Infinia ML Wins “Best Machine Learning Company” in 2018 AI Breakthrough Awards

DURHAM, N.C., June 26, 2018 – Infinia ML, an advanced machine learning company that delivers transformative automation solutions and predictive analytics to enterprise businesses, today announced that it has been selected as the winner of the “Best Machine Learning Company” award from AI Breakthrough, an independent organization that recognizes the top companies, technologies and products in the global Artificial Intelligence (AI) market today.

“We’re honored by this award, which affirms our focus on making real business impact with machine learning,” said Robbie Allen, CEO at Infinia ML. “We’re especially grateful to our clients, whose data and domain expertise make our work possible. Their trust empowers us to reduce costs, increase efficiency, and achieve new breakthroughs.”

The mission of the AI Breakthrough Awards is to honor excellence and recognize the innovation, hard work and success in a range of AI and machine learning related categories including AI platforms, Deep Learning, Smart Robotics, Business Intelligence, Natural Language Processing, industry specific AI applications and many more. This year’s program attracted more than 2,500 nominations from over 15 different countries throughout the world.

(more…)

The Infinia ML Opportunity for Software Engineers

Infinia ML engineers
Members of the Infinia ML engineering team have a totally casual, not at all staged conversation.

Why We Need You

Are you a software engineer that is ready to challenge yourself and build machine learning products? Do you want to work on the cutting edge of technology with highly collaborative colleagues that have your back?

(more…)

Why We Love Living in the Triangle – And You Will Too

Major the Bull
Come to the Bull City – Durham, North Carolina!

We’re proud to be building a world-class machine learning company in one of the country’s most desirable regions: North Carolina’s Research Triangle. There’s a reason companies like Amazon and Apple are seriously thinking about moving to the neighborhood.

Here are a few reasons why we love it here – and why we think you will, too:

(more…)

Automation and the Future of Jobs

Machine learning and artificial intelligence can help automate workplace tasks. So what does that mean for the future of jobs?

Infinia ML CEO Robbie Allen says that while many jobs will be automated, “they’re the kind of jobs that should have never been done by a person in the first place.”

This is a section of Robbie’s talk at NC TECH’s 2018 State of Technology Conference (thanks to NC TECH for the video). Here’s a written version of this clip:

(more…)

Machine Learning’s Business Impact

CEO Robbie Allen recently spoke about the business impact of machine learning at Adobe’s Think Tank on The Future of AI in the Enterprise.

“I really focus on three areas where I think that machine learning specifically will have an impact,” he said.

“One is reducing costs, and by that I don’t mean that we’re displacing the workforce. What I mean by that is that there’s lot of jobs out there that were never intended for people to do. But the only option was for people to do them, because we didn’t have software that could it on their behalf. So I think there will be a lot of those types of jobs – repetitive – it’s not ideally suited for humans to do in the first place.”

“Second is increasing efficiency, and oftentimes you’ll hear about potentially given people superpowers in their job, where not only can they do their job, they can do it a lot faster, a lot better, and they can be much more productive.”

“And then the third are is achieving new breakthroughs, and this is something I think is going to be really powerful as it relates to what you can get out of machine learning. As a society we have blindspots that we’re not aware of. For any new breakthrough that occurs, that only happened because someone else didn’t think to do that. Machine learning gives us an opportunity to discover new patterns, new ways of working that weren’t obvious before, and so I think we’re going to be able to see all sorts of interesting new capabilities in the enterprise as it relates to that.”

During the talk, Robbie was clear about the need to focus squarely on solving real business problems:

“So I think especially  when it comes to the enterprise, it’s less about ‘can we properly define AI,’ and really what problems are we trying to solve,” he said.

“And it goes back to, what are the key differences now between what we can do now versus some of the vendors that we’ve seen before. And it’s the computing power, it’s the availability of data, and it’s the advanced algorithms that have been created.”

“And I think really focusing on what problems can you solve with that, that’s really where it’s at for the enterprise, much more so than ‘are we ever going to create AGI, artificial general intelligence? Are we going to have sentient beings?’ There’s no path for that in the research right now and so to me it’s not even really worth talking about.”

For Machine Learning, Data Comes First

CEO Robbie Allen recently spoke about the importance of data strategy at Adobe’s Think Tank on The Future of AI in the Enterprise.

“People hear about artificial intelligence and all this crazy stuff that it’s doing and so they think that it’s going to be this magical solution that solves all of their problems,” he said.

“In most cases, in my experience, it’s better to walk before you can run when it comes to this, especially if you’ve never done a machine learning style project before which requires a significant amount of data. You first have to to get your data strategy in place first before you can have an AI strategy.”

Later, Robbie spoke about a common data issue many enterprises may not be expecting: the high cost of getting data out of their systems.

“It’s likely that companies will spend just as much money on getting data out of their systems as they did to implement the systems to begin with,” he said.

“What I mean by that are ERPs, CRMs, all their databases. To get the data out of it in a format that’s useful for machine learning algorithms and other things is a nontrivial task.”

“And it turns out to be, in most cases, the long pole in the tent. That is, the hardest aspect of actually implementing a project is just to get the data. So that’s why we were talking about before, data strategy, when do you get it – it’s going to be difficult to do much in the space in the enterprise unless you have access to data in a format that makes it available to somebody to use in terms of implementing algorithms.”

 

Our 3D Approach to Machine Learning

 

Excerpt from an interview in Adobe’s “Glass Tank” at The AI Conference in New York City, May 1, 2018.

—

Infinia ML is a team of machine learning experts focused on making real business impact. To deliver that impact, we have a wholistic way of helping companies achieve their goals.

