Google pitches AI image-detection tool to lure Cloud customers

[SAN FRANCISCO] Alphabet Inc's Google is introducing a new product that lets data-center customers tap the search engine's artificial-intelligence arsenal, part of the company's effort to stand out in the competitive cloud-computing market.

The product, called Cloud AutoML, is aimed at companies with limited experience in the AI field. It uses a company's data to automatically generate machine-learning models - computing systems that can crunch and parse huge swaths of information. Google is starting with vision, allowing companies to classify images more effectively, but plans to release the tool for analyzing text, speech and video.

"It's dead simple," Rajen Sheth, a senior director for Google Cloud, said on a phone call with reporters. "Somebody with very little expertise can go and create something that solves their very specific business problem." Urban Outfitters Inc. and Walt Disney Co. both said they're using the Google product to spot trends and structure their e-commerce sites. Google declined to share pricing details on the product.

Access to machine learning is a major selling point for Google's cloud business, which is third in the market behind Amazon.com Inc. and Microsoft Corp. Research firm KeyBanc wrote last week that Google's share grew to 12 per cent in the fourth quarter from 10 per cent a year earlier, estimating Google's sales in the division at US$3.9 billion on an annualized basis. KeyBanc pegged Amazon's cloud revenue annual run-rate at US$19.8 billion and Microsoft at US$6.4 billion.

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