According to a report published last week by US publication Business Insider, a range of western tech firms are users of FindFace, a controversial face recognition technology developed by Russian startup NtechLab. FindFace matches faces against social media accounts, regardless of privacy rights, among other facial recognition capabilities. Its approach is similar to that developed by US …
Kaspersky Labs has acquired a 15% stake in Motive Neuromorphic Technologies (Motive NT) for “ few dozens of millions or rubles” (hundreds of thousand USD), according to media reports last week. Established in 2017, this company processes visual information using deep neural networks. It creates software and hardware systems to recognize objects or people on …
Yandex has published YaLM 100B, a bilingual neural network for generating and processing text. It’s the largest GPT-like model in the public domain. It can be used freely by developers and researchers from all over the world. YaLM 100B contains 100 billion parameters, more than any GPT-like model available in open-source under a license that …
Yandex publishes YaLM 100B, the largest GPT-like neural network in open source Read More
Russian writer and artist Pavel Pepperstein and generative neural network ruGPT-3 have co-authored a story book called Trying to Wake Up. The book has just been published in Moscow by independent publisher Individuum. Trying to Wake Up is touted as “the world’s first collection of short stories resulting from the collaboration of a writer and a neural …
Russian writer and neural network team up to compose 24 short stories Read More
Earlier this month VkusVill, Russia’s number one health foods brand and a leading player in e-grocery, opened its first cashierless store in Moscow. To make a purchase, customers scan a QR code in their VkusVill mobile app when they enter the store, then select the items they need and exit through a special turnstile. Payment is …
Just eight months after launch, a startup called Vitobox — which offers personalized combinations of vitamins and nutritional supplements — has raised 107 million rubles ($1.4 million) at a $14 million valuation. The funding will go, in particular, to international expansion: the startup plans to launch pilot projects later this year in Kazakhstan, the UAE, …
Russian startup bets on AI to sell vitamins online and expand globally Read More
No less than two million preliminary diagnoses using a neural network were made to date in Moscow during medical home visits, city authorities announced last week. “Today, the latest digital tools are used in routine medical practice in all adult polyclinics relies – including a clinical decision support system (CDSS) allowing for AI-powered preliminary diagnoses,” according Moscow’s Department of Information Technologies (DIT). After the practitioner enters the patient’s …
Sber’s excellence in certain technology segments, including artificial intelligence, was highlighted several times earlier this month through a variety of international and domestic awards. In the yearly ranking “World’s Best Trade Finance Providers” of international magazine Global Finance, the Russian financial and digital giant appeared as number one in the category “Best Use of Artificial …
3 awards in 2 weeks: Sber’s AI teams and products gain international recognition Read More
Intema, the AI accelerator and venture fund launched by mobile operator MTS this past September, is set to acquire biometrics firm VisionLabs for 7 billion rubles ($95 million at the current exchange rate). Founded in Russia in 2012, this developer of AI-powered computer vision solutions quickly drew the attention of top global digital players. Sber (at that time ‘Sberbank’) invested in the company in …
MTS acquires Russian-founded biometrics provider VisionLabs Read More
The technology ambitions of Sber, Russia’s state-controlled financial giant, were demonstrated again yesterday as the company presented its new smart media speaker. Sber claims the device was “created with the latest product design trends in mind” and touts it as a “one-of-a-kind in its category.” Christened ‘SberBox Time,’ the device combines the functionality of three …
A virtual human built by Russian tech and finance giant Sber (ex-Sberbank) is hosting the Markets and Investor Calendar shows on RBC TV this month. Sber’s subsidiary SberDevices designed virtual host Elena using its new Visper platform for transforming pictures and audio recordings into AI characters that can realistically imitate human beings. Elena is an …
Sber creates virtual human to host Russian TV show Read More
Sber, the Russian state-controlled financial and digital giant, is joining a Council of Europe technology partnership program. “The parties are set to exchange information, opinions, and best practices while developing interaction and partnership in high-tech fields,” Sber stated. The agreement was inked on Nov. 10 during Sber’s international AI conference, Artificial Intelligence Journey — in which Bjørn Berge, Deputy Secretary General of …
Russia’s Sber joins Council of Europe technology corporate partnership program Read More
