Mediaboss Marketing

Debiopharm Innovation Fund strategically invests in Whitelab Genomics' mission to make genomic medicine development faster and leaner for more efficient access to cancer patients in the future

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, Sept. 13, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the strategic investment arm of Swiss biopharmaceutical company Debiopharm (www.Debiopharm.com), announced today their investment in Whitelab Genomics alongside French Venture Capital company, Omnes Capital, in a$10 Million Series A Round to advance their mission to accelerate the development of genomics medicines via technology powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Whitelab Genomics' computational platform reduces biotherapies' development time and cost, enabling faster access to the market and cheaper therapeutic solutions available for patients in need. Debiopharm's investment in Whitelabs Genomics contributes to the growth plan of the start-up' R&D team and US operations. Such an investment aligns with Debiopharm's focus on investing in digital health solutions that improve the cancer patient journey, transform pharmaceutical R&D, and shift healthcare towards a more patient-centric approach.

Founded in 2019 by David Del Bourgo, MBA, and Julien Cottineau, Ph.D., alongside a team of world-class data scientists specialized in AI, computational biologists, molecular biologists, and genomic medicine scientists, the start-up offers in-silico simulations customized for target discovery, vector, and payload design, genotoxicity assessment and identification of experimental protocols of in vitro and in vivo strategies.

"We're moving into a time where AI-based technology will play a critical role in drug development.With better ways to develop drugs, de-risk assets, de-risk any toxicity, and ensure efficacy, we're able to bring more personalized drugs to patients that's precisely what Whitelab Genomics is proven to do," stated Tanja Dowe, CEO of the Debiopharm Innovation Fund.

"The value of using this AI-based platform is the potential acceleration of pre-clinical, translational stage, helping drug research companies quickly design payloads and vectors and identify the best experimental protocols for in vitro and in vivo tests," said Hamzeh Abdul-Hadi, Investment Director of the Debiopharm Innovation Fund.

"We are very excited to close this first institutional investment round with such renowned investors with deep knowledge of the pharma environment. With this funding, we can continue developing our proprietary data sets and algorithms for both payload and vectors, and develop our collaborations with our customers," expressed David Del Bourgo, CEO and co-founder of Whitelab Genomics.

About Whitelab Genomics

WhiteLab Genomics, based in Paris and Cambridge (MA) was founded in 2019 by David Del Bourgo and Julien Cottineau, experts in genomics drug development and commercialization. WhiteLab Genomics aims to revolutionize genomic therapies development using public and private data and in-house AI algorithms. Whitelab Genomics supports its clients through the in-silico development phases enabling them to quickly develop target vectors and payloads and save precious time needed to give patients access to new genomic therapies. In only 2 years, Whitelab Genomics has convinced leading European and US Biotech and pharma to use its solutions for their new drug development programs, including RNA, DNA & Cell therapies. WhiteLab Genomics is also collaborating with world-renowned INSERM and Genethon laboratories and has been selected by Y-Combinator in its Winter 2022 batch. The company has won multiple awards, including the Galien Foundation nominee for startups, the Alumni New Venture Fund from the Polsky Innovation Center at the University of Chicago, and the Future 40 from Station F.

For more information, please visit http://www.whitelabgx.com

About Debiopharm Innovation Fund

Debiopharm Innovation Fund, the strategic investment arm of Swiss biopharmaceutical company Debiopharm,provides strategic funding and guidance for companies with an ambition to improve the patient journey, re-imagine how clinical trials are conducted, along with companies offering digital platforms that support cutting-edge drug technologies.Since 2017 Debiopharm has invested in 14 digital health companies,typically leading the investment rounds.

For more information, please visitwww.debiopharm.com/digital-health/We are on Twitter. Follow us @DebiopharmNewsathttp://twitter.com/DebiopharmNews

Debiopharm Contact

Dawn BonineHead of Communications[emailprotected]Tel: +41 (0)21 321 01 11

SOURCE Debiopharm International SA

View post:
Debiopharm Co-leads a 10M USD Series A Round to Accelerate the Development of Genomic Medicines through Artificial Intelligence - PR Newswire

Exeter Engineering, an American manufacturer of electronic sorting, washing, receiving, and related machinery for the fresh produce industry, has installed an upgraded version of its proprietary ID Technology system that uses artificial intelligence (AI) to automatically grade and sort bell peppers.

The system uses an integrated suite of cameras, lighting, and software to size and grade bell peppers for color, size, weight and even shape defects, all using AI to implement operator-set grading choices. It transmits live images of every bell pepper passing through the sorter, across all lanes, to operators, allowing them to adjust on the fly or see the effects of adjustments they are considering.

