Category Archives: Technology

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Automotive Antifreeze Market by Fluid Type, Technology, Application and Distribution Channel and Aftermarket: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2020-2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

Antifreeze is an additive that helps to manage the temperature of a vehicle's engine by reducing freezing point and increasing the boiling point of the cooling system. It can be developed from either organic acid, inorganic salts, and azoles or a combination of all three. It prevents rigid enclosures from bursting due to expansion from freezing.

The automotive antifreeze market has witnessed significant growth over the years, owing to increasing trend of advanced cooling liquids for vehicles, which has led to the growth of the market.

The global automotive antifreeze market is segmented based on fluid type, technology, applications, distribution channel and region. Based on fluid type, the global automotive antifreeze market has been categorized into ethylene glycol, propylene glycol and glycerin. Based on technology, the global automotive antifreeze market has been categorized into inorganic additive technology (IAT), organic acid technology (OAT) and hybrid organic acid technology (HOAT). Based on application, the market has been categorized into passenger vehicle, commercial vehicle and commercial vehicle. Based on distribution channel, the global market has been segmented into original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) and aftermarket. Also, based of the region, the global automotive antifreeze market has been studied across North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific and LAMEA.

The key players analyzed in the automotive antifreeze market includes Castrol, Chevron Corporation, Exxon Mobil Corporation, Halfords Group PLC., Motul, Prestone Products Corporation, Rock Oil Company LLC., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, TOTAL SA and Valvoline Inc. .

Key benefits for Stakeholders

Market Dynamics

Drivers

Restraints

Opportunity

Key Players

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/n8qo3x

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Global Automotive Antifreeze Market (2020 to 2027) - by Fluid Type, Technology, Application and Distribution Channel - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Investment Opportunities of Big Data Technology in China - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts (2021 - 2026)" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

The investment opportunities of big data technology in the country are expected to register a CAGR of 30%

China's growth trajectory has begun to slow in spite of the government's efforts to provide stimulus. The labour costs have risen to make China lose its cost advantage to countries such as Vietnam and Cambodia. To remain ahead of the curve, China's economy will have to shift to a higher value with big data as one of the tools to empower this shift.

Big data has enormous potential to revolutionise Chinese economy. China has the world's largest consumer market. The world's workshop, China, is producing countless goods for export. Big data can offer critical insights into China's highly valued consumer market and assist Chinese firms trying to engage in high-value economic activities.

The other factor that further underscores the importance of big data for Chinese firms is the amount of data that China produces today on account of being the second largest economy of the world. For instance, Tencent Holdings reports that its data hoard contains 15 times as much information as the world's largest library. WeChat app, Tencent's flagship product, alone has some 760 million people, registered users.

Key Market Trends

Use of Big Data in the Chinese Automotive Industry to Increase Exponentially Driving the Market Growth

Need for Customer Analytics to Stimulate the Market Growth

Key Topics Covered:

1 INTRODUCTION

2 RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

3 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

4 MARKET DYNAMICS

4.1 Market Overview

4.2 Introduction to Market Dynamics

4.3 Market Drivers

4.3.1 Data Explosion: Unstructured, Semi-structured and Complex

4.3.2 Improvement in Algorithm Development

4.3.3 Need for Customer Analytics

4.4 Market Restraints

4.4.1 Lack of General Awareness And Expertise

4.4.2 Data Security Concerns

4.5 Industry Value Chain Analysis

4.6 Porter's Five Force Analysis

5 MARKET SEGMENTATION

5.1 By Deployment

5.1.1 On-Premise

5.1.2 Cloud

5.2 By Enterprise Size

5.2.1 Large Enterprise

5.2.2 Small & Medium Enterprise

5.3 By Solution

5.3.1 Customer Analytics

5.3.2 Fraud Detection and Management

5.3.3 Operation Intelligence

5.3.4 Predictive Maintenance

5.3.5 Asset Management

5.3.6 Other Solutions

5.4 By End-user Industry

5.4.1 BFSI

5.4.2 Healthcare

5.4.3 Retail

5.4.4 Manufacturing and Automotive

5.4.5 Aerospace & Defense

5.4.6 IT & Telecommunication

5.4.7 Government

5.4.8 Other End-user Industries

6 COMPETITIVE LANDSCAPE

6.1 Company Profiles

6.1.1 IBM China Company Limited

6.1.2 SAP China

6.1.3 Huawei Technologies Co.

6.1.4 Microsoft (China) Co., Ltd.

6.1.5 Lenovo (Beijing) Limited

6.1.6 Alibaba Cloud Computing Company

6.1.7 Inspur Group Limited

6.1.8 Baidu, Inc.

6.1.9 Neusoft Corporation

6.1.10 JD.com, Inc.

7 INVESTMENT ANALYSIS

8 MARKET OPPORTUNITIES AND FUTURE TRENDS

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/k21wbj

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Investment Opportunities of Big Data Technology in China - Growth, Trends, COVID-19 Impact, and Forecasts 2021-2026 - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Bloomberg

