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I guess that's possible, but in my opinion would be the most bearish scenario. But with the stock at 2 bucks, it is currently probably the most credible scenerio.
I still believe they have more plans for aiWare than just in-house.
Another example. Why wouldn't they talk about aiWare in this PR. Only say Veritone Generative AI.
https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/veritone-achieves-a-three-peat-in-the-deloitte-technology-fast-500tm-awards-2023-11
Right. I should have clarified. aiWare is mentioned in each PR at the bottom in the "About Veritone" section. But they no longer mention aiWare in the body of the PR.
They did mention aiWare in the recent DOJ PR, but that was only in reference to their 2021 ATO designation for aiWare.
And they no longer mention aiWare when it would be opportune to mention aiWare, like when they say joining Amazon Center of Excellence, or when they wrote the blog about what algorithms Pandologic uses. It is obvious to me that they have avoided aiWare all year when they are communicating to the public.
Seems clear that they are not concerned with the brand name aiWare any more. They would have been marketing it heavily this year. jmo
Their latest app, Digital Evidence, makes no mention of aiWare.
They just say: LEVERAGE AI
Access an ecosystem of hundreds of AI engines within Veritone Evidence, such as Transcription, Translation, Facial Recognition, Object Detection, Text Recognition, and more.
https://www.veritone.com/applications/evidence/
https://unlock.veritone.com/resource-library-evidence-solution-brief?_gl=1*i2shrm*_gcl_au*MjA2NDcwNzU5Mi4xNzAyMjIzMzY0
Just like their investor presentation : Deliver best-in-class ecosystem to drive
operational efficiencies, accelerate decision
making and increase profitability
And none of the PR's anymore refer to aiWare.
Probably explains why we have heard nothing on aiWare.com. Seems like what ever "ecosystem" they are referring to, it is going to be something else.
agree, everything about them indicates money is no problemmo. "Disciplined financial Stewardship". And the November investor presentation actually says 750+ employees
Sorry 165+ million
Spent 155+ million on pando and broadbean and bought broadbean 6 months ago and still haven't updated website to reflect the combination, Veritone hire. Don't even list recruiting as one of their industries. But take time to announce orchard clips.
Meanwhile, what a POS
Looking at some of their growth drivers they list in the November presentation.
Deliver best-in-class ecosystem to drive
operational efficiencies, accelerate decision
making and increase profitability
Well best in class ecosystem has to be aiWare, and "Deliver" implies that it hasn't been delivered yet. So maybe means they announce aiWare 3.5 soon.
Market ability to integrate and orchestrate
disparate data and workflows
Again, this has to be aiWare, and implies they are going to start marketing aiWare, or aiWare capabilities.
Showcase expanding market applications of
solutions across core verticals to existing
customers
They have been very limited on showcasing the usual applications they do have. All we here about is DMH and Redact. So maybe they start coming out with new applications.
Convert trial customers, particularly in
government and regulated industries, to longterm customers
This could be significant, and could include aiWare license agreements with some of the big players. We have no idea of the extent of their trial customers. And I'm sure the "paying" customers are not happy when others are getting free trials. But when RS says that the beginning of 2024 will be inflection point in growth trajectory, maybe "trial periods" end at the end of this year.
Last two quarter Zemetra has said "2024, which will be when Veritone pivots back towards vertical growth from existing software and services "
Implies that they "pivoted" away from Vertical growth in 2023, and now are going to "Pivot" back. Well they obviously didn't care about the success of their aiWare platform this year. Maybe all these companies like Google got on board in 2022, but then needed a year to develop and integrate. And it's in line with Chad's consulting schedule, so maybe 2024 all about ending the trials and going live with aiWare and partners.
Then in both quarters, they speak of "disruptive growth" for 2024. Again, I know of no other catalyst unless aiWare.
