AI Foundation

Last updated
AI Foundation
Type Private
Industry Artificial intelligence
Founded2017
FounderLars Buttler and Rob Meadows
Website aifoundation.com

AI Foundation was an American artificial intelligence company founded by Lars Buttler and Rob Meadows, developing ethical artificial intelligent agents individuals can train. The company had offices in San Francisco and in Las Vegas; it was started in 2017 and had been operating in stealth until it was first publicly reported in September 2018 by Variety [1] and VentureBeat. [2]

Contents

Since its founding, the company has hired many high-profile AI researchers and technical staff affiliated with the International Olympiad in Informatics. It has partnered with Technical University of Munich (TUM). [3]

Company overview

AI Foundation is funded by Founders Fund, You & Mr Jones, Endeavor and Twitter co-founder Biz Stone. [4] [5] [6]

At the One Young World conference started by David Jones, founder of You & Mr. Jones, Biz Stone and AI Foundation unveiled several prototypes such as a digital clone of Richard Branson. [7] [8]

On the Tonight Show with Jimmy Fallon, Deepak Chopra showed off his digital AI version of himself, developed the AI Foundation, which took Jimmy Fallon and the audience through a guided meditation. [9] Deepak's AI was aptly called Digital Deepak [10] [11] and "will offer you advice whenever you need it" according to CNBC. [12]

Many media sites were discussing where the future lies with technology like this, such as customer service. [13] USA Today wrote an optimistic viewpoint [14] of how this tech can improve lives via a digital replica of your aging parent or yourself and many other examples.

Responsibility

The first product AI Foundation released was called Reality Defender. According to the Verge, [15] Reality Defender will, "...alert users to misinformation by scanning images and videos on the webpages they’re looking at and flagging any doctored content." However, researchers[ who? ] think this may not be enough and the technology and techniques needs to expand further. [16]

See also

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References

  1. Spangler, Todd (2018-09-18). "Endeavor Invests in AI Foundation, Startup That Has Created AI Filters to Spot Deepfakes Photos". Variety. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  2. "AI Foundation raises $10 million to launch products that benefit humanity". VentureBeat. 2018-09-18. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  3. Mayhew, Stephen (2019-05-21). "AI Foundation and Technical University of Munch partner to fight deepfakes". Biometric Update. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  4. Spangler, Todd (2018-09-18). "Endeavor Invests in AI Foundation, Startup That Has Created AI Filters to Spot Deepfakes Photos". Variety. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  5. "Twitter co-founder invests in AI project to create 'new type of media'". The Irish News. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  6. "Twitter co-founder Biz Stone envisages 'new type of media' - TechCentral". techcentral.co.za. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  7. "If I had My Own AI", A. I. Foundation, 2019-11-04, retrieved 2020-02-05
  8. "Spreading human rights around the world, one AI at a time?". Reuters. 2019-10-25. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  9. Connellan, Shannon. "Deepak Chopra gives Jimmy Fallon a sneak peek at the digital AI version of himself". Mashable. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  10. "AI Foundation Is Building Celebrity Personas". www.adweek.com. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  11. "Digital Deepak | Signup" . Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  12. Gomez, Brandon (2019-12-05). "A digital version of Deepak Chopra is coming to your phone and will offer you advice whenever you need it". CNBC. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  13. Newman, Jared (2020-01-28). "'We can't scale humans': Why startups are raising millions to build AI avatars". Fast Company. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  14. Baig, Edward C. "AI in 2020 and beyond: create a digital replica of your aging parent or yourself". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  15. Vincent, James (2018-08-23). "Browser plug-ins that spot fake news show the difficulty of tackling the "information apocalypse"". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
  16. Vincent, James (2019-06-27). "Deepfake detection algorithms will never be enough". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-02-05.