(Bloomberg) -- From his perch high above Midtown Manhattan, just across from Carnegie Hall, Bill Hwang was quietly building one of the worlds greatest fortunes.Even on Wall Street, few ever noticed him -- until suddenly, everyone did.Hwang and his private investment firm, Archegos Capital Management, are now at the center of one of the biggest margin calls of all time -- a multibillion-dollar fiasco involving secretive market bets that were dangerously leveraged and unwound in a blink.Hwangs most recent ascent can be pieced together from stocks dumped by banks in recent days -- ViacomCBS Inc., Discovery Inc. GSX Techedu Inc., Baidu Inc. -- all of which had soared this year, sometimes confounding traders who couldnt fathom why.One part of Hwangs portfolio, which has been traded in blocks since Friday by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., Morgan Stanley and Wells Fargo & Co., was worth almost $40 billion last week. Bankers reckon that Archegoss net capital -- essentially Hwangs wealth -- had reached north of $10 billion. And as disposals keep emerging, estimates of his firms total positions keep climbing: tens of billions, $50 billion, even more than $100 billion.It evaporated in mere days.Ive never seen anything like this -- how quiet it was, how concentrated, and how fast it disappeared, said Mike Novogratz, a career macro investor and former partner at Goldman Sachs whos been trading since 1994. This has to be one of the single greatest losses of personal wealth in history.Late Monday in New York, Archegos broke days of silence on the episode.This is a challenging time for the family office of Archegos Capital Management, our partners and employees, Karen Kessler, a spokesperson for the firm, said in an emailed statement. All plans are being discussed as Mr. Hwang and the team determine the best path forward.The cascade of trading losses has reverberated from New York to Zurich to Tokyo and beyond, and leaves myriad unanswered questions, including the big one: How could someone take such big risks, facilitated by so many banks, under the noses of regulators the world over?One part of the answer is that Hwang set up as a family office with limited oversight and then employed financial derivatives to amass big stakes in companies without ever having to disclose them. Another part is that global banks embraced him as a lucrative customer, despite a record of insider trading and attempted market manipulation that drove him out of the hedge fund business a decade ago.A disciple of hedge-fund legend Julian Robertson, Sung Kook Bill Hwang shuttered Tiger Asia Management and Tiger Asia Partners after settling an SEC civil lawsuit in 2012 accusing them of insider trading and manipulating Chinese banks stocks. Hwang and the firms paid $44 million, and he agreed to be barred from the investment advisory industry.He soon opened Archegos -- Greek for one who leads the way -- and structured it as a family office.Family offices that exclusively manage one fortune are generally exempt from registering as investment advisers with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. So they dont have to disclose their owners, executives or how much they manage -- rules designed to protect outsiders who invest in a fund. That approach makes sense for small family offices, but if they swell to the size of a hedge fund whale they can still pose risks, this time to outsiders in the broader market.This does raise questions about the regulation of family offices once again, said Tyler Gellasch, a former SEC aide who now runs the Healthy Markets trade group. The question is if its just friends and family why do we care? The answer is that they can have significant market impacts, and the SECs regulatory regime even after Dodd-Frank doesnt clearly reflect that.Valuable CustomerArchegos established trading partnerships with firms including Nomura Holdings Inc., Morgan Stanley, Deutsche Bank AG and Credit Suisse Group AG. For a time after the SEC case, Goldman refused to do business with him on compliance grounds, but relented as rivals profited by meeting his needs.The full picture of his holdings is still emerging, and its not clear what positions derailed, or what hedges he had set up.One reason is that Hwang never filed a 13F report of his holdings, which every investment manager holding more than $100 million in U.S. equities must fill out at the end of each quarter. Thats because he appears to have structured his trades using total return swaps, essentially putting the positions on the banks balance sheets. Swaps also enable investors to add a lot of leverage to a portfolio.Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs, for instance, are listed as the largest holders of GSX Techedu, a Chinese online tutoring company thats been repeatedly targeted by short sellers. Banks may own shares for a variety of reasons that include hedging swap exposures from trades with their customers.Unhappy InvestorsGoldman increased its position 54% in January, according to regulatory filings. Overall, banks reported holding at least 68% of GSXs outstanding shares, according to a Bloomberg analysis of filings. Banks held at least 40% of IQIYI Inc, a Chinese video entertainment company, and 29% of ViacomCBS -- all of which Archegos had bet on big.Im sure there are a number of really unhappy investors who have bought those names over the last couple of weeks, and now regret it, Doug Cifu, chief executive officer of electronic-trading firm Virtu Financial Inc., said Monday in an interview on Bloomberg TV. He predicted regulators will examine whether there should be more transparency and disclosure by a family office.Without the need to market his fund to external investors, Hwangs strategies and performance remained secret from the outside world. Even as his fortune swelled, the 50-something kept a low profile. Despite once working for Robertsons Tiger Management, he wasnt well-known on Wall Street or in New York social circles.Hwang is a trustee of the Fuller Theology Seminary, and co-founder of the Grace and Mercy Foundation, whose mission is to serve the poor and oppressed. The foundation had assets approaching $500 million at the end of 2018, according to its latest filing.Its not all about the money, you know, he said in a rare interview with a Fuller Institute executive in 2018, in which he spoke about his calling as an investor and his Christian faith. Its about the long term, and God certainly has a long-term view.His extraordinary run of fortune turned early last week as ViacomCBS Inc. announced a secondary offering of its shares. Its stock price plunged 9% the next day.The value of other securities believed to be in Archegos portfolio based on the positions that were block traded followed.By Thursdays close, the value of the portfolio fell 27% -- more than enough to wipe out the equity of an investor who market participants estimate was six to eight times levered.Its also hurt some of the banks that served Hwang. Nomura and Credit Suisse warned of significant losses in the wake of the selloff and Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group Inc. has flagged a potential $300 million loss.You have to wonder who else is out there with one of these invisible fortunes, said Novogratz. The psychology of all that leverage with no risk management, its almost nihilism.(Updates with latest bank to detail exposure in penultimate paragraph.)For more articles like this, please visit us at bloomberg.comSubscribe now to stay ahead with the most trusted business news source.2021 Bloomberg L.P.

