AI-driven drones appear to have attacked humans without authorization, according to a new report by the U.N.
Many critics view AI technology as an existential threat to humanity, seeing some variation of the Terminator franchise’s Skynet wiping humanity out. Those critics may have just been given the strongest support yet for their fears, with AI drones attacking retreating soldiers without being instructed to.
According to the U.N. report, via The Independent, Libyan government forces were fighting Haftar Affiliated Forces (HAF) forces.
“Logistics convoys and retreating HAF were subsequently hunted down and remotely engaged by the unmanned combat aerial vehicles or the lethal autonomous weapons systems such as the STM Kargu-2,” read the UN report.
What makes the Kargu so dangerous is that it’s a “loitering” drone, designed to autonomously pick its own targets based on machine learning. If one such drone isn’t dangerous enough, the Kargu has swarming abilities, enabling 20 such drones to work together in a coordinated swarm.
“The lethal autonomous weapons systems were programmed to attack targets without requiring data connectivity between the operator and the munition: in effect, a true ‘fire, forget and find’ capability,” wrote the report’s experts.
The incident is sure to raise questions about the ongoing safety issues surrounding AI drone use, especially in the context of military applications.
Microsoft has announced its Advertising platform can now import Facebook Ads.
Many companies live or die by their online advertising. Especially in the wake of the pandemic, many small businesses have increasingly shifted to online sales, making their advertising more important than ever.
For companies looking to expand their advertising reach, recreating a successful campaign on another platform can be a time-consuming proposition. Microsoft is hoping to make it easier, releasing Facebook Import to help companies import their Facebook ad campaigns into the Microsoft Audience Network.
Are you new to audience campaigns, or looking to expand your existing presence on the Microsoft Audience Network? Using Facebook Import, it’s now easier than ever to get audience campaigns up and running by importing from Facebook Ads. Now rolling out to all advertisers in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, France and Germany, this new feature is designed to save you time and maximize ROI by seamlessly bringing over your campaigns from the Facebook Audience Network into the Microsoft Audience Network. Facebook Import can be used as a standalone tool, as well as a powerful complement to any existing Google Import strategy.
The new feature can be accessed via the Import menu in the Microsoft Advertising dashboard.
Amazon is throwing its weight behind efforts to revitalize the United States Postal Service, calling it the company’s “first and oldest business partner.”
The USPS has been facing increasingly difficult times as a result of the digital transformation. With people relying more on electronic communications than letters, USPS revenue has dropped precipitously. The outlook is even worse, with the USPS estimating it will lose $160 billion over the next 10 years.
The Postal Service Reform Act is bipartisan legislation that has been introduced in an effort to help the USPS transition to a more sustainable future.
We’re proud of our partnership with USPS and want to continue working with the agency to innovate and deliver for our customers well into the future. With the House Oversight Committee’s swift advancement of the Postal Service Reform Act, we hope the full U.S. House and Senate will follow suit. Enacting these common-sense reforms will help guarantee that the USPS remains an affordable, reliable, and profitable package delivery system for the American people.
It remains to be seen what will happen with the the Postal Service Reform Act, but Amazon has made it clear where it stands.
Google has been dealt a major setback, as a judge has granted class-action status to a lawsuit over alleged gender bias and pay discrimination.
Four plaintiffs have sued Google, accusing the company of discriminating against women, paying them less than their male counterparts. Google was seeking to prevent the lawsuit from gaining class-action status, but the judge ruled the four plaintiffs could represent the 10,800 women working for Google.
“This is a significant day for women at Google and in the technology sector, and we are so proud of our brave clients for leading the way,” Kelly Dermody, a lawyer representing the women, said in an email to Bloomberg. “This order shows that it is critical that companies prioritize paying women equitably over spending money fighting them in litigation.”
According to the court filing, the plaintiffs claim Google paid women roughly $16,794 per year less than men in similar roles. The case is seeking more than $600 million in damages.
The ruling is a big blow to Google, capping off a year of HR disasters. The company fired Dr. Timnit Gebru, and later Margaret Mitchell, calling into question academic integrity and its track record of how it treats Black women. The fallout has resulted in engineersquitting in protest and the company being removed as a sponsor for a prominent AI ethics conference.
Salesforce has delivered its first quarter results, posting a record quarter on strong Customer 360 results.
Salesforce posted $5.96 billion in revenue, a 23% increase year-over-year. Subscription and support revenue accounted for $5.54 billion of that, an increase of 21%, with the professional services and other revenue sources making up $0.43 billion, an increase of 47%.
“We had the best first quarter in our company’s history,” said Marc Benioff, Chair & CEO, Salesforce. “We believe our Customer 360 platform is proving to be the most relevant technology for companies accelerating out of the pandemic. With incredible momentum throughout our core business, we’re raising our revenue guidance for this fiscal year by $250 million to approximately $26 billion and non-GAAP operating margin to 18 percent. We’re on our path to reach $50 billion in revenue in FY26.”
“Our performance in the first quarter was strong across all financial metrics,” said Amy Weaver, President and Chief Financial Officer, Salesforce. “We saw record levels of new business and strength across all products, regions, and customer sizes. Our impressive start to this year helps fuel our momentum for the rest of the year as we keep pace toward our goal of $50 billion in revenue in FY26.”
In addition to beating earnings estimates, Salesforce issued stronger guidance than analysts were expecting, predicting $0.91 to $0.92 per share for the second quarter, on $6.22 billion to $6.23 billion. In contrast, according to CNBC, analysts had been expecting $0.86 on $6.15 billion.
Tesla is poised to take the unusual step of paying for semiconductors in advance in an effort to stay ahead of the shortage.
Semiconductors are in short supply as a result of the pandemic. Initially, production was hurt due to lockdowns and quarantines. The issue was later exacerbated by increased demand for computers, tablets and consoles, as individuals worked from home and increasingly turned to gaming for entertainment.
The end result has been a major semiconductor shortage, one that has impacted tech companies and automakers alike. Multiple automakers have had to suspend production, or ship vehicles without their full compliment of computer chips.