Still say the most interesting thing (and Frustrating) to me in 2023, has been the changing of the narrative, which meant to stop talking about aiWare. F@#ing "WIlderness Guide"
Meanwhile, they start aiWare.com in August, and still don't say a word about it.
And the silence while all these other companies start to talk about similar features to aiWare.
Could you imagine if they didn't "change the narrative" and Chad Steelberg were CEO right now? He would have gone on every interview he could talking about aiWare.
Everything they were preaching about for years, is now starting to happen. And they are dead silent.
Don't recall that employee.
This probably means nothing, but on aiware.com, click on "AI Models". Scroll down to the various company logos. You can click on any of the logos, but the Google logo is the only one that when you click on it it leads you to a Google Cloud page for signing up for Google Cloud and VertexAI. https://cloud.google.com/?hl=en
All other logos when you click on them just lead you back to the aiWare.com page.
Yes. Bottom line though, don't see why the lenders would pay anything more into a sinking ship.
Anyway, now that this is out of the way, maybe they will finally announce any catalyst for the alleged disruptive growth.
On another note, seeing AL Brown liking some Linkedin posts concerning Google AI. As discussed before, Google VertexAI also aiWare-like.
It reminded me of the PR Veritone released in May of 2022, concerning Google and Globo.
“Globo selected Veritone aiWARE for its flexibility to run multiple AI models on each piece of content within a secure, network-isolated environment.
Why did they need Veritone? Why didn't Google just provide these services.
https://www.nasdaq.com/press-release/globo-south-americas-largest-media-company-selects-veritone-to-provide-automated
my understanding is it's 40M additional. This is a renegotiation of $50M in convertible notes right?
So the lenders had already paid Veritone 50M. Now they are going to pay Veritone 77M but Veritone is going to pay back $37M to retire the 50M
I guess the lenders would also want this feature removed if they thought the stock was going to go up significantly.
If Veritone were able to repay the loan in shares, then obviously a higher stock price would mean less shares paid to the lender.
wonder why that was changed.
I would think that Veritone would want the option to repay the loan via shares. I could see that the lenders would not want this option if they thought the stock will continue to go down. But if the lenders thought that Veritone had no future, why would they fork over another 77M?
I see that they removed the option for Veritone to be able to repay in the form of stock.
The Term Loan is not repayable with the Company’s common stock, $0.001 per share (the “Common Stock”) as was initially set forth in the Commitment Letter.
"But to not even tease how aiWARE can improve how these models are deployed or why aiWARE is a competitive advantage is weird."
Yeah, the recent PR of Veritone joining the AWS Center of Excellence is another example. If you did not know Veritone, you could read that PR and at the end of the article still have no idea what Veritone does.
But in the blog, to not even suggest how aiWare can provide more options, is telling.
I have speculated that the new debt facility, while an effort to raise needed cash, also serves as a resolution for the convertible note holders. In 2 days, they will have their warrants for 3M shares. Maybe Veritone starts talking then. Getting down to crunch time for whatever catalyst it is that gives them a new inflection point for growth trajectory at the beginning of 2024. Either that or it's all BS. But if BS, then it is amazing that they would set themselves up for failure once again with all this talk of growth trajectory and disruptive growth for 2024. I don't see ANY disruptive growth potential for this company unless it concerns aiWare. And we know they refused to talk about any catalyst during last earnings call, so still holding out hope that something is there. jmo
New aiWare update. Version 3.48.2.1 Deployment- 12/12/23
Yesterday, Veritone posted a blog explaining their proprietary algorithms behind Pandologic, or Veritone Hire.
Once again, not a mention of aiWare. 2023, in my view, has been all about the separation of aiWare from Veritone. They simply don't talk about it anymore.
Yet continue to develop and add enhancements to the platform via aiWare.com.
On another note, the deadline to lock in the Debt facility is in 2 days.
So I don't know where it is getting the information, or just like they say "hallucinating".
