Seattle, WA or Costa Mesa, CA

Anduril Industries is a defense technology company with a mission to transform U.S. and allied military capabilities with advanced technology. By bringing the expertise, technology, and business model of the 21st century’s most innovative companies to the defense industry, Anduril is changing how military systems are designed, built and sold. Anduril’s family of systems is powered by Lattice OS, an AI-powered operating system that turns thousands of data streams into a realtime, 3D command and control center. As the world enters an era of strategic competition, Anduril is committed to bringing cutting-edge autonomy, AI, computer vision, sensor fusion, and networking technology to the military in months, not years.

The Vehicle Autonomy (Robotics) team at Anduril develops aerial and ground-based robotic systems. The team is responsible for taking products like Ghost, Anvil, and our Sentry Tower from paper sketches to operational systems. We work in close coordination with specialist teams like Perception, Autonomy, and Manufacturing to solve some of the hardest problems facing our customers. We are looking for software engineers and roboticists excited about creating a powerful robotics stack that includes computer vision, motion planning, SLAM, controls, estimation, and secure communications.

WHAT YOU'LL DO -Write and maintain core libraries (frame transformations, targeting and guidance, etc.) that all robotics platforms at Anduril will use -Own feature development and rollout for our products - recent examples include: building a Software-in-the-Loop simulator for our Tower product, writing an autofocus control system for cameras, creating a distributed over IPC coordinate frame library, redesigning the Pan-Tilt controls to accurately move heavy loads -Design, evaluate, and implement sensor integrations that support operation by both human and autonomous planning agents -Work closely with our hardware and manufacturing teams during product development, providing quick feedback that contributes to the final hardware design

REQUIRED QUALIFICATIONS -Strong engineering background from industry or school, ideally in areas/fields such as Robotics, Computer Science, Software Engineering, Mechatronics, Electrical Engineering, Mathematics, or Physics -5+ years of C++ or Rust experience in a Linux development environment -Experience building software solutions involving significant amounts of data processing and analysis -Ability to quickly understand and navigate complex systems and established code bases -Must be eligible to obtain and hold a US DoD Security Clearance.

PREFERRED QUALIFICATIONS -Experience in one or more of the following: motion planning, perception, localization, mapping, controls, and related system performance metrics. -Understanding of systems software (kernel, device drivers, system calls) and performance analysis

Location Seattle, WA

Description Futures Design is the advanced concept design and incubation team within Amazon’s Device and Services Design Group (DDG). We are responsible for exploring and defining think (very) big opportunities globally and locally — so that we can better understand how new products and services might enrich the lives of our customers and so that product teams and leaders can align on where we're going and why we're going there. We focus on a 3–10+ year time frame, with the runway to invent and design category-defining products and transformational customer experiences. Working with Amazon business and technology partners, we use research, design, and prototyping to guide early product development, bring greater clarity to engineering goals, and develop a UX-grounded point of view.

We're looking for a Principal Design Technologist to join the growing DDG Futures Design team. You thrive in ambiguity and paradigm shifts– remaking assumptions of how customers engage, devices operate, and builders create. You apply deep expertise that spans design, technology, and product, grounding state-of-the-art emerging technologies through storytelling and a maker mindset. You learn and adapt technology trends to enduring customer problems through customer empathy, code, and iterative experimentation.

You will wear multiple hats to quickly assimilate customer problems, convert them to hypotheses, and test them using efficient technologies and design methods to build stakeholder buy-in. You’ll help your peers unlock challenging scenarios and mature the design studio’s ability to deliver design at scale across a breadth of devices and interaction modalities. You will work around limitations and push capabilities through your work. Your curiosity will inspire those around you and facilitate team growth, while your hands-on, collaborative nature will build trust with your peers and studio partners.

A postdoctoral position is available in Harvard Ophthalmology Artificial Intelligence (AI) Lab (https://ophai.hms.harvard.edu) under the supervision of Dr. Mengyu Wang (https://ophai.hms.harvard.edu/team/dr-wang/) at Schepens Eye Research Institute of Massachusetts Eye and Ear and Harvard Medical School. The start date is flexible, with a preference for candidates capable of starting in August or September 2024. The initial appointment will be for one year with the possibility of extension. Review of applications will begin immediately and will continue until the position is filled. Salary for the postdoctoral fellow will follow the NIH guideline commensurate with years of postdoctoral research experience.

