Orchestrate all the Things

Graph database Neo4j has just released version 5, which promises better ease of use and performance through improvements in its query language and engine, as well as automated scale-out and convergence across deployments. We caught up with Jim Webber, Chief Scientist at Neo4j, to discuss Neo4j 5 as well as the bigger picture in the graph market. Article published on VentureBeat

AIOps is what you get when you combine big data and machine learning to automate IT operations processes, including event correlation, anomaly detection and causality determination. At least, that's how Gartner defines AIOps. Based on this definition, as well as coverage of vendors that have products they label with the AIOps moniker, you'd be inclined to think that AIOps is mostly about anomaly detection and remediation. But what about provisioning, configuration, deployment and orchestration? These are all essential parts of IT operations which have not received as much AIOps attention. They also happen to be at the core of Ansible, Red Hat's open source IT automation tool.  Now Red Hat is embarking on a new direction for Ansible with Project Wisdom, aiming to take automation to the next level in collaboration with IBM Research. Red Hat refers to Project Wisdom as the first community project to create an intelligent, natural language processing capability for Ansible and the IT automation industry. We connected with Red Hat Vice President & General Manager for the Ansible Business Unit Tom Anderson to discuss Project Wisdom's premises, status and trajectory.  Article published on VentureBeat

Shining light on AI research and applications in a conversation with the curators of the most comprehensive report on all things AI. If you think AI is moving at a breakneck speed and it's almost impossible to keep up, you are not alone. Even if being on top of all things AI is part of your job, it's getting increasingly hard to do that. Nathan Benaich and Ian Hogarth know this all too well, yet somehow they manage. Benaich and Hogarth have solid backgrounds in AI as well as tons of experience and involvement in research, community- and market-driven initiatives. AI is their both their job and their passion and being on top of all things AI comes with the territory. Nathan Benaich is the General Partner of Air Street Capital, a venture capital firm investing in Al-first technology and life science companies. lan Hogarth is a co-founder at Plural, an investment platform for experienced founders to help the most ambitious European startups. Since 2018 Benaich and Hogarth have been publishing their yearly State of AI report, aiming to summarize and share their knowledge with the world. This ever-growing and evolving work covers all the latest and greatest across industry, research and politics. Over time, new sections are added, with this year featuring AI Safety for the first time. Traditionally, Benaich and Hogarth have also been venturing on predictions, with remarkable success. Equally traditionally, we have been connecting with them to discuss their findings every year upon release of the report. This year was no exception, so buckle up and let the ride begin. Article published on VentureBeat.

Economic theory is known to be constrained by a number of inefficiencies in its modeling. Salesforce researchers claim AI can help address that, leading to more robust economic policies. Article published on ZDNet

As Ben Lorica will readily admit, at the risk of dating himself, he belongs to the first generation of data scientists. In addition to having served as Chief Data Scientist for the likes of Databricks and O'Reilly, Lorica advises and works with a number of venture capitals, startups and enterprises, conducts surveys, and chairs some of the top data and AI events in the world. That gives him a unique vantage point to identify developments in this space. Having worked in academia teaching applied mathematics and statistics for years, at some point Lorica realized that he wanted his work to have more practical implications. At that point the term "data science" was not yet coined, and Lorica's exit strategy was to become a quant. Fast forwarding to today, Lorica still has friends in the venture capital world. That includes Intel Capital's Assaf Araki, with whom Lorica co-authored two recent posts on data management and AI trends. We caught up with Lorica to discuss those, as well as new areas for growth and the trouble with unicorns and what to do about it.

What's a good enough weather prediction? That's a question most people probably don't give much thought to, as the answer seems obvious -- an accurate one. But then again, most people are not CTOs at DTN. Lars Ewe is, and his answer may be different than most people's. With 180 meteorologists on staff providing weather predictions worldwide, DTN​ is the largest weather company you've probably never heard of. Weather forecast, too, is all about data and models these days. But balancing accuracy and viability is a fine act, especially at global scale and when the stakes are high. Article published on ZDNet

Everything counts in large amounts. You don't have to be Google, or to build large AI models, to benefit from writing efficient code. But how do you measure that? It's complicated, but that does not mean that people are not trying. That's what Abhishek Gupta and the Green Software Foundation (GSF) are relentlessly working on. Article published on VentureBeat

What does sustainability actually mean for organizations? Can it be measured, and if yes, how? Obvious questions with less than obvious answers, even for sustainability and ESG professionals like James Phare. Phare shares his experience and assessment of sustainability and its relationship with the ESG space, its current state and trajectory, and how data and analytics can help.

Award-winning AI research - check. Startup and enterprise experience - check. Venture capital and Mark Benioff backing - check. Is that enough for Richard Socher's you.com to take on Google? Here is why and how he aims to do that. Article published on ZDNet

Decision intelligence is one of those terms that sound vaguely familiar, even if you've never come across it before. Like many category-defining terms, it can mean different things to different people. This is a feature category-defining terms either have by design, or acquire through extensive use. In October 2021, Gartner identified DI as a 2022 Top Trend. A number of vendors have identified with that category, and Aera Technology is among them, claiming to have been doing DI before it was called DI. Today, Aera is announcing new capabilities for its Aera Decision Cloud at the Gartner Supply Chain Symposium/Xpo™ 2022. Aera founder and CTO Shariq Mansoor weighed in on DI, Aera's offering, and how it is relevant for supply chains and beyond. Article published on VentureBeat