Clarifai is the latest Google competitor, but the artificial intelligence startup might have a bit more bite than the tech company is used to, considering the founding members are ex-Googlers with an arsenal of $10 million.
The kicker? It's funded by Google.
Clarifai's first bonafide consumer app, Forevery, launched on Dec. 9, and, like Google Photos, uses a series of algorithms to parse myriad databases — around 11,000 of them — to match images with the user's search term. Using customized tags, Forevery can organize photos automatically in order of what the user finds most important — even more abstract, conceptual themes like "emotions" and "ideas," as well as more concrete categories like people, places and things. Users can also send other users auto-created photo stories.
According to a company blog post, the animus of the app is "rediscovering memories, sharing beautiful content, and making photo discovery personal."
Co-founder and CEO Matthew Zeiler, along with CTO and chief engineer Keith Ito, are the ex-Google employees responsible for putting the app, which is currently only compatible with iOS, onto the market. Both startup executives worked at Google for roughly 10 years.
"This is much more in-depth and personalized than you get out of Google Photos," claimed Zeiler about his company's app.
Then again, a Google rivalry might be a tad manufactured — one of the startup's biggest investors was Google Ventures.
However, as Zeiler attests, Google's investment in Clarifai's app is one of many projects for the tech monopoly. For the makers of Forevery, "[i]t's our focus," asserted Zeiler.
Via: Re/code
