Home World's Top 25 Artificial Intelligence Companies

World’s Top 25 Artificial Intelligence Companies

These artificial intelligence companies at the forefront of cutting edge AI technologies.

Over the last few years, artificial intelligence and the technology surrounding it has developed at an incredible rate. With the increased interest in artificial intelligence comes an increase in the number of artificial intelligence companies, these range from large multinationals to small, single problem-focused artificial intelligence companies and start-ups.

For example, the New York Times reported that in 2018 there were 45 artificial intelligence companies focused solely on developing chip technology.

Many of these smaller artificial intelligence companies and start-ups are either being bought out or financially supported by larger, more established technology companies who are interested in harnessing the expertise and abilities of these smaller operations.

As the interest in artificial intelligence grows the science behind it is developing and spreading into pretty much every aspect of everyday life.

Today artificial intelligence can be found in everything from intelligent apps on our smart devices to virtual assistants like Amazon’s Alexa and Apple’s self-driving cars.

While many see the work done by artificial intelligence companies as serving to enhance our understanding of the human experience some people are wary of what the rise of the robot may bring.

The following 25 artificial intelligence companies are leading the way in furthering our understanding of the possibilities of artificial intelligence and the role it can play in all aspects of our daily lives.

DeepMind

DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis
DeepMind Founder Demis Hassabis

DeepMind is a world leader in artificial intelligence research. Owned by Alphabet Inc, parent company of Google, this London based company has, in the last few years, begun a number of potentially significant research projects in the field of healthcare. One such project has seen the company teaming up with Moorfield Eye Hospital.

This collaboration gives DeepMind access to a range of eye examination results and patient records. It aims to develop an artificial intelligence application that can easily identify eye disease.

DeepMind is also a pioneer in the field of machine learning. In 2017 it’s AlphaGo program defeated world number 1 Ke Jie in a game of Go the popular strategy game.

Building on this success DeepMind’s AlphaZero program has used similar reinforcement learning techniques to become proficient at both chess and shogi.

Further, in the field of machine learning, DeepMind has also worked with Google to develop Android’s Adaptive Brightness and Adaptive Battery features.

READ MORE – DeepMind: Behind the Scenes at a Trailblazing AI Startup

READ MORE – Essential Enterprise AI Companies Landscape

Baidu AI Research
Baidu AI Research

Baidu

Chinese multinational Baidu is pioneering research and development in the field of autonomous driving.

It’s Apollo Project has seen the company collaborating with over a hundred global partners including many of the motor industries biggest players such as BMW, Daimler AG and Honda.

The end goal is to develop a fully functional, open, autonomous driving platform. With it’s self driving cars already on Chinese roads Baidu is now turning its attentions to markets outside China.

Many in the industry are now tipping the company to “out Google Google” in the race to create safe, self-driving vehicles.

The company has an AI voice assistant program called DuerOS that has a significantly higher number of conversation based skill sets when compared to Alexa, Cortana, or Siri. DuerOS-powered smart screen known as the Little Fish VS1, which has the unique ability to identify and respond to specific faces.

Nvidia AI Company
Nvidia Deep Learning & AI

Nvidia

Many people know this Californian based company for its GPUs and SoCs that are present in many computers and mobile devices. However, Nvidia is also a major player in the world of artificial intelligence.

The company’s GPUs are designed for parallel computing which makes them ideal for use in the fields of deep learning, accelerated analytics and artificial intelligence. As a result Nvidia’s GPUs are used in all Tesla vehicles.

In May 2018 Nvidia announced a significant step forward in robot autonomy. Nvidia’s artificial intelligence research department had successfully created a system that will eventually lead to robots being able to learn how to complete a task by observing a human.

