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).
Nestlé has dismissed its CEO Laurent Freixe after an investigation into an undisclosed relationship with a direct subordinate. The company announced on Monday that the dismissal was effective immediately. An investigation found that Freixe violated Nestlé’s code of conduct. He had been CEO for a year. Philipp Navratil, a longtime Nestlé executive, will replace him. Chairman Paul Bulcke stated that the decision was necessary to uphold the company’s values and governance. Navratil began his career with Nestlé in 2001 and has held various roles, including CEO of Nestlé's Nespresso division since 2024.
Kraft Heinz is splitting into two companies a decade after they joined in a massive merger that created one of the biggest food companies on the planet. One of the companies will include brands such as Heinz, Philadelphia cream cheese and Kraft Mac & Cheese. The other will include brands like Oscar Mayer, Kraft Singles and Lunchables. When the company formed in 2015 it wanted to capitalize on its massive scale, but shifting tastes complicated those plans, with households seeking to introduce healthier options at the table. Kraft Heinz's net revenue has fallen every year since 2020.
About 780,000 pressure washers sold at retailers like Home Depot are being recalled across the U.S. and Canada, due to a projectile hazard that has resulted in fractures and other injuries among some consumers.
