Nimble Robotics scores $50M for its fulfillment automation tech
Warehouse automation company Nimble Robotics today announced that it has raised a $50 million Series A. Led by DNS Capital and GSR Ventures and featuring Accel and Reinvent Capital, the round will go toward helping the company essentially double its headcount this year.
Founded by former Stanford P
Adobe delivers native Photoshop for Apple Silicon Macs and a way to enlarge images without losing detail
Adobe has been moving quickly to update its imaging software to work natively on Apple’s new in-house processors for Macs, starting with the M1-based MacBook Pro and MacBook Air released late last year. After shipping native versions of Lightroom and Camera Raw, it’s now releasing an Ap
4 ways startups will drive GPT-3 adoption in 2021
The introduction of GPT-3 in 2020 was a tipping point for artificial intelligence. In 2021, this technology will power the launch of a thousand new startups and applications. GPT-3 and similar models have brought the power of AI into the hands of those looking to experiment — and the results
Eye surgery robotics startup ForSight raises $10M
Israel-based ForSight Robotics announced today that it has raised $10 million for what it has deemed a “mega-seed round.” Led by Eclipse Ventures and Mithril Capital, the round will go toward expanding the company's headcount and global reach, as it looks to bring its offerings to internati
Last-mile delivery robotics company Refraction AI raises $4.2M
Ann Arbor-based Refraction AI announced today that it has raised a $4.2 million seed round. The startup, which debuted on the technewss Sessions: Mobility stage back in 2019, was founded by a pair of University of Michigan professors (Matthew Johnson-Roberson — now CTO — and Ram Vasude
The owner of Anki’s assets plans to relaunch Cozmo and Vector this year
Good robots don't die — they just have their assets sold off to the highest bidder. Digital Dream Labs was there to sweep up IP in the wake of Anki's premature implosion, back in 2019. The Pittsburgh-based edtech company had initially planned to relaunch Vector and Cozmo at some point
Deep Science: AI adventures in arts and letters
There’s more AI news out there than anyone can possibly keep up with. But you can stay tolerably up to date on the most interesting developments with this column, which collects AI and machine learning advancements from around the world and explains why they might be important to tech, startu
Albertsons taps Tortoise for remote-controlled grocery delivery robots
Albertsons Companies, the grocery giant that owns Safeway and Jewel-Osco, has launched a pilot program that will test grocery delivery using remote-controlled delivery robots developed by Silicon Valley startup Tortoise.
The pilot will start at two Safeway locations in Northern California, although
Robotics roundup
I'm excited for any opportunity to talk about soft robotics. There's something other-worldly about the world of inflatable robotic bladders. Human beings are wont to develop robotics in their own image. The world of soft robots are something akin to what the technology would be like if it w
Microsoft launches ‘Group Transcribe,’ a transcription and translation app for in-person meetings
A new project from Microsoft’s in-house incubator, Microsoft Garage, introduces a different take on meeting transcriptions. While today there are a number of real-time transcription apps to use on your phone — like Otter.ai or Google’s Recorder app for Pixel devices, for example &
Dooly closes on $20M for AI-based tools to help salespeople with their busywork
Robotic process automation has taken the enterprise world by storm by providing a set of tools for those doing repetitive, volume-based tasks to use software to remove some of that labor to let those people focus on more complicated tasks. Today a startup that’s taken some of that ethos and i
Microsoft debuts its AR/VR meetings platform Mesh
Today, at a special AR/VR focused event held inside its virtual reality community platform Altspace, Microsoft showcased a new product aiming to provide their AR HoloLens platform and VR Windows Mixed Reality platform with a shared platform for meetings.
The app is called Microsoft Mesh and it give
How China’s synthetic media startup Surreal nabs funding in 3 months
What if we no longer needed cameras to make videos and can instead generate them through a few lines of coding?
Advances in machine learning are turning the idea into a reality. We’ve seen how deepfakes swap faces in family photos and turn one’s selfies into famous video clips. Now entr
AWS reorganizes DeepRacer League to encourage more newbies
AWS launched the DeepRacer League in 2018 as a fun way to teach developers machine learning, and it’s been building on the idea ever since. Today, it announced the latest league season with two divisions: Open and Pro.
As Marcia Villalba wrote in a blog post announcing the new league, “