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ST Equipment & Technology Teams with Salt River Materials Group on Fly Ash Recycling System - Yahoo Finance

Battery-Free Sensors, Machine Learning On Tiny Devices And More

They arent just things of the future: New technologies are making it possible to run all sorts of applications and machine learning algorithms on tiny, low-power devices. Theyre also enabling new kinds of IoT sensors that dont require batteries and can figure out precise body location.

These are some examples of emerging IoT technologies that are changing the nature of connected devices, how they run IoT applications and how they communicate with each other. Such innovations are being made possible by new advances in both hardware and software.

[Related: 10 Cool Smart Home Devices To Know About In 2021]

What follows are five emerging IoT technologies you need to know in 2021, from sensors with new power-generating capabilities to fresh methods for running software on tiny devices.

Battery-Free Sensors

If sensors could generate their own power, imagine the implications: no need to worry about battery replacements, which is a big deal when sensor deployments get into the hundreds, if not thousands or tens of thousands across multiple sites. A Santa Clara, Calif.-based startup called Everactive is working on such an innovation with its Eversensor, which contains a variety of sensor types and generates power form a mix of sources, including indoor solar, vibration and thermal. The company said its Eversensors can last for 20 years without ever needing routine maintenance.

Containers For MCU Devices

Container technology is becoming increasingly important for running applications in IoT devices, but one area that hasnt received as much attention is containers for microcontroller units, or MCUs tiny, low-power chips that enable tens of millions of IoT devices, from connected washer machines to heat sensors in oil refineries. One vendor called Nubix has developed a solution for deploying application containers to MCU devices that have real-time operating systems. The company says such solutions will make development and management of IoT devices more agile and scalable.

Mesh Sensors

The wearables of the future will be able to do a lot more than just measure heart rate, exertion and sleep quality theyll be able to track the exact movement of the body. This is where mesh sensors come in. The technology consists of a wireless network of sensors, and the sensors, which can be integrated with garments, gather an almost untold amount of data points. Those data points, in turn, can be used by an app to determine the bodys position in 3D space. This is the exact approach of one mesh sensor vendor, Cipher Skin, whose BioSleeve monitors can be used for everything from rehabilitation programs to super-demanding workout regimens.

