Category Archives: Technology

In 2022, NATO marks 70 years of collaborative scientific and technological research at the service of Alliance defence and security.

Scientific collaboration between NATO nations was first institutionalized in 1952, at the initiative of scientist Dr Theodore von Krmn, in recognition of the critical role that Science and Technology (S&T) plays in ensuring that the Alliance retains its military advantage over potential adversaries. At the time, scientific cooperation within NATO focused primarily on aerospace. The spectrum has since broadened to include applied vehicle technology, human factors and medicine, information systems technology, modeling and simulation, sensors and electronics, systems analysis and studies, and sensors and electronics. In addition, nations work together on maritime research and experimentation at a dedicated NATO-owned laboratory in La Spezia, Italy.

John-Mikal Strdal, Director of NATOs Collaboration Support Office in Paris, welcomed the anniversary, saying: Science and Technology activities are not an end in and of themselves, but an efficient means to strengthen NATOs ability to deter and defend. Our key to success is to foster a knowledge-community that excels in science and technology and that is firmly anchored in the strategic and operational needs and requirements of our armed forces. Together, we address essential challenges and opportunities at the intersection between new technologies and the security concerns of our nations and the Alliance. And that scientific progress creates tangible, efficient and productive results.

Since 2012, NATOs Science and Technology Organisation (STO), building on the legacy of previous NATO research organisations, has brought together military operators, government laboratories, industry and academia, providing a critical forum where ideas can be tested and collective creativity exploited. Over decades, the Alliance has developed the worlds largest international collaborative network for Science and Technology in defence and security.Today, the STOs network of around 5,000 scientists and researchers from 40 NATO Allied and partner countries is working on more than 300 projects.

More recently, STOs research has been at the forefront of NATOs work on emerging and disruptive technologies (EDTs) and has helped inform NATOs new chemical, biological, radiological and nuclear (CBRN) defence policy.

Looking ahead, climate change and energy security will also be areas of focus for NATOs scientific research.

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NATO marks 70 years of scientific and technological research - NATO HQ

In announcing the new agreement, Schumer asserted that the legislation puts the US on a path to roughly 40% emissions reductions by 2030.And experts agree the bill could be a game changer in cutting the nations emissions in the coming years, helping to curtail warming and extreme weather events in the coming decades.

In a word, billions. The bill includes hundreds of billions in grants, loans, federal procurements, and tax credits for research and development, deployment, and manufacturing in clean energy, transportation, and other sectors like agriculture.

This is the transformative clean energy and climate rescue package that weve been waiting for, Leah Stokes, an environmental policy professor at the University of California, Santa Barbara, who has been advising Democrats on climate legislation, said in an interview.

One major focus of spending in the bill is deploying clean energy: theres roughly $30 billion in new tax credits for building wind, solar, and other clean energy projects, as well as extensions for existing credits. Theres also $60 billion in incentives for domestic manufacturing of everything from batteries to solar panels to heat pumps.

Subsidy increases in the bill could possibly make it economical for some fossil-fuel and industrial plants to add equipment that prevents climate pollution, increasing the potential role of whats known as carbon capture and storage.

The bill includes $27 billion for research and development in clean technology, as well as $2 billion specifically for research at national laboratories.

Other sectors will see support for climate efforts too. Some $20 billion is earmarked to help cut emissions from agriculture, and theres nearly $5 billion in grants for forest conservation and restoration projects.

Ryan Fitzpatrick, director of the climate and energy program at Third Way, said its an ambitious and politically pragmatic bill designed to boost US manufacturing, provide support where job sectors are shifting, and build out the infrastructure needed to shift to cleaner, modern energy systems.

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Here are the biggest technology wins in the breakthrough climate bill - MIT Technology Review

SAVANNAH, Ga.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Performant Capital announced today that it has formed Provider Technology, LLC (Provider Technology) through the acquisitions of DavLong Business Solutions LLC and its affiliate Administrative Advantage LLC (collectively, DBS) and On Demand Solutions Inc. (ODS). Provider Technology is a leading technology provider of outsourced software and IT services, revenue cycle management (RCM) and back-office business support primarily to physician practices and health systems. The businesses will continue to operate independently under their respective brands but share best practices across all functional areas.