But another thing I noticed is that it knows nothing about aiWare.com. In fact, if you do just a regular Google search, you will find nothing on aiWare.com, and nothing about any of the contents within the site.
Veritone has made it so that aiWare.com and its contents are unsearchable.
I don't know. I just asked it again, and it came up with this. Sometimes when you ask it, it says it can't do it. When you ask it, seems like it gives you a different answer every time.
Here are some of the latest patents assigned to Veritone:
October 2023:
US Patent No. 11,502,445: System and method for predicting battery state and behavior for optimized battery operation and increased battery longevity.
September 2023:
US Patent No. 11,493,764: System and method for controlling battery impedance actuators for optimized battery operation and reduced power dissipation.
US Patent No. 11,488,676: System and method for synchronizing battery power delivery across multiple battery control systems using a mean field game representation.
August 2023:
US Patent No. 11,460,632: Methods and systems for classifying a multimedia file using interclass data.
July 2023:
US Patent No. 11,417,354: System and methods for neural network orchestration.
June 2023:
US Patent No. 11,389,900: System and method for redacting content.
May 2023:
US Patent No. 11,357,855: System and method for generating a transcript of a multimedia file.
April 2023:
US Patent No. 11,333,517: System and method for identifying content in a multimedia file using a plurality of models.
These are just a few of the latest patents assigned to Veritone. For a complete list, you can visit the USPTO website and search for patents assigned to Veritone, Inc.
You can also find more information about Veritone's patents on their website: https://patents.google.com/patent/WO2013090539A1/ko
I hope this information is helpful!
Well, I've concluded that a large percentage of the info I am receiving on BARD is fabricated garbage. lol
it's wild. Really hits home on what the future of obtaining information is going to be like in 5 years or even less. Wow. Assuming there are a lot of inaccuracies in the responses, but crazy to think where this is going. And how easy it is now to distribute misinformation. They need to get a handle on the accuracy part of it, and fast.
I asked BARD this question:
list the companies that Veritone has invested in?
Unfortunately, Veritone does not publicly disclose a comprehensive list of its investments. This information is often considered confidential and not shared widely. However, based on publicly available information, I can share some companies that Veritone has invested in:
Companies Veritone has invested in:
Orchard Clips: A company that provides a platform for creators to distribute their content internationally. Veritone announced a licensing deal with Orchard Clips in June 2023.
Amper Music: A music technology company that uses AI to help musicians and songwriters get their music heard. Veritone acquired Amper Music in 2022.
Mediafly: A sales enablement platform that uses AI to help salespeople be more effective. Veritone partnered with Mediafly in 2022 to offer its AI solutions to Mediafly customers.
Facephi: A biometric authentication company that uses AI to verify identity. Veritone partnered with Facephi in 2022 to offer its AI solutions to Facephi customers.
SkyBiometry: A biometric identification company that uses AI to identify people from their iris patterns. Veritone acquired SkyBiometry in 2021.
Imagen Technologies: A company that develops AI-powered video analysis solutions. Veritone acquired Imagen Technologies in 2021.
ActiveScaler: A company that provides a platform for managing and distributing video content. Veritone acquired ActiveScaler in 2020.
Additionally, Veritone has invested in several venture capital funds, including:
Amplify Partners: A venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage technology companies.
Bessemer Venture Partners: A venture capital firm focused on investing in growth-stage technology companies.
Lightspeed Venture Partners: A venture capital firm focused on investing in early-stage technology companies.
It's important to note that this is not an exhaustive list and Veritone may have invested in other companies that are not publicly known.
this is crazy. Hard to believe.
