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"Amazon's managed Prometheus service hits general availability | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/amazons-managed-prometheus-service-hits-general-availability"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Amazon’s managed Prometheus service hits general availability Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
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Amazon has launched its managed Prometheus service in general availability after debuting it in preview last December.
Prometheus , for the uninitiated, is an open source event monitoring and alerting technology for containerized applications. Containers are essentially software packages that have all the components needed to deploy applications across public, private, and hybrid clouds and ensure they play ball across environments. The Prometheus project was developed internally at SoundCloud back in 2012, and although it was open source from its inception, it was taken over by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation (CNCF) in 2016, becoming the CNCF’s second hosted project after Kubernetes.
Amazon Managed Service for Prometheus is, as its name suggests, fully managed and compatible with the open source Prometheus. It integrates with Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service (Amazon EKS), Amazon Elastic Container Service (Amazon ECS), and AWS Distro for OpenTelemetry.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The new service is pitched at companies looking to scale their infrastructure to “ingest, store, and query operational metrics from containerized applications.” Beyond that, Amazon’s Prometheus offering packs integrations with a bunch of AWS security and compliance smarts, including AWS Identity and Access Management (IAM) and AWS CloudTrail , making it easier for its cloud customers to control and audit access to their data.
Today’s announcement comes just a few weeks after Amazon launched its managed Grafana service in general availability , giving AWS customers an easy way to deploy Grafana alongside other AWS services.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"How Google plans to improve web searches with multimodal AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-google-plans-to-improve-web-searches-with-multimodal-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How Google plans to improve web searches with multimodal AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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During a livestreamed event today, Google detailed the ways it’s using AI techniques — specifically a machine learning algorithm called multitask unified model (MUM) — to enhance web search experiences across different languages and devices. Beginning early next year, Google Lens, the company’s image recognition technology, will gain the ability to find objects like apparel based on photos and high-level descriptions. Around the same time, Google Search users will begin seeing an AI-curated list of things they should know about certain topics, like acrylic paint materials. They’ll also see suggestions to refine or broaden searches based on the topic in question, as well as related topics in videos discovered through Search.
The upgrades are the fruit of a multiyear effort at Google to improve Search and Lens’ understanding of how language relates to visuals from the web. According to Google VP of Search Pandu Nayak, MUM, which Google detailed at a developer conference last June, could help better connect users to businesses by surfacing products and reviews and improving “all kinds” of language understanding, whether at the customer service level or in a research setting.
“The power of MUM is its ability to understand information on a broad level. It’s intrinsically multimodal — that is, it can handle text, images, and videos all at the same time,” Nayak told VentureBeat in a phone interview. “It holds out the promise that we can ask very complex queries and break them down into a set of simpler components, where you can get results for the different, simpler queries and then stitch them together to understand what you really want.” MUM Google conducts a lot of tests in Search to fine-tune the results that users ultimately see. In 2020 — a year in which the company launched more than 3,600 new features — it conducted over 17,500 traffic experiments and more than 383,600 quality audits, Nayak says.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Still, given the complex nature of language, issues crop up. For example, a search for “Is sole good for kids” several years ago — “sole” referring to the fish, in this case — turned up webpages comparing kids’ shoes.
In 2019, Google set out to tackle the language ambiguity problem with a technology called Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers, or BERT.
Building on the company’s research into the Transformer model architecture, BERT forces models to consider the context of a word by looking at the words that come before and after it.
Dating back to 2017, Transformer has become the architecture of choice for natural language tasks, demonstrating an aptitude for summarizing documents, translating between languages, and analyzing biological sequences. According to Google, BERT helped Search better understand 10% of queries in the U.S. in English — particularly longer, more conversational searches where prepositions like “for” and “to” matter a lot to the meaning.
For instance, Google’s previous search algorithm wouldn’t understand that “2019 brazil traveler to usa need a visa” is about a Brazilian traveling to the U.S. and not the other way around. With BERT, which realizes the importance of the word “to” in context, Google Search provides more relevant results for the query.
“BERT started getting at some of the subtlety and nuance in language, which was pretty exciting, because language filled with nuance and subtlety,” Nayak said.
But BERT has its limitations, which is why researchers at Google’s AI division developed a successor in MUM. MUM is about 1,000 times larger than BERT and trained on a dataset of documents from the web, with content like explicit, hateful, abusive and misinformative images and text filtered out. It’s able to answer queries in 75 languages including questions like “I want to hike to Mount Fuji next fall — what should I do to prepare?” and realize that that “prepare” could encompass things like fitness training as well as weather.
MUM can also lean on context and more in imagery and dialogue turns. Given a photo of hiking boots and asked “Can I use this to hike Mount Fuji?” MUM can comprehend the content of the image and the intent behind the query, letting the questioner know that hiking boots would be appropriate and pointing them toward a lesson in a Mount Fuji blog.
MUM, which can transfer knowledge between languages and doesn’t need to be explicitly taught how to complete specific tasks, helped Google engineers to identify more than 800 COVID-19 name variations in over 50 languages. With only a few examples of official vaccine names, MUM was able to find interlingual variations in seconds compared with the weeks it might take a human team.
“MUM gives you generalization from languages with a lot of data to languages like Hindi and so forth, with little data in the corpus,” Nayak explained.
Multimodal search After internal pilots in 2020 to see the types of queries that MUM might be able to solve, Google says it’s expanding MUM to other corners of Search.
Soon, MUM will allow users to take a picture of an object with Lens — for example, a shirt — and search the web for another object — e.g., socks — with a similar pattern. MUM will also enable Lens to identify an object unfamiliar to a searcher, like a bike’s rear sprockets, and return search results according to a query. For example, given a picture of sprockets and the query, “How do I fix this thing,” MUM will show instructions about how to repair bike sprockets.
“MUM can understand that what you’re looking for are techniques for fixing and what that mechanism is,” Nayak said. “This is the kind of thing that the multimodel Lens promises, and we expect to launch this sometime hopefully early next year.” As an aside, Google unveiled “Lens mode” for iOS for users in the U.S., which adds a new button in the Google app to make all images on a webpage searchable through Lens. Also new is Lens in Chrome, available in the coming months globally, which will allow users to select images, video, and text on a website with Lens to see search results in the same tab without leaving the page that they’re on.
In Search, MUM will power three new features: Things to Know, Refine & Broaden, and Related Topics in Videos. Things to Know takes a broad query, like “acrylic paintings,” and spotlights web resources like step-by-step instructions and painting styles. Refine & Broaden finds narrower or general topics related to a query, like “styles of painting” or “famous painters.” As for Related Topics in Videos, it picks out subjects in videos, like “acrylic painting materials” and “acrylic techniques,” based on the audio, text, and visual content of those videos.
“MUM has a whole series of specific applications,” Nayak said, “and they’re beginning to impact on many of our products.” Potential biases A growing body of research shows that multimodal models are susceptible to the same types of biases as language and computer vision models. The diversity of questions and concepts involved in tasks like visual question answerin g — as well as the lack of high-quality data — often prevent models from learning to “reason,” leading them to make educated guesses by relying on dataset statistics. For example, in one study involving 7 multimodal models and 3 bias-reduction techniques, the coauthors found that the models failed to address questions involving infrequent concepts, suggesting that there’s work to be done in this area.
Google has had its fair share of issues with algorithmic bias — particularly in the computer vision domain. Back in 2015, a software engineer pointed out that the image recognition algorithms in Google Photos were labeling his Black friends as “gorillas.” Three years later, Google hadn’t moved beyond a piecemeal fix that simply blocked image category searches for “gorilla,” “chimp,” “chimpanzee,” and “monkey” rather than reengineering the algorithm. More recently, researchers showed that Google Cloud Vision, Google’s computer vision service, automatically labeled an image of a dark-skinned person holding a thermometer “gun” while labeling a similar image with a light-skinned person “electronic device.” “[Multimodal] models, which are trained at scale, result in emergent capabilities, making it difficult to understand what their biases and failure modes are. Yet the commercial incentives are for this technology to be deployed to society at large,” Percy Liang, Stanford HAI faculty and computer science professor, told VentureBeat in a recent email.
No doubt looking to avoid generating a string of negative publicity , Google claims that it took pains to mitigate biases in MUM — mainly by training the model on “high quality” data and having humans evaluate MUM’s search results. “We use [an] evaluation process to look for problems with bias in any set of applications that we launch,” Nayak said. “When we launch things that are potentially risky, we go the extra mile to be extra cautious.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Assessing the intersection of open source and AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/assessing-the-intersection-of-open-source-and-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Assessing the intersection of open source and AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Artificial intelligence Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Open source technology has been a driving factor in many of the most innovative developments of the digital age, so it should come as no surprise that it has made its way into artificial intelligence as well.
But with trust in AI’s impact on the world still uncertain, the idea that open source tools, libraries, and communities are creating AI projects in the usual wild west fashion is creating yet more unease among some observers.
Why worry? Open source supporters, of course, reject these fears, arguing that there is just as little oversight into the corporate-dominated activities of closed platforms. In fact, open source can be more readily tracked and monitored because it is, well, open for all to see. And this leaves us with the same question that has bedeviled technology advances through the ages: Is it better to let these powerful tools grow and evolve as they will, or should we try to control them? And if so, how and to what extent? If anything, says Analytics Insight’s Adilin Beatrice , open source has fueled the advance of AI by streamlining the development process. There is no shortage of free, open source platforms capable of implementing even complex types of AI like machine learning, and this serves to expand the scope of AI development in general and allow developers to make maximum use of available data. Tools like Weka, for instance, allow coders to quickly integrate data mining and other functions into their projects without having to write it all from scratch. Google’s TensorFlow, meanwhile, is one of the most popular end-to-end machine learning platforms on the market.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! And just as we’ve seen in other digital initiatives, like virtualization and the cloud, companies are starting to mix-and-match various open source solutions to create a broad range of intelligent applications.
Neuron7.ai recently unveiled a new field service system capable of providing everything from self-help portals to traffic optimization tools. The system leverages multiple open AI engines, including TensorFlow, that allow it to not only ingest vast amounts of unstructured data from multiple sources, such as CRM and messaging systems, but also encapsulate the experiences of field techs and customers to improve accuracy and identify additional means of automation.
A blind eye One would think that with open source technology playing such a significant role in the development of AI that it would be at the top of the agenda for policy-makers. But according to Alex Engler of the Brookings Institution , it is virtually off the radar. While the U.S. government has addressed open source with measures like the Federal Source Code Policy, more recent discussions on possible AI regulations mention it only in passing. In Europe, Engler says open source regulations are devoid of any clear link to AI policies and strategies, and the most recently proposed updates to these measures do not mention open source at all.
Engler adds that this lack of attention could produce two negative outcomes. First, it could result in AI initiatives failing to capitalize on the strengths that open source software brings to development. These include key capabilities like increasing the speed of development itself and reducing bias and other unwanted outcomes. Secondly, there is the potential that dominance in open source solutions could lead to dominance in AI. Open source tends to create default standards in the tech industry, and while top open source releases from Google, Facebook, and others are freely available, the vast majority of projects they support are created from within the company that developed the framework, giving them an advantage in the resulting program.
This, of course, leads us back to the same dilemma that has plagued emerging technologies from the beginning, says the IEEE’s Ned Potter.
Who should draw the roadmap for AI to ensure it has a positive impact on society? Tech companies? The government? Academia? Or should it simply be democratized and let the market sort it out? Open source supporters tend to favor a free hand, of course, with the idea that continual scrutiny by the community will organically push bad ideas to the bottom and elevate good ideas to the top. But this still does not guarantee a positive outcome, particularly as AI becomes accessible to the broader public.
In the end, of course, there are no guarantees. If we’ve learned anything from the past, mistakes are just as likely to come from private industry as from government regulators or individual operators. But there is a big difference between watching and regulating. At the very least, there should be mechanisms in place to track how open source technologies are influencing AI development so at least someone has the ability to give a heads up if things are heading in a wrong direction.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"Are AI ethics teams doomed to be a facade? Women who pioneered them weigh in | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/are-ai-ethics-teams-doomed-to-be-a-facade-the-women-who-pioneered-them-weigh-in"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Feature Are AI ethics teams doomed to be a facade? Women who pioneered them weigh in Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The concept of “ethical AI” hardly existed just a few years ago, but times have changed. After countless discoveries of AI systems causing real-world harm and a slew of professionals ringing the alarm, tech companies now know that all eyes — from customers to regulators — are on their AI. They also know this is something they need to have an answer for. That answer, in many cases, has been to establish in-house AI ethics teams.
Now present at companies including Google, Microsoft, IBM, Facebook, Salesforce, Sony, and more, such groups and boards were largely positioned as places to do important research and even act as safeguards against the companies’ own AI technologies. But after Google fired Timnit Gebru and Margaret Mitchell, leading voices in the space and the former co-leads of the company’s ethical AI lab, this past winter after Gebru refused to rescind a research paper on the risks of large language models, it felt as if the rug had been pulled out on the whole concept. It doesn’t help that Facebook has also been criticized for steering its AI ethics team away from research into topics like misinformation, in fear it could impact user growth and engagement. Now, many in the industry are questioning if these in-house teams are just a facade.
“I do think that skepticism is very much warranted for any ‘ethics’ thing that comes out of corporations,” Gebru told VentureBeat, adding that it “serves as PR [to] make them look good.” So is it even possible to do real AI ethics work inside a corporate tech giant? And how can these teams succeed? To explore these increasingly important questions, VentureBeat spoke with a few of the women who pioneered such initiatives — including Gebru and Mitchell, among others — about their own experiences and thoughts on how to build AI ethics teams. Several themes emerged throughout the conversations, including the pull between independence and integration, the importance of diversity and inclusion, and the fact that buy-in from executive leadership is paramount.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “[If] we can’t have open dialogue with leaders of companies about what AI ethics is, we’re not going to make progress in those companies,” Mitchell said.
It starts with power Without genuine executive support, AI ethics teams are non-starters. Across the board, all the AI ethics leaders we spoke to maintained that it’s crucial — even step one — for launching any sort of corporate AI ethics team or initiative. Gebru emphasized the need for these teams to have some amount of power in the company , and Kathy Baxter, another AI ethics pioneer who launched and currently leads such a team at Salesforce, said she can’t “stress enough the importance of the culture and the DNA.” “If you don’t have that idea of stakeholder capitalism and that we’re part of the community that we are selling our products and services to, then I think it’s a much more tenuous place to come from,” Baxter said.
This is also the feeling of Alice Xiang, who is heading up Sony’s recently launched AI ethics initiatives and said leadership buy-in is “incredibly critical.” She specified that executives from both the technical and legal sides, as well as the business units actually building out the AI products, all need to be on board and aligned for the effort to have an impact.
And Mitchell took it a step beyond leadership buy-in itself, emphasizing that inclusion at the top is absolutely necessary.
“If you can have diversity and inclusion all the way at the top, then it’s going to be a lot easier to actually do something real with AI ethics,” she said. “People have to feel included.” Who’s at the table In a recent report , The Markup detailed how AI is denying people of color home loans more often than white people with similar financial characteristics, with disparities as high as 250% in some areas. It was a bombshell finding, but the unfortunate truth is that such discoveries are routine.
Soon after, another recent investigation uncovered that the enrollment algorithms sweeping higher education are perpetuating racial inequalities, among other issues. And we know that racially biased facial recognition technology is routinely misidentifying innocent Black people and even sending them to jail for crimes they didn’t commit. Transgender people have also reported frequent issues with AI-based tools like Google Photos. And there are countless examples of AI discriminating against women and other frequently disenfranchised people — for example, Apple’s algorithm for credit cards offering women significantly smaller lines of credit than men. When pressed, the company couldn’t even explain why it was happening. And all this is just the tip of the iceberg.
In short, the ethical issues many AI researchers are interrogating are not hypothetical, but real, pervasive, and causing widespread harm today. And it’s no coincidence that the groups of people experiencing the direct harms of AI technologies are the same ones who have historically been and continue to be underrepresented in the tech industry. Overall, only 26% of computing-related jobs are held by women; just 3% are held by African American women, 6% by Asian women, and 2% by Hispanic women. And studies show these women, especially women of color, feel invisible at work.
More specifically, only 16% of women and ethnic minority tech employees in a recent survey said they believe they’re well represented in tech teams. And of tech workers overall, 84% said their products aren’t inclusive.
“Basically anyone who has worked on ethical AI that I know of has come to the same conclusion: that one of the fundamental issues in developing AI ethically is that you have to have a diverse set of people at the table from the start who feel included enough to share their thoughts openly,” Mitchell said. And Xiang agreed, citing D&I as a top consideration for building AI ethics teams.
Baxter explained that “figuring out what is a safe threshold to launch” is one of the biggest challenges when it comes to these types of AI systems. And when these people don’t feel included or aren’t present at all, their perspectives and lived experiences with discrimination and racism aren’t accounted for in these vital decisions. This shows in the final products, and it connects to a point Gebru raised about how a lot of people “just want to sit in the corner and do the math.” Mitchell echoes this as well, saying “[Big tech companies] like things that are very technical, and diversity and inclusion in the workplace seems like it’s a separate issue, when it’s very much not.” You’d think stakeholders would want their technologies to work accurately and in everyone’s best interest. Yet, raising questions around how a technology will impact people of different races, genders, religions, sexualities, or other identities that have historically been subject to harm is often perceived as activism rather than due diligence. Mitchell said this common reflex is “an example of how ingrained discrimination is.” She’s found that talking about ethics, morality, and values stimulates people in a way that’s different from other kinds of business work, comparing it to the fight-or-flight response. And though she considers herself “a reformer,” she said she’s often grouped with people who proudly self-identify as activists.
“And I think that’s simply because I don’t agree with discrimination,” she said. “If being against discrimination makes you an activist in someone’s mind, then chances are they have a very discriminatory view.” Independence vs. integration The consensus around executive buy-in, diversity, and inclusion is strong, but there’s one aspect of corporate AI ethics teams where people are less certain: structure. Specifically, there’s debate around whether those teams should be independent and siloed, or closely integrated with other parts of the organization.
One could make an argument for both approaches. Independent AI ethics teams would, theoretically, have the freedom and power to do the work without heavy oversight or interference. This could, for example, allow them to more publicly push back against corporate decisions or freely publish important research — even when the findings may be unwelcome by the company. On the other hand, AI ethics teams that are close to the pipeline and daily decisions would be better positioned to spot ethical problems before they’re built into products and shipped. Overall, Mitchell said this is “one of the fundamental tensions in operationalizing ethical AI right now.” Post-Google, Gebru feels strongly about independence. She believes researchers should have a voice and be able to openly criticize the company, naming Microsoft Research as a good example where the group is seen as separate from the rest of the organization. But ultimately, she said there needs to be a balance, because companies can too easily point to the independent teams to show they care about ethics without actually acting on the efforts internally. She told VentureBeat she’s done work where it was very useful to be integrated, as well as work where it helped to be removed.
“I do think it needs to be all of it,” she said. “There needs to be independent researchers and people who are embedded in organizations, but the problem is that there’s no real independence anywhere.” Also influenced by her experience at Google, Mitchell agrees both directions have value. The challenge, she says, is in how to slice it up.
A two-pronged approach Salesforce and Sony are two companies that have put a hybrid model of sorts into practice. Both split their AI ethics team initiative into segments, which have varying responsibilities and levels of integration.
Salesforce’s Office of Ethical and Humane Use, launched in 2018, is tasked with ensuring the company’s technology is developed and used in a responsible manner. Baxter explained the three buckets that make up the team’s mission: policy (determining the company’s red lines); product (deliberating use cases and builds with product teams and customers); and evangelism/education (sharing whitepapers, blogs, and regulation discussions with members of government).
But within that group, there’s also the Ethical AI Practice Team, which more specifically focuses on ethics research, debiasing, and analysis. Baxter says there are also AI ethics team members who partner closely across the company’s different clouds, as well as non-ethics team members who routinely work with the group. Overall, Salesforce appears to take a mostly integrated approach to AI ethics. Baxter described “working very closely with [Salesforce’s] product teams, engineers, data scientists, product managers, UX designers, and researchers to think about, first and foremost, is this something that should exist in the first place?” “Where are we going to get the training data from?” she continued, listing the types of questions the ethics researchers discuss with product teams. “Are there known biases or risks that we should be taking into account? What are potential unintended consequences and how do we mitigate them?” And earlier this year, Salesforce made an organizational move that would, theoretically, give ethics an even bigger role in product design. The company moved the Office of Ethical and Humane Use, which previously was part of the Office of Equality, to sit directly within Salesforce’s product organization.
Sony, on the other hand, is new to the realm of AI ethics teams. The company launched its ethics initiative earlier this year, after announcing at the end of 2020 that it would start screening all of its AI products for ethical risks. Xiang said Sony views AI ethics as an important part of the company’s long-term competitive advantage in the AI space, and is eager to bring a global perspective to a field she said is currently dominated by U.S.-based tech companies and European regulatory standards.
While in its very early stages, Sony’s approach is interesting and worth paying attention to. The company launched two teams that “work synergistically together” to tackle the subject from multiple angles. One is a research team within Sony AI focused on fairness, transparency, accountability, and translating the “abstract concepts around AI ethics that practitioners are grappling with” into actual solutions. The other is an Ethics Office, which is a cross-Sony group based within the company’s corporate headquarters. Partially embedded within some of Sony’s existing compliance processes, this team conducts AI ethics assessments across business units. When teams submit the now-mandatory information about the AI products they’re building, this group assesses them along various dimensions.
Xiang told VentureBeat she felt strongly that these two teams should be closely integrated, and she believes AI ethics teams should be “as early as possible” as a stop on the product roadmap.
“We start our process in the initial planning stages, even before people have written a single line of code,” she said.
Keeping AI ethics real After their experiences at Google, Gebru and Mitchell now have differing levels of faith in the idea of corporate AI ethics teams. Gebru said it’s important for people to do the work so companies can confront the issues, but told VentureBeat she doesn’t think it’s possible without strong labor and whistleblower protection laws. “There’s no way I could go to another large tech company and do that again,” she told Bloomberg in a recent interview, where she first spoke about her plans to launch an independent AI research group.
Mitchell, however, said she still “very much think[s] it’s possible to do ethical AI work in industry.” Part of her reasoning requires debunking a common misconception about AI ethics: that it’s about sticking a fork in AI technology, and that it will always be at odds with a company’s bottom line. Thinking through and prioritizing values is a big part of ethics work, she said, and in a corporate setting, profit is just another value to consider. Baxter made a similar point, saying she’s “not trying to have a gotcha” and that it’s all about tradeoffs.
In fact, AI ethics is smart for business. Though not wanting to harm people should be more than enough of a reason to take the work seriously, there’s also the fact that plowing ahead with a product without understanding and mitigating issues can damage the brand, introduce legal troubles, and deter customers.
“People often have the perception that AI ethics is exclusively about stopping or slowing down the development of AI technology,” Xiang said. “You probably hear this a lot from practitioners in the ethics space, but we don’t necessarily view our role as that. Actually, our goal is to ensure the long-term sustainable development of these AI businesses.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"AI-powered meeting plugin Read AI emerges from stealth with $10M | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-powered-meeting-plugin-read-ai-emerges-from-stealth-with-10m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI-powered meeting plugin Read AI emerges from stealth with $10M Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Read AI , a startup developing an AI-powered platform for meeting metrics, today emerged from stealth with $10 million in seed funding from Madrona Venture Group with participation from PSL Ventures and individual investors. With the funding, cofounder and CEO David Shim says that Read will be able to make its service available for free on Zoom and via Zoom’s app marketplace, as well as through a Google Calendar integration.
Video calls have become a larger part of daily life compared with before the pandemic. For example, in the past 12 months, Zoom has seen a 3,000% increase in meeting minutes, and the top four video conferencing platforms have crossed over 500 million daily active participants combined.
But virtual meetings aren’t perfect. For example, when broadcasting to a large group of people, presenters can usually only see thumbnails of a few participants off to the side of their deck, requiring them to spend time scrolling to see participants’ reactions. Beyond this, when it comes to recurring meetings, priorities can shift over time, making the same hour-long sync no longer a good use of the workday for some attendees.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “We’ve all been in that meeting, where we know it is about to go downhill, yet we hesitate on taking any action as we might have the wrong read. The current feedback mechanism is an emoji or a message in chat that more often distracts than improves the conversation,” Shim, previously CEO at Foursquare, told VentureBeat via email. “Read is ‘feedback 2.0,’ where in real time, all meeting attendees have a shared dashboard that encourages collaboration by validating intuition with data.” AI-powered meetings Read was founded in 2020 by Shim, who teamed up with longtime colleagues Rob Williams and Elliott Waldron to build the prototype. The three previously launched location analytics company Placed, which was acquired by Snapchat in 2017 and spun out into Foursquare in 2019.
Read leverages AI, computer vision, and natural language processing models to power its meeting analytics backend. The models, which Shim says were trained on an “internationally and demographically diverse set of training examples,” deliver real-time sentiment, engagement and participation metrics encouraging collaboration among attendees, and aggregate metrics across meetings.
A host of startups plug into meeting platforms to analyze the content with AI. For example, Fireflies recognizes questions, assigned tasks, major topics, and general sentiment in meetings.
Kronologic is developing what it describes as “calendar monetization” tools, also powered by AI. As for Read, Williams says it can be “a second set of eyes and ears,” seeing an entire audience in a meeting and providing aggregate reactions in real time.
“Read provides that longitudinal awareness and can help … [identify] where engagement and sentiment drop-off, allowing [companies] to adjust the content or attendee list improving both operational efficiency as well as morale,” Williams said via email. “In an enterprise sales setting, Read augments an account executive’s ability to read the room. [The product] provides real-time feedback on if the pitch is resonating, if the audience is interested in the new features, and if the pricing is well received. This type of feedback is not only beneficial to the executive, but to the prospect as it allows the seller to make adjustments to deliver a more productive meeting in real time.” While ostensibly benign, Read’s tracking capabilities might not sit well with all employees, many of whom have had to contend with increased workplace surveillance in recent years. A 2018 Gartner survey found that 17% of organizations are monitoring work computer usage, while 16% are tracking Microsoft Outlook and calendar appointments. Moreover, even though 62% of executives say that their companies are using new technologies to collect data on employees, fewer than a third say that they feel confident that they’re using the data responsibly, according to a recent survey by Accenture.
There’s also the potential for AI bias to skew the meeting metrics. While Shim insists that Read’s models were trained on a sufficiently diverse dataset, even tech giants like Google and Facebook have historically deployed flawed models into production. For example, Zoom’s virtual backgrounds and Twitter’s automatic photo-cropping tool have been shown to disfavor people with darker-colored skin. And some experts argue that accurately assessing a person’s sentiment by analyzing their face is premised on shaky evidence.
But Shim insists that Read’s platform is “built on the foundation of privacy and transparency.” In meetings, Read notifies attendees that it’s listening in on the conversation and provides access to meeting metrics for all attendees. Read also offers an opt-out function to participants in the meeting and doesn’t provide meeting playback in the form of recorded or transcribed conversations.
“The future of meeting analytics isn’t recordings and transcripts. Rather, it’s real time, understanding how the meeting is going and what are the moments that make or break an interaction,” Shim added.
Read anticipates doubling the size of its team to over 30 people in the next six months.
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"Lessons learned on building cyber resilience | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/lessons-learned-on-building-cyber-resilience"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Lessons learned on building cyber resilience Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Cybersecurity Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
This article was written by Megan Stifel, Global Policy Officer at Global Cyber Alliance, and Geoff Brown, head of the NYC cyber command.
Earlier this week, the White House convened leaders of businesses representing technology, energy, finance, insurance and education to discuss cybersecurity. Amidst a raging pandemic, massive forest fires, and a host of other critical issues, this meeting demonstrates cybersecurity is not just a U.S. government priority, but also a priority for business leaders. A recent study indicates that the cost of phishing attacks has nearly quadrupled over the past six years with large companies now losing about $14.8 million annually, or $1,500 per employee, due to cyber incidents.
Though several of the attending companies announced investments and commitments to cybersecurity, attendance at one meeting isn’t going to have an effect on our nation’s cybersecurity. The businesses have agreed to reconvene in a month and identify a course of action, but a long-term commitment is needed. Both the public and private sectors will need to play a role going forward. We elect our public sector officials to lead; we expect our private sector partners to innovate. Both will have to commit to candid — even uncomfortable — dialogues with each other and the public, which sees cybersecurity as interesting but not nearly as important as it is for our digitally dependent lives. To improve our national approach to cybersecurity, it is helpful to look at what’s worked in New York City.
Six years ago, senior law enforcement officials in New York City and London recognized that prosecutions weren’t going to stem the tide of cybercrime. The District Attorney of New York County, together with the Center for Internet Security and the City of London Police, formed the Global Cyber Alliance to reduce cyber risk and help organizations become more secure.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! We’ve learned a lot since then and believe these five steps, which include both organizational and technical actions, can meaningfully help our nation improve its cybersecurity.
Formalize and assign responsibilities In 2017, NYC Cyber Command was launched to serve as a central authority to respond proactively to threats. While a relatively new agency, Cyber Command has developed a unified and coordinated approach to protection and response across 100+ agencies of varying sizes and defined cyber defense capabilities they are responsible for. Our federal leaders also need to delineate responsibilities, authorities, and expectations when it comes to securing both public and private sector digital infrastructure.
Develop simple tools that challenge preconceived notions Once cyber protection efforts are assigned, our nation needs to develop and deploy easy-to-understand tools and resources to support cyber protection efforts. We applaud the Biden administration’s efforts to accelerate and amplify the work of organizations like NIST, but recognize there is much farther for us to go.
We need to stimulate a national conversation that can challenge preconceived notions, such as privacy and security being enemies rather than two sides of the same coin. We have proved that in NYC. Not long after the development of the NYC Cyber Command, Mayor Bill de Blasio launched NYC Secure , an application that provides corporate-grade cybersecurity protection to New Yorkers on their mobile devices and tablets, including phishing protection and other features to protect against spying. It puts the privacy of residents and businesses first: no data leaves the device.
Secure email By now most people know they should be careful opening email attachments. But there are mechanisms organizations can use to reduce the number of so-called “phishing” emails at the onset. This would reduce the need for employees to make the right choice and not open the suspicious message or click the link. The Global Cyber Alliance offers free resources to help organizations use these protections, which studies have shown to prevent millions in losses.
New York City Cyber Command deployed these security tools across critical agencies and services supporting the ongoing pandemic, including NYC Health and Hospitals, the city’s COVID-19 test-and-trace portal, and the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene. As municipal services shifted online during the pandemic, and COVID-19 criminal scams proliferated globally, this effort ensured New Yorkers’ trust in critical city services.
Protect connections Many workers spend a good part of their day online and employers need to provide protections to ensure employees stay safe while browsing the internet. Deploying an automated capability to block access to malicious sites – a so-called “protective DNS service” — is straightforward and is available to organizations of any size. Like enhanced email security, using this technology can also save millions in losses avoided. A range of such tools exists , several of which are free.
New York City deployed this capability on thousands of public Wi-Fi hotspots across New York City, keeping residents and visitors from connecting to sites that are only on the internet to deliver malware or steal personal data. This technology is also deployed in a manner that puts the values of the city first, adhering to the highest standards of user privacy.
Operational partnerships can help keep us safer The large-scale ransomware attacks of recent months have reminded us of the importance of organizations and municipalities working more closely together to better protect themselves and each other. Combining internal organizational security efforts and sharing knowledge with essential partners can help keep us all safer.
This summer, New York City Cyber Command and the Global Cyber Alliance, along with the District Attorney for New York County and the NY Police Department, took a significant new step in the Cyber Critical Services and Infrastructure Project , which increases cross-sector communication at the local level, as well as helps coordination of resources in the event of an attack.
Earlier this month, the federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), together with a number of tech companies, launched the Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative to similarly improve cyber defense planning and information sharing between public and private sectors. Efforts such as these are critical to bridge the gap between the digital dependencies of our modern lives and the vulnerabilities that can come with them.
We are happy to see that both Congress and the Administration are joining the fray; after all, the first step is to recognize that we — public and private sector — must be more actively collaborative in focusing our efforts. Attendance at this week’s meeting, and the ensuing initiatives announced, are a good start. But more of the private sector must step up, and define outcomes based on results for not just the critical function or large enterprise, but equally for the principles and people we aim to defend, whether it is our constituents or our clients.
And we must be resilient; if this were the Olympics, we’d be facing a triathlon, not a sprint.
Megan Stifel serves as the Global Policy Officer and Capacity and Resilience Director at the Global Cyber Alliance and previously served on the National Security Council at the White House. Geoff Brown heads the NYC Cyber Command.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Humankind review: Culture clash | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/pc-gaming/humankind-review-culture-clash"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Review Humankind review: Culture clash Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Those cows are out to get you.
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Humankind is my favorite type of game: a glorious mish-mash of mechanics from other standouts from its genre, all informed by a studio’s design and visual philosophy. This 4X game (explore, expand, exploit, exterminate) takes the main ideas from Civilization , and Amplitude Studios blends them with the city-building and clean, pretty UIs of its Endless series.
The conceit here is as you advance your civilization, you may choose a different culture at the dawn of a new era. Its spin on other 4X empire builders also includes a better early game, diplomacy mechanics, and city-building.
It does stumble in other areas. Culture choices feel like they box you in sometimes. Neutral empire behaviors and spawn rates feel uneven, as does the rate and number of luxury and strategic resources. And while its era stars system does provide some guidance on how to advance through the different epochs of human history, it does feel a bit restraining at times, too, on win conditions.
Humankind is out now on PC.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Cultural moment Humankind’s hook is mixing cultures. You may start out as the Babylonians in the Ancient era, and then choose the Phoenicians in the Classical era. It’s a cool idea, one I dig a great deal. It’s feels great, too, when you level up to the next era and find a culture that fits your previous one, while at the same time, giving you a new bonus that complements what you’ve been building toward (such as, say, a merchant empire).
Above: Istanbul sure as heck is Constantinople in my world! It does have some flaws. If you’re lagging behind your competitors (either other players or AI-controlled rulers), they may pick all the choices that best work for your civilization. Amplitude does provide an option to “ascend” with your current culture. But if you had to change the direction of your civilization (say because of military pressure, forcing you to build more military units to stay alive), ascending may be of little help.
It’s cool when you “high roll” into cultures that are great fits, like starting with the Nubians, moving on to the Phoenicians, then adapting the Byzantines (and so on). This leads you on a clear path toward what you want to build, what civics and technologies you want to research, and how you want to interact with rival cultures.
The art of councillorship I enjoy how diplomacy works in Humankind. I feel like Amplitude is giving me more to do here than in other 4X games.
Once you meet a culture, you can start talking and making deals. You can make an agreement to only trade luxury items, or you can put a “for sale” sign on all your resources. You need iron to level-up your troops? Buy it from the Goths! You can propose treaties to share information (which opens up more of the map), establish open borders and peace treaties, and so on.
To me, it feels more accessible than the diplomatic systems of other games — especially for those in which you’re dealing with “hidden agendas” that aren’t apparent at first.
Dawn of humankind Above: Events such as these can boost your starting tribes.
My favorite part of civ-builders is the early game, when you’re exploring the world for the first time and finding places to set up your city. And Humankind’s early game may be the most enjoyable yet.
When you start, you’re just a tribe of hunter-gathers with no home. And you don’t start with a settler-type unit. Humankind doesn’t have any of those. You need to acquire enough influence to establish your first outpost, which can evolve into your first city. How do you get this? By making discoveries, fighting beasts and maybe even other wanderings, and growing your tribe.
Some may look at this as more frustration, needing to acquire resources before settling a city. Yes, this can lead you to falling behind other civilizations if you get an unlucky starting point on the map. The others may pick the culture you want before you get a chance to choose it.
Yet I embrace these challenges. For me, the exploration phase of 4X has always been my favorite, and giving me another thing to do as I explore is something I welcome.
Star struck Above: Am I winning yet? To progress from one era to another, you earn earn Fame, which goes toward era stars. These stars fill up categories such as Agrarian, Builder, Merchant, Militarist, Scientist, and so on. You get bonuses for earning stars that fit your culture. You also advance these by pulling off deeds and building world wonders.
Now, it’s nice that Humankind shows you just what you need to advance to the next era. But it feels more like scorekeeping than growing a civilization, constricting how I want to proceed through era to era. It would’ve been nice to have era advancement tied to something more concrete to the culture you’ve adapted. I realize this would require a great deal of design work to achieve, but it would’ve fit the idea Amplitude is playing around with in the first place: evolving cultures.
Is it an evolution? Does Humankind change how the civilization-builder works? No. Does it tweak how it works? Heck, yes. But the tweak doesn’t come across more as a part of that gradual evolution that’s a part of game design, not something that will go on to define its genre.
Humankind also has a good sense of humor, as you’ll see in events that happen from one era to the next.
One of the most encouraging aspects of Humankind is its studio. Amplitude lovingly ushers its games from launch to DLC and expansions. It fixes issues, and it provides new content. I’m excited to see what this means for the future of Humankind, and I suspect I’ll be playing this more than Civilization and its ilk for some time.
At least until the next generation of Civilization comes out.
Humankind is now available for PC. The publisher provided GamesBeat a Steam code for the purposes of this review.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Omnichannel communications platform Trengo nabs $36M | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/omnichannel-communications-platform-trengo-nabs-36m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Omnichannel communications platform Trengo nabs $36M Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Trengo , a Dutch omnichannel communications platform, today announced that it raised $36 million in series A funding led by Insight Partners and Peak Capital. With the new funds, Trengo aims to attract engineering talent, grow internationally, and develop its platform further, according to CEO Patrick Meutzner.
The pace of digital transformation in communications can be daunting, creating business inefficiencies. Increased remote work put pressure on alignment within teams, giving rise to the market for enterprise communication platforms. There’s been a significant increase in customer channels — for example, WhatsApp Business, Instagram Direct Message and Google Business Messages — as customers expect better and faster service online. Meanwhile, employees are collaborating from different locations, in some cases having to switch between tools to collaborate.
Founded in Utrecht in 2017, Trengo combines multiple internal and external communication channels on a single screen. In 2015, Meutzner had the idea for the company’s software-as-a-service platform, but it took until 2017 for Trengo to launch.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Meutzner founded Trengo with Marcel van der Weerd, and in the same year, Igo Trampe joined. “Trengo helps companies to communicate and interact with clients in a human way,” Meutzner told VentureBeat via email. “Together, they want to create a platform which streamlines omnichannel communications internally and externally. In a world in which customers and teams communicate through an increasing number of channels and media, Trengo bundles all this communication, creating one clear overview for consistent, efficient and easy customer service and team collaboration.” Bundling communications According to Salesforce, the average customer uses 10 different channels to communicate with companies. But there’s value for businesses that meet customers where they are. Omnisend found that marketers using three or more channels in any one campaign earned a 287% higher purchase rate than those using a single-channel campaign. Moreover, purchase frequency is 250% higher, and the average order value is 13% more per order.
“Three benefits from Trengo that immediately stand out are the possibilities it offers for working remote, team collaboration, and omnichannel communications in one view,” Meutzner said. “The goal is to streamline the processes that enable companies to communicate in the most efficient way. In a world where people are increasingly annoyed by malfunctioning chatbots, the Trengo platform creates a way for companies to give client communication a human touch.” Above: Trengo’s backend dashboard.
Meutzner says that the pandemic led to a massive shift in demand from on-premises solutions to working in the cloud. While it competes with a number of startups in the omnichannel space, including Iterable and Glia , Meutzner asserts that Trengo stands out by bundling the most integrations (e.g., WhatsApp Business, Instagram Direct Message, and Google Business Messages) in one view with “a user-friendly approach.” In the past year, Trengo tripled its customer base from 700 to 2,000 customers including Europcar, Yobbers, and Oppo, processing more than 12.5 million messages per month for more than 20,000 users. It currently has 70 to 80 employees, and Meutzner expects Trengo to have 200 employees by the end of the year.
“Because Trengo had already developed a working product, it was able to tap into the needs of a changing world and accommodate clients in this challenging time,” Meutzner said. “In the near future, Trengo wants to expand its [global] activities and truly become a widely used platform all over the globe, providing [businesses] in all countries with the opportunity to increase their customer service and productivity.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"AI analysis unveils the most effective email subject lines for the holidays | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/ai-analysis-unveils-the-most-effective-email-subject-lines-for-the-holidays"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI analysis unveils the most effective email subject lines for the holidays Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Retailers are already preparing for a 2021 holiday ecommerce season that mirrors last year. A recent survey by Radial found that 65% of consumers plan to spend the same as or even more than last year. Radial itself plans to hire 27,000 seasonal workers ahead of the shopping season to fulfill ecommerce orders. But to snag a share of that market, retailers will need to use the right email marketing language and tactics, according to a new report from AI-powered copywriting platform Phrasee.
The report, “Prepping for the Peak,” uses some data from 2020 to predict what brand language will resonate with consumers. Phrasee analyzed millions of subject lines using AI for the report.
“This particular (algorithm) takes this huge amount of language data, deconstructs it into individual parameters, takes away beliefs and biases, turns it into ones and zeros, and looks at the patterns in the numerical data,” said Parry Malm, CEO of Phrasee. For the report, Phrasee used natural language processing (NLP) techniques to look at sentiment like directness and how offbeat the language was. Then, it tracked performance metrics like clicks, conversions, opens, and unsubscribes, he added.
Emojis won in 2020, but won’t this year Last year, the language that most resonated with consumers focused on convenience, like “ curbside pickup ” and “home delivery,” according to the report. Phrasee expects this trend to continue into the 2021 shopping season.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! However, marketers also went heavy on the emojis in email subject lines last year, both happy and urgent. The use of happy emojis may continue to grow, as marketers want to offer optimism, but Phrasee cautions against using urgency emojis this year. Consumers likely have emoji fatigue, according to the report.
Trade slang for empathy “If any type of language gets overused, it ceases to be effective,” Malm said. The rush to get online meant that marketers started copying one another, using the emojis that seemed to work well at the time. But marketers need to be continually refreshing their messaging, “before ‘Bye, Felicia’ finally says, ‘Bye, Felicia,'” he added.
Before 2020, marketers tended to use offbeat, trendy language in their email subject lines, like “You’re gonna SLAY in these lewks!” But since the pandemic, email subject lines that are direct or evoke curiosity or friendliness are the most likely to get opened, according to the report.
Cream Chargers, a specialty whipped cream retailer based in Australia, plans to empathize with its customers in its messaging this year to launch discounts, as opposed to last year’s focus on brand image.
“People today are suffering from different crises including financial because of the pandemic. However, they are focused on not letting their weaknesses like discretionary spending take over,” said Jane Anders, CEO of Cream Chargers. “Including empathy in your messages for your customers helps you make them feel that you are on their side.” HVAC company Filter King plans to test more positive messaging this holiday season, without being overly cheerful. That might come across as insensitive, according to Rick Hoskins, founder of Filter King.
“My feeling is that people have been cooped up inside, scared and lonely, for over a year now. I think companies might be overplaying their hands by putting out messaging that’s overly morose,” Hoskins said. He expects consumers to prefer a more “getting back to normal” tone.
Trying something different is key While some retailers may be planning to repurpose last year’s messaging, experimenting could boost email effectiveness, according to Phrasee’s Malm. “One of the points is to always be testing … because languages changes more quickly now than previously,” he said, noting that people in the U.S. have picked up British slang and vice versa.
However, the big takeaway from the report is that doing something different is hard. “Humans are less creative than we think we are, and being creative at scale is incredibly hard,” Malm said.
Companies don’t need to be different just for the sake of it, but instead should define their brand voices and experiment within those parameters, he said. While it’s easy to get customers to open emails with spammy subject lines, that’s a race to the bottom that rarely works.
Ultimately, there is no specific rule set for what will absolutely, definitely, one hundred percent resonate with consumers. “Language is fluid (and) whims of consumers change at the drop of a hat,” Malm said. Last year’s data may help shape messaging this year, but companies need to test, experiment, and keep current events in mind when sending out their emails this year.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"WD mingles flash memory and hard drive in a single storage device | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/wd-mingles-flash-memory-and-hard-drive-in-a-single-storage-device"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages WD mingles flash memory and hard drive in a single storage device Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn WD is blending flash memory and hard drives.
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Western Digital (WD) has announced a new architecture that will combine the speed of flash memory chips and the density of hard disk drives into a single product for enterprises and consumers.
The OptiNAND technology integrates hard disk drives (HDD) with iNAND flash memory chips. WD said this will give customers on both the enterprise side and the consumer side the ability to store vast amounts more data in a bid to keep up with the exponential growth of data in the coming years. WD announced the innovations that it said break the barriers of traditional storage at its online event today.
Ravi Pendekanti, senior vice president of HDD product management and marketing at WD, said in an interview with VentureBeat that customers in areas such as hyperscale cloud, communications firms, enterprises, smart video surveillance partners, network-attached storage (NAS) suppliers, and more need a lot more capacity, performance, and reliability. And WD’s plan is to leverage the benefits of both hard drives, which can store a lot of data, and flash, which can access data quickly.
“We are confident at this time that we will reach 50 terabytes by the second half of this decade compared to 20 terabytes today,” Pendekanti said.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The brewing problem with data storage has become acute as HDD architectures now contain as much memory and processing power as PCs from the early 2000s.
In the next five years, WD expects to see more data created than twice the amount of data that has been created throughout computing history, Pendekanti said.
“To address this, we went back in and started looking at what it is that we can do next. It was about integrating NAND into our hard drives,” Pendekanti said. “What it really does is help us improve the capacity of our drives. It helps us improve the performance. And it also improves the reliability.” Hot and warm Above: OptiNand technology vertically integrates flash and HDD tech.
Before OptiNAND, flash (non-volatile) memory in an HDD was used primarily for booting and storing tiny amounts of metadata. As HDD storage architecture has become more sophisticated, the addition of a flash layer is a logical step in the system’s memory hierarchy.
The teams worked on the tech for a couple of years following WD’s acquisition of flash maker Sandisk.
“We learned from some of the earlier pitfalls we mentioned,” Pendekanti said.
In the past, the hybrid solution was to write “hot” data to the limited memory of the flash chips. If it was “warm” data, it could go onto the disk itself. But it wasn’t always easy to distinguish hot from warm in terms of data that had to be accessed quickly.
“In the past, with the hybrid drives, the two technologies were brought in, but they were not fully vertically integrated,” said Carl Che, chief technology officer at the HDD business unit at WD, in an interview. “The keyword is vertical integration. And that’s where I think the biggest pitfall was. And somebody also had to understand what kind of data it was (hot or warm).” He added, “Today, we are vertically integrating both the flash and the disk side. We are not having anyone do guesswork. And that is a big shift.” Flash is more cost-effective than DRAM (dynamic random access memory, or main memory), with data persistence across power cycles. Flash also provides faster access than disks, enabling time-sensitive calculations to be performed while keeping the disk free to perform host operations.
The new OptiNAND-enabled memory hierarchy uses the drive system-on-chip (SoC) to control communication with the iNAND EFD. With OptiNAND, key drive housekeeping functions can take advantage of an increase in metadata capability. This can reduce future DRAM needs, as well as enabling more sophisticated mechanisms to achieve greater capacities, increased performance, and enhanced reliability.
