Hugging Face, the fast-growing AI startup valued at about $4.5 billion, has launched Gradio 5, a major update to its popular open-source tool for creating machine learning applications. The new version aims to make AI development more accessible, potentially speeding up enterprise adoption of machine learning technologies.

Gradio, which Hugging Face acquired in 2021, has quickly become a cornerstone of the company’s offerings. With over 2 million monthly users and more than 470,000 applications built on the platform, Gradio has emerged as a key player in the AI development ecosystem.

Bridging the gap: Python proficiency meets web development ease

The latest version aims to bridge the gap between machine learning expertise and web development skills. “Machine learning developers are very comfortable programming in Python, and oftentimes, less so with the nuts and bolts of web development,” explained Abubakar Abid, Founder of Gradio, in an exclusive interview with VentureBeat. “Gradio lets developers build performant, scalable apps that follow best practices in security and accessibility, all in just a few lines of Python.”

One of the most notable features of Gradio 5 is its focus on enterprise-grade security. Abid highlighted this aspect, telling VentureBeat, “We hired Trail of Bits, a well-known cybersecurity company, to do an independent audit of Gradio, and included fixes for all the issues that they found in Gradio 5… For Gradio developers, the key benefit is that your Gradio 5 apps will, out-of-the-box, follow best practices in web security, even if you are not an expert in web security yourself.”

AI-assisted app creation: Enhancing development with natural language prompts

The release also introduces an experimental AI Playground, allowing developers to generate and preview Gradio apps using natural language prompts. Ahsen Khaliq, ML Growth Lead at Gradio, emphasized the importance of this feature, saying, “Similar to other AI coding environments, you can enter a text prompt explaining what kind of app you want to build and an LLM will turn it into Gradio code. But unlike other coding environments, you can also see an instant preview of your Gradio app and run it in the browser.”

This innovation could dramatically reduce the time and expertise needed to create functional AI applications, potentially making AI development more accessible to a wider range of businesses and developers.

Gradio’s position in the AI ecosystem is becoming increasingly central. “Once a model is available on a hub like the Hugging Face Hub or downloaded locally, developers can wrap it into a web app using Gradio in a few lines of code,” Khaliq explained. This flexibility has led to Gradio being used in notable projects like Chatbot Arena, Open NotebookLM, and Stable Diffusion.

Future-proofing enterprise AI: Gradio’s roadmap for innovation

The launch of Gradio 5 comes at a time when enterprise adoption of AI is accelerating. By simplifying the process of creating production-ready AI applications, Hugging Face is positioning itself to capture a significant share of this growing market.

Looking ahead, Abid hinted at ambitious plans for Gradio: “Many of the changes we’ve made in Gradio 5 are designed to enable new functionality that we will be shipping in the coming weeks… Stay tuned for: multi-page Gradio apps, navbars and sidebars, support for running Gradio apps on mobile using PWA and potentially native app support, more built-in components to support new modalities that are emerging around images and video, and much more.”

As AI continues to impact various industries, tools like Gradio 5 that connect advanced technology with practical business applications are likely to play a vital role. With this release, Hugging Face is not just updating a product — it’s potentially altering the landscape of enterprise AI development.

In 2016, when Alan originally launched its health insurance product in France, it was the first new health insurance company in the country in 30 years. Now, as Alan announces its expansion to Canada, the startup is about to break a new record: There hasn’t been a new health insurance company in Canada since 1957.

In many ways, Alan treats health insurance as software as a service. It’s a subscription-first product that can be optimized with technology. For instance, Alan has built its own claim management system. Its flagship product is health insurance that complements the national healthcare system in France. French companies must provide health insurance to all their employees when they join.

The startup has also added additional services to improve consumer satisfaction, reduce churn, and win new deals. Alan members can use the company’s mobile app, for example, to chat with doctors, order prescription glasses, and consume preventive care content on mental health or back pain.

While the company has raised a ton of money — including a recently announced €173 million Series F round — Alan has been relatively focused when it comes to geographic coverage. In addition to its home country, the service is also available in Belgium and Spain.

It’s such a big market, however, that it doesn’t necessarily need to launch everywhere to find new clients. It currently covers 675,000 people across its three markets. Given that nearly 100% of the population in France, Belgium, and Spain has a health insurance contract, Alan is still a challenger.