Performant, investing out of Fund I, closed the DBS and ODS transactions simultaneously in June. The Private Credit business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management (Goldman Sachs) provided first lien debt and an equity co-investment to support the acquisitions.

The team at Goldman Sachs has been invaluable as we executed this platform investment, said Mike Ciaglia, Partner at Performant. We look forward to meaningfully accelerating the growth of the business given the scale enabled by Goldmans partnership.

Founded in 1983 and headquartered in Savannah, GA, DBS provides turnkey IT solutions for physician practices by fully hosting, maintaining, and supporting all software needs for the medical office, from cloud hosting to cybersecurity. DBS combines its proprietary suite of software offerings with leading third-party solutions to provide medical practices with a fully integrated electronic health record and practice management system from a single vendor. In addition to its best-in-class software offering, DBS also provides complete RCM services designed to manage and optimize the entire collections process for practices. Across both primary functional areas, the company leverages technology, analytics, and the expertise of its skilled teams to improve operational and financial performance for customers.

Founded in 2007 and headquartered in Boise, ID, ODS provides practice management software, RCM, staffing support and business advisory services to healthcare service providers and organizations. Its solutions improve business operational efficiency, reduce administrative costs, and assure managerial control so clients can stay focused on providing quality patient care.

The combination of DBS, AA, and ODS creates a national back-office and healthcare technology platform servicing more than 3,000 medical providers across the U.S and across medical specialties developing best-in-class offerings and technology for specific specialties, such as Ophthalmology, EMS and Hospitalist providers. These businesses are highly complementary acquisitions that together provide enhanced technology capabilities and support services with broader geographic presence to better meet the needs of clients and improve their financial outcomes, said Chris McLaughlin, Partner at Performant Capital. Both businesses have a reputation of providing superior customer support as value-added partners to physicians and health organizations. Customers value our company as more than just a service provider, but extensions of their core teams. With an expanded presence and enhanced capabilities to drive further value for clients, were excited about the future of the combined business under Provider Technology.

Provider Technology continues to look for best-in-class revenue cycle management and managed service provider software businesses to healthcare customers that would expand its geographic footprint and service capabilities. If you have an opportunity that might be an add-on acquisition candidate for Provider Technology, please contact Mike Ciaglia (mciaglia@performantcapital.com) or Chris McLaughlin (cmclaughlin@performantcapital.com)

About Performant Capital

Performant Capital is a Chicago-based, lower middle market private equity firm focused on investments in technology-driven companies. Performant acquires businesses across SaaS, technology-enabled services, and data intelligence products and services. With over 50 years of collective investing and operating experience in these sectors, Performants principals seek opportunities where its depth of investing, operating expertise, and partner network can materially impact performance. More information on Performant Capital can be found at http://www.performantcapital.com.

About Goldman Sachs Asset Management Private Credit

Bringing together traditional and alternative investments, Goldman Sachs Asset Management provides clients around the world with a dedicated partnership and focus on long-term performance. As the primary investing area within Goldman Sachs (NYSE: GS), it delivers investment and advisory services for the worlds leading institutions, financial advisors and individuals, drawing from its deeply connected global network and tailored expert insights, across every region and marketoverseeing more than $2 trillion in assets under supervision worldwide as of March 31, 2022. Driven by a passion for its clients performance, it seeks to build long-term relationships based on conviction, sustainable outcomes, and shared success over time. Goldman Sachs Asset Management invests in the full spectrum of alternatives, including private equity, growth equity, private credit, real estate and infrastructure. Established in 1996, the Private Credit business within Goldman Sachs Asset Management is one of the worlds largest private credit investors with over $90 billion in assets across direct lending, mezzanine debt, hybrid capital and asset-based lending strategies. Its deep industry and product knowledge, extensive relationships and global footprint position it to deliver scaled outcomes with speed and certainty, supporting companies from the lower middle market to large cap in size.

