In this month’s newsletter, you’ll find updates on event postponements, current openings at Numenta, and a recent change to our licensing program. But first, a message from our CEO:
Numenta Response to COVID-19 Coronavirus
I am writing to you about Numenta’s response to the coronavirus crisis gripping our world. As a smaller company, we do not have many of the challenges faced by larger firms, such as canceling hosted events or doing substantial travel. But like all of you, we are concerned about the health and well-being of our employees, business partners and community. Consequently, we have transitioned to a work-from-home-environment.
Although remote work is not ideal, we feel that we can work pretty well in this fashion, thanks particularly to video conferencing and other collaboration tools.
From all of us at Numenta, we convey our hopes for everybody in our community that you and your families will remain in good health.
-Donna Dubinsky, CEO
Spring Events Postponed
As events around the world are being cancelled due to the COVID-19 Coronavirus, I want to update you on three events involving our Co-founder Jeff Hawkins and VP Research Subutai Ahmad that have been rescheduled:
- Strata Data & AI San Jose, where Subutai was scheduled to speak, has been postponed and merged with Strata Data & AI New York, which will take place September 14–17, 2020.
- NAISys, a Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory conference where Jeff was scheduled to give a keynote and Subutai to present a poster, has been postponed to November 8-12, 2020.
- The Brain Inspired Computing Congress, where Subutai was scheduled to speak, has been postponed, but a new date has not yet been confirmed.
For the most up-to-date information, check the Events page on our website. We hope that everyone stays safe and healthy, and we look forward to revisiting these events later this year.
Research Meetings
Though in-person events are paused, you can still attend our regular live-streamed research meetings. These generally take place every Monday and Wednesday at 10.15am PDT and feature a variety of neuroscience and machine learning topics. If you’re not able to join the live feed, you can access the replays on our YouTube channel.
We are hiring
The research meetings are a great way to experience firsthand how we’re working to apply brain theory principles to machine learning problems. If you find that you want to join us in a more official capacity, we have positions open for a Machine Learning Research Scientist, Numenta Research Intern, and Visiting Scholar. Visit the links on our website for more information.
Changes to our Commercial Licensing Program
Since 2015, we have made our software and intellectual property available under an AGPLv3 (open source) license. Other than information proprietary to our partners, we plan to continue this practice in the future.
A few years ago, some of our technology, notably our anomaly detection techniques, began to draw interest from commercial partners. Based on these requests, we established a commercial license enabling those companies to build products and to distribute their software outside of the open source license. We have decided to discontinue that practice.
What’s changed?
We no longer offer commercial licenses for our anomaly detection software. This software continues to be available under the AGPLv3 open source license.
Why?
Though we believe it has practical value today, the anomaly detection software has been in maintenance mode for several years as we have shifted our focus to newer work. We do not feel we can provide the support necessary for commercial partners.
How will this change affect existing Numenta licensees?
It will not. Existing licensees will remain in effect.
Can I still access the anomaly detection code?
Yes, it remains available in an open source repository under the AGPLv3 license.
When will the new work be available for licensing?
Our work pertaining to machine learning is not yet available for licensing. We will announce a commercial licensing program when available, but in the meantime you can view it in our open source project.
Thank you for continuing to follow Numenta.
Christy Maver
VP of Marketing
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Christy Maver • VP of Marketing