Triple-stage actuator Above: WD’s 20TB drive WD improved the precision of HDD heads with a triple-stage actuator (TSA) technology that enables better precision for a recording head on an HDD. That enables higher areal density through increased tracks per inch (TPI) to provide the highest capacities. HDDs generate gigabytes of metadata that can be utilized to increase areal density.
This data is too large to be cost-effectively maintained in DRAM, while retrieving this data on-demand from disks interferes with host operations and performance. OptiNAND enables cost-efficient storage and fast access to this massive quantity of metadata that can be stored and accessed in real time, freeing up valuable space on the rotating media for user data.
In the event of an EPO, OptiNAND can securely flush and retain nearly 50 times more customer data than prior-generation HDDs that flush data to DRAM. Meanwhile, OptiNAND technology will extend the capability of energy-assisted PMR (ePMR) for multiple generations, allowing customers to continue benefiting from a proven recording technology.
With the combined technologies, WD will be able to store 2.2 terabytes (TB) per hard disk platter, extending capacity gains on proven ePMR technology.
“We see a path to the first 3-terabyte drives using this technology,” Pendekanti said. “We are feeling confident about it.” Setting a new industry milestone, WD has shipped samples of new nine-disk, 20TB ePMR flash-enhanced drives with OptiNAND technology to select customers. (A terabyte is 1 trillion bytes).
“All the data on the hard drive really is about maximizing the whole capacity. So this is a structure designed for future uses,” he said.
Availability The new flash-enhanced drive architecture with OptiNAND technology will be available across the company’s portfolio of drives and storage platforms. It will also serve as the foundation for future designs and innovations, with further advances to come in intelligence, reliability, capacity, and time-to-market value. The company will begin announcing market-specific, purpose-built products across its portfolio later this year.
“We are introducing new technologies that will actually persist for multiple generations of products,” Pendekanti said. “We will focus on the technology today. And then in the months ahead, will come out and talk to us about specific products that use this technology.” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"SnapEDA helps manufacturers find alternate chips in the semiconductor shortage | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/snapeda-helps-manufacturers-find-alternate-chips-in-the-semiconductor-shortage"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages SnapEDA helps manufacturers find alternate chips in the semiconductor shortage Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn SnapEDA can recommend alternative chips if one is out of stock.
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Carmakers could suffer $100 billion in lost revenues in 2021 because of the semiconductor shortage, according to KPMG. But SnapEDA is doing its best to help manufacturers find alternate chips for their products.
Whipsawed by pandemic cancellations and then panic buying, the semiconductor market shortage has become a huge economic drag on a lot of industries. With disruptions to the global supply chain, there have been massive delays in the delivery of consumer goods, affecting everything from cars to household appliances.
But Silicon Valley-based SnapEDA has the designs for entire catalogs of components — such as 75,000 components made by Panasonic — in its online catalog. More than 6.5 million parts are in the database.
“I created SnapEDA because I wanted to help product developers innovate faster,” SnapEDA CEO Natasha Baker said in an interview with VentureBeat. “Think of it like GitHub for electronics as a good analogy. But basically, it’s a place where product developers can go and get all the resources that they need to design electronics faster.” As it turns out, SnapEDA became the nexus of a supply and demand hub that is playing a critical role during the shortage.
“We deeply understand the needs of electrical engineers and product developers because we work with them so closely,” Baker said. “But at the same time, we also understand what’s happening in the component supplier world because those are our customers. We talk to them all the time. So we’re at this really interesting intersection.” The pandemic shortage Above: SnapEDA has 6.5 million parts in its database.
The challenge is that a couple of factors are contributing to the shortage.
“Our economy is doing really well, and in that sense we’re seeing a [huge] demand for consumer industrial and medical electronics. There is just such massive demand for chips,” she said. “And so all these components suppliers are having record years. But at the same time, with the pandemic we’re obviously seeing a global shortage of components and chips. And this is due to the shutdowns due to the pandemic, among other things. And what’s interesting is that this isn’t just affecting chips. It’s also affecting, you know, electromechanical components and other types of components as well. They’re all seeing shortages across the board.” Engineers began telling the company they wanted better insights into the supply chain because they didn’t want to design an unavailable part into a product. And suppliers didn’t want parts promoted that weren’t available.
“We have new features to help drive people toward the parts that are available,” she said. “We pull in all their stock and availability data, and we give engineers transparency into what is available in the supply chain.” On top of that, SnapEDA can recommend alternative parts that will work when a particular part is out of stock. And the company is tracking the parts that are in high availability.
SnapEDA’s boom Above: Natasha Baker is CEO of SnapEDA.
If product designers create a product with a certain component, SnapEDA can quickly tell them if the component is in stock or on back order. And if it is in short supply, SnapEDA can find other parts that will work instead, Baker said. She said SnapEDA has become a search engine for electronics design, and a million engineers are now using it to alleviate shortage problems.
Since the pandemic started, SnapEDA has seen its revenue triple among component suppliers. It provides a self-serve platform for engineers, whether they are looking for CAD models, pricing, or other data when designing new products. In a survey, SnapEDA found that 75% of its recent survey respondents have been affected by the chip shortage.
About 46% said their projects have been delayed, with some saying they’ve completely halted production. And 62% say they’ve needed to source alternate parts and spend time and money redesigning.
Above: Jeri Ellsworth is CEO of Tilt Five, maker of an augmented reality tabletop gaming system.
Tilt Five CEO Jeri Ellsworth recently tweeted that the semiconductor supply chain mess was like nothing she had ever seen before.
“Spending my weekend doing last-minute redesigns because parts like a common 25-cent voltage regulator have lead times of four to six months and sketchy brokers are squatting on inventory demanding $15 per part,” Ellsworth said.
SnapEDA noted that many engineers aren’t aware of market conditions when they design their products, nor do they know that “pin-compatible” chips from different manufacturers can often do the same thing as the chips specified in designs. That is to say, if they have the same pin layout, these chips can often be used as replacement parts.
This is one of the benefits that came from Baker’s pet project. SnapEDA’s site includes tons of details, such as schematic symbols and printed circuit board (PCB) footprints for electronics design, as well as 3D mechanical models to ensure proper mechanical clearances and design visualization. In addition to the computer-aided design (CAD) models themselves, engineers can also see a real-time report generated by SnapEDA’s patented verification technology to gain transparency into manufacturability.
Gigantic shortages Above: SnapEDA has pricing and availability for parts.
Of course, for many parts that are in short supply no alternatives exist. In those cases, product designers and manufacturers just have to wait for the supplies to loosen up. That could take time, as it often requires billions of dollars to build new semiconductor factories, and construction can take years to complete. That’s why many experts are predicting shortages will last well into 2022 and 2023.
Toyota recently announced it would slash its September production due to chip shortages. Meanwhile, automotive manufacturers are often charging consumers above-sticker prices, due to lack of sufficient component supply to meet market demand.
Of course, SnapEDA can’t do much when the real problem is that we need another $10 billion factory or two.
“The power of what we do is really in guiding people toward things that are available, that are in stock because there are a lot of commodity parts that can be substituted easily,” Baker said. “We can’t build more factories, we can’t help with that. But there are a lot of commodity components where people are getting stuck. And suppliers tell us all the time that they can’t keep up with the demand, however, they have this other component that would totally be a great substitute.” The new engineering models are freely accessible to millions of engineers via the SnapEDA website, as well as through its syndication partners, which include Digi-Key, RSComponents’ DesignSpark, and Mouser.
Baker added, “What we’ve realized is we can help our community by guiding them toward components that are available in the supply chain, whether they are cheaper or more cost-effective for their designs. As we’ve grown, we started linking up our huge community of product developers to suppliers.” Origins Above: Panasonic’s page on SnapEDA.
All of this is the brainchild of Baker, who at the age of 25 became obsessed with programming and design. She was an electrical engineer who graduated from the University of Toronto, and she was working at National Instruments when she was unable to find some data she needed for a project and hit upon an idea.
After seeing all the great resources available to software engineers (open source libraries, sites like GitHub and StackOverflow for version control and collaboration), Baker realized there was a dearth of resources for hardware engineers. Hardware engineers were spending days recreating the wheel over and over — creating the basic building blocks needed to design electronics. So she decided to create SnapEDA in 2013.
“We created the first search engine specifically focused on electronics design. So we’re a database of chips, components, and all the little pieces that go on top of the circuit board.” In 2015, Baker was accepted into the Y Combinator accelerator and received funding from it and other Silicon Valley investors (early Google employee Georges Harik, Panos Papadopoulos, Cognite Ventures, 79 Studios, and Bernie Thompson) who liked her pitch about creating a “Google for electronic components.” Now big tech companies and startups alike are using SnapEDA for their designs.
With its service in demand, the company has grown to 30 team members. It makes money by showing “sponsored components” in search results and is currently profitable. And Baker is aware of how long it could take for the industry problems to rectify themselves and how great the demand is. She said some companies are buying entire boards to strip out the single component they need.
“We’ve heard our supplier customers telling us that in some cases their customers are stockpiling parts until 2024 to make sure they aren’t impacted, in the same way we all stockpiled toilet paper at the beginning of the pandemic,” Baker said.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Risks and rewards of low-code tools | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/data-infrastructure/risks-and-rewards-of-low-code-tools"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Risks and rewards of low-code tools Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The market for low-code tools, a software development approach that requires little to no coding to build apps, has grown substantially. Predicted to generate $187 billion in revenue by 2030, low-code development tools have entered into the mainstream as enterprises seek to keep pace with digital transformation trends. IDC predicts the worldwide population of low-code developers will see a compound annual growth rate of 40.4% from 2021 to 2025, approximately 3.2 times the 12.5% rate for developers generally worldwide. And the pandemic has accelerated the interest in low-code, as organizations have had to move their activities online while responding to changing customer demands.
In a survey commissioned by Mendix , 64% of IT professionals at enterprise organizations said they’ve had to rely on non-technical staff to relieve pressure on the IT department during the pandemic. The respondents see low-code tools empowering people to break down barriers to entery — a quarter report that their employer is now more likely to hire developers with no formal IT qualifications. This could become critical as companies face a global shortage of developer talent. There’s an estimated 223,000 job openings for developers in the U.S. alone, and colleges and universities are graduating just 30,000 new computer science majors per year.
“Low-code enables companies to improve customer engagement through innovative solutions and experiences,” Derek Roos, cofounder and CEO of app development platform Mendix, said in a statement. “Low-code is the future of software development … It’s agile by design. It dramatically expands the pool of development talent. It’s built for collaboration, and it’s built for rapid development. Low-code, and specifically low-code with Mendix, is fast becoming a core technology enterprises need to succeed in a digital-first world.” The benefits and challenges of low-code Low-code technology is being used in customer-facing, middle, and back-office processes, primarily for app development inside of separate business units.
According to Creatio, enterprises are most likely to cite the benefits of accelerated time to market and reduced development costs. But the advantages of low-code tools extend beyond those advantages — 80% of respondents to an Appian survey say the technology can free developers up to work on higher-level projects. That’s perhaps why Gartner predicts 80% of technology products and services will be built by non-IT professionals by 2024.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! However, challenges stand in the way of successful implementation. The same Appian survey found that 31% of enterprises using low-code haven’t leveraged it to build any of their highest-value apps. And despite low-code’s potential to democratize development, only 6% of low-code development is currently done by business users without any IT involvement, Creatio reports.
Organizations say a lack of experience with low-code platforms remains one of the biggest hurdles to adoption. A study by Outsystems, meanwhile, found that 37% of organizations are concerned about “lock-in” with a low-code vendor and that 32% of organizations don’t believe they could build the types of app they need with low-code tools.
But if these blockers are overcome, the realized benefits of low-code tools could be enormous. An IDC report found customers achieved a five-year ROI of 59% with low-code and intelligent process automation. According to Mendix, the average company avoids hiring two IT developers by using low-code tools — reaping about $4.4 million in increased business value over three years from the apps designed.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Databricks expands its data lake analytics with $1.6B funding | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/data-infrastructure/databricks-expands-its-data-lake-analytics-with-1-5b-funding"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Databricks expands its data lake analytics with $1.6B funding Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Databricks , a big data analytics software provider, today announced that it raised $1.6 billion in a series H financing round led by Counterpoint Global, with participation from BNY Mellon and ClearBridge. Andreessen Horowitz, Fidelity Management & Research, and Franklin Templeton also contributed, bringing the company’s total raised to $3.5 billion at a $38 billion post-money valuation.
Cofounder and CEO Ali Ghodsi says that the capital will be used to support Databricks’ product development, customer adoption, and the evangelization of “ data lakehouse.
” Data lakehouses — a term that came into vogue in 2020 — are data management architectures that combine data lakes, which store structured and unstructured data, with data warehouses, which perform queries and analysis. The goal is to unify data, analytics, and AI in one place, leveraging technologies that support large-scale data workloads.
“It is becoming increasingly clear that the data lakehouse is the architecture of the future. Lakehouse succeeds because it dramatically simplifies customers’ data platform, supporting business intelligence, data engineering, and AI,” Ghodsi told VentureBeat via email. “Instead of making enterprises move data between different systems, create many siloed copies of data, and enforce a lot of complex operations on the organization, we’re making that data more useful where it actually is. The lakehouse is the key to making it simple to unify all data workloads.” AI adoption Enterprises are increasingly adopting AI and automation as the pandemic transforms the way they do business. In an MIT Technology Review survey commissioned by Databricks, 83% of CEOs say that AI is a strategic priority for their company. Despite deployment challenges like talent gaps and training data prep , AI is projected to create $3.9 trillion in business value by the end of next year, according to Gartner.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Alongside C3.ai and Snowflake, which filed for IPOs in 2020, Databricks is one of the latest startups focused on analytics and AI to experience rapid growth. The San Francisco, California-based company was founded in 2013 by seven researchers at UC Berkeley’s AMPLab, who came to the realization that building a service for AI-powered analytics could be accomplished with open source tools like Apache Mesos, Alluxio, and Apache Spark (the one they created).
Databricks develops and maintains AI lifecycle management platform MLflow, data analysis tool Koalas, and Delta Lake , a service for working with Spark that provides automated cluster management and programming notebooks for analytics. In June 2020, the company launched a new product, Delta Engine, that layers on top of Delta Lake to boost query performance. And in November 2020, Databricks introduced Databricks SQL, which allows customers to run business intelligence and analytics reporting directly on data lakes.
“[T]he market is split into a ‘data’ bucket and an ‘AI’ bucket, largely for historical reasons,” Ghodsi said. “On one hand, there are vendors that do data management and data processing. It is great for data processing, but those companies have no significant AI or machine learning capabilities. There are startups, on the other hand, that do machine learning and AI. These companies are great for machine learning algorithms, but they actually are not in the business of processing massive petabytes of data. We’re the only vendor that combines those two into one product.” Today, Databricks hosts millions of virtual machines for brands including Comcast, Condé Nast, H&M, and over 5,000 other organizations across health and life sciences, financial services, media and entertainment, retail, manufacturing, and public sector segments. For transportation company JB Hunt, Databricks helped migrate the company’s data warehouse to a Delta Lake instance on Google Cloud Platform, leading to a 99.8% speedup in freight recommendations delivered through JB Hunt’s digital marketplace. And for ABN AMRO, a European bank, Databricks launched a Microsoft Azure-hosted analytics environment, enabling the firm to deploy 50 different production use cases.
“Multiple sources of data are locked in silos across organizations: in applications, in relatively static data warehouses, in ill-defined data lakes, in open data marketplaces and flowing through event-driven systems. Organizations are struggling to take advantage of this often untapped wealth of useful information for new analytics methods, machine learning tools, and predictive decision systems,” Merv Adrian, Gartner Research VP, told VentureBeat via email. “Fully exploiting the promise of the new data assets combined with the existing ones, applying new tools and methods, and empowering both data scientists and business analysts is a key result of adopting the economics and operational model of the cloud.” Pandemic boost Ghodsi says that the pandemic accelerated Databricks’ momentum in three key areas: the cloud, open source, and machine learning. Recently, the company worked with several health care organizations and government agencies to analyze large volumes of data and perform analytics on the data, predicting outcomes to improve their operations. “Right now, companies are eager to migrate their data and data pipeline processes to the cloud faster, and we’re seeing interest from companies that have historically leveraged legacy on-premises vendors,” he added. “We’ve been working with customers to change contracts to fit their needs during the pandemic.” Databricks’ annual recurring revenue currently stands at $600 million, up from $425 million at the end of the 2020 fiscal year. The company expects to grow its workforce of 2,300 employees to more than 3,000 by 2022, roughly a year after Databricks acquired data visualization startup Redash for an undisclosed amount.
Ghodsi previously told VentureBeat that future funding would fuel a merger and acquisition strategy with a focus on machine learning and data startups, as well as expanded partnerships with cloud companies. While he was mum on the timing of an IPO, Ghodsi said in an interview with The Register this summer that Databricks aims to be “IPO-ready” this year.
“By running simple AI algorithms on massive amounts of data … [customers can] find success,” Ghodsi told VentureBeat. “[Large tech] companies spend millions on talent and infrastructure to build their own proprietary data and AI systems that would ultimately lead to much of their success. Databricks was started to do the same for any company.” Additional investors backing Databricks’ series H included the Regents of the University of California, funds and accounts managed by BlackRock, the Canada Pension Plan Investment Board, Coatue Management, GIC, Greenoaks Capital, Octahedron Capital, funds and accounts managed by T. Rowe Price Associates, Whale Rock, Alta Park Capital, Amazon Web Services (AWS), Arena Holdings, CapitalG, Discovery Capital, Dragoneer Investment Group, Gaingels, Geodesic, Green Bay Ventures, Insight Partners, Microsoft, and New Enterprise Associates.
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"Strengthen your knowledge base with StackSkills and Infosec4TC for just pennies a course | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/strengthen-your-knowledge-base-with-stackskills-and-infosec4tc-for-just-pennies-a-course"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals Strengthen your knowledge base with StackSkills and Infosec4TC for just pennies a course Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics , as adults, we have changed our jobs on average 12 times during the ages of 18 and 50. Obviously, that’s just spanning a period of 32 years, and with more and more people working into their later years, the number is undoubtedly higher. The reasons why vary, but one could simply be that we haven’t found or are unaware of our passion. Perhaps if we were given the opportunity to develop new skills and explore new careers from the comfort of our own home, we might be more apt to find a job we love and stick to it. That’s where both StackSkills and Infosec4TC Cyber Security Training can help.
StackSkills has access to a pre-selected library of over 1,000 courses in practically every field you could dream of–marketing, finance, IT, programming, design, art, animation, writing … the list goes on. Whether you’re looking for that dream job, hoping to rise in the ranks of your current organization, wanting to start a side hustle, or just have a yearning to improve your skills either personally or professionally, you’re bound to find the course that’s going to lead you down the right path. And the beauty is you will have unlimited lifetime access to all of them.
In addition, you will have access to over 90 courses through the Infosec4TC Cyber Security Training , including classes in ethical hacking, GSEC, CISSP, ISMS Implementation, and so many more. If it’s a certificate you’re after, Infosec4TC has the highest passing rate. Businesses worldwide are changing how they approach cybersecurity. With this training, you will be at the forefront of how to deal with tomorrow’s challenges.
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VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Say goodbye to fad diets and learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/say-goodbye-to-fad-diets-and-learn-how-to-maintain-a-healthy-lifestyle"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals Say goodbye to fad diets and learn how to maintain a healthy lifestyle Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Of course, we all know that maintaining a healthy lifestyle is important to our well-being. Proper nutrition, exercise, and a proportionate weight are all important factors to keep our bodies functioning at maximum capacity. But while it seems that 75 percent of Americans say they eat a well-balanced diet , studies show that about 80 percent don’t eat the recommended amount of fruits and vegetables, and approximately 36 percent of adults in the United States are obese.
While we appreciate that there are overriding conditions and circumstances over which we have no control, our diet isn’t one of them. This Essential Health and Nutrition Master Class Bundle offers guidance on nutrition, health, and lifestyle that will ultimately boost your fitness level, have you feeling more energized, and perhaps even live a longer life.
In this technological age, there are, as they say, apps for that. Even Google is getting on the health bandwagon by adding nutrition information for more than 1,000 fruits, vegetables, meats, and meals to its search results. And yes, this is all very useful, but what is truly important is that we comprehend just how our bodies work–how they break down nutrients, how they are affected by elements like carbohydrates, proteins, fats, vitamins, and minerals, how they need water and hydration.
The three courses in this bundle–Nutrition and Hydration Certification; Introduction to Sports Nutrition Certification; and Vegan Health, Nutrition, and Lifestyle Certification–will each cover elements of the above, plus so much more. Upon completion, you will be well on your way to understanding the benefits of eating healthy and staying active.
This Essential Health and Nutrition Master Class Bundle boasts a 4.9/5 rating and is the recipient of a host of awards including the Global Business Excellence Awards 2017 Winner and the Best Business Awards 2017 Winner. Available now for only $19.99 , you will receive unlimited access to over 9.5 hours of content–a small price to pay for a whole new you! VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
Prices subject to change.
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"Zoom bolsters its ecosystem with first batch of Apps Fund investments | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/zoom-bolsters-its-ecosystem-with-first-batch-of-apps-fund-investments"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Zoom bolsters its ecosystem with first batch of Apps Fund investments Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Zoom HQ Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
As part of a mission to “stimulate growth” across its burgeoning ecosystem of integrations, Zoom announced the $100 million Zoom Apps Fund in April. The fund is designed to make strategic investments in growth-stage startups that aim to capitalize on Zoom’s meteoric rise during the pandemic. Today, the video communication company announced the first roster of companies to receive cash injections from the fund.
Zoom’s valuation has more than tripled over the past 18 months, with the rapid transition to remote work leading to a huge spike in cloud infrastructure spending and software to help the distributed workforce function as close to normal as possible. In the wake of Zoom’s newfound status as a verb , the San Jose-based company took a leaf out of Salesforce’s playbook by revealing plans to nourish a robust ecosystem of companies built on top of the Zoom platform. Back in October, Zoom launched the new Zoom Apps platform , which serves as a marketplace for developers to integrate their apps into Zoom, spanning everything from whiteboarding and cloud storage services to call transcriptions.
While Zoom has invested in startups in the past , the dedicated fund has formalized its position as a proactive investor. To qualify, companies must apply for funding and demonstrate that they have a market-ready product that is built for Zoom and already has some traction. If they pass muster, they could receive anything from $250,000 to $2.5 million in equity funding.
Four months after the fund’s formal unveiling, Zoom has showcased 12 of the first companies to receive investments from the fund, spanning collaboration and productivity; community and charity; diversity, equity, inclusion (DE&I) and people operations (PeopleOps); and gaming and entertainment. Zoom also invested in two companies that prefer not to be named.
Collaboration and productivity Above: BrightHire BrightHire : An “interview intelligence” platform that helps businesses run real-time interviews online, including support for recording, transcription, and post-call analysis.
Docket : A meeting productivity platform that helps organizers prioritize topics, set time limits, and more.
Fathom : An AI-powered note-taking app, with support for recording, transcribing, and highlighting key moments automatically.
Hive : A project management and collaboration platform with support for Gantt, Kanban, table, and calendar view.
Polly : A team engagement app that uses fun interactive questions, supports live Q&A, and solicits instant feedback.
Spinach : Still in private beta, Spinach is setting out to “reimagine remote meetings and workflows,” with an initial focus on running better daily standups.
Warmly : One-click AI-powered business cards that let meeting participants instantly share information about themselves and reveal mutual connections.
WorkPatterns : For collaborating on meeting agendas, documenting decisions, exchanging feedback, setting goals, and more.
Community and charity Above: Hermis Pledge : Built to support fundraising through virtual events on Zoom.
DE&I and PeopleOps Above: Canvas Canvas : A diversity recruitment platform (DRP), with support for data and analytics to encourage a more diverse workforce.
Gaming and entertainment Above: Quicksave Interactive: Werewolf with Friends Quicksave Interactive : A Finnish studio that develops HTML5 games , such as Werewolf with Friends.
Bright : A live video chat platform for remote learning.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Walnut Secures $15 Million in Series A Funding to Redefine Sales Demos | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/walnut-secures-15-million-in-series-a-funding-to-redefine-sales-demos"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Press Release Walnut Secures $15 Million in Series A Funding to Redefine Sales Demos Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn NEW YORK–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 31, 2021– Walnut , the world’s first sales experience platform, announces it has raised $15 million in Series A funding led by Eight Roads Ventures , a global VC managing $8 billion of assets, with portfolio companies such as AppsFlyer, Alibaba, Hibob and Made.com.
This funding round comes just several months after a high-demand $6 million seed round, bringing the total funding raised to date to $21 million, less than a year after it was founded. Seed investors include NFX, A Capital, Liquid2, Graph ventures and leading figures in the tech industry from Google, Wix, HubSpot, GitHub and more.
Walnut aims to make demos, as they are performed today, obsolete. Founders Yoav Vilner and Dani Friedland have set out to redefine how SaaS companies improve their Go-To-Market with a holistic approach.
The no-code platform enables teams to create customized product demos quickly and efficiently, integrate them into their sales and marketing processes, and generate insights – all functionalities which in-house development, the traditional way of creating demos, often do not provide sufficiently.
Vilner coined the name Walnut saying, “ We believe that out of all of the challenges B2B companies face, demonstrating the product is the toughest nut to crack”.
Prior to Walnut, sales demos were a nightmare for all sides: generic experiences for the prospect, hardly any insights and clarity for the team leader – and internal friction between back-end teams and customer-facing teams.
While most sales products out there focus on the needs of the company – Walnut helps organizations become customer-centric, lowering barriers for demo creation and increasing the quality of the overall buying experience.
Walnut has grown to serve over 60 B2B clients, including Adobe, NetApp, Varonis, People AI, and many more, pioneering one of the hottest tech categories of the year. The start-up has also been featured in prestigious rankings such as “Top Must-Have Startup for 2021”, Will Reed’s “Top 50 Seed-Stage Startups To Work For” and Product Hunt’s “Top Product Of the Week”.
The funds will be used to grow the team across its different offices in the U.S, Europe and Israel, as well as continue developing its unique technology and platform.
CEO Vilner says: “It has been an amazing first year for Walnut. We’re honored to have such experienced investors put their trust in us yet again. Our commercial traction and product value have been faster than we could have imagined.” Davor Hebel and Eyal Rabinovich from Eight Roads Ventures commented: “ COVID has accelerated the trend towards remote sales, though the process started long before the pandemic. Most companies lack the automation and digital scalability to deliver the experience buyers seek. Walnut’s platform approach to demos and the overall sales experience significantly help companies address today’s dynamic challenges. We have been very impressed by the rapid growth Walnut has achieved over the last year and we are thrilled to partner with Yoav and the team as it looks to become a category leader”.
Gigi-Levy Weiss, General partner at NFX added “In the last few months since leading Walnut’s seed round, we have seen their no-code demo and remote sales platform skyrocket in demand, including from Fortune 500 companies. It’s the perfect combination of great team and product at exactly the right time in the market. We’re looking forward to their continued growth.”” About Walnut: Walnut is the world’s first Sales Experience Platform, that puts the prospect in the center of the sales engagement, and empowers sales leaders to own the entire process without relying on any back-end team.
The sales/marketing teams create and manage interactive, embedded product experiences for their prospects, all while measuring the performance of the demos and getting unique insights.
Walnut was launched by serial founders Yoav Vilner and Danni Friedland and is based in NYC, London and Tel-Aviv. It has raised $21M from Eight Roads, NFX, A capital, Liquid2, Graph ventures, and leading angel investors from companies such as Google, Wix, GitHub, HubSpot and more.
About Eight Roads: Eight Roads Ventures is a global venture capital firm managing $8bn of assets across offices in the UK, China, India, Japan, and the US. Our 50-year history of investing includes partnerships with over 300 companies such as Alibaba, AppsFlyer, BlackDuck, Cazoo, Chewy, Devoted Health, Flywire, Gloat, Hibob, Icertis, Kensho, Letgo, Made.com, Neo4j, Paidy, Ping Identity, Pony.ai, Toast, Wallapop, WuXi PharmaTech, and Xoom.
www.eightroads.com View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210831005696/en/ Nadav Dakner [email protected] VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Strider launches risk intelligence tool to protect intellectual property | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/strider-launches-risk-intelligence-tool-to-protect-intellectual-property"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Strider launches risk intelligence tool to protect intellectual property Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Strider Technologies has launched a risk intelligence tool that enables enterprises to better understand potential threats to intellectual property (IP) by analyzing online interactions of employees and individuals that interact with the company.
The Strider Shield platform combines online tracking tools typically employed by advertising agencies, along with data ingestion tools, natural language processing (NLP) , and various classes of algorithms to enable organizations to better assess potential threats to processes and individuals during development, Strider chief strategy officer Eric Levesque told VentureBeat.
Signal danger Via Strider Shield, an organization can collect thousands of data points, including email addresses, domain names, keywords in multiple languages, and other terms that can be correlated against internal systems where IP resides to identify activities that may pose a risk to their organization, he said. This approach makes it possible to surface high fidelity risk signals created by known actors as they, for example, visit websites or engage with people on social media sites, in addition to analyzing the tactics, techniques, and procedures often employed to steal IP , added Levesque.
This capability also makes it possible to include economic statecraft analysis to track the source of those threats back to a nation-state that is most likely trying to benefit from the theft of IP, Levesque said. “It’s become a geopolitical issue,” he added.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! How it works The techniques Strider is using leverage data that is freely available online so it should not compromise anyone’s privacy, Levesque said. But the company does correlate data to help organizations identify threats that might be aimed at specific individuals with access to IP sought after by cybercriminals working on behalf of a nation-state, Levesque said.
In general, organizations are now shifting their security focus to concentrate on processes and the people that drive them, Levesque noted. Rather than just attacking systems and applications, cybercriminals are increasingly exploiting weaknesses in processes. As such, Levesque said organizations are starting to converge the management of cyber and physical security to better protect employees and safeguard their IP.
The cost of having IP regularly stolen is measured in the billions. Nation-states have expanded their cyberespionage activities to include IP that aids their economies. In response, organizations of all sizes are increasing their efforts to protect IP and prevent a clone of a product or service they are about to launch suddenly becoming available in a country located halfway around the world.
Bigger picture Nation-states have been stealing IP from companies since the dawn of time. The only real differences today are the means and the scale. It’s not uncommon for organizations to invest millions of dollars creating IP, only to find their return on that investment reduced by the sudden appearance of an unexpected competitor. As the level of IP theft continues, government leaders are starting to have a greater appreciation for the way IP theft impacts both the economy and, ultimately, the amount of taxable revenue that might be generated by those innovations.
There is no silver bullet when it comes to preventing the theft of IP. But organizations can proactively reduce risks by becoming more aware of threat vectors as they emerge. If known actors are suddenly spending a lot of time researching a topic online, chances are good some sort of operation is being planned. In many cases, that knowledge might prompt an organization to review its security processes. After all, even in the digital age, being forewarned is still the first step to being forearmed.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Rafay, a Kubernetes operations management platform, raises $25M | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/rafay-a-kubernetes-operations-management-platform-raises-25m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Rafay, a Kubernetes operations management platform, raises $25M Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Man and 2 laptop screen with program code.
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Rafay Systems , a platform for software container management, has raised $25 million in series B funding round led by ForgePoint Capital, with participation from Ridge Ventures, Costanoa Ventures, and Moment Ventures. The funds will be used to hire engineers and expand Rafay’s sales and marketing teams, as well as growing its customer success operations, the company said in a press release.
As businesses adopt containers that package code so apps run across computing environments, Kubernetes remains among the most popular container orchestration systems. Its widespread deployment has spawned the discipline of Kubernetes operations, or “KOps,” a framework used to set up Kubernetes clusters easily and swiftly.
Haseeb Budhani and Hemanth Kavuluru launched Rafay in 2017 to meet the growing demand for Kubernetes operations solutions. The cofounders sought to create a platform that unifies lifecycle management for Kubernetes infrastructure and apps, bringing together capabilities for automation, security, visibility, and governance for customers in the financial, health care, telecom, and technology sectors.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “With Rafay, developers, DevOps, operations and security teams can work together to deploy modern applications … faster while reducing downtime … and eliminating security and compliance risks,” CEO Budhani told VentureBeat via email. “Application modernization initiatives deserve a modern approach to Kubernetes operations … By leveraging [our] Kubernetes operations platform, developers and DevOps teams can triage infrastructure and application issues faster than ever before, significantly reducing mean time to resolution.” Operationalizing Kubernetes Gartner predicts that by 2022 more than 75% of organizations will be running containerized apps in production, up from fewer than 30% in 2020. But the operational cost, complexity, and resources required to manage the lifecycle of Kubernetes infrastructure and these new modern applications running on it are still growing.
Rafay aims to address this by offering visibility, management, and automation across disparate Kubernetes processes and systems. Using its platform, customers can deploy containerized apps across multiple computing environments, whether they’re running in datacenters, public clouds, or on-premises hardware.
Rafay ships with a cluster management service that enables blueprinting support, logs and metrics collection, and storage and secrets management for managed Kubernetes services, including Amazon EKS and Microsoft Azure AKS. The platform’s GitOps capabilities support infrastructure orchestration and app deployment through pipelines, while its zero-trust access service allows developers and automation systems controlled, audited access to Kubernetes infrastructure. Beyond this, Rafay offers cluster policy management via an open framework focused on security and governance. And it features a backup and restore service that provides disaster recovery and migration of the Kubernetes control plane and app data with dedicated dashboards for visibility and monitoring.
“Kubernetes has become the de facto choice for containerization and application modernization, but organizations’ Kubernetes journeys have been bottlenecked because of the complexity involved in enterprise-grade deployments, making a comprehensive management platform a necessity,” ForgePoint Capital venture partner Leo Casusol said in a press release. “The Rafay team has built a highly innovative and differentiated platform that solves gating problems for organizations adopting and scaling Kubernetes deployments.” Rafay, whose over 40 customers include Verizon, SonicWall, and Appzen, has raised $33 million in capital to date. Annual recurring revenue grew 800% last year, and the company plans to grow its 60-person workforce to 100 by 2022.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"OwnBackup acquires RevCult to bolster its SaaS data protection across clouds | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/ownbackup-acquires-revcult-to-bolster-its-saas-data-protection-across-clouds"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages OwnBackup acquires RevCult to bolster its SaaS data protection across clouds Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn OwnBackup homepage Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Cloud data backup and recovery platform OwnBackup has acquired RevCult , a company focused on providing security and governance solutions for Salesforce.
The acquisition comes less than a month after OwnBackup raised $240 million at a $3.35 billion valuation , and just a few months after the company announced its first two acquisitions — SaaS data management company Nimmetry and cybersecurity startup Merlinx.
Founded in 2012, OwnBackup works with major businesses, such as Adecco, AECOM, and Delivery Hero, serving up the tools to create daily backups of their SaaS data and restore it quickly when required. The New Jersey-based company has so far largely supported Salesforce and its broader ecosystem of companies, though it’s in the process of extending support to other clouds, starting with Microsoft later this year.
Misconfigured Internal security misconfigurations are a common factor in data breaches, with Gartner noting that 99% of “cloud security failures” are down to faults at the customer’s end rather than at a cloud infrastructure level. “That’s because most companies don’t have a holistic solution to tackle fundamental things like data classification, security posture analysis, data backup and recovery, data archiving, and more,” OwnBackup CEO Sam Gutmann told VentureBeat.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! This is why OwnBackup is now bolstering its own offering by adding more security and governance smarts to the mix, a category often referred to as SaaS Security Posture Management (SSPM).
Founded in 2011, San Diego-based RevCult is all about protecting sensitive Salesforce data from misconfigurations and thus breaches and non-compliance — this becomes all the more pertinent as an organization’s data grows in volume. The company counts among its customers big-name companies such as Intuit and L’Oréal, and it has served as OwnBackup’s data protection partner for several years.
“A single SaaS app includes numerous security settings, controls, and policies that must be managed and tracked, creating a near-infinite number of opportunities for mistakes and oversights,” Gutmann said. “As a result, managing SaaS security is incredibly difficult.” As things stand, OwnBackup’s customers would need to tap services from multiple vendors to attain these types of data backup and protection capabilities. But with RevCult under its wing, OwnBackup will now be able to offer everything through a single platform.
Above: RevCult Shared responsibility While SaaS platforms such as Salesforce offer disaster recovery tools in the event of a systemwide outage, the customer (i.e. the company) is still responsible for account-level security — including permissions and passwords — as part of what is known as a “shared responsibility model,” whereby the platform owner is responsible for infrastructure and the customer is responsible for everything specific to their own account. This is why taking RevCult on board could prove to be a major selling point for OwnBackup as it looks to lure more customers on board — it’s all about preventing issues from happening rather than relying on recovery solutions.
“Many of the problems OwnBackup helps customers recover from are preventable through the addition of proactive security measures like the ones that RevCult provides,” Gutmann explained. “Our combined solution will help customers mitigate the security risks that lead to data loss and corruption and rapidly recover should those types of incidents occur.” RevCult is among numerous companies that have built a business almost entirely on top of Salesforce. Indeed, while Salesforce itself is a $250 billion business, some estimates suggest the broader Salesforce ecosystem could be 4 times bigger. However, with OwnBackup now gearing up to extend its own support beyond Salesforce to other clouds, the RevCult acquisition will also go some way toward helping OwnBackup provide more security and compliance tooling across the board.
“We plan to fully integrate RevCult’s products into the OwnBackup platform and provide comprehensive SaaS data protection across multiple clouds,” Gutmann added.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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3,733 | 2,021 |
"Observe.AI acquires ScopeAI to advance omnichannel ambitions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/observe-ai-acquires-scopeai-to-advance-omnichannel-ambitions"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Observe.AI acquires ScopeAI to advance omnichannel ambitions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Observe.AI , a provider of a platform for analyzing data generated by call centers, revealed today it has acquired ScopeAI, which makes tools that automatically extract insights from customer conversations across chat, email, and social media networks.
The acquisition signals a shift into the omnichannel analytics market that Observe.AI will provide starting this fall, beginning with support for web chat channels, said Observe.AI CEO Swapnil Jain. Support for email will be added next via updates, he added. The goal is to consolidate voice and text metrics within a single dashboard that enables organizations to optimize customer engagements spanning multiple communications channels.
Current ScopeAI CEO Natalie Abeysena will now lead omnichannel product development for Observe.AI. The acquisition of ScopeAI comes after $54 million in series B funding last year that brought Observe.AI’s total funding to $89 million. Revenues have since then increased 300%, the company claims.
Observe.AI already makes use of automatic speech recognition and natural language processing (NLP) to analyze voice calls via a software-as-a-service (SaaS) platform. Now organizations want to apply those capabilities to every type of communications channel an enterprise routinely employs to engage customers, said Jain. “They need a full view of the customer journey,” he said.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Pursuing ‘conversational intelligence’ Overall, enterprises are now starting to invest in “conversational intelligence,” added Jain. The challenge enterprises face in achieving that goal is twofold. The first is that most interactions with end customers today occur in silos. Most organizations are still unable to maintain context with customers across multiple channels. The assumption is that if a customer contacts an organization via email, they want the response to come in the form of an email, when in some cases the urgency of the matter warrants a phone call.
The second major issue is synthesizing interactions across multiple channels in a way that surfaces actionable insights. Organizations can analyze, for example, a customer support call made via voice, but most can’t aggregate voice, text, email, and social media interactions in a way that makes it possible to identify meaningful trends and patterns. Observe.AI is betting that by acquiring ScopeAI, the combined company will be able to affordably provide that capability to organizations of all sizes, thanks mainly to the economics of cloud computing.
The Observe.AI platform is designed to provide conversational intelligence without requiring enterprises to standardize on a single call center platform, said Jain. Enterprise are free to employ whatever mix of communications mediums they prefer, he noted.
Keeping customers happy Regardless of how organizations engage customers, the bar is being raised in the age of digital business transformation.
Customers now expect organizations to be able to flexibly respond to inquiries, no matter what medium is employed. The organizations capable of providing that level of customer experience will set themselves apart at a time when it’s increasingly difficult to differentiate products and services.
It’s not immediately apparent who inside organizations is leading the charge when it comes to modernizing customer engagements. Observe.AI remains squarely focused on call centers as the primary vehicle through which organizations will engage customers, said Jain. Many of the teams that staff those call centers, in addition to providing customer support, are also given incentives to upsell customers. In many organizations, marketing teams are being put in charge of customer engagement. Elsewhere, sales teams are exercising more influence as maximizing the revenue per customer becomes a higher priority.
No matter who is placed in charge of engaging customers, the appreciation for the value of customers has never been higher. The one constant is that organizations of all sizes recognize it is much easier to drive additional revenue from an existing customer than it is to land a new one. As such, the return on investment in customer engagement tends to pay off faster and sooner than any effort to land new customers might.
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"How to plan your video strategy for hybrid, remote, and office workers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/how-to-plan-your-video-strategy-for-hybrid-remote-and-office-workers"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How to plan your video strategy for hybrid, remote, and office workers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The mass adoption of video conferencing technology has been one of the most visible and deeply felt workplace shifts to stem from the pandemic. Organizations that had rarely, if ever, used such platforms began doing so multiple times a day, relying on them to keep their businesses afloat. And Zoom — which previously had little consumer awareness — suddenly became a verb as recognizable to the average person as “Google.” Now as many enterprises start considering what a return to the office might look like, and what meeting technologies will best meet their new needs, there are more factors than ever at play. An all-remote team is going to want a different approach than a hybrid team, for example. And even if you’re not at all interested in options like Facebook’s VR-powered Horizon Workrooms , there’s still a variety of emerging video conferencing technologies to choose from.
One increasingly popular option, according to Nathan Coutinho, director of global conferencing strategy at Logitech, is proximity mobile app technology that lets users walk into a physical meeting room and seamlessly connect to the call on their smartphones using ultrasonic frequencies, similar to Apple’s Airdrop feature. There’s also Scribe, a Logitech webcam specifically to capture and project any typical whiteboard over video conferencing platforms, using AI to enhance the text and colors. And of course, there are also various controller systems and mic setups to consider.
VentureBeat recently caught up with Coutinho to learn about these shifts in meeting conferencing technology and how enterprises can navigate their changing needs.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
VentureBeat: Recent research from Logitech suggests that 60% of organizations are strongly considering adopting mobile and next-generation meeting room technology. How has this interest changed over the last few years? And what are the driving factors? Nathan Coutinho: Being able to use a mobile phone to interact with a meeting room conferencing device is not new, but it’s definitely been ratified and standardized. Some offered it two years ago, but it was fairly buggy. But now as we think about going back to the office, almost every customer is saying they want to implement some sort of touchless system in conference rooms, whether it’s a huddle room or a large conference room. And in some cases, they want you to be able to start the meeting with the phone.
So that’s from a mobile perspective, but there are also customers that want a meeting controller in the room. And that’s been a really successful product because it gives you consistency in meeting rooms. If you’re in a meeting with one person or 20 people, they have different cameras, but the user experience is the same. And we also work with every provider out there. If you start on Zoom and decide for some reason to move to a different platform, you can do that fairly easily. You now get a better investment because you don’t have to throw away and start again, whereas previous platforms were tied directly to the systems themselves. So I think the technology has come a long way, and then obviously we’ve had the biggest mass adoption of videoconferencing ever seen over the last 12 to 16 months. So those factors have really caused everyone to sign up for and embed these technologies.
VentureBeat: What would you say are the most important considerations IT teams should take into account when making decisions about meeting technologies and equipment for remote and hybrid work? How can an enterprise know which solution is right for them? Coutinho: Number one, I think most customers are still trying to figure out the breakdown of in-person versus remote. If people are coming in one day a week or four days a week, that’s going to change if you do dedicated desks or not. And as people are going back, IT and HR departments are also really concerned about making sure the home work environment seamlessly integrates with the office.
The other big consideration is how your teams actually work. And this is where it gets very interesting because it looks different for every customer. Some have more small team meetings, while others have larger team meetings. And this is why when we’re talking to customers, we basically build solutions custom for them.
VentureBeat: Are there any frequently asked questions IT teams have? Or any misconceptions you can help clear up? Coutinho: One really common question is, “How many microphones do I need?” Because room sizes vary. But we have a configurer online that asks really simple, non-technical questions. You’ll answer how many people in the room, which video platform you’re using, and it will start custom-building based on those variables. So that’s really a great tool for customers who aren’t familiar with building a lot of different rooms, which seems to be a common issue. We definitely anticipate that almost every conference room will have video going forward. I don’t even think it’s a question. In the report, it says about 75% of the people who make hardware decisions are basically going to put video hardware everywhere, so this is one of those things where it’s going to happen. It’s just a matter of time.
VentureBeat: The idea of VR-powered meeting rooms has been widely discussed since Facebook announced Horizon Workrooms last week. I spoke to a bunch of business leaders and employees about the app and got mixed reactions.
In your day to day, do you see an appetite for this type of interaction? Do you have any thoughts on it overall? Coutinho: I’ve used a couple of these when they were in alpha a couple years ago, and it was very Second Life-ish, like very very buggy. The idea is there, but there are two things. One is that the technology definitely has to get there. And it will, but there’s also a hesitancy from the end user perspective. And I think the adoption by far will be the biggest problem and will take time. So for example, think about how many people had access to video conferencing before the pandemic and never used it. I think like 20% of the licenses on an average were being used on a monthly basis, and then that went up to almost 90%. Post pandemic, it’s not going to change. People aren’t going to go back. So just like that, as these technologies mature, I totally expect this to happen once they get technically viable and available for all. And we will build those experiences into our products once they become available. We have no problem supporting it, but right now, I think we’ve got more important things to work on VentureBeat: Are there any other high-level trends in this space you’re keeping an eye on? What’s interesting to you about where these technologies could go next? Coutinho: After the beginning of the pandemic, it has definitely become clear that all the video conferencing providers, and then us, are laser focused on simplicity and making it less frustrating. We’ve come from systems that were fairly complicated to use, and now you can use your phone to connect to a system remotely and just start your meeting. And so I think the next round of this is like, how do we make it even easier? How do we make it more equitable? For example, there’s the framing feature for a conference room where you can take one single camera and capture everyone in the room, but provide them back to the remote workforce in blocks of their own so everyone is seen. That’s just going to get better and better over time.
Also the ability to schedule meetings and find rooms. Companies have the panels outside the rooms with green bands for available or red for not available, but what if there are 16 other floors? You can’t physically walk every floor, so all that’s going to be automated from a wayfinding perspective. And some of the [technology] has been around for a while, but honestly it’s been complicated for the IT staff to put in and as well as for the end user. So everyone is now focused on: How do you make it equitable; how do we make it simple; how do we make it easy to find, start, and shut down meetings? And how do we keep it all consistent whether you’re at home, in a coffee shop, in the office, or sitting on a train? VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Facebook contributes Ent project to the Linux Foundation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/facebook-contributes-ent-project-to-the-linux-foundation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook contributes Ent project to the Linux Foundation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Let the OSS Enterprise newsletter guide your open source journey! Sign up here.
In 2019, Facebook open-sourced Ent , an entity framework for the programming language Go that’s designed to make it easier to build apps with large data models. After roughly two years of development, Ent will move under the governance of the Linux Foundation, it was announced today, with the goal of fostering the community of companies using it.