In the course of this interdisciplinary project, the postdoc will collaborate with a team of world-class scientists and clinicians with backgrounds in visual psychophysics, engineering, biostatistics, computer science, and ophthalmology. The postdoc will work on developing statistical and machine learning models to improve the diagnosis and prognosis of common eye diseases such as glaucoma, age-related macular degeneration, and diabetic retinopathy. The postdoc will have access to abundant resources for education, career development and research both from the Harvard hospital campus and Harvard University campus. More than half of our postdocs secured a faculty position after their time in our lab.

For our data resources, we have about 3 million 2D fundus photos and more than 1 million 3D optical coherence tomography scans. Please check http://ophai.hms.harvard.edu/data for more details. For our GPU resources, we have 22 in-house GPUs in total including 8 80-GB Nvidia H100 GPUs, 10 48-GB Nvidia RTX A6000 GPUs, and 4 Nvidia RTX 6000 GPUs. Please check http://ophai.hms.harvard.edu/computing for more details. Our recent research has been published in ICCV 2023, ICLR 2024, CVPR 2024, IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, and Medical Image Analysis. Please check https://github.com/Harvard-Ophthalmology-AI-Lab for more details.

The successful applicant will:

1. possess or be on track to complete a PhD or MD with background in computer science, mathematics, computational science, statistics, machine learning, deep learning, computer vision, image processing, biomedical engineering, bioinformatics, visual science and ophthalmology or a related field. Fluency in written and spoken English is essential.

2. have strong programming skills (Python, R, MATLAB, C++, etc.) and in-depth understanding of statistics and machine learning. Experience with Linux clusters is a plus.

3. have a strong and productive publication record.

4. have a strong work ethic and time management skills along with the ability to work independently and within a multidisciplinary team as required.

Your application should include:

1. curriculum vitae

2. statement of past research accomplishments, career goal and how this position will help you achieve your goals

3. Two representative publications

4. contact information for three references

The application should be sent to Mengyu Wang via email (mengyu_wang at meei.harvard.edu) with subject “Postdoctoral Application in Harvard Ophthalmology AI Lab".

Location Sunnyvale, CA Bellevue, WA Seattle, WA

Description The Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) team is looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Applied Science Manager with a strong deep learning background, to lead the development of industry-leading technology with multimodal systems.

As an Applied Science Manager with the AGI team, you will lead the development of novel algorithms and modeling techniques to advance the state of the art with multimodal systems. Your work will directly impact our customers in the form of products and services that make use of vision and language technology. You will leverage Amazon’s heterogeneous data sources and large-scale computing resources to accelerate development with multimodal Large Language Models (LLMs) and Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) in Computer Vision.

Location Seattle, WA Arlington, VA New York, NY San Francisco, CA

Description Join us at the cutting edge of Amazon's sustainability initiatives to work on environmental and social advancements to support Amazon's long term worldwide sustainability strategy. At Amazon, we're working to be the most customer-centric company on earth. To get there, we need exceptionally talented, bright, and driven people.

The Worldwide Sustainability (WWS) organization capitalizes on Amazon’s scale & speed to build a more resilient and sustainable company. We manage our social and environmental impacts globally, driving solutions that enable our customers, businesses, and the world around us to become more sustainable.

Sustainability Science and Innovation (SSI) is a multi-disciplinary team within the WW Sustainability organization that combines science, analytics, economics, statistics, machine learning, product development, and engineering expertise. We use this expertise and skills to identify, develop and evaluate the science and innovations necessary for Amazon, customers and partners to meet their long-term sustainability goals and commitments.

We’re seeking a Senior Principal Scientist for Sustainability and Climate AI to drive technical strategy and innovation for our long-term sustainability and climate commitments through AI & ML. You will serve as the strategic technical advisor to science, emerging tech, and climate pledge partners operating at the Director, VPs, and SVP level. You will set the next generation modeling standards for the team and tackle the most immature/complex modeling problems following the latest sustainability/climate sciences. Staying hyper current with emergent sustainability/climate science and machine learning trends, you'll be trusted to translate recommendations to leadership and be the voice of our interpretation. You will nurture a continuous delivery culture to embed informed, science-based decision-making into existing mechanisms, such as decarbonization strategies, ESG compliance, and risk management. You will also have the opportunity to collaborate with the Climate Pledge team to define strategies based on emergent science/tech trends and influence investment strategy. As a leader on this team, you'll play a key role in worldwide sustainability organizational planning, hiring, mentorship and leadership development.