Network Slicing For IoT Applications

With 5G networks coming online across the world, companies are looking at network slicing as a way to segment connections for IoT devices with different requirements for latency, reliability and bandwidth, among other things. As a form of network virtualization, network slicing can be used to ensure, for instance, that mission-critical IoT deployments have a low-latency, high-bandwidth connection, according to Ericsson, one telecom vendor that has made the technology available for 5G networks using its equipment. This can enable organizations to create new business models among different slices of their 5G networks while also improving the efficiency of infrastructure, the company said.

TinyML

Does all machine learning have to happen in the cloud, or even in nearby edge gateways? What if such a workload could run on the tiny chips that make so many IoT devices possible in the first place? This is the idea behind TinyML, a growing field of hardware and software technologies that are making it possible to run machine learning algorithms on small, low-power devices like microcontrollers. TinyML can enable sensors with predictive maintenance capabilities for manufacturing equipment and super-accurate location tracking for goods on the move, industry publication Stacey on IoT reported. It can also enable health care devices to better protect patient data by keeping the data analysis on device.

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5 Emerging IoT Technologies You Need To Know In 2021 - CRN

- Successive Technologies partners with Strapi to help businesses create, manage, & accelerate their goals, and deliver better omnichannel digital experiences for users

NOIDA, India, March 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Successive Technologies, a next-gen (CMMI Level-3) technology consulting and services company headquartered in India, is proud to announce a comprehensive technology and go-to-market strategic partnership with Strapi. The tight integration provides visible benefits and development perspectives for both enterprises.

As a strategic partner, both the companies will unlock critical value from their digital transformation initiatives and expand their business solutions.

With more than 34 K stars, 3M downloads, and 600 individual contributors, Strapi is one of the fastest-growingheadless CMS (Content Management System). It isopen-source, API-driven, self-hosted, 100% JavaScript based,and most flexible & extensible. It includes a well-defined API that allows developers to create, deploy and manage the content seamlessly on various digital channels without redeploying, changing codebase, and display layers.

The Strapi Professional Partnership reflects our commitment and dedication to the community. It also drives commitment to deliver top-quality solutions. Successive looks ahead to accelerate content delivery while building better digital experiences helping businesses achieve their desired outcomes.

Sid Pandey, Chief Executive Officer at Successive, comments:

"Strapi has always allowed us to build digital solutions that are ahead of the curve. Our designers & developers, who deliver Strapi websites tailored to our clients' business requirements, are enthusiastic about learning how to combine our award-winning technology services with the talented Strapi team. Also, how we will continue to deliver first-class websites, web apps, & mobile apps to our customers."

Gary Malik, Chief Strategy Officer at Successive, comments:

"We're excited to be a part of Strapi's ever-growing Professional Partner community. As a business, we're thrilled to unravel this partnership's mutual benefit. Strapi knows how to go the extra mile for a client to create promoters instead of just satisfied customers. And this fits right into Successive values and Strategy! I am super excited to build a close Professional Partnership with the Strapi team!"

Pierre Burgy, CEO at Strapi, comments:

"We are excited to partner with Successive Technologies to empower developers to quickly and easily create millions of digital projects thanks to an open-source, multi-platform and customizable CMS.Successive Technologies is Strapi's first technology and Go-To-Market partner in India, and we look forward to enabling local companies to accelerate content delivery while building better digital experiences.

As a Professional Partner, Successive can create innovative and cutting-edge solutions for any digital product, channel, or device. They also benefit from backend functionalities for websites and apps built with the JAMstack, most popular front-end frameworks including Gatsby, Nuxt, Next.js or another static site generator, and most databases, both REST and GraphQL API. Successive is happily learning the value that this Professional Partnership will bring to both existing and upcoming clients.

About Successive Technologies

Founded in 2012, Successive is a next-gen technology consulting services company purpose-built for modern business speed. Our expertise includes digital transformation, enterprise cloud, mobility, application security, and application development solutions. We specialize in Cloud Consulting, Cloud Migration, DevOps Automation, DevSecOps & Enterprise Content Management. Our innovative approaches, thought process, and automation mindset help businesses build a strong business transformation foundation and customer satisfaction.

For more information, please visit http://www.successive.tech.

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Successive Technologies and Strapi Announces Strategic Partnership - PR Newswire India

NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Spotify Technology S.A. (NYSE: SPOT) will post its first quarter 2021 financial results and letter to shareholders on Wednesday, April 28, 2021 before market open.

The company will hold a question and answer session to discuss first quarter 2021 financial results at 8:00am Eastern Time. Management will answer questions submitted via Slido. Questions may be submitted the day of the call at http://www.slido.com using the event code #SpotifyEarningsQ121.