“This additional step of enabling open source contributors to take direct ownership of a project’s technical vision is part of our longstanding commitment to open and sustainable innovation,” Facebook project manager Michael Cheng said in a statement. “Enabling a project’s maintainers to chart their course often sparks additional investment, contributions, and new companies building products and platforms based on that project … We see that Ent is already following a similar pattern, and we’ll be cheering on the Ent community as it enters this next stage of exciting growth.” A growing project The Ent project was inspired by an entity framework Facebook used — and continues to use — internally. Created by the Facebook Connectivity team, Ent aims to ease the burden of maintaining a codebase used to manage hundreds of different entity types with complex relationships. Ent leverages graph concepts to model an app’s schema and code generation techniques to create code that simplifies working with databases, mapping between objects (e.g., a user account) in apps to the tables and columns of a relational database. (In the context of app development, a schema uses keywords to define data properties like descriptions and data types.) In the time that Ent was open-sourced, engineers from Facebook, GitHub, Scaleway, and others have contributed to it. The framework has also been used by the Cloud Native Computing Foundation and other open source ecosystems, including the recently launched data fabric solutions provider Ariga.
“From the start, it was obvious that Ent would present a unique and compelling value proposition to a diverse range of use cases across any industry with complex technology stacks,” Ent creator and lead maintainer Ariel Mashraki wrote in a blog post. “The promise of collaborating with a broad coalition of users was the main reason we open-sourced Ent.” Ent is only the latest Facebook-originated tool contributed to the Linux Foundation. Others include Magma, a platform for building wireless networks; GraphQL , a query language for APIs; Presto, an open source distributed SQL query engine; and ONNX , an open format built to represent machine learning models. Last August, Facebook joined the Linux Foundation as a platinum member, and the company’s developers regularly contribute to projects, including the React JavaScript library, the Open Compute Project, and Linux’s cGroup2 container software.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Enterprises are flocking to low-code tools, Mendix reports | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/enterprises-are-flocking-to-low-code-tools-mendix-reports"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Enterprises are flocking to low-code tools, Mendix reports Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
IT professionals struggle to deploy, manage, update, and secure the additional software enterprises require without substantially increasing the size of their team. This challenge is driving many enterprises to modernize software delivery processes using low-code platforms that automate tasks normally done manually.
A survey of IT and business professionals published today by Mendix , a subsidiary of Siemens, suggests low-code platforms are a dominant framework for building applications in the enterprise. More than three-quarters of organizations (77%) are now building applications using low-code programming tools, the survey finds.
As more organizations rely on software to reduce costs and digitally engage customers, the number of end users building applications alongside professional developers should steadily increase. Most new employees have had some exposure to software development during their academic careers and pick up on the easy-to-use low-code or no-code tools.
Based on a survey of 2,025 individuals that included 1,209 IT professionals and 816 software developers in the U.S., China, the U.K., Germany, Belgium, and the Netherlands, the survey finds nearly three-quarters of organizations (76%) say demand for developers has reached a fever pitch, with 57% noting that the need to increase staff to develop software is increasing. Much of that shift is being driven by the need to build applications faster as digital business transformation initiatives accelerated in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Growing enterprise demand for low-code platforms None of this means the need for professional developers will diminish anytime soon, but it does mean the number of routine applications professional developers might have once worked on will be sharply reduced. The survey also reports the cost of software development is rising for many organizations (61%), with two-thirds (66%) reporting they are behind schedule. In fact, 62% of respondents said application development backlogs continue to increase.
It’s not clear to what degree professional developers are now employing low-code tools rather than writing procedural code to build applications faster. The survey finds half of developers surveyed (51%) believe some of their everyday development work could be done on a low-code platform. The survey also finds that a third of respondents (33%) report their organization has built a mission-critical application using low-code tools, with more than half (56%) noting employees are now using applications built on low-code platforms. Nearly two-thirds of survey respondents (64%) said low-code is their go-to work-around development solution.
End users are also becoming more involved in application development. As many as 59% of projects using low-code are a collaboration between business and IT groups, the survey finds. Almost two-thirds of respondents (64%) report they have also relied on non-technical staff to some degree to relieve pressure on the IT department during COVID-19.
The why behind low-code/no-code tools There are many instances of “citizen developers” using the low-code Mendix platform to build applications on their own, global product marketing head Sheryl Koenigsberg said.
However, there are concerns that many of those applications are not designed well, don’t scale easily, and contain many security vulnerabilities. Most citizen developers have not received any extensive application development training.
Low-code platforms such as the one provided by Mendix are making up for that deficiency by including guardrails that guide end users through the software development process, Koenigsberg noted. “It’s built into the platform,” she said.
One way or another, the volume of software being built and deployed is increasing at a rapid rate. More than half of the IT survey respondents (58%) said they are excited by that acceleration, with 45% noting it has added a sense of urgency for faster and more collaborative application development. Meanwhile, three-quarters of IT respondents (75%) identified low-code as trend they can’t afford to miss.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"D3 Security Expands Global Reach with $10M Investment from Vistara Growth | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/d3-security-expands-global-reach-with-10m-investment-from-vistara-growth"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Press Release D3 Security Expands Global Reach with $10M Investment from Vistara Growth Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Rapidly growing company will use funds to accelerate advancement of its next-generation SOAR platform VANCOUVER, British Columbia–(BUSINESS WIRE)–August 31, 2021– D3 Security, the leader in next-generation security orchestration, automation and response (SOAR), today announced it had received a growth equity investment of $10 million USD from Vistara Growth, a provider of flexible growth capital solutions to technology companies across North America. The $10M USD will be augmented by a $5M credit facility from a major financial institution, raising the total funding to $15M.
D3’s cutting edge SOAR platform helps many of the world’s most sophisticated security teams integrate their security tools, eliminate time-consuming tasks via automation, and orchestrate lightning-fast responses to threats. The investment from Vistara will enable D3 to continue to innovate through product development, scale to support its rapidly growing base of clients and partners, and greatly expand sales and marketing efforts to capture the global demand for SOAR.
“We’ve always been confident that we have the most powerful, agile, and easy-to-use SOAR platform on the market,” said Gordon Benoit, D3 Security President. “This investment from Vistara will supercharge our ability to reach the thousands of enterprises, MSSPs, and MDR providers around the world who need a solution like ours.” “We believe that as the benefits of SOAR gain wider recognition with increasingly security-conscious enterprises, the market is growing fast and D3’s platform is at the forefront,” said John O’Donoghue, Vistara Growth Investment Director. “They are an ambitious technology company with a world-class product, and we look forward to supporting them as they reach their full potential.” Both O’Donoghue and Vistara Growth Founder and Managing Partner Randy Garg will join D3 Security’s board as part of the investment.
The prevalence of security automation has exploded in recent years, a trend that appears to have been accelerated by the COVID-19 pandemic, as companies adapt to remote workforces and a growing attack surface. A recent SANS survey found a 24.9% year-over-year increase in the number of organizations with a high amount of security automation. D3 is uniquely positioned to help solve the challenges that are leading so many companies to acquire automation tools. As the leading independent SOAR vendor, D3 integrates with virtually any security tool, bringing automation to the entire stack, enabling the use of best of breed solutions, and maximizing the value of existing security investments.
The investment coincides with D3’s imminent release of XGEN SOAR, a massive leap forward for its flagship SOAR platform. In a market full of complex products that require expert coders to run and maintain them, XGEN SOAR is designed for ease of use, with intuitive configuration, testing, and operation. Its codeless playbooks allow users to seamlessly drag and drop complex automated sequences and product integrations into workflows.
About D3 Security D3 Security’s XGEN SOAR platform is the only SOAR platform that combines automation and orchestration across 360+ integrated tools with the proactive response capabilities of MITRE ATT&CK. D3’s codeless playbooks automate enrichment and remediation tasks, while making it easy for anyone to build, modify, and scale workflows for security operations, incident response, and threat hunting. For more information, visit D3security.com.
About Vistara Growth Vistara Growth provides highly flexible growth debt and equity solutions to leading technology companies across North America. Founded, managed, and funded by seasoned technology finance and operating executives, “Vistara” (Sanskrit for “expansion”) is focused on enabling growth for the ambitious entrepreneurs we invest in, our investors, our people, and the communities we operate in. For more information, visit vistaragrowth.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210830005592/en/ Media: Walker Banerd [email protected] VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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3,738 | 2,021 |
"Call center agents interested in, but wary of, automation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/call-center-agents-interested-in-but-wary-of-automation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Call center agents interested in, but wary of, automation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Forty-one percent of call center agents say that they want AI to tackle complex calls. Yet 40% fear that AI will one day take away their jobs. That’s the finding in a survey released today by AI customer service startup Asapp and the University of San Francisco’s Master of Science in Marketing Intelligence program, which dives into industry use of AI, the kinds of abuse chronic callers dish out, and the policies agents want from companies in response.
The $600 billion contact center industry has a major problem: Every year, 1.2 million U.S.-based call agents leave their jobs. Turnover is the largest expense for the customer experience industry at roughly $40,000 a head. But some experts believe that by automating the mundane processes agents must do to serve customers, AI will reduce churn by leaving the more engaging and satisfying types of interactions to agents.
The report found the opposite to be true — at least in edge cases. While 44% of agents told Asapp that AI will improve their efficiency, 72% say they feel motivated when they solve simple customer problems — highlighting the balance that must be struck between automation and “the human touch.” “For AI to be successfully implemented, companies will need to ramp up education and communication on what, and how, AI will augment and improve agents’ daily work lives,” Asapp indicated in the report. “Seventy-eight percent of agents surveyed want policies to handle this issue. Poor training was cited as an issue, which can lead to poor performance and burnout. Over half of agents that are poorly trained are pessimistic about their career and 45% stated that technological advancement in contact centers is behind the times.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Trend toward AI While customer service agents working in call centers have a mixed view of automation, companies are increasingly embracing it as the pandemic spurs digital transformations. A survey from the Harris Poll found that 46% of customer interactions are already automated, with the number expected to reach 59% during the next two to three years.
A recent McKinsey report notes that call center AI can combine customer demographic and past transaction data with social media monitoring to generate personalized product recommendations. “Next-product-to-buy” suggestions that target individual customers can lead to a twofold increase in the rate of sales conversions, the firm estimates.
“Improved speech recognition in call center management and call routing as a result of the application of AI techniques [also] allows a more seamless experience for customers — and more efficient processing,” McKinsey wrote in a recent report.
“The capabilities go beyond words alone. For example, deep learning analysis of audio allows systems to assess a customer’s emotional tone; in the event a customer is responding badly to the system, the call can be rerouted automatically to human operators and manager.” The goal is to minimize the estimated $75 billion lost every year on poor customer service experiences. But as the Asapp data shows, the desires of agents and management — particularly where AI is involved — can often come into conflict.
“Agents stated three options would improve their jobs: Training, [the] ability to end calls with difficult customers, [and] career growth opportunities,” Asapp wrote. “The impact of training at the start of the job and throughout their career directly impacts agent happiness.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"AT&T launches Connected Climate Initiative to reduce carbon emissions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/att-launches-connected-climate-initiative-to-reduce-carbon-emissions"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AT&T launches Connected Climate Initiative to reduce carbon emissions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
AT&T today launched a Connected Climate Initiative (CCI) that promises to bring together partners and researchers in academia to further reduce carbon emissions.
The overall goal is to enable AT&T to help businesses reduce greenhouse emissions by 1 billion metric tons (aka 1 gigaton) by 2035. A gigaton is equal to approximately 15% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions and nearly 3% of global energy-related emissions generated in 2020.
Organizations that are lending their support to CCI include Microsoft, Equinix, Duke Energy, Texas A&M University System, The University of Missouri, SunPower, Badger Meter, IndustLabs, Traxen, BSR, RMI, Third Derivative, and the Carbon Trust.
At the core of that effort is a drive to encourage enterprise IT organizations to rely more on renewable energy sources , coupled with the shifting of more application workloads to the cloud. Equinix, for example, is committing to enabling customers that connect to its datacenters over AT&T networks to reduce carbon emissions by using renewable energy sources such as fuel cells, which create energy via electrochemical reactions. The hosting services company already makes the energy source available to 10,000 customers spanning 220 datacenters, said Jennifer Ruch, director for sustainability and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) at Equinix.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Initiatives already underway Many of those organizations have carbon offset goals of their own that, beyond social responsibility concerns, are being driven by incentives and penalties that will be imposed by governments around the world. “It’s become an economic issue,” Rauch said.
As part of its Future First initiative , Equinix has already committed to achieving global climate neutrality by 2030 and has issued over $3.7 billion in Green Bonds to improve power usage effectiveness (PUE) rating across all its datacenters.
Microsoft, meanwhile, is working to deploy AT&T Guardian devices on its Azure Sphere internet of things security platform to enable businesses to securely collect and analyze data to identify efficiencies and reduce sources of carbon emissions. Azure Sphere is built on the Azure cloud, which Microsoft claims is 98% more carbon efficient than an on-premises IT environment.
Duke Energy at the same time is committing to working with AT&T to explore how broadband technologies may help accelerate the transition to renewable energy. The provider of electricity has previously committed to achieving a net-zero carbon emissions goal by 2050.
Texas A&M University System’s RELLIS Campus will research how wireless 5G technology might speed emissions reduction in industries with high emissions such as transportation, while the University of Missouri is exploring how 5G might reduce carbon emissions generated by buildings.
Seeking carbon credits In general, carbon emissions generated by IT are being scrutinized more as organizations look for ways to earn carbon credits. IT is only one source of carbon emissions for an organization, but given the amount of energy datacenters consume, finding more efficient ways to consume IT infrastructure resources is becoming a higher priority. Many larger organizations are already finding themselves buying carbon credits from other organizations to offset carbon emissions. The more energy efficient they become, the less of a need there might be to acquire those carbon credits.
In fact, cloud service providers are adding carbon emissions as a reason to shift workloads to cloud computing environments that make use of renewable energy sources to reduce the total amount of carbon generated by organizations that deploy applications on shared infrastructure. Many organizations that continue to operate their own datacenters don’t always have the resources required to reengineer a datacenter in a way that relies more on renewable energy sources.
Of course, AT&T is only the latest in a series of providers of IT infrastructure that have launched climate control initiatives. It’s not clear to what degree those efforts are driving organizations to select one provider of IT infrastructure over another. However, all things being relatively equal from a cost and performance perspective, carbon emissions might very well tip the balance in favor of one vendor over another. One way or another, however, carbon emissions are about to become a lot bigger factor in IT decision-making processes than anyone would have thought a few short years ago.
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"2021 Digital Customer Experience Report: Data and insights from 400+ executives | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/2021-digital-customer-experience-report-data-and-insights-from-400-executives"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored 2021 Digital Customer Experience Report: Data and insights from 400+ executives Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by CMSWire Humanity’s reliance on digital channels has exploded over the last 18 months, forcing even non-digital retailers into the online space just to keep up. At the same time, customers have become accustomed to a certain level of sophistication around their digital experience.
Personalization is no longer a nice-to-have — it’s table stakes. Same goes for delivering exceptional customer experiences. Organizations need to innovate, pivot, or stay the course , but sticking to tried-and-true methods might not work these days. In a world where one bad experience can turn a customer away from your brand forever, there’s not a lot of room for error when it comes to DCX (Digital Customer Experience).
The Research department of CMSWire conducts an annual survey on the state of digital customer experience, asking executives and practitioners for their insight into where DCX is headed in the coming years.
Results from the 2021 survey suggest that the DCX space is bound for upheaval — if it hasn’t happened already.
Download the full report for free: State of Digital Customer Experience 2021 Digital customer experience matters now more than ever Customer loyalties and priorities are always changing in a normal year, but 2020 was anything other than normal. With the customer journey transformed to such a degree over the past 18 months, organizations are struggling to understand “the new customer journey.” This is just one of the many reasons 34% of survey respondents believe delivering quality digital customer experiences is very important to their organization, with an additional 46% calling it very important.
Customer journey mapping isn’t a one-and-done process, but rather a continuous cycle. Forward-thinking organizations understand this and invest accordingly in analytics and other DCX capabilities. Top customer experience investment priorities according to survey respondents are analytics, insights, and dashboarding (51%); customer journey analysis and optimization (37%) and web CMS platforms (36%).
The continuing pandemic has also changed some organizational behaviors surrounding DCX. As one survey respondent put it, “COVID-19 put gasoline on a fire that has already been burning.” Digital transformation had been bubbling under the surface for years — the pandemic laid plain the need to address DCX and fully commit to creating great digital experiences.
Identify DCX challenges to overcome them Challenges to DCX implementation persist, even as 80% of organizations believe improving digital customer experiences is critical for organizational success. Budget is always a concern and 46% of survey respondents call limited budgets or resources challenging to overcome. Beyond budget, however, come a myriad of other roadblocks to delivering exceptional customer experiences, such as siloed systems and fragmented customer data (37%), limited cross-department collaboration (34%) and outdated technology or processes (29%).
Digital customer experience can only be improved when everyone works together to achieve this common goal. Silos need to be broken down between departments, allowing for the better exchange of ideas, resources, and data.
Invest in tools, technology, and talent The products that organizations invest in for DCX drive compelling websites, apps, and content; they also deliver the necessary data, analytics, and insights that ensure teams are delivering the right experiences and making the right decisions.
While technology investment may have dipped at the beginning of the pandemic, it’s coming back thanks in part to the need to commit to digital experiences. Current organizational investment priorities show a need for organizations to understand their customers’ new behavior patterns; 51% of survey respondents say analytics and dashboarding capabilities are key investment priorities.
At the same time, more definition around measurement and metrics is needed if organizations expect to be able to turn analytics into insights. Data silos, immature measurement practices, and a lack of expertise on the team are all challenges to getting the most from analytics and metrics. Going forward, organizations will need to devote time, energy, and people power to defining/establishing appropriate metrics, educating the team, and breaking down data silos.
Conclusion The lingering effects of the COVID-19 pandemic has altered customer behavior in ways and volumes not previously seen. Organizations might have the tools they need to understand these new behaviors, but without a clear understanding of their new customer journey, they won’t be able to make the connection between customer experience and organizational outcomes.
Dig deeper: Download the full State of Digital Customer Experience Report for free here.
Tim Harnett is Senior Manager of Research and Content at CMSWire.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How the Air Force is using VR for sexual assault prevention training | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/arvr/how-the-air-force-is-using-vr-for-sexual-assault-prevention-training"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How the Air Force is using VR for sexual assault prevention training Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Air Force pilots do Moth + Flame VR training.
Virtual reality company Moth + Flame has partnered with the U.S. Air Force to create a VR training program that shows people how to prevent sexual assault and respond properly if it happens.
The program, dubbed sexual assault prevent and response training (SAPR), focuses on training Air Force personnel to use intervention skills, advocate for victims, and report incidents, Carmen Schott, SAPR program manager at Air Mobility Command (AMC), told VentureBeat in an interview.
The training is considered particularly important because a study in March found a total of 1,661 reports of sexual assault in the Air Force in 2020, according to the Department of Defense.
New York-based Moth + Flame previously created a VR training module related to suicide prevention, and this week happens to be National Suicide Prevention Week.
The sexual assault training program could reach 10,000 personnel in the Air Force. If it works well, it could reach a wider audience, Shott said. The program uses virtual reality to create an empathy-building immersive experience and simulate real conversations.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Inspirations Above: The Air Force is using VR to train personnel on suicide prevention and sexual assault prevention.
Moth + Flame and other VR companies have done a lot of training simulations in the past.
“We’ve done projects and programs for Netflix, Facebook, Google, AT&T, and Accenture, including one on child welfare ,” Moth + Flame CEO Kevin Cornish said in an interview with VentureBeat. “The [child welfare one] was the first one that we did in the workplace training space. And it addresses one of the big challenges that caseworkers face in the enterprise, where people come into the job and don’t know how difficult it is [when a social worker interviews possible victims of child abuse].” Schott said she thought the VR work with child welfare programs was very well done, and that spurred her interest in developing skill-based training for separate personnel and volunteer victim advocates in the Air Force. The work with Moth + Flame started about two years ago.
“I really wanted to do this training for them,” Schott said. “That’s where we ran with it, on this adventure, and got funding to do this.” In the Air Force, VR training is often used for pilot training or maintenance programs. But this program dealt with an entirely different area.
The Air Force personnel will go through a two-hour training program where they can be taught how to handle difficult conversations, including the exact wording to use and mannerisms that can help.
Headsets beat PowerPoint Above: Air Force trainees experience SAPR training to prevent sexual assault and properly report it when it happens.
The first 30-minute session is completed, and it’s having a better impact than training with PowerPoint presentations.
“We create this to be impactful and moving, but not to be triggering,” Schott said. “It was a thin line on how to develop this so it wasn’t too much. But it’s very realistic. I couldn’t believe it.” A sexual assault survivor volunteered to serve as a coach in the VR module for the experience. She served as the coach for the difficult conversation, helped develop the script, and hit all of the training points that needed to be addressed.
“Typically, people would hear this in a PowerPoint presentation or small group discussion, and a lot of people aren’t comfortable talking about this topic in front of their peers, or with high-ranking members,” Schott said. “So we really want to develop something that would allow them to learn about unrestricted reporting, restricted reporting, who has a mandated report, collateral misconduct, special victims counsel, which are lawyers that can help them, and we lead them through this scenario. And we’re also introducing key concepts for them to learn and things we want to test their knowledge on skills and abilities, and how to help an airman in need.” Actors can give nonverbal cues that participants should notice.
“We want airmen to know that there’s no right or wrong. This is a learning experience,” Schott said.
In the Air Force VR module, the people going through the training get to engage in a difficult conversation while wearing the VR headset. On a peer-to-peer level, an “airman” (as the Air Force calls its personnel) is seeking help after a sexual assault and looking for resources. About 97% of the people who go through the VR training prefer it to the standard verbal training that has been in place since 2005.
“I really think it could grow and become a bigger project across the Air Force,” Schott said.
The next stage Above: Kevin Cornish is CEO of Moth + Flame.
The full program will have two 30-minute role-playing sessions, in which a group helps a victim of sexual assault connect with those responsible for helping them. It also shows how to intervene as a bystander. There’s another scenario for volunteer victim advocates who provide immediate support for victims, as well as a role-playing scenario for leaders of squadrons to help them deal with evidence of a sexual assault.
“We’re in the process of developing this with Kevin and his team now,” Schott said.
Schott sees the VR approach as creative and believes it helps immerse people in situations where they will pay attention and learn more about the subject matter. SAPR training will be used at the Little Rock Air Force Base in Arkansas.
“The biggest thing is actually having to say the words out loud. And that by saying the words out loud, you’re engaging physically,” Cornish said. “So much of leadership is having difficult conversations. And it’s something that’s really exciting as we’re watching in virtual reality grow, especially now, in the hybrid workplace, how COVID has completely disrupted traditional training, and a scalable technology, like virtual reality, gets you that focus that you get with in-person training. It’s not like computer-based training, where you’re just clicking ‘next’ over and over. That’s where we are seeing people in corporations and the Department of Defense training people at scale.” Above: VR training is very realistic and immersive.
Moth + Flame created the training apps with the Air Mobility Command’s Integrated Resiliency Team, which supports Air Force pilots and other personnel and their families with crisis prevention, intervention, and postvention.
The company got the contract for the training from AFVentures’ AFWERX Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) program, and it was pushed forward by four-star general Jacqueline Van Ovost, who was promoted to lead the transportation command.
“One of the most exciting things about being part of this project is seeing how the Air Force is a leader in innovation,” Cornish said. “We expect innovation around the airplanes, but seeing innovation around the people and using next-gen technology to help make the people better — it’s been really inspiring in this project.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Automattic acqui-hires the team behind Frontity, a React framework for WordPress | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/apps/automattic-acqui-hires-the-team-behind-frontity-a-react-framework-for-wordpress"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Automattic acqui-hires the team behind Frontity, a React framework for WordPress Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Frontity founders Pablo Postigo and Luis Herranz Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
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WordPress.com parent Automattic has acquired Frontity , an open source React framework for WordPress-powered websites. Frontity’s entire team, which includes founders Pablo Postigo (CEO) and Luis Herranz (lead developer), will now join Automattic to work on the WordPress open source project, with a specific focus on frontend development tools and improving website performance.
“After a series of conversations, Automattic offered to sponsor our team to work on the WordPress open source project, and more specifically, to help improve the full site editing developer experience,” Postigo noted in a blog post.
“We saw this as a huge opportunity for our team to make a more significant impact in the long term and decided to go for it.” A WordPress world Powering an estimated 40% of all websites, WordPress needs little introduction. The omnipresent content management system (CMS) is available in two broad versions — the open source, self-hosted incarnation available through WordPress.org and the hosted entity operated and commercialized by Automattic through WordPress.com. The Frontity acquisition is all about Automattic investing resources in the former.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Founded out of Spain in 2015 as Worona , Frontity has evolved through the years to become a framework that enables developers to leverage the benefits of the React JavaScript library in their WordPress websites. Frontity is all about removing the complexity of connecting WordPress and React, allowing developers to focus on core development needs and creating fast-loading WordPress websites while spending less time on configuration. The Madrid-based company raised a €1 million ($1.2 million) seed round last year, with Automattic as one of the investors, and later announced a partnership with digital agency 10up to open the Frontity Framework to the enterprise.
While Automattic is primarily associated with the WordPress brand, the company has targeted businesses with a slew of new tools and products and has also engaged in a number of acquisition and investment initiatives to broaden its scope. A couple of years back, Automattic secured $300 million from Salesforce , underscoring its intentions in the enterprise sphere. Automattic also acquired ZBS CRM , a customer relationship management plugin for WordPress, and ecommerce plugin WooCommerce.
Earlier this year, Automattic’s enterprise-focused content management offshoot WordPress VIP acquired engagement analytics platform Parse.ly, while Automattic also invested in business email startup Titan and decentralized team messaging platform Element.
Last week, WordPress cocreator and Automattic founder Matt Mullenweg announced his company had quietly raised $288 million in financing in February to fund acquisitions and spearhead a hiring spree.
Headless While the Frontity acquisition may not be a pure enterprise play, it fits into a broader trend of businesses embracing a “headless” architecture, where software’s backend and frontend are decoupled for maximum freedom and flexibility. For example, Contentstack recently raised $57.5 million for an enterprise-focused CMS built for a more modern architecture based around microservices, APIs, cloud, and “headless” architecture — MACH , for short.
Under Automattic’s wing, Frontity said its team’s knowledge of “frontend tooling, performance, and developer documentation” will benefit the broader WordPress development world and that together the companies will “explore ways to improve the developer experience with blocks and themes.” This is particularly pertinent with the new WordPress Gutenberg editor.
Frontify’s existing open source framework will continue in its current guise, but the team is working to transition the project to a new community of maintainers, given that Frontify’s developers will now be working on new WordPress-focused tasks. In effect, this acquisition is more of a talent grab than anything else.
“By joining forces, we have the chance to help improve the experience for all developers who want to use WordPress, not just those who want to use it as a decoupled CMS,” Herranz said. “We believe this move is not only a big step forward for our team, but also for the WordPress ecosystem.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Peak, a managed AI platform for enterprise, nabs $75M | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/peak-a-managed-ai-platform-for-enterprise-nabs-75m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Peak, a managed AI platform for enterprise, nabs $75M Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Photo by Helen H. Richardson/The Denver Post via Getty Images Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Peak , a U.K.-headquartered company offering AI-powered enterprise decision support software, today announced that it closed a $75 million series C. The tranche, which was led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 with participation from MMC Ventures, Oxx, Praetura Ventures, Arete, and Octopus Ventures, brings Peak’s total raised to date $119 million, and CEO Richard Potter says it’ll be used to fuel R&D and expansion with new offices in the U.S. and India.
The growth potential of AI has become increasingly clear as companies embrace automation and analytics. The global AI market value is expected to reach $267 billion by 2027, according to one source, and PricewaterhouseCoopers reports that 25% of companies have adopted AI compared with 18% in 2020. Increased efficiency — and the corresponding boost in revenue — remains a top motivation. A 2019 McKinsey survey found that 44% of enterprises report cost savings from incorporating AI into business units.
Launched in 2014 by Atul Sharma, David Leitch, and Potter, Peak’s platform aims to simplify AI adoption with prebuilt infrastructure, data processing, workflows, and apps. The company’s retail, consumer packaged goods, direct-to-consumer, and manufacturing customers supply access to their data through built-in connectors, which Peak’s platform funnels through AI engines to perform tasks like optimizing supply and demand and supporting product fulfillment.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “Modern businesses are complex and operate in an ever-changing world. It’s becoming impossible to run them without AI, which is enabling them to make consistently great decisions, faster and more accurately than ever before,” Potter said in a press release. “We uniquely simplify the task of data scientists and engineers, who use Peak to rapidly create and deploy AI apps to business users. These apps empower day-to-day decision makers across businesses to achieve transformational gains.” AI-powered decision-making Once a Peak customer’s account goes live, the aforementioned AI engines’ predictions can be exposed through APIs or exported using Peak’s data dashboard. The platform screens data through an algorithm to anonymize personally identifiable information, and Peak’s team works with customers to define objectives, quantify opportunities, and canvass business cases for sign-off and launch.
There’s no shortage of managed AI development platforms with substantial venture backing. According to Technavio, the AI platforms market is expected to grow by $17.29 billion between 2021 and 2025.
H2O recently raised $72.5 million to further develop its product that supports enterprise-focused models and algorithms. Meanwhile, data science startup Cnvrg.io , which has raised $8 million, recently launched a free community tier.
But Peak, which claims that annual recurring revenue growth grew 100% year-over-year, is optimistic about the future — in spite of the competition. The company plans to launch its platform in the U.S. in September and hire 200 new employees by 2022.
“In Peak, we have a partner with a shared vision that the future enterprise will run on a centralized AI software platform capable of optimizing entire value chains,” SoftBank senior investment advisor Max Ohrstrand said in a statement. “To realize this a new breed of platform is needed, and we’re hugely impressed with what Richard and the excellent team have built at Peak. We’re delighted to be supporting them on their way to becoming the category-defining, global leader in decision intelligence.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Ignore the AI hype, focus on the value | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ignore-the-ai-hype-focus-on-the-value"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Ignore the AI hype, focus on the value Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
It should be obvious to anyone in the technology field that artificial intelligence is being hyped to unrealistic expectations at the moment. But this makes it no different from any other technology that society has generated through the ages — from the cloud to virtualization to the service oriented architecture ( remember that? ), and all the way back to the personal computer. There are probably old newspaper clippings touting the ability of steam engines to create flying machines and rockets to the moon.
While much of hype is wishful thinking, sometimes there is a bit of truth to it. Past technologies have certainly reshaped the world, although not necessarily in ways that early boosters had envisioned.
Starting the cycle AI is at the nascent state of this process, which Gartner has encapsulated in its Hype Cycle.
The latest release has technologies like AI-augmented software and generative AI rapidly closing in on the “Peak of Inflated Expectations,” while more esoteric applications like quantum machine learning and AI-driven innovation are just starting out at the “Innovation Trigger” stage. So far, none are even close to the end-stage of the cycle, the “Plateau of Productivity,” let alone the dreaded “Trough of Disillusionment.” Perhaps this is one of the reasons why most IT executives are still looking at AI with jaundiced eyes. A recent survey by KPMG showed that a good 75% of top decision-makers view AI as more hype than reality at the moment; half say that AI is developing too fast for them to keep up. A key detriment to AI is that the implementation hurdles are extremely high, which is what we should expect from something that is designed to remake enterprise data environments on a granular level.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! At the same time, there is a distinct lack of understanding of what AI actually is, how it works, and what it can ultimately do. This is one of the consequences of excessive hype; in the case of AI, expectations range from full automation of all data functions to clear and unfettered insight into highly complex and seemingly intractable data-driven processes.
If the past is prologue, however, these and other misunderstandings will clear up once AI is operational and people learn how to use it. The goal for enterprise executives at this point should be to shift the focus away from the hype and more toward the value AI can bring to the business model.
According to Alex Ubot, vice president of Solution Engineering at Dataiku , most organizations encounter three key roadblocks when implementing AI: governance of internal assets, management of talent, and difficulty of designing a clear technological roadmap. To overcome them, organizations will have to do the hard work of identifying the business use cases for each form of AI under consideration (and there are quite a number of them already), then implementing an inter-departmental working environment designed to align both the objectives and the way forward in order to shift away from the hype and focus on the value that AI brings to the business model.
Part of the team This leads to the most salient point about AI’s transformative impact on the enterprise: It is not a standalone, plug-and-play technology. In fact, it requires the enterprise to transform to a certain extent before it can have an appreciable effect on digital processes.
Nacho De Marco, CEO of tech solutions firm BairesDev , pointed out on Forbes some of the key steps organizations must take in order to derive real value from AI. Failure to define the proper users and use cases for each AI implementation tops the list, followed by neglect of the quality of data used to train AI models. In other words, you can’t just throw AI into the enterprise and hope for the best. It must be carefully and strategically implemented, and then just as carefully and strategically monitored to ensure it is delivering on its promises.
The essence of technology hype is the practice of overpromising and underdelivering. AI does offer a lot of promise, but the implementation challenges are substantial. In the final analysis, organizations should treat AI the way it should have treated new technologies all along: Focus on finding the right solutions to real problems, not on acquiring the newest, shiniest tech in the channel.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How much smarter can a smart speaker get? | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-much-smarter-can-a-smart-speaker-get"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored How much smarter can a smart speaker get? Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Infineon How much smarter can a smart speaker get? Quite a lot smarter, if two major market trends play out as expected.
The first trend driving the uptake of smart speakers is their role in strengthening the ecosystems of companies such as Amazon, Apple, and Google. Each has introduced smart speakers as a way of extending the reach of their services into our lives and gathering more data about what we want and do. Each company is evolving its smart-speaker hardware quite rapidly, to extend its functionality and make it suitable for use in more settings. These companies are also continually upgrading the supporting software and services, to make them more engaging.
The second trend that is increasing the smarts of smart speakers is the addition of more functionality.
Smart speakers integrate so easily into our homes — and through their voice user interfaces — into our busy lives, that they have become an excellent platform for additional functionality. Some even expect that smart speakers will evolve into the role of smart-home hubs, securing and coordinating the actions of multiple smart-home devices across home networks, while acting as a gateway between those networks and the wider internet.
Presence detection, gesture-based control, and environmental monitoring What sort of additional functionality can we expect to see in smart speakers? Smart speakers can already sense people’s presence in a room using their microphone arrays, but it is also possible to build more sophisticated presence-detection systems, operating over longer distances, using radar technology. Presence sensing can then be used as part of a home security system, or as a way of monitoring the sick and elderly in their homes by building up profiles of their usual daily actions and sending alerts if people deviate from them.
Developers are also exploring implementing gesture-based control to work alongside their voice interfaces in the near field of smart speakers. Think of a smart speaker on a countertop in a noisy kitchen — it would be useful to be able to raise or lower your hand over the speaker to raise or lower its volume, wave at it dismissively to skip a song in a playlist, or hold up a hand to cancel an alarm. It might even be possible to combine voice and gesture controls — if stroking a dog’s back and talking to it quietly can calm it down, surely interface designers can exploit similar combined interactions to develop new control metaphors for smart speakers? The ubiquity of smart speakers in homes also makes them good platforms for environmental monitoring. The pandemic has taught us how important it is to monitor the air quality in our homes, offices, and schools, and particularly to keep an eye on CO2 levels, which can quickly affect concentration and productivity. Indeed, the California Energy Commission recommended in July 2020 that school rooms should be fitted with CO2 sensors to monitor and enable the control of CO2 concentrations in class. Researchers at the University of Colorado have even explored using CO2 levels as a proxy with which to measure the concentration of aerosols containing SARS-CoV-2 viral particles exhaled by people infected by COVID-19.
Some smart devices are already offering health monitoring facilities. Google’s second-generation Nest Hub adds a screen to a smart speaker and so is described as a ‘smart display’. It uses radar to track a user’s breathing and movement during sleep, combining the resultant radar data with information from its temperature and ambient light sensors and its microphone array to analyze the user’s sleep patterns and sleep quality.
Many technologies are available to help make smart speakers even smarter.
Audio: Output is important — but microphones will determine functionality Of course, audio is at the heart of all smart speakers.
Consumers expect high-quality audio from smart speakers, and many designers are now using multichannel approaches to create room-filling sound from small enclosures. Traditional class D switching amplifiers need relatively large and costly filters, and their inefficiency leads to excessive heat generation in small enclosures. Infineon has adapted the traditional class D audio amplifier IC topology to use a multilevel amplification approach that cuts power consumption, reduces electromagnetic interference, and limits out-of-band noise, while retaining the high-quality audio output that consumers now expect.
Microphone performance is also vital to smart speakers, since voice user interfaces need high-quality audio to achieve robust recognition in noisy environments.
One way to improve the accuracy of voice recognition is to use multiple microphones, favouring the signal from the nearest microphone and using inputs from the other microphones to characterize and remove background noise. This works best when the microphones are closely matched, so that the noise-cancelling algorithms don’t have to account for any bias that they would otherwise introduce.
Micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) microphones have a volume of just a few cubic millimetres, are physically robust, and can be mounted to a PCB in the same way as an IC. The microphones can handle a very wide range of input levels without distortion. They are trimmed during manufacture to ensure that they closely match their specification, and their performance won’t drift over time. These three attributes make it much easier to create matched microphone arrays that provide a consistent input to voice-recognition algorithms.
Micro and macro movements: Someone breathing or walking by? Infineon’s IM69D130 exemplifies some of other the advantages of using MEMS techniques to build microphones. The part has a highly linear response within a dynamic range of 105dB, and its distortion is kept below 1% at sound pressure levels of 128dB SPL. The microphone also has a high signal to noise ratio of 69dB(A), which gives it the headroom to distinguish quiet sounds and sounds from a long distance away from background noise. All these characteristics help improve the utility of smart speakers, for example by making it possible to control them from another room or when they are playing loud music.
Arrays of Infineon MEMS microphones can be used to enable beam-forming strategies that locate a user within a room by comparing the signals from each microphone. For more sophisticated presence detection, radar ICs can detect someone’s presence in a room even if they are not speaking.
Infineon’s XENSIV™ 60 GHz radar technology is implemented as a low-power chip of just 5 x 5.6mm. It can sense micro and macro movements at a range of up to 5 metres, enabling one device to sense movement as subtle as a person breathing, and as obvious as someone walking by. The parts are supplied with presence detection software, and provide a good alternative to other ways of detecting human presence, such as lasers, ultra-sonic or PIR sensors.
Smart hubs and privacy The other key function of smart speakers, especially as they evolve into smart hubs for home automation, is to secure their user’s privacy, protect the integrity of any data flowing over the home network, and act as gatekeeper for communications with the wider internet.
Infineon’s OPTIGA™ Trust M security controller IC offers physical security, by handling security functions in a separate device to the main processor. It can store arbitrary user data and cryptographic keys in a secure element onboard. It can be authenticated as a unique and genuine part, making it more difficult to clone devices. And it is tamperproof, so that the secrets it holds cannot be extracted by physical attack.
These features can enable encrypted communications and can be programmed with the credentials needed to automatically make secure connections to cloud servers at boot time. It also has the facilities necessary to check that any firmware updates it is downloading are coming from a trusted source and have not been tampered with in transit.
How much smarter can smart speakers get? The ecosystem players will continue to evolve their hardware, software, and services to increase user engagement. Others will be able to take advantage of the kind of additional functionality described in this article to create innovative features.
In doing so, smart speakers may evolve into the role of smart home hubs, coordinating and protecting the activities of multiple devices on smart home networks. Infineon has the hardware, firmware, and software, as well as the experience and advice, to enable developers to make their smart speakers smarter, while ensuring they remain secure.
Dale Wedel is Application Marketing Manager, Smart Speakers and Emerging IoT at Infineon.
Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. Content produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
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"AI startups claim to detect depression from speech, but the jury's out on their accuracy | VentureBeat"
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In a 2012 study published in the journal Biological Psychiatry , a team of scientists at the Center for Psychological Consultation (CPC) in Madison, Wisconsin hypothesized that the characteristics of a depressed person’s voice might reveal a lot about the severity of their disorder. The coauthors said the research, which was partially funded by pharma giant Pfizer, identified several “viable biomarkers” — quantitative indicators of changes in health — to measure the severity of major depression.
A cottage industry has since emerged, with startups claiming to automate the detection of depression using AI trained on hundreds of recordings of people’s voices. One of the better-funded efforts, Ellipsis Health , which generates assessments of depression from 90 seconds of a person’s speech, managed to raise $26 million in series A funding. Investors include former Salesforce chief scientist Richard Socher and Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff’s Time Ventures.
According to founder and CEO Mainul I Mondal, Ellipsis’ technology is “science-based” and validated by peer-reviewed research. But experts are skeptical that the company’s product, and others like it, work as well as advertised.
Diagnosing depression The idea that signs of depression can be detected in a person’s voice is at least 60 years old. The 2012 CPC study was a follow-up to a 2007 work by the same research team that was originally published in the Journal of Neurolinguistics.
That study — funded by a small-business innovation research grant from the U.S. National Institutes of Health — reportedly found “vocal-acoustic” characteristics correlated with the severity of certain depression symptoms.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! According to James Mundt, a senior research scientist at CPC who led both the 2007 and 2012 studies, depressed patients begin to speak faster and with shorter pauses as they respond to treatment — or with monotone, “lifeless,” and “metallic” qualities, or “paraverbal features,” if they don’t. Speech requires complex control in the nervous system, and the underlying pathways in the brain can be affected by psychiatric disorders, including depression. The ability to speak, then, is closely related to thinking and concentration, all of which can be impaired with depression. Or so the reasoning goes.
Ellipsis leveraged this academic connection between speech and disordered thinking to develop a screening test for severe depression. Patients speak briefly into a microphone to record a voice sample, which the company’s algorithms then analyze to measure the levels of depression and anxiety.
“Combining the most current deep learning and cutting-edge transfer learning techniques, our team has developed novel models that detect both acoustic and word-based patterns in voice. The models learn their features directly from data, without reliance on predetermined features,” Mondal told VentureBeat via email. “Around the world, voice is the original measure of well-being. Through speech, someone’s voice conveys the internal state of a person — not only through words and ideas but also through tone, rhythm, and emotion.” The market for AI health startups, specifically those that deal with biomarkers, is estimated to be worth $129.4 billion by 2027, according to Grand View Research. Ellipsis is one of several in the depression-diagnosing voice analysis space, which includes Sonde Health; Vocalis Health; Winterlight Labs; and Berkeley, California-based Kintsugi, which closed an $8 million funding round last week.
Some research gives credence to the notion that AI can detect depression from speech patterns. In a paper presented at the 2018 Interspeech conference, MIT researchers detailed a system that could read audio data from interviews to discover depression biomarkers with 77% accuracy. And in 2020, using an AI system designed to focus on word choice, scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles said they were able to monitor people being treated for serious mental illness as well as physicians could.
“There’s no doubt that paraverbal features can be helpful in making clinical diagnoses,” Danielle Ramo, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco, told KQED in a 2017 interview. “To the extent that machines are able to take advantage of paraverbal features in communication, that is a step forward in using machines to inform clinical diagnoses or treatment planning.” In another study out of the University of Vermont, which involved training a system to detect childhood depression, the researchers noted that standard tests involve time-consuming interviews with both clinicians and primary caregivers. Because depression can’t be picked up by a blood test or brain scan, physicians must rely on self-reports and results from these interviews to arrive at a diagnosis. Coauthor Ellen McGinnis pitched the research as a way to quickly and easily diagnose mental disorders in young people.
Ellipsis itself plans to put a portion of the new capital toward expanding its platform to children and adolescents, with the stated goal of improving access to diagnosis and treatment. “One can’t manage what one can’t measure. Access is dependent on knowledge of a condition and the level of severity of that condition,” Mondal said. “Access is also dependent on the supply of resources that can treat different levels of access. While there may be an undersupply of specialists, understanding the level of severity may open access to less specialized providers, which are in better supply. In other words, measuring performs triage to recommend the right care at the right time for a patient.” Potential flaws In many ways, the pandemic highlighted the ramifications of the mental health epidemic. The number of people presenting with moderate to severe symptoms of depression and anxiety remains higher than prior to the global outbreak, with an estimated 28% of people in the U.S. suffering from depression, according to Mental Health America. Against this backdrop, the National Alliance on Mental Health estimates that 55% of people with mental illness are not receiving treatment — a gap that’s expected to widen as the psychiatrist shortage looms.
Ellipsis’ technology, pitched as a partial solution, is being piloted in “nine-plus” U.S. states and internationally through insurance provider Cigna. Cigna used it to create a test called StressWaves that visualizes a person’s current stress level and suggests exercises to promote mental well-being. According to Mondal, Ellipses’ platform has also been tested in behavioral health systems at Alleviant Health Centers and undisclosed academic medical centers and specialty health clinics.
“Now more than ever, the industry needs bold, scalable solutions to address this crisis — beginning with tools like ours to scale quantifying severity, as time-strapped providers alone do not have the bandwidth to solve this problem,” he said.
But some computer scientists have reservations about using AI to track mental disorders, particularly severe disorders like depression. Mike Cook, an AI researcher at the Queen Mary University of London, said the idea of detecting depression through speech “feels very unlikely” to provide highly precise results. He points out that in the early days of AI-driven emotion recognition, where algorithms were trained to recognize emotions from image and video recordings, the only emotions researchers could get systems to recognize were “fake” emotions, like exaggerated faces. While the more obvious signs of depression might be easy to spot, depression and anxiety come in many forms, and the mechanisms linking speech patterns and disorders are still not well understood.
“I think technology like this is risky for a couple of reasons. One is that it industrializes mental health in a way that it probably shouldn’t be — understanding and caring for humans is complex and difficult, and that’s why there are such deep issues of trust and care and training involved in becoming a mental health professional,” Cook told VentureBeat via email. “Proponents might suggest we just use this as a guide for therapists, an assistant of sorts, but in reality there are far more ways this could be used badly — from automating the diagnosis of mental health problems to allowing the technology to seep into classrooms, workplaces, courtrooms, and police stations. … Like all machine learning technology, [voice-analyzing tools] give us a veneer of technological authority, where in reality this is a delicate and complicated subject that machine learning is unlikely to understand the nuances of.” There’s also the potential for bias. As University of Washington AI researcher Os Keyes notes, voices cover a broad range of characteristics, including those of people with disabilities and those who speak in non-English languages, accents, and dialects such as African American Vernacular English (AAVE). A native French speaker taking a test in English, for example, might pause or pronounce a word with some uncertainty, which could be misconstrued by an AI system as a disease marker.
Winterlight hit a snag following the publication of its initial research in the Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease in 2016 after it found its voice-analyzing technology only worked for English speakers of a particular Canadian dialect. (The startup recruited participants from the study in Ontario.) “Voices are, well, different; people speak in different idiomatic forms, people present socially in different ways, and these aren’t randomly distributed. Instead, they’re often (speaking generally, here) strongly associated with particular groups,” Keyes told VentureBeat via email. “Take for example the white-coded ‘valley’ accents, or AAVE, or the different vocal patterns and intonations of autistic people. People of colour, disabled people, women — we’re talking about people already subject to discrimination and dismissal in medicine, and in wider society.” Depression-detecting voice startups have mixed track records, broadly speaking. Launched from a merger of Israeli tech companies Beyond Verbal and Healthymize, Vocalis largely pivoted to COVID-19 biomarker research in partnership with the Mayo Clinic. Winterlight Labs, which announced a collaboration with Johnson & Johnson in 2019 to develop a biomarker for Alzheimer’s, is still in the process of conducting clinical trials with Genentech, Pear Therapeutics, and other partners. Sonde Health — which also has ongoing trials , including for Parkinson’s — has only completed early tests of the depression-detecting algorithms it licensed from MIT’s Lincoln Laboratories.
