HP Launched Artificial Intelligence-Powered Digital Solutions For Students And Teachers

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July 17, 2021

HP Launched Artificial Intelligence-Powered Digital Solutions For Students And Teachers

HP recently announced that it had launched a new artificial intelligence-powered platform for students and teachers that would help them enhance the online learning ecosystem in this time of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Their platform will provide 24×7 access to various study materials and other assistance for the students. Due to the pandemic, most of the schools are now shifting towards digital learning, and this unique solution of HP will definitely help them to adapt to this new educational system.

HP’s platform comes with various features like HP School Coach and HP Classeasy. These features are meant to organize online classes seamlessly and enable students to gather required educational resources easily.

Ketan Patel from HP said, “For the last 15 months, globally and in India, the education system has relied completely on technology. The growth of online learning has given rise to a hybrid learning model that is here to stay. To deliver an efficient, engaging, and creative hybrid learning experience for students, access to the right devices and solutions is imperative.”

He further mentioned that it is the company’s privilege to innovate and create digital solutions for students and educators to help them achieve their learning goals and revolutionize India’s education sector.

The platform will also enable the parents to keep track of their children’s study schedules and assessment results remotely. HP had conducted intensive research by consulting with hundreds of school principals and teachers before developing this new platform.

The solution mainly focuses on the following areas –

Analyzing and correcting age-appropriate literacy reading and comprehension for students and vocational training for adult students.
School quality assurance and improvement suggestions for education ministries and schools.
Professional development on digital pedagogy regarding digital teaching.

Senior Director and Head of sales at HP India, Rajnish Gupta, said, “With customizable dashboards for teachers, these technologies will allow for easy and seamless monitoring of progress. These technology products and innovations will go a long way in redefining classroom learning and instruction delivery in India.”

Citadel Defence Secured $4 Million Contract To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Counter Drone System

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 17, 2021

Citadel Defence Secured $4 Million Contract To Develop Artificial Intelligence-Powered Counter Drone System

US-based startup Citadel Defence has recently confirmed that it has secured a $4 million contract with the United States government to develop an artificial intelligence-powered counter-drone system.

In recent years, terrorists have been using drones as aerial spies to gather information about the army. The government felt the need for a solution to counter this issue. Citadel Defence has been making drone solutions for the US army, navy, and airforce for years that have stood the test of time.

Citadel is developing its Titan anti-drone system that will be used for pre-deployment training and mobile security purposes. CEO of Citadel Defence, Christopher Williams, said, “Citadel’s advanced algorithms, autonomous capabilities, and artificial intelligence, serve as a force multiplier when protecting against unmanned system threats in resource-constrained environments.”

Founded in 2016, Citadel Defence is the market leader in developing machine intelligence and artificial intelligence-powered drones and anti-drone systems to modernize the US army and to aid military personnel in conducting unmanned missions in a better way.

The company’s Titan has an automated decision-making engine that matches threats with optimized electronic countermeasures without the need for the operator’s manual response or expertise in discriminating complex signal characteristics.

The company is currently recruiting highly skilled engineers to keep up with the demand of their system. Citadel has been developing Titan for the past four years and has been able to successfully integrate artificial intelligence with its system to improve its capabilities so that on battlefields, it can save the soldiers time by performing all the tasks on its own.

Williams also said, “Artificial intelligence is very effective in electronic attack missions. Getting the right data and recommendation to operators enables the human-machine teaming that will be necessary to compete in future conflicts.”

RBI Bans Mastercard For Not Complying With India’s Data Storage Guidelines

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 16, 2021

RBI Bans Mastercard From Issuing New Cards To Users In India

The Reserve Bank Of India (RBI) has recently announced that it has banned Mastercard from issuing new cards to users in the country as it has failed to adhere to India’s data storage guidelines.

India’s central bank has ordered MasterCard to stop issuing credit cards, debit cards, and prepaid cards from 22nd July 2021. However, no information has been given yet regarding the tenure of this ban.

RBI regulator said, “The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has today imposed restrictions on Mastercard Asia / Pacific Pte. Ltd. (Mastercard) from onboarding new domestic customers (debit, credit or prepaid) onto its card network. Notwithstanding the lapse of considerable time and adequate opportunities being given, the entity has been found to be non-compliant with the directions on Storage of Payment System Data.”

