Figure Eight Inc.
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| File:Attached to figure-eight-dot-com.png | |
| Industry | Machine learning and Artificial intelligence |
|---|---|
| Founded | December 2007 |
| Founder | Lukas Biewald Chris Van Pelt |
| Headquarters | , United States |
| Owner | Lukas Biewald |
Number of employees | 50-149 |
| Website | www |
Figure Eight is a human-in-the-loop machine learning and artificial intelligence company based in San Francisco. The company has raised $58 million in venture capital.[1]
Figure Eight uses human intelligence to do simple tasks such as transcribing text or annotating images to train machine learning algorithms.[2] Figure Eight's software automates tasks for machine learning algorithms, which can be used to improve catalog search results, approve photos or support customers and the technology can be used in the development of self-driving cars, intelligent personal assistants and other technology that uses machine learning.[3]
Figure Eight is a Machine Learning Competency Partner in Amazon's AWS Machine Learning Partner Solutions program.[4] Figure Eight works with companies such as Autodesk, Google, Facebook, Twitter, Cisco Systems, GitHub, Mozilla, VMware,[3] eBay, Etsy, Toyota and American Express.[5]
History
![[icon]](/https/en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (May 2014) |
CrowdFlower was founded in 2007 by Lukas Biewald and Chris Van Pelt, as "Dolores Labs." CrowdFlower received $1,200,000 in seed funding in March 2009 from K9 Ventures, Quest Venture Partners, Gary Kremen, FF Angel, and former Uber CEO Travis Kalanick, among others.[6] In January 2010, CrowdFlower raised a $5,000,000 Series A that included Bessemer Venture Partners, Trinity Ventures, and Founders Fund.[7] In March 2011, CrowdFlower raised a $9,300,000 Series B followed by a $12,500,000 Series C in September 2014,[8] this time led by Canvas Venture Fund.[9] In October 2014 the company laid off half of its staff due to "growth problems in the platform."
On March 3rd, 2018, CrowdFlower announced that the company was going to be rebranded as Figure Eight.[10] The company also shifted its focus to machine learning as well as artificial intelligence.
Technology
CrowdFlower cleans up messy and incomplete data using an online workforce. Typical users of CrowdFlower are data scientists who use the software to create training data to build models and train machine learning algorithms.
Once data is uploaded, the system automatically allocates the work to contributors and tests them against known answers hidden within the task (what CrowdFlower refers to as a "job" [11]). The way in which contributors perform on these hidden test questions calibrates how much the system trusts them on an individual level. As long as contributors remain trusted they're allowed to continue working on a given job. If they become untrusted, they're removed from the job and all of their work is disregarded. Multiple contributor judgments are collected and an aggregate answer with an associated confidence score (agreement of the contributors weighted by the trust of each contributor) is provided as a result - effectively returning the "most trusted judgment," for a given unit of data.
- Researchers at the Harvard Tuberculosis Lab used it to identify drug-resistant TB cells.[12]
- After the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the company helped to route text messages to the proper aid workers, to get them translated, and to ensure that the people sending the texts had a chance of getting what they needed.[13]
- Similar relief efforts were handled after the 2010 Pakistan floods.[14]
- In 2009, the company worked with Samasource to provide work for refugees in Kenya who completed microtasks; iPhone users donated their time by checking for accuracy through Give Work, an app.[15]
See also
- List of crowdsourcing projects
- Microwork
- Virtual volunteering
- Distributed thinking
- Consensus-based assessment
References
- ^ Bridgwater, Adrian (March 7, 2016). "Machine Learning Needs A Human-In-The-Loop". Forbes. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ Ha, Anthony (June 7, 2016). "CrowdFlower raises $10M to combine artificial intelligence with crowdsourced labor". Tech Crunch. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ a b Bort, Julie (October 15, 2017). "Founder of $110 million startup CrowdFlower: I'm forever grateful to Travis Kalanick". Business Insider. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ Lardinois, Frederic (November 28, 2017). "AWS launches new partner programs for networking and machine learning specialists". Tech Crunch. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ Zakrzewski, Cat (June 12, 2017). "CrowdFlower Combines Crowdsourcing and Machine Intelligence". The Wall Street Journal. Retrieved April 13, 2018.
- ^ [1] Archived October 3, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ [2] Archived September 23, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Derrick Harris. "CrowdFlower raises $12.5M to deliver better data for better models". gigaom.com.
- ^ [3] Archived October 29, 2014, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "CrowdFlower is now Figure Eight on Twitter". Twitter. Retrieved 2018-04-04.
- ^ "Glossary of Terms". Archived from the original on August 12, 2014. Retrieved October 7, 2014.
{{cite web}}: Unknown parameter|dead-url=ignored (|url-status=suggested) (help) - ^ Adrienne Burke (2011-10-26). "Crowdsourcing Scientific Progress: How Crowdflower's Hordes Help Harvard Researchers Study TB". Forbes. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ^ "Crowdsourcing the Haiti Relief | The CrowdFlower Blog". Blog.crowdflower.com. 2010-01-29. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ^ "How To Cope with Very Large Volumes of Crowdsourced Reports? Add More Crowd!". The Ushahidi Blog. Retrieved 2012-01-31.
- ^ Oshiro, Dana (2009-10-13). "Samasource / CrowdFlower iPhone App Helps Refugees Fight Poverty". Readwriteweb.com. Retrieved 2012-01-31.