Bits & Bytes

Google releases MorphNet as open source.

  • Detailed in a paper released last year, MorphNet takes an existing neural network as input and produces a new neural network that is smaller, faster and yields better performance tailored to a new problem. A new open source TensorFlow implementation is now available.

Facebook research creates controllable game characters from videos.

  • The Vid2Game paper from Facebook AI Research uses a neural network to analyze videos of people performing actions, like playing sports, and then recreate that character in a scene with motion that can be controlled with a joystick. [Video]

IBM winds down Watson’s work in drug discovery.

  • IBM has stopped the sale of its AI-based drug discovery and development program due to poor financial returns. IBM previously rolled out high-profile partnerships with Pfizer, Novartis, and Illumina for cancer research.

Facebook confirms it’s working on a voice assistant for Portal and Oculus products.

  • Facebook has confirmed a report saying it’s working on an AI-based digital voice assistant in the vein of Amazon’s Alexa and Google Assistant.

Microsoft injects funding into Aussie AI-for-Earth projects.

  • Microsoft has offered support to six Australian AI projects, taking its AI for Earth funding initiatives to US$50M around the world. The program’s participants will receive a mix of Microsoft Azure cloud computing resources and data labeling services. Check out our conversation with Lucas Joppa to hear more about Microsoft’s AI for Earth.

Salesforce introduces new Einstein services.

  • Salesforce added translation and OCR to its portfolio of Einstein Platform Services, which admins and developers can easily deploy to any Salesforce page.

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