Telecom equipment manufacturer Ericsson and the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IIT Madras) have joined forces for collaborative research in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Ericsson has committed to being a Platinum Consortium Member for a period of five years as part of this partnership.
The Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) outlines that Ericsson Research will actively participate in and support all research endeavours at the Centre for Responsible AI (CeRAI).
Dr. Magnus Frodigh, Global Head of Ericsson Research, emphasised the importance of AI in future networks, including 6G, which aim to seamlessly integrate the physical and digital realms. These networks will enable immersive AR/VR experiences and connect humans and machines through AI-controlled sensors.
Ensuring trust, fairness, and privacy compliance with responsible AI practices is crucial. The partnership with CeRAI at IIT Madras aligns with the Indian Government’s vision for the Bharat 6G program.
CeRAI is an interdisciplinary research center focused on responsible AI, aiming to become a premier hub for fundamental and applied research in this field. It aims to have an immediate impact on deploying AI systems within the Indian ecosystem.
Prof. B. Ravindran, Faculty Head of CeRAI at IIT Madras and Robert Bosch Centre for Data Science and AI (RBCDSAI) at IIT Madras, stressed that future networks will facilitate easier access to high-performing AI systems. Embedding responsible AI principles from the outset is essential.
The collaboration marks a significant step toward advancing responsible AI research and development, especially in the context of emerging technologies like 5G and 6G networks. Ericsson and IIT Madras aim to address the challenges and opportunities presented by AI in these evolving networks.
Meta, the parent company of Facebook, is gearing up to introduce an innovative generative AI chatbot known internally as “Gen AI Personas,” according to the sources familiar with the matter. This new chatbot, which is expected to be officially revealed during the Meta Connect event, aims to engage younger users with its colorful and dynamic behavior. Taking inspiration from the meteoric rise of ChatGPT, Meta’s new chatbot will come in various “personas” to cater to different user preferences.
Reportedly, Meta has already experimented with chatbot personas on Instagram, with some intriguing results. These personas include a “sassy robot” inspired by Bender from Futurama and an inquisitive “Alvin the Alien.” However, some concerns were raised about privacy implications, particularly with regard to data collection.
Meta intends to create numerous such chatbots, spanning a range of personalities. Additionally, the company is reportedly working on a chatbot creation tool that will allow celebrities to develop their chatbots for fan engagement. Some of these chatbots may also have a productivity focus, assisting users with coding and various tasks.
This move aligns with Meta’s broader AI initiatives, which include developing a powerful large language model to compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4. Additionally, Meta is working on an AI model to enhance its Horizon Worlds avatars. During the Meta Connect event, the company plans to delve further into its metaverse project and unveil the new Quest 3 headset.
Meghana Dhar, a former executive from Snap and Instagram, commented on the evolution of chatbots, noting that while they may not immediately scream “Gen Z,” younger users are increasingly comfortable with newer technology. Meta’s primary goal with these chatbots, like many of its products, is to engage users for longer periods, providing more opportunities to serve targeted advertisements.
Spotify has introduced an innovative artificial intelligence-powered feature that can translate podcasts into various languages while retaining the original host’s voice. Powered by OpenAI’s voice generation technology, this development aims to create “realistic synthetic voices” from short speech samples, enhancing the authenticity of the podcast listening experience.
In collaboration with prominent podcasters like Dax Shepard, Lex Fridman, Monica Padman, Steven Bartlett, and Bill Simmons, Spotify has already translated select episodes into Spanish, French, and German. These multilingual episodes will be accessible to both free users and paid subscribers in the near future.
Spanish, French, and German were chosen as the initial target languages, aligning with the preferences of Spotify‘s podcast audience. The company plans to expand this feature globally and has hinted at collaborating with more podcasters, including comedian Trevor Noah.
While specific details about the cost of this feature remain undisclosed, Spotify expressed its commitment to further enhancing podcast accessibility and global reach, indicating that this initiative is just the beginning of their efforts in this direction.
Spotify’s foray into AI-powered podcast translation represents a significant step toward breaking language barriers in the podcasting world. By preserving the host’s unique vocal characteristics while delivering content in different languages, the company aims to offer a more immersive and inclusive experience to its diverse user base.
OpenAI has announced significant enhancements to its popular generative AI assistant, ChatGPT, expanding its capabilities beyond text-based interactions. ChatGPT, known for generating essays, poems, and summaries from text prompts, is now set to support voice conversations and image-based searches.