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Performant Capital Creates Platform Delivering Managed Technology Services and Revenue Cycle Management to the Healthcare Industry - Business Wire

What GAO Found

Since November 2015, this Subcommittee has issued scorecards as an oversight tool to monitor agencies' progress in implementing various statutory IT provisions and addressing other key IT issues. The selected provisions are from laws such as the Federal Information Technology Acquisition Reform Act (commonly referred to as FITARA), Making Electronic Government Accountable by Yielding Tangible Efficiencies Act of 2016, the Modernizing Government Technology Act, and the Federal Information Security Modernization Act of 2014. The scorecards have assigned each covered agency a letter grade (i.e., A, B, C, D, or F) based on components derived from statutory requirements and additional IT-related topics. As of July 2022, fourteen scorecards had been released (see figure).

Scorecards Release Timeline with Associated Components

As reflected above, additional important components have been added over time. Initial components were specific to FITARA provisions related to incremental development, risk management, cost savings and data centers. The scorecards then evolved to include additional statutory provisions and related IT topics, such as telecommunications.

The Subcommittee-assigned grades have shown steady improvement and resulted in the scorecards serving as effective oversight tools. For example, during 2020 and 2021, all 24 agencies received A grades for two components (software licensing and data center optimization initiative), resulting in removal of these components from the scorecard. Notwithstanding the improvements made through the use of the scorecard, the federal government's difficulties acquiring, developing, managing, and securing its IT investments remain.

GAO has long recognized the importance of addressing these difficulties by including improving the management of IT acquisitions and operations as well as ensuring the cybersecurity of the nation as areas on its high-risk list. Continued oversight by Congress to hold agencies accountable for implementing statutory provisions and addressing longstanding weaknesses is essential. Implementation of outstanding GAO recommendations can also be instrumental in delivering needed improvements.

Congress has long recognized that IT systems provide essential services critical to the health, economy, and defense of the nation. In support of these systems, the federal government annually spends more than $100 billion on IT and cyber-related investments.

However, many of these investments have suffered from ineffective management. Further, recent high profile cyber incidents have demonstrated the urgency of addressing cybersecurity weaknesses.

To improve the management of IT, Congress and the President enacted FITARA in December 2014. FITARA applies to the 24 agencies subject to the Chief Financial Officers Act of 1990, although with limited applicability to the Department of Defense.

GAO was asked to provide an overview of the scorecards released by this Subcommittee. The scorecards have been used for oversight of agencies' efforts to implement statutory provisions and other IT-related topics. For this testimony, GAO relied on its previously issued products.

Since 2010, GAO has made approximately 5,300 recommendations to improve IT management and cybersecurity. As of June 2022, federal agencies have fully implemented about 77 percent of these. However, many critical recommendations have not been implementednearly 300 on IT management and more than 600 on cybersecurity.

For more information, contact Carol C. Harris at (202) 512-4456 or harriscc@gao.gov.

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Information Technology and Cybersecurity: Using Scorecards to Monitor Agencies' Implementation of Statutory Requirements - Government Accountability...

LONDON A Dutch company has delivered a test bed vessel to the British Royal Navy to help the service rapidly experiment and field the latest in autonomous and lethality technologies.

The 270-ton vessel arrived at the Portsmouth naval base in southern England earlier this week, ahead of its official acceptance on July 29 for use by NavyX, the services experimental technology unit formed to lead the innovative work.

Damen Shipyards supplied the vessel less than a year after it was ordered. The ship is a modified 42-meter (138-foot) fast, crew-supply platform known as the Damen FCS 4008. This is the first time the Dutch shipyard supplied a vessel directly to the Royal Navy. The company has set up a maintenance operation in Portsmouth to support the vessel.

The vessel was already built but not previously operated, enabling the Dutch yard to quickly deliver the adapted ship within the rapid timescale demanded by the Royal Navy.

The ship is named XV Patrick Blackett, after a British physicist who served in the Royal Navy during World War I and won a Nobel Prize for physics in 1948.

The XV Patrick Blackett, a new test bed ship meant to enhance experimentation in the British Royal Navy, enters Portsmouth. (Sam Bannister/British Royal Navy)

NavyX has operated since 2019, primarily exploring autonomous vessels for potential use by the Royal Navy. The experimentation unit has tested several advanced technologies, including L3Harris Technologies Mast-13 autonomous maritime demonstrator as well as a BAE Systems-supplied crewless rigid inflatable boat for potential general duties with the Navy.

