WebProNews

Category: Emerging Tech

Emerging Trends

  • Google Adds Generative-AI to Google Workspace

    Google Adds Generative-AI to Google Workspace

    Google is bringing generative-AI to Google Workspace, continuing its efforts to catch up to Microsoft.

    Google Workspace is the most popular cloud-based office suite and the company is looking to improve it even more with generative-AI.

    We’re now making it possible for Workspace users to harness the power of generative AI to create, connect, and collaborate like never before. To start, we’re introducing a first set of AI-powered writing features in Docs and Gmail to trusted testers.

    AI will help users by generating drafts and helping them overcome the dreaded “blank page:”

    Blank pages can stump the best of us. That’s why we’re embedding generative AI in Docs and Gmail to help people get started writing. Whether you’re a busy HR professional who needs to create customized job descriptions, or a parent drafting the invitation for your child’s pirate-themed birthday party, Workspace saves you the time and effort of writing that first version. Simply type a topic you’d like to write about, and a draft will instantly be generated for you. With your collaborative AI partner you can continue to refine and edit, getting more suggestions as needed.

    The AI will also be able to help users rewrite work to make it more appropriate for the intended purpose:

    Finding the right tone and style can also be tricky at times. Perhaps you’re applying for a new job, or writing to a new supplier in a more traditional industry, and you need to adopt a more formal tone in your email. Or you’ve jotted down a few bullets on your phone from a recent meeting and want to transform them into a more polished summary to share with your team. For these common scenarios and many more, we’re adding new generative AI capabilities to help you rewrite. And if you’re in the mood to let AI try out a new playful voice altogether, you’ll be able to hit the “I’m feeling lucky” option in Gmail.

    Interestingly, while Google is clearly working to catch up in the AI game, the company is also trying to establish itself as a responsible AI company:

    As we’ve experimented with generative AI ourselves, one thing is clear: AI is no replacement for the ingenuity, creativity, and smarts of real people. Sometimes the AI gets things wrong, sometimes it delights you with something offbeat, and oftentimes it requires guidance. With all this in mind, we’re designing our products in accordance with Google’s AI Principles that keep the user in control, letting AI make suggestions that you’re able to accept, edit, and change. We’ll also deliver the corresponding administrative controls so that IT is able to set the right policies for their organization.

  • Credit Suisse Cancels Exec Bonuses Admits ‘Material Weakness’

    Credit Suisse Cancels Exec Bonuses Admits ‘Material Weakness’

    Credit Suisse has cancelled bonuses for its executives, citing “material weakness” in its financial reporting.

    According to CNN, Credit Suisse delayed its annual report after the SEC raised questions about 2019 and 2020 cash flow statements. As a result, the company took a closer look and concluded that “the group’s internal control over financial reporting was not effective,” and failed to identify potential risks.

    In addition, the company’s board found that “material weakness could result in misstatements of account balances or disclosures that would result in a material misstatement to the annual financial statements of Credit Suisse,” the annual report said. The company is working on a “remediation plan” to strengthen controls, according to CNN.

    In the meantime, Credit Suisse is canceling bonuses for its executives, and chairman Axel Lehmann has offered to “voluntarily “waive” a $1.6 million stock award as a result of the company’s “poor financial performance.”

  • Employees Blame ‘Stupid’ Silicon Valley Bank CEO

    Employees Blame ‘Stupid’ Silicon Valley Bank CEO

    After Silicon Valley Bank’s spectacular collapse last week, employees and industry insiders are blaming the CEO’s “stupid” decisions.

    Greg Becker, SVB’s CEO, announced last Wednesday that the bank needed to raise just north of $2 billion. What no one can explain, however, is why a 40-year veteran of the banking industry didn’t privately try to raise the capital before making an announcement.

    “That was absolutely idiotic,” the employee, who works on the asset management side of Silicon Valley Bank, told CNN in an interview. “They were being very transparent. It’s the exact opposite of what you’d normally see in a scandal. But their transparency and forthright-ness did them in.

    “People are just shocked at how stupid the CEO is,” the Silicon Valley Bank insider added. “You’re in business for 40 years and you are telling me you can’t raise $2 billion privately? Get on a jet and fly to Kuwait like everyone else and give them control of one-third of the bank.”

    Industry insiders shared the employee’s evaluation:

    “Someone lit a match and the bank yelled, ‘Fire!’ – pulling the alarms in earnest out of genuine concern for transparency and honesty,” Jeff Sonnenfeld and Steven Tian, the CEO and research director, respectively, at Yale School of Management’s Chief Executive Leadership Institute (CELI), told CNN.

