Paytm Money launches Artificial Intelligence-powered Voice Trading

By

-

November 16, 2021

Paytm Money artificial intelligence voice trading

Investment and wealth management business platform Paytm Money launches its new self-developed artificial intelligence-powered voice trading service. The newly launched offering will allow users to buy, sell, monitor, and explore securities using voice commands.

This service makes the process of stock monitoring and investing an easy task for investors as they do not need to spend time typing. The feature is currently available in beta for selected users. The official rollout of the artificial intelligence-powered voice trading feature can be expected soon.

This new development comes after the announcement of Paytm’s IPO to be listed on November 18, 2021. The AI feature uses a neural network and natural language processing to quickly understand the voice commands of users and deliver desired results on screen in a short time.

A company official said, “This service has been launched in line with Paytm Money’s efforts to offer next-gen and AI-driven tech to elevate user experience.” Paytm is currently accelerating its research and development process for various next-generation technologies.

This AI voice trading service is a step forward towards the company’s aim of providing top-notch tech services and features to its customers. Paytm believes that this new AI feature will drastically improve user experience and will bring more convenience to tech-savvy investors.

CEO of Paytm Monet, Varun Sridhar, said, “At Paytm Money, our focus has always been to elevate user experience and be the first to leverage technology to make investing faster, cheaper and easier. With a mobile-first and interconnected world of devices and the much awaited launch of 5G.”

He further mentioned that this new AI-powered feature would help users omit five to six usual tasks involved in trading in a dynamic environment with simple voice commands.

OTP Bank selects SambaNova to build AI Supercomputer

By

Dipayan Mitra

-

November 15, 2021

One of the leading banking groups, OTP Bank, announces that it has selected AI hardware and integrated systems developing firm SambaNova Systems to build Europe’s fastest artificial intelligence-powered supercomputer.

This strategic partnership aims to develop a multi-track artificial intelligence system and deploy it in commercial banks. The system will be built on SambaNova Data as a Service GPT. OTP Bank has collaborated with the Ministry of Innovation and Technology of Hungry to provide this technology to various public, private sector industries, and higher education institutions.

The technology will offer faster and personalized financial services to over 17 million bank customers using the artificial intelligence-enabled supercomputer. SambaNova will develop the supercomputer in a manner that it can process vast amounts of text data in a very short time.

Head of digital division, and deputy CEO of OTP Bank, Peter Csanyi, said, “This is a unique collaboration between OTP Group, ITM, and SambaNova Systems to provide an incredible resource to the country and the Central and Eastern European region.”

He further added that they are highly pleased to announce this new development. According to him, the new AI-powered supercomputer will represent a unique AI capability to build GPT-3 level language models for languages across CEE. This is a multi-year strategic partnership between the two companies in which SambaNova has agreed to develop a one-of-a-kind Hungarian language model.

SambaNova is a United States-based hardware and software developing firm was founded by Christopher Re, Kunle Olukotun, and Rodrigo Liang in 2017. To date, the company has raised over $1 billion from investors like SoftBank Vision Funds, BlackRock, Intel Capital, Temasek Holdings, and many more.

CEO and Co-founder of SambaNova Systems, Rodrigo Liang, said, “Large language models are quickly becoming the primary interface to the enterprise and AI will drive the transformation of industries.”

He also mentioned that this deployment at OTP Bank would show the entire world the possibilities of artificial intelligence solution implementations in document-heavy industries like banking and finance.

DDN Launches AI Innovation Lab with NVIDIA

By

Dipayan Mitra

-

November 14, 2021

Data management and storage solutions provider DDN announces the launch of its new artificial intelligence innovation lab in collaboration with computing platform company NVIDIA. The new AI innovation lab will be built in Singapore with the motive of creating innovative AI technologies and accelerating the deployment of artificial intelligence solutions in enterprises.