The new vessel will enable NavyX to experiment without placing demands on the services understrength surface warship fleet.

The arrival of this vessel is a pivotal moment for NavyXs ability to deliver output, and is a step change for the Royal Navy. She will give us greater flexibility to experiment with novel military capabilities, iterate and accelerate new technology, kit and concepts for the benefit of the Royal Navy and industry, NavyX boss Col. Tom Ryall said.

XV Patrick Blackett will take part in Royal Navy and NATO exercises, with the possibility upgrades with autonomous technology, Britain has said.

Damen said the 140-square-meter deck on the FCS 4008 provides a large, unobstructed area for UAVs, AUVs [autonomous underwater vessels] and other cutting-edge technology. The extensive internal area that would normally have seating for up to 100 personnel is being converted into an operations center and a meeting room.

Its the second advanced technology platform revealed by Britain this month. At the Farnborough Airshow on July 18, the Defence Ministry announced it is investing in building a technology demonstrator for the Tempest sixth-generation combat air program.

Andrew Chuter is the United Kingdom correspondent for Defense News.

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Meet Britain's new ship that will test autonomous and lethal technologies - DefenseNews.com

When we think about techs ultimate disruptors, Apple leads the pack.

Apple was a PC vendor competing with the likes of Commodore in the early 1980s before co-founder Steve Jobs seeded the idea of a portable music player and anticipated the explosive demand for the iPhone.

The companys leadership envisioned what the end user would want years in advance, as well as how to pre-empt problems by solving ahead of time those that would likely occur along the way.

Most technology- and data-driven companies realize that just focusing on meeting todays user demands is not a sustainable business model. In other words, preparing for what the customer will require tomorrow is at least equally important. However, garnering the necessary skills, talent and resources to research future customer needs, is out of reach for many organizations. As a result, they fall further behind the more well-funded competition.

At the BMC Innovation Labs employees, customers and partners collaborate on solutions to solve timely and current problems, focusing on experimentation and technology incubations that can lead to tomorrows disruptive innovations.

To that end, BMC recently announced its BMC Innovation Labs Preferred Partner Program, created to offer participants the opportunity to design solutions to support customers on their autonomous digital enterprise journey. The program provides what BMC describes as dedicated spaces for partners to develop new and disruptive ideas that go beyond traditional enterprise IT.

BMC announced its Innovation Labs Preferred Partner Program during the first annual BMC Innovation Summit, held in June at the companys Innovation Labs in Santa Clara, Calif. The summit provided an opportunity for media and industry analysts to meet with key BMC senior leaders to learn about innovation at BMC, in addition to discussing the Innovation Labs Preferred Partner Program.

Attendees also got an inside look at the types of things BMC is working on, and experimenting with, to serve its customers and partners.

Customers can support their innovation journey by collaborating with both BMC and its Innovation Labs preferred partners to develop, test and provide real-time feedback, delivering immediate value. The lab embraces fresh thinking and new perspectives, with its partners collaborating on ideas to anticipate and address customers needs quickly and more effectively.

We have some pretty top-class tech folks that are intellectually curious and technically solid, Ram Chakravarti, chief technology officer at BMC, told The New Stack. With our tech talent, we have on offer many emerging technologies so we can serve as a vehicle that solves problems and finds new solutions by working with partner companies to conduct experiments and those experiments prove out the value.

During the past two years since its creation, BMCs Innovation Labs have served as a conduit to anticipate things that will become major challenges for customers in three to five years and we start solving for them now, Chakravarti said.

As opposed to being driven by innovation, we are leading with innovation by focusing on things that would become super important to customers from 18 months and up to about three to four years from now.

So what do organizations do so that our product organizations are not burdened with things that are in the future? We at the innovation labs focus on the next set of things that are going to become big, incubate them, run tests and take a subset of them that show promise on the pathway toward commercial commercialization.

True to the BMC focus on technology to power the future, the projects accepted into the Innovation Labs partner program should involve DataOps. DataOps, as defined by Chakravarti, is the application of agile engineering and DevOps best practices to the field of data management to rapidly turn new insights into fully operationalized production deliverables that unlock the business value of data.

