AI development company Brain Technologies emerges from stealth with the announcement of its revolutionary app "Natural," and with it, secures $50M in funding.
Describing itself as an artificial intelligence (AI) company that intends to humanize technology, the new "Natural" app - now available on the Apple App Store for iOS devices - is the first interface enabling application that supposedly syncs with the user's intention.
Furthermore, its latest funding round has raised over $50M from a variety of investors, including business leaders Laurene Powell Jobs, Scott Cook, and venture capital firm WTT Investment. The recent funding round will help boost Brain Technologies as it pursues market growth and makes advancements in terms of research and development.
According to TechCrunch, tech and startup portal, the current $50M stacks on top of a previous funding round in 2016, securing $1.5M from an unnamed investor when the company was still in its stealth mode.
Before Google, information lived passively behind catalogs of keywords. We had to know which website to access for the information we needed, or scroll through pages of keywords on Yahoo," said Brain Technologies founder and CEO Jerry Yue.
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Natural: Simply Get Anything
Natural has been described as a "generative computer interface," aiming to set it apart from personal assistant apps like Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana, or Google Assistant. With the new Brain Technologies app, users no longer need to go to different apps; the apps now respond to their needs with simple commands. Users only need to say what they want and the right app should form itself around the commands interpreted by its natural language processing algorithm.
For example, instead of looking across different food delivery apps to find something that suits the user's preference, they can simply say "Order Pasta" or "Order Sushi." All restaurants that could cater to you will present their offers through the platforms available to you. Additionally, Natural sorts these search results depending on delivery times or price, depending on the preferences of the user. On iOS devices, where the app is currently available, one-tap payment options are possible with Apple Pay.
Another instance showcasing the new app's power is in streamlining travel plans. Previously, users had to browse between different apps or websites in order to find the best offers in terms of convenience, price, and availability. They also had to navigate between varying interfaces and forms from these different platforms. With Natural, setting a vacation is as easy as saying "Book me a flight to Maui next Saturday for five people."
Changing How Humans Interact with Technology
Brain Technologies currently focuses on commercial applications, which demonstrates the company's vision for the vision of human-centric software technologies. Natural, it aims to showcase how it can revolutionize everyday tasks such as buying groceries, having food delivered, shopping on retails, and booking trips.
What Jerry and his team are developing is incredibly special. I'm not aware of anyone doing more interesting work to demonstrate how fundamentally AI can enhance our everyday lives," says Scott Cook, investor, and co-founder of Intuit, now a leader in the financial software development market.
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