DST and Intel India to boost AI Readiness

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March 3, 2022

The Indian government’s Department of Science and Technology (DST) has partnered with semiconductor manufacturing giant Intel to boost artificial intelligence (AI) readiness in the country.

The newly announced joint program named ‘Building AI Readiness among Young Innovators’ was officially launched on the National Science Day by Union Minister of State for Science and Technology, Dr. Jitendra Singh.

The program aims to improve digital readiness among Indian students participating in DST’s INSPIRE-Awards MANAK scheme from grades 6 to 10. The newly launched program will teach students the fundamentals of AI and its various disciplines, such as computer vision, natural language processing, statistical data, and more.

Building AI Readiness among Young Innovators was held as part of the National Science Day celebrations, which marked the end of a fantastic science week organized by the ‘Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav’ program. This new development is also a step towards Intel’s commitment to promoting artificial intelligence readiness in India.

Dr. Jitendra Singh said, “Scientists must be classified in three categories as per age – the first one being children below 15 years. Every day, we come across incredible innovations by young minds.” He further added that we need to identify them when they are young and offer them mentorship along with an opportunity to experiment and explore.

The program will combine both technology and socio-economic aspects in order to create an AI-ready generation by equipping students with the knowledge and skills necessary to use AI effectively.

“We are collaborating with governments globally to build a digital-first mindset and expand access to the AI skills needed for current and future jobs,” said Director APJ – Government Partnerships & Initiatives, Global Government Affairs Group, Intel, Shweta Khurana.

She also mentioned that they are looking forward to working with the Department of Science and Technology to help India become more digitally ready.

Walmart launches AI Virtual Clothing try-on technology

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 3, 2022

Multinational retail corporation Walmart announces the launch of its new artificial intelligence-powered technology named Choose My Model that allows shoppers to try clothes virtually.

The recently released feature will considerably help buyers in shopping and aid Walmart in providing a better buying experience to its customers.

Customers can choose from 50 models with heights ranging from 5’2″ to 6’0″ and sizes ranging from XS to XXXL using this feature.

Additionally, Walmart plans to provide 70 new model options in the coming weeks, allowing customers to choose from a more extensive range of sizes, skin tones, and hair colors.

Earlier, Walmart had acquired Zeekit, and this new technology is a product developed after the acquisition. Walmart’s goal with Zeekit is to provide a more inclusive, immersive, and personalized digital experience that more closely resembles physical shopping.

Choose My Model will allow customers to visualize how items will appear on them without going to a store.

Executive Vice President of Apparel and Private Brands at Walmart US, Denise Incandela, said, “We want to have a best in class shopping experience online, and we feel like this is shopping of the future, and we wanted to lead the way.”

She further added that everything boils down to giving the customer the assurance they need to make that purchase. Choose My Model is currently available on select items from Free Assembly, Scoop, ELOQUII Elements, Sofia Jeans by Sofia Vergara, Time and Tru, Athletic Works, No Boundaries, Terra & Sky, Avia, and numerous others.

Walmart mentioned it had received multiple positive feedbacks from customers for its Choose My Model feature, and they plan to increase its capabilities in the future.

“The extraordinary, positive customer feedback out of the gate underscores our opportunity and ability to solve a common online shopping problem and build a true, personal connection between Walmart and our customers,” added Denise.

Udacity and Standard Chartered to offer 100 scholarships to Students and Tech Professionals

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 3, 2022

Udacity Standard Chartered 00 scholarships

Online learning platform Udacity announces that it has partnered with Standard Chartered to offer 100 scholarships to science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students and technology professionals.

The fully-funded scholarships will be provided to individuals from Bengaluru and Chennai. Those who get selected as one of the 100 scholarship winners will begin their Nanodegree program.

The primary goal of Udacity and Standard Chartered is to develop a pipeline of qualified candidates who will be considered for job openings at Standard Chartered after successful completion of the program. After finishing the course, participants will obtain an official diploma and a portfolio of real-world projects.

Udacity and Standard Chartered’s course will impart fundamental knowledge and skills that the market demands to make them industry-ready. Learners will be considered for immediate job opportunities at Standard Chartered, involving data science, full-stack engineering, and blockchain development fields.