    Sonnenfeld agreed that SVB’s leadership deserved criticism for a “tone-deaf, botched execution.”

  • Bitcoin Surges After Banks Collapse

    Bitcoin Surges After Banks Collapse

    On the heels of three banks collapsing in the last week, Bitcoin appears to be benefiting from consumer fears.

    The tech industry and financial markets are reeling from the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank. The tech industry was particularly dependent on SVB with its collapse still sending shock waves throughout the industry.

    According to Decrypt, Bitcoin is benefiting from spooked consumers and investors, with the cryptocurrency rising almost 20% since SVG’s collapse.

    In fact, the entire market appears to be getting a boost, with individual cryptos up across the board.

  • Regulators Shut Down Signature Bank

    Regulators Shut Down Signature Bank

    Regulators have shut down Signature Bank, the third bank in the last week, citing “systemic risk.”

    The last few days have been difficult for banks, especially those servicing the tech industry. Silicon Valley Bank has been in the news as the second-largest bank collapse in US history. With the financial downturn, tech customers withdrew enough funds to help cause a run on the bank, leading to its collapse. Regulators see the same kind of risk with Signature Bank, leading them to shut it down.

    A joint statement by Treasury, Federal Reserve, and FDIC announced the closure:

    We are also announcing a similar systemic risk exception for Signature Bank, New York, New York, which was closed today by its state chartering authority. All depositors of this institution will be made whole. As with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, no losses will be borne by the taxpayer.

    Shareholders and certain unsecured debtholders will not be protected. Senior management has also been removed. Any losses to the Deposit Insurance Fund to support uninsured depositors will be recovered by a special assessment on banks, as required by law.

    Regulators did reaffirm that Silicon Valley Bank depositors will have access to their money on Monday:

    After receiving a recommendation from the boards of the FDIC and the Federal Reserve, and consulting with the President, Secretary Yellen approved actions enabling the FDIC to complete its resolution of Silicon Valley Bank, Santa Clara, California, in a manner that fully protects all depositors. Depositors will have access to all of their money starting Monday, March 13. No losses associated with the resolution of Silicon Valley Bank will be borne by the taxpayer.

  • GM May Bring ChatGPT to Vehicles

    GM May Bring ChatGPT to Vehicles

    General Motors may bring ChatGPT to vehicles, saying the technology is going to be in everything.”

    ChatGPT has taken the world by storm, with Microsoft working to integrate its successor into its Bing search engine. Companies across industries are following suit, looking for innovative ways to tap into the power of conversational AI.

    According to Reuters, GM sees potential in integrating ChatGPT with its vehicles. The tech could be used to help program garage door openers, access information that would normally be found in the manual, or access scheduling information.

    “This shift is not just about one single capability like the evolution of voice commands, but instead means that customers can expect their future vehicles to be far more capable and fresh overall when it comes to emerging technologies,” a GM spokesperson said.

    “ChatGPT is going to be in everything,” GM Vice President Scott Miller told Reuters.

  • Federal Government Will Not Bail Out Silicon Valley Bank

    Federal Government Will Not Bail Out Silicon Valley Bank

    Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) shocked the industry when it collapsed Friday, leaving a plethora of companies in limbo.

    SVB was the 16th-largest bank in the US, making it the second-largest bank collapse in US history. The bank’s collapse has left many of Silicon Valley companies and startups scrambling to address cash-flow issues.

    The collapse has also sparked questions about whether the government plans to bail the bank out, much like it did in the crash of 2008. According to AP News, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen threw cold water on the idea.

    “We’re not going to do that again,” she said, referencing past bailouts. “But we are concerned about depositors, and we’re focused on trying to meet their needs.”

    Some experts are concerned that SVB’s collapse could spark a run on other banks, leading to more collapses. After all, it was tech companies’ run on SVB — in an effort to stay solvent during the financial downturn — that led to SVB’s failure. Yellen tried to offer reassurance that the banking system was sound.

    “The American banking system is really safe and well capitalized,” she said. “It’s resilient.”

    In the meantime, deposits insured by the government should be available Monday morning.

  • Biden Administration Prepares to Regulate Cloud Security

    Biden Administration Prepares to Regulate Cloud Security

    The Biden Administration is preparing to regulate cloud security, viewing the industry as too great a security risk to ignore.

