Uber bets on artificial intelligence with acquisition and new lab

The acquisition and new research arm, which will be called Uber’s AI Labs, exemplifies how seriously Bay Area tech companies are betting on artificial intelligence. “Every major company realizes how essential AI is to what they’re doing,” Marcus said in an interview. Because of the scale of data people are operating on, even the smallest gains in efficiency can turn out enormous changes at these companies, especially in terms of profit. Many big tech companies have tried to commercialize artificial intelligence through algorithms modeled largely on how the human brain functions. Rather than taking just one approach like deep learning, Geometric Intelligence combines data scientists who use varying techniques to study artificial intelligence, including the Bayesian and “evolutionary” methods. Using this approach, some reported a breakthrough in “one-shot” machine learning last December, in which artificial intelligence advances surpassed human capabilities for a narrow set of vision-related tasks. Besides vehicles, Uber said it expected its AI Labs to apply its method to other tasks, such as combatting fraud, extracting information from street signs and learning to improve its mapping research and capabilities.