Udacity and Standard Chartered have developed three programs to train learners for specific roles, namely –

Data Scientist – Learners will be taught subjects like NLP, computer vision, TensorFlow, deep learning, artificial intelligence, and more to help them gain real-world data science experience.
Full-stack Software Engineer – The course will teach data modeling, SQL, full-stack app development on AWS, Azure applications, and more.
Blockchain Developer – The program will impart essential skills like cryptography basics, blockchain fundamentals, infrastructure security, blockchain architecture, and many more.

The selected individuals will be placed in complex projects and use cases, including artificial intelligence, machine learning, and blockchain at Standard Chartered. The application process started on 2nd March and will continue till 1st April 2022.

The course will commence on 11th April and will end on 11th August 2022. The nanodegree program also includes multiple opportunities to participate in networking and mentoring sessions to learn industry best practices.

Interested candidates can apply for this scholarship from the official website of Udacity.

NASSCOM and Microsoft announce 2nd ‘AI Gamechangers’

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 3, 2022

Technology giant Microsoft and NASSCOM announce their 2nd AI Gamechangers awards to boost artificial intelligence adoption in India.

The newly announced award program will provide startups, enterprises, academia, governments, and NGOs a platform to showcase their innovations in the artificial intelligence space and also promote the adoption of such technologies.

In India, over 5,000 AI patents have been registered in the recent decade, with 94% of them filed in the last five years. Therefore, initiatives like AI Gamechangers will also motivate other companies and bodies to develop new products and showcase them in front of a larger audience.

The winners will be featured in NASSCOM’s flagship Xperience AI Summit’s annual ‘AI Gamechangers’ compendium.

President of NASSCOM, Debjani Ghosh, said, “India was ranked 8th in the top 10 countries by AI patent families on a global level, an impressive accomplishment considering India had no AI-related patent filing prior to 2002.”

She further added that AI has enormous growth potential, but realizing it will require scalable partnerships among stakeholders, the correct mix of skills, a strong focus on incentivizing R&D, data availability, and rules that enable responsible AI.

By 2025, data and AI might add $450-500 billion to India’s GDP, accounting for 10% of the $5 trillion targets. Therefore it is important that initiatives are taken to prompt the adoption of artificial intelligence solutions in the ever-developing world.

National Technology Officer at Microsoft India, Dr. Rohini Srivathsa, said, “We have a huge opportunity to make AI work at scale for the country, enabling investment, jobs, and inclusive growth.”

Salesforce launches Tableau CRM telco churn prediction AI

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 3, 2022

salesfore tableau CRM telco churn prediction AI

Leading CRM software company Salesforce announces the launch of its new Tableau CRM telco churn prediction AI.

The newly released feature aids communications service providers in retaining users and keeping them engaged with existing service offerings.

The prediction tool uses artificial intelligence to accurately identify users who can potentially leave or unsubscribe from the platform.

According to recent data, if customer needs are not satisfied, users are more likely to discontinue their contracts and switch to a different service provider. Therefore the new feature will allow companies to identify such users and take measures to retain them.

Communication service providers can create a single picture of their customers with Churn Predictions for Tableau CRM, which includes revenue and service history, historical customer service interactions, and a measure of account health.

In addition, the artificial intelligence-powered feature also comes with predictive analytics capabilities that display suitable product recommendations and additional discounts for customers to help CSPs retain their customers.

Employees who are in direct contact with customers can use this functionality to better anticipate customer needs and make recommendations for the next steps to improve customer satisfaction.

Gartner analyst Jason Wong said, “To telcos, it’s a big deal because churn is everything to them. (They want to) retain as many customers as possible because switching costs are very expensive — especially when you factor in some of the device giveaways.”

Churn Predictions combines signals and insights from customer interactions and data, including the type of customer service, history, and resolution information, with external data, such as billing, network, and data consumption, using artificial intelligence.

Then the tool analyses gathered data to provide predictive analytics to help users identify which customers may be at a higher risk of terminating services.

Churn Predictions for Tableau CRM is now broadly accessible, and it is a part of Salesforce’s Communications Cloud offering for telecom firms.

NVIDIA says Hackers collected Company Data after Cyberattack

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 2, 2022

Technology giant NVIDIA validates that its network was compromised in a cyberattack that resulted in a leak of the company’s proprietary data and employee login information.