Nvidia is one of the many artificial intelligence companies investing heavily in AI chips, others include traditional chip competitors like Intel, ARM but also Chinese giants Alibaba, Huawei, secretive startups like Groq, Graphcore and electric car maker Tesla

CloudWalk Technology facial recognition software
CloudWalk Technology facial recognition software

CloudWalk

CloudWalk Technology Co. Ltd is an artificial intelligence focused technology company based in Guangzhou, China.

It is one of many artificial intelligence companies that are focused on cybersecurity. Despite being a relative newcomer to the scene the company is already making major waves in the field of facial recognition software.

While the company has yet to make a significant impact in the western world CloudWalk Technology’s facial recognition software is already used by Haitong Securities and the Bank of China.

In 2018 the company agreed on a major deal with the government of Zimbabwe. This will see CloudWalk creating a national facial recognition ID database as well as providing technology to monitor all of the country’s major transport hubs.

MORE – Computer Vision Applications in 10 Industries

Sensetime AI Facial Recognition Software

SenseTime

Another Chinese company that specialises in artificial intelligence and facial recognition SenseTime has a significant presence in Japan, China and Hong Kong.

This makes it possibly the biggest and most valuable artificial intelligence start-up. SenseTime is a major player in the provision of identity verification systems as well as mobile image processing solutions and augmented reality platforms.

Since 2016 it’s facial recognition systems have been a significant part of the mass surveillance program that is operated by the Chinese government.

Read More: The World’s 10 Largest Artificial Intelligence Startups

Google AI
Google AI

Google

Over the last few years, Google has become increasingly involved in the world of artificial intelligence. This has seen the firm either buy up or enter partnerships with a number of smaller companies or start-ups.

Interestingly instead of aiming to launch a new product the majority of Google’s research and development efforts in artificial intelligence are concerned with improving it’s already existing products and services.

MORE – Will Google AI Ever Rule the World?

Like Facebook, Google has been acquiring artificial intelligence companies including Onward AI chatbot startup.

This has led to Google beginning a project that aims to develop its own Tensor AI chip as well as a complimentary open source software project, TensorFlow. Additionally Google’s collaboration with it’s subsidiary DeepMind has made use of developments in machine learning as well as artificial intelligence.

This collaboration resulted in the development of Adaptive Brightness and Adaptive Battery. Both of these features are used on Google’s Android platforms.

Facebook Artificial intelligence Research, or FAIR
Facebook Artificial intelligence Research, or FAIR

Facebook

Largely known as a social media site Facebook is also a major player in the world of artificial intelligence. Facebook Artificial intelligence Research, or FAIR for short, has 4 research labs in locations around the world.

These labs are dedicated to developing systems with human level intelligence. Facebook’s research is wide ranging, covering everything relating to artificial intelligence including algorithms, software and hardware infrastructure and application development.

Facebook has also bought a number of artificial intelligence related smaller companies and start-ups.

These companies are identified for their potential to help develop Facebook further, for example Ozlo was purchased with the specific intent of using the company’s work to help construct a more sophisticated virtual assistant for Facebook users.

Facebook unveiled its deep learning framework PyTorch 1.0. The framework is composed of a series of integrations and tools for making it increasingly compatible with popular services such as Microsoft’s Azure Machine Learning, Amazon Web ServicesGoogle Cloud.

Darktrace AI Cyber Security
Darktrace AI Cyber Security

Darktrace

A global artificial intelligence company Darktrace is a lead player in the world of cyber defence. Since its establishment in 2013 Darktrace has established main offices in Cambridge, UK and San Francisco as well as over 30 other smaller offices all over the world.

The company is best known for the Darktrace Enterprise Immune System, which combines artificial intelligence algorithms with machine learning to build a unique “pattern of life” for every device, network and user.

It then uses correlation techniques to create an advanced understanding of “normal activity” meaning that any potential threats or unusual activity, however new or advanced it maybe can be quickly identified and stopped before too much damage is done.

Another Darktrace product, the Darktrace Cloud gives users real-time threat protection and is used by Amazon Web Services amongst others.