    Cloud computing has become an increasingly integral part of daily life for companies, government organizations, and individuals alike. There’s hardly any aspect of daily life that isn’t touched by the cloud in some way. That ubiquity is a source of concern, especially with the growing number and scope of cybersecurity threats.

    According to Politico, the Biden Administration now views the cloud industry as “too big to fail” and is beginning the process of regulating cloud computing security.

    The industry has “become essential to our daily lives,” Kemba Walden, acting national cyber director, told Politico. “If it’s disrupted, it could create large potentially catastrophic disruptions to our economy and to our government.”

    Industry veterans echoed those concerns.

    “A single cloud provider going down could take down the internet like a stack of dominos,” said Marc Rogers, chief security officer at Q-Net Security and former Cloudflare head of information security.

    Unfortunately while companies have raced to deploy cloud platforms and services, cloud security has often lagged behind, leaving organizations and individuals vulnerable. Even worse, critical infrastructure has come under attack as a result of cloud security lapses.

    “The reality is that today cloud security is often separate from cloud,” said Anne Neuberger, the deputy national security adviser for cyber and emerging technology. “We need to get to a place where cloud providers have security baked in with that.”

    Her sentiments echo those of Google executives, who recently penned a blog post calling for companies to be held accountable for cybersecurity:

    “The bottom line: People deserve products that are secure by default and systems that are built to withstand the growing onslaught from attackers,” the executives wrote.

    The Biden Administration agrees:

    “In the United States, we don’t have a national regulator for cloud. We don’t have a Ministry of Communication. We don’t have anybody who would step up and say, ‘It’s our job to regulate cloud providers,’” said Rob Knake, deputy national cyber director for strategy and budget. The cloud, he said, “needs to have a regulatory structure around it.”

  • Netherlands Follow US Lead in Chip War Against China

    Netherlands Follow US Lead in Chip War Against China

    The Netherlands has joined the US chip war against China, restricting export of the country’s “most advanced” chips.

    The US has been pressuring allies to follow its lead in isolating China in the global semiconductor market. The Netherlands is home to ASML, a key player in the semiconductor supply chain.

    The decision will impact “very specific technologies in the semiconductor production cycle,” Dutch trade minister Liesje Schreinemacher said, via BBC News.

    “The Netherlands considers it necessary on national and international security grounds that this technology is brought under control as soon as possible,” she added in a letter to lawmakers.

    ASML acknowledged in a statement that the decision would impact its exports:

    Due to these upcoming regulations, ASML will need to apply for export licenses for shipment of the most advanced immersion DUV systems.

    At the same time, the company does not expect the measures to have a material impact on its performance:

    Based on today’s announcement, our expectation of the Dutch government’s licensing policy, and the current market situation, we do not expect these measures to have a material effect on our financial outlook that we have published for 2023 or for our longer-term scenarios as announced during our Investor Day in November last year.

  • AI Helps Drive Bing Across the 100M Daily User Threshold

    AI Helps Drive Bing Across the 100M Daily User Threshold

    Bing has hit an important milestone, thanks to an AI-driven boost, now boasting 100 million Daily Active Users.

    Bing may be the second-largest search engine in the world, but it’s still a distant second to Google. The company’s foray into AI-powered search has certainly helped it gain some ground, turning Bing into a household name and helping drive the search engine across the 100M Daily Active User mark.

    Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s VP for Modern Life, Search and Devices, broke the news in a blog post:

    We are pleased to share that after a number of years of steady progress, and with a little bit of a boost from the million+ new Bing preview users, we have crossed 100M Daily Active Users of Bing. This is a surprisingly notable figure, and yet we are fully aware we remain a small, low, single digit share player. That said, it feels good to be at the dance!

    Interestingly, the uptick is not just old users returning to give Bing and its AI another try:

    Of the millions of active users of the new Bing preview, it’s great to see that roughly one third are new to Bing. We see this appeal of the new Bing as a validation of our view that search is due for a reinvention and of the unique value proposition of combining Search + Answers + Chat + Creation in one experience.

    Mehdi also attributes the growth to Bing’s search results being better than ever:

    The second factor driving trial and usage is that our core web search ranking has taken several significant jumps in relevancy due to the introduction of the Prometheus model so our Bing search quality is at an all-time high.

    It’s nice to see Bing gaining traction and continuing to provide an alternative to Google’s dominance.

