Investors believe that AI to take over millions of jobs and governments are not prepared

Image Credit: Reuters

  11 Nov 2016 , 09:03

Investors believe it is “inevitable” that artificial intelligence will destroy millions of jobs and that governments are unprepared for such an impact, according to a survey published on Thursday. Artificial intelligence (AI), or the process by which computers or robots take on tasks that need human intelligence, is one of the key themes of this week’s Web Summit in Lisbon.

The poll among 224 venture capitalists attending the conference showed 53 percent believed AI would destroy millions of jobs and 93 percent saw governments as unprepared for this. The survey also found that 83 percent of the investors canvassed expect Britain’s exit from the European Union to damage Europe’s economy and 77 percent believe it will damage British startups.

London is widely seen as the main tech startup hub in Europe, thanks to its large pool of talent and a much bigger pool of funding than in rival centres. Cities like Berlin, Amsterdam and Lisbon are eager to attract more tech startups.

The Web Summit, one of Europe’s biggest tech conferences, is being held for the first time in Lisbon, with 53,000 attendees, after moving from Dublin where it was first launched in 2010. The venture capitalists taking part have more than $100 billion of capital in total to invest. The Web Summit conducted the poll on Nov. 7.

Reuters

Microsoft Azure Government DoD Regions Preview Now Available

 

By Luke Jones -
October 28, 2016 4:37 pm CET 

After recently announcing significant growth in Azure Government, Microsoft has launched a preview for Department of Defense regions.

Microsoft has announced the Preview for Azure Government Department of Defense (DoD) regions. The release is an Impact Level 5-ready cloud infrastructure and platform. In its announcement, Microsoft points out that it is the only hyperscale cloud provider to offer such a high level support to the DoD. The company adds it expands its commitment to the Azure Government platform.

The company has doubled down on its Azure Government strategy this week during the 5th annual Government Cloud Forum. Microsoft announced the platform has grown three times in 2016. Operations Management Suite (OMS) and Government Marketplace were also made widely available.


Through this preview, Microsoft is giving customers early access to DoD regions. With the ability to explore the infrastructure, the company is hoping for customer feedback to improve the platform before full launch. In the blog post, Microsoft confirmed general availability will come early 2017.
Capabilities

Microsoft has previously detailed the capabilities of Azure Government DoD regions in a previous post:

Department of Defense-specific Office 365 and Azure. By the end of 2016, physically isolated versions of Azure Government and Office 365 US Government Defense specifically for the Department of Defense (DoD) will be available in two new dedicated regions. These regions will also connect to Department of Defense (DoD) networks via Microsoft Express Route.


DoD Information Impact Level 5. These versions of Office 365 and Azure are built from the ground up to meet DoD Impact Level 5 controls. DoD agencies and companies managing controlled information will be able to use this platform for Department of Defense National Security System data. Microsoft is on track to achieve a DoD Impact Level 5 Provisional Authorization for both Office 365 and Azure.

Two additional Azure Government regions in the South West and South Central United States. Today we’re announcing our intent to expand Azure Government from new regions in Arizona and Texas. Slated to be generally available in 2017, the new regions will add to our existing regions in Virginia and Iowa and are new additions beyond the Department of Defense regions mentioned above. Now, Microsoft has a total of six dedicated regions for government customers – significantly more than any other cloud provider. Combined with dedicated Government ExpressRoute options, Microsoft offers government agencies broad choice of where they host their data and where they connect directly to Microsoft’s infrastructure.

To access DoD regions, customers need to pass a pre-qualification process. Microsoft says this is to verify that the organization is secure and to check its intended use of the platform.

Finance Minister Jaitley emphasises that India needs to undergo rapid urbanisation in next 2 decades

Image: Urban Engines

  27 Oct 2016 , 19:00

Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley on Thursday stressed on India’s need to urbanise rapidly in the next two decades in line with its present development in order to relieve the pressure on agriculture. “In the next two decades, India will have to go for rapid urbanisation, in line with what we see already — the growth of satellite towns, of suburbanization around metros, etc,” Jaitley said.

The Minister was addressing the ADB-Asian Think Tank Development Forum here on sustainable urbanisation organised by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy, ADB and ICRIER. “Urbanisation is inevitable to relieve agriculture from the number of people still living off the land. Urban India is now 31 percent of the country’s population..urban centres have become engines of growth in the states,” he added.

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Jaitley mentioned Bengaluru and Gurgaon as two rapidly developing centres in recent times. He noted the hitherto “unorganised construction” involved in this urbanisation process and stressed on the need for more “participation of organised construction to create organised townships.”

Asking, “Are we ready for this massive urbanisation in terms of infrastructure like water, transport, roads and sanitation,” Jaitley said that more resources were likely to be given to the states under the Smart Cities initiative.

“The Smart City initiative has prompted substantial competition among cities, themselves organised around the basis of objective criteria. More resources are soon likely to be given to the cities,” Jaitley said. “The Swachch Bharat — Clean India campaign will be integral to the urbanisation process,” he added.

IANS

The embedded systems industry is set to expand because of increased usage of electronics

Image Credits: REUTERS

  05 Oct 2016 , 12:38

Terming the present times as the golden period of embedded systems programming, experts on Tuesday said the technology was at an inflection point due to increasing use in electronic products across industry verticals. “The Asia-Pacific embedded systems market size is projected to reach $81 billion in 2023 from $46 billion in 2014, while it is predicted to be $15 billion in India from $5 billion,” said UBM India Group Head Apporba Kumar at a conference on electronics and embedded systems here.

Noting that the Indian embedded systems community was on a growth path with a focus on creating an ecosystem, he said the industry, academia and the government were promoting ‘Made in India’ products across verticals such as automotive, defence, telecom and medical for global markets. “The game-plan is to establish aBrand India’ and make our country a go-to destination for global majors to manufacture electronic products in India,” said Kumar.

Embedded engineers and designers from across the country and the world over are participating in the three-day conference-cum-expo in which 100 embedded firms are showcasing their innovative solutions and products. “The whole society is dependent on embedded software and looks to embedded systems for solutions to the problems of our time, including environment protection, energy production and delivery, transportation, and healthcare,” said Digital Networking Director Rob Oshana.

With the Moore’s Law marching into its fifth decade, even hardware design is becoming more like software development. Largest chip maker Intel’s co-founder Gordon Moore predicted in 1965 that the number of transistors per square inch on integrated circuits would double every year and continue into the foreseeable future.

“There is no doubt in my mind that the golden time of embedded systems programming is now,” reiterated Oshana. UBM India is an arm of UBM Asia, a leading organiser of technology conferences and exhibitions in China India and Malaysia to provide industry platforms for buyers and sellers the world over.

IANS