In recent reports, some dogs have been trained to literally sniff out individuals infected with COVID-19. Now, a tech company is using the power of artificial intelligence to do the same thing with an “artificial nose” handheld device.

In a recent test, BrainChip Inc. and NaNose Medical were able to successfully detect COVID-19 in exhaled breath in much the same way a breathalyzer detects alcohol.  Their COVID-19 testing results are reportedly fast and highly accurate.

BrainChip is a leading provider of ultra-low power high performance artificial intelligence technology. In a press release, the company wrote, “Using the NaNose Medical artificial nose, and Akida’s artificial brain, is a potential breakthrough in accurate, fast, inexpensive, widespread (COVID-19) testing with the potential to control outbreaks and reduce this disease’s death toll.”

This NaNose Medical technology is based on the artificial nose developed at the Technion Israel Institute of Technology, by Prof. Hossam Haick, and has the same sensitivity to minute quantities of Volatile Organic Compounds (VOCs) as a dog’s nose.

While it’s use as an instant or rapid COVID-19 test are new, the device has been used in tests to identify diseases including Parkinson’s, cancers, kidney failure, and multiple sclerosis for several years.

For the recent trials testing COVID-19, NaNose Medical collected samples from 130 patients and used that data to train its Akida neuromorphic processor. The system has now learned to recognize patterns of VOC biomarkers associated with an COVID-19 infection within seconds with a high level of accuracy.

According to a study in China, this type of breath sensor data is more accurate than current COVID-19 tests using the reverse transcription polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR).

Additionally, sensor testing like this reduces the risk to healthcare workers because the tests does not rely on saliva or mucus samples.

“Artificial intelligence in medicine and healthcare is an emerging field and one in which we are eager to contribute with our edge AI processing solution at the Edge, for the benefit of science and humanity,” said Louis DiNardo, BrainChip CEO.

Both Louis DiNardo, Brainchip CEO and Orit Marom Albeck, NaNose Medical CEO said: “Using the NaNose Medical artificial nose, and Akida’s artificial brain, is a potential breakthrough in accurate, fast, inexpensive, widespread testing with the potential to control outbreaks and reduce this disease’s death toll.”

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The new tech comes from Hologic, Inc. – an innovative medical tech company focused on improving women’s health through early detection and treatment of cancer.

Dubbed the Genius Digital Diagnostics System, it is a first-of-its-kind digital cytology platform. Using a new advanced AI algorithm to help analyze its digital imaging results, the system aids doctors in the identification of pre-cancerous lesions and cancer cells in women.

“Application of AI requires digital images that are of exceptional quality,” said Kevin Thornal, president, Diagnostic Solutions Division at Hologic.

“Our teams developed a breakthrough imaging technology that converts physical glass cytology slides into digital images with superior clarity. From this digitalization, advanced image analysis and improved standardization are now achievable.”

According to Hologic, the AI in the system is able to narrow down the field of thousands of cells in a Pap test slide to a handful of the most diagnostically relevant images.

This saves time for results analysis and will lead to earlier detection of anomalies. The end result is getting help to the patients sooner and with greater accuracy.

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The company issuing the warning is Asigra Inc. The organization is touted as a leader in backup and recovery software that delivers comprehensive backup repository cyber protection. They have been awarded Product of the Year Gold winner, three times, by TechTarget for their Enterprise Backup and Recovery Software.

Asigra is currently working to maintain operational continuity, and productive operations, for clients as it responds to these impending threats.

“The organization has observed continuing ransomware attacks across the country and around the world. Malicious actors have adjusted their ransomware tactics over time to include pressuring victims for payment by threatening to release stolen data if they refuse to pay.” stated the US Government’s Cybersecurity & Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

“Malicious actors increasingly use tactics such as deleting system backups, which make restoration and recovery more difficult or infeasible for impacted organizations.”

According to Asigra, most organizations are falling into a false sense of security – assuming that their backup data will be available after a ransomware attack. However, the company is warning that in many recent attacks, the backup data is targeted by the attackers.

Asigra is pointing to these 5 areas as the cyber security ransomware challenges which businesses must address in 2021 to remain in safe operations:

1.            Ransomware Attacks on Kubernetes Containers: The deployment of Kubernetes-based containers is growing rapidly as it allows software to run consistently between computing environments, making it highly portable, productive and ideal for digital transformation. Along with these advantages comes the generation of massive data volumes, making these new environments prime targets for new ransomware variants. Mitigating these attacks will require an industry-wide approach to ensuring the viability of these environments before, during and after such attacks.