  • The Rise of Wearable Tech and Its Impact on Health and Fitness

    The Rise of Wearable Tech and Its Impact on Health and Fitness

    Wearable technology has grown in popularity in recent years, revolutionizing the way we track our health and fitness. From smartwatches, fitness trackers, virtual reality headsets, and smart clothing, wearable tech has become an integral part of our daily lives. With the ability to monitor our heart rate, sleep patterns, steps taken, and our mental health, wearable technology has the potential to transform the way we approach our overall well-being. This article details the rise of wearable tech and its impact on health and fitness, examining the latest trends and advancements.

    What Is Wearable Fitness Technology?

    Wearable fitness tech is a type of technology that measures and collects data about our physical activity levels, heart rate, calorie burn, sleep patterns, and more. The data collected is used to create detailed graphs and reports about our current health and fitness status, allowing us to monitor our progress over time.

    The report and data collected about your current health status are then printed and saved in PDF by online printing services for future health adjustments. Some of the most popular types of wearable tech include:

    • Smartwatches
    • Smart clothing
    • Fitness trackers
    • Virtual reality headsets
    • Wearable ECG monitors

    Wearable technology has the potential to revolutionize how we manage our overall health, providing data-driven insights into our activity levels and other health metrics. Wearable tech is not just a trend, it is here to stay and it can offer us a powerful way to track our progress and make changes in our lifestyle choices.

    How Wearable Fitness Tech Is Used

    Wearable fitness tech is used to help users understand their activity levels, set fitness goals, and create action plans to reach those goals. This technology can be used in various ways:

    • To monitor your daily exercise habits
    • To track nutrition
    • Sleep patterns
    • Hydration

    Wearable tech can also be used to provide actual feedback on your progress and offer insights into where you need to make changes to reach your goals.

    How Wearable Tech Can Enhance Your Fitness and Health

    • Tracking your physical activity levels on a daily basis: You can use this information to make small adjustments to your lifestyle and improve your overall health.
    • By setting goals for yourself and using the data from wearable tech to track your progress: You can stay motivated and encouraged to continue working towards better health. 
    • Wearable tech can also help you become more aware of your body’s limitations and give you the tools to adjust accordingly.

    Examples of Wearable Devices in Healthcare

    Wearable devices are becoming more popular in healthcare settings, allowing for more efficient monitoring of patients’ health. Devices such as Apple Watches, Fitbits, and glucose monitors have been used to detect changes in blood pressure or glucose levels, alert patients when they need to take medication or rest, and remind them when to get regular check-ups with their doctor. Wearable devices can be used to give doctors more accurate data on their patients’ signs, which can lead to earlier detection of health issues and improve patients’ health outcomes.

    Endnote

    With the ability to track our activity levels, monitor our signs, and even help us manage our mental health, wearable technology can empower us to take charge of our health like never before. However, it’s important to remember that technology alone is not a substitute for a healthy lifestyle. We must use these devices as tools to help us achieve our health and fitness goals, while also prioritizing things like regular exercise, a balanced diet, and adequate sleep.

  • IBM and Nokia to Deliver Private 5G Environments

    IBM and Nokia to Deliver Private 5G Environments

    IBM and Nokia are working together to give customers the ability to design and deploy private 5G environments.

    While consumer tech often takes the 5G spotlight, the wireless tech is already revolutionizing industries, powering edge computing and delivering high-speed connectivity in under-served areas. Private networks are one area where 5G shines, giving companies a high-speed network they have complete control over.

    IBM and Nokia are working to deliver such a solution, one that will give customers the ability to manage their 5G environments using a unified management stack:

    IBM and Nokia have a history of collaborating to support enterprise customers. In 2020, we extended the collaboration to IBM Cloud technology and we now intend to build a seamless, simplified private 5G managed service offering to ultimately deliver private 5G solutions on IBM Cloud Satellite to enterprise customers. As clients innovate at the edge, IBM Cloud Satellite helps provide enhanced resiliency, performance, security and compliance capabilities.

    Additionally, we intend to explore ways to enable CSPs to design, automatically build, instantly connect, as well as operate and observe their private 5G environments using a unified management stack. Supported by IBM Consulting’s systems integration expertise Nokia intends to integrate IBM’s Cloud Pak for Network Automation solution into our current joint offering, which IBM has validated for the deployment of IBM Cloud Satellite. CSPs may be able to address new connectivity demands in a flexible, simplified, automated way that provides them with the ability to potentially offer enterprise connectivity solutions at scale. Enterprises may benefit from a secure, customized connectivity services enabled by a highly available 5G Cloud network.