To date, none of the companies’ systems have received full approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Ellipsis’ solution is unique, Mondal claims, in that it combines acoustic (e.g., tones, pitches, and pauses) and semantic (relating to words) algorithms trained on “industry-standardized” assessment tools. The algorithms were initially fed millions of conversations from “non-depressed” people and mined them for pitch, cadence, enunciation, and other features. Data scientists at Ellipsis then added conversations, data from mental health questionnaires, and clinical information from depressed patients to “teach” the algorithms to identify the ostensible vocal hallmarks of depression.
“We leverage a diverse dataset to ensure our algorithms are not biased and can be deployed globally … Our models can generalize well to new populations with differing demographics, varying accents, and levels of speaking abilities [and] are robust enough to support real-time [applications] across different populations with no baseline required,” Mondal said. “One of our institutional review board (IRB)-approved studies is currently in phase two and involves monitoring patients in depression clinics. Early results show our depression and anxiety vital scores closely match the clinician’s assessment … We [also] have 9 IRB proposals in process with institutions such as Mayo Clinic, Penn State University, and Hartford Healthcare.” Keyes characterized Ellipsis’ approach to bias in its algorithms as “worrisome” and out of touch. “They talk a big game about being concerned about bias, and being rigorously vetted academically, but I find one paper about bias — this one — and when you read beyond the abstract, it has some pretty gnarly findings,” Keyes said. “For starters, although they sell it as showing age isn’t a factor in accuracy, their test is only right 62% of the time when it comes to African American true negatives, and 53% of the time with Caribbean people. In other words: 40% of the time, they will misclassify a Black person as being depressed or anxious, when they’re not. This is incredibly worrying, which might be why they buried it on the last page, because diagnoses often carry stigma around with them and are used as excuses to discriminate and disempower people.” Mondal admits Ellipses’ platform can’t yet legally be considered a diagnostic tool — only a clinical decision support tool. “Ellipsis intends to follow FDA guidance for medical AI with the intended plan for FDA regulatory approval of its technology for measuring the level of severity for clinical depression and anxiety,” he said. “A foundation will be established to allow [us to] scale into the global market.” Of course, even if the FDA does eventually approve technology like that from Ellipses, it might not address the risks around the tools’ possible misuse. In a study published in Nature Medicine , a team at Stanford found that almost all of the AI-powered devices approved by the FDA between January 2015 and December 2020 underwent only retrospective studies at the time of their submission. The coauthors argue that prospective studies are necessary because in-the-field usage of a device can deviate from its intended use. For example, a prospective study might reveal that clinicians are misusing a device for diagnosis as opposed to decision support, leading to potentially worse health outcomes.
“The best-case scenario for [Ellipsis’] software is: They will turn a profit on individuals’ unhappiness, everywhere. The worst case is: They will turn a profit on giving employers and doctors additional reasons to mistreat people already marginalised in both health care and workplaces,” Keyes said. “I want to believe that people truly committed to making the world a better place can do better than this. What that might look like is, at a bare minimum, rigorously inquiring into the problem they’re trying to solve, into the risks of treating doctors as a neutral baseline for discrimination, given the prevalence of medical racism, into what happens after diagnosis, and into what it means to treat depression as a site for stock payouts.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Flock CEO on data strategy behind commercial drone insurance | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/transportation/flock-ceo-on-data-strategy-behind-commercial-drone-insurance"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Flock CEO on data strategy behind commercial drone insurance Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn DroneBase Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Can technology and data analysis make it possible for an insurance company to offer better prices for drones and fleets? U.K.-based insurance company Flock thinks so and has built a sophisticated model for evaluating risk in real time. The data model sucks up information about traffic, weather, and dozens of other factors and calculates a real-time price. Policies are continuously recalculated using data gathered from telemetry and location. Flock touts the freedom and flexibility of being able to purchase policies that “last from an hour to a year.” Flock, which writes policies for commercial drone flights and automobile fleet trips and is expanding into the European market, today announced a $17 million series A funding round led by Social Capital, with participation from existing investors Anthemis and Dig Ventures. This brings Flock’s total funding to $22 million.
VentureBeat sat down with Flock CEO Ed Leon Klinger to understand where the company is going and how much it will cost to insure the trip.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VentureBeat: Just how much data goes into pricing a drone flight? Ed Leon Klinger: We just wanted to help drone pilots back when we began the company to understand and identify and actually be able to quantify the risks of their flights in real time. So we built a risk engine that sucks in, in real time, hyper-local datasets. Things like wind speed, humidity levels, visibility levels, traffic conditions, population, and density level. We reconcile these datasets to build a risk score for a given drone flight. That’s how we started.
VentureBeat: And you’re expanding? Klinger: We’ve moved into the world of commercial motors. We’re applying the same logic to journeys with cars or vans. We convert that real-time risk score into a price so that the price that you’re paying as a customer to insure your drone flight or to insure your van journey is directly proportional to the risk that you’re undertaking with that drone flight or with that van journey. It’s a very different approach to insurance. We’re taking a radically different approach to the traditional insurance model, which is priced annually and using predominantly historical datasets. We are pricing insurance on a per-second and per-meter basis using historical and real-time datasets.
VentureBeat: Per-second or per-meter? So I’m flying along and then, all of a sudden I head over a high-density region. Does some meter needle jump up and the price starts going up? Is it that precise? Klinger: There’s not a simple answer to that question because it really depends on the product that you’re purchasing from us. So the first thing to note, we sell purely to commercial businesses. We’re fully B2B, so we don’t sell to individuals who are flying their drones or individuals driving in their cars. We only sell to commercial businesses. We have a range of products. In the drone space, one of the products we offer is what we call a “pay as you fly” insurance product that works exactly like you say. Its prices are very bespoke on a hyper-local, real-time basis. Every single flight is influenced directly by the real-time risk conditions of the precise time and location of that flight.
The most interesting product that we should talk about is our exposure-based motor insurance product, whereby every single journey is priced independently based on the real-time hyperlocal conditions of that journey. So it adjusts exactly as you described it. If you’re driving through a densely populated area or an area where traffic conditions are not favorable, with the specter of accidents, or where we have datasets that show accident rates are high or rates of theft — those kinds of decisions made by the driver will have a direct impact on the risk score associated with that specific journey. That risk score is then directly linked to the insurance price of that specific journey.
VentureBeat: So can a driver or a company adjust on future trips? Klinger: What we’ve built with Flock is not just an accurate real-time pricing tool, but we’ve built in an incentivization mechanism. One of our core value propositions is transparency. We provide transparent insights so customers can understand why their flights or why their van journeys are priced. Then they can use those insights to understand and mitigate their own risk in future flights or journeys by changing the drivers that they’re using or changing the routes that they’re taking. They’re then able to reduce risks and receive lower prices for their insurance.
We’re building an insurance company that actively incentivizes better behavior and safe journeys or safer behavior on behalf of our customers. The thing that gets us out of bed in the morning is making the world a smarter place. It’s not simply building another traditional insurance company. We’re building a very different type of insurance company that actively incentivizes customers to mitigate risks and hopefully save lives. And we want to help our customers save money, time, and lives.
VentureBeat: How do you plan to grow? Klinger: Our drone business has already expanded into Europe, and we have a subsidiary called Flock GMBH that is up and running. We’re actually selling in about 16 countries in Europe in our drone business.
Our motor business right now is just in the U.K., but we have just raised $17 million. One of the core uses of that freshly raised capital is to fuel our expansion into Europe. And Europe is a very large market for commercial motors. It’s a dramatically underserved market. There’s no comparable product to Flock in Europe right now, so we think there’s an enormous opportunity for us to take our approach. We already have insurance partnerships in place in the U.K. The next step is growing our team. We’re going to be expanding our team from currently around 20 to closer to 80 [people] while expanding new and existing insurance partnerships in Europe.
VentureBeat: And after that? Klinger: We are very much set on building a fully global, fully digital insurance company for the connected and autonomous world.
So while Europe is the immediate next step, the U.S. is obviously a very exciting and very large market, and it’s a market where we’re seeing a proliferation of new vehicles. So electric vehicles are connected to the internet. Then there are new business models, like same-day delivery or next-day delivery. There are models like ride-hailing and ride-sharing and models like short-term leasing or on-demand vehicles. Those new business models are not unique to the U.S. They’re actually popping up all over the developed world, and that’s a huge opportunity for Flock because these new modern digital fleets are not served by the traditional insurance industry.
VentureBeat: Any final thoughts? Klinger: We’re attempting to build an insurance company that doesn’t just pay claims, but that actively helps its customers understand and mitigate risks. So those customers avoid claims in the first place. One of our core beliefs is that the best possible claim experience is no claim, right? So, if you as a commercial motor fleet can significantly reduce your own risk and ultimately have fewer accidents and save lives, that’s the best possible claim experience and insurance experience. That’s the future that we’re building toward at Flock.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Managed cybersecurity startup SolCyber emerges from stealth with $20M | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/managed-cybersecurity-startup-solcyber-emerges-from-stealth-with-20m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Managed cybersecurity startup SolCyber emerges from stealth with $20M Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
SolCyber, a managed security service provider, today emerged from stealth with $20 million in series A funding led by ForgePoint Capital. The company says the proceeds will be put toward enhancing its products and services and extending its go-to-market efforts, particularly as it gears up for growth.
The year 2020 holds the record for the most cyberattacks and breaches worldwide ever. According to one survey , nearly 80% of senior IT employees and security leaders believe their companies lack sufficient protection against cyberattacks despite increased IT security investments. The average time to identify and contain a breach now stands around 80 days, and cybercrime is projected to cost the world $10.5 trillion annually by 2025.
SolCyber was founded by ForgePoint Capital in light of the growing demand for more robust cybersecurity solutions. Scott McCrady was appointed CEO to start and build the business.
“Since inception, we’ve been laser-focused on building a comprehensive security stack for our customers based on hundreds of conversations with end users. With today’s announcement, we are now prioritizing customer acquisition … We currently have a handful of customers in beta and are on track to have a thousand end users by mid-August,” McCrady told VentureBeat via email.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Security-focused tech stack SolCyber offers a tech stack that includes endpoint with extended detection and response capabilities, email security, protection against Active Directory abuse, and admin exploitation prevention. Beyond this, customers get services like security training and employee phishing training, as well as security operations center capabilities to deliver correlations, 365-day log retention, 24-hour monitoring, and more.
“All of this will be part of the package in an easy-to-consume per user pricing model … SolCyber is taking a different approach to the … space,” McCrady said. “A use case we hear a lot from customers is ‘What are the top 5 things I need to do to significantly increase my security posture?’ This is especially true when it comes to getting cyber insurance. There needs to be foundational security in place. We solve this need by delivering technology and the services that quickly increase their security and also answer many questions cyber insurance companies ask in relation to what security controls are in place.” SolCyber, which has 12 employees, says it has “relatively limited amounts of revenue” at present. But the company plans to expand its workforce to 20 by the end of the year, angling to tackle an information security market where spending is set to exceed $170.4 billion in 2022, according to analysts at Gartner.
“[Cybersecurity companies], like many security products and services, have been given a tailwind by the pandemic.
The walls of the enterprise continue to dematerialize due to cloud (and now remote) work functions,” McCrady said. “This all adds to the need for solid security solutions and services that can keep organizations protected regardless of the different types of networks and working locations that are developed due to the pandemic.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Aqua Security: 97% unaware of crucial cloud native security principles | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/aqua-security-97-percent-unaware-of-crucial-cloud-native-security-principles"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Aqua Security: 97% unaware of crucial cloud native security principles Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Ninety-seven percent of cloud-native security practitioners are broadly unaware of essential container security principles , according to a report from Aqua Security.
Just 3% of respondents correctly noted that a container is not a security boundary. This finding, combined with the fact that 70% believed traditional tools — such as an IPS or firewall — could protect against attacks in progress in a cloud-native environment, highlights the difficulty and complexity of understanding key cloud-native security risks and how to counteract them.
A full 58% did not feel at risk for zero days in containerized environments, and security researchers have found attackers are becoming increasingly sophisticated over time. Fifty percent of vulnerable targets are being attacked within the hour. And while 73% of respondents were confident in their ability to stop software supply chain attacks, only 32% were confident in the runtime capabilities required to stop threats like Kinsing malware, which only downloads in runtime.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Practitioners did not report strong plans to invest in runtime as a key part of a full lifecycle cloud-native security strategy. Runtime security is critical in protecting against attackers evading static analysis or otherwise getting around more popular, and better understood, shift-left controls. While static analysis plays an important role in container security, it is by no means a silver bullet. Even the most complete shift-left vulnerability and malware detection cannot prevent zero-day attacks and administrator errors.
Despite the widely publicized threat landscape, only 24% of respondents claimed they planned to introduce runtime controls in the coming year, while less than 16% were in fact planning on investing in the necessary building blocks of runtime security (for example, ensuring container immutability). These investment plans were reported despite the fact that only 26% of respondents said 70% or more of their cloud-native security stack could stop an attack in progress in a cloud-native environment.
The study interviewed 150 practitioners across industries ranging from financial services to the public sector. The cohort of practitioners interviewed all worked for large organizations, with headcounts ranging from 1,000 to over 10,000. Forty-seven percent had at least five years of cloud-native security business experience.
View the full Aqua Security 2021 Cloud Native Security report.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"6 ways to protect your pharma company from cyberattacks | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/6-ways-to-protect-your-pharma-company-from-cyberattacks"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages 6 ways to protect your pharma company from cyberattacks Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Pharma cybersecurity, like other segments, faces new challenges as remote work takes over and proliferating security endpoints become more vulnerable. But as SARS-CoV-2 vaccine supply chain attacks show, the threats to pharma are particularly insidious.
Evidence shows pharma manufacturers’ cybersecurity systems aren’t keeping up with the increased workloads put on their supply chains, distribution networks, and development partners, a situation that puts valuable patient, supply chain, and pricing data at risk.
The pharma industry’s reliance on intellectual property and patents defining new vaccines, proprietary shipment data that exposes supply chain operations, and real-time patient data in the form of protected health information (PHI) makes the sector a prime target for all forms of cybercrime. PHI records are best sellers on the Dark Web because they provide a wealth of data that is not easily traceable. They also provide bad actors with the information they need to defraud medical providers, financial institutions, and patients themselves by stealing identities.
Unfortunately, the same collaboration, information, and knowledge sharing that led to the speedy development and production of COVID-19 vaccines is attracting a record number of cyberattacks, ranging from endpoint intrusion attempts to ransomware.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The usual suspects are at work, along with some unusual ones. Bad actors attempt to steal personal health data 66% of the time, followed by medical business data (55%) and credentials data (32%), according to the 2021 Verizon DBIR Report.
The price is high. According to Comparitech’s analysis , ransomware attacks on U.S. health care organizations cost $20.8 billion in 2020. And the ramifications are many. Merck experienced one of the most costly ransomware attacks in history when bad actors launched the NotPetya attack. The attack disrupted vaccine production and infected more than 30,000 laptop and desktop computers and 7,500 servers, leading to a $1.3-billion insurance claim.
Pharma manufacturers now push digital transformation to gain end-to-end visibility across their production centers and supply chains and to meet customer delivery dates. But breach attempts, including an alarming rise in ransomware attacks, are happening because pharma manufacturers don’t design security into digital transformation plans from the start.
Meanwhile, many digital transformation projects include internet of things (IoT) technology as an enabler — placing pharma directly in the crosshairs of new, cutting-edge cyberthreats. Clearly, it is time for the pharma industry to look beyond security as a bolt-on and realize it is core to growth plans today and in the future.
In short, the pharma industry is under attack across multiple threat vectors and needs to urgently augment its approach to cybersecurity. Endpoints are often overloaded, making them less secure. Multicloud configurations have gaps that need to be closed using a more consistent approach to identity access management (IAM) that spans multiple public cloud platforms. And zero trust security frameworks need to become the new standard to enforce least privileged access to accounts and resources.
How to improve pharma cybersecurity Digital transformation initiatives in pharma today focus on platforms and agile app development. As a result, cloud-based DevOps methods are gaining adoption. Pharma DevOps teams need to center on security in every phase of the system development lifecycle (SDLC) if their code, apps, and platforms are to stay secure.
Security can’t be relegated to the last step in the development cycle anymore; the risks are too significant and the threats too sophisticated. Pharma manufacturers also need to take steps to improve their cybersecurity hygiene across the company.
1. Pharma DevOps teams running on public cloud platforms, including Amazon Web Services (AWS), need to improve cross-platform password vaulting to reduce privileged access credential theft risk.
Bad actors are becoming more skilled at exploiting gaps in cloud platform’s varying approaches at password vaulting (if they use any at all) and IAM. The majority of pharma DevOps teams are creating apps on multicloud platforms, further increasing the risk. Breaches happen because the gap between public cloud platforms’ different approaches to password vaulting, IAM, and privileged access management (PAM) aren’t consistent or integrated. Choosing the right tools can be daunting. Leading vendors offering PAM include CyberArk, ThyocoticCentrify, and ManageEngine.
2. Check each endpoint’s configuration to see if it is overloaded with software agents — causing conflicts that leave the endpoint unsecured — and correct the standard endpoint software image across the network, as needed.
It’s common to see endpoint devices’ software configurations significantly overbuilt with multiple endpoint software clients for the same task. Absolute Software explained the ramifications in a recent survey that shows endpoint security is a double-edged sword and protected systems can still be breached. A key implication of the survey is that companies need to identify how their standard endpoint software images should be updated and streamlined to make each endpoint more secure. Absolute Software is helping health care and pharma companies improve their endpoint security across networks.
3. All hybrid multicloud platforms used in DevOps, manufacturing, supply chain management, R&D, quality management, and sales need to have root-level multi-factor authentication (MFA), and IAM.
Unfortunately, hybrid multicloud configurations are fraught with data risk. In fact, 50% of organizations will unknowingly misconfigure hybrid multicloud platforms, mistakenly exposing some applications, network segments, storage, and APIs directly to the public, up from 25% in 2018, according to research firm Gartner. By 2023, nearly all (99%) cloud security failures will be tracked back to manual controls not being set correctly. Bad actors are looking to make the most of the opportunities misconfigured multicloud configurations provide. Privileged access credentials are a primary target, making a unified IAM across multicloud environments critical. Every organization needs to think of MFA as table stakes for getting basic cybersecurity hygiene right. The long-term plan needs to concentrate on implementing a zero trust framework that enforces least-privileged access and applies microsegmentation across all on-premise applications and cloud instances. Leading MFA providers include Microsoft, Duo Security, Okta, Ping Identity, and Symantec.
4. Adopt a zero trust security framework, starting with endpoints across DevOps, clinical trial partners and networks, manufacturing centers, and health care provider partners to reduce the risk of a breach.
Pharma manufacturers need to migrate from legacy server operating systems that rely on trusted and untrusted domain configurations and instead adopt zero trust frameworks now. The industry needs to enforce least-privileged access across every user and system and cloud administrator account, endpoint, and system access account.
Zero Trust is a framework that enables any organization to take a “never trust, always verify, enforce least privilege” strategy when it comes to its hybrid and multicloud strategies. Configuring user accounts with just enough privileges to gain access to resources needed and providing least-privileged access for a specific time is essential. Absolute Software’s acquisition of NetMotion reflects how zero trust frameworks are becoming a leading priority across organizations today and strengthens Absolute’s competitive position in the zero trust and zero trust network access (ZTNA) markets with a unique endpoint-led offering. Meanwhile, Ivanti Neurons for Zero Trust Access shows the potential to help pharma manufacturers mature their adoption of the zero trust framework. Ivanti has a successful track record scaling cloud services and helping organizations improve business agility while delivering intuitive, secure user experiences. Ericom Software’s ZTEdge Zero Trust Security platform is purpose-built for the needs of small and mid-sized enterprises, designed for deployment by managed security service providers (MSSPs). Pharma manufacturers with multicloud configurations need to consider using AWS CloudTrail and Amazon CloudWatch services that monitor all API activity.
5. IT and security teams need real-time visibility into each endpoints’ current configuration, history of breach attempts, and the option of disabling the device anywhere, anytime.
The most vulnerable threat vector of any pharma network is the endpoints. What’s needed is a unified endpoint security (UES) platform that can rapidly process large amounts of data to detect previously unknown threats and stop cyberattacks from capturing IP, shipment data, valuable logistics information, and PHI. Endpoints that provide real-time visibility and control successfully combine IT Asset Management and proven endpoint resilience and persistence. The current generation of endpoints claims to be self-healing. For an in-depth assessment of which ones are, please see Tackling the endpoint security hype: Can endpoints self-heal? Leaders in self-healing endpoints include Absolute Software, Ivanti, and Microsoft.
6. Get into a cadence of doing security audits across all systems and endpoints, with random audits of critical suppliers and health care partners.
The data gained from audits helps identify systemwide strengths to expand on and weaknesses that need to be addressed. The long-term goal is to use audits to define a unified security model that can adapt quickly to the changing market and competitive conditions every pharma manufacturer faces.
These six recommendations are meant as a starting point for an industry that’s seeing record levels of endpoint and ransomware attacks. Attacks on the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine supply chains show how urgent it is for pharma manufacturers to define unified endpoint management (UEM) standards for their suppliers. Steps to counter pharma cybersecurity threats and shield these vital systems are overdue and must be accelerated.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Marketing automation is key to reducing workloads, Zapier says | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/marketing-automation-is-key-to-reducing-workloads-zapier-says"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Marketing automation is key to reducing workloads, Zapier says Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
From calendar events to email management, automation plays a major role in workflows across industries. A little more than half of marketers used automation in team communication, according to a recent poll by Zapier.
About 42% of marketers reported using automation to identify and target customers. More than a quarter of them used it to schedule emails , and about a third used marketing automation to send tailored messages, manage a subscriber database, or notify their team members of events. Automation saves marketers about 25 hours per week, according to Zapier.
Zapier took a look at how various professionals use automation in their roles. It polled 1,500 workers in marketing, IT, accounting, human resources, and sales or customer service in small to medium businesses across the U.S. Zapier released its report on Monday.
In IT, 51% of the workers polled used automation to manage emails. Many also used it to communicate with colleagues (46%), update project lists (42%), meet deadlines using a calendar (39%), and test proof of concepts (33%). They save about 20 hours a week, Zapier said.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! About 43% of accountants use automation to import hours into payroll, according to Zapier. Around 40% used it to communicate with their team, collect receipts, and streamline purchase and budget approvals. This saves them about four hours a week.
Meanwhile, about four in 10 sales and customer service professionals used automation to message their team members about a lead or a customer, message a lead or a customer, and collect invoices and payments. About a third used automation to forecast sales and for CRM hygiene.
Automation saves sales representatives about four hours a week and customer service representatives about 16 hours a week, according to the poll.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Sony Bravia X90J TV review - A solid gaming TV that faces tough competition | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/sony-bravia-x90j-tv-review-a-solid-gaming-tv-that-faces-tough-competition"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Review Sony Bravia X90J TV review – A solid gaming TV that faces tough competition Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Sony Bravia XR X90J.
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TVs are in a good place right now when it comes to gaming. Most manufacturers are incorporating options like HDMI 2.1. HDR is getting good, and game modes are great at eliminating input lag. That leaves most people in a situation where you will struggle to go wrong. And while if you ask what TV to get for gaming, you’re likely to hear the same answer from a lot of people. What if your budget is a few hundred bucks short of the LG C1? Well, that’s where alternatives like the Sony Bravia X90J come in.
The X90J is available now for around $1,100 as a 50-inch model.
You can get the 55-inch, 65-inch, and 75-inch for around $1,300, $1,500, and $2,400, respectively. This is an LCD TV that uses a VA panel, which means it sacrifices some viewing angles for a fast refresh rate. It also uses Google TV, which is the most recent iteration of Android for televisions. And I’m a big fan of that because it feels like a modern OS that also has support for nearly every video platform. You can even install apps like Steam Link or Moonlight from the Google Play Store to stream games from a local PC.
I tested the 65-inch model, which uses Sony’s XR processor. It’s a nice, responsive TV that is capable of delivering a sharp image. Let’s talk about it.
Sony’s Bravia X90J looks great The X90J nails many of the most important features for a gaming TV. It has an excellent contrast ratio of 5,500:1, which delivers a rich image especially in a darker space. Thankfully, Sony also paired that with decent HDR performance. This TV can get above 700 nits in peak brightness, which is better than a lot of other TVs in this range. It’s still not quite the 1,000 nits that is considered the high-end standard, but again, it is fantastic in dark spaces.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The set also has solid local dimming zones. This is not like some more expensive TVs where you have dozens of zones, but a high-luminance object only has minor bleeding onto a dark background. At least, that’s the case if you’re square with the TV. The zone lighting is much more noticeable from an angle, but that’s usual for a VA panel.
The contrast, local dimming, and HDR are foundational to a great image, and the X90J has the HDMI 2.1 to enable you to reach the full potential of the new generation of consoles. This means you can get 120Hz at 4K from an Xbox Series X or PlayStation 5. But you’ll need to use the HDMI 3 or 4 ports. And that’s a bit frustrating because the HDMI 3 input is also the audio-return channel, so you may end up dedicating that to a surround device or sound bar.
Also, it’s important to note that the Bravia does not yet support variable refresh rate (VRR) like FreeSync. Sony is planning to add that in a firmware update, but I would recommend not taking a company’s word for that sort of thing. If VRR is important to you, go with a different set for now.
Easy to set up Another key to why I like the X90J is that it is easy to set up. It comes out of the box with a picture that looks like it was just calibrated. With a few easy changes to contrast and brightness depending on your room, you’ll be ready to go without having to spend hours fiddling with settings.
The Sony TV has great color accuracy, but more importantly, it makes it really difficult to mess that up.
I also do appreciate the Google TV interface. It is breezy to navigate, and Sony does a good job of not burying the settings.
Tough competition The reality is that the Sony X90J is a great television. The picture is great, and it’s easy to use. Its shortcoming include a lack of VRR at the moment, an overly reflective screen in bright rooms, and a lackluster set of speakers. But overall, I like it a lot.
The problem is that it sits in a tough place in the market. Sure, an LG C1 is significantly more expensive — $700 more at 65 inches. But you can get Samsung Q80A for around $1,400 at 65 inches or a 65-inch TCL 6-Seriers for $1,300. And the Sony doesn’t completely outpace either of those even if it could probably scratch its way to the top in a showdown between the three.
But I would recommend the X90J as long as you mind a fairly long list of caveats. If you don’t need VRR, want built-in Google TV, don’t mind disappointing speakers, primarily use a TV in a darker room, and want something that is going to last, then the X90J is the choice for you.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"PlayStation 5's messy SSD expansion options should clear up quickly | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/playstation-5s-messy-ssd-expansion-options-should-clear-up-quickly"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages PlayStation 5’s messy SSD expansion options should clear up quickly Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn You don't need to do this to add an SSD, but it might feel like it.
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Sony confirmed this morning that its new PlayStation 5 beta software enables console owners to upgrade their storage.
This activates the built-in M.2 SSD expansion slot, so you can bring your own NVMe PCIe Gen4 drive to the system. And while it’s exciting to have the potential for more fast storage on your console, Sony’s messaging makes the process seem messy and potentially dangerous to your PS5. But these warnings are probably just Sony’s lawyer covering its butt.
PS5 owners are concerned about a few key things. First, even if you have NVMe PCIe Gen4 SSD with the recommended read speed of 5,500MB per second, it may not work. Also, Sony suggests that you use a heatsink with your SSD, and that may not fit into the PS5’s enclosure. If you don’t use a heatsink, you may risk your PS5 getting dangerously hot.
And yes, that all sounds a bit more intense and intimidating than you want from a console. Sony’s expansion options also look even more confusing when compared to the one official 1TB expansion option for the Xbox Series X/S. And it’s not like one is much cheaper than the other, either. The Xbox expansion card is $220, and a 1TB NVMe Gen4 SSD starts at around that same price. And even worse, Sony says that your SSD may not perform as well as the internal drive even if it’s fast enough. That is not an issue with the Xbox option.
What all of this comes down to is a lot of variables, exceptions, and uncertainties for a component that will cost you hundreds of dollars. But instead of worrying, I would suggest you simply wait.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Let others do the testing for you I expected Sony to come out with a whitelist of approved SSD drives alongside this update. It’s strange that it didn’t, and that’s a big reason people are feeling lost right now. But the reality is that you don’t have to do your own research, and you certainly shouldn’t randomly buy blind. The PlayStation 5 community should crowdsource this effort quickly.
Some PS5 owners have already begun to test SSDs. Over on Reddit, a megathread is tracking known compatible drives.
So far, it has two: the Corsair MP600, and the Seagate FireCuda 530.
But expect that list to grow. And by the time the PlayStation’s new software is out of beta, we should all know the widely accepted go-to drives. I even plan to do some testing myself if Sony accepts me into the beta. For now, however, I’m not sweating it. I’ll continue deleting my games, and I’ll buy a drive once the wisdom of the crowd settles on a clear winner.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"nDreams kickstarts new VR studio led by mobile game veteran | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/ndreams-kickstarts-new-vr-studio-led-by-mobile-game-veteran"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages nDreams kickstarts new VR studio led by mobile game veteran Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Ndreams made the VR game Phantom Covert Ops.
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nDreams has launched a new virtual reality game studio headed by mobile gaming veteran Chris White.
White is a former senior development leader at Electronic Arts (The Sims Social), Glu Mobile (Project Gotham) and Space Ape Games (Transformers: Earth Wars and Samurai Siege).
Now he will run a studio for live game development at nDreams.
This second VR venture is nDreams Studio Orbital, which will focus on developing live games for VR.
The new studio will be fully remote and nDreams is actively recruiting for several key roles for that can be viewed on the nDreams website, said White in an interview with GamesBeat. He previously served at FitXR, a leading VR/AR fitness company.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Above: Chris White is leading nDreams’ new VR studio.
“We’re going to be working on new VR titles and they’re going to have a live game element to them,” White said in an interview with GamesBeat. “Hopefully, we can build titles that persist for years that players want to engage with for years. And that’s what we’re going to focus on.” He said the new studio has a broad focus for now and it will begin hiring people soon. The target is to expand to about 25 people for the first project, depending on what the team chooses. White is the sole studio leader so far.
White is a 20-year veteran of games who has focused on mobile for much of that time.
“What excites me about VR is it has the potential for similar growth, as you see more and more players getting involved within the industry,” he said. “The technology is coming on in leaps and bounds year on year and there’s still so much to do in terms of awesome games and products that we can release. So from my perspective, there’s just a lot of opportunity there.” Above: nDreams is shooting for live VR games.
nDreams has had some VR hits. Phantom: Covert Ops, Far Cry VR: Dive into Insanity, and Fracked have secured nDreams position as a VR gaming leader.
“At Farnborough, we are already working on multiple titles,” said Tomas Gillo, chief development officer at nDreams, in an interview with GamesBeat. “One of the reasons for this is to provide flexibility in terms of how people work. We can attract talent from all over the world by being fully remote. Remote working isn’t for everyone. Some people still want to work face to face and nDreams can now offer both.” Increasing the capacity to deliver more VR games, nDreams Studio Orbital will enable nDreams to develop a more diverse portfolio of games across a range of ways to play. The studio will benefit from shared learnings, technologies, and infrastructure with nDreams’ Farnborough, England-based headquarters.
“The new studio is actually completely virtual,” White said. “We have a number of things working in the Farnborough office, which is coming out of lockdown now and moving to a hybrid solution. But all of the development staff for the new studio will be distributed and remote.” As for the future of VR, White said, “We’re gonna see a wider array array of genres and play patterns to cater growth” ranging from golf titles to music games.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
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"FundamentalVR unveils virtual reality surgery training platform with haptic feedback | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/fundamentalvr-unveils-virtual-reality-surgery-training-platform-with-haptic-feedback"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages FundamentalVR unveils virtual reality surgery training platform with haptic feedback Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
Learn more.
FundamentalVR has unveiled more details for its virtual reality surgery training platform, which uses advanced technologies such as haptic (touch) feedback to show doctors how to do surgeries.
The Fundamental Surgery platform updates aim to add new realism to VR surgery to make it into a better alternative to traditional medical education methods where medical students carve up cadavers.
The platform leverages full force-feedback kinesthetic haptics, high-fidelity graphics, and 3D spatial technology. That gives surgeons the ability to get touch feedback while interacting with soft tissue on a virtual body, enabling them to manipulate and feel the texture of anatomy as if they were in the operating room, the company said.
This enhancement opens the door for accelerated learning in an even wider range of procedures, building real capability and confidence ahead of human interaction.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Pre-human competence Above: Virtual surgery is real when it comes to training.
The enhanced soft tissue capabilities are part of the company’s five-year technology and clinical journey that has seen its Haptic R&D team work closely with surgeons and educator experts from around the world, drawing from leading universities as well as spatial technology and medical specialists such as David Farley at the Mayo Clinic.
The impact of the advanced tissue capabilities are not just skin deep. FundamentalVR said its development allows the company to deliver enhanced and unparalleled solutions for current simulations in areas such as spine, orthopedic, and ophthalmology, as well as new capabilities in soft tissue surgery, interventional, and many more.
Richard Vincent, CEO of London-based FundamentalVR, said in a statement that the company’s tech will accelerate learning and transform traditional medical teaching into cost-effective and safe VR methodologies. It will give the virtual surgery more fidelity, control, feeling, and visual interaction on par with practicing with wet labs or cadavers, he said. He predicted that those methods could be eliminated within five years.
FundamentalVR simulations are delivered through its Fundamental Surgery platform that allows users to experience the same sights, sounds, feelings, and sensations they would in a real operating room. It combines HapticVR technology and analytics of previously unmeasurable data points to advanced surgical skills allowing precision techniques to be acquired.
It is made possible by the company’s Haptic Intelligence Engine, which delivers full kinesthetic force feedback haptics into a variety of handheld devices, ranging from basestation-held instruments to haptic gloves within a submillimeter of accuracy, all low cost and commercial off-the-shelf hardware.
Above: Surgeons and trainees can meet in VR.
It profoundly changes the way immersive technology is used in medical education. Often, VR programs are primarily used to help acquire knowledge. Now, by adding cutting-edge soft tissue simulation to the most advanced haptics available, the company enables accelerated acquisition of skills anywhere in the world by allowing practitioners to build the muscle memory required for proficiency and essential for precise surgical skills transfer.
The challenges of social distancing and a reduction in elective surgeries has fueled a surge in the use of Fundamental Surgery, which was already deployed prior to the pandemic, as a credible alternative to in-person and on human learning.
The benefits of virtual surgery include: Scalability: The low-cost platform allows expert surgeons to advance skills in highly precise and expert areas without the expense and logistic challenges of traditional wet labs and cadavers.
Remote education: Allows users to perform highly complex procedures fully simulated in VR. This provides highly scalable global skills transfer programs for medical devices, pharma, and biopharma customers globally.
Muscle retention: Surgeons can create high frequency motor skills interactions that build muscle retention through the ability to deliberately fail as well as succeed.
Accelerated learning: Provides users measurements for every interaction and decision, delivering a level of analysis not previously available. Specific metrics include economy of movement, 3D spatial awareness, surgical gaze, preservation of tissue, and human factors such as dealing with adverse events and complications.
Progressive techniques: VR replaces clinical trials with sophistication. Through the simulation surgeons can test difficult procedures safely before entering the operating room.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
Discover our Briefings.
Join the GamesBeat community! Enjoy access to special events, private newsletters and more.
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"PledgeLA: Los Angeles tops U.S. funding for startups led by women and people of color | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/entrepreneur/pledgela-los-angeles-tops-u-s-funding-for-women-and-people-of-color-led-businesses"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages PledgeLA: Los Angeles tops U.S. funding for startups led by women and people of color Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
A new study released this week from PledgeLA — a coalition of hundreds of venture capital (VC) and tech leaders in Los Angeles working to increase equity , community engagement, and accountability around corporate diversity efforts — shows Los Angeles VCs outpacing national funding for women and people of color-led businesses.
With participation from 174 organizations and based on both public and self-reported data, survey results revealed that investments from L.A.-based VCs for Black, Latinx, and women founders outpace the national average. The investments made by PledgeLA VCs in Black founders increased by 71% since last year. Far more gains are needed, however, when it comes to funding for women and Latinx-owned businesses. Given that one out of every 10 VC dollars flows through Los Angeles — a 39 percent increase from 2019 — these trends have national implications.
The survey showed that women and people of color still face persistent pay gaps, however. While women in L.A. tech companies have greater representation from entry level to senior management positions than Silicon Valley, women earn significantly less than men (a gap larger than the national average). Additionally, Black and Latinx employees earn far less than their peers.
And surprisingly, the survey also revealed that the number of Gen X tech employees saw a significant decrease in 2021. While the majority of staff demographics remained unchanged between the 2020 and 2021 surveys, results did see a significant shift in the age of PledgeLA companies’ workforce. Just 22% of workers reported belonging to Generation X or older this year, a decline from 37% last year. This means the vast majority of the L.A. tech workforce was born between 1980 and 1990, a spike in the number of millennials, and a decline in opportunities for older adults. This raises important questions about potential ageism and the representation of diverse age groups in the tech workforce.
PledgeLA is a coalition of hundreds of venture capital (VC) and tech leaders in Los Angeles working to increase equity, community engagement, and accountability around corporate diversity efforts.
Read the full report from PledgeLA.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"It’s time to get a handle on this whole cryptocurrency thing. This training can help explain it all. | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/its-time-to-get-a-handle-on-this-whole-cryptocurrency-thing-this-training-can-help-explain-it-all"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals It’s time to get a handle on this whole cryptocurrency thing. This training can help explain it all.
Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
It screams skyward. Then it plunges like it fell off a cliff. Welcome to the crazy world of cryptocurrency. And for all the ecstasy of its majestic value rises, it can generate just as much agita and contribute to as many sleepless nights as any investment opportunity ever devised.
Of course, the trick to protecting yourself from letting crypto tie your stomach in knots on a regular basis is to actually have a true educated idea about what you’re doing. While that’s easier said than done, it’s certainly not impossible. Training like The Intro to Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin Bundle can go a long way toward helping even first-time crypto investors understand this volatile new market and find enough method in the madness to not only avoid anxiety but even generate some serious returns.
This 5-course, 10-hour training package lays out all the basics to help even those who don’t get cryptocurrency and crypto trading up to speed.
The Getting Started with Cryptocurrency, Bitcoin, and More course is a primer designed just for those beginners, opening with a brief history of the dawn of crypto and the blockchain technology that spawned it. From there, learners get step-by-step training in making their first cryptocurrency purchase, how to set up their first crypto wallet, and investing and trading strategies that actually work.
In Bitcoin: The Future of Money , students learn about the no. 1 crypto on the block and how to make money mining it, while Introduction to Stablecoin explains how this type of cryptocurrency with value tied to an actual real-world asset is helping to solve the problem of crypto’s massive market swings.
Then learners can get further into this fascinating arena with courses like Bitcoin: Cryptocurrency Investing Masterclass and Cryptocurrency: Wallets, Investing and Trading Masterclass.
In these courses, students receive even more training to arm themselves with the knowledge to make smart purchases, implement various investment strategies, and even create a cryptocurrency of their own.
The Intro to Cryptocurrency and Bitcoin Bundle contains almost $1,000 in serious market-testing training and strategy, but right now, you can get all this hard-won knowledge at a fraction of that price. As part of the Semi-Annual Sale, enter the code ANNUAL60 during checkout and watch the price of this training fall to just $8.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
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VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"IoT devices and apps are changing med management for the better | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/iot-devices-and-apps-are-changing-med-management-for-the-better"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals IoT devices and apps are changing med management for the better Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
If you’ve ever felt like every doctor’s appointment ends with a new prescription, you’re probably a little overwhelmed by trying to keep your medications straight. Which ones are okay to take at night and which ones have to be taken with breakfast? Did you order a refill for that medication that’s about to run out? And did you even take those pills this morning like you were supposed to? If only there was a way for something else to keep track of your regimen and make sure you’re staying on schedule. Fortunately, technology is integrating with healthcare at an impressive rate, and patients are hopeful for more at-home tools to help them manage their medical conditions.
Enter Hero: the new way to manage your meds. Their service includes the only app-integrated automatic pill dispenser that sorts and dispenses your medications according to your prescribed schedule, send you dosage reminders via phone notifications, plus orders refills for you and delivers them directly to your door.
Getting started with the app on your device is simple. Whether you have iOS or Android, download the app and enter your medication information into your account.
Then, add up to 90 day’s worth of 10 different medications into the connected pill dispenser. When synced with the app, the pill holder sorts and distributes the right medications at the right time.
With just a push of the button, you’ll have your meds conveniently dispensed when you need them.
But Hero is about more than just convenience. When you’re dealing with polypharmacy treatment plans, keeping track of medications can be the difference between staying healthy and winding up in the hospital. The steeper costs of healthcare associated with medication adherence issues can include the costs of urgent care and hospital stays, as well as in-home medication management help.
Fortunately, lessening the burden of these costs can come directly from better medication management.
Becoming a Hero member grants you access to the dispenser, connected app and their prescription refill and delivery service.
Hero is also FSA/HSA eligible, bringing some more savings to your wallet. Plus, you can currently save $50 off your initiation fee so you can get started with better medication management as soon as possible.
“VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
Prices subject to change.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Get prep courses to ace a dozen CompTIA certification, all for under $20 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/get-prep-courses-to-ace-a-dozen-comptia-certification-all-for-under-20"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals Get prep courses to ace a dozen CompTIA certification, all for under $20 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn With top-flight IT experts always in high demand, you can join their ranks and get to the top of even the most exclusive resume piles with the training from The All-Access CompTIA A+ and Network Certification Prep Bundle.
Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
There’s nothing like proving you really know your way around a critical tech area. Armed with that kind of knowledge, you can start charting your own career path as an IT pro. With certification from the Computing Technology Industry Association (CompTIA) a tech industry seal of approval for nearly 30 years, it can be a decision-maker in landing you the tech job you want.
With top-flight IT experts always in high demand, you can join their ranks and get to the top of even the most exclusive resume piles with the training from The All-Access CompTIA A+ and Network Certification Prep Bundle.
Not only is CompTIA the gold standard of IT certifications, this 12-course, 160-plus hour package of training also includes all of CompTIA’s best, training in all the top disciplines to earn a dozen certifications in all the most sought-after areas where companies need major talent.
It begins with training in tackling the CompTIA A+ exam, the primary cert for anyone looking to begin an IT career. These Core 1 and Core 2 prep courses cover all the basics, including everything from mobile devices, networking technology, and hardware to virtualization, cloud computing, and network troubleshooting.
From there, further coursework helps explore all the most vital areas in IT training, including certification in elite networking tactics in Network+, and the latest in cloud technologies to ace the Cloud+ exam.
But since there’s still no area in tech today more vitally important than cybersecurity, no fewer than eight courses get into that rich need area. It starts with the CompTIA Security+ training, the first security certification any IT professional needs, before moving into an Advanced Security Practitioner course, as well as how to earn big bucks as a security analyst. There’s even the PenTest+ course training to get students up to speed in finding system vulnerabilities and using those talents as certified ethical hackers.
The All-Access CompTIA A+ and Network Certification Prep Bundle includes a full $2,400 worth of elite-level training, and as part of the Semi-Annual Sale, it’s also 60 percent off the already discounted price. Use the code ANNUAL60 and this 12-course bundle is available now for only $18.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Sumo Logic launches app performance-monitoring features | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/sumo-logic-launches-app-performance-monitoring-features"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sumo Logic launches app performance-monitoring features Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn One of Sumo Logic's dashboards.
Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Sumo Logic today announced new capabilities in its observability platform aimed at addressing the trend toward digital transformation in the enterprise. The features, which are designed to help DevOps teams identify and resolve customer-impacting issues faster, can reduce app downtime while optimizing overall performance, the company says.
According to Gartner, observability — tooling that allows teams to actively debug a system — must look at the full stack of data available. Analyzing a single layer provides only a myopic view. Delivering the experience necessary to remain competitive requires going beyond infrastructure and making digital businesses observable, particularly when operating at enterprise scale.
“Traditional or siloed monitoring, application performance monitoring, and log management tools do not provide the visibility required for today’s large-scale applications built on modern architectures, leveraging cloud, Kubernetes, serverless, and open source. A unified approach to observability, which includes log, metrics, traces, and real user monitoring, is now table stakes for teams looking to deliver reliable digital services and best-in-class customer experiences,” Bruno Kurtic, VP of strategy and solutions at Sumo Logic, said in a press release.
Sumo Logic Span Analytics, one of the new features introduced this morning, allows users to search, analyze, and query both structured and unstructured app data including transaction traces, logs, and metrics. Developers can identify issues and troubleshoot performance problems by leveraging Sumo Logic Query Language (SLQL) to interrogate multiple sets of telemetry, or by using a UI to build queries and aggregate results.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The other new addition to the Sumo Logic platform is Real User Monitoring (RUM), which provides high-level insights into user experience with the ability to segment by geography, operating system, and browser. RUM seeks to expose user web app performance as experienced in the browser, such as network and interaction metrics like UI “paint events,” as well as visualize the code as run in the browser like local or remote requests and end-to-end transaction tracing. RUM can also gather details about user geolocations, devices, and browsers, including data indicating the particular component of the page that was clicked.
“We’re excited to roll out new capabilities that bring together digital experience management and advanced analytics into one easy-to-use solution,” Kurtic continued.
Steady expansion Redwood City, California-based Sumo Logic , which was founded in 2010, has steadily expanded its platform in the two years since it raised $110 million at a post-money valuation of over $1 billion. Today, the company supports well over 150 apps and integrations that provide insights to help clients build, run, and secure apps and cloud infrastructures.
A little over a year ago, Sumo Logic acquired FactorChain to bolster its security toolset, and it recently launched a beta cloud security information and event management product alongside Global Intelligence Service, an enterprise analytics insights tool for AI and benchmarking workloads. Sumo Logic also rolled out enhancements to better monitor and troubleshoot container architectures such as Docker, Kubernetes, and Amazon Elastic Kubernetes Service.
Sumo Logic competes with Splunk, Loggly, and LogRhythm in a sector that’s predicted to be worth $11.4 billion by 2022. The market for log management software alone could be worth $1.2 billion next year, according to Research and Markets.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"RIP Internet Explorer: What you need to know | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/rip-microsoft-internet-explorer-what-enterprises-need-to-know"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages RIP Internet Explorer: What you need to know Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
For IT managers, a breath of fresh air is on the way.
Microsoft is set to officially retire Internet Explorer next June after almost 27 years. Rest in peace.
