Structure News: A sad and amazing week in the world of artificial intelligence

Where We're Seeing An AI Spring January 29th, 2016 / by Tom Krazit This week, we'll talk about another great quarter for AWS sales, a startup incubator for enterprise technology, and two events that shook the artificial intelligence community this week. STRUCTURE NEWS THE STRUCTURE SHOW: AN AI LEGEND, TWITTER'S DILEMMA, MICROSOFT'S RESEARCH On this week's podcast we had the sad but inspiring task of summing up the contributions of MIT's Marvin Minsky to the field of artificial intelligence after his death this week (more on that in a bit). We also wondered if Twitter is heading for a Foursquare-like plan to license more of its data, and how research works -- and used to work -- in the tech industry amid a shift in thinking at Microsoft. If you haven't registered for Structure Data yet, today is a good day to do it: prices go up at midnight of the 29th. Scheduled for March 9th and 10th at UCSF Mission Bay, Structure Data will feature some of the best and brightest minds in data, AI, and deep learning as well as a bunch of interesting startups tackling these challenges. You can find more information here, and register here.   INDUSTRY NEWS AMAZON WEB SERVICES BRINGS IN $2.4B IN REVENUE IN Q4 2015, UP 69 PERCENT OVER LAST YEAR AWS continues to show that its lead in the cloud market shows no signs of slipping. Venturebeat reported that revenue was up 69 percent in the fourth quarter to $2.4 billion, which isn't as strong year-to-year growth as the last quarter, but that's still a number that will make AWS smile, especially seeing its stock get pummeled by profits that missed expectations on holiday sales weakness. WHY AMAZON'S CLOUD NUMBERS MAY BE THE ONLY ONES THAT COUNT Speaking of Amazon, until other big software companies start reporting cloud-based financial numbers in its style, it's probably best to take those numbers with a grain of salt. In a prescient post ahead of earnings week, Fortune notes that older tech companies like HP and Oracle love to talk about how much money they're making from cloud, just without disclosing pesky things like specific numbers. HELL, HIGH WATER, AND ICE: FACEBOOK'S DUBLIN DATA CENTER CHOICES Facebook announced plans to build a new data center in Dublin, Ireland, that will draw all of its power from renewable energy, according to the company. The Register takes a look at how the $200 million project came to be. "ENTERPRISE IS SEXY:" WHY ALCHEMIST THINKS IT CAN BECOME THE Y COMBINATOR FOR BORING STARTUPS "Boring" is a strange word to use kicking off a long piece about a huge market opportunity, but this is still a good look from Recode at Alchemist, an incubator for enterprise tech companies. Consumer-facing apps may get all the hype, but they simply wouldn't work without a lot of enterprise tech startups helping them along. THOSE VMWARE CUTS HIT MONDAY We all knew this was coming when Dell and EMC reached an agreement to join forces, but VMware confirmed this week it laid off 800 employees in a bid to cut costs before its parent company gets swallowed by Dell. Fortune reported that members of the company's vCloud Air teams took a hit, as well as groups working on VMware Fusion.   BIG PICTURE Go is a fascinating game. It's easy to learn and damn-near impossible to master, and has been entertaining people for thousands of years. But while we've long had the ability to beat grand masters in chess with our computers, nobody had beaten a Go champion with an artificial intelligence system. Until now. Google announced this week that its DeepMind team had managed to beat the European champion of Go in a matchup that recalled previous computer-versus-human competitions, such as Deep Blue versus Garry Kasparov. Wired has a good look at the effort that went into creating the system that managed to win a game that had frustrated AI researchers for years. (Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, in a humorous or maybe pre-mediated move, posted about Facebook's work chasing this goal just hours before Google made its announcement.) And after reading so many profiles of Marvin Minsky over the course of the week (Steven Levy of Backchannel has a good one), one thing that struck me was the distance between the development of his theories and DeepMind's accomplishment: nearly 60 years and untold advances in technology Minksy could not have forseen when he first got started. AI researchers know to be wary of "the AI winters" that can often follow a period in which public excitement in artificial intelligence has been growing, such as the one we're in now. And Minsky's life and legacy underscore that artificial intelligence research has produced amazing breakthroughs, but it has taken a very long time, and will continue to take a very long time by the standards of most other things in technology. The real test for DeepMind will come later this year, some time around Structure Data in March, when it faces off against South Korea's Lee Sedel, widely considered one of the best to ever play the game. But it's only the latest milestone in the long history of AI research that paved the way to Google's accomplishment. (Image courtesy Flickr user Reilly Butler/Creative Commons)       DISCOVER MORE   Click here to unsubscribe from this list. Our mailing address is: Structure 405 El Camino Real, #215 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2016 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.

