AI software attracts Cambridge University Press

Auckland company Intuto has reached an agreement with Cambridge University Press to convert thousands of pages of resource material into an online format.

Intuto and its software development subsidiary, KoComm, have developed an artificial intelligence software system that can digest expert knowledge and convert it into useful blocks of information for web-based study.

The company believes RACE (Rapid Assessment and Conversion Engine) can convert data more quickly and efficiently than anything else on the market.

"Overseas companies employ huge teams of people to do the job that our technology will achieve," said KoComm managing director Adrian Sallis.

Cambridge Press was initially interested in converting volumes of its English as a Second Language (ESOL) content into an online format.

"What we are talking about is using RACE to rapidly suck up that content and make it available online," said Sallis.

Cambridge's publishing arm would take more than 24 months to convert a large volume of material online.

"We are able to do that rapidly," said Sallis. "Once we've used RACE to put it online, we'll continue to add to the material - we'll add voice, we'll add multimedia."

Intuto hopes to start with the ESOL material but sees the potential for a much broader relationship with Cambridge.

Intuto has been in business for only five years. The concept for the new technology came to Intuto founder and chief executive Dennis Murray in the middle of the night when he was contemplating new opportunities in the publishing industry. Intuto was originally developed to deliver online high-quality, low-cost education here.

Since then it has grown from two founding members to more than 60 staff in New Zealand, eight staff in China, two in Australia, one in UAE and two in Canada.