Daily Archives: August 23, 2022

Grady McGregor here in Hong Kong, filling in for Jeremy.

Late last week, Chinese regulators publicly shared details on 30 algorithms that power some of the countrys most widely used apps and websites, an unprecedented measure that marks a new escalation in Beijings years-long campaign to rein in the power of big tech.

The list of algorithms included details on the underlying technology that power apps from Chinas largest internet companies, including e-commerce firm Alibaba, social media company and TikTok-owner Bytedance, and delivery giant Meituan. The A.I.-driven recommendation algorithms are highly valuable trade secrets that have come to govern many parts of day-to-day life in China, determining what videos people watch, the products they buy, and routes that food delivery workers operate.

The fact that the Cybersecurity Administration of China (CAC), the countrys tech regulator, released the list to the public was unusualand not just for China.

Im not aware of any other country in the world that has a public facing list of every piece of code that manages your [online] decisions, says Kendra Schaefer, head of China tech policy research at Trivium China.

Its been clear that Chinese tech companies would need to share some details of their algorithms with authorities since at least March. That month, Chinas government implemented a sweeping new law governing recommendation algorithms. The new law banned any algorithm that might threaten national security, social stability or induce user over-indulgence or wanton consumption, says Angela Zhang, associate professor at the University of Hong Kongs law school.

One of those new rules required Chinese tech companies to register their algorithms with the CAC, which explains why the companies had released at least some technical details to authorities. While the information that the government has since released to the public does not include the actual computer code underlying the various algorithms, its not clear if Chinese firms have handed over more granular, code-level details that the government has not released. How much access the CAC ends up getting to that code is a big question mark, Schaefer says.

For now, Beijings crackdown on the recommendation algorithms appears equal parts populist and draconianBeijing wants to grant consumers more rights to their information online as long as the government ultimately retains more power over the industry. Half of the regulations are focused on very forward-looking, very positive consumer rights issues, says Schaefer. Half of the regulations are focused on tightening content control online.

Big tech companies, meanwhile, appear to be clear losers of Beijing tightening the algorithm rules, and the governments approach raises questions about the broader future of A.I. development within the worlds most populous nation.

Matt Sheehan, a fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace specializing in Chinese A.I. policy, says that Beijing has not completely soured on A.I. Rather, he says authorities are aiming to re-align uses of A.I. with the governments larger socio-political goals, even if that means weakening consumer-facing algorithms.

A.I. is woven throughout Chinas economy [so authorities are now] regulating the actual operation of these algorithms to ensure that they are pushing in the direction that they want, he says.

And, at the same time that Beijing is cracking down on consumer-facing technology firms that deploy A.I., the government has prioritized deep tech applications of A.I. such as in robotics and industrial applications, says Sheehan.

Investors and the companies themselves have begun to follow the political winds. Last month, the Financial Times reported that Neil Shen, the influential Chinese investor and founder of Sequoia China, planned to deploy a $9 billion new fund to supporting artificial intelligence and other technologies like semiconductors while he continues to divest from consumer-facing companies that use A.I. like Meituan. Social media giant Tencent, meanwhile, has stepped up its own deep tech efforts in the past year, putting billions into new A.I. and robotics investments.

Theres plenty of ways to use A.I. that are perfectly in line with the Chinese Communist Partys vision for the economy and society, he says. Companies are trying to strategically fall in line with with those priorities.

Heres the rest of this weeks news in A.I.

TikTok launched a text-to-image A.I. generator. Called A.I. Greenscreen, the recently added feature allows users of the short-form video platform to create unique, computer-generated images after typing in a text prompt. The inclusion of the text-to-image A.I. software on TikTok's platform marks a rapid expansion of a technology that is less than two years old. In early 2021, artificial intelligence research laboratory OpenAI released the original text-to-image platform called DALL-E, which became popular as users experimented in making wholly original pieces by simply typing in words like flower or chair. TikTok's 'A.I. Greenscreen' feature is still primitive compared to DALL-E, Google's Imagen, or Midjourney's eponymous platform, according to the Verge, with many prompts producing abstract images. But that may be a good thing due to the potential that users might abuse the technology and make explicit or hateful images,theVergenotes.

