Gigaom AI Minute – May 31

Transcript

• Retail giant Amazon recently filed several U.K. trademark applications connected to Amazon Go, including a trademark for the slogan the “No Queue, no checkout. (No, seriously.)” This sparked speculation that Amazon may be bringing its ‘no queue’ grocery store to the U.K. The app allows consumers to bypass checkout and is currently being tested in Seattle. Read more.

• The independent financial services group, Smith & Williamson, is launching an investment fund dedicated to the promise of robots and artificial intelligence. The fund is set to launch in June, subject to regulatory approval. Read more.

• The Lindbergh Foundation is partnering with Neurala to end the threat of poaching to animals across Africa. The non-profit will combine their use of drones, with AI and Neurala's deep learning neural network software to stop poaching across the continent. Read more.

• A Canadian startup called Lyrebird is delivering a new AI with the ability to mimic any voice in just a few minutes. Lyrebird’s program extracts a person’s “speech DNA” using machine learning until it perfects a person’s voice, tone and accent. While some worry the technology could be used maliciously, it holds much promise for the speech impaired. Read more.

• California-based chipmaker Nvidia received a huge vote of confidence from Japanese tech giant SoftBank who bought $4 billion worth of shares. This move makes SoftBank the fourth largest Nvidia shareholder, with a 4.9 percent stake in the company, well known on Wall Street for its AI chips, self-driving cars, and gaming. Read more.