If you see yourself as a thought leader and innovator at the intersection of climate science and tech, we’d like to connect with you.

We are seeking a highly motivated candidate for a fully funded PhD position to work in 3D computer graphics and 3D computer vision.

The successful candidate will join the 3D Graphics and Vision research group led by Prof. Binh-Son Hua at the School of Computer Science and Statistics, Trinity College Dublin, Ireland to work on topics related to generative AI in the 3D domain.

The School of Computer Science and Statistics at Trinity College Dublin is a collegiate, friendly, and research-intensive centre for academic study and research excellence. The School has been ranked #1 in Ireland, top 25 in Europe, and top 100 Worldwide (QS Subject Rankings 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021).

The PhD student is expected to conduct fundamental research and publish in top-tier computer vision and computer graphics conferences (CVPR, ECCV, ICCV, SIGGRAPH) and journals (TPAMI, IJCV).

The start date of the position is September 01, 2024. The position is fully funded for 4 years by Science Foundation Ireland.

The successful candidate will require the following skills and knowledge: • Bachelor or Master in Computer Science or related fields; • Strong competence in computer graphics, computer vision; • Solid experience in academic research and publications is an advantage; • Additional background in math, statistics, or physics is an advantage. • Hands-on experience in training deep models; • Hands-on experience in computer graphics and computer vision application development such as OpenGL, OpenCV, CUDA, Blender; • Strong programming skills in C++, Python. Capability in implementing systems based on open-source software.

Applicants should provide the following information: • A comprehensive CV; • Academic transcripts of Bachelor and Master’s degree; • The name and contact details of two referees.

Interested candidates can email Binh-Son Hua (https://sonhua.github.io) for an informal discussion of the position. Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis until the position has been filled.

Vancouver

Who we are Established in 2017, Wayve is a leader in autonomous vehicle technology, driven by breakthroughs in Embodied AI. Our intelligent, mapless, and hardware-agnostic technologies empower vehicles to navigate complex environments effortlessly.

Supported by prominent investors, Wayve is advancing the transition from assisted to fully automated driving, making transportation safer, more efficient, and universally accessible. Join our world-class, multinational team of engineers and researchers as we push the boundaries of frontier AI and autonomous driving, creating impactful technologies and products on a global scale

Where you will have an impact We are seeking an experienced researcher to be a founding member of our Vancouver team! We are prioritising someone with experience actively participating in AI projects applied to autonomous driving or similar robotics or decision-making domains, inclusive, but not limited to the following specific areas:

Foundation models for robotics or embodied AI Model-free and model-based reinforcement learning Offline reinforcement learning Large language models Planning with learned models, model predictive control and tree search Imitation learning, inverse reinforcement learning and causal inference Learned agent models: behavioural and physical models of cars, people, and other dynamic agents Challenges you will own You'll be working on some of the world's hardest problems, and able to attack them in new ways. You'll be a key member of our diverse, cross-disciplinary team, helping teach our robots how to drive safely and comfortably in complex real-world environments. This encompasses many aspects of research across perception, prediction, planning, and control, including:

How to leverage our large, rich, and diverse sources of real-world driving data How to architect our models to best employ the latest advances in foundation models, transformers, world models, etc, evaluating and incorporating state-of-the-art techniques into our workflows. Which learning algorithms to use (e.g. reinforcement learning, behavioural cloning) How to leverage simulation for controlled experimental insight, training data augmentation, and re-simulation How to scale models efficiently across data, model size, and compute, while maintaining efficient deployment on the car Collaborate with cross-functional teams to integrate research findings into scalable, production-level solutions. You also have the potential to contribute to academic publications for top-tier conferences like NeurIPS, CVPR, ICRA, ICLR, CoRL etc. working in a world-class team, contributing to the scientific community and establishing Wayve as a leader in the field.

