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Intel To Acquire Deep Learning Company Nervana
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Intel is acquiring deep-learning startup Nervana Systems in a deal that could help it make up for lost ground in the increasingly hot area of artificial intelligence.
Founded in 2014, California-based Nervana offers a hosted platform for deep learning that’s optimized “from algorithms down to silicon” to solve machine-learning problems, the startup says.
Businesses can use its Nervana cloud service to build and deploy applications that make use of deep learning, a branch of AI used for tasks like image recognition and uncovering patterns in large amounts of data.
Also of interest to Intel, Nervana is developing a specialty processor, known as an ASIC, that’s custom built for deep learning.
Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed, but one estimate put the value above $350 million.
“We will apply Nervana’s software expertise to further optimize the Intel Math Kernel Library and its integration into industry standard frameworks,” Diane Bryant, head of Intel’s Data Center Group, said in a blog post. Nervana’s expertise “will advance Intel’s AI portfolio and enhance the deep-learning performance and TCO of our Intel Xeon and Intel Xeon Phi processors.”
Though Intel also acquired AI firm Saffron late last year, the Nervana acquisition “clearly defines the start of Intel’s AI portfolio,” said Paul Teich, principal analyst with Tirias Research.
“Intel has been chasing high-performance computing very effectively, but their hardware-design teams missed the convolutional neural network transition a few years ago,” Teich said. CNNs are what’s fueling the current surge in artificial intelligence, deep learning and machine learning.
As part of Intel, Nervana will continue to operate out of its San Diego headquarters, cofounder and CEO Naveen Rao said in a blog post.
The startup’s 48-person team will join Intel’s Data Center Group after the deal’s close, which is expected “very soon,” Intel said.
Source- http://www.thegurureview.net/aroundnet-category/intel-to-acquire-deep-learning-company-nervana.html
Is The FBI Snooping TOR?
August 16, 2013 by admin
Filed under Around The Net
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The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has been accused of gathering data from the anonymous network known as TOR.
The FBI might be behind a security assault on the TOR network that grabs users’ information.
Security researcher Vlad Tsyrklevich said that the attack is a strange one and is most likely the work of the authorities.
“[It] doesn’t download a backdoor or execute any other commands, this is definitely law enforcement,” he said in a tweet about the discovery.
He went a bit further in a blog post, explaining that the Firefox vulnerability is being used to send data in one direction.
“Briefly, this payload connects to 65.222.202.54:80 and sends it an HTTP request that includes the host name (via gethostname()) and the MAC address of the local host (via calling SendARP on gethostbyname()->h_addr_list). After that it cleans up the state and appears to deliberately crash,” he added.
“Because this payload does not download or execute any secondary backdoor or commands it’s very likely that this is being operated by an LEA and not by blackhats.”
The bug is listed at Mozilla, and the firm has a blog post saying that it is looking into it.
Over the weekend a blog post appeared on the TOR website that sought to distant it from a number of closed down properties or hidden websites. It is thought that the shuttered websites, which were hosted by an outfit called Freedom Hosting, were home to the worst kind of abuses.
A report at the Irish Examiner said that a chap called Eric Eoin Marques is the subject of a US extradition request. He is accused of being in charge of Freedom Hosting.
“Around midnight on August 4th we were notified by a few people that a large number of hidden service addresses have disappeared from the TOR Network,” the TOR project said.
“There are a variety of [rumors] about a hosting company for hidden services: that it is suddenly offline, has been breached, or attackers have placed a javascript exploit on their web site,” it said.
“The person, or persons, who run Freedom Hosting are in no way affiliated or connected to The TOR Project, Inc., the organization coordinating the development of the TOR software and research.”
Is Twitter Finally Getting A Competitor?
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Twitter your days alone at the top of the micro-blogging mountain may soon be ending. UberMedia, which owns major third-party mobile applications for the Twitter platform, is said to be building a service that will compete directly against Twitter. If it’s true, the move would come on the heels of Twitter briefly suspending the company’s apps for alleged use policy violations.
Citing unnamed sources, CNN.com reported today that UberMedia is looking to attract users to its own microblogging service by addressing common complaints about Twitter, such as its rules on message lengths as well as how the service can be confusing to new users.
UberMedia declined to comment on whether its programmers are building a new microblogging service. However, in an emailed statement to Computerworld, company marketing chief Steve Chadima said, “Our foremost desire is to continue to innovate on the Twitter platform and bring more users and usage to Twitter.”
UberMedia owns UberTwitter, which is for the BlackBerry platform; Twidroyd, for Android devices; and UberCurrent, which can be used on iPhones and iPads. The company also has been in the news in recent months because it’s moving to acquire popular Twitter client TweetDeck.
TweetDeck competes directly with Twitter’s Web and mobile clients.
Ezra Gottheil, an analyst with Technology Business Research, said he wouldn’t be surprised if UberMedia were to go after some of Twitter’s business, but the company would have an uphill climb.