Next month, a “robot” lawyer powered by artificial intelligence will be the first of its kind to assist a defendant in fighting a traffic ticket in court. DoNotPay CEO Joshua Browder stated that the company’s AI-creation runs on a smartphone, listens to court arguments, and formulates responses for the defendant. Through headphones, the AI lawyer…
Is artificial intelligence taking over the world? The latest “groundbreaking” AI chat bot, trained to interact with advanced users, is certainly causing quite a stir in the technology world. The software, known as ChatGPT and developed by the company OpenAI, is designed to generate human-like responses to a wide range of inputs using algorithms. “ChatGPT…
The global energy sector is experiencing a significant transition. Many energy and natural resource organisations are navigating a shift towards diverse renewable energy sources, setting out aggressive strategies for net zero and forging new paths to recruiting and protecting their workforce. This has resulted in Energy 4.0 emerging as the most direct route to achieving…
SAS was recently named as a Leader in the IDC MarketScape: Worldwide Responsible Artificial Intelligence for Integrated Financial Crime Management Platforms 2022 Vendor Assessment (doc #US47457622, July 2022). The report offers IDC MarketScape’s first-ever comparative analysis of the banking industry’s top financial crime management solutions powered by AI. It includes SAS and eight other vendors – all offering standalone AI…
A $5.6 million Series A fundraising round, headed by Mucker Capital, was successfully completed by Proto, a Canadian company that offers artificial intelligence (AI) customer experience solutions. Current shareholder Yolo Investments also participated in the round. The company helps contact center operators automate client interactions in their local tongues, including the National Bank of Rwanda,…
Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CAVs) are changing the way we think about mobility – and transforming the digital network infrastructure that supports these vehicles. Soon, every car will be connected and able to talk to everything around it using Vehicle-to-Everything (V2X) technology, including other cars and smart city infrastructure. But as with any connected computing…
DXwand, an Egyptian firm that specializes in conversational artificial intelligence (AI), has raised $1 million in a pre-series A financing. The funding round was led by Shanghai-based Huashan Capital. Mohsen Abulleil and Ahmed Bakeer, both angel investors, participated in the round. SOSV, a VC firm based in the United States that was one of the…
Through its early-stage tech investment company Naspers Foundry, Naspers has led a $2.5 million investment in LifeCheq, a fintech platform that enables financial advisers to provide quality, complete financial advice. Since its debut in 2018, LifeCheq has provided financial planning and help to over 45,000 people in South Africa. LifeCheq’s AI-powered platform can help financial…
FoondaMate, a South African edTech company, has raised $2 million in a seed round headed by LocalGlobe, a UK-based venture capital firm, to grow its Whatsapp and Facebook-based learning chatbot abroad. Other investors included Emerge Education, FirstCheckAfrica‘s Odunayo Eweniyi, Future Africa’s Iyin Aboyeji, and LoftyInc, as well as Luno’s Marcus Swanepoel and Justworks’ Isaac Oates….
Phindor, a Kenyan startup, has released a next-generation shop assistant system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to support local companies with record administration, data collection, and storage. Phindor originated as a website that helped customers find and compare prices for school supplies, but in 2018 it shifted its focus to data management and analysis. “We…
Neural Labs, a Kenyan startup, uses AI-enabled medical imaging to aid in the real-time diagnosis of various respiratory, heart, and breast diseases and pathologies. Neural Labs was founded in January 2021 by Tom Kinyanjui and Paul Mwaura Ndirangu, two machine learning engineers, with the goal of reducing Africa’s disease burden and hospital workloads while improving…
Elloe is a first-of-its-kind AI-powered conversational commerce platform that allows SMEs to buy and sell products online across any messaging platform. It was founded by Owen Sakawa. Mad Ventures, located in the Philippines, led the US$1 million pre-seed fundraising round, which would help Elloe expand across Kenya and other emerging economies. “The opportunity to engage…
Locstat, a Cape Town-based advanced analytics business, has raised capital as it prepares for expansion. Locstat is a graph-based AI and event processing solution for continuous analysis and visualisation of real-time and static data from a variety of sources, which was founded in 2016. The startup’s AI technology analyzes the link between data points and…
DilenyTech, an Egyptian deep technology healthcare startup that is developing innovative artificial intelligence (AI) solutions for screening and diagnostic radiology workflow, has been acquired by Astute Imaging LLC of the United States. DilenyTech, which was founded in 2018, aims to revolutionize breast cancer screening and diagnostic workflow by offering innovative AI-based assistance for more accurate…
Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Meta, has announced new artificial intelligence projects, believing that AI is “the key to unlocking the Metaverse.” Zuckerberg believes that the mobile internet’s future will be the metaverse, a futuristic concept of virtual spaces in which users can work, socialize, and play. In a livestreamed demonstration, he demonstrated the AI…
As the CEO of SaaS Partners, I have a front-row seat to the latest in technology. We advise and collaborate with the world’s best startups to help them leverage technology to optimize their operations and achieve serious scale. I can’t think of a single conversation I’ve had with a tech founder in the last year…
According to a person familiar with the matter, Apple acquired AI Music, a startup that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music, adding technology that could be used across its slate of audio offerings. In recent weeks, AI Music, a London-based company founded in 2016, was purchased. Prior to the acquisition, the company had about…
There’s a global race to develop the world’s largest, most powerful computers, and Meta (AKA Facebook) is ready to join the fray with the “AI Research SuperCluster,” or RSC. When fully operational, it might be one of the top ten fastest supercomputers in the world, used for the huge number-crunching required for language and computer…
When it comes to selecting the ideal AI project for their firm, business owners frequently rely on having the correct ingredients and knowing how to blend them. Almost every working AI system today operates according to some set of rules that are encoded in the system and effectively hold everything together. The ability of their…
As the Twitter debates continue, most tech founders and venture capitalists have chosen a side: Web 2.0 or Web 3.0. Web3 proponents believe it is the internet’s future, and that blockchain-based products will completely replace Web 2.0 within the next few years. Web 2.0 stalwarts argue that it’s all just hype spewed by crypto bros…
By 2026, the Korean government intends to develop a technology that will allow Korea’s first artificial sun, KSTAR, to maintain 100 million degrees for 300 seconds. The minimum time required for the commercialization of nuclear fusion technology is 300 seconds. On December 30, the Ministry of Science and ICT announced that the 16th National Fusion…
What is artificial intelligence (AI)? Artificial intelligence is a rapidly developing technology that is already being used in a variety of applications. AI has proven to be much more than we thought it was in the past, from self-driving cars to language translation software. AI is a concept that is frequently created before it is…
As the digital and physical worlds continue to merge, the internet’s new age — the “metaverse” — is reshaping the fashion industry. Balenciaga is one of the luxury houses leading the charge. The company (known for its embrace of virtual clothing) recently announced plans to establish a business unit dedicated to exploring opportunities in the…
Zindi is all about using artificial intelligence to solve real-world problems for businesses and individuals. And the crowd-solving startup from South Africa has done just that in the three years they’ve been in business. Last year, a team of data scientists led by Zindi used machine learning to improve air quality monitoring in Kampala, while…
Timnit Gebru, one of the leaders of Google’s ethics in AI team and a leading expert in the field, was fired almost exactly one year ago after sending a concerned email to her team. She has now established her own research institute, DAIR, focusing on the topics she felt were being neglected at Google. According…
Once upon a time, artificial intelligence (AI) was the stuff of science fiction. However, it is becoming more common. It is employed in mobile phone technologies as well as automobiles. It powers agricultural and healthcare tools. However, questions have been raised concerning the responsibility of AI and associated technologies such as machine learning. Timnit Gebru,…
Grammarly, the popular editing tool for writing beginners, has raised $ 200 million out of $ 13 billion from new investors, including funds and financings from Baillie Gifford and BlackRock. The company plans to use the capital to drive product innovation and team development. “I think this funding is a good testament to the strength…
South African insurtech startup OneSpark has launched what it claims is the world’s first AI-powered, pay-as-you-need, P2P life insurance product in a bid to make policies more efficient and affordable. Disrupt Africa reported late last year on the launch of OneSpark, powered by a “significant, dollar-based” funding round secured in October. At launch, the startup admitted its…
An innovative local software development partnership between 4Sight Holdings and Bidvest Advisory Services has created 4MIA powered by ALICE TM, a first-of-its-kind AI-powered automated digital transformation advisor. Developed on the ALICE TM platform, the intelligent predictive solution Monitors, Investigates and Advises (MIA) business and technology executives on critical aspects related to their digital transformation roadmaps….
South African startup BotsZA is helping companies and organisations improve their talent acquisition processes and better liaise with customers using artificial intelligence (AI). Launched in November 2016, BotsZA is helping businesses both locally and internationally to integrate its two main products – Hazie and MASON – into their business processes to help them improve productivity and efficiency,…