Tesla may be taking a novel approach, buying chips in advance to ensure it has the supply it needs, according to Financial Times, via Business Insider.
According to FT’s sources, Tesla is also looking at the possibility of buying its own semiconductor plant. The move, while ensuring its independence, would be extremely expensive and difficult to get off the ground.
Whatever route Tesla chooses, the company’s deliberations illustrate the desperate situation companies are finding themselves in.
In a groundbreaking court ruling, a Dutch court has ordered Royal Dutch Shell to slash emissions far more than it was planning.
As governments and corporations grapple with climate change, oil companies are in a difficult position. The oil industry has been one of the primary drivers for the current climate crisis, and companies have responded differently to the changing landscape. Some, such as Exxon, are going so far as to take a page out of Big Tobacco’s legal playbook in an effort to shift blame, downplay the danger and maximize profits as long as possible. Others, such as BP, are pivotingas fast as possible to renewable energy.
In the case of Shell, the company had already committed to cutting its carbon dioxide emissions 20% by 2030. A court in The Hague ruled that didn’t go far enough, and ordered the company to cut emissions by 45% in the same period.
Tears. of. joy. WE WON!
The Dutch court just ruled Shell must cut its CO2 emissions by 45% by 2030 (relative to 2019 levels).
The climate fight is enormous but we know we can win this thing, beat fossil fuel companies and build a better world. #StopShellpic.twitter.com/MCGHyfI9Gf
— Friends of the Earth Europe #BlackLivesMatter (@foeeurope) May 26, 2021
Donald Pols, director of Friends of the Earth Netherlands, praised the decision: “This is a monumental victory for our planet, for our children and is a stop towards a liveable future for everyone.The judge has left no room for doubt: Shell is causing dangerous climate change and must stop its destructive behaviour now.”
Roger Cox, lawyer for Friends of the Earth Netherlands, added: “This is a turning point in history. This case is unique because it is the first time a judge has ordered a large polluting company to comply with the Paris Climate Agreement. This ruling may also have major consequences for other big polluters.”
The ruling is sure to spark fear in other corporations, and open the door for litigation against companies that are not doing enough to abide by the Paris Climate Agreement.
A new Competitive Assessment report puts Microsoft Azure and AWS leading the pack in IoT deployment.
AWS and Microsoft Azure are the two largest cloud platforms, and the two companies play an important role in IoT. According to ABI Research, the two companies are also leading the pack in core IoT deployments.
“Understanding the intricacies of the market is key,” Dimitrios Pavlakis, Senior Analyst of IoT and Digital Security at ABI Research. “Cloud device management alone is not enough to guarantee victory; the importance of critical partnerships is as relevant as ever to increase market reach and not be consumed by the competition. Intelligent solutions and automation are required for a sustainable lifecycle management environment, and even criteria like dev-tools and resource modularity can greatly add to the popularity of certain solutions and shape future IoT-borne revenue streams.”
According to ABI Research, Pelion, Intel, Telit, Device Authority, Thales, and Digicert were in the middle of the pack, with Avsystem and Sequitur Labs following.
All together, twelve criteria were used in the assessment, including encryption and hardware security, dev tools, cloud, software options, IoT connectivity and ecosystem support, strategic partnerships, regulatory policies, FOTA, automation, trusted ID, pricing and monetization.
“Innovation without a clear device-to-cloud roadmap, a flexible monetization strategy, and a solid partnership circle is utterly meaningless in most cases,” Pavlakis concludes.
The Big Three in the cloud industry are bidding on a contract for Boeing, valued at $1 billion.
Amazon, Microsoft and Google are the top three cloud providers and routinely try to outbid each other for major contracts. According to The Information, their latest point of competition is a multi-year cloud contract for Boeing.
The contract has special significance for Amazon and Microsoft since both companies are based in the Seattle area, like Boeing itself. Winning the contract would give either company a big local win, and allow them to represent another local icon.
The deal is thought to be worth at least $1 billion over the next several years.
The popularity of women’s sports viewership has grown in recent years. In 2020, the National Women’s Soccer League (NWSL) broke viewership records by nearly 300%, reaching 653,000 views. Interest in women’s soccer was spurred by the 2019 World Cup win. The United State’s women’s teams have placed in the top three every World Cup since the tournament was established in 1991, sparking interest. The 2020 NWSL challenge cup drew viewership on par with a Major League Baseball game airing in the same time slot.
So, what has changed? Esmeralda Negron, the co-founder of Atlanta Media and former professional soccer player, said, “Premium broadcasting plays a massive role in elevating the visibility and profile of leagues and players at the club level.” Viewership was improved because the first and last games aired on CBS, rather than a subscription service. Also, the month-long tournament schedule started before the men’s league and before the NBA returned from lockdown.
Not only has viewership changed, but viewers want women’s sports. 84% of sports fans are interested in women’s sports, and 66% of people are interested in at least one women’s sport. The demographic of sports fans are 49% women and 51% men. The Olympic Channel found that 56% of engagement comes from women, and viewership of women’s content is 16% higher than that of men’s. Yet, only half of the sports governing bodies have a boardroom of at least 25% women.
The sports gender gap goes beyond viewership. In NCAA Division 1 schools, more than half of the students are women, yet only 44% of athletic opportunities are for women. Division 1 football schools only give women 29% of total athletic operating expenses, 28% of recruiting dollars, and 39% of athletic scholarship dollars. For every $1 spent on women’s sports, $2.50 are spent on men’s, and coaches for women earn $.063 for every $1 earned by coaches for men.
In addition, there are huge pay gaps for female athletes. On average, female athletes are earning 63% of their male counterparts. In basketball, the NBA pays its players up to 51% of the league’s revenue, but the WNBA only pays its players up to 23% of their league’s revenue. In addition, in 2020, Forbes’ 50 highest-paid athletes included just one woman, Naomi Osaka.