This decision was made as MasterCard was unable to comply with the notifications announced in 2018 that asked all payment providers to store user data in Indian servers and were given a period of six months to make necessary changes in their servers.

Mastercard is a New York-based financial service providing company that accounts for more than 30% of banking cards currently issued in India. In a statement, Mastercard confirmed that there will be no impact on the current users, and the company has been continuously working with the central bank to comply with the rules for the past three years.

A Mastercard Official said, “While we are disappointed with the stance taken. We will continue to work with the RBI and provide any additional details needed to resolve their concerns.”

Earlier this year, the RBI had put a ban on American Express cards for the same reason of non-compliance. The company said that it is in close contact with the RBI and is trying to settle the issue as soon as possible.

Artificial Intelligence Startup Fractal Weighs IPO As Pandemic Accelerates Growth

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 16, 2021

Artificial Intelligence Startup Fractal Weighs IPO As Pandemic Accelerates Growth

India-based startup Fractal Analytics is planning for an initial public offering (IPO) to increase its growth. The current pandemic has changed the working system of many companies as now enterprises and shifting to cloud-based solutions, which has helped data service providers a massive boost in their growth.

The CEO and co-founder of Fractal Analytics, Shrikanth Velamakanni, said that the startup has already received a funding of $325 million from several investors, including Apax Partners, and he expects that the company would soon raise a capital of $1 billion shortly.

Velamakanni said, “The floodgates have opened. We have the scale to be a public company. The firm expects its revenue to increase by 37% by the year 2022 if things go according to its plan.

Fractal Analytics was founded by Velamakanni, Pranay Agarwal, Nirmal Palaparthi, Pradeep Suryanarayan, and Ramakrishna Reddy in 2002. The first office was opened in Mumbai but now has its headquarters in New York.

The company provides artificial intelligence-powered services for consumer goods, healthcare, financial, technology, and insurance industries. Industry-leading companies like Google, Reckitt Benckiser Group, and Wells Fargo use Fractal’s services.

The startup is currently developing a new technology, Crux Intelligence, that would use machine learning and natural language processing to enable its clients to gather business data, analyze them, and seamlessly convert them into action.

Kathy Leake, Head of the Crux Intelligence team, said, “It’s like the Siri or Google Assistant for businesses. Customers can query in simple language and have data analysis and personalized business insights at their fingertips.” The company has many more projects in its pipeline such as Eugenie.ai, Qure.ai, and Theremin.ai

Hyundai Motor To Pilot Autonomous RoboShuttle Service In South Korea

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 16, 2021

Hyundai Motor To Pilot Autonomous RoboShuttle Service In South Korea

Car manufacturing giant Hyundai Motors has recently announced that it would pilot autonomous demand-responsive RoboShuttles in South Korea from 9th August 2021. Hyundai’s Roboshutts uses artificial intelligence-powered autonomous driving technology.

The initial service area is a 6.1km specific route with twenty stops from Government Complex to National Arboretum in Sejong City, South Korea. The vehicle is capable of analyzing its surroundings and making decisions about its movement. According to the company, very minimal human intervention is needed to drive these RoboShuttles.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, and Transport recently issued permission of autonomous driving level 3 to allow Hyundai to temporarily operate the self-driving shuttle from 9th August to 30th September 2021.

The company’s engineers at their Driving Center have renovated its H350 light commercial vehicle and have equipped it with Level-4 comparable core autonomous driving technology. Passengers have to register on the Shucle smartphone application in order to enjoy Hyundai’s RoboShuttle service.

Shucle is a demand-responsive transportation solution to be launched in South Korea. It has been developed by Hyundai’s specialized artificial intelligence research company AIRS to offer mobility services to the public. The taxi will then automatically reach the assigned pick-up location using artificial intelligence algorithms and will stop only at fixed drop points.

The carmaker has already signed a memorandum of understanding with the city’s government authorities on 12th July to eliminate any risk of hindrance while carrying out its operations. Hyundai plans to expand its service to various parts of the country after successfully completing its launch in Sejong Smart City.