Though the Partner Program is new, a few participants have already started engaging. This was demonstrated during the BMC Innovation Summit, which highlighted segments and opportunities that BMC customers and partners care about, such as data, edge computing, artificial intelligence (AI) and automation. Each demo was live and represented a technology focus area or vertical.

These included IT solutions provider CyberMAK Information Systems W.L.L., which is working with BMC to develop and extend data-management and artificial intelligence-managed customer support solutions based on AI-determined predictive outcomes, observability and other BMC know-how.

The demo with BMCs innovation preferred partner, CyberMAK, showed how customer service can be easier with intuitive ticketing and advanced automation. It highlighted an agent and a supervisor interaction to show how businesses can better manage customer communication over the phone, email, live chat, SMS text and social media.

Out-of-the-box features like an agent assist, voice of the customer, collaboration console and a global-case monitor, among many others were also demoed.

Already, customers demand self-service that is completely effortless and that predicts what the customer wants and needs before they get on the call, Tasnim Pithapurwala, chief technology officer at CyberMAK Information Systems, said during her Innovation Summit demo.

To meet these demands, the customer-service management system must be able to address both current problems and anticipate other issues before they occur.

How can the system guide the agents to take the next best action without having to scramble to find several data points to get that data? Pithapurwala asked during the summit. And how do we have a supervisor jump in when required? How does the supervisor automatically know when to jump in as a coach to resolve the situation?

One of the more frustrating user experiences can be with the company chatbot, especially when the AI-controlled interactions fail to provide the user with the answers they seek (which they often do). The obvious solution is to improve the AI.

As Pithapurwala said, The system has the ability to understand who has the skill set and who is right for which customer personality.

In another demo shown at the BMC Innovation Summit, the company talked about how technology today is changing faster than our minds can keep up with and because of that, BMC said its seeing an ever-widening skills gap in the industry. For example, operations may not know enough about the technology to keep up with the developers, which can affect business.

The demo shed a bit of light on how the company can address this issue with predictive service operations, featuring three separate videos that addressed the difficulties in keeping up with support and management skills for new technologies. Statistics communicated during the demo showed how business-service failures can be prevented in most cases, if the tech stack is proactively monitored and managed the right way.

In this demo, BMC highlighted how it has taken its BMC Helix Operations Management platform and extended its use of AI and automation to narrow that skills gap to manage business applications and give operations teams the tools they need to keep up with their developers.

Other live demos given during the summit covered the following topics:

As the demos showed, the Preferred Partner Programs projects rely heavily on a convergence of operational technology and information technology and, in particular, the orchestration of the Internet of Things (IoT) and associated data at the edge.

Were solving things at the edge, Chakravarti said. And there, I categorize these things into two sets of use cases: One is things that you absolutely need to solve for at the edge, which involve taking into consideration latency and security at the edge.

The second set of use cases is how do I integrate my edge data with my central compute data to provide even greater value for my organization, with the harmonized set of data from the agent central compute systems of record. The combination of these two sets of use cases is where the magic happens.

You can learn more about BMC Innovation Labs and the BMC Innovation Labs Preferred Partners Program here.

Featured image by Kendall Ruth on Unsplash.

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Testing Tomorrow's Technology at BMC Innovation Labs The New Stack - thenewstack.io

QINGDAO, China, July 29, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- On July 27th, Dr. Lan Lin, Chairman of Hisense Group Holdings Co., Ltd., and Franjo Bobinac, Vice President of Hisense International Co., Ltd., were invited to visit and meet with FIFA President Gianni Infantino and executives at FIFA headquarters in Zurich. This was the first official meeting between Hisense and FIFA, and both organizations had in-depth communication on the long-term collaborations and toured around FIFA headquarters.