But that hasn’t seemed to stop Alan’s expansion plans. The company has obtained a federal OFSI license in Canada, meaning that it can officially operate as an insurance company in the country. It’s building a local board and a local team with insurance and healthcare experts.

“You cannot use your European license in Canada. You need to apply for a new license. But then the rules in terms of solvency, distribution, risk management, and so on are very, very similar,” Alan co-founder and CEO Jean-Charles Samuelian-Werve told TechCrunch.

Alan is essentially bringing the full Alan product suite to Canada and plans to hire 50 people in the country over the next few years.

It’s surprising that Alan didn’t pick a European country for its next market expansion. Part of the reason can be found on Alan’s capitalization table. Teachers’ Venture Growth (TVG), the venture fund of the Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board, led Alan’s Series E round. But with Canada, Alan wanted to make a statement.

“I try to be very long-term oriented in the way we make our decisions at Alan. And when I picture Alan in 10 years from now, I don’t see us just as a European company. I see us as a global company,” Samuelian-Werve said.

Canada is also a fairly large market, with both a national healthcare system and private health insurance coverage. Primary care is covered by the government, but a good portion of healthcare, around $60 billion a year, is handled by health insurance providers. And things haven’t changed much lately.

“In Canada, there are only 20 [health insurance providers] that have at least 1% in market share. That number is 400 in France … It’s really, really uncompetitive [in Canada],” Alan’s general manager for Canada, Mark Goad, said. “And if you look at the satisfaction ratings with the net promoter score, it’s at -8 in Canada, whereas Alan operates at +70.”

Just like in France, the Canadian team is going to distribute Alan through employers. Employers typically pick one health insurance provider to cover the entire workforce of that company.

Around 55 Canadian companies have already expressed interest in trying Alan. The company plans to onboard one customer per week starting in January 2025. It will then launch its self-signup portal at some point during the second quarter of 2025.

JMGO’s new Picoflix adds to the ever-growing list of portable projectors small enough to be carried in a water bottle pocket. But instead of standing on one end like many cylindrical compact projectors do, the Picoflix is used horizontally and features an integrated rotating gimbal so it’s easier to aim at a screen or wall.

Available now through the company’s website for $599, the Picoflix uses a 1080P LED light source capable of outputting up to 450 ANSI lumens of brightness. That’s a little less than what similarly-sized projectors — such as the Samsung Freestyle — are capable of, but it should be adequate for use in dark conditions assuming you’re not trying to fill a movie theater-sized screen.

Cylindrical projectors with integrated gimbals aren’t a new idea. Both the Samsung Freestyle and the Xgimi MoGo 3 Pro offer that functionality, but both stand vertically and depend on a base that needs to be wide enough to add stability. The Picoflix can’t fall over because it’s already laying on its side while in use, and simply relies on a small foot on one end to prevent it from rolling away. As a result, it measures in at around 9.5-inches long and just 3.14-inches in diameter. That’s even narrower than a 40-ounce Stanley cup.

Being able to rotate the projector’s lens a full 127-degrees offers more flexibility when it comes to where you set it up. You can position it much lower than what you’re projecting on so as to not obstruct sight lines, while JMGO’s screen alignment tech will automatically straighten out the image — to some degree. The Picoflix isn’t designed to be used as a short throw projector.

An external power source isn’t necessary as the Picoflix has a 10,000mAh battery built in. JMGO claims that it can last for as long as 4.5 hours when watching movies, but that’s dependent on the projector being in eco mode, which is going to significantly reduce its brightness. You can expect playback time to be quite a bit shorter when using it at full brightness, so plan on bringing an extra battery if you’ll be using it away from a reliable power source.

The Picoflix’s connectivity is limited to a single HDMI 2.1 port with eARC support, a pair of USB-A ports, and a USB-C port, all located on either end of the projector. Content can be played from an external drive, but the Picoflix also has Wi-Fi 6 and runs Google TV so you have access to various streaming services including Netflix, which often isn’t supported on all-in-one projectors from Chinese companies.

When not watching videos, the Picoflix can also be used to listen to music through its 10W speaker. It supports Bluetooth 5.4, and JMGO says battery life jumps to about seven hours on a full charge while only listening to audio.