The browser may have been the go-to portal to the internet in the past, but many would argue it’s stayed there. While the sunsetting of Internet Explorer (IE) will certainly invoke nostalgia for many, Max de Lavenne, CEO of Buildable Software , says tech teams will probably say, “finally, it was about time.” “It has become too outdated, was always buggy, has always been too slow, was a security risk, and had a lack of extensibility,” he told VentureBeat. “It was introduced at a time, in 1995, when Netscape was essentially the only player. In Microsoft’s defense, the web was very young when IE was introduced. A lot of standards have been developed over time, and as software ages, there’s an incentive for software engineers to keep modifying the same code base and avoid rebuilding from scratch.” While the browser will be up and running until June 15, 2022, Microsoft 365 and other apps will end support for it on August 17 of this year. This means any last queries should be submitted right away, and overall, it’s time for enterprises to get serious about making sure they’re prepared. To learn more about the impact and what they should do, VentureBeat spoke to de Lavenne. We also chatted about the positive benefits and how Internet Explorer’s retirement will force enterprises to modernize for the better.
VentureBeat: Why exactly does it mean that Internet Explorer is being shut down? Max de Lavenne: The retirement means that enterprises dependent on legacy, IE-compatible software need to start researching new software and platforms ASAP. Not only is older, outdated software cumbersome, but it’s also more susceptible to threats and cyberattacks.
VentureBeat: Which businesses will be most impacted? What are the most significant ways this will impact enterprises? de Lavenne: Institutional organizations, government, and large companies will most likely be most impacted. These organizations often require web apps to be primarily compatible with IE, because it fits within their existing corporate IT policies and their decades-long dependency upon Internet Explorer. This could be challenging for contractors and businesses who work with government agencies. It will also impact any businesses with old web portals that still require ActiveX components to run, which should be a very rare occurrence today.
The most significant impact will be the need for organizations to upgrade their web apps that require IE to operate properly on normal web browsers, and for integrations with third party companies that require IE to access their systems. The biggest pain point will be cost and the inconvenience of shifting to a new browser and developing new software.
VentureBeat: How can enterprises evaluate the effect this will have on them? de Lavenne: Enterprises should conduct an audit of the web platforms they’re currently using internally and externally, and grade them on a scale from low impact to critical impact. Then they should tackle the critical impact first. We’ve seen health care portals or finance apps , for example, that don’t work well outside of Internet Explorer because the HTML was put together only for the browser and didn’t adhere to, or evolve for, better standards. The assessment should be focused on the business continuity of critical operations.
VentureBeat: Should businesses rewrite new applications to work with Microsoft’s replacement browser Edge or buy new off-the-shelf software to replace their IE-reliant applications? What are the considerations here? de Lavenne: Businesses should definitely have started the rewrites or modernizations of their web platforms to work within the HTML standard. And if not, they should start ASAP. Some organizations control the source code of their web platforms and can adapt it to the modern browsers, but some may need to purchase a new off the shelf platform to replace an aging one.
Enterprises should consider how critical the reliance of Internet Explorer for a specific web application is, and test with another browser to check for incompatibilities. They should also make a migration plan, tackling the most critical areas first.
VentureBeat: What are the positive benefits of the retirement of IE? de Lavenne: The retirement of Internet Explorer is good, as it will allow organizations to use more of the existing web and adapt to the changing web. All modern web browsers rely heavily on a modern Javascript engine and better rendering techniques, which removes the need for many of the extensions people had been used to installing to bridge web browser functionality gaps. For example, back in 2005, YouTube relied on Flash to play videos. Today, Flash has been retired and all web browsers play videos natively thanks to HTML5. Allowing Internet Explorer to rest in peace will allow companies to actually spend less on their web infrastructures because they won’t have to support an old technology stack for which there has been an increasing lack of workarounds.
VentureBeat: Will we see increased investment in new tech and applications, or are we just going to keep maintaining and trying to make old tools work with Edge? de Lavenne: Probably a mix of both. Many organizations prefer to stick with older technology because it’s been tried and tested. That being said, this will push organizations to face the reality that their old stack needs to be replaced. It’s essential for businesses to constantly upgrade and modernize their software, portals, apps, and websites. While yes, there is a cost associated with upgrading and modernizing, it is extremely important from a security and data-protection perspective. Not only does upgrading and scaling keep user data and private information safe, but it also offers the opportunity to create software that can better collect and analyze behavioral data to create better customer experiences.
VentureBeat: How will this impact cost for enterprises? Will websites become less expensive? de Lavenne: This will make web applications cheaper to build. Software engineering companies won’t have to develop for modern web browsers and spend the extra time (and money) supporting Internet Explorer.
VentureBeat: What else is important to know about this? de Lavenne: All tools come to pass; they either keep up with the technology changes or get replaced. The lesson to take from the IE retirement is that organizations need to realize that all software behaves like an island in a sea whose water level is constantly rising. It’s just a matter of time until the software goes under water if it isn’t kept up. This is a reminder for organizations to continuously assess the longevity of the software they use to run their critical business operations. It’s an ongoing process.
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"MoEngage raises $32.5M to inject customer engagement with AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/moengage-raises-32-5m-to-inject-customer-engagement-with-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages MoEngage raises $32.5M to inject customer engagement with AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
MoEngage , an AI customer engagement platform, today announced it has raised $32.5 million in a round led by Multiples Alternate Asset Management, with participation from Eight Roads Ventures, F-Prime Capital, and Matrix Partners. The San Francisco-based company says the new capital, which brings its total raised to over $72 million, will be used to support its global growth strategy and strengthen its AI and predictive capabilities.
Generally speaking, a positive customer experience translates to high customer spend. Eighty-six percent of buyers are willing to pay more for a great customer experience, according to one source. In fact, the Temkin Group found companies that earn $1 billion annually can expect to yield, on average, an additional $700 million within three years of investing in customer experience. Software-as-a-service providers, in particular, can anticipate a revenue uptick of around $1 billion.
Above: MoEngage’s analytics dashboard.
Founded in 2014 by Raviteja Dodda and Yashwanth Kumar, MoEngage is an “insights-led” customer engagement platform that enables personalization across channels, including mobile push, email, SMS, web push, on-site messaging, in-app messaging, cards, and connectors to other technologies. Leveraging AI-powered automation and optimization, the platform aims to help brands analyze audience behavior and engage consumers with communication at multiple touchpoints.
AI-powered customer engagement MoEngage can map the steps in a customer’s journey and identify where they might be dropping off down to the demographic, location, device type, and acquisition channel level. An AI-driven segmentation engine automatically splits customers into micro-groups based on their preferences, behavior, demographics, interests, transactions, and more, identifying customers most likely to respond to promotions. Using MoEngage, companies can automate, create, and visualize customer lifecycle campaigns and workflows that use email, text, push notifications, WhatsApp, and retargeting channels. Beyond this, they can let the platform’s AI engine automatically identify the right message — as well as the right time to send it.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! MoEngage competes with a number of companies looking to inject customer engagement with AI and machine learning.
6Sense , for example, captures intent signals from known and anonymous sources, including the web, creating customer segments by account, behavioral intent, or a combination of those factors. Meanwhile, Punchh integrates with existing point-of-sale and ecommerce systems, employing AI to generate targeted marketing campaigns and offers with the goal of promoting loyalty.
Marketers now see automation as essential to bolstering the outreach of campaigns, in part because of its ability to better target customer communications. According to a recent HubSpot survey , email automation campaigns are among the top three tactics used by marketers to improve performance. And in 2017, Salesforce reported that 67% of sales leaders used a marketing automation platform.
MoEngage, which has a workforce of more than 375 people, says its platform is currently processing over 1 trillion data points, 50 billion messages, and 1 billion emails per month. Notable clients include McAfee, Nestle, Domino’s, Deutsche Telekom, Travelodge, and Ally Financial. The company claims its customer base and recurring revenue doubled in the last 12 months and that business growth in the U.S. and Europe tripled in the first half of 2021 compared with the second half of 2020. After adding over 250 new customers in the past year, MoEngage plans to open offices in New York City and Boston sometime this year.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"IT leaders put growth over security, survey finds | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/it-leaders-put-growth-over-security-survey-finds"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages IT leaders put growth over security, survey finds Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Despite the rapid shift to the distributed workforce, just 34% of IT leaders said supporting hybrid work is their top priority over the next 12 months. Instead, they’re focused on growth initiatives, according to a survey Snow Software released today.
The results reveal that enabling competitive differentiation is the top priority for 57% of IT leaders. This is followed by reducing or optimizing IT costs (55%), managing digital transformation initiatives (54%), and accelerating cloud adoption and migration (48%).
When it comes to bolstering cybersecurity management and posture, only 40% of respondents named such initiatives as the top item on their agendas. While it’s not that far behind enabling competitive differentiation, its comparative prioritization speaks to enterprises’ intense focus on the competition. And yet 2020 saw more data breaches than the last 15 years combined.
The pandemic and rapid shift to remote work were major factors, but many businesses’ long histories of failing to make security a top priority contributed to the perfect storm. And the state of attacks is only projected to get worse.
In addition to IT team’s priorities, the research also digs into their budgets and challenges with regards to hybrid work. The survey is based on responses from more than 400 IT leaders from organizations with over 500 employees.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Budget impacts Organizations are in various stages of adopting hybrid work. The research indicates 35% have already shifted to a hybrid arrangement, while 57% are planning to make the shift. And the new model is having an impact on budgets. Most respondents (84%) are expecting a budget increase to support new ways of working.
The majority of respondents (37%) want to see the funds go toward hiring additional IT staff, while others support greater investments in SaaS applications (18%), cloud infrastructure (17%), and cybersecurity tools and training (10%). Overall, just 2% of IT leaders say they’re facing budget cuts.
Challenges of hybrid work According to the report, hybrid employees are expected to become a bigger burden on IT staff. The new work model, they say, will change employees’ technology needs and increase their use of IT resources. That’s according to 34% of those surveyed and at least partially explains the desire to allocate budgets to growing IT teams.
Another concern is shadow IT, which refers to department-led technology purchases that can disrupt systems and workflows. And while 16% of IT leaders surveyed believe hybrid work will increase the issue and cited it as their biggest challenge, they’re not alone. CIOs and other C-level executives, in particular, are also concerned about shadow IT, with 26% citing it as the biggest hurdle posed by hybrid work. Other top challenges reported include controlling and optimizing IT costs (18%) and managing cybersecurity threats (13%).
Despite these challenges, IT leaders seem to largely support the trend of organizations moving to remote work. Most (57%) said they’re excited, and 44% indicated they believe it’s a move in the right direction.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Couchbase adds support for multi-statement SQL transactions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/couchbase-adds-support-for-multi-statement-sql-transactions"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Couchbase adds support for multi-statement SQL transactions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
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Couchbase today delivered a major update to its namesake database that adds support for the multi-statement SQL transactions driving transaction processing (OLTP) applications.
Version 7.0 of Couchbase extends existing support for SQL into the realm of applications that were mainly the preserve of relational databases. Now IT teams can process high-performance transactions alongside analytics queries that can run across large quantities of unstructured data on a document database, said Couchbase CTO Ravi Mayuram.
IT organizations can for the first time run multi-document SQL ACID transactions in microseconds, Mayuram said. The goal is to reduce the number of databases organizations need to deploy and maintain to support different classes of application workloads, he added.
Beyond the multi-statement SQL Couchbase Server 7.0 adds schema and table-like organizing structures, called Scopes and Collections, within the document database. IT teams can now add a table (Collection) while transactions are running without having to add or modify the schema (Scope) or take the database offline. Via what the company refers to as a dynamic data containment model, it also becomes easier to migrate existing transaction processing applications to Couchbase 7.0. “We now have one-to-one mapping,” Mayuram said.
The company has also added support for partitioning and index isolation to boost overall performance, along with a configurable backup service that indexes data in a way that’s more portable.
Finally, Couchbase has added a cost-based query optimizer to its query service that replaces a previous rules-based approach.
Fresh off becoming a public company this month, Couchbase traces its lineage back to an open source project and data protocol called Memcached that organizations employed to make data available in memory. Memcached was then combined with the JSON data format and SQL to create the Couchbase database. Couchbase today claims to have more than 500 enterprise customers, including American Greetings, Domino’s, Intuit, Experian, Western Union, USAA, Avis, Carnival, and Emirates. Couchbase claims 30% of the companies listed on the Fortune 100 are among its customers.
Why you should care Competition among providers of document databases is fierce. Most document databases initially found their way into enterprise IT organizations through developers, who typically downloaded an open source platform they could provision themselves without having to ask for permission or money. However, as the number of applications based on document databases proliferates across the enterprise, it becomes apparent IT operations teams will assume more responsibility for managing them as developers move on to other projects.
A database administrator (DBA) may make a case for refactoring an application to run on a relational database platform that an IT operations team already manages in a production environment. Most relational databases have added support for JSON to make it easier to migrate those applications. Couchbase is effectively countering that argument by making it possible to run multiple types of SQL applications on a document database as part of an effort to reduce the total cost of database management using platforms that are considerably less expensive to license than a commercial relational database.
It’s not clear how many IT teams are going to migrate from one database platform to another, due to the complexity involved in such efforts.
However, new application deployments make it more feasible than ever to run multiple classes of applications on the same database platform. In many cases, transaction processing applications are generating a lot of the data that might be fed into an analytics application that incorporates structured, semi-structured, and unstructured data.
The challenge now is determining which of those databases can run all those classes of applications without compromising performance.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"3 really exciting roles to check out this week | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/3-really-exciting-roles-to-check-out-this-week"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Jobs 3 really exciting roles to check out this week Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn We have a great lineup of exciting jobs for you this week. Check them out now and be sure to click apply if you like what you see. Your dream job is just a few clicks away.
Full Stack Software Engineer, 3 Data As a full-stack engineer at 3Data, you will be responsible for building the future of 3 Data’s WebXR platform. You’ll work closely with other members of the 3Data Product team to reduce technical debt, ideate on potential features, and implement new features and bug fixes into the platform. Since they’re a startup, you’ll have the opportunity to directly impact the direction of the platform, the creation of an inclusive culture, and will get in at the ground floor of a burgeoning industry.
3 Data is passionate about building a diverse and inclusive company, and they’re looking for individuals with a range of backgrounds, interests, talents, and personalities. If some (but not necessarily all) of the characteristics describe you, you’ll probably thrive and fit in well at 3Data.
They want someone with a deep sense of curiosity about the world around them, an innate drive for personal growth (both personally and professionally), a willingness to receive and provide constructive feedback — and the team will support any feedback you provide with thoughtful opinions and evidence. 3 Data offers a whole host of incredible employee benefits, including paid parental leave, flexible working hours, and health insurance.
Senior Software Engineer, Inpixon Reporting to the Director, Cloud Engineering, Inpixon is looking for a Senior Software Engineer; someone who lives and breathes tech and wants to share that passion with their team. This is a greenfield opportunity to work with IoT and AI. They need someone who wants to own and break down challenging problems. The team is super smart and resourceful; if you have a great idea, they will work together to strategize and implement it.
As the new Senior Software Engineer, you will use an open mind to set up the right groundwork for developing and improving Inpixon’s SaaS experience. You will work with current JavaScript libraries and frameworks on the frontend, Java and Python on the backend, and follow REST principles for APIs, to quickly create high-quality products that solve real-world problems no one else has tackled yet. Your work and leadership will enhance the way people navigate and experience indoor space digitally and in real-time.
What does success look like? You are a Senior Developer with exceptional technical and mentoring abilities. You want to work at the cutting edge of IoT, AI, and Indoor Intelligence where you can channel your passion for building and learning, with directing the work of a small team. You are comfortable working across the full stack and ensuring seamless connectivity between the front and back end. You believe in writing good, readable, maintainable, well commented, and long-lasting code.
Business Analyst, Altus Group Reporting to the Project Manager, Altus is looking for an internal-facing Business Analyst to support their rapid growth. This is an exciting opportunity to join the Irvine office, work across teams to roll-out processes and tools, and ensure project requirements across all initiatives are met to specifications and documented accurately. You will be involved in projects, including application development, continuous improvement initiatives, and training.
You are a Project Coordinator with experience building processes and creating documentation to support technical projects, and you are looking for a chance to move into a BA role at a growing company with opportunities to learn. Or you are a BA seeking a chance to help build out a process improvements function, determining business needs, and introducing tools and processes to streamline PropTech projects, at a global company where you can develop your career.
This is a fast-growing team in the Irvine office and a chance to define and build out your role, working independently to implement best practices, processes, and procedures. You will gain exposure to tools, technologies, and people as you work across teams on exciting software product projects.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"ManageEngine: 8 out of 10 IT experts reported an increase in cloud use during pandemic | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/manageengine-8-out-of-10-experts-reported-increase-cloud-use-during-pandemic"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages ManageEngine: 8 out of 10 IT experts reported an increase in cloud use during pandemic Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Eight out of ten IT professionals reported that their company’s usage of cloud technology increased during the pandemic, according to a new global research survey by ManageEngine.
The survey focused on trends related to artificial intelligence (AI) , business analytics , and technology.
With organizations increasingly supporting a distributed workforce, IT personnel are more willing than ever to invest in new technologies. Security, reliability, and price were the top three drivers behind organizational decisions to adopt new technologies.
The survey also found that organizations are using tools that facilitate business analytics and data-driven decision-making. The vast majority (89%) of respondents indicated that their reliance on business analytics efforts had increased over the past two years; interestingly, these efforts were primarily led by IT teams. Across the globe, 64% of respondents said that they currently use business analytics to improve their decision-making.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Confidence in AI has increased dramatically as organizations look to AI to improve operational efficiency and customer experiences. 86% of organizations have increased their AI usage over the last two years, and 81% of respondents said their confidence in AI solutions has grown. This number was even higher in India, where 91% reported increased confidence in AI solutions. Lastly, respondents said they believe that AI drives improvements in business insights, operations and customer satisfaction.
With more people than ever working remotely, companies are increasingly reliant on tools that can facilitate artificial intelligence and business analytics initiatives.
Read the full report by ManageEngine.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Keys to personalizing AI for sales | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/keys-to-personalizing-ai-for-sales"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Keys to personalizing AI for sales Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
For businesses, there are only two reasons to deploy artificial intelligence (AI): to make money outright or to lower the cost of making money in the traditional fashion. To make money, there is no other option but to unleash AI on the sales process itself.
Since sales is such an integral function within the business model, companies should understand how AI works as thoroughly as possible, if only to recognize what it can and cannot do to move products or services and to increase revenues.
Tech leaders Perhaps not surprisingly, the tech industry is ahead when it comes to leveraging AI for sales.
Intel , for one, is already five years deep into a program to supplement both sales and marketing with advanced intelligent analytics. The objective is twofold, says Venture Beat’s Kyle Wiggers : to gain actionable intelligence into customer buying patterns and other trends and to guide company resources in the right direction. Two key applications are Sales Assist and Autonomous Sales — the former broadens managers’ customer interactions so they can oversee more accounts, while the latter drives automated sales through email, web ads, newsletters, and other forms of outreach. Sales Assist already counts more than 1,500 users at Intel, while Autonomous Sales delivers more than 30,000 emails per year, which generates a first-time purchase conversion rate of about 16%.
Divining buyer intent is AI’s superpower when it comes to sales, says David McFarlane , a board member of the MIT Enterprise Forum. Unlike traditional predictive analytics, AI can quickly assess thousands of website visits, data pathways, and hundreds of other digital footprints. It can then compare them to millions of profiles and previous interactions. In some cases, this is pushing success rates from the single digits to more than 90%.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The goal here is not to turn low-probability buyers into high-probability ones, but to quickly identify the high-probability buyers and engage them with the right tools, like a messaging platform or a search engine. It can do this even if the buyer remains completely anonymous. At the same time, low-probability users can be served with tools appropriate to their experience, like a chatbot trained for either proactive or reactive service.
All of this is leading to the era of AI-assisted sales , and not a moment too soon, says Allego’s Ginna Hall.
Like everything else, sales are starting to scale up to digital proportions, which would require an army of human reps to keep up with the load. By equipping sales professionals with AI tools, organizations will be able to target all of their resources in the appropriate manner and rapidly scale up their responses as needed.
A human touch In this hybrid world, AI can actually provide a more personalized sales experience for customers.
Most sales staff, after all, are trained on a one-size-fits-all model that tends to lump buyers into various groups. With AI’s broad access to data, however, it can be trained to tap into the unique requirements of the individual at far greater scale than a human sales force. Perhaps, this is why two-thirds of companies report increased revenue from their AI-assisted teams, according to McKinsey.
As with any technology, however, there are right ways and wrong ways to implement AI into sales. Perhaps the worst way is to throw AI at a problem without giving it access to the right data.
Diane Braybeal, of the Marketing AI Institute , points out that automating data collection, filtering, conditioning, structuring, and other tasks is key to successful outcomes. With good data, AI can then be trusted to deliver more accurate lead-scoring, more personalized experiences, higher levels of upselling, reduced churn, and generally better sales management by improving sales targets and quotas, optimizing territory, and predicting the impact of staff and product changes.
If there is one overarching rule in deploying AI into sales, it should be to avoid giving customers the impression that they are being manipulated by robotic processes. Consumers are already getting wise to the bombardment of ads tied to their most recent search queries or even private conversations with loved ones. For AI to succeed, it must seem as normal and natural as possible, or at the very least, not forced or opportunistic.
People still want to be treated like people, even if they know they are dealing with a robot.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Invisibly wants to pay you for your data | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/invisibly-wants-to-pay-you-for-your-data"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Invisibly wants to pay you for your data Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Can the tech world put food on the table? Not just for the programmers, but for the users too? That’s the question that a startup called Invisibly is asking. They’re developing a way for users — that is, all of us on the internet — to earn a paycheck for sharing data. Instead of trading their personal information for services like Facebook or Google, Invisibly is proposing a more explicit contract that rewards the people with cash for parting with the information about what they like to read on the internet.
The trade-offs of the traditional data-driven business model are always cloudy. The users get free access to, say, discussion boards for talking with their friends, search engines, or maybe some basic office apps. In return, the services track everything we do and sell ads targeting them. It started as a pretty straightforward trade, but as stock valuations grow, some are wondering if there’s a better balance.
Invisibly’s plan is to explicitly share the returns with the user. The sales literature proclaims, “We don’t own your data. You do.” The current version is called a “data dividend,” which lets users collect points by giving Invisibly access to their web usage. One hundred points can be converted into one dollar. The company compares the idea to Universal Basic Income, the plan to provide everyone with a regular check just for being part of society.
The company is making plans to expand beyond their data dividend. We sat down for a video call with Don Vaughn, head of product, to understand how they plan to create a steady stream of income for the users.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! VentureBeat: Where do you begin trying to pay people for their data? Don Vaughn: The real fundamental thing that needs to happen is that people need control of their data. It’s a real thing. If businesses have all your data, then they can figure you out and do as they wish with your attention. If you have your data, then you start to get a modicum of power. The problem with that is most people just don’t care. The first thing we’ve got to do is you have to get people paid for their data or nobody cares.
VentureBeat: But it’s more than just the money, right? Vaughn: We’re starting with money very intentionally, but it’s more than that. It’s our vision that people’s data improves their quality of life. We are using that data as a business insights platform which lets people know what’s going on. What’s coming out in our next release in a few weeks is where we’re gonna get more than just get people paid for their data. We’re gonna let them choose what they want to see and filter on the internet from that data. So they’re gonna basically let them control their reality and what type of stuff they see. They won’t be filtered. Not by Google or Facebook or TikTok or Instagram. They’ll choose. That’s where we’re headed.
VentureBeat: I haven’t watched any broadcast Olympics, but my friends tell me it’s insufferable. It’s all ads and teasers for events that might be coming up later.
Vaughn: That’s all part of the same problem. Tech companies or TV companies or somebody else is telling us what we should be watching, but they don’t know me that well. They should stop that. I need to have a way to pull in what I want.
So I can’t tell you exactly what we’re doing because it’s not released for six weeks, but the data dividend is the very first product. It is the first way to get people interested. And now our next product is going to be absolutely explosive. In my view, it’ll change the world over the next couple years because it’s gonna give people the ability to not just make money out of that data — it will give them control.
We’re gonna get you part of the economic model. We’re gonna split that with you. So you can imagine it’s a brand new business model that’s going to come out where, rather than taking the profits on the backs of all the data from people, you’re going to create a new business model.
VentureBeat: In the press release, you talked about a target of a thousand dollars per year.
Vaughn: Right now people generally think that their data is worth a lot, and I wish it were. But data is actually pretty cheap. It is worth pennies, if not less. Even though it feels like it should be more, an ad unit is about a tenth of a penny.
What’s really more valuable than that is attention. Data is for herding sheep. Attention is valuable. So we think that if we can give you what’s worth your attention — if we can find what you would actually want to see rather than just what Facebook thinks you want to see — then that’s much closer to a thousand dollars of revenue a year.
VentureBeat: So, now I’ve seen a couple different systems over the years that try to pay people. Bing has some way of giving me points, which I never seem to be able to use. And I think Brave the browser has some reward system available.
Vaughn: Generally, those products are about getting paid for watching ads. I wouldn’t call them much of a data empowerment. Invisibly is trying to own the segment that we’re calling data empowerment. We think there is tremendous value in you driving and you actually using your data for your own income, like we’re doing now with the day to dividend or to facilitate your attention, getting the content, and the world that you want. The other approaches are getting you paid for watching ads. Invisibly is creating what I think is the first instance of AI for people. AI right now is a business tool. Every business uses it. It’s being used to manipulate. What’s your defense against that? Your human brain is supposed to figure that out and deploy all the attention to deal with that? It’s a losing battle.
So the only future that I see is AI for people, and that’s the big goal for Invisibly is that a protective layer that advocates on your behalf. It’s to defend you against everybody else trying to mess with you. It’s also acting when you have to find everything that’s worth your time and attention to negotiate prices for you in the future. How come no one’s doing that for me? All that should be AI for people, and that’s where Invisibly is really going. It’s a much bigger vision than ads for dollars.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"How to approach AI more responsibly, according to a top AI ethicist | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/how-to-approach-ai-more-responsibly-according-to-a-top-ai-ethicist"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How to approach AI more responsibly, according to a top AI ethicist Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Women in the AI field are making research breakthroughs, spearheading vital ethical discussions, and inspiring the next generation of AI professionals. We created the VentureBeat Women in AI Awards to emphasize the importance of their voices, work, and experience and to shine a light on some of these leaders. In this series, publishing Fridays, we’re diving deeper into conversations with this year’s winners , whom we honored recently at Transform 2021.
Check out last week’s interview with the winner of our AI entrepreneur award.
Enterprise AI platform DataRobot says it builds 2.5 million models a day, and Haniyeh Mahmoudian is personally invested in making sure they’re all as ethically and responsibly built as possible. Mahmoudian, a winner of VentureBeat’s Women in AI responsibility and ethics award, literally wrote the code for it.
An astrophysicist turned data science researcher turned the company’s first “global AI ethicist,” she has raised awareness about the need for responsible AI in the broader community. She also speaks on panels, like at the World Economic Forum, and has been driving change within her organization.
“As a coworker, I cannot stress how impactful her work has been in advancing the thinking of our engineers and practitioners to include ethics and bias measures in our software and client engagements,” said DataRobot VP of trusted AI Ted Kwartler , who was among those who nominated her for the award.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! In this past year of crisis, Mahmoudian’s work found an even more relevant avenue. The U.S. government tapped her research into risk level modeling to improve its COVID-19 forecasting, and Moderna used it for vaccine trials. Eric Hargan, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ deputy secretary at the time, said “Dr. Mahmoudian’s work was instrumental in assuring that the simulation was unbiased and fair in its predictions.” He added that the impact statement her team created for the simulation “broke new ground in AI public policy” and is being considered as a model for legislation.
For all that she has accomplished, VentureBeat is pleased to honor Mahmoudian with this award. We recently sat down (virtually) to further discuss her impact, as well as AI regulation, “ethics” as a buzzword, and her advice for deploying responsible AI.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
VentureBeat: How would you describe your approach to AI? What drives your work? Haniyeh Mahmoudian: For me, it’s all about learning new things. AI is more and more becoming a part of our day-to-day lives. And when I started working as a data scientist, it was always fascinating to me to learn new use cases and ideas. But at the same time, it kind of gave me the perspective that this area is very great. There’s a lot of potential in there. But at the same time, there are certain areas that you need to be cautious about.
VentureBeat: You wrote the code for statistical parity in DataRobot’s platform, as well as natural language explanations for users. These have helped companies in sectors from banking and insurance to tech, manufacturing, and CPG root out bias and improve their models. What does this look like and why is it important? Mahmoudian: When I started my journey toward responsible AI, one of the things I noticed was that generally, you can’t really talk to non-technical people about the technical aspects of how the model behaves. They need to have a language that they understand. But just telling them “your model is biased” doesn’t solve anything either. And that’s what the natural language aspect of it helps with — not only telling them the system exhibits some level of bias, but helping navigate that. “Look at the data XYZ. Here is what we found.” This is at the case level, as well as at the general level. There are many various definitions for bias and fairness. It can be really hard to navigate which one you should be using, so we want to make sure you’re using the most relevant definition. In hiring use cases, for example, you’d probably be more interested in having a diverse workforce, so equal representation is what you’re looking for. But in a health care scenario, you probably don’t care about representation as much as you do making sure the model isn’t wrongfully denying access for the patients.
VentureBeat: Aside from your work helping mitigate algorithmic bias in models, you’ve also briefed dozens of Congressional offices on the issues and are committed to helping policymakers get AI regulations right. How important do you believe regulation is in preventing harm caused by AI technologies? Mahmoudian: I would say that regulations are definitely important. Companies are trying to deal with AI bias specifically, but there are gray areas. There’s no standardization and it’s uncertain. For these types of things, having clarification would be helpful. For example, in the new EU regulations, they tried to clarify what it means to have a high-risk use case and, in those use cases, what the expectations are (having confirmatory test assessments, auditing, things like that). So these are the type of clarifications regulations can bring, which would really help companies understand the processes and also reduce risk for them as well.
VentureBeat: There’s so much talk about responsible AI and AI ethics these days, which is great because it’s really, really important. But do you fear — or already feel like — it’s becoming a buzzword? How do we make sure this work is real and not a facade or box to check off? Mahmoudian: To be honest, it is used as a buzzword in industry. But I would also say that as much as it’s used in a marketing aspect, companies are genuinely starting to think about it. And this is because it’s actually benefiting them. When you’re looking at the surveys around AI bias, one of the fears they have is that they’re going to lose their customers. If a headline about their company were to come out, it’s their brand that would be jeopardized. These types of things are on their minds. So they’re also thinking that having a responsible AI system and framework can actually prevent them from having this type of risk for their business. So I would give them the benefit of the doubt. They are thinking about it and they are working on it. You could say it’s a little bit late, but it’s never too late. So it is a buzzword, but there’s a lot of genuine effort as well.
VentureBeat: What often gets overlooked in the conversations about ethical and responsible AI? What needs more attention? Mahmoudian: Sometimes when you’re talking with people about ethics, they directly link it to bias and fairness. And sometimes it might be viewed as one group trying to push their ideas onto others. So I think we need to remove this from the process and make sure that ethics is not necessarily about bias; it’s about the whole process. If you’re putting out a model that just doesn’t perform well and your customers are using that, that can affect the people. Some might consider that unethical. So there are many different ways you can include ethics and responsibility in various aspects of the AI and machine learning pipeline. So it’s important for us to have that conversation. It’s not just about the endpoint of the process; responsible AI should be embedded throughout the whole pipeline.
VentureBeat: What advice do you have for enterprises building or deploying AI technologies about how to approach it more responsibly? Mahmoudian: Have a good understanding of your process, and have a framework in place. Each industry, each company may have its own specific criteria and the type of projects they’re working on. So pick the kind of the processes and dimensions that are relevant to your work and can guide you throughout the process.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Facebook open-sources robotics development platform Droidlet | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/facebook-open-sources-robotics-development-platform-droidlet"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook open-sources robotics development platform Droidlet Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Let the OSS Enterprise newsletter guide your open source journey! Sign up here.
Facebook today open-sourced Droidlet , a platform for building robots that leverage natural language processing and computer vision to understand the world around them. Droidlet simplifies the integration of machine learning algorithms in robots, according to Facebook, facilitating rapid software prototyping.
Robots today can be choreographed to vacuum the floor or perform a dance, but they struggle to accomplish much more than that. This is because they fail to process information at a deep level. Robots can’t recognize what a chair is or know that bumping into a spilled soda can will make a bigger mess, for example.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Droidlet isn’t a be-all and end-all solution to the problem, but rather a way to test out different computer vision and natural language processing models. It allows researchers to build systems that can accomplish tasks in the real world or in simulated environments like Minecraft or Facebook’s Habitat, supporting the use of the same system on different robotics by swapping out components as needed. The platform provides a dashboard researchers can add debugging and visualization widgets and tools to, as well as an interface for correcting errors and annotation. And Droidlet ships with wrappers for connecting machine learning models to robots, in addition to environments for testing vision models fine-tuned for the robot setting.
Modular design Droidlet is made up of a collection of components — some heuristic, some learned — that can be trained with static data when convenient or dynamic data where appropriate. The design consists of several module-to-module interfaces: A memory system that acts as a store for information across the various modules A set of perceptual modules that process information from the outside world and store it in memory A set of lower-level tasks , such as “Move three feet forward” and “Place item in hand at given coordinates,” that can affect changes in a robot’s environment A controller that decides which tasks to execute based on the state of the memory system Each of these modules can be further broken down into trainable or heuristic components, Facebook says, and the modules and dashboards can be used outside of the Droidlet ecosystem. For researchers and hobbyists, Droidlet also offers “battery-included” systems that can perceive their environment via pretrained object detection and pose estimation models and store their observations in the robot’s memory. Using this representation, the systems can respond to language commands like “Go to the red chair,” tapping a pretrained neural semantic parser that converts natural language into programs.
“The Droidlet platform supports researchers building embodied agents more generally by reducing friction in integrating machine learning models and new capabilities, whether scripted or learned, into their systems, and by providing user experiences for human-agent interaction and data annotation,” Facebook wrote in a blog post. “As more researchers build with Droidlet, they will improve its existing components and add new ones, which others in turn can then add to their own robotics projects … With Droidlet, robotics researchers can now take advantage of the significant recent progress across the field of AI and build machines that can effectively respond to complex spoken commands like ‘Pick up the blue tube next to the fuzzy chair that Bob is sitting in.'” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"Capital One exec shares why building diverse teams in AI and finance is so crucial | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/capital-one-exec-shares-why-building-diverse-teams-in-ai-and-finance-is-so-crucial"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Capital One exec shares why building diverse teams in AI and finance is so crucial Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn With the conclusion of Transform 2021 , we were very glad to see that our sessions addressing diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives in AI were among the most well-attended. Our third Women in AI Breakfast, presented by Capital One, kicked off the entire five-day event. Teuta Mercado, Director, Responsible AI Program at Capital One, provided the opening remarks. We’re excited to share her views on diversity as part of a series showcasing Transform speakers — and the work she’s involved with to advance the responsible use of AI.
See the others in the series: Intel’s Huma Abidi, Redfin’s Bridget Frey, Salesforce’s Kathy Baxter , McAfee’s Celeste Fralick.
and ThoughtSpot’s Cindi Howson.
VB: Can you tell us about your background, and your current role at your company? TM: I lead Capital One’s Responsible AI program, and I’ve found that my background in law and as a compliance professional has allowed me to approach this field with a unique perspective. I spend a lot of time solving consumer-related issues and looking for the best outcomes for consumers. For me, inclusive engineering is really ensuring that our products and our services reflect our customer base and are accessible to all. Our customers represent all facets of society. So, when I think about diversity, I think of it in many different forms — diversity of race, ethnicity and religion, but also economic diversity and diversity of experience, education and more.
It’s important that we have diverse teams working on AI and machine learning so we can build products for all of our customers, rather than for a homogeneous group of people. Corporations are doing a lot of outreach in this space, which is fantastic. For example, Capital One is working to bring more diversity into this field, with recruiting efforts and imperatives around Diversity, Inclusion, Belonging, and Equity. There’s also a personal responsibility we all own — to encourage others, to seek other perspectives, and to create teams that are inclusive.strong>VB: Can you tell us about the diversity initiatives you’ve been involved in? TM: The Responsible AI program at Capital One seeks to advance our ethical practices and increase the unassailability of our machine learning products. We do that through robust relationships across the company and developing a base of support to empower our practitioners. The Responsible AI program seeks to advance a culture where everyone, not just those directly responsible for machine learning, but everyone involved across the board, is responsible for ethical AI.
Inclusion at Capital One begins with our Business Resource Groups, of which we have many. These groups are established as forums for employees to celebrate their shared culture, to support one another, and to encourage continuous learning to meet business objectives. Part of this network is our Women in Technology Business Resource Group, which is comprised of women and allies with the mission of accepting nothing less than an inclusive environment in technology that is approachable and welcoming to all.
Our Women in Tech group brings women and allies together to elevate the focus on women technologists. It examines how diversity is critical to obtaining and keeping the best talent and emphasizes the importance of addressing the decline in the number of women in technology throughout the pipeline.
VB: What’s kept you moving in this space? TM: There are so many things that have kept me going. One is the network of professionals and surrounding yourself with people who care about what they’re doing, who are passionate about ethical AI — that makes all the difference. A big thing for me has also been working for a company that has a culture of empowerment, a culture that not only allows but encourages you to do the right thing. That’s why it’s so crucial that companies have mechanisms that make empowerment part of everyday work life.
VB: What advice would you give to someone trying to get into this industry? TM: Your path may not be a straight shot. It may be a journey — you might start out doing one thing and you don’t know where it’s going to lead you. It is important to recognize that you bring something to the table that others may not. You are an important voice.
For example, what led me to my current role was understanding and recognizing what I really enjoyed doing in my previous roles, such as the pieces that were consumer-focused and where I could see my work in application in helping people. Having exposure and consulting on different products and platforms or models really helped me to see that I could make an impact if I continued to focus on the customer — this led me to where I am today.
My advice is to think about what you love doing, what excites you, and if you’re shifting gears and are interested in AI or machine learning, there are so many things you can do to enter this space. Engage with the professionals around you, both within and outside of your organization. Network and see what’s out there, what people are working on and what they are learning, then determine the unique skill sets that you can bring to the space.
I also recommend taking classes to understand machine learning. Even though my role at the time didn’t necessarily call for it, I knew that I was interested in machine learning and I had a passion for it, so I went outside my role and pursued training. Immersing yourself in the literature that lives in the space you’re entering will help fuel your growth mindset. There are so many opinions and perspectives — you’ll never stop learning.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"AI Weekly: AI adoption is driving cloud growth | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-weekly-ai-adoption-is-driving-cloud-growth"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI Weekly: AI adoption is driving cloud growth Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
The adoption of cloud technologies continues to accelerate. According to the newest report from Canalys, in Q2 2021, companies spent $5 billion more on cloud infrastructure services compared to the previous quarter. While a number of factors are responsible, including an increased focus on business resiliency planning, the uptick illustrates the effect AI’s embracement has had — and continues to have — on enterprise IT budgets.
In a recent survey , 80% of U.S. enterprises said they accelerated their AI adoption over the past two years. A majority consider AI to be important in their digital transformation efforts and intend to set aside between $500,000 to $5 million per year for deployment efforts. Organizations were projected to invest more than $50 billion in AI systems globally in 2020, according to IDC, up from $37.5 billion in 2019. And by 2024, investment is expected to reach $110 billion.
The cloud is playing a role in this due to its potential to improve AI training and inferencing performance, lowering costs and in some cases providing enhanced protection against attacks. Most companies lack the infrastructure and expertise to implement AI applications themselves. As TierPoint highlights , outside of corporate datacenters, only public cloud infrastructure can support massive data storage as well as the scalable computing capability needed to crunch large amounts of data and AI algorithms. Even companies that have private datacenters often opt to avoid ramping up the hardware, networking, and data storage required to host big data and AI applications. According to Accenture global lead of applied intelligence Sanjeev Vohra, who spoke during VentureBeat’s Transform 2021 conference, the cloud and data have come together to give companies a higher level of compute, power, and flexibility.
Cloud vendor boost Meanwhile, cloud vendors are further stoking the demand for AI by offering a number of tools and services that make it easier to develop, test, enhance, and operate AI systems without big upfront investments. These include hardware optimized for machine learning, APIs that automate speech recognition and text analysis, productivity-boosting automated machine learning modeling systems, and AI development workflow platforms. In a 2019 whitepaper , Deloitte analysts gave the example of Walgreens, which sought to use Microsoft’s Azure AI platform to develop new health care delivery models. One of the world’s largest shipbuilders is using Amazon Web Services to develop and manage autonomous cargo vessels, the analysts also noted. And the American Cancer Society uses Google’s machine learning cloud services for automated tissue image analysis.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “The symbiosis between cloud and AI is accelerating the adoption of both,” the analysts wrote. “Indeed, Gartner predicts that through 2023, AI will be one of the top workloads that drive IT infrastructure decisions. Technology market research firm Tractica forecasts that AI will account for as much as 50% of total public cloud services revenue by 2025: AI adoption means that, ‘essentially, another public cloud services market will be added on top of the current market.'” With the global public cloud computing market set to exceed $362 billion in 2022 and the average cloud budget reaching $2.2 million today, it appears clear that investments in the cloud aren’t about to slow down anytime soon. As long as AI’s trajectory remains bright — and it should — the cloud industry will have an enormous boom from which to benefit.
For AI coverage, send news tips to Kyle Wiggers — and be sure to subscribe to the AI Weekly newsletter and bookmark our AI channel, The Machine.
Thanks for reading, Kyle Wiggers AI Staff Writer VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"AI vendors must offer more solutions for niche use cases | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/ai-vendors-must-offer-more-solutions-for-niche-use-cases"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest AI vendors must offer more solutions for niche use cases Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Most AI vendors develop solutions that target broad use cases with large markets. This is because investors have shown they are only interested in a target market if it is worth several billion dollars. Therefore smaller markets have been excluded, and AI solution ideas designed for niche markets often die out and the companies behind them come to a standstill before they have the chance to see the light of day.
Another side effect of the limited capital to build niche models is that AI vendors tend to build one model and market it to a large set of disparate users. For example, a company selling a vehicle detection system would normally build a single model to detect all types of vehicles across multiple use cases and geographies. An animal detection model typically would detect many different animals and have lower accuracy than a model designed to detect a single animal. These broad-reach products result in lower model accuracy and erode public trust in AI’s capabilities. They also require that humans remain in the loop for verification, consuming more human resources and increasing the overall cost of the solution for customers.
The reason investors focus on broad-reach solutions is that niche solutions are very costly to produce. In order to make a model for a niche use case, you need data that is very specific to it. And collecting data while addressing all of the relevant regulations and security concerns is a big challenge.
And even if a vendor is able to develop a model for a niche use case, the challenge isn’t over, because an AI model is rarely a standalone solution — it often relies on a number of external components. And the more niche your model, the more niche the components of the solution will be. For example, in the case of computer vision or vision AI, some critical components include: VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Camera setup and management AI Model management and updates Dealing with video storage and data retention policies Alerts and notification rules Role based access control for users Running the AI model at one of the steps in the software stack is a very small piece of the puzzle. The bulk of an AI vendor’s time goes to building the rest of the software stack to handle the devices and other services that make a complete solution.
And then there are compliance and security issues to consider. Any AI solution a vendor sells has to be comply with different regulations in different geographies and must be secure. Handling those requirements is a big task for any company. This gets even more difficult if the company or developers have to deal with uncharted waters with no prior solution existing in their space. In such cases they may have to go to the local, state, or central government to navigate laws about deploying AI solutions.
Given that most lawmakers are not technology experts, it takes time to get regulations passed and adopted. This can be a slow process, risking the viability or success of such projects if the company does not have deep pockets to wait it out.
Making AI available for niche use cases So how can the AI vendor community overcome these challenges to bring solutions to the many niches where broad-reach products don’t apply? 1. Build a customer council with friendly customers.
In order to handle the data-collection challenge I outlined above, AI vendors should aim to find friendly customers who can help. Such customers can not only provide some of the necessary data; they can also help vendors put the right structure in place for data collection and management. In return, vendors should offer the solution to them at a very low cost. As the initial customer council, they can take pride in building a useful solution for others.
2. Avoid building from scratch.
Some vendors decide to build everything themselves using existing software libraries and core infrastructure services from a cloud vendor. This approach provides complete control over the design but can take almost a year to build. The initial goal should be to build a solution quickly and take it to market for testing. The solution can always be improved or optimized later, after initial customers and early adopters have been established. Some solutions have emerged to increase go-to-market time. For example, AWS Panorama and Microsoft Percept have launched various solutions for edge deployments to help build AI solutions using existing or smart cameras. These devices especially help with deployment of AI models on the edge closer to the devices. In general, look for platforms that enable quick transition from AI model to full solution.
3. Build an AI/ML pipeline.
AI vendors can build pipelines that allow them to quickly train models on specific data sets. They should design a pipeline so that the data used to build specific models can be easily tracked in order to make it easier to add new data from customers as it is available. There are several solutions in this space already like Kubeflow , AWS Sagemaker , GCP AI pipelines that mean you can avoid building a pipeline from scratch.
The bottom line There’s a lot of talk about democratizing artificial intelligence to make it more available to more user organizations. Currently we have many broad-reach AI models on the market for things like human detection and voice recognition. But the models are so generic that they run the risk of being inaccurate. To increase precision and accuracy of AI, and to make it usable to a wider range of organizations, we must enable a long tail of AI models that are designed for niche use cases. Although the current cost of developing such niche models and taking them to market is currently too high, we must find ways to break that barrier.
Ajay Gulati is CTO of vision AI company Kami Vision.
DataDecisionMakers Welcome to the VentureBeat community! DataDecisionMakers is where experts, including the technical people doing data work, can share data-related insights and innovation.
If you want to read about cutting-edge ideas and up-to-date information, best practices, and the future of data and data tech, join us at DataDecisionMakers.
You might even consider contributing an article of your own! Read More From DataDecisionMakers The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! DataDecisionMakers Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Noname Security nabs $60M to protect APIs | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/noname-security-nabs-60m-to-protect-apis"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Noname Security nabs $60M to protect APIs Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Noname Security , a cybersecurity platform that allows enterprises to manage APIs, today closed a $60 million series B funding round led by Insight Partners, with Next47, Forgepoint, TSG, Cyberstarts, and Lightspeed Venture Partners participating. It brings the company’s total raised to $85 million and will be used to scale Noname’s go-to-market and customer success efforts as well as its product and R&D teams.
APIs, the connectors that clouds and apps use to communicate with each other, will become the cyberattacker’s target of choice, according to Gartner. The analyst firm predicts that by 2022, API attacks will be the most frequent attack vector across the enterprise. API vulnerabilities can take many forms, from a developer’s forgotten side project to a software interface improperly configured. While some of these flaws are documented, the vast majority go unnoticed, giving anyone who can find them access to an organization’s operations.
Noname’s platform seeks to address this by automatically discovering, remediating, and testing various APIs. It analyzes API call flows, detecting problems and anomalous behaviors even in the absence of an outside threat, like an API marked “internal” that’s exposed to the open web. Noname also identifies potential issues during development and testing, so that vulnerabilities don’t go live. And it blocks attacks in real time and integrates with workflows to resolve vulnerabilities and erroneous setups.