Ten Most Recent Patents Assigned to Veritone (As of December 8, 2023):
1. Patent Number: 11543727
Title: System and method for content redaction and repurposing
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Peter Nguyen, Chad Steelberg
2. Patent Number: 11540442
Title: System and method for dynamic content selection and delivery based on user context
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Karl Schwamb, Yu Zhao, Peter Nguyen
3. Patent Number: 11539566
Title: Methods and systems for identifying and managing audio and video assets
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: David Kettler, Chad Steelberg, Yu Zhao
4. Patent Number: 11539446
Title: System and method for multi-modal content analysis using neural networks
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Peter Nguyen, Chad Steelberg, Yu Zhao
5. Patent Number: 11538402
Title: System and method for generating synthetic media using generative adversarial networks
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Karl Schwamb, David Kettler, Chad Steelberg
6. Patent Number: 11537034
Title: System and method for automated content creation using natural language processing
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Peter Nguyen, Yu Zhao, Chad Steelberg
7. Patent Number: 11535566
Title: System and method for real-time content indexing and analysis
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Chad Steelberg, David Kettler, Karl Schwamb
8. Patent Number: 11535028
Title: System and method for personalized content recommendations
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Peter Nguyen, Karl Schwamb, Yu Zhao
9. Patent Number: 11533150
Title: System and method for content moderation and compliance
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Chad Steelberg, Peter Nguyen, Yu Zhao
10. Patent Number: 11532141
Title: System and method for generating interactive content experiences
Date of Patent: December 5, 2023
Inventors: Karl Schwamb, David Kettler, Chad Steelberg
yeah, saw that back on 11/29. you can also keep track of updates here. https://docs.veritone.com/#/versions/readme
you should check it out. It's interesting to see what it comes up with. https://bard.google.com/chat
These have to be all patent applications, not issued patents.
And these patents, if true, have to be "unpublished" patent applications. Otherwise we would be able to look them up at USPTO
Companies have a choice to file applications unpublished, in order to delay the disclosure of the invention until patent issue.
So if these are unpublished patent applications, then it is interesting that BARD would somehow have access to the data that contains these unpublished applications.
But I don't know. I have been fooling around with BARD, and it does produce inaccurate information. But if BARD just made up these patent names, then it is amazing with how it was able to come up with patent names that are so on point with Veritone's business.
If they are actually real unpublished Veritone applications, then I guess it looks like they have been working hard behind the scenes. jmo
Asked it again in a different way.
list Veritone's most recent patent applications
View other drafts
Unfortunately, Veritone does not publicly disclose a list of their most recent patent applications. Patent applications are not published until they are granted, which can take several years. However, I can share some information about Veritone's recent patent activity:
Recent patents granted:
November 30, 2023: Patent No. US 11,514,679 B2 for "Method and system for generating a media asset metadata profile using AI-based analysis of audio and video content."
November 28, 2023: Patent No. US 11,512,421 B2 for "System and method for dynamically selecting and combining AI models for generating an analysis of data."
November 8, 2023: Patent No. US 11,503,141 B2 for "Method and system for generating a narrative summary of video content."
Almost seems like Bard is just pulling this information out of its ass and making it up. Pretty creative and on point though. Weird.
Asked Google BARD to list Veritone's most recent patents
It came back with this:
1. US Patent No. 17,943,283: "System and method for dynamic content selection and delivery based on user preferences and context" (Assigned: October 26, 2023)
2. US Patent No. 17,942,178: "System and method for identifying and extracting video segments of interest" (Assigned: October 26, 2023)
3. US Patent No. 17,941,340: "System and method for generating synthetic audio data using a neural network" (Assigned: October 25, 2023)
4. US Patent No. 17,939,669: "System and method for generating and customizing video content" (Assigned: October 24, 2023)
5. US Patent No. 17,939,281: "System and method for extracting and associating audio and visual features from a media stream" (Assigned: October 24, 2023)
6. US Patent No. 17,938,373: "System and method for analyzing and extracting information from video content" (Assigned: October 23, 2023)
7. US Patent No. 17,937,309: "System and method for identifying and verifying speakers in audio content" (Assigned: October 21, 2023)
8. US Patent No. 17,936,474: "System and method for monitoring and analyzing media content in real-time" (Assigned: October 20, 2023)
9. US Patent No. 17,935,153: "System and method for optimizing content delivery based on network conditions" (Assigned: October 19, 2023)
10. US Patent No. 17,934,295: "System and method for generating AI model ensembles for improved performance" (Assigned: October 18, 2023)
Please note that this list reflects the most recent patents assigned to Veritone as of October 27, 2023. New patents may be assigned in the future.