What does the future hold? While fewer people are interested in women’s sports than some men’s sports, there is still a large fanbase. The potential fanbase for women’s sports is in the millions; 38% of people who’d never watched a women’s sports even before say they “could be interested” in the future. Media coverage is key in improving viewership and interest. In 2020, women made up 40% of sportspeople but received just 4% of the sports media coverage. Lack of media coverage impacts sponsorships, creating missed opportunities.
Women’s sports represent a valuable sponsorship opportunity for brands, yet just .4% of sponsorship dollars go to women’s sports. 1 in 5 people is more influenced by sponsorships of women’s than of men’s. 3 in 4 people interested in women’s sports can name at least one brand involved, and 63% of people believe brands should invest in both women’s and men’s sports. It’s time to invest in women’s sports.
Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. Noice has raised $5 million for what the startup is teasing as a “playful” social platform for gamers. The Helsinki, Finland-based startup comes from Jussi Laakkonen, who was the founder of Applifier, a mobile game video sharing company that was acquired by Unity Te…Read More
OpenAI, one of the leading AI companies, has established a fund to invest in AI startups, in partnership with Microsoft.
OpenAI was co-founded by Elon Musk. Musk has long been a critic of AI, believing it represents one of the biggest existential threats humanity faces. OpenAI was founded with the goal of developing AI in a safe, responsible way.
The OpenAI Startup Fund is a $100 million fund to help AI startups that can have a profoundly positive impact on the world. The fund was announced by OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman at Microsoft Build 2021.
“This is not a typical corporate venture fund,” said Altman. “We plan to make big, early bets on a relatively small number of companies, probably not more than 10. And we’re looking for startups in fields where AI can have the most profound, positive impact, like healthcare, climate change and education. We’re also excited about markets where AI can drive big leaps in productivity, like personal assistants and semantic search.
“We think that helping people be more productive with new tools is a big deal, and we can imagine brand-new interfaces that weren’t possible a year ago. These aren’t the only applications we’ll consider, but they’re at the top of our target list.”
Over 600 Amazon workers have signed a petition asking Amazon to do more to address warehouse pollution in communities of color.
Recent research has shown that communities of color are disproportionately impacted by airborne pollution. Amazon Employees for Climate Justice (AECJ) accuse Amazon of being complicit in that disparity.
Amazon’s operations are complicit in environmental racism. Amazon’s logistics network of trucks spew climate-change-causing greenhouse gases and toxic particles as they drive to and from warehouses that are concentrated near Black, Latinx, and Indigenous communities. Public warehouse facility location data from MWPVL International indicates 80% of Amazon’s non-corporate facilities are located in zip codes that have a higher percentage of people of color than the majority of populated zip codes in their metropolitan area.
The AECJ has created a petition in an effort to force Amazon to address the issue.
As employees, we are alarmed that Amazon’s pollution is disproportionately concentrated in communities of color. Amazon must commit to zero emissions by 2030 and deploy zero emissions technologies in communities most impacted by its pollution first. We want to be proud of where we work. A company that lives up to its statements about racial equity and closes the racial equity gaps in its operations is a critical part of that.
Artificial intelligence (AI) may be taking the business world by storm, but that doesn’t mean companies understand it.
A new report by Corinium and FICO indicates that some 65% of respondent companies cannot explain how the AI they utilize makes decisions or predictions. Unfortunately, the lack of knowledge leaves companies open to AI being misused.
“Over the past 15 months, more and more businesses have been investing in AI tools, but have not elevated the importance of AI governance and responsible AI to the boardroom level,” said Scott Zoldi, Chief Analytics Officer at FICO. “Organizations are increasingly leveraging AI to automate key processes that – in some cases – are making life-altering decisions for their customers and stakeholders. Senior leadership and boards must understand and enforce auditable, immutable AI model governance and product model monitoring to ensure that the decisions are accountable, fair, transparent, and responsible.”
The issue is further exacerbated by a lack of agreement about what ethical standards AI must meet. While some 55% agree that AI systems should meet basic ethical standards, 43% believe they have no responsibility beyond the most basic regulatory compliance, even if the AI systems in question will impact people’s livelihoods.
“AI will only become more pervasive within the digital economy as enterprises integrate it at the operational level across their businesses,” said Cortnie Abercrombie, Founder and CEO, AI Truth. “Key stakeholders, such as senior decision makers, board members, customers, etc. need to have a clear understanding on how AI is being used within their business, the potential risks involved and the systems put in place to help govern and monitor it. AI developers can play a major role in helping educate key stakeholders by inviting them to the vetting process of AI models.”
The report shows how far industries have to go before AI can be trusted to handle the kinds of decisions many tech leaders are eager to thrust upon it.
Google Cloud has unveiled its latest innovations, aimed at helping companies unify database, analytics and AI.
Google Cloud is the third leading cloud provider, behind AWS and Microsoft Azure. The company is particularly viewed as a good option for machine learning development, and has strong support for open source software.
The company’s latest tools will go a long way toward improving its stand even further, with Dataplex, Datastream and Analytics Hub.
Dataplex is designed to “centrally manage, monitor and govern your data across data lakes, data warehouses and data marts, and make this data securely accessible to a variety of analytics and data science tools.”
Datastream, currently available in preview, helps “move and synchronize data between heterogeneous databases, storage and applications reliably to support real-time analytics, database replication and event-driven architectures with Datastream, our serverless change data capture (CDC) and replication service.”
Analytics Hub is designed to make it easy to “access and share valuable datasets and analytics assets (think BigQuery ML models, Looker Blocks, data quality recipes, etc.) across any organizational boundary.” Those interested will need to sign up for preview access.
The company’s latest tools should go a long way toward helping its customers make the most of their data, as well as AI applications.
Ford has unveiled its Ford+ plan, including IonBoost batteries and plans to have 40% of its vehicles electric by 2030.
Virtually ever major automaker is working to transition to electric vehicles (EV), and Ford is no exception. The company had previously committed to all its European passenger vehicles being all-electric by 2030. The company also moved its battery EV battery production in-house.