According to some sources, a group called LAPSUS$ claims responsibility for the attack and alleges to have obtained 1TB of data, including schematics and driver source code. However, the hacker’s group said that NVIDIA has yet not reached out to them.

NVIDIA stated that it became aware of the breach on February 23rd and that it does not expect any disruption to its business or ability to serve its customers as a result of the incident.

“We are aware that the threat actor took employee credentials and some NVIDIA proprietary information from our systems and has begun leaking it online,” said NVIDIA in an official statement.

In response to the attack, NVIDIA identified the attackers and infected the perpetrator’s system with ransomware, encrypting the stolen data. Reports suggest that LAPSUS$ has already begun leaking a 19GB archive containing information about NVIDIA’s software.

The leaked information also contains the source code for the company’s frame-rate boosting DLSS technology. LAPSUS$ said that the leaked data was found from the 1TB cache they managed to collect from NVIDIA during the cyberattack.

Furthermore, LAPSUS$ claims to have a GPU driver capable of bypassing NVIDIA’s Ethereum mining limiter on the company’s RTX 3000 graphics cards. NVIDIA stated that it has no evidence of ransomware being deployed on their network or that this is related to the Russia-Ukraine conflict.

A spokesperson from NVIDIA said,” We are investigating an incident. Our business and commercial activities continue uninterrupted.”

He also mentioned that they are still assessing the nature and scope of the incident and have no additional information to share at the moment.

Cruise and Waymo receives permits to charge fares for Autonomous Vehicle rides in California

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Dipayan Mitra

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March 2, 2022

Cruise Waymo charge fares Autonomous Vehicle rides

General Motors’ Cruise and Alphabet’s Waymo receive permits to charge fares for their autonomous vehicles taxi service in California, United States.

The permit was issued by California’s Public Utility Commission, allowing the companies to charge customers for their ride but with a safety driver on board during trips.

Earlier, Cruise and Waymo were only allowed to provide passenger transportation for testing purposes, with no fare collecting allowed. The new development is a significant step towards both the companies’ goal of commercializing their autonomous taxi service.

This is the first time California authorities have allowed the true commercialization of autonomous taxi services. The newly granted permit will allow Waymo to operate at speeds of up to 65 mph in parts of San Francisco and San Mateo counties.

Whereas, Cruise can travel at up to 30 mph on some public roads in San Francisco between 10 PM to 6 AM. However, a common restriction for both companies is that they are not allowed to run their operations during heavy rainfall and dense fog.

Vice President of Global Government Affairs at Cruise, Prashanthi Raman, said, “another positive incremental step forward. Our mission has always been to launch a driverless commercial ride-hail service here in San Francisco, and that’s what we’ll continue working with our regulators to deliver.”

General Motors and Cruise petitioned US regulators earlier this month for permission to deploy a few self-driving vehicles without human controls, such as steering wheels or brake pedals.

Waymo recently announced that it plans to apply what it has learned from operating its autonomous commercial taxi service in Arizona to its expanding service in San Francisco.

“We’ll begin offering paid trips through the program in the coming weeks,” said Waymo in a statement.

Oral-B introduces AI Toothbrush to personalize Teeth Brushing Routine

By

Dipayan Mitra

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March 2, 2022

Oral hygiene products manufacturing company Oral-B introduces artificial intelligence to personalize the teeth brushing routine of customers.

The company has announced the release of its new electric toothbrush in its iO line, which includes artificial intelligence to provide a tailored experience. The announcement was recently made by Oral-B during the ongoing Mobile World Congress event.

With a customized experience. The new iO10 with iOSense, the latest edition to the innovative iO line, will revolutionize the way people brush their teeth across the globe.

Oral-B employs a smart device called iOSense, which uses artificial intelligence to provide real-time guidance and a personalized brushing experience for healthier gums and teeth.

Senior Vice President of P&G Europe’s Oral Care division, Benjamin Binot, said, “iO 10 with iOSense is our latest commitment to building a digital health ecosystem that leads with advanced technologies, accessible solutions and more effective educational tools to improve oral care and health for all.”

He further added that the advancement represents a new era of brushing that is more than simply an electric toothbrush but a blend of cutting-edge technology, appealing design, and outstanding performance.

Oral-B’s new brush has a charging time of 3 hours and comes with a mobile Power2go charging case to allow customers to use the product while traveling.