"AI-powered grading gives packers some gains in speed and accuracy, especially compared to older systems," said Matt Lonczynski, sales engineer at Exeter Engineering. "We are already seeing accuracy rates of 90 percent."

The bell pepper capability is one part of the upgrades made to ID Technology in its second major release: version 2.0. Hardware improvements in version 2.0 included a new camera hood and upgraded lighting. "The new lighting was crucial for getting imagery of sufficient quality to successfully size and grade bell peppers," said Boomer Batchman, president of Exeter Engineering. "With better imagery in both visible and infrared light spectrums, the AI gives more accurate results."

Oculus 1300 compact 3-drop sorter and an example of ID Technology 2.0 for potatoes.

PotatoesThe ID Technology system has been working on potatoes for over a year, with accuracy rates of 95 percent on some customers' packing lines. The new version 2.0 hardware, combined with a software upgrade, now allows potato packers the option to use the AI to differentiate between three or more grades. They can also use the new "severity classification" feature, which allows operators to adjust for the severity of a variety of defects to move products from one category to another.

"With 'Severity classification,' ID Technology is coming out with another unique feature," said Lonczynski. "It allows the sort of granular control that used to come only after an operator had years of experience. Now it's automatic."

Exeter Engineering is currently testing a new version of ID Technology's software suite that will add the ability to sort sweet potatoes, and it hopes to have that capability by Fall 2022.

"By upgrading to an AI-powered system, packing houses can save both time and money," said Batchman. "ID Technology provides reliability and consistency quicker and more efficiently than older systems, which relied more on the skill and experience of the operator. Our potato clients are looking at returns on their investment in a year, a year-and-a-half. We think there will be a similar result for bell peppers, cucumbers, and other produce types we have in the pipeline."

This screen shows the accuracy of various defects. It's just one screen of the ID Technology 2.0 control interface.

For more information: Boomer BatchmanExeter Engineering Tel: +1 (559) 592-3161bbatchman@exetereng.com

Matt LonczynskiExeter Engineering Tel: +1 (559) 592-3161mlonczynski@exetereng.comhttps://www.exeterengineering.com/

Continued here:
The use of Artificial Intelligence to automatically sort bell peppers, potatoes and more - hortidaily.com

Capitol Music Records has severed ties with an artificial-intelligence-powered rapper days after the release of his first single amid intense backlash accusing the artist of perpetuating racist stereotypes.

Artist FN Meka became the worlds first augmented-reality music artist to be signed to a major record label earlier this month, releasing his first single Florida Water on August 12. The single featured Fortnite gamer Clix and Atlanta rapper Gunna.

Meka already has over 500,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and over 10 million followers on TikTok, where his posts allow fans a peek into his virtual world, which includes huge Bugatti jets, Maybach helicopters, and a machine that turns ice into iced-out watches.

However, backlash quickly rose up on social media with users pointing out their discomfort with how Meka is portrayed, claiming the creation was equivalent to digital blackface and that his content on Instagram and TikTok trivialized incarceration and police brutality.

One Instagram post showed the rapper being beaten by a police officer in a jail cell because he wont snitch.

On Tuesday, activist nonprofit Industry Blackout wrote an open letter to Capitol summarizing the issues brought to light.

It is a direct insult to the Black community and our culture. An amalgamation of gross stereotypes, appropriative mannerisms that derive from Black artists, complete with slurs infused in lyrics, the statement said. We find fault in the lack of awareness in how offensive this caricature is.

Industry Blackout called for Capitol to cut ties with the artist and donate any associated funds to charity or other black artists under the label.

Capitol quickly responded in a statement shared online by New York Times journalist Joe Costarelli, confirming that it had dropped the rapper with immediate effect.

Mekas debut single Florida Water has also been removed from all streaming platforms.

We offer our deepest apologies to the Black community for our insensitivity in signing this project without asking enough questions about equity and the creative process behind it. We thank those who have reached out to us with constructive feedback in the past couple of daysyour input was invaluable as we came to the decision to end our association with the project, the statement read.

Meka is partially backed by A.I. and was cocreated by Anthony Martini and Brandon Le of the company Factory New. While the voice is based on a real human, the rest is all down to artificial intelligence.

Sign up for theFortune Features email list so you dont miss our biggest features, exclusive interviews, and investigations.

Original post:
Capitol Records forced to drop its artificial-intelligence-created rapper after just one week following gross stereotypes backlash - Fortune

The second Global Artificial Intelligence Summit will take place in Riyadh from September 13 to 15. The Saudi Press Agency reported that the Saudi Authority for Data and Artificial Intelligence forDataandArtificialIntelligence ishosting the summit,with the theme "Artificial Intelligence for the Good of Humanity," and Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, who serves as the organization's board of directors chairman, is serving as its sponsor.