Ford has expanded on its plans, saying it expects 40% of its global vehicle volume to be all-electric by 2030. A big part of that plan is the in-house IonBoost line of batteries. There will be two variations of the batteries: IonBoost lithium ion for passenger vehicles and IonBoost Pro lithium iron phosphate batteries for commercial vehicles. The company also plans to introduce affordable solid-state batteries, based on tech from Solid Power, which Ford owns a stake in.
“I’m excited about what Ford+ means for our customers, who will get new and better experiences by pairing our iconic, world-class vehicles with connected technology that constantly gets better over time,” said Ford CEO Jim Farley. “We will deliver lower costs, stronger loyalty and greater returns across all our customers.
“This is our biggest opportunity for growth and value creation since Henry Ford started to scale the Model T, and we’re grabbing it with both hands.”
Zoom is releasing a major update to its iPad client, adding support for the iPad Pro’s Center Stage, as well as 48-person Gallery View.
While the move to the M1 processor and mini-LED display stole the show when Apple introduced the new iPad Pro, it was the Center Stage announcement that had many professionals ready to upgrade.
For individuals using an iPad Pro as their primary machine (such as yours truly) the offset camera is a constant irritation. It’s impossible to look at the camera without appearing to the other participants as if you’re staring offscreen.
Center Stage solves that problem, using a wide angle camera and machine learning, to keep you centered onscreen. Apple quickly announced the feature would not only work with FaceTime, but with third-party video apps as well.
Zoom’s latest release adopts the feature, bringing a welcome improvement to company meetings.
With support for Center Stage, you can participate more naturally in our Zoom video calls. Never again worry about whether you’re out of frame during a workout, teaching a class, or celebrating with friends and family over Zoom.
Another major new addition to this release is expanded Gallery View, with support for 48 video tiles, up from 25 in the previous version. While only the 2021 iPad Pro will increase to 48 tiles, Zoom says previous models will get an expanded Gallery View as well, although the number of added tiles will depend on the device and screen size.
Microsoft is integrating GPT-3 — a natural language model developed by OpenAI — with its low-code development tools.
Microsoft Power Apps is the company’s low-code development platform, designed to allow individuals to create software with minimal coding experiencing. GTP-3 is a natural language model developed by OpenAI, the artificial intelligence company that was co-founded by Elon Musk.
By combining GTP-3 and Power Apps, Microsoft hopes to revolutionize low-code development, alowing individuals to program using natural expression commands.
Microsoft’s Jennifer Langston outlined the benefits in a company blog post:
For instance, the new AI-powered features will allow an employee building an e-commerce app to describe a programming goal using conversational language like “find products where the name starts with ‘kids.’” A fine-tuned GPT-3 model then offers choices for transforming the command into a Microsoft Power Fx formula, the open source programming language of the Power Platform, such as “Filter(‘BC Orders’ Left(‘Product Name’,4)=”Kids”).
Integrating GPT-3 into Power Apps will help the company’s development tools go from low-code to no-code.
“Using an advanced AI model like this can help our low-code tools become even more widely available to an even bigger audience by truly becoming what we call no code,” said Charles Lamanna, corporate vice president for Microsoft’s low code application platform.
“This will allow people to query and explore data in ways they literally couldn’t do before, and that will be the magical moment,” Lamanna added.
Watch this webcast to learn more about migrating your tax processes to the cloud. It is now possible to accelerate your indirect tax processes with cloud technology. By utilizing tax technology you can address critical infrastructure changes, provide faster and more reliable access for remote users, increase scalability, and reduce costs.
Implementation of a new tax technology throughout your business can make it easier to scale for growth, as well as integrate with your ERP, point of sale (POS), and subscription billing service. According to a survey conducted by CIO.com, 78% of IT professionals expect digital transformation to greatly impact their organization within a year. How are you going to change your business?
In this on-demand webcast, Heather Ingram, cloud practice leader from Vertex Consulting, and Vince Morasco, cloud manager from Vertex Product Management, will walk you through multiple areas to consider before, during, and after the migration.
As 5G has increasingly become a geopolitical issue, Ericsson is warning it will likely be caught in the crossfire in China.
Countries around the world are racing to deploy 5G networks. Once one of the leading equipment providers, Chinese firm Huawei has been under siege for the last couple of years as the US and its allies have leveled sanctions against the company, accusing it of being a national security risk.
One of the countries that banned Huawei from participating in its 5G networks is Sweden, the home country of Ericsson. Huawei challenged the ruling, but lost on appeal.
Ericsson is now warning that Beijing may retaliate, excluding the company from participating in 5G network deployments in China. Even if Ericsson is allowed to participate, it does not believe it will maintain the same market share as in times past.
While Ericsson is invited to various ongoing tender processes in China, the final outcome remains uncertain and it is the company’s current assessment that the risk has increased that Ericsson will in those tenders be allocated a significantly lower market share than its current market share.
The company sees the issue having “a material and potentially lasting adverse impact on our business, including sales, market share, market access and supply chain and R&D activities, our financial condition and results of operations.”
Washington, D.C. Atorney General Karl A. Racine has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Amazon for anticompetitive practices and price-fixing.
Amazon has increasingly been under fire on all fronts. The company has repeatedly been criticized for how it treats employees, as well as its attempts to combat unionization efforts.
Now the company is under fire for alleged anticompetitive behavior, including wide scale price-fixing. At the heart of the case is the company’s “most favored nation” (MFN) agreements, which prohibit retailers from offering their products elsewhere at cheaper prices, or with better terms, than they do on Amazon. The MFN agreements even prohibit retailers from offering their products cheaper on their own websites.
“Amazon has used its dominant position in the online retail market to win at all costs. It maximizes its profits at the expense of third-party sellers and consumers, while harming competition, stifling innovation, and illegally tilting the playing field in its favor,” said AG Racine. “We filed this antitrust lawsuit to put an end to Amazon’s illegal control of prices across the online retail market. We need a fair online marketplace that expands options available to District residents and promotes competition, innovation, and choice.”