The company plans to collaborate with Kia Namyang Research and Development center to further improve its RoboShuttle technology by the end of this year.

AWS Launched Its First Public Sector Startup Ramp In India

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

AWS Launched Its First Public Sector Startup Ramp In India

Amazon Web Services (AWS) recently announced that it had launched India’s first public sector startup ramp. This platform will enable small-scale based businesses in the field of science, technology, healthcare, defense, and government to develop solutions easily.

Addressing the demand for new innovations in the public sector, Amazon has come up with this startup ramp project that would provide all the necessary tools to a startup to overcome common challenges.

Vice President of public sector partners and programs at AWS, Sandy Carter, said, “We are excited to launch the AWS Startup Ramp in India where there is an incredible opportunity for startups to solve public sector challenges through their innovative solutions. This global initiative is a critical way for us to support startups who are using technology to change the world.”

Amazon officials said that India is the first country where this project is being launched. The company plans to support and grow public sector startups with this unique initiative. AWS Startup Ramp is divided into two tiers –

Innovator tier for pre-revenue startups
Member tier for post-revenue startups with revenue up to ₹100 crores

Startups can now start applying for either of the tiers on AWS’ official website, depending on their status. AWS Startup Ramp’s team will screen the applicants on the basis of their potential contributions to the public sector.

President of public sector AISPL, AWS South Asia and India, Rahul Sharma, said, “Our experience in India has shown that public sector organizations are increasingly keen to experiment with new ideas and technologies to advance their missions at speed and scale. Startups bring disruptive innovative solutions that create broad impact, and can pivot quickly to meet society’s changing needs.”

QpiAI Launched A New Quantum Marketplace

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

QpiAI Launched A New Quantum Marketplace

CEO of QpiAI, Dr. Nagendra Nagaraja, recently announced that they had launched a new global AI and quantum marketplace. With this new launch, the company aims to increase the adoption of artificial intelligence technologies across various industries in the world.

QpiAI is a Bengaluru-based startup that specializes in developing artificial intelligence systems for healthcare, finance, space science, life science, and transportation industries. With the help of its highly experienced team of 30 engineers, QpiAI’s platform is capable of increasing data insight efficiency and also generating new usable data.

The company has now opened registrations for its new quantum marketplace on its website. Enterprises can now easily visit their official website and get early access to QpiAI’s services.

The company expects to have more than a hundred buyers and a million sellers on their quantum marketplace in a span of one year. Earlier, QpiAI had collaborated with the Indian Institute of Science to launch a certification program on artificial intelligence and quantum skills for students.

The company has now announced that the certification program’s first batch’s best students will be the solution providers for this new platform. The students who will score more than 90% will be able to sell their artificial intelligence models, services, and quantum solutions on the marketplace.

The results of the certification program will be declared by November 2021. The certification program has already received more than ten thousand registrations in the past two months.

The marketplace will enable companies to compare and buy artificial intelligence models through a single transparent platform. Experts predict that the QpiAI marketplace will host the world’s most advanced artificial intelligence communities.

All the available artificial intelligence models will be screened by QpiAI’s qualifiers tool, which would examine the safety, explainability, and transparency of the models before putting them live for sale. The marketplace will also have a legal framework to ensure the security of the buyers and sellers.

The US Department of Defence Plans To Invest $1.5 Billion On Artificial Intelligence Centers

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

The US Department of Defence Plans To Invest $1.5 Billion On Artificial Intelligence Centers

The US Department of Defence recently announced its plans to inventest $1.5 billion on joint artificial intelligence centers across the country. Justin Lloyd, the Secretary of Defence, said that the department will invest the amount over the next five years to develop artificial intelligence centers that would help the US army to strategic advantages in the future.

According to the country’s latest budget, the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC) project will be allotted $200 million per year, which is believed to be increased to $300 million shortly.

Austin said, “Done responsibly, leadership in artificial intelligence can boost our future military technology advantage — from data-driven decisions to human-machine teaming. That could make the Pentagon of the near future dramatically more effective, more agile, and more ready.”

