Weekly Roundup: Friday, 14 July, 2017
Here are some links I thought were worth sharing this week:
AI
Google launches Gradient Ventures to invest in A.I. start-ups
Gradient Ventures, a new firm within Google will invest in early-stage artificial intelligence startups. Alphabet already has GV (formerly Google Ventures), which backs startups at all stages, and CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), which invests in later-stage companies. "Gradient portfolio companies will have the opportunity to receive advanced AI training from Google. They can also have a Google engineer work onsite and provide assistance as needed for a set period of time". "Another perk is that portfolio companies will be able to access vast swaths of training data that Google has accumulated to train their own AI systems."
Toyota launches venture capital fund targeting artificial intelligence startups
"Toyota is the latest Fortune 500 company to launch an AI focused venture capital fund. The initial early-stage fund will deploy $100 million and operate as a subsidiary of the Toyota Research Institute."
MEDIA
Blockchain Could Help Musicians Make Money Again
This is an interesting story, it is about payment for music and distribution of the money to all the participants (not distribution of the music itself, as the headline may have you believe). "A blockchain-empowered rights and payments layer could provide the means to do so."
Nielsen: on-demand audio streaming hits record high, is up 62.4% over last year
"A new report from Nielsen out this week paints a picture of the booming on-demand audio streaming business, pointing to a significant increase in consumers’ use of streaming services and record numbers of streams being served."