“I cofounded Noname in 2020 with our CTO, Shay Levi. We served together in Unit 8200 of the Israeli Defense Forces, which is sometimes referred to as the ‘startup factory,'” Noname CEO Oz Golan told VentureBeat via email. “When we first started the company, for almost a year, we met chief information security officers from some of the largest companies in the world to learn about their biggest challenges, and API security was the number one issue … We saw an opportunity to create a single platform to address all security vulnerabilities for all APIs.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! API protection APIs continue to be an important tool for software developers and companies in general. Enterprises of all sizes from a wide range of industries continue to rely on APIs, and most plan to expand their API usage in the upcoming year. In fact, almost 67% expected to use APIs more in 2020 compared to 2019, according to a recent RapidAPI survey.
“[There’s been a] massive upward trend in API usage as companies continue to invest in making services and assets available through digital transformation initiatives,” RapidAPI CEO Iddo Gino said in a statement. “As the survey data suggests, this trend is present across all industries and API usage increases as a company’s software development team begins to expand.” Noname trains a machine learning model for each API based on its real-time usage, leveraging unsupervised learning techniques. Where labeled datasets don’t exist, unsupervised models help to fill in the gaps in domain knowledge by teaching themselves to classify the data. Noname uses these models to create an inventory of active APIs and perform an analysis of the traffic passing through them, noting what comes in and out. Through this, the platform can identify APIs that might be passing sensitive information, like credit card and Social Security numbers.
“Noname Security doesn’t just protect the APIs, it protects the company’s data,” Gola said. “For example, an unprotected Experian API returned a credit score based simply on someone’s name and address. This is why enterprises need Noname.” In the over $1.2 billion API management market , 70-employee, Palo Alto, California-based Noname’s competitors include Salt Security and Traceable , among others. But Noname claims to have “hundreds” of enterprise customers either piloting its software or in full production.
“The perception in the market is that we compete with API gateways, like MuleSoft or Apigee, or web application firewalls, like Palo Alto Networks or F5 Networks. But in reality, those are our partners. We integrate with their products and enhance their API security posture,” Golan explained. “[The pandemic] helped us gain traction and sell to Fortune 500 companies as enterprise perimeters changed and API security became a top concern. Increasingly, cybersecurity is API security, yet most enterprises have no idea what APIs they’ve exposed, much less what those APIs are doing … In a post-pandemic world, modern enterprises demand broader and more flexible API security solutions.” Previously, Noname closed a $25 million series A round in December 2020 with contributions from Lightspeed, Insight, and Cyberstarts.
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"New ACH rule requires enterprises to obscure financial transfer data | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/new-ach-rule-requires-enterprises-to-obscure-financial-transfer-data"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages New ACH rule requires enterprises to obscure financial transfer data Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
When it comes to most financial transactions in the United States, the National Automated Clearing House Association, known as Nacha, makes the rules. Specifically, the association acts as the governing body for the national automated clearing house (ACH Network), developing the standards for direct payments and deposits between consumers, businesses, and federal, state, and local governments. Today, a new data security rule the association put forth went into effect, marking the first of a two-prong approach that will round out in 2022.
First introduced in April, the new rule will require more organizations to render deposit account information unreadable in electronic storage. Specifically, the rule applies to both ACH originators (the entities sending payments) and third parties that process more than six million ACH payments annually. The idea is that by making the sensitive financial information unreadable in storage, there’s less risk of data theft in the event of a breach or other exposure.
TokenEx founder and CEO Alex Pezold, who helps companies comply with such rules, told VentureBeat Nacha introduced the new requirement to “keep pace” and ward off fraud and other malicious cyber behavior amid a growth in activity on the network.
“As more transactions occur digitally, the use of the ACH Network has increased significantly — 7.1 billion ACH payments were made in the first quarter of 2021 alone,” he said. “Of course, more transactions create more opportunities for cybercriminals to acquire and profit from compromised account details.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! What it means for enterprises In addition to companies processing more than six million ACH transactions annually, the rule also applies to third parties involved with those transactions. This includes payment processors and providers of analytics and fraud-prevention tools, among others. And while applicable across industries, Pezold said those that commonly use direct deposits, wire transfers, and echecks to send and receive electronic payments will be most affected. ACH data is commonly used in subscription services, for example.
Pezold recommends included entities work to meet compliance as soon as possible, either by re-evaluating internal practices or by procuring a third-party service. Nacha set forth some pretty serious penalties for failing to comply, including up to a $500,000 fine per occurrence and a suspension of use of the ACH Network.
And even if not currently affected, it’s a good idea for all businesses to start taking note. Phase two of the rule — set to go into effect one year later on June 30, 2022 — will reduce the threshold significantly. Specifically, it will apply to ACH originators and third parties with more than two million ACH payments annually.
Rising cybercrime hinges on data More and more, cybercriminals are relying on data to extort payouts — the more valuable the data, the better. In fact, recent research from across the cybersecurity industry cites the rising integration of blackmail and extortion techniques into ransomware operations as the most significant threat enterprises face. Acronis, for example, declared “2021 will be the year of extortion.” CrowdStrike also warned the approach is growing. Criminals want “to steal as much data as they can get their hands on. Then they’ll say ‘If you don’t pay us, we’re going to release all this sensitive data,’ which could have reputational or even regulatory impact,” CrowdStrike senior VP Adam Meyers told VentureBeat earlier this year when discussing the company’s 2021 Global Threat Report.
Today, many enterprises aim to protect their data with next-gen cybersecurity solutions, specifically ones that use AI and machine learning to detect never-before-seen threats. But cyber criminals aren’t ever far behind, and they’re continuously developing new tools and techniques, and even forming alliances, to bolster their attacks. Since preventing entry to systems alone hasn’t been working well for most enterprises — security breaches have increased by 67% since 2014 — obscuring the data to make it less valuable is a good step.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"CyberRes unveils enterprise-class data security solution for Amazon Macie | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/cyberres-unveils-enterprise-class-data-security-solution-for-amazon-macie"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages CyberRes unveils enterprise-class data security solution for Amazon Macie Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Micro Focus subsidiary CyberRes this week unveiled the new Amazon Macie integration of its Voltage SecureData data security solution. The new capabilities allow Voltage SecureData customers using AWS to automate a host of cloud security processes for data lifecycle management, including compliance with relevant data privacy and security regulations and standards like PCI DSS, HIPAA, and GDPR.
Amazon Macie, launched in 2017 , is the artificial intelligence (AI)-based data security and data privacy service layered into AWS that leverages machine learning and pattern matching to automate laborious processes like sensitive data discovery at scale in the cloud.
AWS customers can search, filter, and take actions steps based on Macie alerts through the AWS Management Console, Amazon EventBridge, and AWS Step Functions. Voltage SecureData is an enterprise-grade solution that adds even more robust cloud data protection capabilities to Macie and also helps protect enterprise data throughout its travels between on-premise installations to the cloud, and at rest, in transit, and in use in hybrid IT environments.
“As organizations manage growing volumes of data, identifying and protecting their sensitive data at scale can become increasingly complex, expensive, and time-consuming,” Sid Dutta, CyberRes senior data security product executive, said in a statement.
“Further, in the information lifecycle management processes, the various stages of the data lifecycle are typically disjointed. With the new Voltage SecureData integration with Amazon Macie, AWS customers are offered an automated, end-to-end, data-centric protection mechanism that can minimize the possibility of incidents escalating into breaches.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Data and cloud security spending set to sizzle Global spending on data security for 2021 is projected to hit $3.5 billion, a 17.5% year-over-year increase, while cloud security spending is tipped to reach $841 million, a 41.2% uptick from 2020, according to Gartner.
The research firm projects the overall Information Security & Risk Management market, which includes digital and physical security products and services, to grow 12.4% this year to $150.4 billion.
CyberRes, a line of business operating within Newbury, U.K.-based Micro Focus, expanded Voltage SecureData’s AWS capabilities to assist enterprises with hybrid on-premise and cloud data environments in protecting their data wherever it is and in what state, Dutta said. This is accomplished with the Voltage SecureData integration, which triggers a data protection operation for sensitive data and files within Amazon Simple Storage Service (S3) object storage in AWS.
“Heavy reliance on configurations of data storage services, server-side encryption, and perimeter controls creates opportunities for errors and incidents that could lead to exfiltration and the compromising of sensitive data,” Dutta said.
Voltage SecureData offers “a comprehensive data protection platform without exposing live information to high–risk, high-threat environments” and also automates compliance with a host of data privacy and security laws and standards in the U.S., Europe, and around the world.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"What we can learn from Google’s cookie deprecation delay | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/what-we-can-learn-from-googles-cookie-deprecation-delay"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest What we can learn from Google’s cookie deprecation delay Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Google threw more speed bumps at the digital media industry Thursday by announcing it would delay its deadline for third-party cookie deprecation by nearly two years. While the impact will be felt far and wide, it highlights an overall lack of readiness — by Google and the industry alike — and the need for a cookieless future that benefits consumers, advertisers, and publishers.
We know now that it was an overreach for Google to assume it could independently solve an issue that has stymied ad tech’s major players. That is a lesson for Google. For the industry, there’s a lesson and an opportunity for businesses to take greater control of their own identity and consumer engagement strategies. This is a chance to collaborate, and to design the future of identity together.
Google explained why its initial plans to dial down third-party cookie use in early 2022 had to be pushed to late 2023. It seems that its own new identity solution, FLoC , won’t be ready by the end of this year. FLoC has had its share of critics already, including ad tech companies that accuse Google of trying to gin up broad industry reliance on FLoC as a quick identity fix, and privacy advocates who argue that FLoC is no better than third-party cookies when it comes to data privacy. Further, FLoC has been delayed internationally due to regulation challenges like those presented by GDPR. From the outside, one could easily get the impression Google was aiming to consolidate its market influence by disrupting the tools the market relies on. Its announcement said the “web community” needed more time. Let’s hope that’s not lip service and that this time Google wants to listen to the community.
Building a framework for the next phase of identity was always going to be a challenge, and Google isn’t the only player in this game. New changes from Apple and Firefox, among others, have served as a catalyst. As an industry, we need to put consumers back in the center of our equations and create solutions that meet their needs, while driving meaningful connections and ROI. It can be done. Google’s delay should be taken as an opportunity to test, learn, and put consumers first.
The future of identity lies in the ability to leverage direct, consumer-consented sources and to be smarter about signals that are not attached to a consumer’s identity. Without that, we are playing the same game we have been playing for years. We will be plagued by the same regulatory issues and consumer concerns. Our industry needs to be able to build a scalable, consent-driven, first-party consumer base and solutions that provide for meaningful connections without the need for identity. That is the way to drive relevant, meaningful connections and to create a clearer value exchange.
This delay gives publishers and demand partners the chance to co-author more of the future rather than penning quick reactions. And the companies that are truly consumer-first now have the mainstage. Those who are reliant on third-party IDs, however, are simply in a two-year extension to figure out what to do.
Chrommegeddon or not, ID-less inventory exists today, making the status quo of planning, targeting, buying, and measuring more challenging. As solutions are developed to address that inventory, advertisers and publishers have an opportunity to continue to connect with consumers, but to also extend their reach and growth well before 2023.
Industry stakeholders should move quickly to look at existing cookieless solutions and test their effectiveness. We can’t wait for 2023 to get our ducks in a row. Cookies are an archaic technology, the internet’s horse-drawn carriage, and future internet standards shouldn’t fall on the shoulders of one company. Those of us in the digital-advertising community extend our help to Google — let’s design the future together.
Iván Markman is Chief Business Officer at Verizon Media.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Sony may also acquire Demon's Souls remake studio Bluepoint | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/sony-may-also-acquire-demons-souls-remake-studio-bluepoint"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sony may also acquire Demon’s Souls remake studio Bluepoint Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Gothic and pretty.
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PlayStation Studios added a new team today.
Sony announced this morning that it is acquiring Returnal developer Housemarque.
But this is seemingly not the last acquisition that Sony Interactive Entertainment has planned if you believe a now-deleted tweet from PlayStation Japan. In that social media post, Sony didn’t welcome Housemarque and instead welcomed Bluepoint to the PlayStation Studios roster. The likely indicates that a similar acquisition is in store for the studio that did the remakes of Demon’s Souls and Shadow of the Colossus.
We’ve reached out to Sony to ask about the Bluepoint Games image from PlayStation Japan. And we’ll update this story with any new comment from the publisher. But it seems unlikely that this was a slip of a finger. The image, which you can see below, has the Bluepoint logo as well as art from Demon’s Souls in addition to Returnal. So this deal looks like a matter of when, not if, at this point.
As for Housemarque, this is the culmination of the studio’s long-term relationship with Sony. In addition to Returnal, the studio produced the hit PlayStation 4 launch game Resogun.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! This deal also fits with the direction that both Sony and Housemarque are headed in. While Sony has worked with the studio on smaller games before, both companies are leaning toward larger games that meet a certain threshold of quality while also having elements that appeal to the core PlayStation audience. As a Sony studio, Housemarque can benefit from both a larger budget as well as the institutional knowledge within Sony.
“With the backing of SIE and its family of studios supporting us, we can truly grow into our place in the industry and show what Housemarque can create with no limitations,” Housemarque managing director Ilari Kuittinen said. “We can’t wait to show everyone what will be in store in the upcoming years, and we hope to usher in more lasting memories and exhilarating titles for the next quarter century and beyond.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"GamesBeat Decides: The best (and worst) Metroid games | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/gamesbeat-decides-the-best-and-worst-metroid-games"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages GamesBeat Decides: The best (and worst) Metroid games Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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With Metroid: Dread ‘s recent announcement, we’re in the mood to explore this franchise’s past. That means it’s time for another tier list.
My cohort, Jeff Grubb, and I look at every game in the Metroid series, including spinoffs like Metroid Prime Pinball. You can probably guess which games will make it to the top of our list, but it’s much hard to figure out Metroid’s less celebrated entries.
I know I’m going to have fun playing through a lot of these games again while waiting for Metroid: Dream to come out on October 8.
Oh, and if you want to make your own Metroid tier list, you can do so here.
GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Dell launches a $200 smart webcam with 4K image quality | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/consumer/dell-launches-a-200-smart-webcam-with-4k-image-quality"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Dell launches a $200 smart webcam with 4K image quality Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dell UltraSharp Webcam is designed to improve your Zoom meetings.
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Dell is launching the Dell UltraSharp Webcam, an intelligent 4K webcam that the company claims is the best in its class.
If there’s one thing that most of us figured out in the pandemic, it’s that webcam meetings were a sorry substitute for seeing people in person. But Zoom meetings and other ways of connecting over video are probably here to stay, as the video conferencing market is expected to generate $50 billion in revenue by 2026.
And Dell has tried to engineer the best 4K webcam for $200. Dell pulled out all the stops in designing the device, and it noted the urgency. Just one week into the global lockdowns, 62 million users downloaded video conferencing apps.
“Remote work has become the norm for many,” said Wee Kee Yeo, vice president at Dell in an interview with VentureBeat.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! The new webcam is targeted at both professionals and anyone who wants a better video conferencing experience. Dell started by looking at the image quality of Digital Single Lens Reflex (DSLR) cameras used by professionals and photo enthusiasts.
The design and engineering teams then challenged themselves to develop a webcam that delivers DSLR-like image quality while being intelligent and easy-to-use.
Best image quality 4K webcam in its class Above: Dell UltraSharp Webcam uses HDR to get the lighting right on your face.
Yeo said the Dell UltraSharp Webcam provides the best image quality in its class of 4K webcams and produces outstanding video quality in any lighting condition. The Dell UltraSharp Webcam features a large 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and multi-element lens that captures more light. That gives it better low-light performance and sharper video.
The camera has Digital Overlap HDR capability that can adjust the lighting in a shot based on the lighting conditions in your room. It helps to preserve true-to-life colors and balance exposure. The 3D/2D video noise reduction automatically eliminates grainy images, making sure you’ll look good even in low light.
“You know the importance of looking your best from every angle in every lighting condition,” Yeo said.
The camera sits on top of your monitor. It has HDR (high dynamic range) that allows it to discern faces in high-contrast environments, where faces usually get hidden in the dark or washed out by sunlight.
“HDR ensures there are minimal distractions, even if you are in extreme lighting conditions. A typical example is a window next to you or behind you where there is a lot of daylight coming into the office or the home.” It comes with a USB-C cable that can connect to a monitor dock or computer. It also has a magnetic mount or a tripod.
Customizable field of view Above: Dell UltraSharp Webcam costs $200.
It also has auto-framing, which utilizes artificial intelligence (AI) to keep you in focus and centered in every frame. You can also customize your field of view from 65 degrees, 78 degrees, and 90 degrees, together with 5x digital zoom.
I really like this feature because I’ve been using a green screen for a while with my HP laptop’s webcam. But the webcam has a wide field of view that I can’t control. So I have to adjust the position of the laptop and the greenscreen every time I do a call. I try to make sure that the camera view covers only the green screen, and not the messy bookshelf on either side.
With the narrow 65-degree field of view, I can easily crop out the sides of the green screen so people watching me can only see green in the background, and that lets me add my own virtual backgrounds more easily.
“It’s quite elegant, compact,” said Dell’s Divya Soni in an interview with VentureBeat. “These components come together in order to bring a very powerful feature-rich webcam.” The camera has a proximity sensor that detects your presence and wakes up the system. It can identify you and unlock the system.
“It’s an end-to-end security experience where you are done within seconds,” Soni said.
Being smart Above: Dell UltraSharp Webcam can detect you as you approach the computer.
The Dell UltraSharp webcam features Windows Hello, enabling you to sign in quickly and securely using facial recognition. Dell also embedded the Dell ExpressSign-in feature to work in concert with Dell PCs — meaning proximity sensors on the webcam detect your presence as you approach and automatically logs you out when you step away, providing that extra level of security without lifting a finger.
And finally, a magnetic privacy cover securely snaps on the lens or on the back, protecting the lens when the webcam is not in use and providing a safe place to store while using the webcam.
With these intelligent features in place and certification with leading unified communications platforms like Microsoft Teams and Zoom, the Dell UltraSharp webcam is primed for collaboration.
As for its shape, the Dell UltraSharp webcam is a sleek black cylinder with an all-aluminum body. While most traditional webcams are rectangular, the UltraSharp Webcam’s circular form factor and slim monitor mount ensures minimal front-of-screen distractions.
Paired with a magnetic mount and tripod adapter (sold separately) for transitions between monitor and tripod, you can move it around your office or elsewhere to get better angles. Dell said you can use it at an executive town hall, a 1-on-1 meeting, or while livestreaming esports on Twitch.
The webcam will be on sale for $200 on June 29. You’ll still need a microphone and headset to go with the webcam.
“We’ve intentionally opted not to include a microphone on this product,” said Yeo. “The focus of the product is all about visual quality. Most users nowadays have a laptop with a microphone array and a headset.” GamesBeat's creed when covering the game industry is "where passion meets business." What does this mean? We want to tell you how the news matters to you -- not just as a decision-maker at a game studio, but also as a fan of games. Whether you read our articles, listen to our podcasts, or watch our videos, GamesBeat will help you learn about the industry and enjoy engaging with it.
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"Zuitte gathers up over 50 vital digital business tools you’ll use every day for under $200 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/zuitte-gathers-up-over-50-vital-digital-business-tools-youll-use-every-day-for-under-200"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals Zuitte gathers up over 50 vital digital business tools you’ll use every day for under $200 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
If you need a strong hammer, you can zip down to Home Depot and get one. If your pliers could use an upgrade, just jump on Amazon and order one. And if you need some drill bits, a level, some screwdrivers, or a trusty wrench, there are a dozen different ways to pick one up.
But if you need a whole assortment of tools, all of which will help bring your dream projects to life, doesn’t it make sense to just buy a complete tool kit that has everything you need included, often at a much more reasonable price than buying everything separately? Of course.
That theory holds true for business services apps as well. Entrepreneurs can always dig up an app suite to handle email marketing or SEO or CRM maintenance, but instead of the scattershot, piecemeal approach, the Zuitte 50+ Tools for Entrepreneurs collection centralizes everything a business owner needs to monitor, market, and grow their enterprise online.
With Zuitte, subscribers get a vast collection of useful apps that put a digital seller first, helping Amazon retailers, social influencers, drop-shippers, and others who need everything a tricked-out suite of sales optimization tools can bring to bear to keep your digital business on track and thriving.
Some of Zuitte’s highlight features include a powerful Facebook messenger bot, a CRM manager, accounting software, email and SMS invoicing, a URL shortener, an email marketing tool with 4,000 monthly emails included, full web analytics, to-do and calendar organizers, SEO tools, a keyword finder, critical social media automation, an auto commenter and more.
Armed with all these tools, savvy business heads can research competitors, analyze customer behavior, explore keyword ideas, drive more sales, automate social media platforms, monitor customer interactions, build and schedule marketing campaigns, analyze campaign data, manage leads, control finances, track inventory, and more. No, really…even after all that, there are still another couple dozen tools in the Zuitte arsenal worth exploring.
The collective value of all the apps and features in the Zuitte 50+ Tools for Entrepreneurs package is nearly $9,500, so beyond the convenience of getting everything in one place, it’s also a huge money saver picking up this bundle now for just $199.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
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"Versa Networks raises $84M to protect cloud networks | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/versa-networks-raises-84m-to-protect-cloud-networks"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Versa Networks raises $84M to protect cloud networks Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Broadband networking Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Versa Networks , a security vendor in the software-defined networking space, today announced that it closed an $84 million series D funding round co-led by Princeville Capital and RPS Ventures, with additional participation from Sequoia Capital, an existing investor. CEO Kelly Ahuja says that the proceeds — which bring Versa’s total raised to $196 million — will be put toward scaling the company’s platform and expanding its marketing and global sales teams.
According to Gartner, the secure access service edge market (SASE) is expected to be worth almost $11 billion by 2024, with least 40% of enterprises having SASE strategies in place over the next three years. A term coined by Gartner, SASE aims to simplify wide-area networking and security by delivering both as a cloud service directly to the source of connection — i.e., an edge computing location — rather than an enterprise datacenter. Security is based around identity, real-time context, and enterprise security and compliance policies. As for identity, it can be attached to anything from a person to a device, branch office, cloud service, application, or an IoT system.
San Jose, California-based Versa was founded in 2012 by brothers Kumar and Apurva Mehta following an 8-year stay at Juniper Networks, where they led the development of Juniper’s MX series routers and mobility portfolio. During their tenure, the Mehta brothers came across a customer need to integrate cloud services services into routers, which presented complexities. They developed a software-defined, programmable solution that integrated network and security with a decoupling of software and hardware, which formed the basis of Versa’s first product.
“During the pandemic, many businesses used the downtime in branch offices to accelerate refreshes and prepare for the upturn, and shifted priority to enabling work-from-anywhere, including a hybrid environment. The results were stellar as we experienced two times year-over-year growth,” Ahuja told VentureBeat via email. “Versa is among the fastest-growing companies in one of the fastest-growing categories. The demand for our solution has been astronomical. We are not opportunity-limited, but have been capacity-limited in our go-to-market.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! SASE Available via the cloud, on-premises, or as a hybrid of both, Versa’s platform connects enterprise branches and end-users to remote apps. It offers an architecture combining security, networking, analytics, and automation into one software solution, with hardware appliances and admin dashboards that offer policy configuration and access control options.
According to Ahuja, Versa uses AI and machine learning for several aspects of its platform, including in its networking and security in addition to its its management, orchestration, and analytics tools. “In networking and security, we use telemetry datasets from the various elements, as well as from the underlay or cloud and software-as-a-service reachability, to program the optimal path to connect users to applications,” he explained. “In our management, orchestration and analytics, we use all the datasets gathered to train [machine learning] models that allow for faster and automated correlation of operational issues and resolving them.” Beyond security incumbents like Zscaler and Palo Alto Networks, Versa considers Cisco, VMware, and Fortinet its competitors. But the company, which has close to 500 employees, has managed to attract over 5,000 customers and more than 500,000 sites under contract to date.
“Versa enables multi-cloud deployments for small to very large enterprises with security, reliability, and complete visibility for IT organizations,” Ahuja said. “It supports enterprise-wide internet of things implementations by automatically detecting new devices, authenticating, and applying appropriate policies and security practices for each device … And it delivers secure, high-performance, and low-latency deployments for unified communications, videoconferencing, and VoIP to enterprise branch offices, remote teleworkers, and home-based call agents, ensuring a high-quality experience.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Tableau gets new AI-powered business intelligence features | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/tableau-gets-new-ai-powered-business-intelligence-features"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Tableau gets new AI-powered business intelligence features Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Tableau today unveiled new AI – and analytics-powered additions to its platform designed to, in the company’s words, “empower more people with the right technology to make smarter and faster decisions.” Among the highlights are an input experience designed to guide users on how to ask questions of data and an updated tool, Explain Data, that shows key drivers behind a specific data point.
“Tableau’s mission has always been to help people to see and understand data. We started out by introducing the self-service revolution in business intelligence, and with each product release we want to make it even easier and more intuitive for people to solve problems with data and for organizations to become data-driven. Tableau has been accelerating its pace of innovation and democratizing analytics,” Francois Ajenstat, chief product officer at Tableau, told VentureBeat via email.
One of the expanded capabilities in Tableau, Ask Data, lets users answer business questions with natural language, autocorrect, and synonym recognition. Ask Data integrates directly with business intelligence dashboards and can be embedded in portals or apps, and as of this week, it allows analysts to curate natural language experiences as a single source of truth: Lenses. Lenses can be set up for specific use cases, letting different teams query the same data source in the context of their own business. For example, while a single column might be known by one team as “sales,” by another as “revenue,” and by a third as “invoices,” Lenses enables each team to get results familiar and relevant to their work.
By contrast, Explain Data, which is now available to all licensed Tableau users, runs statistical models and checks potential explanations behind the value of a specific data point. According to Tableau, Explain Data can reduce the risk of error from “dirty data” or selection bias by searching for explanations in the entire data source, in addition to what’s shown in visualizations.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Salesforce features Beyond the Ask Data and Explain Data enhancements, Tableau is introducing Einstein Discovery for Reports, a feature powered by Salesforce’s Einstein technology that augments Salesforce customer relationship management (CRM) workflows with big data insights.
It delivers these insights within Salesforce reports, automatically analyzing data and providing a link to Einstein Discovery for further data exploration and optional machine learning model deployment.
A complementary new Tableau feature, Ask Data for Salesforce, lets Salesforce customers ask questions of CRM data using natural language, yielding answers in the form of dashboards, insight, and business recommendations. Dashboard recommendations and semantic search are available in the Salesforce Summer 2021 release, with natural language capabilities scheduled to come in a pilot this fall.
Fast-growing mobile traffic, cloud computing, and the rapid development of technologies including AI and the internet of things are contributing to the increasing volume and complexity of datasets.
According to Statista, the global big data and business analytics market was valued at$ 168.8 billion in 2018 and is forecast to grow to $274.3 billion by 2022.
“The technology helps address the growing disconnect between business leaders expecting a data-driven organization, and employees who either aren’t comfortable questioning metrics or leveraging data analysis to drive actions. This helps organizations create strong data cultures where more people have analytics tools and insights they wouldn’t find on their own,” Ajenstat said. “This benefits us in so many ways, including increased collaboration, data exploration and innovation, and measurable value, across every industry and around the world. With these innovations, we believe that customers will be able to empower more people to make better decisions, faster.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Spotivity Closes $1M Seed Funding Round | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/spotivity-closes-1m-seed-funding-round"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Press Release Spotivity Closes $1M Seed Funding Round Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Leading Mobile App and Marketplace Platform Will Use the Funds to Expand Globally CHICAGO–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 29, 2021– Spotivity is a Chicago-based tech startup that combines location-based technology, social media engagement, and a University-designed recommendation algorithm to create the industry’s first double-sided marketplace platform to help teens find meaningful afterschool engagement while also supporting program providers to lower liability, improve participant engagement, and drive recruitment. Spotivity has raised $1 million in a seed-funding round, led by CA Ventures, to grow user acquisition and support the recent global launch.
“The way in which Spotivity is addressing the fundamental issue of access and personal agency is novel and impactful. We are proud to support the Spotivity team and enthusiastic about the opportunities ahead,” states a spokesperson from CA Ventures, the global real estate investment company and seed investor for Spotivity. “What Montana has developed over the past three years is hugely impressive and the knock-on ramifications this work will have for millions of individuals and hiring companies is undeniable. At CA, we strongly believe that the best and most profitable companies are those that aim to do good while also providing services customers are willing to pay for, and Spotivity is clearly aligned with that philosophy.” Launched in 2018, Spotivity’s goal is simple: more teens in more programs more of the time. Spotivity supports teens that use the platform through its “Pocket Genie,” the research-informed machine learning recommendation tool created in partnership with Utah State University. Here users gain insight on after-school programs and college majors that align with their personality and other factors. In addition, Spotivity supports users’ ability to check-in to their activities on their phone, share personal progress with their peers, see their ranking between different use groups, achieve digital badges, build a verified personal after-school transcript, and benefit from a built-in point-based incentive structure that encourages digital parental engagement.
“More than half of the 40 million American children between the ages of 13-17 aren’t engaged in an after-school activity,” says Spotivity founder Montana Butsch. “For many of them, the time after school, on weekends and over vacations signals boredom and risk. This means they miss out on activities that may cultivate their talent, lift self-confidence, increase engagement with school, and decrease the likelihood of risky or self-destructive behavior. With Spotivity, we expect to change that ratio, so more teens find an accessible pathway to pursue meaningful activities and develop their passions,” he continues. “Additionally, the hardest thing to achieve with any program is a depth and breadth of the participant base. Spotivity provides a tremendous free participant marketing platform while also providing an affordable and easy to use back-end administration tool that lowers liability while helping providers provide better programming.” Spotivity was informed by Butsch’s experience as the founder of the nationally recognized organization Chicago Training Center and his insights on access/agency were published in a joint op ed with Dr. Travis Dorsch. Key current clients include the Illinois Math and Science Academy, Chicago Scholars, and the Sports Philanthropy Network. Recent media coverage has centered on the recent # micdropchallenge hip-hop promotion.
Benefits for Teens Pocket Genie – Spotivity’s algorithm that helps identify program opportunities and college majors Personal Insight Tool – helps users learn more about themselves in efforts to make better decisions In-app video support – enables programs to embed video links for remote engagement 10,000+ searchable programs – across 10 different searchable categories In-app notifications, chat, and forum – connect with teammates and teens across the platform Spotivity Transcript – memorialize all afterschool activity in a verified file you can supply to colleges Embedded Team Store – purchase items from your respective programs directly inapp Benefits for Parents of Teens Optional Parental Tethering – connect with your kids and receive confirmation of participation Safe Passage Notification (SPN) – be copied on all messages your kids receive from program staff Digital Engagement – use points to support/encourage your teen’s achievement Benefits for Program Providers (Emerging Organizations, Stand-alone Providers, and High Schools) Lower Liability – SPN will not allow individual communication between staff and a participant Track Attendance – participants virtually check-in to all activities for easy self-auditing and reference User Engagement – easy inapp communication with participant and families via SMS, Push, and email Generate Revenue – self-curated Programmatic team store to sell goods or services Raise Program Awareness – Free marketing support throughout the Spotivity platform Butsch adds, “The support from CA and other angel investors will allow us to fully extend our platform globally and bring support to those that need it, quickly. Furthermore, with the advent of the digital age fully realized our platform will provide unparalleled insight to users and will give teens actionable pathways to maximize their decision-making. Supporting program providers is of equal importance and, following on the guidance set the USOC’s SafeSport Initiative, Spotivity will lead the way to program compliance and just plain sensible programmatic engagement.” About Spotivity Spotivity is an 1871 member and a portfolio company of the Founder Institute. Historical media attention can be found on its media page HERE and specific pieces of interest are: NBC Chicago , Tasty Trade , American Inno , Built In and iHeartMedia.
Find older Press Releases HERE App is available on both iTunes and Google Play: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/Spotivity/id1417312664?ls=1&mt=8 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.Spotivity Social Media Links: https://www.instagram.com/Spotivity/ https://twitter.com/SpotivityApp https://www.facebook.com/Spotivityapp/ https://www.linkedin.com/company/Spotivity/ https://www.tiktok.com/@Spotivityapp About CA Ventures CA Ventures (“CA”) is a global vertically integrated real estate investment management company with more than $13 billion in assets across the United States, Europe and Latin America. The Chicago-based firm offers comprehensive in-house investment, development and operational services, and specializes in a range of niche, commercial real estate asset classes including student living, senior living, multifamily, industrial, medical office and life sciences. CA manages real estate investments on behalf of some of the world’s largest institutional investors across a range of core, value-add and opportunistic investment vehicles. The firm also offers third-party management services for student and residential assets. For more information, visit www.ca-ventures.com.
View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210629006038/en/ Montana Butsch +1.312.342.5241 [email protected] VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Ably nabs $70M for synchronized messaging across apps, devices, clouds | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/real-time-communications-platform-ably-raises-70m"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Ably nabs $70M for synchronized messaging across apps, devices, clouds Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Broadband networking Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Ably , a platform designed to handle real-time communications, today announced that it raised $70 million in series B funding led by Insight Partners and Dawn Capital LLP. The proceeds, which bring the company’s total raised to $77 million, will be used to support Ably’s growth and R&D of synchronization products designed for apps, devices, and hybrid cloud environments, according to CEO Matthew O’Riordan.
Real-time experiences pervade the digital realm, whether they’re virtual events, financial terminal dashboards, or vehicle performance data visualizations. The global real-time communications market is expected to climb at a compound annual growth rate of 43.4% from 2020 to reach $40 billion by 2027. But while synchronized data is becoming increasingly important across the enterprise, building in-house systems can be time-consuming and expensive.
Ably claims to solve this with APIs that can be used to build, extend, and deliver a range of different event- and message-driven apps. The company provides a network with 15 geographically distributed core routing datacenters and 205 edge acceleration points-of-presence to deliver low-latency, real-time data for chat, data and analytics, internet of things deployments, and updates and notifications. Ably automatically translates between messaging protocols, offering managed integrations that connect with existing cloud services including Microsoft Azure and Amazon Web Services. And it delivers what it calls “feature-rich” messaging, with additional guarantees for ordering and delivery, telemetry, and efficiency for large data payloads.
“[We] had a clear vision that real-time interactions would underpin rather than just augment our everyday digital experiences,” O’Riordan, who cofounded Ably with Paddy Byers in 2016, told VentureBeat via email. “Ably is the platform to power synchronized digital experiences in real time. Every day, we reach more than 250 million devices around the world.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Real-time synchronization Interest in real-time communications technologies is accelerating as companies embrace digital transformation during the pandemic. According to a report by analytics firm SAS, 60% of UK organizations believe that engaging with customers in real time can deliver an increase in revenue between 10% and 40%. But businesses are struggling to deploy real-time communications because of the aforementioned challenges, notes SAS head of customer intelligence Tiffany Carpenter.
“[Most] organisations are struggling to embrace real time. As consumers become ever more demanding of personalised experiences, organizations must bridge the gap by truly harnessing real-time customer engagement strategies,” Carpenter wrote in a statement accompanying the report. “The strive for real-time communication is really focused on delivering at the right time.” In an effort to address these blockers, Ably has channels, which allow customers to publish events, messages, and more to a number of apps and devices simultaneously. Beyond this, the platform offers “exactly-once” delivery, ensuring published messages are only processed once even if client or connectivity failures cause a publish to be reattempted. Ably makes an effort to reduce bandwidth by sending only the changes from a previous message each time there’s an update, instead of the entire message. It also delivers push notifications to iOS and Android, whether a device is offline or connected, allowing companies to act on data by triggering actions and executing business logic.
Ably competes with startups including MessageBird , Sendbird , and PubNub, but O’Riordan claims that there isn’t a rival offering the same breadth and scale. Rather, he sees the biggest competition in developers trying to build their own real-time capabilities using an existing technology stack. “Today, you’d be called crazy if you wanted to build your own email service or content deliver system,” he said. “The same thing is happening with real-time now.” Currently, Ably, which serves 500 customers across 80 countries, is being used by HubSpot to power live chat, updates, and analytics for millions of users. BlueJeans taps Ably to initiate calls, while Toyota uses it to make performance adjustments to race cars mid-race. And the Australia Open leverages the platform to deliver live scores “in milliseconds.” “Digital has disrupted every industry and real-time synchronized experiences will do the same, Ably aims to empower both digital leaders and laggards across every industry vertical,” O’Riordan said. “Our growth is 200% year-over-year from a revenue point of view — as of January 2021, there has been 13 times annual growth in the usage of the Ably platform. [And] Ably is on track to reach one billion devices per month by 2023.” Existing investors including Triple Point, Digital Horizon, Forward Partners, and MMC also participated in London-based Ably’s latest funding round.
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"Moveworks raises $200M to automate enterprise IT tasks | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/moveworks-raises-200m-to-automate-enterprise-it-tasks"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Moveworks raises $200M to automate enterprise IT tasks Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Moveworks , a platform designed to automate support at work, today announced that it closed a $200 million series C funding round led by Tiger Global and Alkeon Capital, with participation from Lightspeed Venture Partners, Sapphire Ventures, Bain Capital, Iconiq Growth, and Kleiner Perkins. The proceeds bring the company’s total raised to $315 million and value the company at $2.1 billion post-money, representing one of the largest investments in an AI platform for employee service to date.
With conventional approaches, support teams take an average of three days to address issues including IT tickets, HR requests, and policy questions by hand, causing disruptions that can delay work. Nearly one-third of departments regularly affected by technical problems say that an hour of downtime costs them $1 million or more.
Moveworks aims to ease the IT burden with a combination of natural language understanding, conversational AI, and semantic search. Using the platform, employees can describe what they need via a chatbot in an existing messaging tool, like Microsoft Teams and Slack.
“AI has become a necessity to support employees in the work-from-anywhere world,” Moveworks CEO Bhavin Shah said in a press release. “People expect to get the help they need right away — no matter where they are, no matter when they ask. But to create such a simple experience, we had to engineer advanced deep learning techniques that didn’t exist before, and then make that complexity completely invisible to our users. With this investment, Moveworks will bring AI support to every employee at every enterprise.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! AI-powered Moveworks’ cloud platform integrates with service management systems, identity and access management systems, knowledge bases, email accounts, workflow automation, and facilities management dashboards, applying an engine trained on over 100 million real-world scenarios to identify troubleshooting steps for support issues. A semantic search component leverages context to sift through and extract answers from articles, documents, and FAQs. This complements Moveworks’ remediation solution that fields a range of requests automatically, and that lets employees self-serve email list requests while automatically routing support tickets to the right group.
In March, Moveworks announced the launch of the Employee Service Platform , which can handle human resources, finance, and facilities issues end-to-end, from the initial request to the final resolution. Beyond answering questions about unlocking accounts, resetting passwords, and provisioning software, the Employee Service Platform helps surface forms, pull answers from knowledge bases, and route requests to the right subject-matter experts.
“We engineered a unique approach to understanding the language used in the enterprise, which we deployed prior to this product expansion to resolve IT issues — without predefining specific intents or hard-coding rigid workflows. That approach is our multifaceted intent system,” CTO Vaibhav Nivargi told VentureBeat via email in a previous interview. “At a high level, it is a generalized natural language understanding system. Rather than predefining specific user intents, our multifaceted intent system determines the overarching action and resource type needed to resolve each issue. Once we’ve established this generalized intent, we then evaluate the utility of potential resources.” While the platform competes indirectly with Electric in an IT solutions segment that’s expected to reach $35.98 billion by 2025, Mountain View, California-based Moveworks claims to have seen a 700% increase in active users over the past few months as remote work became commonplace during the pandemic. Current and former customers include Palo Alto Networks, Slack, Western Digital, Broadcom, Autodesk, Belkin, Stitch Fix, and LinkedIn.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Microverse wants to educate overlooked coding talent from developing regions | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/microverse-wants-to-educate-overlooked-coding-talent-from-developing-regions"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Microverse wants to educate overlooked coding talent from developing regions Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Microverse Student Assembly As digital transformation efforts accelerate, the competition for talent is growing more intense. Rather than simply helping companies find the right employees, Microverse is trying to enlarge the talent pool by attracting and educating students from developing countries.
The EdTech startup has built an online coding academy that uses a collaborative learning system and a specially designed curriculum that facilitates teaching for a more diverse range of candidates. The idea is to create a new generation of coders who are not only great programmers but are also well-adapted to a world of remote work where geography is becoming less of a barrier.
Microverse founder and CEO Ariel Camus said his goal is to train 1 million students and help connect them to companies around the world.
“I realized that remote work was going to be a bridge between talent and opportunities,” he said. “I just didn’t think it was going to happen so fast. But it’s good because I can’t imagine a future where we keep wasting so much human potential.” Microverse got a boost in its efforts today when it announced that it has raised $12.5 million in venture capital. Northzone led the round, which also included money from previous investors General Catalyst and All Iron Ventures. In addition, a host of business angels from companies such as Google, GitHub, and Spotify, as well as Eventbrite cofounders Kevin and Julia Hartz, also participated.
Northzone general partner Michiel Kotting said that while there are many innovative attempts to create new forms of coding academies , Microverse stood out for the breadth of its vision and its execution.
“If you look at it from the ground up, this is playing into the trend of unlocking the potential in emerging markets of the best and brightest to have access to the digital revolution as we are experiencing it every day,” Kotting said.
Above: Ariel Camus, Microverse founder and CEO Peer-to-peer learning Microverse has developed a distributed school that has already shown some impressive results. This year, the company projects that more than 1,000 full-time students will go through the program. These students come from 118 countries, and so far 95% of graduates are hired within 6 months.
Demand is also running high. The company is getting an average of 10,000 applicants each month. About 75% of the students are from Africa and Latin America. Students don’t have to pay any tuition until they land a job.
Camus said the company brings students in as cohorts who follow a curriculum that emphasizes collaboration and learning from other students. The system is designed to teach skills and mindsets critical for working in distributed teams. But the cohort and peer-to-peer learning is also intended to create bonds and networks among students so they will continue to learn from each other well after they’ve completed the courses.
“I realized in order to work for a remote company, it’s not enough to just be a great software engineer or designer,” Camus said. “You also need to be great at remote work, which is this new thing that no one knows how to do well.” Such lifelong education will be essential to keeping the students progressing and attractive to employers, Camus said.
Microverse will use the latest funding to continue scaling its platform with a goal of tripling its capacity over the next 18 months. The company, which currently has 20 employees, will add another 40. And Camus said that expansion will also allow it to connect with more corporate partners to further enlarge job potential for students.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Mapped raises $6.5M to build API for the 'digital twin of data infrastructure' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/mapped-raises-6-5m-to-build-api-for-the-digital-twin-of-data-infrastructure"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Mapped raises $6.5M to build API for the ‘digital twin of data infrastructure’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Data infrastructure platform maker Mapped has raised an additional $6.5 million in seed II funding, on top of $3 million raised in February, to build out a universal API for connecting control systems for elevators, HVAC, and other physical assets. Investors include MetaProp and Allegion Ventures as co-leads, as well as Singtel Innov8, Greycroft, and Animo Ventures.
Mapped simplifies access to physical building assets through a standard vocabulary, while supporting a secured API perimeter. The company already provides access to 30,000 different types of equipment. This investment will help it expand to support more equipment types and integrations and grow its go-to-market efforts.
The platform can be thought of as a digital twin of data infrastructure, Mapped founder and CEO Shaun Cooley told VentureBeat. This complements other types of construction digital twins for pre-construction modeling , simulation, and digital representation.
Today, developers confront different APIs, security models, and data elements when building applications spanning multiple physical devices and cloud applications. Mapped provides a middleware tier to simplify the work required to describe the relationship between people, places, and equipment in new applications. For example, a developer can create applications for triggering restroom service requests driven by fixture sensors, integrate visitor management applications with access control systems, or share building data with managed service providers.
Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Painful integration challenges Cooley conceived of the idea while vice president and CTO for IoT at Cisco as he watched the largest industrial and commercial businesses in the world struggle to scale their digitization efforts.
“A successful pilot in one building or factory would immediately run into the painful realities of integration when it was moved to the building or factory across the street,” he said.
The big challenge is that existing modern buildings were automated by one or more systems integrators using whatever technologies were available at the time. For example, HVAC systems used one approach, lighting systems another, and plumbing another. The integrator’s job was to automate the necessary processes — and not to worry about how the components, configuration, and programming of the automation compared to that building or factory across the street.
Mapped provides a consolidated data infrastructure layer for discovering, ingesting, and normalizing data. This eliminated months of manual integration efforts for applications that may span multiple systems.
Ontologies on the rise Ontologies provide a dictionary for characterizing how to structure data in an organized, simple, and extensible way to support data reuse. But there are many ways to do this. Cooley said that existing middleware platforms and digitization efforts left ontology as an exercise for the implementer, which resulted in custom ontologies on top of custom equipment.
Mapped has spearheaded an open source ontology called the Brick schema for describing physical, logical, and virtual assets and the relationship between them. It complements other industry ontologies for describing physical building layouts (Building Topology Ontology), tagging building assets (Project Haystack), and describing smart appliances (Smart Applications Reference, or SAREF).
Cooley is betting that Mapped can follow in the footsteps of other companies that have normalized data and ontology layers in pivotal use cases. Examples could include Twilio for communications, Plaid for financial records, and Stripe for payment. Mapped can normalize data from nearly 50 different system and source types, including HVAC, lighting controls, elevators, 3D maps access controls, air quality monitoring, calendaring systems, digital signage, energy management, fire safety systems, indoor positioning, visitor management, parking systems, security systems, telepresence units, and Wi-Fi.
Mapped uses several techniques to discover and ingest data from disparate devices in industrial and commercial environments. It can both actively speak to machines and controllers and passively monitor existing communications to extract data without adding load. The gateway can also reach into a controller, interpret existing programs, and present and generate a service interface to other apps for securely adjusting equipment.
Another significant innovation is that Mapped can move the security perimeter from each class of equipment ecosystem to a unified security perimeter in the cloud for all types of equipment. As a result, partners and software developers get a simple, robust, and reliable API rather than wasting months building one-off integrations for each deployment.
“The inbound interest from partners and their developers that want to make use of Mapped’s APIs has been amazing, and we will continue to work with partners to simplify their integration efforts and build new capabilities,” Cooley said.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"InRule: 64% worry about job security while working with AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/inrule-64-worry-about-job-security-while-working-with-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages InRule: 64% worry about job security while working with AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Nearly two-thirds (64%) of enterprise decision-makers with responsibility for machine learning, application development, and decision management in their organizations are worried about job security , according to new research by business software company InRule.
Above: 64% of decision-makers consider job security as their biggest personal challenge with AI technologies.
There are many use cases for AI in the enterprise, from driving market and customer insights to testing new products, mitigating compliance, and addressing privacy risks, and many decision-makers report feeling overwhelmed by the options. At least one-third of decision-makers report too many use cases across business functions like sales, marketing, and customer experience. There were 53% of respondents in the survey who said customer experiences was the top business function for AI — and that they have too many AI use cases in that area.
The problem of having too many use cases will continue to increase as 67% of decision-makers said they expect their AI/ML usage to increase over the next year-and-a-half.
