The U.S. remains ahead of adversaries in AI but could risk losing ground to China, according to AI experts from Google, Microsoft, and Georgetown University. On Tuesday, the experts briefed lawmakers about AI’s applications in cyberspace during a hearing of a Senate Armed Services cyber subcommittee. More: - The experts were Microsoft Chief Scientific Officer Eric Horvitz, Google Cloud AI Director Andrew Moore, and Georgetown CSET Senior Fellow Andrew Lohn.
- Lohn told lawmakers that the U.S. is the innovation leader in AI and has companies providing a "huge leg up." However, China has been making gains, he said.
- Horvitz agreed that the U.S. leads in science but "these days technical advances spread around the world like lightning.”
- Similarly, Moore said the U.S. is ahead but "losing ground" in AI. He expressed the most concerns about organizational structures and management, which will require changes for massive-scale and superhuman automation.
Zoom-out: - The experts and lawmakers also discussed the use of AI at the Pentagon, which some critics have argued has been slow to adopt AI.
- America's adversaries "are going to use AI against us, so we must use AI to defend against them," said Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.).
- Moore congratulated the Pentagon's new chief digital and artificial intelligence office and its new head, former Lyft machine learning executive Craig Martell.
- It will bring about success to have a "centralized effort to put an artificial intelligence strategy across the whole DOD," Moore said.
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Guardforce AI, a robotics-as-a-service (RaaS) provider, said it has now deployed 4,800+ robots at hospitals, hotels, restaurants, and other facilities across nine countries. The robots can perform tasks such as patrolling areas, hotel check-in and check-out, temperature screenings, and disinfecting hospitals. More: - As of February, Guardforce had 1,400+ robot deployments and now expects to surpass 10,000 by the end of 2022.
- The Singapore-based company recently confirmed its $10M purchase of Chinese AI robotics firms Shenzhen Keweien Robot Service and Guangzhou Kewei Robot Technology, which appear to be helping it grow its RaaS business.
- Guardforce AI intends to offer more robotics solutions as it upgrades its AI technologies and further penetrates the multi-billion RaaS market, said chairman Terence Yap.
- He noted that its business model is continuously evolving based on feedback from customers. In Macau, for example, it tested a way for customers to buy ad space on its robots, which proved successful. Guardforce is also testing self-service check-in/out robot integration with some hotels in Hong Kong.
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CVS Health is using machine learning to track patients and flag those at risk of not taking their prescriptions, according to CEO Karen Lynch. In a Q1 earnings call today, Lynch described the system and other advanced technologies that are saving the company time and money and improving the patient experience. More: - The machine learning software, described as an “intelligent medication monitoring and adherence engine,” can predict the likelihood that at-risk patients will diverge from their prescription plans.
- It can issue prompts for intervention, including through a pharmacist or a doctor.
- The company also has tapped machine learning and robotics to resolve various prescription drug claims that previously required a pharmacist, Lynch said.
- Similarly, CVS is using Microsoft text analytics and robotics to automate prescriptions that are still paper or fax-based.
- In its Q1 earnings, CVS Health reported revenue of $76.8B, surpassing analysts' estimates of $75.4B. Its adjusted earnings-per-share were $2.22 vs. $2.15 expected.
Related: - CVS Health was also among the investors in a recent $300M funding round for Biofourmis, an AI-assisted patient monitoring startup.
- In November, CVS partnered with IBM Watson Advertising on an AI-powered campaign to raise flu shot awareness.
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Imagene AI, a startup using AI to rapidly analyze biopsy images, has raised $21.5M in early funding, including a Series A round co-led by Oracle's Larry Ellison. The Israeli company will use the proceeds to further develop its platform, which uses deep learning algorithms to cut down on the time it takes to detect cancer biomarkers in digitized biopsy images. More: - The technology can reportedly deliver molecular analysis results from biopsy images in two minutes.
- The system can negate the need to test the actual tissue, potentially leading to faster diagnosis and treatment, the company said.
- Imagene said it raised a total of $21.5M in early-stage funding:
- Ellison led an $18.5M Series A round alongside Zebra Medical Vision founder Eyal Gura and USC physician David Agus.
- VC firm Blumberg Capital provided another $3M in seed funding.
- Ellison, Oracle's CTO, co-founder, and executive chairman, also founded the Institute for Transformative Medicine in 2016 with Agus, who co-founded precision medicine companies Navigenics and Applied Proteomics.
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Visier, a workforce analytics startup, has acquired the technology of collaboration analytics firm Yva.ai. As part of the deal, Visier has also hired Yva.ai's key talent, including data scientists, engineers, and operations teams. Financial terms were not disclosed. More: - Based in Santa Clara, Calif., Yva.ai said it uses AI, deep collaboration analytics, and peer polling to better understand employee well-being, experiences, productivity, and work environments.
- Its analytics-based approach combines regularly sourced peer-to-peer feedback with data from Zoom, Slack, Microsoft Office 365, and other corporate tools.
- The company describes its offering as an AI-powered "real-time employee experience SaaS platform" for managers, employees, and HR. It's meant to improve work performance, employee retention, and wellbeing.
- It is the first acquisition for Vancouver-based Visier, which provides cloud-based workforce analytics software to companies including Uber, Adobe, EA, and McKesson.
- Last year, Visier announced a $125M funding round from Goldman Sachs Asset Management that bumped its valuation to $1B.
BETAKIT
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🍋 FRESH FUNDING 🍋 - Traceable AI (San Francisco, Calif.), services designed to protect APIs from cyberattacks: $60M B led by IVP, participation from BIG Labs, Unusual Ventures, Tiger Global Management, et al.
- Exafunction, complexity reduction for using hardware to train AI systems: $25M led by Greenoaks, participation from Founders Fund.
- Accern (New York, N.Y.), NoCode NLP platform for AI: $20M B led by Mighty Capital, Fusion Fund, participation from Tribe Capital, Viaduct Ventures, Shasta Ventures, Gaingels.
- Synthesis AI (San Francisco, Calif.), synthetic data technologies to build advanced computer vision AI models: $17M A led by 468 Capital, participation from Sorenson Ventures, Strawberry Creek Ventures, Bee Partners, PJC, iRobot Boom Capital, Kubera Venture Capital.
- Druid (Bucharest, Romania), end-to-end platform for building AI-driven conversational business applications: $15M led by Karma Ventures, Hoxton Ventures.
- Deepset (Berlin, Germany), open-source NLP framework Haystack: $14M A led by GV, participation from Harpoon Ventures, System.One, et al. The company emerged from stealth.
- Flyp (Boston, Mass.), AI-based tools for power resellers: $10M led by Asymmetric Capital Partners, participation from NextView, Afore, Interlace Ventures, Alante Capital, BAM Ventures, et al.
- BarRaiser (San Francisco, Calif.), AI-powered smart interviewing platform: $4.2M Seed led by 021 Capital, Global Founders Capital.
For the latest on AI startup funding and more in the VC community, subscribe to our newsletter, Inside Venture Capital.
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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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