The King Abdulaziz International Conference Center will host the gathering. According to Arab News, Dr. Abdullah Al-Ghamdi, the president of SDAIA, said that the crown princes patronage raises the summits status and importance locally, regionally andinternationally. It has become clear that artificial intelligence techniques have begun to be used in our daily lives and will have a significant impact in all aspects of life, so the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia has set the visions of this modern technical field within the objectives of its Vision 2030, he said.

This global summit will seek to become a major world forum in the field of artificial intelligence, after the success achieved in the first summit held in 2020, he added.

Al-Ghamdi also stated that the summit will cover all topics relating to AI technologies and that experts, specialists, senior government officials, and the biggest global technology corporations will all be in attendance. Various presentations will be conducted emphasizing the newest research and technology, while attendees will also share skills, and explore investment opportunities.

With "more than 100 speakers from around the world under one roof in Riyadh, specialized in artificial intelligence," he claimed that the Global Artificial Intelligence Summit is also a chance for specialists and interested parties to profit from the meeting.

The summit will cover several subjects that demonstrate the effects of AI on the most significant industries, including smart cities, human capacity development, health care, transportation, energy, culture and heritage, environment, and more. The first Global Artificial Intelligence Summit, which lasted two days and featured more than 200 experts and decision-makers, drew more than 13,000 attendees. More than 5 million people viewed the conference on social media.

More:
KSA To Host 2nd Edition of Artificial Intelligence Summit - About Her

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Qloo, the leading artificial intelligence platform for culture and taste preferences, announced today that it has raised $15M in Series B funding from Eldridge and AXA Venture Partners. This latest round of funding brings Qloos total capital raised to $30M, and will enable the privacy-centric AI leader to expand its team of world-class data scientists, enrich its technology, and build on its sales channels in order to continue to offer premier insights into global consumer taste for Fortune 500 companies across the globe.

Founded in 2012, Qloo pioneered the predictive algorithm as a service model, using AI technology to help brands securely analyze anonymized and encrypted consumer taste data to provide recommendations based on a consumers preferences. Demand for Qloo has been accelerating as companies look for privacy centric solutions - in fact, API request volumes across endpoints grew more than 273% year-over-year in Q2.

Before Qloo, consumer taste was really only examined within the silo of a certain app or service - which made it impossible to model a fuller picture of peoples preferences, said Alex Elias, Founder and CEO of Qloo. Qloo is the first AI platform that takes into account all the cross-sections of our preferences - like how our music tastes correlate to our favorite restaurants, or how our favorite clothing brands may lend themselves to a great movie recommendation.

Qloos flagship API works across multiple layers to process and correlate over 575 million primary entities (such as a movie, book, restaurant, song, etc.) across entertainment, culture, and consumer products, giving the most accurate and expansive predictions of consumer taste based on demographics, preferences, cultural entities, metadata, and geolocational factors. Qloos API can be plugged directly into leading data platforms such as Snowflake and Tableau, with results populated in only a matter of seconds making it easy for companies to improve product development, media buying, and consumer experiences in real time.

Qloo currently delivers cultural AI that powers inferences for clients serving over 550 million customers globally in 2022, including industry leaders across media and publishing, entertainment, technology, e-commerce, consumer brands, travel, hospitality, automakers, fashion, financial services, and more.

About Qloo:

Qloo is the leading artificial intelligence platform on culture and taste preferences, providing completely anonymized and encrypted consumer taste data and recommendations for leading companies in the tech, entertainment, publishing, retail, travel, hospitality and CPG sectors. Qloos proprietary API can predict consumers' preferences and connect how their tastes correlate across over a dozen major categories, including music, film, television, podcasts, dining, nightlife, fashion, consumer products, books and travel. Launched in 2012, Qloo combines the latest in machine learning, theoretical research in Neuroaesthetics and one of the largest pipelines of detailed taste data to better inform its customers - and makes all of this intelligence available through an API. By allowing companies to speak more effectively with their target consumers, Qloo helps its customers solve real-world problems such as driving sales, saving money on media buys, choosing locations and building brands. Qloo is the parent company of TasteDive, a cultural recommendation engine and social community that allows users to discover what to watch, read, listen to, and play based on their existing unique preferences.

Learn more at qloo.com and http://www.tastedive.com.

See more here:
Qloo, the Leading Artificial Intelligence Platform for Culture and Taste Preferences, Raises $15M in Series B - Business Wire