Wasabi Technologies, the cloud storage provider, has announced it will introduce an AI-powered intelligent storage for media and entertainment (M&E). The company reveals it will revolutionise storage with the acquisition of Curio AI from GrayMeta, an industry-first endeavour.

The acquisition details have not been revealed, though it is known they include the intellectual property and the Curio team, led by GrayMeta CEO Aaron Edell, who will soon serve Wasabi as the Senior Vice President of AI and Machine Learning. This development is expected to result in a new class of AI-powered intelligent storage catering to the M&E industry, with its launch planned for mid-2024.

According to David Friend, CEO of Wasabi Technologies, having a video archive lacking detailed metadata is comparable to a library without a card catalogue. He highlights the significance of AI in this context, stating that AI has the capability to identify faces, logos, objects, and specific voices.

Without AI, the process of finding specific segments within a video archive through manual efforts would be laborious and time-consuming. Friend suggests that the acquisition of Curio AI by Wasabi Technologies will play a pivotal role in transforming and modernising media storage by leveraging AI technology.

Video represents a significant opportunity within the storage sector. However, hundreds of exabytes of video archives on ageing tape systems and even newer exabytes created annually from film, television, sports events, news, corporate communications, raw footage, and outtakes are difficult to navigate in the absence of searchable metadata. Manual search is a time-consuming and inefficient process.

Curio AI assists in countering these challenges. As an intelligent data platform, Curio AI uses AI tech to create rich metadata for media libraries. This enables editors and producers to effectively search and retrieve specific media segments based on various attributes like people, places, events, emotions, logos, landmarks, background audio, and more. The platform can also transcribe speech in over 50 languages.

This technology will allow users to have personalised, detail-centric experiences, helping organisations reach their market with apt content as fast as possible. As a result, Liverpool Football Club and other Wasabi clients can manage their digital assets at an enhanced pace thanks to the metadata generated by Curio AI-powered storage.

David Friend commented, "Wasabi is on a trajectory that few others in the industry can claim. The advantage of being a hyper-focused company is that we can lead the industry in terms of price, performance, reliability, and innovation. With the acquisition of Curio AI, we are now set to introduce the industry's first AI-powered intelligent storage."

"Like Wasabi's standard cloud storage, our Curio AI-powered storage will be simple, fast, reliable, and inexpensive. With the acquisition of Curio AI, our customers will not only be able to store data but locate and instantly retrieve exactly what they want."

Edell, Senior Vice President of AI and Machine Learning at Wasabi, said, "AI-powered storage will allow Wasabi customers to instantly find exactly what they need amongst millions of hours of footage and unleash the value in their archives. We believe this will be the most significant advance in the storage industry since the invention of object storage."

"I look forward to working with Dave and the exceptional team he has built to write a new future for the media and entertainment industry."