AlchemyAPI was a software company in the field of

machine learning Machine learning (ML) is a field of inquiry devoted to understanding and building methods that 'learn', that is, methods that leverage data to improve performance on some set of tasks. It is seen as a part of artificial intelligence. Machine ...

. Its technology employed

deep learning Deep learning (also known as deep structured learning) is part of a broader family of machine learning methods based on artificial neural networks with representation learning. Learning can be supervised, semi-supervised or unsupervised. De ...

for various applications in

natural language processing Natural language processing (NLP) is an interdisciplinary subfield of linguistics, computer science, and artificial intelligence concerned with the interactions between computers and human language, in particular how to program computers to pro ...

, such as semantic text analysis and sentiment analysis, as well as

computer vision Computer vision is an interdisciplinary scientific field that deals with how computers can gain high-level understanding from digital images or videos. From the perspective of engineering, it seeks to understand and automate tasks that the hum ...

. AlchemyAPI offered both traditionally-licensed software products as well API access under a

Software as a service Software as a service (SaaS ) is a software licensing and delivery model in which software is licensed on a subscription basis and is centrally hosted. SaaS is also known as "on-demand software" and Web-based/Web-hosted software. SaaS is con ...

model. After acquisition by IBM in 2015, the products were integrated into the

Watson Watson may refer to: Companies * Actavis, a pharmaceutical company formerly known as Watson Pharmaceuticals * A.S. Watson Group, retail division of Hutchison Whampoa * Thomas J. Watson Research Center, IBM research center * Watson Systems, make ...

line of products and the brand name eventually disappeared.

Technology and business model

As the name suggests, the business model of charging for access to an API was central to the company's identity and uncommon for its time: A ''

TechCrunch TechCrunch is an American online newspaper focusing on high tech and startup companies. It was founded in June 2005 by Archimedes Ventures, led by partners Michael Arrington and Keith Teare. In 2010, AOL acquired the company for approximately ...

'' article highlighted that even though the technology was similar to IBM's Watson, the pay-per-use model made it more accessible, especially to non-enterprise customers. At one point, AlchemyAPI served over 3 billion API calls per month.

History

AlchemyAPI was founded in 2005, and launched their API in 2009. In September 2011, ProgrammableWeb added AlchemyAPI to its API Billionaires Club, alongside giants such as

Google Google LLC () is an American multinational technology company focusing on search engine technology, online advertising, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, artificial intelligence, and consumer electronics. ...

and

Facebook Facebook is an online social media and social networking service owned by American company Meta Platforms. Founded in 2004 by Mark Zuckerberg with fellow Harvard College students and roommates Eduardo Saverin, Andrew McCollum, Dustin M ...

. In February 2013, it was announced that AlchemyAPI had raised US$2 million to improve the capabilities of its deep learning technology. In September 2013, it was reported that AlchemyAPI had created a

Google Glass Google Glass, or simply Glass, is a brand of smart glasses developed and sold by Google. It was developed by X (previously Google X), with the mission of producing an ubiquitous computer. Google Glass displays information to the wearer using ...

app that could identify what a person was looking at, and that AlchemyAPI would soon be rolling out deep learning-based image recognition as a service. As of February 2014 (prior to the IBM acquisition), it claimed to have clients in 36 countries and process over 3 billion documents a month. In May 2014, it was reported that AlchemyAPI had released a computer vision API known as AlchemyVision, capable of recognizing objects in photographs and providing image similarity search capabilities. In March 2015, it was announced that AlchemyAPI had been acquired by IBM and the company's breakthroughs in deep learning would accelerate IBM's development of next generation cognitive computing applications. IBM reported plans to integrate AlchemyAPI's deep learning technology into the core Watson platform

Media coverage

A February 2013 article in

VentureBeat ''VentureBeat'' is an American technology website headquartered in San Francisco, California. It publishes news, analysis, long-form features, interviews, and videos. History The ''VentureBeat'' company was founded in 2006 by Matt Marshall, a ...

about

big data Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...

named AlchemyAPI as one of the primary forces responsible for bringing natural language processing capabilities to the masses. In November 2013,

GigaOm Gigaom is a technology focused analyst firm and media company. The company evolved from a blog which offered news, analysis, and opinions on startup companies, emerging technologies, and other technology related topics. It was started by Om Malik ...

listed AlchemyAPI as one of the top startups working in

, along with

Cortica Headquartered in Tel Aviv Cortica utilizes unsupervised learning methods to recognize and analyze digital images and video. The technology developed by the Cortica team is based on research of the function of the human brain. Company Founding Co ...

and Ersatz.

References

External links

* {{official website Defunct technology companies of the United States Applied machine learning Former IBM subsidiaries IBM acquisitions Companies based in Denver American companies established in 2005 American companies disestablished in 2020