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Medical Startup Delivers Digital Twins; Automated Voiceovers Flip the Script
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Welcome back. Investors continue to flock to artificial intelligence startups, lifting many nascent software developers to billion-dollar valuations and into the ranks of tech unicorns. They are especially attracted by ventures building out AI capabilities geared to hospitals, medical research centers and other corners of the healthcare sector.
Take Twin Health Inc., which creates digital twins of a patients’ metabolisms to run health scenarios that can pinpoint the most effective treatments. The Mountain View, Calif., startup recently announced a new funding round netting $140 million from a group of high-profile investors.
Part of the attraction is that its technology appears to work. In a recent clinical study, 19 out of 33 Type 2 diabetes patients using Twin's sytem, or rouhgly 57%, lowered their blood-sugar levels to a prediabetes range of 5.7% to 6.4%. Another 13 patients lowered it below 5.7%, which is considered normal.
It's no wonder that information-technology research firm Gartner Inc. expects digital-twin technology to take off in the healthcare market—or that investors see a potential goldmine.
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Twin Health Chief Executive Jahangir Mohammed.
PHOTO: TWIN HEALTH
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Digital-Twin Startup Draws Investors
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Twin Health Inc., a Mountain View, Calif.-based startup that seeks to apply AI and digital-twin technology in efforts to treat metabolic diseases, such as Type 2 diabetes, recently raised $140 million in a funding round led by Iconiq Growth, Sequoia Capital India and Perceptive Advisors, WSJ Pro Venture Capital reports.
What it does. Using sensors and other data sources, Twin Health creates a digital twin of a patient’s metabolism, which it uses to generate personalized recommendations in areas such as nutrition, sleep and activities through a Twin app.
Why it matters. Up to 95% of the more than 34 million Americans with diabetes have Type 2, which patients can manage through lifestyle changes, such as improving their diet and, when needed, medication.
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Digital Complaints Department
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Customer-service software startup SupportLogic Inc. said on Tuesday that it raised $50 million in new funding, as businesses increasingly look for technology tools that can help them respond to client requests and complaints, WSJ’s John McCormick reports.
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SupportLogic can analyze customer communication, score levels of dissatisfaction and route communications to an expert who can address the customer's concern.
PHOTO: SUPPORTLOGIC INC.
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What it does. SupportLogic's SX tool uses AI to track emails and other communications in customer-relationship management systems, identifying dissatisfied customers and creating internal alerts until their issues are resolved.
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Making up for Cut backs. Demand for customer-support tools is growing after many companies last year slashed sales and marketing budgets to focus on retaining existing customers during pandemic.
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25%
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The share of healthcare-delivery organizations worldwide that will deploy digital-twin technology by 2025, up from less than 10% currently, according to IT research and consulting firm Gartner Inc.
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ILLUSTRATION: TAYLOR CALLERY
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Artificial intelligence is being used to recreate actors' voices to dub their performances in foreign languages, or make them sound older or younger, WSJ’s Ellen Gamerman tells Tech News Briefing host Zoe Thomas.
No language barrier. Demand for AI-enabled dubbing is rising as more streaming services export American shows globally and foreign markets send their hits to the U.S.
Say what. Synthetic-voice technology is also being used to give aging actors more youthful voices, recreate audio from celebrities who have died, and tweak dialogue in postproduction without the need for actors.
Ethical issues. Some say the tools are blurring the lines between creating an engrossing screen experience and fabricating an effect meant to fool audiences.
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Passengers arrive at Taizicheng station of the Beijing-Zhangjiakou high-speed railway line in China's Hebei Province. China commenced operation of a fully autonomous “bullet” train on the line in January 2020.
PHOTO: LI XIN/XINHUA/ZUMA PRESS
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As the U.S. struggles with truck driver shortages and companies scratch their heads over how to meet their goals for slashing carbon emissions, trains could be a two century-old technology whose time has come again, The Wall Street Journal’s Christopher Mims writes.
Left the station. Trials of a German-Dutch autonomous freight train serving the port of Rotterdam began this month, while France’s national rail company is currently testing a train that could begin carrying passengers as early as 2023, and an autonomous freight train system built by New York Air Brake was tested in the Colorado desert in 2019.
Tres grande vitesse. “We think that trains are going to reach full autonomy faster than vehicles,” says Maxim A. Dulebenets, an assistant professor of civil engineering at Florida A&M University.