What you will bring to Wayve Proven track record of research in one or more of the topics above demonstrated through deployed applications or publications. Strong programming skills in Python, with experience in deep learning frameworks such as PyTorch, numpy, pandas, etc. Experience bringing a machine learning research concept through the full ML development cycle Excellent problem-solving skills and the ability to work independently as well as in a team environment. Demonstrated ability to work collaboratively in a fast-paced, innovative, interdisciplinary team environment. Desirable: Experience bringing an ML research concept through to production and at scale PhD in Computer Science, Computer Engineering, or a related field

What we offer you The chance to be part of a truly mission driven organisation and an opportunity to shape the future of autonomous driving. Unlike our competitors, Wayve is still relatively small and nimble, giving you the chance to make a huge impact Competitive compensation and benefits A dynamic and fast-paced work environment in which you will grow every day - learning on the job, from the brightest minds in our space, and with support for more formal learning opportunities too

Location Multiple Locations

Description

Members of our team are part of a multi-disciplinary core research group within Qualcomm which spans software, hardware, and systems. Our members contribute technology deployed worldwide by partnering with our business teams across mobile, compute, automotive, cloud, and IOT. We also perform and publish state-of-the-art research on a wide range of topics in machine-learning, ranging from general theory to techniques that enable deployment on resource-constrained devices. Our research team has demonstrated first-in-the-world research and proof-of-concepts in areas such model efficiency, neural video codecs, video semantic segmentation, federated learning, and wireless RF sensing (https://www.qualcomm.com/ai-research), has won major research competitions such as the visual wake word challenge, and converted leading research into best-in-class user-friendly tools such as Qualcomm Innovation Center’s AI Model Efficiency Toolkit (https://github.com/quic/aimet). We recently demonstrated the feasibility of running a foundation model (Stable Diffusion) with >1 billion parameters on an Android phone under one second after performing our full-stack AI optimizations on the model.

Role responsibility can include both, applied and fundamental research in the field of machine learning with development focus in one or many of the following areas:

• Conducts fundamental machine learning research to create new models or new training methods in various technology areas, e.g. large language models, deep generative models (VAE, Normalizing-Flow, ARM, etc), Bayesian deep learning, equivariant CNNs, adversarial learning, diffusion models, active learning, Bayesian optimizations, unsupervised learning, and ML combinatorial optimization using tools like graph neural networks, learned message-passing heuristics, and reinforcement learning.

• Drives systems innovations for model efficiency advancement on device as well as in the cloud. This includes auto-ML methods (model-based, sampling based, back-propagation based) for model compression, quantization, architecture search, and kernel/graph compiler/scheduling with or without systems-hardware co-design.

• Performs advanced platform research to enable new machine learning compute paradigms, e.g., compute in memory, on-device learning/training, edge-cloud distributed/federated learning, causal and language-based reasoning.

• Creates new machine learning models for advanced use cases that achieve state-of-the-art performance and beyond. The use cases can broadly include computer vision, audio, speech, NLP, image, video, power management, wireless, graphics, and chip design

• Design, develop & test software for machine learning frameworks that optimize models to run efficiently on edge devices. Candidate is expected to have strong interest and deep passion on making leading-edge deep learning algorithms work on mobile/embedded platforms for the benefit of end users.

• Research, design, develop, enhance, and implement different components of machine learning compiler for HW Accelerators.

• Design, implement and train DL/RL algorithms in high-level languages/frameworks (PyTorch and TensorFlow).

Natick, MA, United States

The Company: Cognex is a global leader in the exciting and growing field of machine vision. This position is a hybrid role in our Natick, MA corporate HQ.

The Team: This position is for an experienced Software Engineer in the Core Vision Technology team at Cognex, focused on architecting and productizing the best-in-class computer vision algorithms and AI models that power Cognex’s industrial barcode readers and 2D vision tools with a mission to innovate on behalf of customers and make this technology accessible to a broad range of users and platforms. Our products combine custom hardware, specialized lighting and optics, and world-class vision algorithms/models to create embedded systems that can find and read high-density symbols on package labels or marked directly on a variety of industrial parts, including aircraft engines, electronics substrates, and pharmaceutical test equipment. Our devices need to read hundreds of codes per second, so speed-optimized hardware and software work together to create best in class technology. Companies around the world rely on Cognex vision tools and technology to guide assembly, automate inspection, and speed up production and distribution.