We call it our 3D approach:

Data Preparation

We begin by assessing whether your data is ready for machine learning. Data readiness, not algorithms, is often the biggest obstacle to machine learning success.

We’ll make sure your data is accessible, sizable, useable, understandable, and maintainable before we give you the green light.

Development

With your data prepared, we apply our scientific knowledge of machine learning to your business challenges.

We design algorithms, build models, test results, and show you what’s possible.

Deployment

Algorithms that don’t work in the real world don’t drive real results for your business.

Our team integrates our solutions with your systems, helping your organization achieve the true impact of machine learning.

—

Whether you need help with just one D or all of the above, we’re ready to talk. Contact us to learn more.

Catch Us on Both Coasts: Our Spring Events

Bridge

We hit the road to talk about machine learning!

Your Event Could Be Next

If you’re looking for a world-class speaker on machine learning, deep learning, or artificial intelligence, we’d love to talk.

RECENT EVENTS
The Future of Operations in the Robotics Age

Wednesday, March 7th in New York City

Our Executive Chairman Mike Salvino delivered the 1:15 keynote at the FORA Summit presented by HfS Research.

In front of a group of service industry leaders and practitioners at HfS FORA,” wrote diginomica, “Salvino blasted his way through the “machine learning epidemic,” with actionable advice mixed in.”

Duke ML Day

Saturday, March 31st  in Durham, North Carolina

We were proud sponsors of Duke’s first machine learning day, and excited that our Chief Scientist Larry Carin was a speaker.  Of course, he’s also Duke’s Vice Provost for Research and a Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering.

Our CEO Robbie Allen was on hand, too.

Triangle ML Day

Tuesday, April 3rd in Durham, North Carolina

Because one ML Day just isn’t enough, we were proud to sponsor this one too. It also took place at Duke University, and our Chief Scientist Larry Carin spoke once again. Some attendees even scored some swag from our Infinia ML booth!

Applied Artificial Intelligence Conference

Thursday April 12th in San Francisco

CEO Robbie Allen was a panelist on a session called “Savior or Destroyer? How AI Is transforming The Media.”

Webinar: A reality-check on Enterprise Artificial Intelligence (AI)

Thursday, April 12th

Executive Chairman Mike Salvino joined the panel on this webinar from HfS Research.

Carolina Family Office Forum

Tuesday, April 24th in Raleigh, NC

CEO Robbie Allen and Executive Chairman Mike Salvino speak to family office executives on the disruptive potential of artificial intelligence and machine learning.

Adobe Think Tank

Monday, April 30th in New York City

CEO Robbie Allen joined a forum on the future of AI in the enterprise.

The Artificial Intelligence Conference

Tuesday, May 1st in New York City

CEO Robbie Allen revealed “Best Practices for Machine Learning in the Enterprise.”

NC TECH 2018 State of Technology Conference

Friday, May 4th in Durham, NC

CEO Robbie Allen spoke on the past, present, and future of artificial intelligence.

Triangle CHRO Association

Friday, June 8th in Cary, NC

Executive Chairman Mike Salvino and CEO Robbie Allen speak to senior HR officers about the realities of artificial intelligence and machine learning at 8:30am.

The Copyright Society of the USA’s Annual Meeting

Sunday June 10th – Tuesday June 12th in Toronto (ironically)

CEO Robbie Allen joined the AI & Copyright panel to help legal experts understand the possibilities for natural language generation.

 

 

Mice & Machine Learning Help Map the Mind

In a new paper co-authored by Infinia ML Chief Scientist Larry Carin and published in the journal Cell, machine learning gave scientists a new way to understand and treat depressed brains. Today, mice are the subjects. Humans could be next.

DURHAM, N.C., Mar. 1, 2018 — Mice brains and machine learning may lead to a new way to treat depression, according to a new paper published in the journal Cell and co-authored by Infinia ML Chief Scientist Larry Carin, Ph.D.

The paper describes how scientists measured electrical signals in the brains of both observably resilient, active mice and observably depressed, inactive mice. The complexity and scale of the available data, gathered from 18 regions of the brain, then required advanced machine learning for analysis. In effect, scientists trained a learning algorithm to map each brain’s connections. They found a pattern in the resilient mice that differed from the depressed.

Larry Carin, Ph.D.
Infinia ML Chief Scientist Larry Carin, Ph.D.

“We wanted to understand the traffic flow of a healthy brain,” said Carin, the project’s machine learning lead. “That had not been done before, and machine learning helped us overcome that key technical challenge.”

This new understanding of the brain’s electrical system brings new potential for treatment in mice. More importantly, the research lays groundwork for future advances in human mental health. When scientists measure the relevant patterns in human brains, advanced machine learning could help them assess and treat depression.

Meanwhile, Carin’s company, Infinia ML, is already busy applying machine learning techniques to biological and medical breakthroughs from cancer detection to genetic screening.

“Machine learning offers new ways for us to understand our bodies and minds,” said Carin. “And the best part is, we’re just getting started.”

About Infinia ML

Infinia ML empowers companies to make smarter decisions and automate complex business processes by leveraging the latest breakthroughs in machine learning. Infinia ML has a team of leading AI researchers and deep learning experts that have published hundreds of peer-reviewed papers through top machine learning conferences and journals.

Backed by noted private equity firm Carrick Capital Partners, the Durham, North Carolina company is led by CEO Robbie Allen, an experienced AI entrepreneur, and Chief Scientist Lawrence Carin, Ph.D., the Duke University Vice Provost for Research and Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering. Learn more.