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9 months agoWith a neural network, you wouldn’t be able to mathematically prove that the signal is perfectly recovered 100% of the time for all possible inputs. That is the case with PNG and FLAC. If you’re just listening to music and need a good compression ratio, then sure, it won’t be a big deal if a couple of bits are wrong. But that’s also why we have lossy compression. If the goal is to make signal degradation imperceptible to a human, then you could get a much better compression ratio using neural networks. If it’s truly critical that the signal isn’t corrupted, it would probably be better to just use the original method.
First thing that comes to mind is Lamborghini which would not exist today if it were not acquired. It was on the verge of bankruptcy and ended up getting passed around a few times before being acquired by Volkswagen/Audi. I think the general consensus is that access to Audi’s technology brought some sophistication in the form of AWD, traction and stability control, and a bump in quality and reliability. I know they only make obscenely expensive cars that few people ever get to enjoy, but they were able to maintain a headquarters and factory in Italy with a few thousand employees which would have definitely shut down without the acquisition.
Edit: On the topic of cars, another example would be Red Bull Racing which originated as a small F1 team started in the 90s. It was bought by Ford and rebranded to Jaguar F1. Ford didn’t have much success with it, so they sold the whole team to Red Bull for $1. Red Bull went on to dominate from 2010 to 2013 and again from 2021 to present day.