2.            Cyber-targeting of SaaS-Based Applications: With the increase in distributed enterprise operations and remote work environments, there will be continued adoption of SaaS-based applications. Beyond the flexible use of these applications, they offer cost, time and scalability advantages in many cases. However, they also create a new data source that is vulnerable to ransomware and must be protected.

3.            AI-Driven Cyberattacks: Artificial intelligence and the technologies that enable it are becoming more advanced. The resulting new capabilities are allowing criminal organizations to conduct more complex and targeted attacks. To counter these more intelligent attacks, organizational defenses must also evolve.

4.            Ransomware Payments to Become Illegal: The US government has expressed intentions to align the payment of cyber ransoms with the support of terrorist organizations and will likely make these payments illegal. It is expected that other nations will enact such laws as well, especially to defend against possible nation-state sponsored actors. Without the ability to retrieve criminally encrypted data or recover properly, ransomware attacks will become business ending events.

5.            Managed Security Service Provider Registration with the Government: The US government will move to require MSPs/MSSPs that provide cybersecurity services to register their organizations with the government, adding more regulations as the ransomware trend continues to accelerate.

Ensuring that viable backup data is available and unharmed is essential to for a business to survive a ransomware attack.  

To make this happen, the organization’s backup infrastructure, including access to backup software controls, must be ensured.

“Organizations need to ready themselves to properly and quickly respond to ransomware attacks regardless of what has been attacked. One way to do this is to make backup data very difficult to hack,” said David Farajun, Chief Executive Officer, Asigra, Inc.

“Regardless of the imposing number of routes that ransomware will take in 2021, having a well-planned response plan to get your systems back up and running in the least amount of time will be critical to ensuring business viability.” Additional details about Asigra’s enhanced data protection suite is available on the company web site https://www.asigra.com.

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If you’re not sure how AI impacts your life, think about things like automatic fraud detection for your credit card, predictive maintenance for your vehicle or appliances, getting your packages to you sooner, driverless cars, smart home devices, and much more.

The list gets larger an becomes more integrated into our daily lives with every passing day.

Just days ago, Dataiku announced that it had received and investment of $100 million during its most recent round of funding.

The Company focuses on AI and machine learning to create Enterprise solutions for the large corporations that touch many parts of our lives.

Seven years since its inception, the company has over 300 customers including Schlumberger, GE Aviation, Sephora, Unilever, BNP Paribas, Premera Blue Cross, Kuka, and Santander.

Investing in this funding round was Tiger Global Management. Previous investors Battery Ventures, CapitalG, Dawn Capital, FirstMark Capital and ICONIQ also increased their stake in Dataiku.

“Our leadership in enterprise AI continues to attract world-class investors who understand that Dataiku’s solution and customer base are truly global and that we’re uniquely positioned to help businesses realize the untapped potential for AI to transform the enterprise,” said Florian Douetteau, co-founder and CEO of Dataiku.

“In a global business market rocked by the changes 2020 has brought, AI has proven to be a critical element of organizational success driving business growth in every major vertical market.”

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The FORBES “AI 50” list is devoted to private, U.S.-based companies demonstrating real business potential utilizing AI (machine learning, natural language processing, or computer vision) as a core part of this business model. This week AMP Robotics was added to that prestigious list.

AMP Robotics Corp. (“AMP”), has developed techniques using AI and robotics to help modernize recycling. The company is using AI to identify items which in turn direct robots to separate the items appropriately.

“Earlier this year, we notched a milestone of ‘one billion picks’ over 12 months that demonstrates the productivity, precision, and reliability of our AI application for the recycling industry. It’s an honor to be deemed one of the country’s most promising AI companies, and we’re just getting started,” said Matanya Horowitz, AMP founder and chief executive officer. “There’s growing appreciation for the role of recycling in the domestic supply chain, in terms of keeping resources flowing and products on shelves, and resultant momentum around supportive policy initiatives that are putting some real wind in the sail for the industry. We’re pleased to play a role in enabling better efficiency, safety, and transparency to help transform recycling.”

The system’s AI relies on computer vision, machine learning and an ever-expanding neural network of robots to perform its task. The system is far faster than work performed by hand and can operate 24 hours a day.

Among AMP’s backers are Sequoia Capital, Closed Loop Partners, Congruent Ventures, and Sidewalk Infrastructure Partners (“SIP”), an Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOGL) company.

“We consider AMP a category-defining business and believe its artificial intelligence and robotics technology are poised to solve many of the central challenges of recycling,” said Shaun Maguire, partner at Sequoia Capital and AMP board member. “The opportunity for modernization in the industry is robust as the demand for recycled materials continues to swell, from consumers and the growing circular economy.”

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