NPR, WIRED, FastCo, NYT and You

We're very proud to bring you the highest level of information and conversation at Structure Data. That’s why we’ve confirmed the best and brightest journalists from NPR, WIRED, FastCompany, The New York Times, and Bloomberg to interview our speakers on the main stage . Agenda sampler: Aarti Shahani, Technology Reporter, NPR Cade Metz, Senior Writer, WIRED Christina Farr, Senior Writer, Fast Company Jack Clark, Reporter, Bloomberg Steve Lohr, Reporter, New York Times Our agenda is live, our speakers are preparing their presentations and time is ticking down before ticket prices increase on Friday. Don't miss out on the chance to hear news on big data, artificial intelligence and machine learning from Google, Facebook, Microsoft, Baidu, McClaren Applied Technologies, IBM Watson and more. Companies already registered include: 1010data, Accenture, Armor Defense, Atlassian, Avalon Ventures, Avnet, Baidu, Bank of America, Battery Ventures, BlipIQ, Brain of Things, Capital One, Cavium, Cisco, Citus Data, Civis Analytics, Cloud Technology Partners, Cloudera, CloudVelox, Inc., Comcast Ventures, Condé Nast, Confluent, CoreSite, Databricks, DataGravity, Datameer, DataStax, Dell Inc, DriveScale, DropFi, Elastica, Fiverr, GDELT Project, General Catalyst, General Electric, Goldman Sachs & Co, Google, Gracenote, HGST, Hortonworks, HWVP, IBM, IDG/Computerworld, ifox, In-Q-Tel, Intel Security, Interana, Keen IO, Khan Academy, Kla-Tencor Corp, LendingClub Corporation, Light Street Capital, Lightspeed Venture Partners, MapR Technologies, McLaren Applied Technologies, Metamarkets, MicroMarkets, Microsoft, MuleSoft, MVPArtisans, Netflix, Nirmata, Norwest Venture Partners, NTT DATA, OnFarm, Opus Capital, Pandora, PayPal, Pinterest, Quixey, RBC Capital Markets, Samsung, SAP, SAP Hybris, Shoretel, Shutterfly Inc, Slack, SolarWinds, Stereo Capital, StorMagic, Stuffy Lab, Telematica Inc, The Boston Consulting Group, The Climate Corporation, Twitter, Uber, UC Berkeley, Under Armour, University of Potsdam, Wells Fargo, WIRED, Yahoo, Inc.   SPEAKERS   Jack Clark Bloomberg Jeff Dean Google Steve Lohr The New York Times Geoff McGrath McLaren Applied Technologies Cade Metz WIRED Hui Wang Paypal   SPONSORS   HEADLINE     PRIMETIME     SHOWTIME     PARTNERS     MARCH 9 – 10, 2016 SAN FRANCISCO, CA REGISTER NOW   Click here to unsubscribe from this list. Our mailing address is: Structure 405 El Camino Real, #215 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2016 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.