Challenges with collaboration impede AI success. More than half (51%) of decision-makers say their organization has too much data, and 42% struggle to identify and gain access to the right data.
Organizational silos exacerbate the inaccessibility of data, hindering collaboration between experts and data scientists.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! AI operations are critical to gaining essential insights about customers and markets, but there are myths and misconceptions that may stifle AI projects before they can get off the ground, InRule’s study found. One such misperception is that AI projects can’t be done without enough data scientists , when the reality is that there are many AI and ML tools available.
Another is that using AI can have unintended consequences that could harm the business. Sixty-four percent of decision-makers said it is “Important” or “Critical” for their organization to defend or prove the efficacy of its digital decisions.
With the growing number of privacy regulations, enterprises have to be able to justify what they are doing with the data. Even so, 58% of decision-makers find defending or proving the efficacy of their digital decisions challenging. They are willing to share visual representations of their outcomes and inputs used, but less likely to show the code they used or the questions driving the decisions, the study found.
Part of that may be because many organizations don’t have the right tools, technology, process, and culture to identify the right questions for digital decisioning, InRule found. More than half (57%) of decision-makers report not having the tools and technology in place to identify the right questions for their digital decisions and 42% don’t have the right processes or a culture of collaboration, the study said.
The study, which consisted of three interviews and an online survey of 302 U.S.-based individuals, focused on decision-makers’ perceptions of AI. “AI is a critical source of industry competitiveness. The fastest path to AI solutions is to formulate and execute a strategy to scale AI use cases based on reality unencumbered by myths,” the report said.
Read the full report from InRule.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"How employee demands for benefits have evolved -- and how to measure up (VB Live) | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/how-employee-demands-for-benefits-have-evolved-and-how-to-measure-up-vb-live"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Live How employee demands for benefits have evolved — and how to measure up (VB Live) Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by TriNet The employee benefits package has a measurable, concrete impact on business success, especially in 2021. Making sure benefits reflect what employees expect now doesn’t need to cost much, and comes with a big return on investment. Learn more in this VB Live event.
Register for free here.
The pandemic has impacted employee expectations for company benefits in a way that industries cannot back down from. Workers are expecting more, especially around remote work and mental health support, says Christy Yaccarino, executive director of benefit strategy and wellness at TriNet.
Companies are stepping into the breach.
One recent report found that they’re recognizing that care, flexibility, and mental health benefits are essential. In response, companies overwhelmingly are starting to revise their benefit strategies to reflect these lessons learned: 98% of human resource leaders and C-suite decision-makers plan to newly offer or expand at least one benefit for their employees.
“Though there’s an expense in extending benefits and making them more robust, the return on that expense is obviously happier employees, better engagement, and lower turnover,” Yaccarino says. “It’s a balancing act.” More robust EAP support In the wake of pandemic anxiety, depression, and burnout, awareness of the role employers play in supporting mental health has grown. The lockdown and the months surrounding the country’s response to the crisis took a huge toll on many, especially those at home managing childcare and remote school as well as their own work responsibilities. Over the course of the last year and a half, employers have realized the benefit of a comprehensive employee assistance plan (EAP).
Companies that don’t currently have an EAP would be well advised to investigate putting one in place, Yaccarino says. Or for those who already have one, it’s perhaps time to look at enhancing what is currently offered in the plan. Many employees have now recognized the importance of that support in a way they didn’t before. As a result, they want to keep tapping into that resource; now that the country is getting vaccinated, mental health issues may get some relief but won’t evaporate.
EAP plans may have options to add a counseling component, assistance in finding daycare or elder care, manager training for employee support, and more. Most importantly, they’ve increasingly become a benefit that employees look for when evaluating a potential employer.
Remote work and working from home There seems to be every indication that employers won’t be going back to 2019 with a wholesale return to the office — and employees are certainly not willing to reestablish the status quo.
A majority of employees are interested in a hybrid situation , or simply flexibility around their time in the office. Companies will need to be prepared for continued questions about reimbursements related to remote work such as for internet and office furniture.
Employees are also becoming more conscious about going into the office sick, and how quickly illness can spread, even mundane ones. As life returns to normal, and transmission of every-day colds and flu may increase, employers will need to build in flexibility to accommodate work from home for employees who may be sick but are still able to perform some or all of their duties.
Evaluating your benefits and next steps Benefits need to evolve. The next step is an evaluation of where your benefits stand, and where they need to step up.
An outsider can offer a true assessment of what you currently offer, through a different lens, and make recommendations on what might be good to add or adapt. Benchmarking reports can be very helpful by showing what other companies of comparable size in your industry are offering, and how what you offer stacks up against them. You’ll learn how your paid time-off program compares to your peer group, how your medical offering compares, the voluntary benefits other companies are offering, and what else you may or may not be missing in a competitive field.
“Benchmarking reports from a third party, whether that’s an insurance broker, a PEO, or a consultant, can be very valuable in evaluating, especially against your peer groups, where you’re probably competing for talent,” Yaccarino says.
To learn more about how benefits are evolving in the post-COVID-19 era, how your benefits can help you gain a competitive edge in the race for talent, and more, don’t miss this VB Live event.
Don’t miss out! Register for free here! You’ll learn: What employees are looking for in the post-COVID-19 era The surprising new changes ushered in by a redistributed workforce Looking ahead as offices reopen for business How to review your current benefit arrangements in light of future needs Speakers: Christy Yaccarino, Executive Director of Benefit Strategy and Wellness, TriNet.
Stewart Rogers, Moderator, VentureBeat More speakers to be announced soon! The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"Google taps AI to identify COVID-19 vaccine name variations | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/google-taps-ai-to-identify-covid-19-vaccine-name-variations"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Google taps AI to identify COVID-19 vaccine name variations Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
In May during its Google I/O 2021 developer conference, Google demoed multitask unified model (MUM) , a system trained on 75 languages at once that can simultaneously understand different forms of information including text, images, and videos. Today, Google revealed that it’s using MUM to identify variations in the names of COVID-19 vaccines across multiple languages, which the company claims has improved Google Search’s ability to surface information about COVID-19 vaccines for users around the world.
As Google notes, the COVID-19 vaccines released to date — including those from AstraZeneca, Moderna, and Pfizer — go by different names depending on the country and region of origin. There are roughly hundreds of COVID-19 vaccine names globally, not all of which have historically risen to the top of Search when users would type in phrases like “new virus vaccines,” “mrna vaccines,” and “AZD1222.” MUM, which can transfer knowledge between languages and doesn’t need to be explicitly taught how to complete certain tasks, helped Google engineers to identify more than 800 COVID-19 name variations in over 50 languages, according to Google Search VP Pandu Nayak. With only a few examples of “official” vaccine names, MUM was able to find interlingual variations “in seconds” compared with the weeks it might take a human team.
Above: Google’s MUM is being used to surface COVID-19 vaccine information across different languages in Search.
“This first application of MUM has helped to provide users around the world with important information in a timely manner,” Nayak said in a blog post translated from Japanese. “We look forward to making search more convenient through the use of MUM in the future. Early testing has shown that MUM not only improves existing systems, but also helps develop new methods of information retrieval.” VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Future work Google previously applied AI to the problem of providing projections of COVID-19 cases, deaths, ICU utilization, ventilator availability, and other metrics useful to policymakers and health care workers. In August 2020, in partnership with Harvard, the company released models that forecast COVID-19–related developments over the next 14 days for U.S. counties and states.
MUM has potential beyond vaccine name identification, particularly in situations where it can lean on context and more in imagery and dialogue turns. For example, given a photo of hiking boots and asked “Can I use this to hike Mount Fuji?”, MUM can comprehend the content of the image and the intent behind the query, letting the questioner know that hiking boots would be appropriate and pointing them toward a lesson in a Mount Fuji blog.
MUM can also understand questions like “I want to hike to Mount Fuji next fall, what should I do to prepare?” Because of its multimodal capabilities, MUM realizes that “prepare” could encompass things like fitness training as well as weather. The model, then, could recommend that the questioner bring a waterproof jacket and give pointers to go deeper on topics with relevant content from articles, videos, and images across the web.
“We’re in the early days of exploiting this new technology,” Prabhakar Raghavan, senior VP at Google, said onstage at Google I/O. “We’re excited about its potential to solve more complex questions, no matter how you ask … MUM is changing the game with its language understanding capabilities.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"GitLab spins out open source data integration platform Meltano | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/gitlab-spins-out-open-source-data-integration-platform-meltano"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages GitLab spins out open source data integration platform Meltano Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Meltano web UI Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Let the OSS Enterprise newsletter guide your open source journey! Sign up here.
GitLab today announced that it’s spinning out its open source ELT (extract, load, transform) platform Meltano as a standalone business, with financial backing from a number of notable VC and angel investors including Alphabet’s GV.
The developer operations (DevOps) powerhouse debuted Meltano back in 2018 , and through various iterations it ended up as an open source platform for data integration and transformation.
For context, modern data stacks typically incorporate various tools from ingestion to warehousing that enable companies to take raw data, move it between systems, and convert it into a more usable format that can be queried to generate insights. This data can be transformed prior to its arrival in the data warehouse, a process that is known as “extract, transform, load” (ETL) — this is generally seen as the “old school” way of doing things, in times when storage was more expensive and transforming the data could be painfully slow.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! The modern alternative is to transform the data on-demand directly from the warehouse through ELT, which is faster but needs more processing power, such as that provided by cloud-based data warehouses like Databricks, Snowflake, Google’s BigQuery, and Amazon’s Redshift.
“A big challenge with [the old ETL way] is that if your business logic or transformations had to change, you had to re-extract all of the data again, which would slow down time to value,” Meltano CEO Douwe Maan told VentureBeat. “With the advent of cheaper storage solutions and ‘big data’ more broadly, the ELT pattern is more common.” So what does Meltano do, exactly? Let’s say a company has data spread across various CRM, marketing, customer support, and product analytics tools. Pooling that data might allow it to generate consumer purchasing trends and insights that wouldn’t be possible with individual data silos. But to achieve this, a company must combine this data in a centralized repository (i.e. a data warehouse) and transform it into a format that makes it easier to analyze. Or in another use case, a company might simply want to to migrate a database from MongoDB to PostgreSQL.
That, essentially, is what Meltano achieves — it enables the data “extraction” by querying a database or SaaS application; the “loading” by transitioning the data into a warehouse or file storage system; and the “transformation” by restructuring it.
Above: Meltano web UI OSS enterprise There is no shortage of proprietary data integration tools out there, such as Google-owned Alooma and heavily VC-backed Matillion.
However, as a community-driven open source project independent from GitLab, Meltano hopes to bring a more flexible, adaptable, and extensible platform to the data engineering realm, one that can be hosted wherever the user wants and accessed via their own orchestration tools or Meltano’s web-based interface.
“Most solutions right now are pay-to-play, which limits how many companies have access to high quality tooling,” Maan said. “Being proprietary also means that you would have to rely on a vendor to add extract and load capabilities for every source you might care about, of which there can be dozens. Being open source means the long-tail of integrations can be better served by a large community, since vendors typically only support about 150.” Moreover, as an open source project, Meltano can be used by just about anyone for any purpose, from hobbyists to billion-dollar businesses. “We’ve seen others use it for personal data use cases, such as moving data between personal financial applications to track spending,” Maan added.
Though Meltano is an open source platform ( released under a permissive MIT license ) in its own right, it actually leans on a host of other open source tools including Singer , which is setting out to be the “open source standard” for writing data integration scripts with hundreds of pre-built connectors; dbt , a command-line tool for data transformation; and Apache Airflow for orchestration. Soon, Meltano will also lean on Apache Superset for data visualization.
As a side note, Dbt Labs — the company that maintains and monetizes the open source dbt project — announced a $150 million tranche of funding just today , and that is purely for the “transform” part of ELT. This gives some indication as to the size of the market that Meltano is entering. While Meltano is focused on the entire data lifecycle, its initial focus will center on the first two stages of the data integration journey.
“Data professionals more broadly are beginning to understand the value of open source for increased flexibility and extensibility, and open source communities for knowledge exchange,” Maan continued. “Dbt is a data transformation tool that is a pioneer in this space, as they’ve got a great open source product with a strong community around it. We believe this is possible for all parts of the data lifecycle, and we’re focusing heavily on the beginning stage of any data journey — extract and load.” Money maker Meltano’s official launch as an independent business was accompanied by a $4.2 million seed funding round led by GV, alongside angel investments from WordPress founder Matt Mullenweg; early Google investor and founding board member Ram Shriram; and Max Beauchemin, who created Apache Airflow and Superset.
As a venture-backed business, there will be some pressure to turn Meltano into a money-making business similar to the countless other commercial open source companies out there. For the time being though, Meltano is laser-focused on working with and growing the community, and pushing Meltano — and Singer — as “favorite tools for solving data integration and general data lifecycle challenges,” according to Maan.
“Eventually we plan to offer both a SaaS solution and an enterprise edition with additional functionality, similar to how GitLab operates with their buyer-based open core model,” Maan added.
As for GitLab, why would it want to spin out Meltano in the first place. Surely it could flourish just as well under the wing of an established developer-focused company? According to Maan, it comes down to priorities — GitLab and Meltano have very different users and use cases in mind. Moreover, with GitLab gearing up to become a public company and Meltano really just starting out on its journey, the two entities are worlds apart.
“The primary reason is that GitLab is [so] focused on building a single application for the entire DevOps lifecycle, that we didn’t see Meltano becoming part of because of the very different markets and target audiences,” Maan explained. “As Meltano grew, it became clear that the two products would be best served by their own organizations instead of having GitLab try to cover both. The products are also in very different stages of development and growth, and Meltano needs to be able to operate like a startup to move as quickly as possible in the marketplace.” While Meltano doesn’t have any paying enterprise customers yet, Maan said that he expects two of the project’s existing users — GitLab and Netlify — to become paying customers further down the road.
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"Decoding the data: Leaders from American Express, Accenture, and more open up about challenges and successes | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/decoding-the-data-leaders-from-american-express-accenture-and-more-open-up-about-challenges-and-successes"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages VB Event Decoding the data: Leaders from American Express, Accenture, and more open up about challenges and successes Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Transform 2021 taking place July 12 – July 15 is not to be missed, but one of the big highlights comes early on Day 2.
The Breakfast Series Part 2 , presented by Accenture, is all about decoding the data.
Project Lead at Google, Valerie Nygaard, will talk with panelists Anjali Dewan from American Express, Mark Clare of Evernorth, a subsidiary of Cigna Corporation, Arnab Chakraborty from Accenture, and Opendoor’s Ian Wong.
Good data is the foundation of AI and machine learning beginning with extracting high-quality data in structured, semi-structured, and unstructured forms. Most critical, however, is ensuring data is relevant to any identified business goals. If not, your ML algorithms simply won’t produce the learnings needed to bring value to your business. And, of course, the risk of bias in data has deservedly garnered much attention – bias can go unnoticed until you’ve made decisions based on your data, such as building a predictive model that turns out to be wrong.
Our panelists will break down the steps their organizations took to analyze and normalize data, ensuring accuracy and reliability, and more. They’ll talk about the various technologies they’re using, as well as the key strategies and learnings that ensure their resulting applications are accurate, robust, and bias-free.
The breakfast, presented by Accenture in partnership with VB Lab, is at the heart of the week’s comprehensive applied AI coverage — because data is at the heart of a transformative AI strategy, says Gina Joseph, EVP Strategy & Partnerships at VentureBeat.
“I really love the breakfast gathering during VB Transform,” says Joseph. “It provides an opportunity for a community of leaders in AI to come together in a more intimate setting to connect, and exchange thoughts. This was an important element for in-person events, and becomes even more important during virtual events so attendees have an opportunity to meet and have a meaningful conversation about what’s happening in AI and data tech strategy.” Register here for The Breakfast Series Part 2, Decoding the Data.
And don’t miss our comprehensive coverage across the breadth and depth of the world of applied AI. You’ll hear from top industry experts on strategy and technology who will dive into AI/ML Automation Technology, RPA, data analytics, conversational AI, intelligent AI assistants, AI at the edge, IoT, computer vision, AR/VR, & robotics, and more.
Transform 2021 also features industry-focused vertical tracks, which include case studies and insights from health care, finance, retail, manufacturing and security.
Register now to join your peers at Transform 2021 , the AI event of the year for enterprise execs looking to maintain their competitive edge in an AI and data driven world, July 12 – 15, 2021.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Dbt Labs raises $150M to help analysts transform data in the warehouse | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/dbt-labs-raises-150m-to-help-analysts-transform-data-in-the-warehouse"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Dbt Labs raises $150M to help analysts transform data in the warehouse Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Dbt Labs cofounder and CEO Tristan Handy Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Let the OSS Enterprise newsletter guide your open source journey! Sign up here.
Fishtown Analytics , the company behind an open source “analytics engineering” tool called dbt (data build tool), today announced it has rebranded as Dbt Labs and raised $150 million in a series C round of funding at a $1.5 billion valuation.
Analytics engineering, for the uninitiated, is a relatively new role that describes the process of taking raw data after it enters a data warehouse and preparing it for analysis. The role itself serves as a bridge of sorts between the data engineering and data analytics spheres, requiring them to transform data into a usable form that can be easily queried by others (e.g. marketers) at the company. Dbt Labs juxtaposes the role against that of a data analyst in this description : Analytics engineers provide clean data sets to end users, modeling data in a way that empowers end users to answer their own questions. While a data analyst spends their time analyzing data, an analytics engineer spends their time transforming, testing, deploying, and documenting data.
Founded out of Philadelphia in 2016, Dbt Labs has spent the past five years designing a toolset to help data analysts “create and disseminate organization knowledge,” as it puts it. This has largely meant offering consulting services on top of the open source dbt project, which is used by major companies including HubSpot, GitLab, and JetBlue.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But what is dbt, exactly? In a nutshell, dbt is a command-line tool that enables data analysts to transform raw data by writing dbt code in their usual text editor, and then invoking dbt from their command line. Dbt then compiles the code into SQL and executes it against the company’s database. Thus, dbt is a development environment that “speaks the preferred language of data analysts” (that’s SQL, in case you were wondering).
Above: User interacting with dbt For context, a modern enterprise data stack comprises myriad components, spanning data ingestion tools such as Fivetran and cloud-based data warehouses such as Snowflake and Google’s BigQuery.
Data can be “transformed” on entry to the data warehouse as part of a process known as “extract, transform, load” (ETL). But data can also be transformed later by running SQL scripts directly in the warehouse, through a process that is known as “extract, load, transform” (ELT). The latter achieves faster loading times but requires more processing power as the data needs to be transformed on-demand — that is where the power of modern analytics databases such as Snowflake and BigQuery really shine.
Put simply, dbt is the “T” in ELT — it’s built to transform data that already lives in a data warehouse. “Dbt is a key piece in the modern data stack — it connects to the cloud data platform and leverages all the computing power of these platforms to transform, test, and deploy data sets,” Dbt Labs CEO and cofounder Tristan Handy told VentureBeat.
Post-transformation, companies can use these datasets for whatever they wish, be it to train machine learning models or to feed into business intelligence (BI) tools such as Tableau or Looker.
The story so far According to Handy, he developed dbt initially based on his own experiences as a data analyst.
“I worked as a data analyst for a decade-and-a-half and was always slowed down by terrible workflows — emailing spreadsheets back and forth, downloading massive .CSV files, saving SQL files on my desktop,” he said.
Fast-forward five years, and Handy said that dbt adoption has grown 200% each year since its launch, and in Q1 2021 his company’s enterprise revenue doubled year-on-year. The main driving force behind this, as is seemingly the case with just about every new technology these days, is the rapid transition from on-premises infrastructure to cloud computing — in this case, cloud-based data platforms such as Databricks, BigQuery, Snowflake, and Amazon Redshift.
“The big shift for our industry is the transition to the cloud,” Handy said. “The modern cloud data platforms are all a fundamentally new class of ‘thing’ that was simply not possible in the on-premises world of a decade ago. Data grows very quickly, and processing workloads on top of that data are highly variable. Both of these factors mean that the elasticity of the cloud is just supremely important, and it’s our belief that all — or appreciably all — data workloads will migrate to the cloud in the coming decade.” The scalability and elasticity afforded by the cloud opens the doors to things that just weren’t an option before, such as the ability to perform data transformation in the warehouse, which speeds things up greatly.
“The fundamental unlock of the cloud has meant that performance became much less of an issue, which has enabled data analysts to take over the entire insights-generation process,” Handy continued. “This has, in turn, led to the rise of analytics engineering — the practice by which analysts construct modern pipelines on top of cloud data platforms.” Show me the money Prior to now, Dbt Labs had raised around $42 million, the entirety of which came in the past 14 months across two separate rounds of funding. With its latest cash injection — which was led by Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Altimeter — the company said that it will double down on the development of its core open source platform.
“Right now our focus is on improving our core offering and supporting its exponential growth as the foundation of one of the highest-growth areas in all of enterprise software,” Handy said. “We also have our eye on some experimental new areas of product development, but nothing we’re ready to share yet.” As for the rebrand, well, that also makes a great deal of sense given how Fishtown Analytics and dbt have evolved over the past five years. Initially, dbt was purely an open source product with no commercial component — Fishtown Analytics was the project’s primary contributor and user, and it sold consulting services on top of the open source project. In the intervening years, however, dbt gained its own premium Team and Enterprise plans , which include API access, single sign-on, professional services, and more. For this reason, there is no need for two separate “brands” monetizing the same product, something which could also cause confusion.
“This confusion was a big motivator for changing our name from Fishtown Analytics,” Handy said. “In renaming the company, we’re making a statement of both our relationship to dbt — which we created and maintain — and commitment to its long-term success.” Above: Dbt interface The OSS factor According to Dbt Labs, there are some 15,000 “data professionals” in the dbt community Slack, 5,500 companies using dbt, and 1,000 dbt cloud customers who pay for centralized access through a web-based interface.
However, given that dbt is released under a permissive Apache 2.0 license, this means that there are very few restrictions on how the broader commercial world adopts it. So couldn’t this mean that other deep-pocketed companies could look to build on top of dbt? It very much could, which is partly why Dbt Labs has chosen to raise another sizable chunk of funding so soon after the previous two rounds.
“Dbt drives a tremendous amount of usage across several of the major cloud data platforms — that makes dbt and its community very strategic for these platforms,” Handy said. “We also know that the major cloud providers love selling managed versions of open source software. Put those two things together and our expectation is that at least one, if not more, of the cloud platforms will launch some sort of managed dbt service in the coming year. Our space is heating up, and this forces us to accelerate our ability to build differentiated products. That’s why we raised again.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Construction digitization: Building the right technology for an industry driven by humans | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/construction-digitization-building-the-right-technology-for-an-industry-driven-by-humans"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Construction digitization: Building the right technology for an industry driven by humans Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Presented by Procore Despite consistently achieving incredible feats of ingenuity — such as building state-of-the-art hospitals, sustainable office buildings, and the infrastructure that powers and brings these structures to life — the construction industry is often talked about as if it’s “behind.” I have worked in this industry my entire life, and I know the “construction doesn’t want to change” diatribe misses the point entirely.
This industry is no stranger to technology or innovation, and it regularly navigates complex, high-risk, and ever-changing environments. The industry has found ways to build two 2,000,000 sq. ft. office towers over active rail lines in New York City. In another case, it managed to continue construction on a desperately needed children’s hospital wing — and to do so on schedule, even amid a global pandemic.
Today, incredible technological innovations are employed across the construction sector every day, from robotics, to 3-D printing, to artificial intelligence and machine learning. Big firms have been investing in cutting-edge technology for decades. In fact, McKinsey reports that venture capital investment growth in construction tech has far outpaced venture capital investment overall, and that investment in construction tech has more than doubled in the last 10 years.
Why then, hasn’t the construction industry seen the same productivity gains as other sectors? Connecting the people who build the world The construction industry has its roots in handshake deals and relationships. Its success will forever depend on how well its people are able to connect and communicate. No building is built twice — meaning every project is essentially a prototype. Different teams are assembled for each project, so it’s likely they’re working together for the first time. Even so, they’re dependent on each other and ultimately share project risks.
What sounds like a vast network of decentralized work and unpredictable stakeholder dynamics is actually the markings of an industry that’s ripe with opportunities for innovation. While many technology solutions have helped solve pieces of the puzzle, few have focused on the foundational challenge of bringing everyone together, so they can work off the same sheet of music. Large construction firms often have upwards of 10 disparate digital tools for managing specific aspects of construction — one for project management, another for financials, and yet another for managing the schedule, just to name a few.
The problem, in other words, is not that construction is “behind.” The “problem” is that construction projects hinge on human connection, and most technology has not provided a single source of truth or adequate tools to connect teams. Not only does this inhibit communication and access to information which contributes to rework, it also prevents teams from harnessing the power of data.
Leveraging the power of data The multi-stakeholder nature of construction creates a common scenario where no single company has easy access to, or control over, all the available data for any given project. Owners, general contractors, and specialty contractors each have their systems of record, which are often proprietary.
The construction industry generates massive amounts of data every day. And yet, 96% of that data goes unused , largely because it is stuck in siloed solutions. Leveraging this wealth of data can provide value for individual businesses, the construction industry, and the global economy, since construction is the third largest sector. Bringing all people, systems, and data into one place is where the real progress and productivity gains come from.
The Procore platform is designed to be a single source of truth for the construction industry. By building a data environment that bridges the gap between design and construction and connects all stakeholders in this massive industry, Procore empowers teams with actionable data and insights. Construction companies already generate an impressive amount of data from their projects — Procore connects that data and puts it to work.
To put the sheer volume of information into context: in 2020 alone, Procore customers uploaded or created over 90 million documents, 121 million photos, and 92 million inspection items. On average, our customers are adding over 224 terabytes of data to the Procore platform every month. Every single one of these uploads is data that can be leveraged to transform construction into a connected, data-driven industry.
We use artificial intelligence to help construction firms forecast effectively, track and manage productivity, reduce risk, and more. We can give construction project managers a new level of situational awareness — providing jobsites with real-time intelligence and enhancing jobsite safety, efficiency, and accountability. This data is not only valuable to individual companies, but to the industry at large. We are able to draw insights based on thousands of Procore projects and share trends around project starts, worker hours, and more.
In 2020, we saw an even greater interest in technology across the industry, as construction businesses adapted to the demands and challenges of COVID-19.
The pandemic acted as a catalyst for the industry’s digitization, as remote work increased and staying connected became vital. As the industry further digitizes, we will likely see continued investment and growth in the construction space. The industry is poised for incredible success in the years and decades to come — the key will be to keep connection at the forefront of innovation.
Tooey Courtemanche is CEO of Procore.
Learn more about how Procore helps turn project data into business intelligence.
Sponsored articles are content produced by a company that is either paying for the post or has a business relationship with VentureBeat, and they’re always clearly marked. Content produced by our editorial team is never influenced by advertisers or sponsors in any way. For more information, contact [email protected].
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Checkly secures $10M for continuous API and web app testing | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/checkly-secures-10m-for-continuous-api-and-web-app-testing"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Checkly secures $10M for continuous API and web app testing Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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Checkly , an active monitoring platform for APIs and web apps, today announced that it closed a $10 million series A funding round led by CRV with participation from Accel, Mango Capital, and Guillermo Rauch. The capital, which brings the company’s total raised to $12.25 million, will be used to expand Checkly’s engineering team and build out its platform, according to CEO Hannes Lenke.
Knowing if web apps and APIs are working continuously is critical for businesses, particularly in light of the pandemic. Over the past year, consumer have migrated to online channels, and companies have responded. According to a McKinsey survey , organizations have accelerated the digitization of customer interactions by three to four years. But while active monitoring, which simulates user behavior, can help ensure consistent customer experiences, Lenke asserts that existing solutions (e.g., Pingdom and Runscope) can be cumbersome to implement.
By contrast, Berlin, Germany-based Checkly, which was founded in 2018, is ostensibly programmable and flexible. Via a JavaScript-powered frontend, developers can use it to perform active monitoring tests across more than 20 datacenter locations.
Checkly is the brainchild of Tim Nolet, who previously worked as head of IT for Unu, an electrical scooter startup headquartered in Berlin. Unu’s developers needed to monitor APIs and end-user flows, but Nolet couldn’t find a solution that integrated with the rest of the company’s DevOps environment. Nolet decided to develop his own solution as a bootstrapped side project, and at the same time, he got to know Lenke, the former Sauce Labs general manager. Nolet and Lenke decided to join forces and bring Timo Euteneuer on board, with whom Lenke founded his first startup, TestObject, which Sauce Labs acquired in 2016.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “In general, users worldwide use our solution to find bugs early in the development pipeline and identify and resolve issues in production as fast as possible,” Lenke told VentureBeat via email. “With Checkly, users can test and monitor their APIs and web apps performance, correctness, and uptime. In consequence, Checkly makes sure that web apps are working all the time, everywhere, enabling a flawless user experience.” Open source backend As Lenke explains, Checkly uses the popular open source automation framework Playwright, which was developed by Microsoft, and Puppeteer, which was developed by Google, for browser-based web app tests. It also invests in the Puppeteer and Playwright communities, for example building a Chrome plugin that allows users to quickly record Puppeteer and Playwright workflows.
“These modern frameworks are widely adopted and are gaining more and more traction … because of their speed and ease of use,” Lenke said. “Our infrastructure is based on AWS Lambda and allows users to execute JavaScript-based API checks and browser checks.” Checkly’s platform lets developers create monitoring setups as code and run them along their development cycles. It can validate site transactions via an editor developers can use to configure HTTP requests and get global latency metrics by running checks from different datacenters. In addition, Checkly can trigger alerts and reminders and facilitate collaboration with team-based access controls and environments.
To date, Checkly, which employs 13 people, says it’s run over 1 billion API and web app checks, 50% of them in the past six months. The solution is currently used by over 300 customers and “thousands” of developers, including Vercel, 1Password, and Schwarz Group.
Above: Checkly’s monitoring dashboard.
Car subscription startup Finn.Auto, another Checkly customer, taps Checkly to run API and frontend tests every minute on production systems. Finn.Auto CTO Andreas Wixler says that the company saw a “significant” reduction in user-reported bugs with Checkly. “We monitor our … projects on preview and production to catch issues earlier, and we can trust that we are the first ones to know about problems in production,” Wixler said in a statement. “A nice side effect is that we could replace three different solutions for testing, monitoring, and alerting with Checkly.” With the new funding, Lenke says that Checkly will add “extensive” debugging and drill-down metrics to API- and Playwright/Puppeteer-based browser checks to give better performance visibility across digital channels. Specifically, the company will make it easier to write, debug, and run scripts for monitoring and testing and launch Rich Browser Checks, a feature that will gather all browser metrics, screenshots, logs, and performance stats over time to automatically detect when something goes wrong.
“Clearly the consequences of the pandemic had an impact on Checkly. In some ways, it challenged us, wherein in other areas, it may have also helped the growth of Checkly,” Lenke continued. “On the business side, we believe it may have helped us. The pandemic pushed the digital transformation to a new level in all areas. Companies around the globe are investing in their online presence and offerings, and all these platforms need to be developed, tested, and monitored.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Celential.ai Appoints Vice Presidents of AI And Sales; Expands Its AI-Powered Virtual Recruiter Service To Sales Recruiting | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/celential-ai-appoints-vice-presidents-of-ai-and-sales-expands-its-ai-powered-virtual-recruiter-service-to-sales-recruiting"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Press Release Celential.ai Appoints Vice Presidents of AI And Sales; Expands Its AI-Powered Virtual Recruiter Service To Sales Recruiting Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Seasoned leaders Dr. Xu Miao and Brian Hollinger to accelerate the next phase of HR technology transformation and business growth for Celential.ai SUNNYVALE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–June 30, 2021– Celential.ai , a leading AI-driven, human-assisted virtual recruiting service, today announced it has named Dr. Xu Miao its Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Brian Hollinger its Vice President of Sales. The company is also expanding its Virtual Recruiter service into the sales recruiting vertical, built upon the success in technical recruiting. This announcement comes on the heels of Celential.ai’s $9.5M Series A funding round, led by GSR Ventures, to propel its technology development and go-to-market strategy for a cost-effective, frictionless talent sourcing experience.
This press release features multimedia. View the full release here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005482/en/ Celential.ai appoints Dr. Xu Miao as Vice President of Artificial Intelligence and Brian Hollinger as Vice President of Sales. The company is also expanding its AI-powered Virtual Recruiter service into the sales recruiting vertical, built upon success in technical recruiting. (Graphic: Business Wire) Xu Miao, Vice President of Artificial Intelligence “We are excited to have Xu on our team. Xu has a rare combination of top-notch AI expertise, extensive experience in commercial applications, leadership, and entrepreneurial bent. He will play a critical role to accelerate the advancement of our AI platform and overall solutions,” said Andrew Dong , Co-Founder, President, and CTO of Celential.ai.
Dr.
Xu Miao is an accomplished machine learning researcher and practitioner with deep industry experience across human resources, IT, and financial services. Previously, he led AI strategy and technology development in multiple startups and contributed to important research and software advancements at Linkedin and Microsoft. Miao received his Ph.D. in Computer Science and Engineering from the University of Washington.
“Celential.ai is a respectable pioneer and leader in the mission to build a high-quality virtual recruiting service through human-in-loop AI,” said Miao, VP of AI at Celential.ai. “I was first pitched by Celential.ai’s Virtual Recruiter as a candidate for their client and was immediately intrigued by its intelligence. I am very excited to join the team and help bring the technology to the next level.” Brian Hollinger, Vice President of Sales “Brian has a proven track record of success in building and scaling GTM teams at high-growth startups, and I’m thrilled to welcome him to our team,” said Amer Akhtar , CEO of Celential.ai. “The demand for our unique service is unprecedented as customers face a talent shortage. Brian’s leadership is key to grow our sales team and capitalize on the market opportunity.” Brian Hollinger joins Celential.ai with 15+ years of experience in SaaS sales. He has been foundational to teams ranging from product-led growth companies like Sliderocket (acquired by VMware) to global enterprise sales organizations at Leanplum. In his new role, Hollinger will define and execute a repeatable sales process while growing the sales team 10x by the end of the year.
“The talent crisis is the single biggest threat growing companies face today. I was inspired to join Celential.ai by the founding team’s deep understanding of this issue and the multidimensional AI application that has been developed to address it at scale,” said Hollinger, VP of Sales of Celential.ai. “Once I dove into how successful Celential.ai customers have been with the service, I knew I had to be part of this moment to help create a globally disruptive organization.” New Virtual Sales Recruiting Service Celential.ai is now expanding its Virtual Recruiter service to help companies small and large find top-notch, diverse sales professionals. Celential.ai’s substantial groundwork in its AI platform combined with a vertical-focused design enables its entry into new markets with minimal effort. The new service was developed in a short three months in response to strong interest from customers who had benefited from a significant improvement in their engineering talent pipeline.
“Our success in quickly expanding the solution to a new and large vertical is a great testament to the strength of our unique platform and approach,” said Dong. “We’ll continue to respond to the market needs and tackle additional verticals in the future.” About Celential.ai Celential.ai transforms how organizations hire and retain a diverse workforce with Virtual Recruiter, an AI-driven and human-assisted recruiting service that provides hiring managers with engaged, high-quality talent. It currently focuses on solving the top-of-the-funnel talent sourcing problem for technical and sales recruiting. Celential.ai’s Virtual Recruiter service uses precision matching and 360-degree mutual-fit assessment, simulating human experts, to match candidates to job openings from its graph of over 5 million engineers and salespeople in the U.S. and Canada. Virtual Recruiter then engages qualified candidates through AI-driven automated and personalized communication before delivering skilled and engaged candidates in a matter of days. For more information, visit https://www.celential.ai View source version on businesswire.com: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20210630005482/en/ Shannon Ma [email protected] 209-790-3129 VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Alation: 63% of orgs prioritize business growth over protecting the business | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/alation-63-of-orgs-prioritizing-business-growth-over-data-governance"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Alation: 63% of orgs prioritize business growth over protecting the business Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Data governance is important, as is protecting the business, but 63% of data professionals said business growth takes precedence, according to recent research from Alation, a company providing data intelligence solutions. As the economy continues to strengthen and organizations shift towards post-pandemic revival, the Q2 2021 Alation State of Data Culture report reflects organizations’ desire to capitalize on available growth opportunities.
Above: While 63% of data leaders cite meeting or exceeding revenue goals, that number increases to 75% among those with a top-tier data culture. Top-tier data culture organizations are also more likely to exceed revenue goals (49%) versus 38% overall. (State of Data Culture Report, Q2 2021) Generating revenue ranks as the top business driver of data and analytics initiatives.
However, they are challenged with balancing their data governance strategy between enabling business growth and innovation and protecting the business. The result is that nearly all respondents (91%) are experiencing challenges, and nearly half (47%) say that it is very to extremely challenging.
This tension between data governance and empowering the business to use data isn’t new. For so long, companies would focus on the “defensive” role of governance, compliance, rather than the “offensive” to provide trusted data that empowers business decisions. Today, there is room for both the defensive and offensive sides to governance, yet it requires democratization of data and the right tools.
The Alation State of Data Culture Report provides a quarterly assessment of the progress enterprises have made in creating a data culture, the challenges they face in embracing data-driven decision-making , and the progress they have made in leveraging data to drive business value. As a part of its analysis, the report includes the Alation Data Culture Index™ (DCI), a quantitative assessment of how well an organization is positioned to enable data-driven decision-making across three key disciplines: data search & discovery, data literacy, and data governance. Enterprises are ranked low-, mid-, and top-tier based on how widely adopted these disciplines are across the enterprise.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! This latest Alation State of Data Culture Report leaves us with a few major takeaways as we fly through the middle of 2021: Growth is the top data and analytics priority.
Data is required to support that growth, but organizations are struggling to effectively democratize data.
Data leaders are caught in a conflict between democratizing data to drive the business and governing data to protect the business.
Read the full Q2 2021 State of Data Culture report from Alation.
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"AI safety tools can help mitigate bias in algorithms | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/business/ai-safety-tools-can-help-mitigate-bias-in-algorithms"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages AI safety tools can help mitigate bias in algorithms Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Crunching data Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
As AI proliferates, researchers are beginning to call for technologies that might foster trust in AI-powered systems. According to a survey conducted by KPMG, across five countries — the U.S., the U.K., Germany, Canada, and Australia — over a third of the general public says that they’re unwilling to place trust in AI systems in general. And in a report published by Pega, only 25% of consumers said they’d trust a decision made by an AI system regarding a qualification for a bank loan, for example.
The concern has yielded a breed of software that attempts to impose constraints on AI systems charged with risky decision-making. Some focus on reinforcement learning, or AI that’s progressively spurred toward goals via rewards, which forms the foundation of self-driving cars and drug discovery systems. Others focus more broadly on fairness, which can be an elusive quality in AI systems — mostly owing to biases in algorithms and datasets.
Among others, OpenAI and Alphabet-owned DeepMind have released environments to train “safe” AI systems for a different types of applications. More make their way into open source on a regular cadence, ensuring that the study of constrained or safe AI has legs — and a lasting impact.
Safety tools Safety tools for AI training are designed to prevent systems from engaging in dangerous behaviors that might lead to errors. They typically make use of techniques like constrained reinforcement learning, which implements “cost functions” that the AI must learn to constrain over time. Constrained systems figure out tradeoffs that achieve certain defined outcomes. For example, a “constrained” driverless car might learn to avoid collisions rather than allow itself to have collisions as long as it completes trips.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Safety tools also encourage AI to explore a range of states through different hypothetical behaviors. For example, they might use a generative system to predict behaviors informed by data like random trajectories or safe expert demonstrations. A human supervisor can label the behaviors with rewards, so that the AI interactively learns the safest behaviors to maximize its total reward.
Beyond reinforcement learning, safety tools encompass frameworks for mitigating biases while training AI models. For example, Google offers MinDiff , which aims to inject fairness into classification, or the process of sorting data into categories. Classification is prone to biases against groups underrepresented in model training datasets, and it can be difficult to achieve balance because of sparse demographics data and potential accuracy tradeoffs.
Google has also open-sourced ML-fairness-gym , a set of components for evaluating algorithmic fairness in simulated social environments. Other model debiasing and fairness tools in the company’s suite include the What-If Tool , a bias-detecting feature of the TensorBoard web dashboard for its TensorFlow machine learning framework; and SMACTR (Scoping, Mapping, Artifact Collection, Testing, and Reflection), an accountability framework intended to add a layer of quality assurance for businesses deploying AI models.
Not to be outdone, Microsoft provides Fairlearn , which addresses two kinds of harms: allocation harms and quality-of-service harms. Allocation harms occur when AI systems extend or withhold opportunities, resources, or information — for example, in hiring, school admissions, and lending. Quality-of-service harms refer to whether a system works as well for one person as it does for another, even if no opportunities, resources, or information are extended or withheld.
According to Microsoft, professional services firm Ernst & Young used Fairlearn to evaluate the fairness of model outputs with respect to sex. The toolkit revealed a 15.3% difference between positive loan decisions for males versus females, and Ernst & Young’s modeling team then developed and trained multiple remediated models and visualized the common trade-off between fairness and model accuracy.
LinkedIn not long ago released the LinkedIn Fairness Toolkit (LiFT) , a software library aimed at enabling the measurement of fairness in AI and machine learning workflows. The company says LiFT can be deployed during training and scoring to measure biases in training data sets, and to evaluate notions of fairness for models while detecting differences in their performance across subgroups.
To date, LinkedIn says it has applied LiFT internally to measure the fairness metrics of training data sets for models prior to their training. In the future, the company plans to increase the number of pipelines where it’s measuring and mitigating bias on an ongoing basis through deeper integration of LiFT.
Rounding out the list of high-profile safety tools is IBM’s AI Fairness 360 toolkit , which contains a library of algorithms, code, and tutorials that demonstrate ways to implement bias detection in models. The toolkit recommends adjustments — such as algorithmic tweaks or counterbalancing data — that might lessen their impact, explaining which factors influenced a given machine learning model’s decision as well as its overall accuracy, performance, fairness, and lineage.
A more recent addition to the scene is a dataset and tool for detecting demographic bias in voice and speech recognition apps. The Artie Bias Corpus (ABC), which consists of audio files along with their transcriptions, aims to diagnose and mitigate the impact of factors like age, gender, and accent in voice recognition systems. AI startup Pymetrics’ Audit AI , which was also recently launched, is designed to determine whether a specific statistic or trait fed into an algorithm is being favored or disadvantaged at a statistically significant, systematic rate that leads to adverse impact on people underrepresented in a dataset.
Steps in the right direction Not all safety tools are created equal. Some aren’t being maintained or lack documentation, and there’s a limit to the degree that they can remediate potential harm. Still, adopting these tools in the enterprise can instill a sense of trust among both external and internal stakeholders.
A study by Capgemini found that customers and employees will reward organizations that practice ethical AI with greater loyalty, more business, and even a willingness to advocate for them — and in turn, punish those that don’t. The study suggests that there’s both reputational risk and a direct impact on the bottom line for companies that don’t approach the issue thoughtfully.
Moreover, an overwhelming majority of Americans — 82% — believe that AI should be carefully managed, comparable to survey results from European Union respondents, according to a 2019 report from the Center for the Governance of AI. This suggests a clear mandate for businesses to exercise the responsible and fair deployment of AI, using whatever tools are necessary to achieve this objective.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"GitHub launches Copilot to power pair programming with AI | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/github-launches-copilot-to-power-pair-programming-with-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages GitHub launches Copilot to power pair programming with AI Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn GitHub Copilot Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
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GitHub has launched a new AI-powered pair programmer that collaborates with people on their software development projects, suggesting lines or entire functions as the coder types.
Pair programming, for the uninitiated, is a common agile software development technique where two (usually human) programmers work in tandem at a single screen, taking turns to write code and review the output of their partner.
GitHub Copilot Copilot , as the new GitHub tool is called, uses contextual cues to suggest new code, with users able to flip through alternatives if they don’t like Copilot’s initial suggestion, or manually edit it. Copilot also learns over time, so that the more code, docstrings, comments, or function names a developer writes, the smarter Copilot should become.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Above: GitHub Copilot in action Copilot is perhaps a little like Gmail’s smart compose feature , which suggests the next piece of text in an email response.
Machine power The concept of what is effectively an AI-powered autocomplete for code is not entirely new.
Codota and Tabnine have offered something similar for a while, and the two companies actually merged back in 2019 ahead of a $12 million fundraise for Codota.
The duo finally settled on Tabnine as the main brand name last month.
More broadly, machine programming tools are rearing their heads across the spectrum, with Microsoft recently announcing a new Power Apps (software for creating low-code business apps) feature that leverages OpenAI’s GPT-3 language model to help users choose the right formulas.
Similarly, the new GitHub Copilot feature also leans heavily on a collaboration with OpenAI , the AI research company that GitHub parent Microsoft invested $1 billion in last year.
Copilot, though, uses a new AI system called OpenAI Codex, which is touted as “significantly more capable than GPT-3 in code generation,” according to a GitHub blog post today. Given that it was trained on a dataset that incorporates more public source code, OpenAI Codex should be more knowledgeable about how developers write code and be able to make more accurate suggestions.
OpenAI Codex was also trained on both source code and natural language, meaning that it is able to interpret comments and logic when assembling the code.
Above: GitHub Copilot in action (find files) While GitHub’s new AI pair programmer could help experienced developers save some time, it may prove particularly fruitful for coders new to a specific language or framework, as GitHub Copilot saves them from having to search elsewhere on the web for answers to their coding conundrums.
Availability GitHub Copilot launches today in technical preview and is available as an extension for Microsoft’s cross-platform code editor Visual Studio Code , working locally or in the cloud.
While Copilot is designed to work with a broad gamut of languages and frameworks, at launch it’s particularly adept at JavaScript, Python, Ruby, TypeScript, and Go.
It is worth noting that GitHub Copilot is not designed to write code on behalf of the developer; it’s more about helping developers by understanding their intent. GitHub also gives no guarantees that the code it generates will even work, as it doesn’t test the code. This means that it may not compile properly. So there are some risks, but it’s still very early days for Copilot.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Facebook updates Habitat environment to train 'embodied AI' | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/facebook-updates-habitat-environment-to-train-embodied-ai"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Facebook updates Habitat environment to train ’embodied AI’ Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you looking to showcase your brand in front of the brightest minds of the gaming industry? Consider getting a custom GamesBeat sponsorship.
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In 2019, Facebook open-sourced AI Habitat , a simulator that can train AI systems embodying things like a home robot to operate in environments meant to mimic real-world settings, like apartments and offices. Today Facebook announced that it’s extended the capabilities of Habitat to make it “orders of magnitude” faster than other 3D simulators available, allowing researchers to perform more complex tasks in simulation, like setting the table and stocking the fridge. Coinciding with this, Facebook collaborated with 3D space capture company Matterport to open-source what it claims is the largest dataset of indoor 3D scans to date.
AI models in computer vision and natural language are typically trained with text, images, audios, and videos from the internet. But embodied AI — the development of systems with a physical or virtual embodiment, like robots — has different needs. Embodied AI tasks require systems to interact with the physical world, recognizing different objects from any angle to distinguish, for instance, between a countertop and a desk. In order to develop these sorts of robots and personal assistants safely, Facebook asserts, they have to be trained in rich, realistic simulated spaces.