ChatGPT can now see, hear, and speak. Rolling out over next two weeks, Plus users will be able to have voice conversations with ChatGPT (iOS & Android) and to include images in conversations (all platforms). https://t.co/uNZjgbR5Bmpic.twitter.com/paG0hMshXb
This development marks a notable evolution in the generative AI field, as OpenAI integrates voice-based assistant features with its powerful large language models (LLMs). Users can now engage in voice conversations with ChatGPT, asking it questions or requesting spontaneous tasks like crafting bedtime stories with vocal prompts.
Use your voice to engage in a back-and-forth conversation with ChatGPT. Speak with it on the go, request a bedtime story, or settle a dinner table debate.
The voice functionality is powered by a new text-to-speech model capable of producing human-like voices from text inputs. OpenAI collaborated with established voice actors to create five distinct voices and utilized the open-source Whisper speech recognition system to transcribe spoken words into text.
In addition to voice capabilities, ChatGPT users can utilize image-based queries. For example, they can upload an image and ask ChatGPT to provide explanations or instructions related to the image.
These new features will roll out to paying Plus and Enterprise subscribers over the next two weeks. To activate voice features, users must navigate to the app’s “settings” menu, select “new features,” and opt-in to voice conversations. They can then choose their preferred voice by tapping the headphone button in the top-right corner.
Initially, voice capabilities will be available in the ChatGPT Android and iOS apps on an opt-in beta basis, while image search will be accessible by default on all platforms. This expansion signifies OpenAI’s commitment to enhancing user interactions with ChatGPT and making it a more versatile and interactive AI assistant.
Bengaluru-based start-up Beyond has made headlines with its AI creation, August AI, which recently achieved exceptional results in critical medical exams. August AI successfully passed India’s National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test for Post Graduation (NEET PG) and the All India Institute of Medical Sciences Postgraduate (AIIMS PG) exams with an impressive score of 74.5 percent.
Not stopping there, it also excelled in the US Medical Licensing Examination (USMLE) with a score of 94.8 percent, surpassing well-established AI systems like OpenAI’s GPT-4 and Google’s MedPaLM.
Anuruddh Mishra, Co-Founder & CEO of Beyond, lauded August AI’s accomplishments, highlighting its profound grasp of medical knowledge. This achievement is attributed to the innovative approach taken by August AI, which combines large language models (LLMs) with a custom orchestration layer. The result is an educational tool that facilitates personalized and natural conversations, resembling everyday messaging platforms like WhatsApp.
August AI’s unique selling point lies in its understanding of the Indian healthcare system and its focus on India-specific data. Mishra emphasized that the platform prioritizes user privacy, ensuring that all conversations remain confidential.
While August AI can provide preliminary information regarding symptoms, it does not offer diagnoses. This stance aligns with the consensus among experts, including Srinivas Chilukuri from Apollo Proton Cancer Centres, who emphasized that AI should complement, not replace, qualified healthcare professionals.
Mishra also acknowledged the challenges ahead, particularly in terms of cost and data collection, in the development of Generative AI for healthcare. He called for support from the healthcare ecosystem, government, technologists, and investors as they aim to expand and enhance the platform’s capabilities.
Company culture is more than just ping-pong tables and free snacks – it’s a key factor in transforming an organization and taking it to the next level. But how can you really know if your company culture is as good as you think it is? You can’t just feel the vibe out – you need data.
Measuring culture might seem intangible at first. It’s not like you can just plug “company culture” into a spreadsheet. However, with the right analytics, you can actually quantify company culture in some surprisingly concrete ways. And when you can measure culture, you can improve it.
Why Company Culture Matters
A strong company culture has some major perks – it’s like the secret sauce behind the most successful organizations. Here are some of the key benefits of investing in culture:
Improves employee retention and satisfaction. We’ve all had those soul-crushing jobs that make you want to hide in the bathroom. A positive culture keeps employees engaged and happy. HR reporting templates can track retention rates, helping you to quantify the impact of culture.
Attracts top talent. These days, culture is one of the main things candidates evaluate before joining a company. With things like remote and hybrid work on the rise, culture is even more important for attracting superstars.
Improves productivity. When employees feel aligned with company values and supported, they produce higher quality work more efficiently.
Boosts customer satisfaction. An energized and empowered team leads to better customer experiences and higher satisfaction. Research shows companies with strong cultures are 89% more likely to report high customer satisfaction.