Structure News: Google wants us to know it's serious about enterprise tech

Where We've Always Thought Enterprise Technology Was Swell January 22nd, 2016 / by Tom Krazit This week, we'll talk about Oracle's cloud push, why AI might not be ready just yet to be an NFL offensive coordinator, and the Diane Greene era at Google. STRUCTURE NEWS FACEBOOK'S ALAN PARKER COMING TO STRUCTURE DATA 2016 We've already got most of the speakers for Structure Data lined up, but we made sure to save a space for Facebook's Alan Parker (pictured here), head of the company's Language Technology efforts. Parker, a longtime Microsoft veteran who worked on Cortana and Bing, is responsible for actually applying AI research to real-world problems. FROM AI TO IPOS: THE TOP 5 ISSUES IN BIG DATA TODAY As we gear up for Structure Data in March, Derrick Harris sizes up the state of the industry in a nice post for our blog. Along with the two issues mentioned in the title, Derrick also points out why data has to be delivered in real-time these days and how security fears ripple through just about everything. THE STRUCTURE SHOW: NVIDIA AND AI, YAHOO'S DONATION, FOURSQUARE'S FUTURE You can now get your Structure updates in podcast form: we launched The Structure Show this week. Derrick and I look back on the previous week's news in hopes of figuring out how hardware affects AI research and what's next for Foursquare now that it seems squarely focused on data generation and licensing.   INDUSTRY NEWS EUROPEANS REMAIN FAR FROM SOLD ON THE BENEFITS OF BIG DATA The Europeans of the internet age have generally been more protective of their online privacy than others, so it's not too surprising that they would give big data a side-eye. Still, Fortune notes that skepticism persists, citing a Vodafone study on consumer preferences with regards to big data. ORACLE CLOUD AMBITIONS MAY BE NEARING MOMENT OF TRUTH Oracle went on a charm offensive this week, using its CloudWorld event in New York to make the case that it is a cloud-focused software company. ZDNet previewed the stakes for Oracle in executing this transition, which is being watched very closely by its investors. ALIBABA TEAMS WITH NVIDIA IN $1 BILLION BET ON CLOUD COMPUTING Enterprise tech companies throw "$1 billion bets" around an awful lot, but this one is interesting: Alibaba is looking to bolster its cloud-computing business by working with Nvidia to offer customers better performance on deep learning, according to Bloomberg. It stands to reason that cloud computing will be a huge business in China, and Alibaba might be uniquely positioned to win a lot of that business. FOOTBALL COACHES TURNING TO AI TO HELP CALLING PLAYS It might come a little too late for Kansas City Chiefs head coach Andy Reid, but football coaches of the future might be able to ask something a little more sophisticated than the New York Times' Fourth-Down Bot for help when making decisions. Wired takes a look at artificial intelligence research around game theory, and how quickly that might be able to help coaches (assuming the leagues allow such technology). BILLIONAIRE VC SAYS THAT MOST COMPANIES WILL EVENTUALLY PAY AN AMAZON "TAX" There aren't too many young tech startups these days building their own infrastructure, and as they grow, Social Capital's Chamath Palihapitiya thinks that's going to work out very nicely for Amazon Web Services. The market leader "is a tax on the compute economy," he said in a Quora discussion picked up by Business Insider. DOCKER BAGS UNIKERNAL GURUS - NOW YOU CAN BE JUST LIKE LINUS TORVALDS Docker continues to manage the rise of a mini-empire (for now) behind containers. This week it acquired startup Unikernel Systems, and The Register explains the implications of the deal, which could help Docker burnish its reputation as the user-friendly container company. BIG PICTURE Now that Alphabet -- the holding company set up six months ago by the entity we used to know as Google to nuture special projects (including Google itself) -- is starting to take shape, it's going to be an interesting year for Diane Greene and Google's cloud-computing efforts. Recode put together a very nice look at the state of Google's cloud operations this week ahead of Alphabet's earnings release in two weeks. It highlights the fact that Google plans to get very serious about its enterprise business this year, which we knew immediately when Google hired Greene the same week Google's Urs Hölzle told Structure 2015 attendees that he thought Google's cloud business could one day surpass its search ad juggernaunt. Google's technology expertise, when it comes to building the platform needed for a modern cloud computing business, has never been questioned. What has relegated Google to third place in the cloud market, well behind AWS and Microsoft is the notion that it doesn't really understand how to build and sell products and services for enterprise customers. That's not entirely fair, but Greene acknowledged in an interview with Recode that Google hasn't always been focused on enterprise customers. Google CEO Sundar Pichai is said to have changed that mentality in a big way, and Greene herself is a huge sign that Google is prepared to compete in enterprise tech. When it comes to big data and artificial intelligence, we know Google has been pushing mightily to keep pace with its rivals at Facebook and Microsoft, as we'll discuss with Google's Jeff Dean at Structure Data. If Google can jump-start its cloud business, it could have a compelling product to offer if that data expertise can be married to a cloud business operating at even close to Amazon's scale.       DISCOVER MORE   Click here to unsubscribe from this list. Our mailing address is: Structure 405 El Camino Real, #215 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2016 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.

Netflix, Slack, Microsoft, IBM, GDLET to speak at Structure Data

Busy much? We understand that coming back from and extended break can be overwhelming – work goes into hyperdrive leaving little time to think about things two months away. Let us help. Who: You What: Structure Data (agenda is live!) When: March 9-10 (that's a Wednesday / Thursday) Where: Mission Bay Conference Center Now for the why: The speakers, the networking, the tech buyers and of course, the cocktails. Speaker line-up: June Andrews, Pinterest Maia Sciupac Arteaga, Thorn Rob Bearden, Hortonworks Steve Bowsher, In-Q-Tel Ron Brachman, Yahoo Jack Clark, Bloomberg News Jeff Dean, Google Mike Driscoll, Metamarkets Michael Franklin, UC Berkeley Steve Grobman, Intel Security Ky Harlin, Condé Nast Rob High, IBM Matt Howard, Norwest Venture Partners Ann Johnson, Interana Peter Lee, Microsoft Kalev Leetaru, GDELT Project David Linthicum, Cloud Technology Partners Chris Martin, Pandora Geoff McGrath, McLaren Applied Technologies Cade Metz, WIRED Chris Moody, Twitter Neha Narkhede, Confluent Andrew Ng, Baidu Tom Reilly, Cloudera Ty Roberts, Gracenote William Ruh, General Electric Ashutosh Saxena, Brain of Things Jeff Schneider, Carnegie Mellon University and Uber ATC John Schroeder, MapR Technologies Ion Stoica, Databricks Dharmesh Thakker, Battery Ventures Eva Tse, Netflix Dan Wagner, Civis Analytics Hui Wang, PayPal Josh Wills, Slack Mark Young, The Climate Corporation Tickets: Pick them up today.   SPEAKERS   Jeff Dean Google Peter Lee Microsoft Andrew Ng Baidu William Ruh General Electric Eva Tse Netflix Jeff Schneider Carnegie Mellon University and Uber ATC   SPONSORS   PRIMETIME     SHOWTIME     PARTNERS     MARCH 9 – 10, 2016 SAN FRANCISCO, CA REGISTER NOW   Click here to unsubscribe from this list. Our mailing address is: Structure 405 El Camino Real, #215 Menlo Park, CA 94025 Add us to your address book Copyright (C) 2016 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.