A live webcast of the earnings call will be accessible at investors.spotify.com and a recording of the webcast will be available following the session.

About Spotify Technology S.A.

Spotify is the worlds most popular audio streaming subscription service with a community of more than 345 million Monthly Active Users and 155 million Premium Subscribers. With a presence in 178 markets, and more than 70 million tracks including 2.2 million podcast titles, it has transformed the way people access and enjoy music and podcasts.

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Spotify Technology S.A. to Announce Financial Results for First Quarter 2021 - Business Wire

How can European agriculture become more eco-friendly and guarantee a healthy, profitable production?

The answer lies in innovative production methods and cutting-edge technology, the likes of which are being used at the Farm of the Future in the Netherlands. Researchers from the Wageningen University developed this farm to provide solutions for sustainable production. They say that their farming, put to the test in Lelystad, can be described as closed-loop recycling, high levels of biodiversity, minimal environmentally harmful emissions. They're also looking to assure sufficient incomes for farmers and eventually not use fossil fuels.

The farm has two field labs, one especifically for testing agroecology and technology. It also has a place where the national centre for applied research on renewable energy and green resources (ACRRES) can run projects on renewable energy. Farm of the Future is in partnership with the EU-funded project Nefertiti, which aims to boost the use of innovation in agriculture and contribute to a more competitive, sustainable and climate-smart future.

Wijnand Sukkel is a project manager for the farm. He says that they use a combination of agroecology and technology with a particular focus on soil management. "We have a focus on crop diversity, not only crop diversity in time, like rotation, but also crop diversity in space, and thats mixed cropping, strip cropping", he adds.

Monoculture vs strip culture

Strips of different crops, unlike monoculture fields, create mini-ecosystems that benefit biodiversity. Crop rotation and cover crops improve soil quality. A challenge to soil quality is subsoil being compacted by heavy machinery. Subsoil is the earth just underneath topsoil that sits at a depth of around 30-45 centimetres. It is essential for subsoil to be lose, as plant roots can easily penetrate it and it increases the land's natural drainage of surplus water.

A solution to counteract compact subsoil is being tested at Farm of the Future. Drilling vertical holes deep into the ground breaks up the solid layers.

Blossoming tech

Robots are key to modern agriculture. They fit nicely with the methods of sustainable production and provide useful data. Bram Veldhuisen is a researcher at Wageningen University. He tells us that "machines often got bigger and bigger and now with the robots we see that they also can be smaller and that's better for the soil". "Sensors, like satellites and drones, give much more insights in things in the fields", he adds.

To make these kinds of technologies accessible to all, the internet is indispensable. That's why the European Commissions Farm to Fork strategy is aiming to get fast broadband internet to 100% of all rural areas by 2025.

Scientific and natural farming complete new agricultural methods. One such natural method is cover crops. They are planted during the winter and are used to make the soil healthy. These plants take up minerals through their roots, forming proteins and organic forms of nitrogen that protect and improve the earth.

Nitrogen is crucial to life, but if there is too much of it in the soil due to the overuse of fertilisers, it can harm the environment.

Lab tests are done before sowing and after harvest to check the balance of the soil. Koen Klompe, an organic farmer and researcher, tells us that at Farm of the Future "we always take some soil samples to see how much nitrogen is still left in the soil after the winter, so we can optimise fertilising. So if there is still a lot of nitrogen in there, then we have to fertilise less nitrogen".

Goodbye fossil fuels

Researchers at the Farm of the Future are producing renewable energy for their machines. They have already kitted out the farmhouses and barns with solar panels that are producing electricity.

An upcoming project is also looking to harness the potential of wind turbines to power a hydrogen-fuel production plant. Sukkel tells us that "from the electricity, we produce hydrogen gas, we store it here and we use it for our tractors". The small machinery uses electricity.

Being able to do this is helping them to be self-sufficient in fuel, a goal for every farm of the future.

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Technology, agriculture's friend for the sustainable farms of the future - Euronews

Congress is gearing up for debate on the future of the National Science Foundation.

By Jeffrey MervisMar. 26, 2021 , 3:00 PM

The science committee in the U.S. House of Representatives wants to more than double the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the next 5 years, devoting a sizeable chunk of the extra money to a new directorate that would accelerate the process of turning basic research into new technologies and products. But its version of a technology directorate would be much smaller and more in line with the way NSF traditionally funds research than theone already proposedby Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (DNY), which emphasizes the economic and security threats posed by China.