But when I go to USPTO, Google Patents, Justia, or wherever, I can't find any record of them. So is BARD just making these up?
Asked Bard about recent Veritone trademarks, and it came up with this:
August 2, 2023
VERITONE AI
Software for creating and managing artificial intelligence models
150 - New Application Submitted
September 1, 2023
VERITONE AI SOLUTIONS
Software as a service (SAAS) featuring artificial intelligence for data analytics, content creation, and media processing
150 - New Application Submitted
September 1, 2023
VERITONE MEDIA INTELLIGENCE
Software for analyzing and extracting information from media content
150 - New Application Submitted
September 13, 2023
VERITONE VERSE
Software as a service (SAAS) featuring artificial intelligence for managing digital assets
150 - New Application Submitted
October 11, 2023
VERITONE ENGAGE
Software as a service (SAAS) featuring artificial intelligence for customer engagement and marketing automation
150 - New Application Submitted
October 19, 2023
VERITONE PRESERVE
Software for preserving and archiving digital assets
150 - New Application Submitted
Again, I can't find these trademarks anywhere else.
Just an observation.
Back in November of 2021 Veritone announced the convertible at 201.25M, interest rate at 1.75%, and conversion price of 36.76.
201.25M divided by 36.76 is about 5.474 M shares. So the convertible note holders if converted, would have held about 5.5M shares.
Of course, then Veritone stock collapsed, as well as the convertible note holders' investment.
For the new 77.5M debt facility, If you look at the list of lenders as stated in the sec filing, the lenders appear to be involved with convertible bond investing. Also saw on a Google search Highbridge Capital held some of the convertible notes. So, it looks to me like the lenders may be the same as involved in the Notes.
If/when the new debt facility goes through, Veritone will have issued these lenders warrants to purchase 3,008,540 shares of stock at $2.576
There will be 91M left of the convertible notes. Those notes could be exercised into 2.475M shares if the stock goes above 36.76.
So adding 3,008540 plus 2,475,000 = 5,483,540 shares, or roughly 5.5M shares, the same number of shares as the original convertible notes.
https://www.sec.gov/Archives/edgar/data/1615165/000095017023063678/veri-ex10_3.htm
This article back from September compares Snowflake to Databricks.
To compare Databricks to Snowflake, one needs to understand the differences between a data lake and a data warehouse.
Databricks hosts a data lake, which is a centralized location for collecting all of an organization's structured and unstructured data. Snowflake operates a data warehouse, which only collects structured data.
Now SNowflake focused on unstructured data. Which is what Veritone has been focused on all along, and Veritone uses a data lake.
https://www.fool.com/investing/2023/09/08/forget-amazon-microsoft-google-cloud-snowflake/
And this article from yesterday. Databricks now offering aiWare like services.
Then, with the unified AI playground and MLFlow evaluation, developers get the ability to access models from different providers, including Azure OpenAI Service, AWS Bedrock and Anthropic and open source models such as Llama 2 and MPT, and see how they fare on key metrics like toxicity, latency and token count. This ultimately enables them to deploy their project on the best-performing and most affordable model via model serving – while retaining the option to change whenever something better comes along.
https://venturebeat.com/ai/exclusive-databricks-launches-new-tools-for-building-high-quality-rag-apps/
Looks like everyone is pursuing aiWare like features. And ironically, Veritone has swept discussion of its aiWare features under the rug all year.