    The collaboration between IBM and Nokia is good news for customers looking for strong 5G options.

  • Microsoft Announces Hybrid Quantum Computing

    Microsoft Announces Hybrid Quantum Computing

    Microsoft has added a major feature to Azure Quantum, integrating quantum and classical computing.

    Quantum computing is the next great computing revolution, bringing a level of processing power previously only imagined. While the industry has always understood that the hybrid model would be critical to unlocking quantum computing’s potential, achieving it has been a challenge. Microsoft is the first to deliver on the promise with its Integrated Hybrid feature in Azure Quantum.

    “Quantum computing is inherently hybrid. The key to unlocking impactful, commercial applications at scale will be deep integration between classical computing capabilities including HPC and AI with scaled quantum computing in the cloud,” writes Fabrice Frachon, Principal PM Lead, Azure Quantum.

    “Now, researchers can begin developing hybrid quantum applications with a mix of classical and quantum code together that run on one of today’s quantum machines, the Quantinuum H-Series, and soon QCI, in Azure Quantum. This capability unlocks a new generation of hybrid algorithms and is a first for the industry.”

    Microsoft is making it easy to begin experimenting with hybrid quantum computing:

    You can try integrated hybrid quantum computing on Azure Quantum for free. All users are eligible for $500 in Azure Quantum credits – use it to explore and experiment with any Quantinuum QPU available on the platform. You can also apply for up to $10,000 in research credits on Azure Quantum to further your quantum research and innovation. To get started, just set up an Azure account (check out free Azure accounts for students), create an Azure Quantum workspace in the Azure Portal, and start your quantum journey with Azure Quantum.

  • Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP

    “It’s really about customer experience,” says Nirosha Methananda, VP of Marketing at Bombora. “I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.”

    Nirosha Methananda, Vice President of Marketing at Bombora, discusses the challenges of marketing without annoying your potential customers by bombarding them with marketing messages in an interview with Logan Lyles on the B2B Growth Podcast:

    Marketing Is Really About the Customer Experience

    As a B2B marketer, I get marketed to a lot. It’s something that I have increasingly noticed and I’m probably not the only one. That’s just becoming part of the experience in terms of being inundated with different messaging and different calls and this, that, and the other. Use this, do this, buy this, whatever it is. It’s really not a great experience. It doesn’t necessarily provide value. Marketers are so busy as it is, and I know that is applicable across the board with everyone we are marketing to. Being able to cut through the noise and having an understanding of all these different things is very challenging. 

    Having on top of it being inundated with this constant flow of messaging like meet me, meet me, meet me, is not very helpful. That’s one of the things that I’m passionate about. It’s really about customer experience. I think that is something fundamental to marketing. I feel like we have gone down this path of almost over automating and having to constantly pounce on people without necessarily being conscious and mindful of what their experience is on the other end. From my experience, it’s leading to me switching off and ignoring messages. I’m sure I’m not the only one. 

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying

    It also leads to this annoyance and irritation which leads to distrust of brands and that’s not great for this industry. From a customer perspective those bad experiences, unfortunately, more than good experiences, they stay with you for longer and you remember that. Another thing that we don’t necessarily think of is that it’s wasteful. It’s wasteful of time and it’s wasteful of money especially for marketing and sales where money is a precious resource. It’s not something to be wasted. That’s basically why I’m passionate about creating a marketing strategy that’s not annoying.

    As an example, our Intent Event was our first flagship event that we did last year. It was a closed event so we did have limited numbers and we were limited as to what we could do with promotion. What we did was try to have mindfulness around what we were sending out and ensuring that it was helpful. Making sure that the recipients, the people that we invited, were given all the relevant information, but there was brevity in the communication as well as encouraging them to participate without forcing them to be there. 

    There was certainly some urgency around some of our communication but it wasn’t you need to attend this and this is why you must attend this. It was more about being a bit more subtle in presenting them the idea and the concept of what it was, why it would help them, and exactly the information that they needed. What that meant was not sending out multiple emails, being very controlled around it, really thinking about what the experience was before the event, to during the event, to after the event. We were really focused on the customer and making sure that all of the content and communication was educational and helpful.

    Create a Marketing Strategy That’s Not Annoying, Says Bombora VP Nirosha Methananda
  • Salesforce Announces Einstein GPT, a ChatGPT-Powered Einstein AI

    Salesforce Announces Einstein GPT, a ChatGPT-Powered Einstein AI

    Salesforce has announced Einstein GPT a major upgrade to its Einstein AI that uses OpenAI’s ChatGPT to improve its abilities.