TheHouse bill, introduced today with bipartisan support, would lift NSFs overall budget from the current $8.5 billion to $18.3 billion in 2026. In addition to growing the agencys existing seven research and education directorates, the bill would create an eighth, called Science and Engineering Solutions (SES). Its budget would start at $1 billion in 2022 and grow to $5 billion by 2026.

Both the House legislation and Schumers Endless Frontier Act (EFA) see the new directorate as a way for NSF to do better in applying basic research findings to major societal challenges, from combating climate change and health inequities to strengthening economic and national security. But the House bill avoids Schumers focus on specific technologies such as artificial intelligencesometimes called industries of the futurein favor of supporting all the disciplines NSF traditionally funds. The House proposal would also scale back the size of the new directorate, which under the EFA would grow to $35 billion by 2024. (Schumer said this week he expects several Senate committees to begin work next month on a revised version of his original legislation.)

We were worried that this shiny new thing would overshadow the rest of NSF, says a House science committee staffer. But we are very supportive of [Schumers] desire to grow NSF.

The House bill justifies rapid growth for NSF by emphasizing the grand challenges facing the country. Framing the issue in terms of competition with China wasnt attractive to the community, says the staffer, referring to several rounds of meetings the committee held during the past year with academic and industry leaders. They felt it was better to look at research opportunities not now being addressed that could ultimately benefit all of society.

Statements on the bill from the committees top Democrat and Republican reflect that subtle difference in emphasis. Our competitiveness with China and other nations drives much of the national discourse around innovation because our economic and national security depend on our leadership in science and technology, says Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson (DTX), chair of the committee. [But] researchers and students are inspired by finding solutions, whether they betoscientific or societal challenges. In this bill, we seek to inspire.

In contrast, Representative Frank Lucas (ROK) highlighted the specific technologies that many legislators believe are needed to stay ahead of China. This legislation prioritizes NSF funding for the industries of the future that will drive our continued economic growth, like quantum information sciences, artificial intelligence, supercomputing, cybersecurity, and advanced manufacturing. He also flagged the importance of research security, that is, blocking other countries from improperly gaining access to federally funded research.

A host of existing science education and workforce training programs would grow by 50% over the 5-year term of the bill. Among those, it would boost the annual number of prestigious graduate research fellowships to from 2000 to 3000. The bill would also order up a decadal study of how to strengthen precollege science education and another on how to ensure that undergraduate science and engineering majors receive the training they need to fill high-tech jobs in industry after graduation.

The House bill goes to great lengths to prevent a funding tradeoff between the new directorate and the rest of NSFa major concern of academic researchers who rely on NSF for support. It would both block the transfer of any money from NSFs traditional programs into the new directorate as well as permitting the new directorate to function only if NSFs existing programs have continued to grow.

But those protections arent absolute. Both the House and Senate bills would only authorize spending levels. A different committee actually appropriates money for the agency and is not required to heed the wishes of authorizers.

We have made our intent as clear as possible, the science committee staffer says. But we have to stay vigilant.

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House panel offers its plan to double NSF budget and create technology directorate - Science Magazine

Weve all been there. Please listen to our entire menu as our options have changed. Say or press one for product information... Sometimes, these automated customer service experiences are effective and efficientother times, not so much.

Many organizations are already using chatbots and virtual assistants to help better serve their customers. These intelligent, automated self-service agents can handle frequently asked questions, provide relevant knowledge articles and resources to address customer inquiries, and help customers fill out forms and do other routine procedures. In the case of more complex inquiries, these automated self-service agents can triage those requests to a live human agent.

During times of uncertainty and emergency, customer service operations powered by artificial intelligence (AI) can be invaluable to businesses, helping customer service or human resources call centers keep up with spikes in demand and reduce customer wait times and frustration. According to recent estimates, Gartner predicts that by 2022, 70% of customer interactions will involve emerging technologies such as machine learning applications, chatbots, and mobile messaging. Thats an increase of 15% from 2018.

In these types of conversational interactions, AI chatbots can extend the reach of an organizations customer service and maintain a level of reciprocity with their customers, says Greg Bennett, conversation design principal at Salesforce. Theres also the opportunity for the business to express its brand, its voice, and its tone through words and language it uses to create a greater degree of intimacy. Bennett is deeply involved in training AI systems that power conversational chatbots and ensuring they are inclusive and able to understand a broad range of dialects, accents, and other linguistic expressions.

Not only is the use of AI automation becoming more widespread, it is also proving to be a significant business driver. Gartner anticipates that in 2021, AI augmentation will generate $2.6 trillion in business value. It could also save as many as 6.2 billion hours of labor.