Chinese A.I. giant SenseTime is selling a new robot that plays Chinese chess. The SenseRobot sells for $299 (or $368 for a pro version) in China and comes equipped with a mechanical arm, camera, and chess board. The move marks SenseTime's first foray into the consumer market, after the firm has spent years struggling to reach profitability and fighting political battles. SenseTime develops commercial A.I. technologies used in surveillance cameras, self-driving cars, and facial recognition cameras. The U.S. government alleges that at least some of SenseTime's technology has been used to perpetuate human rights violations in China's western Xinjiang province. SenseTime has denied the allegations. Now, the firm may hope that a chess-playing robot can soften its image. "We hope to create a robot product that can truly think and act through innovative and leading A.I. technology, allowing industrial-grade A.I. technology to enter thousands of homes and interact with children and elders in a real way, SenseTime chairman Xu Li, tellsSCMP.

Codelco uses A.I. to get more copper from aging mines. In 2020, Chilean mining firm Codelco introduced a new digital data center that uses machine learning to aid in mining copper. The use of A.I. helps Codelco optimize the processing of extracted ore, essentially helping the firm get more value out of the material the firm already mines. Codelco tells Bloombergthat A.I. is now helping it mine 8,000 more metric tons per year of copper, translating to a $80 million boost in annual profits. Chile holds the world's largest copper reserves, but Codelco's use of A.I. in copper mining has helped it battle against the fact that the quality of Chilean ore has been deteriorating in recent years.

The U.S. government passed The CHIPS and Science Act. The headlines regarding the new law were mostly about semiconductors because the legislation allocates $52 billion to promote semiconductor manufacturing industry in the U.S. But the CHIPS and Science Act also includes roughly $200 billion for research into A.I. and other critical emerging technologies. The Wall Street Journal's editorial board argued that the investment would only create a more bloated government bureaucracy, but U.S. President Joe Biden said the investment could make the U.S. more globally competitive for years to come. This bill is about more than chips. Its about science as wellthis increased research and development funding is going to ensure the United States leads the world and the industries of the future, from quantum computing to artificial intelligence to advanced biotechnology, Biden said about the new law.

Cybersecurity firm Vectra A.I. hired Myrna Soto as a key strategic advisor to the companys leadership team. Soto was most recently the chief strategy officer of technology provider Forcepoint. Vectra AI uses A.I. tools to detect and respond to cyber threats for companies that use hybrid or multiple cloud platforms.

Corvus Insurance promoted Madhu Tadikonda from president to CEO, taking over from Corvus founder Phil Edmundson who will become chair of Corvus board. The cyber insurance firm offers commercial insurance policies powered by A.I.-driven risk tools, and recently expanded into the U.K. and Germany.

Cybersecurity firm NetWitness hired Ken Naumann as its new CEO. Naumann was previously CEO of data forensics firm AccessData. Netwitness offers a range of A.I.-driven cybersecurity solutions to detect and eliminate digital threats.

Boston Dynamics and Hyundai Motor Group are launching a new Boston Dynamics AI Institute. The two companies made the announcement via joint press release on Friday, saying they would together invest $400 million to get the institute off the ground. The A.I. institute has not provided many clues on specific projects it will focus on, but the release said it will focus on four core areas including cognitive A.I., athletic A.I., organic hardware design, and ethics and policy. On a newly created website, Marc Raibert, the executive director of the new institute, pointed towards more lofty goals. "We need to make robots smarter, more agile and dexterous, and generally easier to use more like people. Once we do that, robots and other types of intelligent systems will increase productivity, free people from dangerous work, care for the disabled, and generally help people live better lives," he writes.

The U.S. is worried it will lose its scientific edge to China. By one new measure, it already hasby Nicholas Gordon

One of the most dangerous and irresponsible actions by a car company in decades: Activist Ralph Nader urges regulators to recall Teslas self-driving technologyTristan Bove

Elon Musk wrote an op-ed for Chinas internet regulator, seeking like-minded Chinese partners and pitching Tesla Bot as an aid in its population crisisNicholas Gordon

United Airlines bets $10 million on flying taxisChris Morris

Inventory issues are hurting the bottom line. Its time for a hybrid approach to supply chainsKal Raman

Injecting A.I. into social science is a no-brainer, right? Indeed, researchers have come up with ground-breaking new findings after using machine learning methods for the first time, claiming that A.I.-driven pattern recognition has revolutionized fields like political science and psychology. One study claimed that artificial intelligence allowed researchers to predict when a civil war would break out with 90% accuracy, a 20% improvement on traditional statistical methods.

But some skeptics like Princeton professor Arvind Narayanan, and his PhD student Sayash Kapoor, have begun to question the A.I.-assisted findings. Kapoor and Narayanan say they were not able to replicate the civil war finding or several others after using their own machine learning methods. They believe that the initial experiments suffered from data leakage, meaning that the researchers accidentally exposed some data to the algorithm before they were supposed to.

