Source: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2...

Behind much of the proliferation of AI startups are large companies such as Google, Microsoft Corp., and Amazon, which have quietly built up AI capabilities over the past decade to handle enormous sets of data and make predictions, like which ad someone is more likely to click on. Starting in the mid-2000s, the companies resurrected AI techniques developed in the 1980s, paired them with powerful computers and started making money.

Their efforts have resulted in products like Apple’s chirpy assistant Siri and Google’s self-driving cars. It has also spurred deal-making, with Facebook acquiring voice-recognition AI startup Wit.ai last month and Google buying DeepMind Technologies Ltd. in January 2014.

For Google, “the biggest thing will be artificial intelligence,” Chairman Eric Schmidt said last year in an interview with Bloomberg Television’s Emily Chang.

The companies have hired AI academics and engineers, some of whom are now spawning their own startups. Apart from Scaled Inference, former Googlers also founded AI company Moloco Inc. and Petametrics Inc.’s LiftIgniter. Amazon, Microsoft and Google engineers are also in key roles at startups including Sentient Technologies Holdings Ltd., SignalSense Inc. and Clarifai.