Job Summary: The Core Vision Technology team is seeking an experienced developer with deep knowledge of the software development life cycle, creative problem solving skills and solid design thinking, with a focus on productization of AI technology on embedded platforms. You will play the critical role of ** a chief architect **, who will lead the development and productization of computer vision AI models and algorithms on multiple Cognex products; with the goal of making the technology modular and available to a broad range of users and platforms. In this role, you will interface with machine vision experts in R&D, product, hardware, and other software engineering teams at Cognex. A successful individual will lead design discussions, make sound architectural choices for the future on different embedded platforms, advocate for engineering excellence, mentor junior engineers and extend technical influence across teams. Prior experience with productization of AI technology is essential for this position.

Essential Functions: -Develop and productize innovative vision algorithms, including AI models developed by the R&D team for detecting and reading challenging 1D and 2D barcodes, and vision tools for gauging, inspection, guiding, and identifying industrial parts. -Lead software and API design discussions and make scalable technology choices meeting current and future business needs.
-More details in the link below

Minimum education and work experience required: MS or PhD from a top engineering school in EE, CS or equivalent 7+ years relevant, high tech work experience

If you would like to meet the hiring manager at CVPR to discuss this opportunity, please email ahmed.elbarkouky@cognex.com

Redmond, Washington, United States

Overview We are seeking a highly skilled and passionate Research Scientist to join our Responsible & OpenAI Research (ROAR) team in Azure Cognitive Services.

As a Research Scientist, you will play a key role in advancing the field of Responsible Artificial Intelligence (AI) to ensure safe releases of the rapidly advancing AI technologies, such as GPT-4, GPT-4V, DALL-E 3 and beyond, as well as to expand and enhance our standalone Azure AI Content Safety Service.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

In alignment with our Microsoft values, we are committed to cultivating an inclusive work environment for all employees to positively impact our culture every day.

Responsibilities Conduct cutting-edge research to develop Responsible AI definitions, methodologies, algorithms, and models for both measurement and mitigation of AI risks. Stay abreast of the latest advancements in the field and contribute to the scientific community through publications at top venues. Contribute to the development of Responsible AI policies, guidelines, and best practices and ensure the practical implementation of these guidelines within various AI technology stacks across Microsoft, promoting a consistent approach to Responsible AI. Enable the safe release of new Azure OpenAI Service features, expand and enhance the Azure AI Content Safety Service with new detection technologies. Develop innovative approaches to address AI safety challenges for diverse customer scenarios. Other: Embody our Culture and Values

Figma is growing our team of passionate people on a mission to make design accessible to all. Born on the Web, Figma helps entire product teams brainstorm, design and build better products — from start to finish. Whether it’s consolidating tools, simplifying workflows, or collaborating across teams and time zones, Figma makes the design process faster, more efficient, and fun while keeping everyone on the same page. From great products to long-lasting companies, we believe that nothing great is made alone—come make with us!

The AI Platform team at Figma is working on an exciting mission of expanding the frontiers of AI for creativity, and developing magical experiences in Figma products. This involves making existing features like search smarter, and incorporating new features using cutting edge Generative AI and deep learning techniques. We’re looking for engineers with a background in Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence to improve our products and build new capabilities. You will be driving fundamental and applied research in this area. You will be combining industry best practices and a first-principles approach to design and build ML models that will improve Figma’s design and collaboration tool.

What you’ll do at Figma:

• Driving fundamental and applied research in ML/AI using Generative AI, deep learning and classical machine learning, with Figma product use cases in mind.
• Formulate and implement new modeling approaches both to improve the effectiveness of Figma’s current models as well as enable the launch of entirely new AI-powered product features.
• Work in concert with other ML researchers, as well as product and infrastructure engineers to productionize new models and systems to power features in Figma’s design and collaboration tool.
• Expand the boundaries of what is possible with the current technology set and experiment with novel ideas.
• Publish scientific work on problems relevant to Figma in leading conferences like ICML, NeurIPS, CVPR etc.

