*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).

Share:
More In Business
Michigan Judge Sentences Walmart Shoplifters to Wash Parking Lot Cars
A Michigan judge is putting sponges in the hands of shoplifters and ordering them to wash cars in a Walmart parking lot when spring weather arrives. Genesee County Judge Jeffrey Clothier hopes the unusual form of community service discourages people from stealing from Walmart. The judge also wants to reward shoppers with free car washes. Clothier says he began ordering “Walmart wash” sentences this week for shoplifting at the store in Grand Blanc Township. He believes 75 to 100 people eventually will be ordered to wash cars this spring. Clothier says he will be washing cars alongside them when the time comes.
State Department Halts Plan to buy $400M of Armored Tesla Vehicles
The State Department had been in talks with Elon Musk’s Tesla company to buy armored electric vehicles, but the plans have been put on hold by the Trump administration after reports emerged about a potential $400 million purchase. A State Department spokesperson said the electric car company owned by Musk was the only one that expressed interest back in May 2024. The deal with Tesla was only in its planning phases but it was forecast to be the largest contract of the year. It shows how some of his wealth has come and was still expected to come from taxpayers.
Load More