The Department of Defence is focusing on JAIC to build more than 600 centers in the coming years. DoD also plans to work intensively on the Joint Common Foundations project, which they believe will be the future platform for the US army to work on artificial intelligence projects.

The country’s defense department aims to adopt artificial intelligence in every operation, which they call ‘Integrated Deterrence.’ They believe that this absorption of artificial intelligence in their daily tasks would allow the department to complete their operations quickly and would allow them to make accurate data-driven decisions on the battlefields and in the office.

“In today’s world, in today’s department, innovation cannot be an afterthought. It is a ballgame. Artificial intelligence and related technologies will give us both an information and an operational edge,” said Austin.
The DoD is also working on a project, Rapid Defence Experimentation Reserve (RDER), which would help the Pentagon integrate artificial intelligence into its operations rapidly and develop cutting-edge technologies to support the soldiers on the battlefields.

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Announced A $50 Million Project For Research In AI And Cybersecurity

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Announced A $50 Million Project For Research in Artificial Intelligence And Cybersecurity

Singapore’s Deputy Prime Minister Swee Keat recently announced the launch of a $50 million project for advanced research in artificial intelligence, cybersecurity, and 5G testbeds.

This project aims to develop new 5G testbeds and advanced artificial intelligence-powered communication network infrastructures to build a strong communication network in the country considering future requirements. This project falls under the umbrella of the country’s Future Communications Research and Development Program.

“Just as globalization drove decades of economic growth around the world, I believe the fast growing digital economy can propel us to a better future,” said Swee Keat launching the program. The government wants to build a complete 5G network coverage in the country by 2025.

Coursera recently published a global skill index where Singapore was praised for its investment in artificial intelligence and data science industries. Experts suggest that this new project was designed because the report mentioned that the countries intensively investing in technology will have a technically sound workforce in the future.

The country also plans to launch a new digital exchange platform, the Singapore Trade Data Exchange (SGTraDex). This platform will enable individuals of various industries to share real-time data in an end-to-end encrypted manner.

Keat said, “From the pilots so far, SGTraDex has the potential to unlock more than $150 million of value annually for the supply chain ecosystem.” He further added that this initiative would also considerably reduce the time consumed in customs clearance, insurance, trade financing, and many other tasks.

Earlier this year, Singapore announced the launch of its artificial intelligence program (AISG), where the government had partnered with Google Cloud to provide the country’s talented engineers a practical experience in the artificial intelligence industry.

Quantexa Raised $153 Million In Its Series D Funding Led By Warburg Pincus

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Dipayan Mitra

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July 15, 2021

Quantexa Raised $153 Million In Its Series D Funding Led By Warburg Pincus

Quantexa recently raised $153 million in its series D funding round led by Warburg Pincus. Many other enterprises participated in the funding, like AlbionVC, HSBC, Dawn Capitals, Evolution Equity Partners, British Patient Capitals, and ABN Amro Ventures.

Last year in the company’s series C funding, it had raised $67.4 million. Quantexa witnessed a growth of 108% in the year 2020-2021, increasing its market valuation to nearly $900 million. Officials expect to reach unicorn status in the near future. The company plans to use this fresh funding to expand to other regional markets, public sector and develop various other security software.

Quantexa is a United Kingdom-based firm that provides a Contextual Decision Intelligence platform. Their software is capable of detecting all sorts of money laundering, credit card frauds, and other financial crimes and also helps companies to manage data effectively. Most of the popular banks in the UK, like HSBC and Standard Chartered bank, use Quantexa’s platform to identify fraudulent activities.

Founder and CEO of Quantexa, Vishal Marria, said, “We’ve diversified outside of financial services and working with government, healthcare, telcos, and insurance.” He further added that the increasing demand for data security software across various industries excites him the most.

The company has now spread across the globe, having branches in countries like the United States, Australia, Singapore, and Canada. Vishal Marria also said that the company is open to acquisitions in order to expand further.

Managing director and co-head of Warburg Europe division, Adarsh Sharma, said, “Quantexa’s proprietary technology enables clients to create single views of individuals and entities, visualized through graph network analytics and scaled with the most advanced artificial intelligence technology.”