The innovation lab will offer all the necessary infrastructure to users in order to build, test, and optimize highly scalable artificial intelligence solutions. The laboratory will feature the best available technologies, including computing, networking, and storage systems. It will have a shared parallel architecture for reducing redundancy and boosting reliability.

General Manager of India and South East Asia at DDN, Atul Vidwansa, said, “As a trusted data storage solutions provider, we are excited to collaborate with NVIDIA to deliver Intelligent Infrastructure to enterprises locally to develop, test and deploy rich AI solutions at scale.”

He further added that this new development proves the company’s commitment to enabling customers to build innovative artificial intelligence solutions quickly and reliably.

The artificial intelligence lab will be powered by DDN’s A3I® AI400X™ systems, which would ensure customers get the best possible performance and help them build AI solutions effectively. When coupled with the NVIDIA GDX system, the capabilities, and performance of the AI lab increase exponentially. The technology used in the AI lab is certified by NVIDIA for scalable NVIDIA GDX POD and SuperPOD configurations.

Dennis Ang, from NVIDIA, said, “The AI Innovation Lab will focus on enabling customers to innovate and develop industry-specific AI solutions to help customers and partners to co-create proof of concepts, innovate and test production-ready solutions in the lab.”

He also mentioned that their collaboration with DDN would help organizations access best-in-class computing storage infrastructure that would help in fast-tracking various artificial intelligence and data science initiatives.

Sber reveals its new Supercomputer named Christofari Neo

By

Dipayan Mitra

-

November 13, 2021

Sberbank and its cloud service-providing subsidiary SberCloud reveal their new supercomputer named Christofari Neo. It is the company’s second supercomputer that will help in providing enhanced artificial intelligence-powered services like cloud computing and virtual assistance software.

According to company officials, the supercomputer has been named after the bank’s first customer named Nikolai Christofari, who visited the bank 180 years ago. Sber is Russia’s one of the largest banks, but it is now showing more interest in advanced technologies as Sber increases its investments in tech companies and startups.

Chief Technology Officer of Sberbank, David Rafalovsky, said to Reuters, “We are not constrained in terms of ability to invest, in terms of capital. We are investing more now (than a year ago). Our investments in core IT infrastructure and products overall went up.”

According to Sberbank, their involvement in the technology is for tackling the issue of shrinking margins in traditional baking services. Sberbank, along with other Russian companies, including Yandex and Tinkoff, is now creating a new ecosystem of cybersecurity, e-commerce, and cloud services technologies. The companies plan to keep investing more in technology.

“The Christofari Neo supercomputer will enable Sber to bring computing speeds to the next level, unlocking new opportunities for us to implement breakthrough services and products with underlying cutting-edge technology. SberCloud’s current and new customers will have access to the capacities of two supercomputers at once,” said Rafalovsky.

He also mentioned that the new supercomputer is easy to use as it has been integrated with machine learning space and Christofari platforms. Customers will be able to access the performance of Chistofari Neo quicker and easier than ever before.

Exotel acquires Conversational AI platform Cogno AI

By

Dipayan Mitra

-

November 12, 2021

Cloud telephony service providing company Exotel acquires conversational AI platform Cogno AI. With this new acquisition, Exotel wants to use the expertise of Congo AI to develop new intelligence omnichannel conversation tools.

Company officials have not provided any information regarding the valuation of this acquisition deal. Exotel understands the demands of the fast-changing customer conversations domain and aims to bring innovations to revolutionize how companies interact with their customers.

Exotel will add co-browsing functionality to its product suite and develop artificial intelligence-powered customer engagement solutions. Earlier, Exotel had acquired Ameyo, and soon after, the new acquisition shows the company’s strong motive of enhancing its technology to develop cutting-edge AI products.

Co-founder and CEO of Exotel, Shivku, said, “Distributed workforce, adoption of digital channels, and conversational AI are clear trends in the customer engagement space. With the acquisition of Cogno AI, Exotel brings conversational AI capabilities to its contact center offering.”