    On the heels of an announcement by Microsoft that it was releasing Dynamics 365, the world’s first ERP/CRM copilot, Salesforce has fired back with Einstein GPT. The company describes it as “the world’s first generative AI CRM technology, which delivers AI-created content across every sales, service, marketing, commerce, and IT interaction, at hyperscale.”

    Salesforce says Einstein GPT will help transform the entire customer experience, thanks to generative AI.

    Einstein GPT will infuse Salesforce’s proprietary AI models with generative AI technology from an ecosystem of partners and real-time data from the Salesforce Data Cloud, which ingests, harmonizes, and unifies all of a company’s customer data. With Einstein GPT, customers can then connect that data to OpenAI’s advanced AI models out of the box, or choose their own external model and use natural-language prompts directly within their Salesforce CRM to generate content that continuously adapts to changing customer information and needs in real time.

    “The world is experiencing one of the most profound technological shifts with the rise of real-time technologies and generative AI. This comes at a pivotal moment as every company is focused on connecting with their customers in more intelligent, automated, and personalized ways,” said Marc Benioff, CEO of Salesforce. “Einstein GPT, in combination with our Data Cloud and integrated in all of our clouds as well as Tableau, MuleSoft, and Slack, is another way we are opening the door to the AI future for all our customers, and we’ll be integrating with OpenAI at launch.”

    Sales personnel will be able to use Einstein GPT to generate personalized emails to customers, while service personnel will be able to use the tech to generate articles based on case notes, as well as auto-generate personalized interaction with customers.

    Slack will also see Einstein GTP integration, giving users the ability to see in-depth insights.

    Marketing personnel will be able to use Einstein GPT to generate personalized content and engage with customers across mobile, email, web, and advertising.

    Even developers can get in on the action, using the technology to help generate code.

    “We’re excited to apply the power of OpenAI’s technology to CRM,” said Sam Altman, CEO of OpenAI. “This will allow more people to benefit from this technology, and it allows us to learn more about real-world usage, which is critical to the responsible development and deployment of AI — a belief that Salesforce shares with us.”

    https://youtu.be/YAsKRxXdyj0
  • Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Now Covers 200 Million

    Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband Now Covers 200 Million

    Verizon announced that it now covers 200 million people with its fastest 5G Ultra Wideband.

    Verizon uses the “5G Ultra Wideband” label to describe its mid and high-band 5G. High-band is the fastest flavor, but has very limited range. Mid-band, on the other hand, offers excellent range and speeds far in excess of 4G and most broadband, .

    Verizon has been working to roll out its midband 5G after spending billions buying spectrum at FCC auctions. The company just crossed a major milestone, now covering 200 million people with 5G Ultra Wideband.

    “Passing this new milestone provides more customers in more places with Verizon’s 5G Ultra Wideband mobile capabilities and fixed broadband,” said Joe Russo, EVP and President, Global Networks and Technology for Verizon. “For years we have been building the most reliable multi-purpose 5G network. In addition to mobility service, this expansion allows us to be aggressive insurgents in home and business broadband internet markets across the nation, offering customers choice and superior services.”

    In addition to its phone service, the company is also using its 5G Ultra Wideband to help power its Home Internet service.

    Verizon Home Internet is reliable and fast enough to power the connected devices in the home: smart TVs, tablets, phones, gaming consoles and more. With 5G service now in more communities with no required wires running to the home, customers have a choice in their home broadband service provider, giving residential customers the broadband speeds they need with the reliability from Verizon they have come to expect.

    Verizon may have started out behind T-Mobile in the 5G race, but the company is quickly catching up.

  • Marc Andreessen: ‘AI Won’t Cause Unemployment’

    Marc Andreessen: ‘AI Won’t Cause Unemployment’

    Tech icon Marc Andreessen has weighed in on AI’s impact on the workplace, and he doesn’t believe it will lead to unemployment.

    Artificial intelligence is dominating the news, thanks to OpenAI, ChatGPT, and Microsoft’s incorporation of the tech into its Bing search engine. One of the leading concerns surrounding AI is that it will lead to a mass wave of unemployment as AIs and chatbots replace human beings.

    According to Andreessen, however, those fears are largely overblown and ignore historical precedence. He lays out his case in a Substack post:

    We had two such anti-technology jobs moral panics in the last 20 years — “outsourcing” enabled by the Internet in the 2000’s, and “robots” in the 2010’s. The result was the best national and global economy in human history in pre-COVID 2019, with the most jobs at the highest wages ever.