The Role of Analytics in Measuring Culture
Analytics lets you really dig into the nuts and bolts of company culture in a way that fuzzy qualitative assessments just can’t. By looking at hard metrics—we’re talking surveys, productivity numbers, and turnover rates—you get an objective view of how your culture is actually performing.
The data doesn’t lie. Analytics highlight any problem areas that need attention fast. Maybe engagement scores show an issue brewing in a department. Or workload stats indicate one team is burning out. You can also track progress over time to see if changes move the needle on culture.
Company culture used to seem nebulous and impossible to measure. But analytics make assessing and optimizing culture a science versus an art. There are so many powerful metrics you can tap into—NPS, turnover, productivity, equity analysis, sick days—even Glassdoor reviews can give you some revealing insights that will allow you to drive real change.
Measuring Employee Sentiment
One of the best ways to take the pulse on company culture is simply surveying your people. Anonymous engagement or satisfaction surveys provide invaluable, unfiltered insights into how employees truly feel.
Pulse surveys on the regular—maybe a quick monthly or quarterly check-in—enable you to monitor mood and morale over time. Ask a few targeted questions to surface concerns. Software can instantly analyze open-ended feedback using AI to surface common themes.
Focus surveys on must-knows like manager effectiveness, workloads, DEI, values alignment, growth opportunities, and trust. Proactively monitoring sentiment allows you to quickly respond to issues and maintain a happy, healthy culture. Consider tracking eNPS or Net Promoter Scores to benchmark against others in your industry
Evaluating Company Values in Action
Are your core values actually practiced or just wall decor? Analyze behaviors and decisions against stated values. Review how leaders respond to challenges based on values like integrity. Audit policies and procedures to ensure they align with and uphold stated values. Values should be embedded in every aspect of work. Consider occasional focus groups or third-party audits to assess how espoused values measure up to reality.
Look at performance reviews, promotions, recognition programs, and day-to-day interactions through the lens of your values. When values are truly lived, it will be reflected in the employee experience. Compare employee sentiment survey results to see if there are gaps between values on paper and in practice. Course correct as needed to walk the talk.
Tracking Employee Retention and Turnover
Dig into HR data on retention rates, exit interviews, and turnover costs. Analyze length of tenure by role, team, and demographics. Spot any issues early and dig into root turnover causes. Set clear goals around improving retention. Use analytics to keep your top talent onboard.
Consider developing retention rate KPIs by department and leader. Look at trends over time and against industry benchmarks. Interview both current employees and exiters to identify drivers of retention and turnover. Monitor for potential bias in who leaves. Develop targeted strategies to improve retention of key segments. Retaining your stars impacts so much – productivity, costs, customer service, and culture.
Assessing Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion
Regularly analyze demographics, promotion rates, compensation, and performance by gender, race, and diversity dimensions. Monitor for equity gaps, challenges, and opportunities. Survey underrepresented groups about inclusivity. Use analytics to foster a welcoming culture for all. Look at recruiting and hiring funnels through a DEI lens as well to attract diverse talent. Consider offering employee resource groups and mentoring to support inclusion.
Allyship starts from the top – ensure leaders model desired behaviors. Blind resume screening and structured interviews can reduce unconscious bias. Celebrate cultural events and occasions. There is always room for improvement on DEI – be proactive and keep it top of mind through continuous tracking and action.
Final Word
The bottom line is data doesn’t lie. Analytics empower you to objectively measure, monitor, and optimize your company culture like never before. By quantifying engagement, turnover, equity, values alignment, and more, you gain actionable insights to drive real change. Improving culture is a journey, but with the right KPIs guiding the way, you can get on track to building a workplace where top talent thrives and succeeds. And that ultimately fuels business success.
IBM has announced its latest offering, Watsonx Code Assistant for Z, a generative AI-powered product designed to expedite the translation of COBOL to Java on the ‘IBM Z’ platform, ultimately boosting developer productivity. Set to become generally available in the fourth quarter of 2023, this tool is geared toward accelerating COBOL application modernization.
Kareem Yusuf, PhD, Senior Vice President of Product Management and Growth at IBM Software, explained that Watsonx Code Assistant for Z is engineered for precision. It is built to swiftly and accurately convert code optimized for IBM Z, reducing time to market and expanding the pool of skilled developers.