Meanwhile Darktrace Industrial, the latest development by the company, is dedicated to fighting industrial and SCADA network threats.

Cambricon AI Chips
Cambricon AI Chips

Cambricon

Established in 2016 Chinese firm Cambricon designs core processor chips that are used in a range of fields that seek to make to most of artificial intelligence. From intelligent cloud servers to autonomous robots you will find advanced technology that is powered by Cambricon smart chips.

The Cambricon-1A, which was launched in 2016, is the world’s first commercial deep learning processor and can be found in a variety of smart phones, wearable devices, intelligent driving and as well as in many other areas of artificial intelligence.

Launched in 2018, the Cambricon 1M chip to be used for edge computing which the first in cloud computing. It produces the chips with TSMC 7nm technology which ensures that it’s highly efficient.

Cambricon’s performance/power ratio means that its chips can outperform many other CPUs and GPUs.

Some of the companies that have invested in Cambricon include the Capital venture, Lenovo Capital, Alibaba VC, CITIC securities, and SDIC Venture.

IBM Watson AI Platform
IBM Watson AI Platform

IBM

Since the 1950s IBM has been a world leader in the world of artificial intelligence. Today the company’s efforts in this field are focused largely on the IBM Watson program.

IBM Watson has allowed the company to harness the latest innovations in machine learning to create a question answering system that is capable of answering questions posed in a simple language.

IBM is currently working on developing Watson for use in a variety of fields such as healthcare where, it is hoped, the program can be used to aid clinical decision support systems.

MORE – IBM Watson: What you Need to Know

OpenAI Five, defeated human teams at Dota 2
OpenAI Five, defeated human teams at Dota 2

OpenAI

An open source, not for profit, research company OpenAI co-founded by Tesla founder Elon Musk aims to develop and promote artificial intelligence so that it can benefit the whole of humanity.

By making its research and patents freely available OpenAI tries to promote collaboration with researchers and institutions.

Open AI has been behind a number of products including Debate Game. Launched in 2018 Debate Game is intended to research whether machines debating a problem in front of a human judge can help in developing explainable artificial intelligence.

Open AI’s team of five neural networks, OpenAI Five, defeated human teams at Dota 2. The performance impressed Bill Gates and he tweeted “AI bots just beat humans at the video game Dota 2. That’s a big deal because the victory required teamwork and collaboration – a huge milestone in advancing artificial intelligence”.

Meanwhile, Dactyl, another OpenAI development, aims to use algorithms to create a robot hand with the same dexterity and skill as its human equivalent.

Zhang Yiming Founder of ByteDance Toutiao
Zhang Yiming Founder of ByteDance Toutiao

ByteDance

One of many Chinese artificial intelligence companies, ByteDance is focused primarily on developing machine learning enabled content platforms. While it is yet to make a significant impact outside China, ByteDance is still a major player in the world of artificial intelligence.

Bytedance has a number of content platforms that make use of machine learning. One of these is Toutiao which is able to deliver sophisticated content recommendations to users based on their previous habits and interests.

Toutiao works by analysing the content a user consumes as well as how they interact with it. This data is analysed by a number of algorithms, which then generates a stream of content suggestions, videos, GIFs, articles and breaking news stories for the user to digest.

While Toutiao is used almost exclusively by people in China ByteDance has also launched an international equivalent, TopBuzz.

CrowdStrike Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity
CrowdStrike Artificial Intelligence Cybersecurity

CrowdStrike

A leading light in the world of cybersecurity CrowdStrike uses artificial intelligence to deliver sophisticated endpoint protection.

The company’s CrowdStrike Falcon platform has led the way in creating cloud delivered endpoint protection. It’s designed to detect all cyber-attack attempts using complex artificial intelligence and indicator of attack (IOA)

CrowdStrike Falcon has unified next-generation antivirus delivery and IT hygiene with endpoint protection and response and threat hunting and detection in order to create a smooth and secure platform that works regardless of whether the user is on or off line.

