They may not look like robo-humans from I, Robot, but AI bots are becoming an all-too-real part of daily life.
From AI bots that track eyeballs to robo-operators that queue up sales calls, here’s a roundup of some of the newest AI bots on the block:
EyeSight doesn’t trust distracted humans to drive cars
AI-powered cars aren’t smart enough to drive (yet). But, thanks to Israeli startup EyeSight, AI-powered cars are smart enough to know when human drivers are doing something stupid.
EyeSight, which just raised $15m, uses facial recognition processing and AI to track drivers’ ‘eye-openness,’ gaze direction, and head position to determine attentiveness. When a driver gets distracted by a hilarious meme, the system switches over to self-driving mode.
The EU will require driver monitoring systems (DMS) by 2020, meaning more distracted-driver watch-bots are on the way.
Bright Machines thinks not enough factories use robots
Factories that require actual human labor are so last century — at least, that’s what manufacturing automation startup Bright Machines believes.
Investors seem to agree: Bright Machines raised a whopping $179m Series A to shake things up across the factory floor.
Bright Machines takes a software-centric approach to automating factories, updating both the robots and their operating systems.
Afiniti thinks it is smart enough to make telemarketing not suck
By combining AI and behavioral science to analyze customer calls, Afiniti helps companies avoid pissing people off — and gain an average 4.87% in telesales.
The ‘behavioral pairing’ startup raised $130m at a $1.6B valuation, which means that the company’s value increased 10x in just the past year after 5 consecutive years of growing revenue at least 100%.
AI-powered sales tech is taking off: Just yesterday, People.ai raised $30m to expand its AI-powered sales-rep tracking system.