    Andreessen then goes on to say that he could make all the “standard arguments against technologically-driven unemployment” that applied to outsourcing and robots, and apply them to AI. However, he says those arguments are not even needed because of a fundamental difference regarding AIs role in the current economy: it is illegal.

    That’s right, according to Andreesseen, AI is already illegal in much of the economy, restricting how much of an impact it can make on the larger job market.

    Andreessen breaks down the economy into two sectors: one that is heavily regulated, either by the government or by itself. These sectors, by their very nature, are “technologically stagnant.” In contrast, the other sectors are those industries where there is less regulation and technology is allowed to have a progressive and disruptive influence.

    Now think about what happens over time. The prices of regulated, non-technological products rise; the prices of less regulated, technologically-powered products fall. Which eats the economy? The regulated sectors continuously grow as a percentage of GDP; the less regulated sectors shrink. At the limit, 99% of the economy will be the regulated, non-technological sectors, which is precisely where we are headed.

    Therefore AI cannot cause overall unemployment to rise, even if the Luddite arguments are right this time. AI is simply already illegal across most of the economy, soon to be virtually all of the economy.

    Andreessen’s take is an interesting and thought-provoking analysis. You can read his full post here.

  • Germany Poised to Ban Huawei and ZTE From 5G Networks

    Germany Poised to Ban Huawei and ZTE From 5G Networks

    Germany is poised to ban Chinese firms Huawei and ZTE from participating in its 5G networks, dealing another blow to the firms.

    The US has already banned Huawei and ZTE, and has been pressuring its allies to do the same. Intelligence agencies have long expressed concerns over the companies’ ties to Beijing and their obligation to assist China’s foreign surveillance efforts.

    According to Reuters, Germany is preparing to ban the two companies, prohibiting telecom operators from using their equipment. In addition, Germany may even require operators to remove existing equipment manufactured by Huawei and ZTE, similar to measures taken in the US.

    Interestingly, although Huawei would not publicly speculate on Germany’s actions, a spokesperson told Reuters that the company had a “very good security record.”

    Of course, that statement ignores the fact that Huawei had the ability to monitor calls on one of the largest Dutch wireless networks, even raising the possibility that it could have monitored the calls of then prime minister Jan Peter Balkenende.

  • Mini-Review: Brave Search Introduces AI-Powered Summarizer

    Mini-Review: Brave Search Introduces AI-Powered Summarizer

    Brave Search has unveiled its latest feature, the AI-powered Summarizer, which is designed to give users quick answers.

    Microsoft Bing may be getting much of the news coverage for AI-powered search, but Brave is a popular, privacy-focused search engine that is also integrating AI capabilities. The company’s Summarizer tool is designed to give users “concise and to-the-point answers at the top of Brave Search results pages.”

    Best known for its Brave web browser, the company acquired the open search engine Tailcat in early 2021 and used it as the basis for its Brave Search. The company’s search engine is unique in that it is one of the few independent search engines that has its own web index. In contrast, many other independent search engines use Google or Bing and strip out those companies’ trackers.

    Read more: Brave Search Enters Public Beta

    I personally am a big fan of Brave Search, using it more times than I can count throughout the day. While it’s not perfect, I find Brave to provide more relevant results than either Google or Bing in many categories.

    The Summarizer began showing up at the top of Brave searches on March 2. In just the last few days, I’ve come to rely on the feature more and more, especially when looking for quick answers.

    For example, searching for “best Linux text editor” produces this answer:

    Brave Summarizer – Best Linux Text Editor

    Asking “what is WebProNews” results in:

    Brave Summarizer – What Is WebProNews

    Just for laughs, I even asked, “who is matt milano tech journalist,” and received this:

    Brave Summarizer – Who Is Matt Milano

    At least Summarizer didn’t confuse me with a certain NFL player…

    As the company points out and is evident in the above screenshots, Brave’s Summarizer is designed to provide authoritative answers, even backing them up with sources. The company emphasizes this advantage in its blog:

    Unlike a purely generative AI model, which is prone to spout unsubstantiated assertions, we trained our large language models (LLMs) to process multiple sources of information present on the Web. This produces a more concise, accurate answer, expressed in coherent language.

    In addition, the provenance of original sources of data is cited at all times via links. This maintains the rightful attribution of information, and helps users assess the trustworthiness of the sources, both of which are needed to mitigate the authority biases of large language models.

