IBM has acquired AlchemyAPI, a startup that developed deep learning technology that can interpret data in conversations, text and photos, to bolster its Watson AI platform. The terms of the deal haven’t been disclosed.
The company says it will integrate AlchemyAPI’s technology into Watson to enhance the systems ability to quickly identify hierarchies and relationships in large data sets. It’s likely to feed into the Watson Analytics service which was opened everyone late last year.
The deal will also make a wider range of cognitive computing APIs available to IBM customers, including language analysis, visual recognition and data detection and extraction from images.
AlchemyAPI was founded in 2005 and is headquartered in Denver. Its platform has been used for tasks like taxonomy categorization, keyword extraction, sentiment analysis and web page cleaning, and is available in eight languages – English, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish and Swedish.
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The acquisition is the latest big investment in deep learning technology by IBM which sees it as a major source of future revenue. Still, my favourite use for Watson so far remains this cute dinosaur talking dinosaur.
➤ IBM Acquires AlchemyAPI, Enhancing Watson’s Deep Learning Capabilities [IBM]
Image credit: IBM
Read next: This Talking Dinosaur’s Brain Is Powered By IBM’s Watson
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