Technology for Better Life, Creating a Perfect Tournament Experience

Before FIFA World Cup Russia 2018 kicked off, FIFA headquarters welcomed the world's first Dual Color 100-inch 4K Hisense Laser TV L7. Today, Hisense successfully obtained FIFA's recognition and again installed 3 new Laser TVs at FIFA headquarters. Ahead of FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, through its state-of-art technology, Hisense presented a higher level of tournament viewing experience with the world's first Tri-Chroma Laser TV L9G for FIFA headquarters. During the meetings, executives from both sides enjoyed an exciting tournament together using Hisense Laser TV L9G.

FIFA President Gianni Infantino expressed at the Hisense Open Day event before, "Hisense's compelling products and cutting-edge technology will provide football fans with an amazing viewing experience. Through technological innovation, we will join forces to bring fans an unforgettable FIFA World Cup."

In addition to receiving recognition from FIFA, Hisense Laser TV has also gained recognition from many global consumers. As Hisense's premium product, Hisense Laser TV has appeared in international events such as the Harvard China Forum and the United Nations Chinese Day, and entered the royal family in UAE, becoming one of consumers' best choices. From January to June this year, Hisense Laser TV sales in Australia, France, Canada, and other overseas markets have exceeded last year's annual sales.

Building a Sustainable Future through Close Collaboration

Hisense has focused on social responsibility and striving to contribute further to sustainable global development. Embracing the same philosophy as FIFA, Hisense has also cooperated with FIFA Foundation, committing to charity and sustainable development.

In September 2022, Hisense will participate in the FIFA Football for Schools Event, bringing a fun and educational workshop for South African children to give them more emotional support while increasing global environmental awareness, also engaging the public to build a sustainable planet for a greener future.

Hisense has always been adhering to sports marketing and forming intensive collaborative partnerships with FIFA. Benefiting from its sponsorship position, Hisense's brand strength and awareness increased substantially, successfully expanding its global business. In 2022, Hisense has been ranked 7th in KANTAR BrandZ Chinese Global Top 50 Brand Builders and 1st in the Home Appliances category. Driven by globally integrated R&D capability, Hisense consistently launched technological products, contributing to Hisense's revenue reaching 73.1 billion RMB from January to May 2022.

At FIFA World Cup Qatar 2022, Hisense will work closely with FIFA to bring better tournament experiences to global consumers.

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1869005/image_5015956_30590776.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1869006/image_5015956_30590870.jpg

Photo - https://mma.prnewswire.com/media/1869019/image_5015956_30591026.jpg

SOURCE Hisense

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Empowering Better World with Technology, Hisense and FIFA Create a Perfect Future through Long-term Collaborations - PR Newswire

Pindrop is hitting the road this summer to reintroduce itself as a security company with a whole lot more to say.

Those in the Atlanta startup community know Pindrop for its voiceprinting and voice fraud detection platform that was an early cybersecurity darling. The team has raised over $200 million in venture funding to date from the likes of Andreesen Horowitz, IVP, Citi Ventures, and Goldman Sachs.

But as voice technology has expanded, Pindrop has also broadened its focus beyond fraud. The next chapter of Pindrop is about bringing voice authentication and security into IoT, consumer, and mobile spaces.

That expanded focus is on full display during Pindrops Soundproof Tour, an event taking the company across the country via RV to showcase Pindrops new technology and its updated brand. The tour kicked off earlier this summer in San Francisco at the RSA Conference, one of the largest cybersecurity conferences of the year.

This week the RV parked itself outside The Interlock, Pindrops new West Midtown office location, to give Atlantans a hint of what the late-stage startup is up to next.

Such a reintroduction is necessary for an Atlanta-based cybersecurity company that has expanded its focus so drastically over the last few years.

Pindrop was co-founded in 2011 by Vijay Balasubramaniyan, Paul Judge, and Mustaque Ahamad, two Georgia Tech PhDs and a Georgia Tech professor. The company has grown to nearly 300 employees, according to LinkedIn. One in four of those employees hold a Ph.D., Balasubramaniyan told Hypepotamus.

While at the Atlanta stop of the Soundproof Tour this week, Balasubramaniyan said that the voice technology sector has exploded since Pindrop first got off the ground. He said it took a long time to get early investors on board because there was concern that phone calls were going out of style thanks to text messaging and other digital forms of communication. But it only took six weeks to close its $90 million Series D in 2018, as voice authentication use cases have expanded well beyond just call centers.

