Engineered Arts has added more advanced conversational capabilities to its AI humanoid robot, Ameca. The U.K.-based robotics firm shared a video of Ameca speaking with company engineers. The demo combines automated speech recognition with OpenAI's large language model GPT 3. More: - According to the company, the output is fed to an online text-to-speech service to generate Ameca's voice.
- Her speech was not scripted. Engineered attributed Ameca's pauses to the time needed to process the speech input, generate an answer, and process the text back into speech.
- When asked to share a "poem about humanoid robots," Ameca responded: "We are the humanoid robots formed from plastic and metal our job is to help and serve."
- She concluded that some people "think that we'll take over and that humanity will end, but we just want to help out."
- Ameca is also capable of human-like movements and facial expressions. Her software is considered artificially intelligent, including speech recognition and facial/object recognition.
FUTURISM 
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AI-powered commercial fleet safety company Netradyne announced raising $65M in senior and junior mezzanine financing from Silicon Valley Bank. The startup partnered with Amazon last year to install its technology in the e-commerce giant's delivery vehicles. The multi-camera system reportedly monitors and issues alerts if a driver brakes too sharply or speeds, for example, and delivers a score based on the driver's behavior. More: - Netradyne's Driveri platform relies on AI and cameras to gather data and analyze drivers' behavior to decrease accidents and false claims.
- Over five years, the technology has analyzed more than 5 billion driving miles and 20 billion minutes.
- Netradyne intends to use the funding for its global corporate expansion, commercial growth, and product development.
- The debt financing will enable Netradyne to expand to Mexico, France, Germany, Italy, and Spain, the company said.
STARTUP STORY
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 While 87% of companies in a recent poll believe AI is vital to their futures, 86% struggle to fully trust the technology to make all business decisions without human intervention, according to a Fivetran-commissioned survey. Only 14% said their organization had reached the "advanced" level of AI maturity. The report: - Vanson Bourne conducted the online survey of 550 IT and data science leaders in the U.S., U.K., Ireland, France, and Germany.
- Fivetran, a developer of SaaS data integration services, released a report based on the survey findings.
- Called "Achieving AI: A Study of AI Opportunities and Obstacles," the report outlines some of the challenges that companies are facing in AI right now.
By the numbers: - 90% of respondents said their company continues to rely on manual data processes.
- 41% acknowledged that there's "vast room" to improve how their organization uses AI. Among only U.S. respondents, that figure was higher at 64%.
- 71% said they struggle to access all the data required for their AI programs, workloads, and models.
- 87% said their data scientists aren't being utilized to their full potential.
- 39% cited recruitment as the largest barrier to AI adoption.
DATACONOMY
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Intel renewed its collaboration with Montreal-based AI research institute Mila to strengthen responsible AI efforts. The focus will be on developing advanced AI technologies in areas like digital biology, materials discovery, and climate change. More: - Intel and Mila signed a three-year strategic research and co-innovation partnership that combines industry and academic resources.
- The extended collaboration will see more than 20 researchers from Intel and Mila work on advanced AI techniques to address global challenges.
- The areas of focus will be the automation of AI discovery of novel materials, applying causal ML to climate science, and accelerating research of molecular drivers of disease and drug discovery.
- AI expert Yoshua Bengio, Mila's founder and scientific director, said the collaboration will "explore novel and needed materials to improve carbon capture, accelerate drug discovery and enable a more sustainable future."
IT WORLD CANADA
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Israeli startup Winn.AI announced $17M in seed funding for its AI-powered assistant for sales teams. The platform monitors sales calls and updates CRM records based on discussions with potential customers. The funding round was led by investor Insight Partners and venture capital firm S-Capital. More: - The platform, now in early access, aims to eliminate "administrative busywork" so sales teams can focus more on customers.
- In addition to updating CRM records in real-time, the platform also proactively provides information about topics discussed by customers.
- It links with Salesforce, HubSpot, Zoom, Microsoft Teams, and Google Meet.
- Eldad Postan-Koren and Bar Haleva co-founded the company in November 2021. Postan-Koren was formerly the business development director at OurCrowd.
- The fresh funding will be used for R&D, marketing, and product launch.
Some of this information first appeared in Inside Sales. TECHCRUNCH
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M&A Roundup: Recent acquisitions in the AI space: - IT service management company Converge Technology Solutions acquired analytics and AI solutions firm Newcomp Analytics for an undisclosed amount.
- Boston Consulting Group acquired AI-enabled software firm Formation for an undisclosed sum.
- Instacart announced its acquisition of Eversight, a company using AI to streamline pricing and promotions for retailers and consumer packaged goods (CPG) firms. Terms of the deal remain undisclosed.
- Amazon is to acquire Belgian robotics firm Cloostermans. The company develops warehouse robotics and machinery and specializes in mechatronics, the engineering combo of mechanical, computer, and electrical systems.
For the latest on M&A deals, AI startup funding, and more in the VC community, check out Inside Venture Capital on our community site.
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- Rephrase.ai, which offers a platform to create custom-made avatar videos for sales tools, secured $10.6M in a Series A round led by Red Ventures.
- The Pentagon should focus more on data and less on top-down AI decrees, according to Craig Martell, the DOD's first chief digital and AI officer.
- LinkedIn is giving its Feathr feature store for ML applications to the open-source community. The AI & Data Foundation of the Linux Foundation will assume authority over the tool.
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 |  | Beth is a writer and editor at Inside.com covering artificial intelligence and daily technology news. You can 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 and 1972 Fords. | |
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