    It’s clear from Brave’s approach that the company does not believe in relying solely on AI for answers but believes it should be used responsibly, in combination with “critical thinking.”

    Using Web results enables the Summarizer to provide real-time information that is up to date with today’s events. Given the current advancements in AI, it’s crucial to remind users that one should not believe everything an AI system produces, in much the same way one should not believe everything that is published on the Web. At the risk of stating the obvious, we should not suspend critical thinking for anything we consume, no matter how impressive the results of AI models can be.

    “With 22 million queries per day, Brave Search is the fastest growing search engine since Bing. We provide independent search results from our own index of the Web, and today we’re further improving the relevance of those results with our AI-powered Summarizer,” said Josep M. Pujol, Chief of Search at Brave. “Unlike AI chat tools which can provide fabricated responses, the Summarizer generates a plain-written summary at the top of the search results page, aggregating the latest sources on the Web and providing source attribution for transparency and accountability. This open system is available to all Brave Search users today to help them better navigate search results.”

    Overall, I’m impressed with Brave’s implementation and will continue to rely heavily on it. Hopefully, the company will continue to evolve and improve it even more. In the meantime, all users can try it out without joining a waitlist.

  • Microsoft Dynamic 365 Copilot Is the First CRM/ERP AI Copilot

    Microsoft Dynamic 365 Copilot Is the First CRM/ERP AI Copilot

    Microsoft is continuing its rollout of artificial intelligence across its platforms, unveiling Microsoft Dynamic 365 Copilot.

    The company touts Dynamic 365 Copilot as “the world’s first copilot in both CRM and ERP that brings next-generation AI to every line of business.” Microsoft has already begun rolling out next-gen AI in its Bing search engine and is now looking to improve the CRM and ERP experience using the new tech.

    In particular, Microsoft wants to help CRM/ERP customers to reduce the daily monotony of necessary tasks, such as notetaking, data entry, and content generation. For example, in Dynamics 365 Sales and Viva Sales, AI can help users write email responses and even create email summaries of Teams meetings. Similarly, in Dynamics 365 Customer Service, AI can generate answers based on chats and email and customers will soon be able to build virtual agents in minutes for their unique needs.

    In Dynamics 365 Customer Insights and Dynamics 365 Marketing, AI can help personnel better understand their customer segments, even receiving insights, suggestions, and recommendations they otherwise may have missed.

    “The next era of business applications is being transformed by generative AI,” writes Charles Lamanna, CVP, Business Applications and Platform. “Users will increasingly expect their CRM and ERP applications to include AI-powered expertise. Dynamics 365 Copilot brings the latest AI breakthroughs to every line of business, improving customer experience, employee experience and operational efficiency. Essential to our approach as we bring these latest advancements to customers is our commitment to responsible AI by design – our framework for the safe deployment of AI technologies.

    “Today’s announcement builds on recent AI momentum across Microsoft 365, Dynamics 365, and the Power Platform. This includes: the next generation of AI capabilities in Microsoft Teams, the collaboration platform for work with more than 280 million monthly active users; Viva Sales, which helps sellers by bringing a sales copilot to their flow of work in Microsoft 365; and Power Apps, enabling citizen developers to write code using natural language.”

  • Microsoft Edge Brings Video Upscaling With to Low-Quality Videos

    Microsoft Edge Brings Video Upscaling With to Low-Quality Videos

    Microsoft Edge users are getting a useful new feature that will allow them to upscale old, low-quality videos

    According to Microsoft, one of out of three internet videos played in Edge are 480p or less. There are a number of possible reasons, including a media provider serving a low-quality version of the video or the original being shot in low-resolution. The company wants to change this and is leveraging the power of AI and machine learning to enhance video quality during playback.

    We are excited to introduce an experimental video enhancement experience, powered by AI technology from Microsoft research called Video Super Resolution. It is a technology that uses machine learning to enhance the quality of any video watched in a browser. It accomplishes this by removing blocky compression artifacts and upscaling video resolution so you can enjoy crisp and clear videos on YouTube, and other streaming platforms that play video content without sacrificing bandwidth no matter the original video resolution.

    Because of the computational requirements, the feature is only available on computers with either an Nvidia RTX 20/30/40 series GPU or an AMD RX5700-RX7800 series.

    The video being upscaled should also be played at less than 720p, should not be taller or wider than 192 pixels, and it cannot be protected by DRM.

    The experimental feature is available to 50% of users in the Canary channel.