IBM’s Watson Code Assistant simplifies the coding process by providing AI-generated recommendations to assist developers. It leverages generative AI and automated tooling to support mainframe application modernization, preserving the performance, security, and resilience attributes of IBM Z.
This product is specifically designed to refactor, transform, and validate COBOL code, speeding up the time-to-value and enhancing capabilities for essential application modernization on IBM Z.
It relies on a 20 billion-parameter large language model (LLM) for code processing.
COBOL, a widely used data processing language, plays a critical role in numerous business and operational processes worldwide. By employing Watsonx Code Assistant for Z, developers can more easily and incrementally transform COBOL business services into well-architected, high-quality Java code compared to other methods.
Generative AI empowers developers to efficiently assess, update, validate, and test code, enabling them to modernise large applications more swiftly while concentrating on higher-impact tasks. IBM’s Watsonx Code Assistant for Z represents a significant step forward in COBOL-to-Java translation and mainframe application enhancement.
YouTube has introduced a suite of AI-powered tools to empower creators and artists, enabling them to produce, edit, and share content in innovative ways. These AI-driven capabilities aim to simplify the creative process and expand creative expression possibilities, ultimately helping YouTube creators reach wider audiences.
Neal Mohan, YouTube’s CEO, expressed the platform’s commitment to empowering creators and artists by making complex tasks easier and turning impossible dreams into reality.
At the “Made on YouTube” event, YouTube showcased “Dream Screen,” an experimental generative AI tool for Shorts, the platform’s short-form video feature. Dream Screen rapidly generates AI-generated video or photo backgrounds based on user prompts, catering to Shorts content creators.
YouTube Studio introduced an AI feature that generates personalized topic ideas and outlines for videos, based on trending content. Additionally, an AI-powered music recommendation system suggests audio based on video descriptions.
The newly launched YouTube Create app offers video editing tools, including precise editing, automatic captioning, voiceovers, and a library of filters, effects, transitions, and royalty-free music. It simplifies video production without requiring complex editing software. YouTube’s AI initiatives also include “Aloud,” an AI-powered dubbing tool being tested in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and assistive search in Creator Music to help creators find suitable soundtracks.
Lyor Cohen, YouTube’s Global Head of Music, emphasized their collaboration with the creative community and the music industry to harness AI’s potential in amplifying creativity and driving business innovation. YouTube aims to empower its vast community of creators and artists by leveraging AI as a valuable tool, ushering in a new era of creativity and content production.
A small town in southern Spain has been rattled by a scandal involving the distribution of AI-generated images of young girls within several local schools. These deepfake images, primarily sourced from the girls’ social media profiles where they appeared fully clothed, were disseminated across at least four out of Almendralejo’s five middle schools, as reported by El País.
The artificial intelligence application responsible for this disturbing act processed the images to create new, fake ones portraying the girls in a naked state, according to the report. This unsettling development stemmed from the use of an AI-powered app known as “Clothoff,” which allows users to manipulate images to undress subjects.
The victims in this case include more than 20 girls aged 11 to 17 in Almendralejo, a town situated in the western Spanish region of Extremadura. The matter came to light after Miriam Al Adib, a doctor and the mother of one of the affected girls, used her social media platform to raise awareness of the incident.
The distressing situation has prompted a collective response, with parents creating a WhatsApp group to support the victims. At least 10 individuals have been identified as suspects in the case, some of whom are reportedly as young as 13 years old. It’s important to note that, in Spain, children under 14 years old cannot face criminal charges.
Spain’s national police force, la Policía Nacional, continues to investigate this troubling incident that has left a profound impact on the girls and their community.
Ever since the launch of Sam Altman’s Worldcoin project, the hype around the concept has significantly risen. Numerous questions are being asked about the same and curiosity as to what the technology holds for the future is gripping the masses. What Worldcoin is, how one can register for the same, various challenges facing the project, how safe the project is, and what are its chances of being successful, are some of the questions being asked.
What is Worldcoin?
Worldcoin, the ambitious cryptocurrency and digital ID project spearheaded by OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, was launched recently on July 24 after years in development. The “orb,” a biometric device that scans the iris, which must be used in person and provides users with a distinct digital identity to confirm they are a genuine human and not a bot, is the distinctive feature of the project.
The project also includes a cryptocurrency called Worldcoin (WLD) that can be used after a user has verified their identity, as well as an app that enables users to use it to send and receive payments, make purchases, and transfer other digital assets. During its launch last month, Worldcoin announced that it is expanding its eyeball-scanning operations to 35 cities in 20 countries after gaining more than 2 million users during a trial period.