He further added that this new acquisition makes them the industry leader in providing artificial intelligence-enabled customer engagement platforms on a cloud to users across the world. According to company officials, Exotel is currently developing a full-fledged all-in-one customer engagement platform that would eliminate the need for users to deal with multiple vendors.

Cogno AI is a Mumbai-based Communication as a Service (CaaS) providing firm founded by Aman Goel and Harshita Srivastava in 2017. The company specializes in developing various communications tools like chatbots, live agent chat, co-browsing, and video calling.

Co-founder and CEO of Cogno AI, Aman Goel, said, “Working directly with enterprise clients helped us get the right feedback and build a product-market fit for the BFSI space. We see tremendous synergies with Exotel and Ameyo, and through the combination, we can bring a lot of added value to our customers.” Vertices partners and IndigoEdge took care of all the formalities in this acquisition deal.

CMU launches its new Artificial Intelligence Maker Space

By

Dipayan Mitra

-

November 12, 2021

Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) announces the launch of its new artificial intelligence maker space named JPMorgan Chase & Co. AI Maker Space. The newly launched maker space for AI aims to provide a platform where students can experiment with artificial intelligence projects in the field of computer vision, speech recognition, robotics, machine learning, and other related domains.

The head of Carnegie Mellon University’s UG program in artificial intelligence, Reid Simmons, has been appointed as the director of JPMorgan Chase & Co. AI Maker Space. The maker space is built across an area of over 1900f2and is situated on the first floor of the university’s Tepper building.

The building also hosts CMU’s Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship and business school. Simmons said, “We want students from all over the university — from engineering, business and fine arts — to come and use their creativity to make interesting things happen.” He further added that the maker space would give students the freedom to let their imaginations run wild.

JPMorgan Chase & Co. AI Maker Space will allow students to bring innovations that would revolutionize the artificial intelligence industry. An autonomous robot developed by Fetch Robotics cut the ribbon to inaugurate the maker space. This unique way of launching the facility shows the innovations it will bring to tackle some of the greatest challenges in the field of artificial intelligence.

The facility has been funded by the United States-based JPMorgan Chase & Co. President of Carnegie Mellon University, Farnam Jahanian, said, “By putting critical AI tools directly into the hands of CMU students and researchers at the forefront of innovation, the (maker space) will empower our students to become the next generation of AI leaders.”

He also mentioned that the facility will allow students to experiment with hands-on tools in an open environment to ‘sharpen the cutting edge of AI.’

IIT Jodhpur to Set Up Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIOT) Hub

By

Ramani Suvarchala

-

November 11, 2021

IIT Jodhpur AIOT artificial intelligence hub

The Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Jodhpur, one of India’s prestigious institutes, is in the process of drafting its plan to launch a new Artificial Intelligence of Things (AIOT) Hub. The new AIOT Hub would line up academics with real-life and industrial-scale issues resulting in enriching the innovative ecosystem of IIT.

The AIOT hub is an amalgamation of artificial intelligence and the Internet of Things (IoT) with mobile communication technology. AIOT, which is the flawless concoction of AI and IoT, is set up to achieve more efficient AI, improve human-machine interactions, and intensify data management.

The hub is designed with vital characteristics like self-learning and self-healing human-machine workflows, self-ruling decision making with edge computing, interconnected and intelligent devices.

“The proposal of converging IIT Jodhpur academics with real-life and industrial-scale problems was first laid by The AIOT Innovative Hub and JOKIC (Jodhpur city knowledge and innovation cluster),” said IIT Jodhpur director Santanu Chaudhury.

He also added that they are expecting the trigger of local industrial development through start-ups and new generation MSMEs who are eager to take forward the agenda of Atmanirbhar Bharat.

The AIOT Innovation Hub at IIT Jodhpur Innovation Complex is expected to create an ecosystem for the co-creation of AIOT technologies and products by faculty, students, and industry partners. This would help in lining up business partners for possible consumption of products, ensuring feasible business prospects.

