This is TalentSeer’s AI News Roundup for the second half of June 2020. You can find the most relevant and recent news about AI talent, aimed specifically at tech leaders, VCs, and members of the AI field. Subscribe here to receive these roundups twice a month via email.
More C-Suite Executives Are Now Leading Corporate AI Projects
C-suite executives are placing increasing importance on artificial intelligence. Appen’s recent survey reported 71% of companies’ AI projects were being led by CEOs, CFOs, CTOs, etc., up from 39% the previous year. AI impacts the entire business and requires cross-team collaboration from finance, data, and engineering departments which top executives have the ability to put together. However, the C-suite tends to value data quality and information management techniques less than their technologists who view them as vital to algorithm accuracy. [Read More]
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Ex-LinkedIn VP and Distinguished Engineer Swee Lim Joins Databricks
Swee Lim, formerly VP at LinkedIn, joins Databricks as its VP of Architecture and will report to CEO Ali Ghodsi. Databricks began in the University of Berkeley as an open-source developer team and has since then evolved into a platform for data analytics on a massive scale for enterprises. Lim brings Architect experience from his time at Yahoo and will lead Databrick’s technology initiatives which include data management, analytics, machine learning, and the company’s own Apache Spark data processing service. Click here to see Databrick’s Spark and AI Summit 2020.
UK Media Intelligence Platform Signal AI Hires Former UN-IPCC Comm Strategist Georgie Weedon
UK-based tech firm Signal AI welcomed Georgie Weedon as its new head of communications and she will report to VP of marketing Emily Westgate. Signal AI develops artificial intelligence that tracks competitive, regulatory, reputational, and supply chain changes in real-time to help organizations’ strategic decision making. Formerly a communications strategist for the UN-IPCC, Weedon brings significant communications and journalism skills as well as industry experience to help expedite Signal AI’s expansion into new markets. [Read More]
Ex-Google SVP, Sridhar Ramaswamy Founds Search Engine Startup Neeva
Dissatisfied with Google’s user security and ad-supported model, former SVP of Ads & Commerce Sridhar Ramaswamy left and founded Neeva, a subscription-based search engine startup that displays no ads and protects user data. Neeva intends to challenge the tech giant that controls 90% of today’s searches with a different business model that removes the advertiser-user conflict of interests. Ramaswamy believes that businesses that rely on majority ad revenue compromise the user experience too much. [Read More]
Tech Industry Criticizes Trump Freezing H-1B Visas by Executive Order
Trump’s Executive Order suspending H-1B visas and thus prohibiting 525,000 immigrant workers from entering the US this year has been met with fiery feedback by tech’s biggest voices. Executives from Amazon, Google, and Youtube among others warn that this will hurt the nation’s supply of skilled foreign workers, a third of which would’ve gone into the tech industry. On Twitter, former H-1B holders and now top AI leaders Yann LeCun and Andrew Ng voiced their concerns about the impact on technology and science innovation. [Read More]
2020 State of AI Report Publishes Global Talent Trends during COVID-19, Jeremiah Brazeau Hired by Twilio as CTO, Mark Cusack Appointed as CTO for Yellowbrick, Former Airbnb Talent Leader Sunita Solao Joins Convoy as VP of People, and more.
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Amazon VP Sukumar Rathnam to be CTO for Uber, Brain Corp Hires Ex-VP of Uber ATG Jon Thomason as CTO, Maria Karaivanova Appointed as Co-Founder at WhyLabs, Ex-Head of WeWork Labs Elizabeth Scallon Joins Alexa Fund, TensorIoT Hires AI Veteran John Traynor as VP, Mohammed Farooq Becomes CTO for Hypergiant Industries.
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Ex-Uber Chief Scientist, Zoubin Ghahramani, Joins Google Brain; AWS Promotes Sales Leaders Teresa Carlson and Greg Pearson; Elissa Fink Joins Qumulo’s Board of Directors; Jim Larimore to Join Riiid Labs as Chief Officer for Equity in Learning; Oxford University to have a New Institute for AI Research.
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