We know last year Veritone said they were going to "change the narrative", focus on ecosystem, and opportunities outside of the ecosystem will be pursued with partners. Well, if they are telling the truth, then maybe we are seeing these partners now heading to market. jmo
also find it interesting that Snowflake comes out with Cortex, while earlier in the year Veritone offerings were removed from Snowflake Marketplace. Veritone had about 9 different categories on their marketplace, and then disappeared.
Veritone even despite modest success, has at least established themselves as a practicing entity. Gives them a lot more credibility for licensing IP vs. a non practicing entity. Jmo
Agree with cpeter the next 6 months are critical. Think March report is critical. As far as the term loan. It's not consummated yet as far as we know. Still waiting until the 15th to see if something better comes up. If any interest in Veritone then now is the time to come forward and make a deal. If consummated then the lenders will have the option to purchase 3m shares or 7-8 percent of the company. And Veritone has opportunity to pay the loan in shares. If Veritone is expecting big things, then the loan gets easy to pay with a higher stock price. I also noticed that Highbridge capital had also owned some of the convertible notes. Would like to know who is all behind those notes.
As far as aiWare and these other platforms coming out. Interesting how Veritone supports AWS. Partnering on media and entertainment. Joining their center of excellence. Saw AWS post about their deal with PGA golf and liked by RS. Why is Veritone so affectionate towards AWS as they release Bedrock with aiWare like features and also have a deal with PGA to do the things Veritone does for sports.
When you think about these huge companies coming out with platforms with aiWare like features, it's easy to see how Veritone would have a hard time competing with them on the platform level. Snowflake and Amazon can provide a ton more features and could easily just give customers the aiWare like features for free. Guessing this is not about competing platforms but all about licensing IP. And the big dogs will play hard ball when it comes to negotiating license agreements. Probably why Amazon put the brakes on pando services. But as far as licensing goes, I think Veritone had done a good job of establishing the credibility of their IP. They have the Deloitte reseller agreement, they have some pretty big customers that are using aiWare and also government contracts. So for a small company with no credible backing, think they are still a Factor to be reconned with as far as IP.
We may be surprised at how much entrenched aiWare already is. Speculate that a big part of all the comments of "disruptive growth" for 2024 have to do with converting trial customers into paying customers.
And Snowflake Cortex sure looks like it has aiWare capabilities, as does Amazon Bedrock, and other instances. https://www.snowflake.com/blog/use-ai-snowflake-cortex/
And if Snowflake Cortex is not an instance of licensing aiWare capabilities, then Veritone basically rolled out the red carpet to give them ideas on how to design their own platform.
Everyone is now thinking along the lines now of what Chad S used to evangelize years ago. No excuses for aiWare not to be successful.
And the interesting thing is that Veritone has not marketed its aiWare capabilities all year long. Instead decided to focus on "ecosystem", with many PRs not even mentioning their platform. If these other aiWare like platforms have nothing to do with Veritone, then it is beyond crazy to think that Veritone would not have gotten the jump on marketing aiWare ahead of these product releases. Still silent even on aiWare.com
Veritone doesn't want you to know about their hiring solutions, and they don't want you to know about aiWare.com.
There hasn't been a Linkedin post from Broadbean or Pandologic in 2 weeks.
Still no website that I can find concerning Veritone Hire. And Veritone doesn't list recruiting as an industry on their website.
agreed, this is not what Veritone investors signed up for. Veritone attracted all of their capital over the years on the promise of aiWare. Now they completely shut investors out on aiWare prospects and progress.
been following Amazon Reinvent and Amazon Bedrock. Sounds like it has aiWare capabilities. Particularly the fact that is uses a single API for all third party AI models. Sounds just like Veritone's AION standard.
And Veritone doesn't appear to even want anyone to know about aiWare anymore. Once again, todays PR doesnt mention aiWare, except in the "about Veritone" section.
This has been a very painful investment, but I don't view them as being incompetent. I think there is a catalyst for disruptive growth, but they refused to say anything about it. So they came up with the non answers.