According to the AG, Amazon claimed to have removed its price parity policy in 2019. In actuality, the company is accused of quickly and quietly replacing it with replacement policy that accomplished the same thing. Under the new policy, the Fair Pricing Policy, “third-party sellers can be sanctioned or removed from Amazon altogether if they offer their products for lower prices or under better terms on a competing online platform.”
Microsoft, the Linux Foundation, Accenture, GitHub and ThoughtWorks have launched The Green Software Foundation to promote sustainable software development.
Software development may not be the leading contributor to climate change, or even come up in most conversations about it, but estimates place data center electricity usage at 1%. Over the next decade, data center electricity usage is expected to increase to 3-8% of global usage.
Microsoft and its fellow organizations founded The Green Software Foundation nonprofit with the intention of building “a trusted ecosystem of people, standards, tooling and leading practices for building green software.” The foundation will work to help the information and communications technology sector meet its Paris Climate Agreement goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 45% by 2030.
“The scientific consensus is clear: the world confronts an urgent carbon problem,” Microsoft president Brad Smith said. “It will take all of us working together to create innovative solutions to drastically reduce emissions. Today, Microsoft is joining with organizations who are serious about an environmentally sustainable future to drive adoption of green software development to help our customers and partners around the world reduce their carbon footprint.”
The foundation outlined its three primary goals:
Establish green software industry standards: The foundation will create and publish green software standards, green patterns and practices across various computing disciplines and technology domains. The group will encourage voluntary adoption and help guide government policy toward those standards for a consistent approach for measuring and reporting green software emissions.
Accelerate innovation: To grow the green software field, we need to nurture the creation of trusted open-source and open-data projects that support the creation of green software applications. The foundation will work alongside our nonprofit partners and academia to support research into green software.
Drive awareness and grow advocacy: If we want companies to build greener applications, they need people who know how to build them. As such, one of our key missions is to drive widespread adoption of green software across the industry through ambassador programs, training and education which leads to certification and events to facilitate the growth of green software.
Oracle has announced it is offering Arm-based cloud computing, using processors from Ampere Computing.
Arm Holdings designs semiconductors and licenses those designs to other companies. The processors offer a combination of power and efficiency that make them ideally suited for use in compact spaces, making them the preferred chips for smartphones and tablets. Those same qualities also make them ideal for data center operations, where cooling and power requirements are at a premium.
Oracle now joins Amazon as one of the companies offering Arm-based cloud computing services, powered by Ampere A1 Compute chips. Oracle is touting its cost, a mere one cent per core hour, as the industry’s lowest cost per core.
“We see increasing demand for server-side Arm computing and adding Arm-based compute instances to our extensive portfolio of offerings enables customers to pick and choose the right processors for their workloads,” said Clay Magouyrk, executive vice president, Oracle Cloud Infrastructure. “Now customers who need an Arm platform for development can get the flexibility, scalability, and price-performance they need. We’re also making it really easy for developers to move their apps and develop new ones on Oracle Cloud Infrastructure.”
“Ampere instances on OCI is a breakthrough for developers. Oracle’s Free Tier is a great offering that allows them to test the OCI Ampere A1 compute platform and experience the first-cloud native processor that delivers predictable performance, scalability and power needed,” said Renee James, founder, chairman and CEO, Ampere Computing. “The Oracle Cloud has all the tools developers need to try new technology, get excited about new platforms and develop new applications.”
Arm semiconductor adoption in the data center is another increasingly worrying sign for Intel. While Arm has dominated the mobile market, Intel was the king of traditional computers and the data center. Last year, however, Apple announced it was switching its Mac platform to its own custom silicon, based on Arm designs. Microsoft has started following suit, pushing Windows on Arm.
With Amazon and Oracle both supporting Arm-based cloud computing, Intel’s last stronghold is now under full assault.
Nissan, Suzuki and Mitsubishi are joining the ranks of automakers impacted by the semiconductor shortage, announcing halted or reduced production.
The COVID-19 pandemic has led to a severe shortage of semiconductors. Originally the issue stemmed from factories being close due to lockdowns and quarantine. The problem has been exacerbated by a huge uptick in demand for computers, tablets and gaming consoles as people have been working and gaming from home.
Ford, Honda and BMW have already felt the impact. GM has even gone so far as to ship trucks without their full complement of fuel economy chips, leading them to have worse fuel mileage than previous models.
According to Reuters, Nissan is now planning on halting production for some models in its Mexico plant, while Suzuki will idle three of its factories in the Shizuoka prefecture from three to nine days.
“A global shortage of semiconductors has affected parts procurement in the auto sector. Due to the shortage, Nissan is adjusting production and taking necessary actions to ensure recovery,” a Nissan spokeswoman told Reuters.
Intel is trying to step up to help with the auto semiconductor shortage, but its plans won’t bear fruit for another six to nine months.
Germany is poised to be the first country to clear autonomous vehicles for everyday use.
According to Deutsche Welle, Germany’s lower house of parliament has passed a bill that paves the way for autonomous vehicle integration, with the bill moving to the upper chamber for passage. The bill would allow autonomous vehicles to be a standard part of daily traffic, with minimal restrictions.
“Individual permits, exceptions and requirements — such as the presence of a safety assurance driver who is always ready to intervene — would not be necessary,” the Transportation Ministry said in a statement.
In order to qualify, however, they must be Level 4 autonomous vehicles. Autonomous vehicles are ranked (via TechRepublic) from Level 0 to Level 5, with Level 0 having no autonomous ability and Level 5 requiring no human control whatsoever. Level 4 is still considered “fully autonomous,” even though it may not cover every conceivable driving scenario. Instead, Level 4 is focused on “operational design domain (ODD)” performance.
Currently, there are no Level 4 vehicles available. In fact, Honda recently made headlines when it announced the world’s first Level 3 autonomous vehicle. As a result, it may be some time before there are vehicles available that meet Germany’s threshold. Nonetheless, once the bill goes into effect, Level 4 vehicles should be approved as of 2022.
“Germany will be the first country worldwide to take autonomous vehicles from the research laboratories to the streets,” said Transportation Minister Andreas Scheuer in a statement. “We are now a major step closer to that goal.