Theres no way we could have predicted this growth, Balasubramaniyan said, referring to the rise of Alexa, connected devices, and the number of new paths for consumers to use their voice for identification purposes.

This means Pindrop has expanded its customer base beyond call centers and financial institutions and is now going after the larger voice-embedded world of televisions, cars, and smart devices.

Ben Cunningham, Director of Product Marketing, likes to describe Pindrops technology as a Swiss Army Knife for voice since it can help transform speech into a form of identity verification or into a method for more curated and streamlined customer experiences.

The last few months have been all about partnerships for Pindrop, spearheaded by work with Google Cloud, Amazon, Bandwidth, Verizon, and several large service providers. At the same time, the team shifted to a remote-first work model and moved its HQ to The Interlock in West Midtown, one of the popular new spots for technology-focused ventures.

Pindrops expanded focus makes it poised for further growth in the connected device space, Balasubramaniyan added. The team has been profitable over the last few years and hasnt needed to raise additional outside capital since 2018, which is somewhat rare for late-stage startups going after significant enterprise clients.

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With a Rebrand and an RV, Pindrop is Embracing New Voice Technology Opportunities - hypepotamus.com

Regulatory Developments

On July 25, the OCC is seeking academic and policy-focused research on the impact that fintech and non-bank entities have on the banking industry and markets for lending, deposit-taking and payment services through August 21, 2022. The OCC will then invite authors of selected papers to present to OCC staff and guests at the OCC Headquarters in Washington, D.C., to be held from November 7-8, 2022. These presentations are intended to serve as a platform for academic, regulatory and other industry experts to discuss research and expound on how the banking system, with specific focus on community banks, will leverage the technology associated with fintech and, in turn, respond to the influx of new banking services providers. The Call for Papers lays out the scholarship requested; interested parties are invited to submit papers to EconFINTECHSymposium@occ.treas.gov.

On July 18, the CFTC extended the deadline for the public comment period on an RFI on climate-related financial risk from August 7 to October 7. The RFI seeks public comment to better inform the CFTCs understanding and oversight of climate-related financial risk, which refers to physical risks characterized by harm caused by acute, climate-related events and transition risks characterized by stresses to financial institutions or sectors resulting from shifts in policy, regulations, customer and business preferences, etc. Climate-related financial risk may directly or indirectly impact CFTC-registered entities, registrants and other market participants, as well as the derivatives markets and underlying commodities markets themselves, including causing heightened market volatility, disruptions of historical price correlations and challenges to existing risk management assumptions. The RFI also seeks responses on questions specific to data, scenario analysis and stress testing, risk management, disclosure, product innovation, voluntary carbon markets, digital assets, greenwashing, financially vulnerable communities, and public-private partnerships and engagement.

Its critical that the Commission proactively understand how climate-related financial risk may affect the commodities and derivatives markets as well as our registered entities, registrants, and other market participants as they increasingly rely on the derivatives markets to manage their climate-change induced physical and transition risk.- CFTC Chairman Rostin Behnam

On July 27, the CFPB published four new topics to its Debt Collection Rule FAQs: (1) Prohibitions on Third-Party Communications; (2) Electronic Communication; (3) Electronic Communication: Opt-out Notice; and (4) Unusual or Inconvenient Times or Places. Among the new FAQ responses, the CFPB confirms that nothing in the Debt Collection Rule requires a debt collector to communicate with consumers electronically, that consumers may limit debt collector communications through specific methods or mediums, and that all electronic communications or attempted electronic communications with a consumer in connection with a collection of a debt must contain a clear and conspicuous opt-out notice with a simple method (e.g., hyperlink, texting STOP or similar language) by which the consumer can opt out of further electronic communications by the debt collector at the specific electronic medium to which the communication was sent.

On July 20, the FDIC issued a notice of proposed rulemaking (the Proposal) in the Federal Register to incorporate updated accounting standards in the risk-based deposit insurance assessment system. The proposed rulemaking applies to all large and highly complex insured depository institutions. The proposal would amend the assessment regulations to expressly include the new accounting term, modifications to borrowers experiencing financial difficulty (the Term), recently introduced by the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB), to replace troubled debt restructurings (TDRs) in the underperforming assets ratio and higher-risk assets ratio in the scorecards for large and highly complex banks. In addition, the FDIC Board and other members of the Federal Financial Institutions Examination Council are planning to revise Call Report forms and instructions to include the Term as it will be defined in the Glossary of the Call Report instructions.