According to research conducted by management consultancy Korn Ferry, conversational intelligence is a collaborative effort. And that collaborative effort is reciprocity of two participants to communicate in ways that lead to a shared concept of reality. That closes the gap between the individual reality of the two speakersand helps businesses help customers.

With that in mind, Salesforce and other companies have taken that concept one step further by looking for ways to combine conversational intelligence with technology. In fact, through these efforts, AI-powered conversational intelligence has vastly improved over time. This started with simple text recognition in which its fairly easy to achieve a significant degree of accuracy. But text recognition can be somewhat two-dimensional, which is why research has progressed to include automated speech recognition. Automated speech recognition systems must account for different languages, accents, and acoustic inflections, which is much more difficult and nuanced. As AI algorithms have become more sophisticated and have had the time and experience to incorporate more linguistic variations, AI technology has improved its ability to accurately understand the deeper subtleties of human conversational interactions.

Conversational intelligence is the constellation of features and technologies that enable humans and machines to take turns exchanging language and work toward accomplishing a discursive goal, says Bennett.

These AI systems focused on linguistics use a number of different technologies to understand written and spoken interactions with humans. Some of these include the following:

Going well beyond simple text recognition, natural language understanding is where AI is truly bringing its strengths to bear. By facilitating deeper, more nuanced conversation, it increases the efficacy of human-AI interactions. When an AI-powered customer service system is better equipped to recognize and discern natural language with fewer errors, it can guide a customer through an entire interaction without having to engage a human service agent. This frees up the agents to focus on more complex cases.

And using these capabilities in customer service environments can help companies not only expedite and improve interactions with their customers but also improve the overall customer relationship. If we can have a machine that helps facilitate that type of interaction between a company and a customer, then it helps to further build a relationship with that customer in a way that a help article would not, says Bennett.

And the more an AI system engages with humans, the more effective its algorithms become. By interacting with humans, an AI system can gather the data required to improve natural language understanding to better understand intent, helping to facilitate more nuanced human-computer conversations. Human interaction also helps these AI systems improve recognition and predictive capabilities to deliver more personalized content. By learning the many ways people behave and interact, the systems response becomes more accurate.

AI algorithms absorb, process, and analyze the datasets fed into the system using their own specific equations. This processing is done in one of two basic modalities: supervised or unsupervised. In supervised improvement, datasets will have an assigned target value or category. In unsupervised improvement, the algorithm analyzes the dataset on its own with no guidance or restrictions.

As they receive and process more data, the algorithms evolve, adapt, and improve their analytical models. So the algorithms improve and refine themselves based on both the quality and quantity of data processed. There are notions that AI can glean distinct intent, scope, and context by interacting with humans, says Bennett. These incremental improvements in predictive ability and depth of understanding increase the efficiency of customer engagement.

Although natural language processing has come a long way, automated speech recognition technology continues to face challenges in recognizing the full range of linguistic variations. There are all these different English accents, all of them are robust and valid and should be celebrated, says Bennett. Other linguistic variations that challenge AI include different slang or colloquial expressions to convey similar meanings and other paralinguistic features like tone, intonation, pacing, pausing, and pitch.

It is paramount to help AI manage the inherent levels of bias present in the system and expand to recognize the full range of linguistic variations. These incremental improvements in the predictive ability of AI algorithms helpimprove the customer experience by reducing the amount ofback-and-forth exchanges andmoments of frustration brought on by a lack of accurate recognition.

But these efforts and advancements present certain ethical conundrums. Consider, for example, how minorities are represented in training datasetsor more accurately how they are not represented. Most widely used datasets exclude more diverse expressions of dialect and social identity. Ensuring a diverse representation on the teams developing AI technologies is a critical step toward developing and evolving AI algorithms to recognize a broader array of linguistic expressions.

Now that AI is capable of allowing for a greater degree of variation, it should be able to account for broader contextual relevance and be more inclusive. Although conversation and language are the conduit, it is incumbent on humans working with AI systems to continue to consider accessibility throughout dialects, accents, and other stylistic variations.

Under-represented minorities have very little representation of their dialect and the expression of their social identity through language in these systems. Its mostly because of their lack of representation among the teams creating the technology, says Bennett. Ensuring that companies developing and deploying AI systems bring more diverse teams into the mix can help resolve that inherent bias.

AI systems have the capacity to allow for a greater degree of variation. When the systems can accurately interpret those variations and generate a contextually relevant response, AI will have evolved to a greater degree than ever before. Thats really where I think the evolution [of the field] has taken us, Bennett says.