This technology has enabled the company to reveal the identity of a number of high profile and state sponsored hackers.

From its base in Sunnyvale, California the company’s expertise has been used in a number of high profile cyber attack cases. These include the 2016 Democratic National Committee email leak by the Fancy Bears group and the Sony Pictures hack.

In 2018, the company introduced an automated threat analysis solution called CrowdStrike Falcon X platform. Its endpoint protection through the combination of malware sandboxing, threat intelligence, and malware search which offers a combination of customized indicators of compromise that will help institutions to advance their security systems

Zebra Medical Vision
Zebra Medical Vision

Zebra Medical Vision

Based in Israel Zebra Medical Vision is a medical imaging insights platform. Zebra Medical Vision is leading the way for artificial intelligence companies utilising deep learning techniques to enhance the field of radiology.

The startup company has received funding from numerous institutions with the latest Series C raising approximately $30 million. Investors include Johnson and Johnson, Khosla Ventures, aMoon Ventures, and Dolby Ventures partnered with the company.

It is hoped that this work will lead to artificial intelligence being better able to accurately predict and diagnose a number of diseases, eventually replacing trained humans in this task.

Zebra Medical Vision’s open clinical research platform allows researchers from around the world access to millions of indexed clinical records. The aim of this is to, hopefully, accelerate scientific discovery, encourage collaboration and shorten development cycles.

Similarly their ever-evolving Analytics Platform delivering automated algorithms and clinical insight decision support to numerous healthcare providers. Zebra Medical Vision hopes that these two platforms will improve medical practice and patient care.

In 2017 the company uploaded its algorithms to the Google cloud to not only help it scale but to allow users the opportunity to have a medical scan for just $1.

Babylon AI Health App
Babylon AI Health App

Babylon

London based subscription healthcare provider Babylon is currently best known for its healthcare app.

This smart innovation allows users to communicate securely with a qualified GP, consultant or specialist via text or video screen from their mobile phone or smart device.

Following the success of their app Babylon is now looking to artificial intelligence to pre-screen users health conditions. It is hoped that eventually, the artificial intelligence will be sophisticated enough to triage waiting patients and ensure that urgent cases are dealt with as quickly as possible.

Babylon’s AI system is designed to uniquely understand the presentation of symptoms among the patients thus making it relatively easy for an accurate diagnosis to occur at home. Once the AI detects the symptoms, it integrates the medical history of the patient thus providing a reliable and error-free diagnosis.

Recently Babylon claims it’s AI chatbot can diagnose medical conditions as accurately as a Doctor sparking a row with UK doctors.

Babylon’s eventual aim is to make healthcare affordable and accessible to everyone.

Intel AI Initiatives
Intel AI Initiatives

Intel

Technology grandees Intel are proving that longevity is no barrier to innovation. By acquiring a number of smaller artificial intelligence companies and start-ups Intel is hoping to maintain it’s position as a big name in the technology world. One company acquired by Intel is Nervana, a deep learning processor.

The acquisition of this company signalled Intel’s intention to remain at the forefront of artificial intelligence chip development.

Intel’s goal of remaining at the forefront of innovation was furthered by their acquisition of another company, Movidius.

The Intel Movidius Neural Compute Stick is a small, fanless, low powered, deep learning device that allows the user to learn artificial intelligence programming.

Like Microsoft, Intel has also invested in a number of small artificial intelligence companies and start-ups. Through its Arria FPGA processors, Intel also provides artificial intelligence acceleration for Microsoft’s search engine, Bing.

FlatIron Screenshot
Flatiron Health Screenshot

Flatiron Health

Flatiron Health is one of many artificial intelligence companies that focuses its efforts on using artificial intelligence and deep learning to improve healthcare provision and diagnosis.

It largely aims to do this by connecting researchers, regulators, academics, hospitals and community practitioners on one shared technology platform.