Alex Balani, who co-founded Worldcoin, is the main force behind Worldcoin at the moment. Until it reaches its final level of decentralization, Blani is the CEPO of Tools for Humanity, the company that is developing Worldcoin. Balani said, “The necessity for identity verification is no longer a topic of serious debate in the era of artificial intelligence. Worldcoin aims to create a privacy-first, decentralized, and maximally inclusive solution to this issue.”
Users must first download the World App before they can register with an email address and password. After registering, they need to visit the nearest Worldcoin orb operator which can be located through the Worldcoin application or the official website. One can easily book the slot for the scan through either of the options. To verify that the user is a human, the orb will scan their iris. After the user’s human identity is confirmed, a World ID is given to the user which can be used for transactions. After receiving the World ID, registered users will receive one WLD token as compensation. The app allows you to view your WLD balance and transactions. Additionally, you can send and receive WLD by inputting addresses or scanning QR codes.
How safe is Worldcoin?
According to the official website, the first wallet created for the Worldcoin project, World App, may be downloaded and used without providing any personal information. This includes, name, phone number, photo, passport, etc. The Worldcoin ecosystem powers World ID, a global identity technology that lets the users maintain anonymity. It is not linked to your wallet because they both have separate accounts with unique keys and different functions. Each holder of a World ID can choose which (if any) personal data to share with third parties when using World ID because everything is optional and no personal data is divulged by default.
When it comes to the Orb and the captured iris images, after generating the iris code, the Orb by default immediately deletes iris photos. This allows Worldcoin to train its iris identification and segmentation models and related algorithms using the users’ iris photos. Considering all this, it seems quite believable that users will have proper control over their personal information, however it is a little early to set anything in stone.
Despite the company’s pledge to never disclose the personal data, the privacy policy of Worldcoin does reserve the right to share user information “between and among their current and future parents, affiliates, subsidiaries and other companies under common control and ownership, in conjunction with merger negotiations, and in order to respond to mandatory legal demands.” This does leave one concerned about their privacy.
Will Worldcoin be a success?
The Worldcoin project has encountered its fair share of criticisms since its unofficial launch a few years ago. The use of biometric data, such as eye scans, to confirm users’ identities is a major source of concern when it comes to the privacy dangers associated with the collection, storage, and utilization of such data. Others have expressed concern about Worldcoin being used to identify people in such a personal and specific way, given that one crucial feature of the blockchain, the technology underlying cryptocurrencies and other distributed networks, is to conceal one’s identity. For some, the fact that the project offered WLD cryptocurrency in exchange for early signups amounted to a fair share of skepticism and criticism for being a blatant bribe.
Furthermore, the orb scan is not entirely oblivious to any flaws. According to three persons familiar with the matter, Worldcoin uncovered a vulnerability last year where operators were trying to trick the system into making several signups for the same user. At least three Kenyan operators were dismissed for exploiting the Orb to increase their signup rates in an effort to receive bigger rewards. Earlier this year, the startup issued a software upgrade to address the problem. According to a former Worldcoin employee, the incident was so serious that senior authorities, including CEO Alex Blania, were informed.
Now that Worldcoin has officially started, Altman stated he intends to sign up 50 million users. Given the requirement for in-person appointment for each iris scan, it is uncertain how rapidly the company will be able to scale. According to the Worldcoin website, the project is actively recruiting orb operators for various locations and has already manufactured about 2000 orbs. Despite this, doubts still remain as to how the targets will be achieved.
Conclusion
There seem to be major issues with Worldcoin that need to be addressed. First, if we keep aside the novelty of scanning the iris to verify identity, the Worldcoin project raises serious questions about the sensitive data protection and the implications of that data being disclosed in any form. Second, it remains unclear how the colossal number of scans will be feasible, let alone the worries around how easy it is to tamper with Orb to recreate identity.
While much is being said about Altman’s Worldcoin, it seems that the co-founders are unclear about the direction in which the project is going and its application. Financial transactions, voting, airdropping cryptocurrency, remittances, and website logins are among the list of potential uses for Worldcoins identification system, according to one document. As the company is still in its early stage, it might be premature to make any bold predictions. However, once the above-mentioned issues are addressed and the company wins the trust of its users, Worldcoin does have the potential of becoming a household name in the industry.