Tesla appears to be testing a car with lidar sensors, a technology used to help automakers develop self-driving vehicles.
Elon Musk famously said “lidar is a fool’s errand,” at Tesla’s “Autonomy Day” in April 2019. “Anyone relying on lidar is doomed.” Musk has maintained his company can build full self-driving (FSD) vehicles without resorting to lidar.
Despite those statements, pictures have been circulating on Twitter showing a Model Y with lidar sensors on the roof.
According to Bloomberg, Tesla purchased the lidar sensors from Luminar, whose stock rose as a result. What’s not clear, however, is what the company is working on. While the obvious conclusion is that Tesla is doing an about-face, experts are not convinced.
“The more likely scenario is they are using the Luminar lidars to validate their camera-based FSD system,” Guidehouse analyst Sam Abuelsamid told Bloomberg. “If they made that change, it would effectively deprecate their entire fleet of vehicles. They are not going to retrofit one million vehicles.”
One strong possibility is that Tesla is simply testing their vehicles to see how they compare with lidar-equipped competitors.
After disrupting life everywhere and killing millions globally, the COVID-19 pandemic finally has a cure in the form of several vaccines. For countries like America to end the pandemic, they need to have 70 to 85% of their population vaccinated. With large sections of the country still hesitant to take the shot, however, between 10 and 15% of the population still needs to change their mind to make herd immunity happen. How can vaccine confidence in the US peak past its plateau?
First, one needs to understand which groups of people are hesitant to receive a vaccine. While those living in rural areas or members of the Black/African American community are slightly less likely to seek vaccination, the real indicator of hesitancy is political affiliation. Those who identify their politics as right leaning are 65% likely to vaccinate as compared to 92% of apolitical individuals and 95% of the mainstream left. This disparity is dramatic, but it is worth noting that it has been improving in recent months. When people across the political spectrum were asked about vaccine confidence in December 2020, the numbers for people on the right were 41%. Meanwhile, the confidence of other groups has stayed largely the same.
If one wishes to get more specific regarding consumer attributes of vaccine-hesitant people, there are a number of traits that go beyond race, geography, or political affiliation. Research shows that the vaccine ambivalent are likely to spend more in physical stores than on online shopping, they have an average education of high school or less, and often own multiple pets. While some of these traits don’t seem to relate to vaccination, they can help target campaigns that encourage confidence in the shot. According to Glenna Crooks, “we’ve not applied the industry’s commercialization skills to the challenge of increasing vaccine confidence [yet]… we need to leverage the market research, marketing, communications, sales, patient advocacy, public relations, and healthcare delivery expertise within companies.”
The rationale that vaccine holdouts list for their position is split between freedom of choice and fear of side effects. As such, efforts to increase vaccination rates should focus on addressing these concerns head on. A three-pronged approach to closing the confidence gap will require incentives, convenience, and positive dialogue. With incentives, freedom of choice must remain paramount, but governments and companies ought to experiment with incentives that resonate with the people they want to reach. For example, New Jersey has launched their “Shot and a Beer” program to encourage citizens of drinking age to get vaccinated. When it comes to convenience, shifting from mass vaccination sites to local healthcare provider offices can boost confidence and access in one. Vaccination rates by healthcare providers remain at all time high with 99% endorsements. Finally, positive dialogue should emphasize the personal and economic benefits of vaccination while reinforcing freedom of choice. They should not point fingers at politicians.
Vaccination is the safest path for America in its quest for herd immunity. Every citizen benefits from ending the pandemic.
According to numerous reports Amazon is very close to a deal to buy MGM Studios and its film library for nearly $9 billion with debt. This would significantly alter the streaming wars and give Amazon a huge base of over 4,000 titles, 17,000 hours of TV as well as the Epix pay-TV network. An agreement is expected this week unless their is a last-minute hitch.
Some on Twitter have concerns about Amazon’s growing power. Journalist Dan Primack says that a top Amazon exec told him: “We’ll keep doing big deals until one actually gets blocked, instead of just political rhetoric.”
Amazon talks with MGM confirm something a top Amazon corp dev exec told me just before the pandemic, when I asked if antitrust concerns would slow big acquisitions:
(paraphrased) "We'll keep doing big deals until one actually gets blocked, instead of just political rhetoric."
Another person tweeted: Now that Amazon is buying MGM Studios they’ll be in charge of the entire food supply with Whole Foods, media consumption and propaganda at the Washington Post, and now all Hollywood misinformation. What could possibly go WRONG??? Monopolies in America are Evil.
Sweet!! Now that Amazon is buying MGM studios they’ll be in charge of the entire food Supply with Whole Foods, media consumption and propaganda at Washington Post and now all Hollywood misinformation. What could possibly go WRONG??? Monopolies in America are Evil
The deal potential was originally reported by The Information last Monday. Numerous additional news reports were posted in the last hour:
The talks between Amazon and MGM have been on-again, off-again since the start of this year, people close to both companies said. Amazon and MGM have been in exclusive talks in recent weeks, the people said. The MGM board was briefed on the matter Sunday night, a person close to the situation said. There are no guarantees they will ultimately reach an agreement. An acquisition of one the most iconic entertainment brands in the world would be the most aggressive foray yet by a tech giant into Hollywood.
Wall Street Journal
Chatter that Amazon and other tech and media giants have been sniffing around MGM has circulated for some time. But sources indicated that Amazon’s interest in acquiring the studio has taken on a new tenor beyond the usual rumor mill. The deal is said to be being orchestrated by Mike Hopkins, senior VP of Amazon Studios and Prime Video, directly with MGM board chairman Kevin Ulrich, whose Anchorage Capital is a major MGM shareholder.
Variety
In the wake of Monday’s news that Amazon is making a go at MGM, it’s been radio silence. As of Friday, we hear that both sides remain actively in talks and want to get the deal done soon, but the time frame remains undefined.
Deadline
Amazon.com Inc. is nearing a deal to buy the Hollywood studio MGM Holdings for almost $9 billion, said people familiar with the matter, a pact that would turn a film operation founded in the silent era into a streaming asset for the e-commerce giant.