NIT Warangal has Introduced a five-day Online Course on AI and ML

By

Ramani Suvarchala

-

November 10, 2021

NIT Warangal has introduced a five-day online course on AI exclusively for the faculty group to keep them abreast of the recent developments in AI and ML. This course covers major topics related to AI, including data visualization and deep learning.

The program targets to fetch a good understanding of these subjects and is worth attending as professionals of prominent academies like IIT’s, NIT’s, Central universities, and Industrial professionals will deliver lectures.

Apart from the faculty members, doctrinal research students, and participants from industries are also invited to this program. The partakers will get introduced to the latest tools of AI and ML. The participants will gain good knowledge in solving real-world problems in AI and ML applications on completing this program.

The authorities declared that the online course commences from November 22, for the next four days, until November 26. The time period allotted for the course is 3 hours a day between 2 pm to 5 pm.

The official information declared by the NIT authorities states that they will hold up the online registration process till November 15. The fee for the same is Rs 1000 for participants from industries and Rs 500 for the faculty members, doctoral research students, and postdoctoral fellows.

Interested candidates can apply here.

Meta Prosecuted By Photo App Phhhto

By

Ramani Suvarchala

-

November 9, 2021

The photo app PHHHOTO has filed an antitrust petition against Meta (formerly known as Facebook) for apparently copying its features for Instagram. It also claimed that this isn’t the first antitrust case against Facebook. The company affirmed that Facebook showed interest in working with it and has facsimiled its content, thereby hiding its name from search results, which kicked off PHHHOTO out of business.

“The Phhhoto app created short GIF videos that were published by Facebook in the name of “Boomerang” are not the actual creation of Facebook,” said the company. The app additionally has the feature of clubbing up all five photos into a single frame that can be shared on Instagram. Facebook has been further accused of blocking Phhhoto from Instagram’s API.

Phhhoto app, which was set up in 2014, has to cease its operations by 2017 even though it has more than 3.7 million monthly users on its onset, including BBeyoncé, Joe Jonas, Chrissy Teigen, and Bella Hadid.

“The actions of Facebook and Instagram destroyed Phhhoto as a viable business and ruined the company’s prospects for investment. Phhhoto failed as a direct result of Facebook’s anticompetitive conduct,” Phhhoto said in the complaint filed in US District Court.

It also added that Phhhoto was established to grow into a massive social networking giant with similar capabilities as other social networking and media companies with which Facebook did not interfere.

Though Phhhoto is demanding Facebook for its monetary damages, the Facebook officials informed The Verge that “this suit is without merit and they would shield themselves in the court.”

PMC uses AI to curb open dumping

By

Osheen Jain

-

November 8, 2021

The Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) intends to use artificial intelligence to resolve community issues such as garbage dumping. The Pune Civic Administration has conducted a pilot project at Yerawada to deal with difficulties like littering public spaces.

Pune’s civic body has identified at least 150 public spots where garbage dumping is prevalent with AI. PMC intends to use AI to find and fine citizens that are defacing public places by littering.

Officials said that the civic body also plans to use AI, data analytics, satellite imagery, machine learning (ML), and e-governance to regularise illegal constructions, property tax, etc. Along with fighting trash disposal, PMC plans to take the help of AI and data analytics to collect property tax.

Kunal Khemnar, additional commissioner, PMC, said that the chronic spots for garbage disposal would be identified using technology, and the PMC would carry out mitigation programs after that.

“The civic administration plans to use mechanised sweeping machines at chronic spots. The aim is to reduce human intervention in garbage collection and disposal,” said Khemnar. He also added that software had been developed for keeping a watch on the garbage disposal.

PMC uses AI to curb open dumping to ensure a clean and hygienic city. All the spots identified using satellite images will be cross-verified by staffers. “Even if garbage dumping does not stop after repeated cleaning, it will take action against those throwing trash. They will identify the offenders with the help of CCTV footages. They will be fined,” said a senior PMC official.