing the company's return-to-office policy. Reports noted that Goodfellow is among Apple's most-cited machine learning experts and was the main author and designer of the ML framework known as generative adversarial networks, or GANs. More: - In early April, Apple began requiring employees to work in the office at least two days a week. By May 23, it wants employees to work in the office at least three days per week.
- In a note to staffers, Goodfellow said he strongly believes "more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team." He didn't elaborate further.
- Goodfellow's LinkedIn profile says he is a director of machine learning in Apple's Special Projects Group, which he joined in March 2019.
- Prior to that, Goodfellow worked as a staff research scientist at Google, a research scientist at AI research lab OpenAI, and was a member of the Google Brain team.
- He earned a Ph.D. in machine learning at the Université de Montréal, where he invented GANs, maxout networks, and other technologies, according to his profile.
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Salesforce signed a deal to acquire Troops.ai, an automation platform for sales teams, for an undisclosed amount. Troops.ai offers a Slackbot that helps sales teams update and retrieve Salesforce data. More: - Known as a "Slackbot for Salesforce," Troops said its service for customer relationship management data can "improve sales velocity, forecasting, visibility, and collaboration."
- The New York-based company also offers integration for Slack rival Microsoft teams.
- The transaction is expected to close in Salesforce's Q2 ending July 31, after which Troops will become a part of Slack, which is owned by Salesforce.
- Founded in 2015, Troops has raised $19.4M in funding from investors including TRAC, InVision, and the Slack Fund.
TECHCRUNCH
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AI Events and Conferences: - International Conference and Expo On Robotics and Artificial Intelligence: May 16-18, London.
- The AI Summit London: June 15-16, 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.
- Ai4 2022: Aug. 16-18, Las Vegas.
- AI & Big Data Expo - North America: Oct. 5-6, Santa Clara, Calif., and online
- AI & Big Data Expo Global: Dec. 1-2, Hybrid and London.
- The AI Summit New York: Dec. 7-8, New York City.
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QUICK HITS - From 5x to 10x, VC growth stage revenue multiples have doubled in the past year, according to the 2022 Pepperdine Private Capital Markets Report.*
- Clearview AI can no longer sell its face recognition database of web-scraped photos to most private businesses and individuals, according to the terms of its newly announced settlement with the ACLU. The company can still sell the database to federal and state agencies such as law enforcement.
- Intel announced Gaudi2, its newest deep learning training processor and the second-generation chip from Habana Labs. Intel acquired Habana, an AI chip startup, for $2B in 2019.
- China plans to use AI-powered bulldozers and other machines to form the “world’s largest 3D printer," which it will use to construct a dam to generate electricity for its central Henan Province.
- Industrial AI firm Augury announced plans to acquire process-based AI company Seebo in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $100M-$200M.
- Ireland's government-appointed SoapBox Labs founder Patricia Scanlon as its first-ever AI ambassador.
- Same old marketing automation not cutting it these days? Get our eBook and power up your customer experiences.*
*This is sponsored content.
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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. | |
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