Now, they warn the misuse of machine learning in science has created a reproducibility crisis and countless other studies could be plagued with similar issues. The idea that you can take a four-hour online course and then use machine learning in your scientific research has become so overblown People have not stopped to think about where things can potentially go wrong, Kapoor tells Wired.

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Chinas Big Tech built some of the worlds most powerful algorithms. Beijing just exposed some closely-guarded details online - Fortune

One month after graduating from the University of Lagos in November 2017, Timi Bolaji received an offer to become a software engineer at Microsoft after scaling through a process that was focused on hiring computer science graduates from African universities. He joined the companys team in Seattle a year later and has been there since, working on the Xbox Cloud Gaming team.

Microsoft is returning to Africa to hire more developers like Bolaji, with the same tantalizing promise of relocating them to offices in the US and Canada.

The company is interested in people still enrolled in or who have recently completed a bachelors or masters degree in engineering, computer science or related fields, and have one year of programming experience in languages like Java, Python and PHP. Being able to show an understanding of data structures and algorithms is also required.

Microsoft isnt the only Big Tech company directly fishing for new talent in Africa. Amazon is currently interviewing Nigerian developers for roles that promise relocation to Ireland and Canada. These moves coincide with the growth of software engineering talent in Africa in the last decade thanks in part to the work of companies like Andela that have helped produce the continents estimated 716,000 developers. Some of them have become startup founders who then hire developers, creating a ripple effect that inspires young students to consider careers in software engineering.

Microsoft and Amazon may simply be seeking a slice of an already globalizing African software engineering workforce since four out of ten developers in Africa work for at least one company based outside of the continent.

With the so-called Great Resignation of the last two years, theres a global shortage of talent and people are recognizing Africa as a source of talent, says Chika Nwobi, founder and CEO of Decagon, a Nigerian company that runs cohort-based software engineering training programs. He is certain that Big Tech companies will find the quality of talent they need in Nigeria because of the growth in expertise that has led to a vibrant tech-driven financial services ecosystem.

We may not have that many engineers who can operate at the scale of these large companies, but thats just an implementation hurdle thats easy to hop over, at the risk of trivializing it, says Justin Irabor, a developer who works remotely in Nigeria for a European company. As with all kinds of professions, there is a wide variation of talent quality, but I strongly believe we have good engineers here.

By going directly to universities for candidates that do not necessarily have years of experience, Microsofts betting on the diffusion of the innovation buzz from African tech companies and communities typically based in cities like Lagos, Nairobi, and Kigali to other parts of each country. The Windows maker may have to thank its competitor, Google, whose developer groups on campuses have become a key channel introducing young African undergraduates to the world of software development.

Many of the students that may apply to join Microsoft from Nigeria are probably at home due to a strike by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU), the union for lecturers in government-owned universities, now in its seventh month. Theres no end in sight.

Still, it is a sign of the maturing computer science programs in some schools in Africa that one of the worlds biggest companies is seeking students or recent graduates. Africas top universities for engineering and computer science are in Egypt and Tunisia, according to the US News and World Reports 2022 ranking. Greater Big Tech interest could be the catalyst for schools in other parts of the continent to compete for places on such rankings in the future.

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Microsoft and Amazon tease US relocation to African developers - Quartz

When can we truly say goodbye to this bear market? While Bank of Americas global fund managers are no longer apocalyptically bearish, some on Wall Street remain wary.

Add our call of the day to that last batch. It comes from True Contrarian blog and newsletterschief executive,Steven Jon Kaplan, who sees investors mired in what could be the longest bear market in history, and approaching the next and probably the biggest percentage drop of this bear market so far.

MarketWatch last spoke to Kaplan in mid-November 2021, when he warned of a looming selloff for stocks, notably big highfliers. Just days later, the Invesco QQQ QQQ, -2.63% exchange-traded fund (ETF) that tracks the Nasdaq-100 Index, and many other tech funds topped out. The S&P 500 SPX, -2.14% peak followed on Jan. 4.

Kaplan based that November caution partly on one of his favorite indicators company insider selling and buying, which he tracks via J3 Information Services Group.

In an interview with MarketWatch on Wednesday, he rattled off a list of worrying signals, such as aggressive selling by that group again, individual investors piling into the market, declarations that the bear market is over and the Cboe Volatility Index, or VIX VIX, +15.53%, skirting under 20 in recent days.

History also plays a big part in his worries about markets right now.

