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AI Dev Watch 12/12/17: Microsoft Investing $50 Million in AI, Natural Language Platform Launch, Cray and the Big Data Center, More

Here are some of the latest artificial intelligence-related development news stories that you might want to catch up on.

On a side note, you missed ADTMag.com's live editorial Webcast "AI Opportunities for Developers" last week, you can sign up to watch it on-demand here (and let us know what other AI-related topics you want us to cover in future editorial Webcasts by e-mailing [email protected] with the subject line "AI Webcasts").

  • In conjunction with the two year Paris climate accords, Microsoft has announced it will be investing $50 million over the next five in its AI for Earth initiative (announced earlier this year), stating "At Microsoft, we believe artificial intelligence is a game changer. Our approach as a company is focused on democratizing AI so its features and capabilities can be put to use by individuals and organizations around the world to improve real-world outcomes." The money will be distributed to universities, non-profits and others in the form of grants and gifts.
  • Lexalytics this week announced the launch of its new artificial intelligence platform designed to for natural language processing applications, AI Assembler. the company bills the release as a"faster, easier machine learning" toolkit that can "build targeted solutions to specific natural language problems."
  • Supercomputer manufacturer Cray Inc. last week announced that it has joined the government's Big Data Center (BDC) as part of a collaboration to "advance the adoption of AI, deep learning and data-intensive computing." The BDC is the Department of Energy's National Energy Research Scientific Computing Center's partnership with Intel and several universities created in August 2017. "We are really excited to have Cray join the Big Data Center," commented a representative. "Cray's deep expertise in systems, software, and scaling is critical in working towards the BDC mission of enabling capability applications for data-intensive science."

About the Author

Becky Nagel serves as vice president of AI for 1105 Media specializing in developing media, events and training for companies around AI and generative AI technology. She also regularly writes and reports on AI news, and is the founding editor of PureAI.com. She's the author of "ChatGPT Prompt 101 Guide for Business Users" and other popular AI resources with a real-world business perspective. She regularly speaks, writes and develops content around AI, generative AI and other business tech. Find her on X/Twitter @beckynagel.