The company’s Flatiron Platform is an artificial intelligence-based data platform that uses algorithms to integrate and structure disparate information to produce a clear patient overview.

The Flatiron platform also provides analytics for business intelligence, treatment platforms and clinical trials.

Flatiron Health has also developed OncoCloud. This is a suite of software and services which again makes use of artificial intelligence and machine learning to support cancer care providers.

Not only does OncoCloud aim to improve patient care and treatment but it also offers a means of easily managing clinical trials and finances and an integrated practice management system.

The company has a rich database of approximately two million patients which helps the researchers to develop technological solutions based on real-life experiences of patients.

It has received approximately $328 million in funding with around 450 employees. Investors including Google Ventures, Baillie Gifford, Casdin Capital, and Allen & company.

In 2018, Roche acquired Flatiron Health for $1.9 billion. Prior to the acquisition program, Roche had a stake of approximately 12% until it gained complete control of the business this year.

Affirm Screenshot
Affirm Screenshot

Affirm

Despite being a young company California based financial technology services firm Affirm is already making waves in the financial sector.

Affirm aims to improve the financial services and banking industry with the use of artificial intelligence. Affirm’s downloadable app allows people to purchase items or take out loans quickly and easily.

Affirm does this by using artificial intelligence to conduct a “soft credit check” which quickly assess the user’s ability to pay.

The repayments are then tailored to be both transparent and manageable, spread across a number of months. Affirm intends to provide an accessible service that is cheaper than most credit cards.

Upstart
Upstart

Upstart

Similar to Affirm, Upstart is a lending platform that aims to use artificial intelligence and machine learning to automate the borrowing process.

Using complex algorithms Upstart’s artificial intelligence based underwriting model is able to identify high-quality borrowers despite only being told limited information concerning the applicant’s credit and employment history.

Instead Upstart analyses a wide range of variables such as work experience and school’s the applicant attended.

Founded by ex-Google employees Upstart also provides artificial intelligence led technology to a number of banks, credit unions and other interested parties via the Powered by Upstart service.

This is a customisable platform that allows lenders to leverage Upstart’s online application flow and smart underwriting engine and verification process to offer unsecured personal loans to their own customers.

Powered by Upstart makes launching and running a machine learning based automated lending program both quick and easy to do.

Since its inception, it has received funding totalling approximately $85M. Some of the investors in the company include Mark Cuban, Khosla Ventures, Google Ventures, and Peter Thiel.

Element AI Team
Element AI Team

Element AI

Element AI offers a range of products and platforms that are intended to help organisations make the most of artificial intelligence. Despite being yet to launch a product Element AI is still considered one of the most important start-ups in the world today.

Element AI raised an impressive $137.5 million in its Series A funding drive which is the most phenomenal performance for any artificial intelligence company. This funding provides the company with an excellent opportunity to invest in more impactful projects globally.

The company was co-founded by Jean Francois Gagne and Nicolas Chapados. It aims to introduce academic artificial intelligence research to organizations all over the world thus revolutionizing the learning experience.

Already, Element AI has developed an academic artificial intelligence innovation centre in the Montreal Institute of Learning Algorithms (Mila) Mila is world-renowned for many breakthroughs in artificial intelligence including neural language modelling, neural machine translation, object recognition, structured output generative modelling and neural speech recognition.

CloudMind AI
CloudMind AI

CloudMinds

Chinese operation CloudMinds is leading the way for artificial intelligence companies wanting to develop cloud based systems, platforms and services that can enhance robotic intelligence.

The greater the intelligence of robots the easier it will be for them to learn from and connect with the wider world.

CloudMinds is different from other artificial intelligence companies in that instead of treating humans and robots as separate identities they seek to combine the two. This has allowed CloudMinds to make many interesting developments.

CloudMinds has developed a number of artificial intelligence products that have been used to solve complex problems in the health care, finance and manufacturing industries.