Fox Business
Reports: Amazon Deal To Buy MGM Studios For $9 Billion Nearly Done
Huawei founder Ren Zhengfei is calling on the company to pivot to software as sanctions against its hardware business have crippled it.
Huawei was one of the leading 5G network equipment providers in the world, in addition to being one of the top smartphone manufacturers. Concerns over its ties to Beijing, however, have led countries around the world to ban the company from participating in their 5G networks.
To make matters worse, the US led a successful effort to cut the company off from semiconductor manufacturing resources, effectively crippling its smartphone business. As a result, Huawei sold its Honor brand of smartphones, and warned that shipments of its flagship line would be significantly lower going forward.
Zhengfei believes the company’s path forward lies with software, according to a memo seen by Reuters, with him calling on the company to “dare to lead the world” in software. Zhengfei specifically highlighted his belief that the future of software development was “outside of U.S. control and we will have greater independence and autonomy.”
It’s a safe bet many countries and jurisdictions will be equally concerned about software provided by Huawei, but the lower cost involved in software vs hardware will still be a major benefit for the company.
Former Disney CEO Bob Iger gave the commencement address at University of Texas at Austin where he told graduates that acting boldly is the only way to accomplish meaningful things in life:
The only way to accomplish meaningful things in life is by acting boldly. Being timid has never gotten anyone anywhere. Of course, boldness is just not being timid. It means taking swift significant action in the face of fear and uncertainty. It means standing with courage and conviction particularly when confronted with tough or unpopular choices. It means having an unwavering commitment to honesty, integrity, and just doing the right thing. It means having a deep and abiding curiosity about people, places, ideas, and just a sheer willingness to try something new.
Being bold also requires ambition and a willingness to dream big. There is just no such thing as having dreams that are too big. My advice is to be optimistic, be confident, have faith in yourself and in your abilities, and believe that your dreams are achievable, and don’t let anyone tell you they’re not.
ServiceNow is extending its partnership with Microsoft to help protect organization’s data.
ServiceNow provides a cloud-based, SaaS platform that provides workflows for organizations. As pandemic and post-pandemic hybrid workflows become the norm, secure, digital workflows are more important than ever.
The company is expanding its partnership with Microsoft to include Microsoft Azure Sentinel, Microsoft Threat & Vulnerability Management, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft SharePoint. The integration will allow data from Microsoft’s service to be pulled into ServiceNow for analysis.
“Nearly 80 percent of the Fortune 500 rely on ServiceNow’s ‘platform of platforms’,” said Lou Fiorello, VP & GM of Security Products, ServiceNow. “More and more, customers are seeing the value of running security operations processes on the platform, leveraging enterprise business context, and automating workflows across the enterprise in real‑time. The powerful new integrations announced today tie Microsoft’s security products into the ServiceNow Security Operations ecosystem, helping security teams gain the context needed to prioritize and act on security incidents faster and more efficiently than ever.”
“In an increasingly hostile world, the only real competition is the bad actors and nation state adversaries,” said Eric Doerr, VP Cloud Security at Microsoft Corp. “Our integrations with Microsoft Security Solutions and ServiceNow Security Operations products enables customers to gain system‑wide visibility, automate security workflows, and respond rapidly to incidents to build a safer and more secure world for all.
Tesla has been ordered to pay customers in Norway $16,000 each for throttling battery charging speeds and capacity.
Tesla rolled out two software updates, 2019.16.1 and .2, which impacted the Model S and Model X containing 85 kWh battery packs. As Electrek reports, many users of those models started reporting range decreases of 12 to 30 miles, as well as slower charging times at Supercharger stations.
At the time, the company told Electrek the software update was designed to “protect the battery and improve battery longevity,” and that only a small percentage of users were impacted. The reassurance did little to stop a spate of lawsuits from Tesla owners whose vehicles were suddenly not performing as well as they were previously.
Norway’s court has now sided with users, finding Tesla guilty and ordering the company to pay $16,000 to each impacted owner. Although there were only 30 Tesla owners behind the lawsuit, it’s estimated there may be as many as 10,000 affected Norwegian owners, making the outcome potentially very expensive for the company.
It remains to be seen if Tesla will appeal, but the victory is sure to help similar lawsuits in other countries.
Elon Musk has signaled his willingness to open a factory in Russia, according to a new report.
Russia is not currently one of Tesla’s main markets. In fact, according to TheStreet, only 700 new Teslas were purchased in the entire country last year, along with less than 5,300 used vehicles.
Nonetheless, it appears Musk has his eye on eventually changing that, even having a factory in Russia.
“I think we’re close to establishing a Tesla presence in Russia, and I think that would be great,” Musk said according to a Bloomberg report, via TheStreet. “Over time, we will look to have factories in other parts of the world, potentially Russia at some point.”
Musk also commented on the talent and energy that exists in Russia, and his hope it will lead to positive changes.
“Hopefully that energy continues into the future, and I would just like to strongly encourage people to strive to make the future better than the past and to be optimistic about the future.”
Verizon has announced it is the exclusive partner of 15 NBA teams, and now has its Ultra Wideband 5G deployed in 60+ stadiums.
Ultra Wideband is Verizon’s name for the fastest flavor of 5G, mmWave. It offers speed measured in gigabits, and opens a world of new possibilities. The company is helping NBA teams use the technology to create more immersive experiences for fans in attendance. As one example, fans will be able to point their phones at a player and seen their stats and information on their screens, get shot/miss projections and more.
Verizon and the NBA teams clearly see such experiences as a key element to luring people back to in-person events.
“As fans return to live events, the need to reimagine the in-arena experience and operations has accelerated and 5G Ultra Wideband is a critical component,” said Brian Mecum, Vice President of Device Technology for Verizon. “The deployment of 5G in these arenas is the foundation for unlocking future fan experiences and solutions for venue operations.”
TSMC and MIT have made a major advancement in semiconductor design, with a 1nm breakthrough.