It is fascinating to see how closely the 1929-1932 and 2000-2002 bear markets paralleled each other, with almost exactly the same kinds of pullbacks and rebounds. I expect similar behavior for 2022-2025, he said. (See link to original chart)

Kaplan noted that it took eight years for the 1929 bear market to arrive, nearly 10 years for March 2000s and even longer for the bear market he sees as ongoing, given the bull market began in March 2009.

So what they all have in common is that these very long bull markets preceded the bear markets for so long, that people tended to forget how to invest in bear markets and what theyre about, he said.

The familiar bear market pattern through history has been a small drop to start that doesnt spread panic, then a soothing bounce, then a bigger drop and a bigger rebound, which again relaxes investors. But he said based on 1929, 1973 or 2000, the next stage of selling could bring dramatic losses, such as 40% for a fund like QQQ.

Kaplan is worried about the latest Fidelity quarterly retirement survey, which revealed investors clinging to hopes that the market will return to highs if they wait long enough. Challenging that, Kaplan pointed to another study showing that individuals who invested in the market in September 1929 were still 38% down by August 1982 in real terms, adjusted for inflation.

It kind of explodes the myth that you have to come out ahead if you just kind of hang in there when things are tough, he said.

Read: Most retirement savers are staying the course even if theyre totally stressed

So how to cope with another big drop. Repeating November advice, he recommends I-Bond or Series I savings bonds that can be bought directly from the government and are currently offering a return of just over 9%. U.S. Treasurys are also paying 3% to 3.5% right now, another way to go for the coming years, he said.

Read: This rule with a perfect record says the market hasnt bottomed, says Bank of Americas star analyst

Stocks DJIA, -1.91% SPX, -2.14% COMP, -2.55% are drifting south, following Wednesdays Fed-inspired losses, as bond yields TMUBMUSD10Y, 3.020% TMUBMUSD02Y, 3.301% drop, while the dollar DXY, -0.13% moves higher. Oil prices CL.1, -0.11% BRN00, +0.70% are also climbing, and bitcoin BTCUSD, +0.65% is hovering under $24,000.

Read: Why one economist fears the Japanese yen could be headed for a destabilizing downward spiral

Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond BBBY, -16.23%, which has been on a crazy meme ride lately, are slumping after GameStop GME, -5.45% Chairman Ryan Cohen disclosed plans to unload his hefty stake in the retailer months after buying it. The company said Thursday it has been working expeditiously for weeks to strengthen its balance sheet

Meanwhile, this 20-year-old made a massive profit on the stock, according to Securities and Exchange Commission filings.

Retailer Kohls KSS, -5.52% is tumbling after a profit miss and slashed outlook amid plans to cut inventory bulk

Cisco CSCO, -2.03% stock is climbing after the tech giants surprisingly upbeat earnings and revenue forecast.

Apple AAPL, -2.30% plans to unveil its latest iPhone 14 and smartwatches on Sept. 7, according to a new report.

End of an era. Stellantis STLA, -5.99% unit Dodge to discontinue two popular muscle cars as it tilts toward electric vehicles.

Jobless claims slipped 2,000 to 250,00 in the latest week, while the Philly Fed index rose to 6.2 from a predicted negative 5.0. Existing home sales and leading economic indicators are still to come, along with appearances by Kansas City Fed President Esther George, who will speak at 1:20 p.m. Eastern and Minneapolis Fed President Neel Kashkari, at 1:45 p.m.

Big Oil is too optimistic a slow transition away from carbon will be enough to halt global warming

Two years after Covid infections, risks of psychotic disorders and dementia linger

Kremlin reportedly ousts head of its Black Sea Fleet following Crimea attacks

These were the top-searched tickers on MarketWatch as of 6 a.m. Eastern Time:

Tourists behaving badly: Two arrested in Venice for cruising its waterways on motorized surfboards.

An extinct massive shark was faster, bigger and hungrier than scientists originally thought

Cambodia finds its lost ancient artifacts at the Met

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This contrarian investor gave a timely warning for the last big tech top. He now sees the biggest drop of this bear market dead ahead. - MarketWatch

As if you dont have enough spam, Google has been given the green light to give you even more. This month, the Federal Elections Commission gave the company the right to send those annoying pleas for campaign contributions directly to your Gmail inbox, circumventing the spam filter altogether.

The effort to clog your inbox with endless all-caps cries to separate you from your money was the culmination of a push by you guessed it Republicans. In their endless effort to work the refs, Republicans had long complained that anything that reined them in was totally unfair. Of course, they have been screaming about Silicon Valley doing them dirt for years and happily fundraising off of that complaint.