The key feature of the one-of-a-kind artificial intelligence-powered toothbrush includes a timer for optimal brushing time along with a Wi-Fi clock, iOSense smart lights system to assist in reaching every area in the mouth, and an Oral-B tracking application to monitor goals and provide personalized feedback after every brushing.

Oral-B carried out an intensive study over six months, which shows that 96% of the users moved from unhealthy to healthy gums by using the newly launched AI toothbrush.

Furthermore, the iO toothbrush removes 62% more plaque along the gumline and 26% more in hard-to-reach places when compared to the Sonicare DiamondClean SMART toothbrush.

TSSC and DSEU sign MoU to offer training in 5G, AI, ML, & IoT technologies

By

Dipayan Mitra

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March 2, 2022

India’s Telecom Sector Skill Council (TSSC) and Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (DSEU) recently signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to offer training in multiple new-age technologies, including 5G, artificial intelligence, machine learning (AI/ML), Internet of Things (IoT), and others.

We are glad to share that DSEU and Telecom Sector Skill Council have signed an MoU. The partnership will focus on curriculum development, industry integration along with the setting up a state of the art lab. pic.twitter.com/BbMhf4twfb
— Delhi Skill and Entrepreneurship University (@dseu_official) February 19, 2022

According to officials, the new partnership is a step towards boosting the employability of Indians in the advanced technology sector. It is a three-year collaboration in which DSEU students and other aspirants from the NCR region will receive skill development training through jointly developed multiple courses.

TSSC will assist DSEU in creating a Center of Excellence (CoE) at DSEU that will be together run as the Telecom Center of Excellence.

Vice-Chancellor of DSEU, Dr. Neharika Vohra, said, “As academic partners of TSSC, we will create ICT courses and training labs that will set apart the candidates passing out of DSEU. Industry 4.0 will require a manpower base well-versed in futuristic technologies like 5G, ML, AI, IoT, etc.”

She further added that they want to close the skill gap in the present and the future through this new partnership.

The official statement stated that the three-year contract includes DSEU co-certification with TSSC for various programs offered under the ‘Center of Excellence initiative, placement support for TSSC students, and DSEU building capacity while operating as a Train the Trainer (ToT) academy for the courses.

CEO of TSSC, Arvind Bali, said, “This partnership has a lot of potentials to create a stir in the skill ecosystem and potentially lead to a long duration degree (3 years) course on telecom which will be wholeheartedly welcomed by the industry,” The newly announced courses will be offered to learners from the academic year of 2022-2023.

Net AI unveils Mobile Traffic Analysis and Demand Estimation Tool at Mobile World Congress

By

Dipayan Mitra

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March 2, 2022

Network intelligence company Net AI unveils its new mobile traffic analysis and demand estimation tool at Mobile World Congress.

Net AI’s technology will be showcased at Hall 6, stand 6C31.9, during the MWC event. The highly capable tool named O-Ran caters to all the needs of network providers to offer better efficiency and increase their revenue.

The introduction of 5G and the applications will drastically raise network complexity, causing humans to be unable to manually run and optimize networks. That is where precisely Net AI’s newly showcased tool comes into play.

O-RAN Alliance advocates for intelligence to be embedded at all network levels as network infrastructures must be able to learn as it goes and operate at machine speed.

Net AI’s cutting-edge technology excels in the field of automation, and it fits right in with this framework. The company’s solution can be deployed at the cell or core level, providing visibility into end-to-end resource utilization.

Mobile operators can seamlessly determine where to best arrange network functions/compute units when they have real-time knowledge of service-wise traffic consumption provided by Net AI’s technology.

Co-founder and CEO of Net AI, Paul Patras, said, “We are witnessing significant changes in the Telecom sector as 5G is being rolled out and operators’ appetite for cloud/edge computing and artificial intelligence is growing.”

He further added that the company is excited to be riding this wave, and they are very keen to engage with potential early adopters of our technology.

United Kingdom-based network intelligence firm Net AI was founded by Marco Fiore, Mark Chapman, and Paul Patras in 2021. The company is best known for developing a cloud-native platform that uses AI to provide real-time analytics, driving the optimization of virtualized mobile networks.

To date, Net AI has raised total funding of £750 thousand from investors like Techstart Ventures, Old College Capital, Edinburgh Technology Funds, and others in its pre-seed funding round.