Paperspace Is Building 'A.I.-as-a-Service' Platform
*By Carlo Versano*
Paperspace wants to make artificial intelligence more accessible, according to its co-founder and CEO Dillon Erb.
Erb told Cheddar Tuesday that artificial intelligence is still so new and complex that mainstream companies find the tech difficult to harness.
Although A.I. is a "fundamentally transformative technology," he said, "the tools haven't really been built yet to make it accessible for most applications."
The Brooklyn-based cloud-computing start-up just closed a $13 million Series A funding round to build up its machine learning toolkits, which it sells to other companies looking to develop their own machine-learning platforms or products ー think A.I.-as-a-service.
Erb said he will use a portion of the new financing to market a product offering called "Gradient," which is, essentially, A.I. in a box.
Developers and data scientists can use Gradient to run A.I. and deep learning tasks without having to install or build out their own infrastructure.
One of the current roadblocks in modern machine learning is that it requires a great deal of processing power, and "actually harnessing that power is incredibly difficult," according to Erb. Gradient helps solve that problem by doing the computing without a dedicated server. Erb said his product will make it easier for smaller, "nimble" companies that want to run machine-learning experiments, but don't have the resources to do it on their own networks.
Erb would not reveal any of the clients Paperspace serves, though he said his company touches industries as varied as robotic simulation, cancer research, and media. But most consumers will probably never interface directly with Paperspace's products.
In the vein of the early computer coders, Paperspace is building the backbone that may support our interactions with machines in the future.
"We're kind of behind the scenes a bit," Erb said.
He plans on keeping it that way.
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/paperspace-works-toward-accessible-a-i-with-13-million-funding-round).
Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has announced that 100,000 businesses have signed up for a new database that collects ownership information intended to help unmask shell company owners. Yellen says the database will send the message that “the United States is not a haven for dirty money.”
A new version of the federal student aid application known as the FAFSA is available for the 2024-2025 school year, but only on a limited basis as the U.S. Department of Education works on a redesign meant to make it easier to apply.
A steep budget deficit caused by plummeting tax revenues and escalating school voucher costs will be in focus Monday as Democratic Gov. Katie Hobbs and the Republican-controlled Arizona Legislature return for a new session at the state Capitol.
The first U.S. lunar lander in more than 50 years is on its way to the moon. The private lander from Astrobotic Technology blasted off Monday from Cape Canaveral, Florida, catching a ride on United Launch Alliance's brand new rocket Vulcan.
Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oil fell last year from record highs in 2022, when Russia’s war in Ukraine, drought and other factors helped worsen hunger worldwide, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said Friday.
Wall Street is drifting higher after reports showed the job market remains solid, but key parts of the economy still don’t look like they’re overheating.
The Biden administration is docking more than $2 million in payments to student loan servicers that failed to send billing statements on time after the end of a pandemic payment freeze.
The nation’s employers added a robust 216,000 jobs last month, the latest sign that the American job market remains resilient even in the face of sharply higher interest rates.
A U.S. labor agency has accused SpaceX of unlawfully firing employees who penned an open letter critical of CEO Elon Musk and creating an impression that worker activities were under surveillance by the rocket ship company.