The right believes that Big Tech is too liberal, or to use its favorite expression too woke. Of course, the platforms are neutral and turned out to be a handy tool for organizing the insurrection on January 6. What the right objects to is that the platforms, as private entities, have the right to regulate speech and deny people like Donald Trump a megaphone for their lies.

When it comes to the fundraising emails, Republicans cited a study claiming that Google unfairly diverted more Republican fundraising emails to spam than it did Democratic emails. Thats true. Its also true that Yahoo and Microsoft sent more Democratic emails to spam than Republican emails. You wont hear Republicans complaining about that.

Nothing that Big Tech can do will ever satisfy the right, short of turning the servers over to the Trumpists. Should Republicans take control of the House, you can expect to see all kinds of hearings meant to browbeat Google, Facebook, and every other Silicon Valley company into submission.

Big Tech is in the crosshairs, Mike Howell of the right-wing Heritage Foundation told Axios. Theyre going to be subject to document requests and subpoenas and depositions.

Meantime, Republicans will keep hammering away at Big Tech, complaining that it is censoring them. In her disastrous campaign for California governor, Caitlyn Jenner declared because she beat the Soviet team at the 1976 Olympics, she could beat Big Tech.

Silicon Valleys mono-culture seems to espouse the same values, Jenner said, presumably referring to the values of the entire Soviet Union and not its track and field team.

That wasnt a winning argument for Jenner, but as a whole, it is a winning argument for the GOP.

Its not just because Silicon Valley is situated in the very progressive Bay Area. Its because, for a lot of the partys demographic and a lot of its leadership, technology is a mystery. When Google sat down with Republican senators to explain how its spam filtering system worked, the company was met with fury.Of course, most of the senators present had no interest in learning about the system and couldnt tell the difference between an algorithm and an ashcan.

So now your inbox will become the ashcan. If you want to get off the mailing list, you will have to unsubscribe from each message individually. Thats great for Republicans, who have done an excellent job out of fleecing unsuspecting donors with bogus platinum status promises.For the rest of us, its just another message to send to the trash where it belongs.

Original post:

Republicans have found a way to bypass your Gmail spam filters - LGBTQ Nation

Googles parent company, Alphabet, has invested $1.5 billion in projects related to the blockchain industry, a report shows.

According to the latest Blockdata research, Alphabet has been involved in the growth of the blockchain industry, supporting several startups in their growth.

The tech giant invested $1.5 billion from Sep 2021 to June 2022 into four blockchain companies a digital custody company Fireblocks, venture capital firm Digital Currency Group, Lightning Node infrastructure platform Voltage, and blockchain video games company Dapper Labs.

Over the period, 40 public companies made investments worth $6 billion in the blockchain industry, the report shows, including BlackRocks $1.17 billion, Morgan Stanleys $1.11 billion, and $972 million from Samsung, which backed as many as 13 platforms the biggest number of startups in the report.

Blockdatas research also shows that investors are mostly interested in companies providing blockchain services, infrastructure platforms, blockchain development companies, dApps, smart contracts, and custody solutions.

Despite the recent downfall of the crypto market and consequent falling interest toward the industry, Inc. magazine has included several companies in its Inc. 5000 2022 list, naming BlockFi the fastest growing company of the year.

According to the magazine, the crypto lender has experienced a 245,616% growth. Other companies on the list include Polygon, CoinFlip, Distributed Ledger.

Venture capital seems untroubled by the ongoing crypto winter.

According to J.P. Morgan, year-to-date venture capital investment numbers in the crypto and blockchain industries are $17.9 billion year-to-date.

While many of the traditional sectors including software and pharma & biotech continued to represent the majority of VC investment activity in 2022, one of the most interesting trends we have observed in recent quarters has been the record pace of VC investment into startups in the crypto and blockchain industries, J.P. Morgan said.

Along with the market prices, illicit activity in the industry has also fallen, the latest Chainalysis data shows.

Total scam revenue for 2022 currently sits at $1.6 billion, 65% lower than where it was through the end of July in 2021, the report states, noting that it might have been the result of the declining prices and adding that the cumulative number of individual transfers has been the lowest in the past four years so far.

DisclaimerAll the information contained on our website is published in good faith and for general information purposes only. Any action the reader takes upon the information found on our website is strictly at their own risk.

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Big Tech and Finance Invested $6B in Blockchain Companies This Year Report - BeInCrypto