TSMC is a global leader in the semiconductor industry. The company makes chips for Apple, Qualcomm, AMD, NVIDIA, Alphabet, Huawei and Intel. Currently, TSMC uses 5nm chips. AMD is working to transition to 5nm and Intel is still struggling to move to 7nm. IBM made headlines when it announced it had made a breakthrough on 2nm chips, although they aren’t expected for another four years.
MIT and TSMC have now one-upped IBM, according to Taiwan News, making a major breakthrough with 1nm chips. The discovery was initially made by MIT, although MIT’s researchers were using TSMC components.
The announcement is further bad news for Intel. Once the leader in semiconductor design, Intel has increasingly faced supply and development issues, leading it to turn to TSMC to outsource some production. With TSMC now closing in on 1nm, the gap between the two companies will only continue to widen.
Microsoft and SAP are ending one of the main features of their partnership, wherein Azure was the preferred cloud platform.
Embrace was an SAP program designed to help companies move their workflows to the cloud. Initially, Microsoft and SAP had a partnership built around Embrace that made Azure the preferred cloud choice.
It appears that arrangement is coming to an end, according to Business Insider, a casualty of the escalating cloud wars. SAP’s customers increasingly wanted more choice, leading the company to de-emphasize its go-to-market strategy with Microsoft.
“Our customers made it really clear that the market wants to provide choice and optionality,” SAP senior vice president focused on customer success, David Robinson told Insider. “Choice and optionality means all partners that provide cloud infrastructure to operate SAP workloads are great partners.”
It appears Microsoft and SAP may not be on the same page, as Microsoft is saying the partnership is not ending early. A spokesperson told Insider: “We value our partnership with SAP and look forward to continuing to innovate and serve customers together.”
“We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model,” says Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins. “We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it. Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future.”
Chuck Robbins, CEO of Cisco, discusses on CNBC and in their quarterly earnings call how customers absolutely believe that the hybrid work model is in their future:
Customers Are Preparing For Hybrid Work Environment
Over the last couple of quarters, we’ve seen significant investment in next-generation wireless infrastructure to be ready for their employees to come to the office. As you load these wireless networks they are going to need campus refresh underneath them, and we’ve seen exactly that. The Catalyst 9000 platform has had four consecutive quarters of increasing growth sequentially.
We are really seeing the impact of this hybrid work model. We are seeing the preparation for hybrid work and the return to the office. Customers are absolutely believing this is going to occur and they’re investing in it.
Trusted Workplace of the Future
Let me now touch on Infrastructure Platforms. We saw strong demand across a majority of our portfolio, led by our next-generation Enterprise Networking and Service Provider solutions, as companies accelerate the modernization of their infrastructure. This modern infrastructure delivers higher performance and faster access to data while offering the best user experience in an increasingly distributed environment.
Customers are turning to us to help them create the trusted workplace of the future, with Wi-Fi access points, video endpoints, cameras and IoT sensors feeding data into DNA Center and DNA spaces. We’re enabling operations teams to remotely monitor workplace conditions for a safe return to office.
We’re also working to provide visibility beyond corporate networks, which is increasingly critical as our customers accelerate their adoption of SaaS and cloud solutions for hybrid work. At Cisco Live, we launched the industry’s first enterprise-wide full stack observability offering by integrating ThousandEyes cloud intelligence with our Catalyst switching portfolio and AppDynamics. This provides IT with visibility and actionable insights across both external and internal networks to provide a seamless digital experience for users. And with users more distributed than ever, it is vital that they have the most efficient and secure connection to the cloud.
Building the Internet of the Future
Our deep partnerships with Google, Amazon, and Microsoft allow native connectivity from our SD-WAN fabric to each of these cloud offerings. With our technology, customers can reduce deployment times and connect branch offices to cloud workloads in minutes. In our Webscale business, we delivered our sixth consecutive quarter of strong order growth, which increased over 25% in the quarter, and over 50% on a trailing 12-month basis.
Our Webscale customers are starting their 400 gig upgrade cycles and aggressively pursuing long-haul build-outs while our Carrier customers are exploring new architectures to realize the full potential of 5G. We are building the internet for the future by creating breakthrough innovation with our routing, optical and automation technologies to deliver significant economic benefits.
Customers Consuming Cisco Technology In New Ways
Recently, we launched a new routed optical networking solution, integrating our scalable, high-performance routers and Acacia’s pluggable optics, which offers significant cost savings. Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Sedona Systems to extend our cross-work automation platform to build on these capabilities. We also expanded our Silicon One platform, from a routing-focused solution to one which addresses the Webscale switching market, offering 10 networking chips ranging from 3.2 terabits to 25.6 terabits per second, making it the highest performance programmable routing and switching silicon on the market. We know our customers increasingly want to consume Cisco’s technology in new and more flexible ways.
At Cisco Live, we launched our new As a Service portfolio, Cisco Plus, and our first offer, Cisco Plus Hybrid Cloud, combining our data center compute, networking and storage portfolio. Cisco Plus includes our plans to deliver networking as a service, which will unify networking, Security, and observability across Access, WAN and Cloud domains to deliver an unparalleled experience for our customers.
Turning to Security, we had a record quarter, surpassing $875 million in revenue, up 13% as we expanded our reach with customers around the world. Our Security strategy is focused on delivering a simple and secure experience. We have an unrivaled ability to provide end-to-end Security capabilities across users, devices, applications and data, on any network or any cloud.
Powering Business Transformation
Wellbeing is top of mind for so many right now as we face a new way of working. This is why we launched People Insights to help people monitor and manage their wellbeing. These new features, devices and capabilities combined with Cloud Calling and Cloud Contact Center provide our customers with the most comprehensive and inclusive hybrid work platform.
Last week, we announced our intent to acquire Socio Labs. By integrating Slido and Socio Labs into our WebEx platform, we will also be able to provide the most comprehensive internal and external event management solution on the market. In summary, we had a very good quarter. I’m so proud of the continued success of the business transformation our teams are driving.
Cisco CEO Chuck Robbins: Customers Preparing For Hybrid Work Model
WE WON! 
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