Structure News: Quantum computing, Google's secrets, and Facebook's AI magic

Where Intelligence Is Anything But Artificial December 11th, 2015 / by Tom Krazit This week, we'll talk about quantum computing (sort of), Google's cloud comeback plan, and Facebook's new AI server. STRUCTURE NEWS While preparations are well under way for Structure Data 2016, we're also wrapping up Structure 2015, with the slow-but-steady release of posts involving our speakers and the debut of all the session videos on our new Vimeo channel. So if you're looking to catch up on what you missed, you can find posts about all (well, most, bear with us) the conference sessions here, and you can find all the videos here. And if you're looking for more information on Structure Data, you can find more information about the speakers we've already confirmed here, and you can purchase tickets (for the lowest price they'll ever be) right here. (Photo credit: Aeron Miller/Structure) INDUSTRY NEWS IBM HAS VISIONS OF A CLOUD FUTURE … SO BUYS CLEARLEAP If you're a cloud entrepreneur and you haven't received a call from IBM this year, you might want to re-examine your strategy. IBM continued its 2015 cloud shopping spree with the acquisition of ClearLeap, a cloud video startup, for an undisclosed amount of cash, according to The Register. WHY 2015 WAS A BREAKTHROUGH YEAR IN ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE AI will be one of the premier topics at Structure Data in March, and it's not hard to see why after reading this retrospective of 2015 from Jack Clark of Bloomberg. Ahead of the Neural Information Systems Processing conference in Montreal (more on that in a bit), Clark and Bloomberg chart the process of artificial intelligence research and development. GOOGLE SAYS IT HAS PROVED ITS CONTROVERSIAL QUANTUM COMPUTER REALLY WORKS Proposed: the wry phrase "it's not rocket science" should be updated and replaced with "it's not quantum computing." As reported by MIT Tech Review, the researchers behind Google's D-Wave computer showed off some excellent performance results this week that could help the concept of quantum computing become the answer to the slowing of Moore's Law, but industry experts are still skeptical that the machine is truly a general-purpose quantum computer. GOOGLE'S SECRET PLAN TO CATCH UP TO AMAZON AND MICROSOFT IN CLOUD Google hasn't been an underdog in a core business for a long time, but it's a clear also-ran in the cloud. Fortune reports that Google is hoping to fight back by offering cloud customers the ability to tap into its widespread content delivery network by adding computing capacity to those locations across the world. FASHION GOES DEEP: DATA SCIENCE AT LYST Big data might be trendy in the tech industry, but few would consider it fashionable in broader circles. However, FastForward Labs (Hilary Mason's new venture) has an interesting look at a partner of theirs, Lyst, which is using a data-driven approach to building a comparison-shopping tool for fashionistas. SNAPLOGIC SURVIVES ITS RE-DO AND RAISES $37.5 MILLION A major pivot usually implies that a startup is scrambling for ideas before the money runs out, but SnapLogic appears to have pulled it off, according to The Wall Street Journal. After it realized its first approach to modular app development wasn't going to work, it overhauled its design to the point where Microsoft and Silver Lake Waterman felt comfortable investing $37.5 million in new funding into the company this week. BIG PICTURE This was a big week for artificial intelligence, with the aforementioned Neural Information Systems Processing conference in Montreal producing several announcements, as summarized by the New York Times. But Facebook made perhaps the biggest splash with its decision to open-source its Big Sur design (above) for artificial intelligence servers. As Wired points out, the move is very similar to Facebook's ground-breaking Open Compute Project, which open-sourced the designs behind the servers that update your Newsfeed and fetch the photos of your last trip to Mexico. This server is interesting, however, in that it depends much more on graphics processing units (GPUs) as opposed to the general-purpose processors that power more traditional servers used in cloud computing. The use of GPUs as the engine for artificial intelligence and deep learning could have some profound effects on the tech industry, elevating companies like Nvidia, traditionally the domain of hardcore PC gamers, to a new role as the engine of this industry. Intel has responded much more quickly to the cloud era than it did the mobile era, but its GPU pedigree can't match that of Nvidia. Those trends will play out over time, but it's great to see that both the hardware and software behind data and artificial intelligence will follow the lead of the cloud industry in embracing open source software. This certainly isn't new to this industry -- just look at the rise of Hortonworks and Cloudera on the back of Hadoop -- but the fact that it is firmly entrenched as a business model because it accelerates innovation over hoarding profits is a great sign for its future. (Image Credit: Facebook, via Wired)     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) 2015 Structure All rights reserved. Forward this email to a friend. Update your profile.