Of course, thats not to say there arent other ethical and practical concerns surrounding the expanded use of AI. Privacy concerns, responsibility, transparency, and accurately and appropriately delegating decision processes are all still relevant. And then theres the ethical use of voice recordings. Its a growing field in which significant parameters still need to be defined.

Addressing the full range of linguistic variations and including more diverse groups and historically under-represented minorities in the process is truly building the future of the human-AI connection. This will also lead to more widespread use cases for business. In fact, the biggest competitive differentiator in the future of conversational technology will be the ability to provide robust conversational understanding regardless of language, accent, slang, dialect, or other aspects of social identity.

Bennett recalls a lesson from a grad school professor: She said, Having a conversation is like climbing a tree that climbs back. And that really characterizes the trajectory of where conversational AI technologies must go in order to meet the human needs and standards of conversation as a behavioral practice. Conversation is not a solo act. Its a two-way street. True conversation is the actsome might even say the artof taking turns engaging in speaking and listening, exchanging ideas, exchanging feelings, and exchanging information.

In linguistics, the paralinguistic features of speech like inflection, intonation, pacing, pausing, and pitch provide the pragmatic layer of meaning to a conversation, says Bennett. Instead of focusing on how the users can help AI systems, we should be asking how we can scale the system to meet the users where they are. Given what we know about linguistics, I dont believe you can force any sort of language change, he says. Conversational AI technology is set up in a way that could succeed if we took that approach at the pragmatic layerthe paralinguistic side of things.

The capacity to comprehend, fully understand, and scale to that level of linguistic diversity is where AI is heading, says Bennett. Startups in the conversational AI space are indexing on that as a differentiating factor. And when you think about it, if you include more diverse groups and historically under-represented minorities in the process, that actually expands your total addressable market.

This content was produced by Insights, the custom content arm of MIT Technology Review. It was not written by MIT Technology Reviews editorial staff.

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Building customer relationships with conversational AI - MIT Technology Review

Four MetroWest communities have teamed up in an effort to offer residents a better deal on clean energy technology.

Known as the Metro-West 2021 Regional Solar and Clean Energy Challenge, officials from Framingham, Ashland, Natick and Holliston have sent outa requestfor proposal (RFP) for installers of solar panels and air source and ground source heat pumps.

The goal is to provide MetroWest residents and small businesses an opportunity to invest in such technologies at the samecompetitivebase price.

"This program is similar to the Massachusetts Clean Energy Center's Solarize Massachusetts Plus, and HeatSmart Massachusetts programs," reads a portion of the RFP.

The municipalities hope to be able to announce their chosen installer by the end of next month. At that point, a customer sign-up period will begin and run until March 2022.

Ashland officials spearheaded the project.

Frank Nakashian, Ashlands sustainability coordinator, said the communities had already been collaborating on some other projects with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council.

Weve figured it would make sense, as opposed to going italone, for a program that we could join forces on, he said.

All four municipalities have been designated as Green Communities by the Massachusetts Department of Energy Resources and have set their own energy goals. As a Green Community, municipalities can take advantage of state grants and have committed to meeting certain environmental and energy goals.

Jillian Wilson-Martin, Naticks sustainability coordinator, said the municipalities in the future be able to save time and share resources by working together.

Lining upinstallers can take a lot of time,she said. Theproject is helping speed up the process for everyone and helping to get more clean energy technology in homes and commercial businesses faster.

One of the reasons were all excited about this is because it very much ties to our greenhouse gas emission reduction goals, she said.

Holliston Sustainability Coordinator Matt Zettek said by partnering the municipalities have the potential to lower the cost of thosetechnologies to residents and commercial business.

Basically, by doing this together, we should help lower the costs for the folks were helping through this program, he said.

An added component to the RFP is the request for the installer to host educational webinars to help inform the public about the benefits of the clean energy technology, Nakashian said.

"For instance, the vendors will conduct 'Meet the Installer'events in addition to appearances at farmers markets and other outreach events where they can answer questions that any residents may have," he said. "In addition, community volunteers will be able to answer questions from interested residents. These outreach events will provide value byproviding opportunity for interested residents to ask questions on variables such as utility costs, maintenance, energy savings, home valuation estimates after installation, etc. Vendorswill also demonstrate cost competitiveness by offering system prices lower than typically offered."

The RFP will be open until Wednesday.

Cesareo Contreras can be reached at 508-626-3957 or ccontreras@wickedlocal.com. Follow him on Twitter @cesareo_r.

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MetroWest towns and cities working together to offer clean energy technology - MetroWest Daily News