The company has also developed a number of products for use in the wider world such as the blind guiding robot.

Similarly the CloudMinds Meta project has produced a helmet shaped device that can be worn by the visually impaired, allowing facial and object recognition as well as simple orientation and hazard avoidance.

DataRobot - automated machine learning platform
DataRobot – automated machine learning platform

DataRobot

Artificial intelligence company DataRobot aims to create the world’s most advanced automated machine learning platform.

By utilising the knowledge, experience and best practices of many of the world’s leading data scientists DataRobot is able to deliver high-quality levels of automation.

It has also created an easy to use platform that is employed by a number of machine learning initiatives. DataRobot’s platform allows users to easily build incredibly accurate machine learning models far quicker than traditional data science methods would allow.

Anki AI Robot
Anki AI Robot

Anki

The San Francisco based robotics and artificial intelligence start-up Anki aims to place robotic technology in children’s products.

It’s most well known product, Anki Drive was released in 2013. Anki Drive, Overdrive as it is known in some markets, is a racing game that combines an iOS app with physical racing cars and a specially constructed track.

The Anki Drive racing cars are made specifically for the game and are equipped with artificial intelligence software as well as optical sensors, wireless chips and motors.

Anki aims to not only create popular products but also physical objects that are both intelligent and able to adapt to the physical world.

In doing this Anki hopes to solve the age-old problems of positioning, reasoning and execution in robots and artificial intelligence. To this end Anki’s Cozmo robot has been described as one of the most sophisticated available to the general public. This is largely because of its ability to respond emotionally to various situation.

Anki announced on 30th April that it’s set to shut its doors after failing to raise enough money to continue running it’s daily operations.

Anki said: “A significant financial deal at a late stage fell through with a strategic investor and we were not able to reach an agreement.

Zymergen
Zymergen

Zymergen

Zymergen is leading the way for a number of artificial intelligence companies that focuses their efforts on integrating automation, genomics and machine learning.

By doing so Zymergen intends to greatly increase the pace of scientific understanding.

It has been able to combine a genetic library that is over two terabases in size with an intelligent and flexible core platform. This allows users to access new chemical building blocks and create unique material properties.

Zymergen has benefited greatly by taking a theoretical approach to machine learning and scientific research. This allows the Zymergen platform to nimbly navigate through the genomic search space allowing artificial intelligence to make discoveries that are far beyond human capabilities.

UBTECH AI Robot
UBTECH AI Robot

UBTECH

Since it’s establishment in 2012 UBTECH has been a global leader amongst artificial intelligence companies in the quest to integrate robots and robotic capabilities into everyday life.

Amongst its range of humanoid robots is Alpha 1 Pro. This is a humanoid robot that can be used for both entertainment and educational purposes.

UBTECH’s Lynx robot is a home robot that is in many ways similar to the Alpha 1 Pro however the Lynx is integrated with Amazon’s popular Alexa feature. This means that the Lynx can be controlled simply via interaction with Alexa.

Another UBTECH innovation is the Jimu Robot. Unlike UBTECHs other ready made robots the Jimu is an interactive toy that allows children to not only build their own robot but also learn how to program it. The Jimu Robot, like other UBTECH products, are an important step towards making robots an everyday part of normal life.

This list of leading artificial intelligence companies will develop almost as quickly as the technology itself.

This constant change only goes to underline just how vibrant and fast moving artificial intelligence and the world around it is.

Please let us know of any important artificial intelligence companies that you think we may have missed or should be included.

We encourage you to contact us with any suggestions for new AI companies.

Images: Companies Flickr Unsplash Pixabay Wiki & Others

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KC Cheung
KC Cheung has over 18 years experience in the technology industry including media, payments, and software and has a keen interest in artificial intelligence, machine learning, deep learning, neural networks and its applications in business. Over the years he has worked with some of the leading technology companies, building and growing dynamic teams in a fast moving international environment.
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