Performance improvements The concept of embodied AI draws on embodied cognition, the theory that many features of psychology — human or otherwise — are shaped by aspects of the entire body of an organism. By applying this logic to AI, researchers hope to improve the performance of AI systems like chatbots, robots, autonomous vehicles, and even smart speakers that interact with their environments, people, and other AI. A truly embodied robot could check to see whether a door is locked, for instance, or retrieve a smartphone that’s ringing in an upstairs bedroom.
Habitat was designed to advance this, but the newest release — Habitat 2.0 — improves upon the original in key ways. It introduces ReplicaCAD, an artist-authored, reconfigurable 3D dataset of apartments matching real spaces with objects that can open and close, like cabinets and drawers. And it ships with the Home Assistant Benchmark, a suite of tasks for robots that test a range of manipulation capabilities including tidying the house, stocking groceries, and setting the table.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Facebook says that ReplicaCAD, which took professional 3D artists hired by Facebook over 900 hours to create, contains 11 layouts across 92 different objects spanning furniture, kitchen utensils, books, and more. As for the Home Assistant Benchmark, it requires robots to pick and place objects from receptacles like counters, sinks, and sofas, as well as open and close containers such as drawers and fridges as necessary.
Beyond the new dataset and benchmark, Habitat 2.0 is far more performance-friendly than the original, Facebook says, with speeds exceeding 26,000 simulation steps per second — 850 times real-time (30 steps per second) on an 8-GPU computer. Here, a step refers to rendering a single image and simulating rigid-body dynamics for 1/30th of a second. Facebook claims that’s 100 times faster than prior work, taking experimentation time from 6 months to under 2 days. For reference, existing simulators typically achieve 10 to 400 steps per second.
Habitat 2.0 makes certain sacrifices to achieve this speed, namely a lack of support for simulating the non-rigid dynamics of fluids, films, cloths, and ropes and physical state transformations such as cutting, drilling, welding, and melting. Moreover, its new dataset, ReplicaCAD, was only modeled on apartments in the U.S., excluding cultures and regions with different layouts and types of furniture and objects. But Facebook argues that these are worthwhile tradeoffs given that the performance enhancements “directly translate” to training time speedups and accuracy improvements from training models — particularly for object rearrangement tasks — with more experience.
“We aim to advance the entire ‘research stack’ for developing such embodied agents in simulation — curating house-scale interactive 3D assets … that support studying generalization to unseen objects, receptacles, and home layouts; developing the next generation of high-performance photo realistic 3D simulators that support rich interactive environments; [and] setting up challenging representative benchmarks to enable reproducible comparisons and systematic tracking of progress over the years,” the team behind Habitat 2.0 wrote in a paper describing the new simulator. “Coupled with the ReplicaCAD data, these improvements allow us to investigate the performance of [AI techniques] against classical … approaches for the suite of challenging rearrangement tasks we defined.” Habitat-Matterport dataset Alongside Habitat 2.0, Facebook is releasing a dataset of 3D indoor scans co-created with Matterport: the Habitat-Matterport 3D Research Dataset (HM3D). It’s a collection of 1,000 Habitat-compatible scans made up of “accurately scaled” residential spaces such as apartments, multifamily housing, and single-family homes, as well as commercial spaces including office buildings and retail stores.
Dhruv Batra, a researcher at Facebook AI, believes that HM3D will play a “significant role” in advancing research in embodied AI. “With this dataset, embodied AI agents like home robots and AI assistants can be trained to understand the complexities of real-world environments, recognizing objects, rooms, and spaces, or learning to navigate and follow instructions — all in contexts that are vastly different from one another,” he wrote in a blog post. “To carry out complex tasks like finding misplaced objects or retrieving physical ones, an embodied AI agent needs to construct maps and episodic memory representations (to recall what it already has observed), understand speech and audio cues, and exhibit sophisticated motor control if it has to go up and down stairs.” In the future, Facebook says it hopes to expand the dataset to include scans from more countries as well as annotations that might help AI to gain a high-level understanding tasks like object retrieval. Beyond this, building on its previous embodied AI research , the company aims to study changing environments so that simulations in simulators like Habitat 2.0 can become fluid rather than static.
“[Dynamic simulations] would bring simulated training environments closer to the real world, where people and pets freely move around and where everyday objects such as mobile phones, wallets, and shoes are not always in the same spot throughout the day,” Batra noted. “We believe that advancements in embodied AI could help developers build and train assistants with deep contextual understanding and give them the ability to navigate the world around them.” VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"A CIO weighs in on how AI can benefit non-technical roles, particularly HR | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/ai/a-cio-weighs-in-on-how-ai-can-benefit-non-technical-roles"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages A CIO weighs in on how AI can benefit non-technical roles, particularly HR Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Artificial intelligence is transforming how people work by boosting efficiency and productivity. Human resources departments are using AI to create a more adaptive, flexible, and fluid workplace, one where staffers can develop training, streamline onboarding, identify and evaluate candidates during recruiting, process feedback, respond efficiently to service requests, and manage projects. HR is notoriously manual; information is often kept in silos and answering questions can be a labor-intensive process. Whether it is creating workforce experiences personalized to each employee, or sifting through large amounts of information looking for valuable intelligence, HR professionals benefit by incorporating AI into their processes.
Jeff Gregory, chief information officer of global service provider Thirdera , explained to VentureBeat how AI can impact non-technical roles in an organization, especially in the realm of human resources.
This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.
VentureBeat: AI makes sense as a tool for data scientists, engineers, and IT pros . How can non-technical roles/organizations, such as sales, marketing, HR, and finance, use it? VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Jeff Gregory: It’s a misconception that AI is only a tool for engineers and the like. Sales and HR are two examples of business functions where AI is having a huge impact. In sales, reps in many organizations are using AI to improve forecast accuracy, including the timing, value and likelihood a deal will close. AI is also helping sales determine when and when not to contact customers and prospects, and which pipeline activities to focus on based on the probability of success. This is a huge advantage for time-starved reps, which is basically all of them.
Likewise, AI for HR has the ability to offer an entirely new set of insights and self-service benefits. For example, it can help HR reps understand what truly motivates employees, what creates enthusiasm, what info they need to be successful. AI can also make information easier to find. For example, chatbots can provide instant access to pertinent data on benefits and payroll and offer up suggestions based on past results and insights, allowing HR staff and employees to get answers they need, even if they’re not asking the questions correctly.
VentureBeat: What about HR in particular lends itself to AI? What are some issues HR pros face on a daily basis that would be helped if more HR departments had access to AI technology? Gregory: HR is the steward of a company. Its reps need to have their pulse on the health and development of employees, and this has everything to do with making sure employees can quickly and easily get answers to questions they have. Presenting the “right” information to employees in a timely fashion is a huge challenge for most organizations. In many cases, employees don’t ask for the right info, leading to follow-up questions and conversations that can delay essential tasks, such as onboarding, training, or benefits. AI and bots provide an incredible opportunity for an organization to get the right information to employees 24/7. Bots also have the ability to “learn” from typical questions and follow-ups, enabling more precise and timely responses. Delivering correct info, links and other resources to employees in an efficient manner can save HR and employees hours of time and improve job satisfaction.
VentureBeat: As a CIO, what are some recommendations you have for HR leaders as they consider if, how, and when to implement AI? Please be specific.
Gregory: The best advice is to start small, then learn and grow. AI is amazing with the insights it can produce. However, it is best to start with a few simple tasks. Take time to fully understand the value and how to utilize it within your organization. A chatbot focused on general HR questions is a great example. This is a learning tool that will provide access to the most important information for the employee. Additionally, this will free the HR team from time-consuming requests, allowing them to focus on other pressing items.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Password authentication is a mess. Here's a system to replace it | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/password-authentication-is-a-mess-heres-a-system-to-replace-it"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest Password authentication is a mess. Here’s a system to replace it Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Hackers are having a field day, and weak authentication is a major cause. The vast majority of cyberattacks — some 80% , statistics show — have their roots in compromised passwords that hackers get hold of. All it takes is one stolen password for hackers to wreak havoc; and according to experts, that single password breach can cost enterprise firms over $7 million. Many schemes have been tried to build up password security, including increased education and 2FA. But despite that, password compromise statistics remain stubbornly high, cybersecurity education programs, although widespread, don’t seem to work , and 2FA has its own security issues.
At this point, it’s pretty clear we need alternatives to passwords, and an alternative that has grown in popularity in recent years is biometrics. Fingerprint readers are standard equipment on many smart devices, doors, and laptops today. But fingerprints can be spoofed , and facial recognition is not only flawed but may even be racist.
A better idea — more secure, more viable, and more practical — may be 3D hand geometry, combined with hand gesture recognition and advanced data analysis based on machine learning. Hands are much harder to spoof than fingerprints, and several studies contend that individual 3D hand shapes are quite unique.
Studies suggest that gesture profiles may be unique to individuals as well. Thus, advanced data analysis and machine learning systems that examine the geometric and gesture data will build a secure profile unique to each individual, making spoofing a near-impossibility.
While the technology to authenticate users via hand geometry and gestures has been around for several years, it was missing the key element of advanced data analysis and machine learning. Authentication systems based on hand gestures currently in use match gestures of specific users to static images in a database ( some are very large ), but hackers could compromise it, changing the data associated with specific gestures to ensure anyone using them “passes,” for example. The same fate could await a static library of 3D hand images.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! Advanced systems that actively analyze the 3D hand images and gestures as they come in — and compare them to other images and data to ensure uniqueness — could eliminate the dangers of database compromise, because the images and data are constantly being updated and improved via the system’s machine learning features. In addition, those systems can eliminate the privacy concerns surrounding biometrics.
The idea is based on research in geometric deep learning (GDL) — a new field that generalizes deep learning to learn from non-Euclidean data such as graphs and manifolds. ( Manifold is a mathematical term used in differential geometry to indicate a space that is locally Euclidean. One of the simplest examples of a manifold is the Earth, a spherical surface that due to its planar appearance was believed to be flat for generations.) By evaluating the points on an object and their relations, the system can recognize and learn the unique geometric structure of that object, making it very useful when evaluating objects that can appear under different poses, such as 3D shapes, or those that cannot be processed by conventional deep learning.
GDL has been researched by several teams and has been the subject of several academic papers (I was a co-author of one of the earliest ones ). And the technology is already being applied in 3D vision for autonomous driving and scene understanding, drug design (Moderna was open about it, although it didn’t mention GDL explicitly ), recommendation systems, fake news detection in social media, among others. With research ongoing, GDL-based hand and gesture authentications are still being perfected (my company, NNAISENSE, has a working prototype), and commercialization is still some years away. Still, the technology is moving forward rapidly – and none too soon, given the sorry state of standard authentication systems.
Hand geometry takes into account the shape of the entire hand, along with features like ridges, finger size, the distance between knuckles, and much more. This provides a very unique profile for a user that would be very difficult to duplicate and certainly much harder to spoof than fingerprints.
Combining unique 3D hand images with the minute differences in gestures between people would render the system nearly impossible to hack. The details involved in this kind of authentication system would be too formidable for a hacker to try to duplicate. And the data analysis would ensure that even if hackers managed to spoof a hand and its gestures, they would be stopped in their tracks as the machine learning system would compare current data with existing data, on the individual and others.
The system is also less invasive than alternatives like facial recognition.
3D images of hands can be easily encrypted as they are sent over the internet. An authentication server using advanced security key technology can decrypt the code, matching up the hand being displayed in front of the 3D camera with a member of the authentication database. There is no need to even identify the person beyond their hand shape. Because there is no personal identification information involved, just the shape of a hand, you eliminate the privacy and discrimination issues involved in face recognition.
All the elements for this kind of hand-gesture authentication are now in place; advanced data technology and machine learning are robust and precise enough to sufficiently distinguish between the data presented. 3D cameras can be used to replace fingerprint keypads or other authentication systems at building entrances. In addition, they can be used with laptops to enable data-based hand geometry/gesture sign-ins to websites, replacing logins and passwords.
While the technology is there, putting it into action is a different matter altogether. Changing entrenched systems is usually very difficult, and passwords have been entrenched as authentication since the beginning of the computer era.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, the first hack due to password compromise occurred soon after.
Change usually starts at the top, so large enterprises — companies with the resources to invest in change — and governments should be trying alternative authentication methods. And the CISOs of these organizations should familiarize themselves with advanced data technology hand geometry/gesture-based authentication when considering those alternatives.
Safer computing is a matter of will, desire, and budget. Large organizations and governments have the will and desire to make their systems safer and the budget to make the necessary changes. Once they move forward, change will trickle down to the rest of society, making the world more secure.
Jonathan Masci is the Director of Deep Learning at NNAISENSE , a Swiss startup that builds AI for industrial process inspection, modeling, and control. His focus is on the application of machine learning to computer vision, pattern recognition, graphs and time-series analysis, with over 10,000 citations in the field. The algorithms he developed for steel manufacturer ArcelorMittal were the first applications of deep learning in heavy industry. He also serves as reviewer and is a program committee member for the top machine learning and computer vision conferences and journals (NeurIPS, PAMI, JMLR, IJCV, and IJCAI).
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"Adversarial attacks in machine learning: What they are and how to stop them | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/security/adversarial-attacks-in-machine-learning-what-they-are-and-how-to-stop-them"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Adversarial attacks in machine learning: What they are and how to stop them Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Adversarial machine learning, a technique that attempts to fool models with deceptive data, is a growing threat in the AI and machine learning research community. The most common reason is to cause a malfunction in a machine learning model. An adversarial attack might entail presenting a model with inaccurate or misrepresentative data as it’s training, or introducing maliciously designed data to deceive an already trained model.
As the U.S. National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence’s 2019 interim report notes, a very small percentage of current AI research goes toward defending AI systems against adversarial efforts. Some systems already used in production could be vulnerable to attack. For example, by placing a few small stickers on the ground, researchers showed that they could cause a self-driving car to move into the opposite lane of traffic. Other studies have shown that making imperceptible changes to an image can trick a medical analysis system into classifying a benign mole as malignant, and that pieces of tape can deceive a computer vision system into wrongly classifying a stop sign as a speed limit sign.
The increasing adoption of AI is likely to correlate with a rise in adversarial attacks. It’s a never-ending arms race, but fortunately, effective approaches exist today to mitigate the worst of the attacks.
Types of adversarial attacks Attacks against AI models are often categorized along three primary axes — influence on the classifier, the security violation, and their specificity — and can be further subcategorized as “white box” or “black box.” In white box attacks, the attacker has access to the model’s parameters, while in black box attacks, the attacker has no access to these parameters.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! An attack can influence the classifier — i.e., the model — by disrupting the model as it makes predictions, while a security violation involves supplying malicious data that gets classified as legitimate. A targeted attack attempts to allow a specific intrusion or disruption, or alternatively to create general mayhem.
Evasion attacks are the most prevalent type of attack, where data are modified to evade detection or to be classified as legitimate. Evasion doesn’t involve influence over the data used to train a model, but it is comparable to the way spammers and hackers obfuscate the content of spam emails and malware. An example of evasion is image-based spam in which spam content is embedded within an attached image to evade analysis by anti-spam models. Another example is spoofing attacks against AI-powered biometric verification systems..
Poisoning, another attack type, is “adversarial contamination” of data. Machine learning systems are often retrained using data collected while they’re in operation, and an attacker can poison this data by injecting malicious samples that subsequently disrupt the retraining process. An adversary might input data during the training phase that’s falsely labeled as harmless when it’s actually malicious. For example, large language models like OpenAI’s GPT-3 can reveal sensitive, private information when fed certain words and phrases, research has shown.
Meanwhile, model stealing, also called model extraction, involves an adversary probing a “black box” machine learning system in order to either reconstruct the model or extract the data that it was trained on. This can cause issues when either the training data or the model itself is sensitive and confidential. For example, model stealing could be used to extract a proprietary stock-trading model, which the adversary could then use for their own financial gain.
Attacks in the wild Plenty of examples of adversarial attacks have been documented to date. One showed it’s possible to 3D-print a toy turtle with a texture that causes Google’s object detection AI to classify it as a rifle, regardless of the angle from which the turtle is photographed. In another attack, a machine-tweaked image of a dog was shown to look like a cat to both computers and humans. So-called “ adversarial patterns ” on glasses or clothing have been designed to deceive facial recognition systems and license plate readers. And researchers have created adversarial audio inputs to disguise commands to intelligent assistants in benign-sounding audio.
In a paper published in April, researchers from Google and the University of California at Berkeley demonstrated that even the best forensic classifiers — AI systems trained to distinguish between real and synthetic content — are susceptible to adversarial attacks. It’s a troubling, if not necessarily new, development for organizations attempting to productize fake media detectors, particularly considering the meteoric rise in deepfake content online.
One of the most infamous recent examples is Microsoft’s Tay, a Twitter chatbot programmed to learn to participate in conversation through interactions with other users. While Microsoft’s intention was that Tay would engage in “casual and playful conversation,” internet trolls noticed the system had insufficient filters and began feeding Tay profane and offensive tweets. The more these users engaged, the more offensive Tay’s tweets became, forcing Microsoft to shut the bot down just 16 hours after its launch.
As VentureBeat contributor Ben Dickson notes , recent years have seen a surge in the amount of research on adversarial attacks. In 2014 , there were zero papers on adversarial machine learning submitted to the preprint server Arxiv.org, while in 2020 , around 1,100 papers on adversarial examples and attacks were. Adversarial attacks and defense methods have also become a highlight of prominent conferences including NeurIPS, ICLR, DEF CON, Black Hat, and Usenix.
Defenses With the rise in interest in adversarial attacks and techniques to combat them, startups like Resistant AI are coming to the fore with products that ostensibly “harden” algorithms against adversaries. Beyond these new commercial solutions, emerging research holds promise for enterprises looking to invest in defenses against adversarial attacks.
One way to test machine learning models for robustness is with what’s called a trojan attack, which involves modifying a model to respond to input triggers that cause it to infer an incorrect response. In an attempt to make these tests more repeatable and scalable, researchers at Johns Hopkins University developed a framework dubbed TrojAI , a set of tools that generate triggered data sets and associated models with trojans. They say that it’ll enable researchers to understand the effects of various data set configurations on the generated “trojaned” models and help to comprehensively test new trojan detection methods to harden models.
The Johns Hopkins team is far from the only one tackling the challenge of adversarial attacks in machine learning. In February, Google researchers released a paper describing a framework that either detects attacks or pressures the attackers to produce images that resemble the target class of images. Baidu, Microsoft, IBM, and Salesforce offer toolboxes — Advbox , Counterfit , Adversarial Robustness Toolbox , and Robustness Gym — for generating adversarial examples that can fool models in frameworks like MxNet, Keras, Facebook’s PyTorch and Caffe2, Google’s TensorFlow, and Baidu’s PaddlePaddle. And MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory recently released a tool called TextFooler that generates adversarial text to strengthen natural language models.
More recently, Microsoft, the nonprofit Mitre Corporation, and 11 organizations including IBM, Nvidia, Airbus, and Bosch released the Adversarial ML Threat Matrix , an industry-focused open framework designed to help security analysts to detect, respond to, and remediate threats against machine learning systems. Microsoft says it worked with Mitre to build a schema that organizes the approaches malicious actors employ in subverting machine learning models, bolstering monitoring strategies around organizations’ mission-critical systems.
The future might bring outside-the-box approaches, including several inspired by neuroscience. For example, researchers at MIT and MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab have found that directly mapping the features of the mammalian visual cortex onto deep neural networks creates AI systems that are more robust to adversarial attacks. While adversarial AI is likely to become a never-ending arms race, these sorts of solutions instill hope that attackers won’t always have the upper hand — and that biological intelligence still has a lot of untapped potential.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"SugarCRM sweetens predictive AI engine for marketing automation | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/sugarcrm-sweetens-predictive-ai-engine-for-marketing-automation"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages SugarCRM sweetens predictive AI engine for marketing automation Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
SugarCRM tweaked its SugarPredict AI engine this month to help marketing teams with automated, predictive lead scoring. The cloud-based marketing automation software, first released as a sales tool for customer relationship management (CRM), now also facilitates “rapid and reliable marketing lead qualification and prioritization,” the company said.
SugarPredict is available on the Cupertino, California-based company’s Sugar Market platform for automating and assisting with marketing tasks. It was first introduced in January for SugarCRM’s Sugar Sell users. SugarPredict for sales is billed as an AI-driven way to intelligently enrich the customer data people enter into CRM systems to ensure quality and consistency for sales team users.
Sugar Market is a customer lead-cultivating platform that helps marketing teams with tasks like quantifying how website visitors interact with digital marketing materials; assisting in the creation of emails, landing pages, and forms; qualifying leads with lead-scoring models; and aligning with sales via automated hand-offs of qualified leads.
Leave the lead scoring to the machine “The new smart scoring engine in Sugar Market saves marketing teams time by automating the creation and maintenance of lead scoring logic,” SugarCRM GM Christian Wettre told VentureBeat.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! “By continuously adjusting the lead-scoring rules based on customer behavior over time, SugarPredict helps marketing teams stay on top of changing markets. SugarPredict adds velocity of interest as one of many new factors of a lead score. By including more factors than just the sum of clicks, marketing teams deliver more intelligently scored leads to sales teams,” he said.
Describing the current state of CRM as a “crisis for companies,” Wettre cited a recent SugarCRM-commissioned survey of global enterprises that found more than half of respondents believe their current CRM systems are costing them revenue. Some 58% of those surveyed said their sales and marketing teams lacked the training and skills to customize their CRM to generate better results, while 53% percent said time consumed with administrative CRM and lead generation burdens was hurting productivity.
Automatic for the people SugarPredict is intended to help alleviate these sales and marketing pain points with automated processes like augmenting incomplete customer profiles with relevant online data the AI engine discovers and pulls in, Wettre said.
He described SugarPredict helping SugarCRM customers in a number of ways: No blind spots: Instead of being limited to piecemeal views of the customer, you see all relevant information — past, present, and even future — instantly (with predictive insights).
No busywork: Instead of having to manually enter endless details, you get a platform that automatically captures data and presents it in context to everyone who needs it.
No roadblocks: Instead of all the standard limitations, you get a solution built around your needs and workflows.
SugarCRM was founded in 2004 and began as a developer of free open source CRM software.
That was eventually discontinued as the company shifted to selling licensed CRM products. SugarCRM is owned by private equity firm Accel-KKR.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"How CMOs are paving the way for analytics adoption | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/how-cmos-are-paving-the-way-for-analytics-adoption"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages How CMOs are paving the way for analytics adoption Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
This post was written by Ashley Kramer, chief product and marketing officer at Sisense The CMO’s role has seen a big evolution over the past year. Deloitte’s 2021 Global Marketing Trends Report indicates that the role of marketing and CMOs has been elevated within the C-suite, with executives citing marketing and sales as one of the most important functional areas in the coming 12 months, second only to data and tech. In a rapidly changing competitive landscape, CMOs can use this moment to drive an analytics-first culture that re-imagines the role of data to increase revenue and grow the business.
CMO as a data evangelist Marketing was always grounded in data, but often led by gut instinct, which made it difficult to get granular details on the performance of a campaign. The pandemic disrupted businesses as customers changed their buying habits overnight. The journey from prospect to purchase became overwhelmingly digital and self-directed, and customer expectations increased. Consequently, CMOs have had to allocate more resources to digital campaigns and touchpoints.
However, the value of the large amounts of data this generates needs to be captured. Using Business Intelligence and Analytics (BI & A) tools, it is possible to slice and dice the data to get valuable insights about the customer and present it to non-technical users and stakeholders.
VB Event The AI Impact Tour Connect with the enterprise AI community at VentureBeat’s AI Impact Tour coming to a city near you! But more importantly, CMOs can bring a holistic picture of the customer to the boardroom and work closely with the CIO/CDO. Per the Deloitte report, 81% CMOs revealed that they now have a significant influence on C-suite conversations related to marketing strategy, as compared to half the number the previous year. CMOs can use the opportunity to highlight marketing’s long-term impact on brand, revenue and growth and champion the customer experience with the data insights. This is particularly helpful to the C-suite since businesses are increasingly under pressure to make their business more customer-centric or risk irrelevancy.
CMO as self-service data advocate You can get all the data you want, and more, but you will never have enough data analysts to help make sense of the data. So, data-driven marketing efforts can flounder or become piecemeal, and CMOs will find that getting their teams to adopt an analytics-driven culture is nearly impossible. Self-service BI&A is the answer to this dilemma. Here is an example.
A leading cloud-based website development platform which grew rapidly from a start-up to a market leader, discovered that it needed to monitor marketing campaign efficiency and analyze user behavior accurately to maintain market share. They sought a solution to help non-technical business users mine insights from multiple data sources and increase their efficiency manifold. With Sisense, business users had an accessible and flexible solution on hand, one that could handle the high-volume data streaming without disruption. They could easily direct API access to their Google AdWords and Google Analytics data, and easily connect MS-SQL, Oracle and MySQL databases, Excel and CSV files. They could also perform ETL functions within Sisense’s unique Elasticube for greater flexibility. Using Sisense, the organization empowered employees to adopt analytics throughout its marketing operations to stay on top of customer trends.
CMO as leader of the new wave of analytics CMOs love their data, but insights can get missed when they are inaccessible or hard to share, which has marketers reverting to instinctive decisions. By infusing analytics into workflows and apps, CMOs can drive analytics adoption rates to create a data-first culture within their teams and in the organization. Infused analytics solutions always provide shareability and updated data, empowering business users to optimize their campaigns faster than ever without having to leave their workflows.
CMO as enterprise data weaver CMOs can take advantage of multiple sources of data that contain hidden information about customer preferences and buying behavior. This could include information from chatbots or even sentiment analysis of social media channels. This data can be siloed away in departments, but with the right BI&A tool that enables sharing of insights, teams across the organization can benefit.
A global mobile company and micro-job firm wanted to tap into the vast amounts of data from its marketing, operations and finance departments. This included the data about their multiple marketing channels (social media, TV ads, influencer, outreach) coming in from across the world, in non-standardized formats. Getting insights for a specific set of KPIs from the data analyst teams would typically take some time and follow-up questions would take longer, which impaired their ability to optimize campaigns.
With a BI & A tool like Sisense, teams in marketing, finance and operations were empowered to become citizen data explorers, investigate the data on their own, create custom dashboards to drill down into the data and get actionable intelligence. The marketing team uses the dashboards to drill into the data, to improve marketing efforts and scan for any problems that could have previously gone unnoticed. Today, access to non-siloed data helps the organization increase overall customer retention, improve earnings, and find the best performing markets and channels.
CMO as digital transformation leader As the C-suite welcomes insights from marketing, CMOs can take the opportunity to push the organization towards digital transformation. By encouraging the infusion of data analytics into daily workflows to create an analytics-first culture, CMOs can play a leading part in breaking down departmental silos and refocusing the organization’s goals to become more customer-centric and reinforce their role as drivers of growth.
Ashley Kramer is a senior executive with over 15 years of experience scaling hypergrowth companies including Tableau, Alteryx, Amazon, Oracle, and NASA. She has a strong track record of transforming product and marketing organizations and effectively defining and delivering the end-to-end product strategy and vision. Ashley is passionate about data, analytics, AI, and machine learning.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
Discover our Briefings.
The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
All rights reserved.
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"4 alternatives to cookies and device IDs for marketers | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/marketing/4-alternatives-to-cookies-and-device-ids-for-marketers"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Guest 4 alternatives to cookies and device IDs for marketers Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
How companies identify and market to audiences across the digital landscape is undergoing a fundamental transformation. We’re not just talking about one of those back-end technical issues that the ad tech community needs to solve. We’re talking about a sea change that has implications for every brand and agency marketer on the planet as we enter a privacy-first world.
By now, the headlines are familiar: Google is discontinuing support for third-party cookies on Chrome. Apple has deprecated its IDFA with iOS 14.5. But that’s just the beginning.
Today’s advertisers need to be seeking alternatives in a world without cookies and device IDs. Unfortunately, there’s no single turnkey replacement forthcoming — but that doesn’t mean advertisers are powerless. Here are a few key areas where your future-proofing efforts should be focused.
1. Cohorts The term “cohorts” has shot to the top of 2021 industry buzzwords thanks to Google’s Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC) , but the concept of grouping people based on similar interests isn’t a new one. Right now, Apple and a handful of other providers are also developing new cohort-based solutions for targeting that eliminate the need for individual targeting and the related privacy concerns.
Google has received plenty of criticism for its plans around FLoC , but the overall approach — clustering large groups of people with similar interests together in a way that they remain anonymized — has validity. Today’s advertisers need to be seeking partners that are collaborating and integrating with tech companies to take advantage of emerging cohort-based audience options.
2. Universal identifiers Even as Google and Apple are deprecating long-relied-upon web and mobile identifiers, a host of companies are racing to provide alternatives in a privacy-compliant way. The resulting universal identifiers — from companies including ID5, LiveRamp, Zeotap, and The Trade Desk (UID 2.0) — offer an interoperable way of tracking users, independent of a tech provider. The advantage of these IDs is that user consent and opt-outs can be managed in a streamlined, transparent fashion. More importantly, universal IDs provide a much cleaner solution compared to cookies, eliminating the need for continuous syncing between the ad tech platforms to be able to trade, while at the same time adding another friction point for the user (i.e., providing their email address).
Although Google has said it will not support these solutions in the Chrome browser, platforms ( including The Trade Desk ) are confident that these solutions will remain available to buyers. In general, universal IDs represent a viable, privacy-focused alternative to cookies — and one that will be particularly important on the open web. From an advertiser standpoint, the key is to embrace a “yes, and” mentality versus an “either, or” stance. By working with partners that integrate with all leading universal ID providers, advertisers can ensure the broadest continued coverage following the final death knell of the cookie.
3. On-device solutions As advertisers look to offset the impact of the move to a cookieless world, it’s also important to be covering their bases on mobile. Going forward, “limit ad tracking” will become the new normal in mobile environments. In fact, only 10-20% of users are expected to opt in to ad tracking with Apple’s IDFA enforcement. As such, advertisers will see a significant impact as it relates to opportunities for one-to-one personalization and reaching consumers at scale, not to mention ad pacing, rotation, and forecasting.
This is where on-device audience solutions come in. The in-app environment combines the best of data and privacy through on-device audiences, a privacy-focused solution that doesn’t rely on mobile device identifiers. Rather, on-device audiences can be generated on the device, and only the audience segments — not the individuals themselves — are available for targeting. Ultimately, the user data never leaves the device. Such solutions can layer device data, app metadata, and advertisement interactions to probabilistically infer behavioral characteristics, such as age groups, gender, interests, and many more, without the need to access personal information such as a mobile device identifier. This approach will become increasingly relevant for mobile advertising, particularly given that Google is expected to follow in Apple’s footsteps and eventually deprecate its mobile device ID (GAID) as well.
4. Contextual targeting Finally, let’s not forget that our industry has long had the means of targeting ads without the need for personally identifiable information (PII). We’re talking, of course, about contextual targeting, which is understandably gaining traction again as we move into a privacy-first world. The beauty of contextual targeting is that it does not require consent and works across all environments (e.g., desktop, mobile, CTV, etc.). Contextual audiences are built based on the type of media or subject matter that a user consumes digitally, versus the user’s identity. Advances in data processing and machine learning allow for real-time audience generation and activation based on such signals. In other words, the effectiveness of contextual targeting is improving every day.
Adapting (and measuring) for the future As we move forward into a very different future for marketers, there’s a need to get back to basics when it comes to how we understand the effectiveness of advertising spend. Our industry’s overreliance on deterministic data is going to need to broaden towards thoughtful probabilistic measurement strategies. The good news is that these techniques, designed to help marketers understand incrementality in a cross-channel reality, are well-established. Going forward, strong media mix modelling will become essential and will ultimately elevate our industry’s omnichannel understanding in ways that today’s last-click tendencies do not.
The writing has been on the wall for third-party cookies for years now, and mobile identifiers like the IDFA have already lost a great deal of relevance and reach within today’s targeting landscape. The challenges to identity across the digital and mobile landscapes will continue to escalate. Mobile marketing will become less one-to-one in a privacy-first world, and strong omnichannel marketing strategies will become more important than ever.
What’s required of marketers at this juncture is a reset of their strategic mindset and a tactical pivot on multiple fronts. Now is not the time to be seeking simple solutions to systemic challenges. Rather, now is the time to be implementing a broad array of alternatives to see what works best — and committing to an ongoing test-and-learn loop for the foreseeable future.
Ionut Ciobotaru is Chief Product Officer at Verve Group.
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"The RetroBeat: 5 other Sonic games that should be on Sonic Origins | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/games/the-retrobeat-5-other-sonic-games-that-should-be-on-sonic-origins"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Opinion The RetroBeat: 5 other Sonic games that should be on Sonic Origins Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Sonic 3D Blast.
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Earlier this week, Sega announced Sonic Origins , a new retro compilation that will include Sonic the Hedgehog, Sonic the Hedgehog 2, Sonic the Hedgehog 3 & Knuckles, and Sonic CD. I’m always down for a nice collection, but it does feel like this package could be even more exciting.
Back in the ’90s, Sega released a lot of Sonic games. Sure, not all of them are as great as Sonic 2 or Sonic CD, but a lot of them are still fun and interesting. And I’m just enough of a Sonic nut to know which games should have also been included.
Below, I’ve listed five games that I think would have been fun additions to Sonic Origins.
Sonic 3D Blast Event GamesBeat at the Game Awards We invite you to join us in LA for GamesBeat at the Game Awards event this December 7. Reserve your spot now as space is limited! Poor Sonic 3D Blast has an unfair reputation. People are quick to lump it in with the bad Sonic games, but this 1996 isometric Genesis title is alright with me. While the controls can be a bit slippery, and the nonlinear objectives can require some annoying backtracking, this still feels like a classic Sonic experience. It also has one of the console’s best soundtracks.
The original game’s lead programmer, Jon Burton, actually fixed a lot of the original game’s issues in an unofficial director’s cut that you can download as a ROM. Sega should reach out to Burton and give this improved version of Sonic 3D Blast an official release.
Sonic the Hedgehog 2 (Master System) Most of us in the U.S. never had a Master System, the Genesis’s 8-bit predecessor, but the machine was quite popular in Europe and Brazil. So when Sonic became a hit, Sega developed 8-bit takes on the franchise for the older machine.
Now, you may have played this version of Sonic the Hedgehog 2 on your Game Gear, but the Master System version features a wider resolution. Honestly, I’d love to see Sega create a giant Master System collection for modern consoles, but even just a sampling of the Blue Blur’s 8-bit adventures would have been nice for Sonic Origins.
Sonic Spinball Sonic Spinball is one of the franchise’s first spinoffs, which alone makes it interesting enough for inclusion in Sonic Origins. No, it’s not as good as the core Genesis Sonic games. It’s also not close to being one of the best video game pinball experiences (this is no Demon’s Crush or Kirby’s Pinball).
But there is a charm to Sonic Spinball. I like its somewhat grungy aesthetic, and it’s also the only Sonic game I can remember to include characters introduced in the Saturday morning Sonic cartoon and the Archie Comics series, like Princess Sally Acorn.
SegaSonic the Hedgehog SegaSonic the Hedgehog is a Sonic game that I’ve been dying to try forever. It’s an arcade title from 1993 that never left Japan. It features three player co-op, with one person controlling Sonic while the others helm Mighty the Armadillo or Ray the Flying Squirrel. Oh, and you control these characters with trackballs.
Just look at the above gameplay. This game is wild. I keep wishing that Sega will find a way to finally give this oddity a release on consoles.
Knuckles Chaotix It’s great that we’re getting Sonic CD, but it’s a shame that Sega is leaving out the franchise’s 32X installment. Knuckles Chaotix is a bit weird. You control two characters at a time, and they’re linked together with a sort of magic chain that you can use to bend and slingshot your way through levels. It can be a bit clunky, but it’s still fun and plays a lot like the other 2D Sonic games.
Of course, Sonic isn’t actually in it, which may be a problem for a compilation called Sonic Origins. I don’t think anyone would complain about that technicality. Knuckles Chaotix has never been a part of a Sega compilation or gotten its own standalone port. It’s time for this game to find a life beyond the 32X.
The RetroBeat is a weekly column that looks at gaming’s past, diving into classics, new retro titles, or looking at how old favorites — and their design techniques — inspire today’s market and experiences. If you have any retro-themed projects or scoops you’d like to send my way, please contact me.
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"You and a friend could both get KeepSolid VPN protection for life for under $60 | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/you-and-a-friend-could-both-get-keepsolid-vpn-protection-for-life-for-under-60"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals You and a friend could both get KeepSolid VPN protection for life for under $60 Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
VPNs have actually been around for more than 20 years, but it probably feels like you only started hearing about their online security powers over the past decade. Over these past few years, the virtues of a Virtual Private Network to help serve as a formidable first line of defense over all of your online activities have definitely taken hold. We’ve now up to a full third of web users who are using a VPN … which is certainly progress.
That is, of course, counterbalanced by the fact that that means two-third of web users worldwide aren’t protected by a VPN. And while more than two-thirds of American adults know what a VPN is, only 5 percent of Americans are actually using one.
Since that means most of the people you know are unprotected, this KeepSolid VPN Unlimited 2 Account Bundle deal is for you, offering a lifetime of KeepSolid VPN coverage for you, as well as that same impregnable online service for one of your nearest and dearest too.
We’re going to assume you already understand the supreme value of a VPN, but in case you need to sell this idea to a skeptical mother or a very un-tech savvy friend, we’d suggest making a few key points.
Starting with KeepSolid’s stellar reputation among VPN services. KeepSolid has been one of the VPN industry’s real standard-bearers for a long time, currently logging over 10 million users and generating high marks from noted tech outlets like Laptop Review Pro, Software Informer, and even PCMag, which honored KeepSolid with the site’s Top VPN award.
In case that doesn’t do the trick, tell your loved one that a VPN is a particularly staunch method for protecting yourself from cybercriminals and identity theft online. With a server network of more than 400 servers in over 80 locations across the globe, users can connect to the web via KeepSolid’s encrypted network, shrouding everything a user does in complete anonymity. With no access to your identifying IP address and other details, it’s nearly impossible for online crooks to steal your information or compromise your safety online.
Wrapped in KeepSolid protection, users enjoy zero speed or bandwidth issues, even when using potentially dodgy public WiFi networks.
In addition to military-grade AES 256-bit encryption, you can also sell friends and family on the fact that a VPN can get them around international content restrictions, allowing them to access streaming services like Netflix, Hulu, ESPN+, and HBO Now no matter where they are anywhere in the world.
A lifetime of KeepSolid VPN Unlimited protection is usually a $199 value, which would make the cost of two subscriptions almost $400. But as part of the limited-time Memorial Day Sale, you can land two KeepSolid subscriptions now for a radically low $55.
The deal is only available for the next few days until June 2 — then it’s gone.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
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VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"The new Favro collaborative planning platform is rapidly gaining popularity with SaaS and game companies | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/the-new-favro-collaborative-planning-platform-is-rapidly-gaining-popularity-with-saas-and-game-companies"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals The new Favro collaborative planning platform is rapidly gaining popularity with SaaS and game companies Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Growth spurts are turning point moments in the life of any expanding company. As a CEO or high-level manager, the processes laid down when a company makes the leap from fresh startup to staffs of 25, 50, 100 or 300 people can make all the difference in the long-term success or failure of the business.
With more cooks in the kitchen, a unified approach to business agility is key, especially in a post-covid age of remote/hybrid workforces. That’s why the highly adaptive, ultra-responsive, results driven, and team-based Agile methodology is an organizing principle powering so much positive growth with so many expanding companies these days.
Over 70 percent of companies are adopting Agile workflows , with an overwhelming 98 percent of those reporting positive progress. If handled correctly, it’s a process that ultimately works.
So the smart, focused business leader understands they’ve got an important decision to make: put a battle-tested, collaboration-centric structure in place now for your teams and leaders …or risk being unable to shift and adapt fast enough later as your organization grows.
The answer is Favro , a platform for collaborative planning to make sure your entire organisation is always on the same page and in sync with each other.
Favro is how growing companies stay nimble without falling prey to stale bureaucracy. The all-in-one app puts all of a company’s departments under one Favro umbrella with individual organizing goals, principles and tools for managers, IT, marketing, product, operations, human resources, sales and all the other departments that make a company go.
Favro uses four building block components to organize everything a company does. Favro Cards chart every project happening inside your organization, with team members, timelines, objectives and basic communication means within that group all included. Cards are then organized into Favro Boards, so each department can track every initiative that touches their work and monitor their role. And, Boards are grouped organically into Favro Collections, identifying all the major and minor objectives faced by the entire workforce.
Finally, Favro Relations show everyone how a company actually interacts, with natural navigation between all teams and vertical levels of the organization, so you’ll always know how each individual fits into a specific project or the overall company infrastructure.
Whether you’re focused on how one project or objective is doing or if you want to zoom out and look at the entire company from an overhead view, Favro offers the tools to see all those pieces clearly from every level for the ultimate in collaborative planning and execution.
Employees always know what’s on their plate, who they’re working with, and how it connects to all the other projects pushing the company forward.
Favro integrates with all the favorite tools a company uses already, including Slack, Jira, Dropbox, Google Drive, Google Calendar, Microsoft OneDrive, GitHub, GitLab, Zapier, Unito, and through its API and webhooks.
And just like Favro’s tools, an organization’s Favro subscription can also scale to their needs over time. With plans ranging from two users and up, you can now save 25 percent.
Sign up for a free 14 day trial at the Favro website , and if you then choose to purchase a plan enter the code FPD2021Z for the discount.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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"Since almost no one watches videos with sound up, Liro Pro automatically adds captions to any video | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/since-almost-no-one-watches-videos-with-sound-up-liro-pro-automatically-adds-captions-to-any-video"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals Since almost no one watches videos with sound up, Liro Pro automatically adds captions to any video Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
Now that everyone from tween girls to multi-billion dollar conglomerates is finally online and creating digital content, especially videos…let’s talk about doing that content correctly.
While everyone should be applauded for finally embracing the now and making videos, creators need to think about how their videos are actually getting watched. Like, the fact that a surprising 85 percent of Facebook videos are watched with the sound off.
So if you’re including valuable audio information in your social videos, it is often quite literally falling on deaf ears.
While some platforms are doing automatic captioning these days , it’s definitely not the norm yet. Rather than give up that opportunity to engage, a subscription to Liro Pro Auto Captions for Videos can do all the heavy lifting for you.
The numbers don’t lie — videos with captions so people can read along get over 16 percent more reach, reactions, and shares. And if you’re asking viewers to click a link or take action, your odds improve more than 25 percent with captioning like Liro Pro.
Liro Pro takes all the guesswork out of captioning…in fact, it takes most of the regular work out of the process too. Its AI computer brain listens to the voice-overs in your audio, then translates that spoken word into a written text that flows along with the rest of your video. It’s smart enough to understand and translate up to 87 different languages to create those captions, covering all the biggies like English and Spanish to more exotic tongues like Italian, Arabic, Indonesian, and more.
And in case something in your video doesn’t quite sync up, Liro Pro makes all your captions customizable with just a few taps, changing your speed, caption fonts, colors, text position, and more.
With a Liro Pro membership, users can caption an unlimited number of projects. That covers anything up to 15 minutes long and doesn’t include any annoying distractions like a watermark or advertising.
Twelve months of Liro Pro Auto Captions for Videos access is usually a $59 value, but as part of this offer, it’s on sale now for only $19.99.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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"For under $30, you can access the complete 12min Micro Book Library for life | VentureBeat"
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"https://venturebeat.com/commerce/for-under-30-you-can-access-the-complete-12min-micro-book-library-for-life"
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"Artificial Intelligence View All AI, ML and Deep Learning Auto ML Data Labelling Synthetic Data Conversational AI NLP Text-to-Speech Security View All Data Security and Privacy Network Security and Privacy Software Security Computer Hardware Security Cloud and Data Storage Security Data Infrastructure View All Data Science Data Management Data Storage and Cloud Big Data and Analytics Data Networks Automation View All Industrial Automation Business Process Automation Development Automation Robotic Process Automation Test Automation Enterprise Analytics View All Business Intelligence Disaster Recovery Business Continuity Statistical Analysis Predictive Analysis More Data Decision Makers Virtual Communication Team Collaboration UCaaS Virtual Reality Collaboration Virtual Employee Experience Programming & Development Product Development Application Development Test Management Development Languages Sponsored Deals For under $30, you can access the complete 12min Micro Book Library for life Share on Facebook Share on X Share on LinkedIn Are you ready to bring more awareness to your brand? Consider becoming a sponsor for The AI Impact Tour. Learn more about the opportunities here.
There haven’t been a lot of silver linings to the past year. But if there’s something we can point to as a positive outcome of our shared COVID nightmare, it’s spurred many of us to do something that doesn’t happen nearly often enough. We’re all…((gasp))…reading! As it turns out, day upon day stuck inside was some serious incentive for millions to pick up a book, with 35 percent of the world’s population reporting they actually read more in 2020.
A whole 1 in 7 — 14 percent — said they read significantly more.
You’re taking in more information than ever and the doors to your brain library are wide open right now. Readers can keep that gravy train of knowledge flowing with a lifetime of access to the stacked archives of the 12min Micro Book Library.
No, micro books aren’t printed at doll size. Instead, these micro books are 12-minute encapsulations of over 1,800 non-fiction microbooks in two dozen different categories. As a member, library users can ingest the main takeaways from hundreds of best-selling books on topics ranging from finance, parenting, and leadership to sales, productivity, and more.
The 12min editorial team digs deep, crafting both text and audio versions of all these impactful works, making them available both online and as downloads so you can save and store for when you want them, even if you aren’t in range of WiFi or cell service. And since a 12min micro book only takes 12 minutes, they’re perfectly bite-sized for driving across town, doing a quick workout, or just while waiting for the bus.
In addition to all-time nonfiction titans like The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, Rich Dad Poor Dad, The 4-Hour Workweek, 30 Ways to Reboot Your Body, and more, the library adds about 30 new books a month. And if the library doesn’t already include a summary of the book a user wants, all they have to do is recommend it to 12min for inclusion into the collection.
If you’ve never tried the 12min Micro Book Library before, new users can dive in now and get access to the entire archive for life at one of the lowest prices of the year. Regularly a $399 value, a lifetime 12min pass is now an extra $10 off the already discounted price as part of the Memorial Day Sale, lowering the total to just $29.
That holiday price ends June 2 so get in on the deal now.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat Deals is a partnership between VentureBeat and StackCommerce. This post does not constitute editorial endorsement. If you have any questions about the products you see here or previous purchases, please contact StackCommerce support here.
Prices subject to change.
VentureBeat's mission is to be a digital town square for technical decision-makers to gain knowledge about transformative enterprise technology and transact.
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The AI Impact Tour Join us for an evening full of networking and insights at VentureBeat's AI Impact Tour, coming to San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles! VentureBeat Homepage Follow us on Facebook Follow us on X Follow us on LinkedIn Follow us on RSS Press Releases Contact Us Advertise Share a News Tip Contribute to DataDecisionMakers Careers Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information © 2023 VentureBeat.
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Subsets and Splits
Wired Articles Filtered
Retrieves up to 100 entries from the train dataset where the URL contains 'wired' but the text does not contain 'Menu', providing basic filtering of the data.