We'd love to hear from you if you have:

• Recently obtained or is in the process of obtaining a PhD in AI, Computer Science or a related field. Degree must be completed prior to starting at Figma.
• Demonstrated expertise in machine learning with a publication record in relevant conferences, or a track record in applying machine learning techniques to products.
• Experience in Python and machine learning frameworks (such as PyTorch, TensorFlow or JAX).
• Experience building systems based on deep learning, natural language processing, computer vision, and/or generative models.
• Experience solving sophisticated problems and comparing alternative solutions, trade-offs, and diverse points of view to determine a path forward.
• Experience communicating and working across functions to drive solutions.

While not required, it’s an added plus if you also have:

• Experience working in industry on relevant AI projects through internships or past full time work.
• Publications in recent advances in AI like Large language models (LLMs), Vision language Models (VLMs) or diffusion models.

B GARAGE was founded in 2017 by two PhD graduates from Stanford University. After having spent over five years researching robotics, computer vision, aeronautics, and drone autonomy, the co-founders set their minds on building a future where aerial robots would become an integral part of our daily lives without anyone necessarily piloting them. Together, our common goal is to redefine the user experience of drones and to expand the horizon for the use of drones.

The B GARAGE team is always looking for an enthusiastic, proactive, and collaborative Robotics and Automation Engineers to support the launch of intelligent aerial robots and autonomously sustainable ecosystems.

If you're interested in joining the B Garage team but don't see a role open that fits your background, apply to the general application and we'll reach out to discuss your career goals.

Redmond, Washington, United States

Overview We are seeking highly skilled and passionate research scientists to join Responsible & Open Ai Research (ROAR) in Azure Cognitive Services in Redmond, WA.

As a Principal Research Scientist, you will play a key role in advancing Responsible AI approaches to ensure safe releases of GenAI models such as GPT-4o, DALL-E, Sora, and beyond, as well as to expand and enhance the capability of Azure AI Content Safety Service.

Microsoft’s mission is to empower every person and every organization on the planet to achieve more. As employees we come together with a growth mindset, innovate to empower others, and collaborate to realize our shared goals. Each day we build on our values of respect, integrity, and accountability to create a culture of inclusion where everyone can thrive at work and beyond.

Responsibilities Conduct cutting-edge, deployment-driven research to develop Responsible AI definitions, methodologies, algorithms, and models for both measurement and mitigation of textual and multimodal AI risks. Stay abreast of the latest advancements in the field and contribute to the scientific community through publications at top venues.

Enable the safe release of multimodal models from OpenAI in Azure OpenAI Service, expand and enhance the Azure AI Content Safety Service with new detection/mitigation technologies in text and multimodal content. Develop innovative approaches to address AI safety challenges for diverse customer scenarios.

Review business and product requirements and incorporate state-of-the-art research to formulate plans that will meet business goals. Identifies gaps and determines which tools, technologies, and methods to incorporate to ensure quality and scientific rigor. Proactively provides mentorship and coaching to less experienced and mid-level team members.

At Zoox, you will collaborate with a team of world-class engineers with diverse backgrounds in areas such as AI, robotics, mechatronics, planning, control, localization, computer vision, rendering, simulation, distributed computing, design, and automated testing. You’ll master new technologies while working on code, algorithms, and research in your area of expertise to create and refine key systems and move Zoox forward.

Working at a startup gives you the chance to manifest your creativity and highly impact the final product.

Location Madrid, ESP

Description At Amazon, we are committed to being the Earth’s most customer-centric company. The International Technology group (InTech) owns the enhancement and delivery of Amazon’s cutting-edge engineering to all the varied customers and cultures of the world. We do this through a combination of partnerships with other Amazon technical teams and our own innovative new projects.

You will be joining the Tools and Machine learning (Tamale) team. As part of InTech, Tamale strives to solve complex catalog quality problems using challenging machine learning and data analysis solutions. You will be exposed to cutting edge big data and machine learning technologies, along to all Amazon catalog technology stack, and you'll be part of a key effort to improve our customers experience by tackling and preventing defects in items in Amazon's catalog.

We are looking for a passionate, talented, and inventive Scientist with a strong machine learning background to help build industry-leading machine learning solutions. We strongly value your hard work and obsession to solve complex problems on behalf of Amazon customers.