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“When I’m sitting in the theater, I’m eating popcorn, I don’t think, ‘Wait a second, this is AI? They didn’t tell me, I should have known.’”
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— Deepdub Chief Revenue Officer Oz Krakowski.
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WSJ Pro AI Exclusive: Your Days Are Numbered
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The Vitality Healthy Futures Calculator, an AI-powered app developed by a team of University of California Los Angeles researchers, aims to predict an individual’s lifespan and future health risks, based on a global database of 264 causes of death, 328 illnesses and injuries, and 84 behavioral, environmental, occupational and metabolic risks, as well as a giant cache of life insurance data.
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How did they make it? The tool, developed in conjunction with insurance firm Discovery Groups Ltd.’s online Vitality behavioral change platform, and research firm RAND Europe, allows users to plug in their own health and behavioral information to see how long their health will hold out before they die.
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How did they test it? Normally, a cohort analysis would be used to empirically validate projections, which wasn’t possible “regarding one’s mortality over the short term,” a spokesperson said. Instead, researchers dug into past data from Discovery insurance holders, showing a “high degree of precision in predictions across genders and age groups,” the spokesperson said.
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What can it teach us? “The disconnection that we experience between our current and future selves leads to suboptimal decision-making in the fields of finance and health,” said Hal Hershfield, the project’s lead researcher who teaches marketing and behavioral decision making at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management: “This information can serve as a useful springboard for making healthier lifestyle choices."
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The drive-through line at Wendy’s in Pinole, Calif. A new deal with Google Cloud will give Wendy’s access to data and artificial intelligence to build voice-recognition software, computer-vision systems, mapping apps and other digital tools.
PHOTO: DAVID PAUL MORRIS/BLOOMBERG NEWS
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Wendy’s announces Google Cloud deal. The fast-food giant on Tuesday said it has signed a new contract with Alphabet Inc.’s Google Cloud to access advanced software capabilities and develop voice recognition, computer vision systems, mapping apps and other digital tools. (The Wall Street Journal)
Employers tap tech freelancers. Increased demand for AI developers, cloud engineers and other IT workers in the aftermath of Covid-19 has a growing number of companies tapping freelancers and independent contractors. (The Wall Street Journal)
China auto sales drop over chip shortage. The China Passenger Car Association said Tuesday that sales of passenger cars in September fell 17% from a year earlier to 1.58 million vehicles, the worst decline since March last year, citing the impact of the global shortage of semiconductors. (The Wall Street Journal)
Bill calls for military AI metrics. Recently introduced Senate legislation would require the Defense Department to develop a set of objectives and benchmarks for the use of AI across its platforms, training and operations. (NextGov)
Former Pentagon tech chief: China wins AI. Nicolas Chaillan, the Pentagon's first chief software officer who resigned his post over the slow pace of tech modernization in the U.S., says lacklustre innovation and endless ethics debates has allowed China to pull ahead in the development of AI and other capabilities. (Reuters)
Self-driving shuttle partnership. ZF Friedrichshafen AG, a German automotive industry supplier, is investing in British autonomous vehicle software startup Oxbotica in a bid to develop driving systems for shuttle busses (Reuters)
Medical software hiring cools. The number of health-care companies hiring AI workers declined in August, dropping to 38.5% from 39.1% in July, but up from 36.1% a year ago. (Medical Device Network)
White House scientist proposes “bill of rights.” Eric Lander, the Biden administration’s chief science adviser, is calling for rules setting out public protections against emerging AI technology, including facial recognition and other biometric tools. (Associated Press)
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Emerson Electric Co. plans to merge two of its software businesses with Aspen Technology Inc. in a roughly $11 billion deal aimed at capturing growing demand for industrial technology. (The Wall Street Journal)
Amazon.com Inc. expects that some corporate employees will work remotely for the foreseeable future, as the tech behemoth once again changed its return-to-office plans. (The Wall Street Journal)
Netflix Inc. is teaming up with Walmart Inc. to create a digital storefront on the retailer’s website that will sell merchandise tied to hit shows such as “Stranger Things” and “Squid Game,” the companies said. (The Wall Street Journal)
DoorDash Inc. has started selling restaurant ads that appear atop the search results in its app, as companies in the largely money-losing food-delivery industry dive deeper into advertising to boost revenue. (The Wall Street Journal)
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