The Proposal would not affect the deposit insurance assessment system for FDIC-insured and/or FDIC-supervised institutions with less than $10 billion in total consolidated assets.

On July 25, the FDIC revised guidance regarding termination of consent orders and cease-and-desist orders under Section 8(b) of the Federal Deposit Insurance (FDI) Act. Under the FDI Act, the FDIC has the power to issue cease and desist orders when an insured depository institution is conducting business in an unsafe or unsound manner, or is violating a law, regulation, or agreement with the FDIC. Under the new guidance in the Enforcement Actions Manual, cease-and-desist orders can be terminated when (1) the institution has come into full compliance with the order and has corrected the violations that led to the order; (2) the provisions the institution is not in compliance with have ceased to be relevant to the circumstances of the institution; or (3) new or revised formal actions have been taken against the institution by the FDIC. The Enforcement Actions Manual guides the FDICs staff in its interactions with all FDIC-supervised financial institutions.

On July 21, the SEC charged three individuals with insider trading of digital assets via a scheme to trade ahead of multiple announcements regarding crypto assets being made available on a United States-based digital asset exchange at which one individual was a former product manager. In the complaint, the SEC identifies nine crypto asset securities (the first time the agency has used this term) that the agency alleges are securities. The SEC also alleges that the individuals orchestrated the scheme more broadly on at least 25 digital assets 16 of which are not identified gaining illicit profits of more than $1.1 million.

Read the client alert to learn more about the case and its implications.

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OCC Solicits Research on Implications of Financial Technology for Banking - JD Supra

In the weeks before the House and the Senate ended 13 months of arguments and passed the $280 billion CHIPS and Science Act, Chinas main, state-supported chip maker cleared a major technological hurdle that delivered a bit of a shock to the world.

Experts are still assessing how China apparently leapfrogged ahead in its effort to manufacture a semiconductor whose circuits are of such tiny dimensions about 10,000 times thinner than a human hair that they rival those made in Taiwan, which supplies both China and the West. The Biden administration has gone to extraordinary lengths to keep the highly specialized equipment to make those chips out of Chinese hands, because progress in chip manufacturing is now scrutinized as a way to define national power much the same way nuclear tests or precision-guided missiles were during a previous cold war.

No one yet knows whether China can exploit the breakthrough on a large scale; that may take years. But one lesson seemed clear: While Congress debated and amended and argued over whether and how to support American chip makers and a broad range of research in other technologies from advanced batteries to robotics and quantum computing China was surging ahead, betting it would take Washington years to get its act together.

Our Congress is working at political speed, said Eric Schmidt, the former Google chief executive who went on to lead the National Security Commission on Artificial Intelligence, which warned last year of the huge dangers of falling far behind in a foundational technology like advanced semiconductor manufacturing in a world of vulnerable supply chains. The Chinese government is working at commercial speed.

In China, the drive to catch up and manufacture the most advanced chips is part of the Made in China 2025 program. That effort began in 2015. While few in Congress want to concede the point, the technologies that the United States will be funding when President Biden signs the bill, as he promised to do on Thursday, largely replicate the Chinese list.

It is classic industrial policy, though leaders in both parties are avoiding the term. The words convey a sense of state-controlled planning that is antithetical to most Republicans and showers direct support and tax credits on some of Americas largest companies, which makes some Democrats shake with anger.

But 2025 isnt very far away, meaning the money will just get flowing while Chinese and other competitors move on to their next set of goals. Meanwhile, the American semiconductor industry has withered, to the point where none of the most advanced chips are made in the United States, even though the fundamental technology was born here and gave Silicon Valley its name.

None of this means American competitiveness is doomed. Just as Japan once seemed as if it was the 10-foot-tall technological giant in the late 1980s and early 1990s, but then missed some of the biggest breakthroughs in mobile computing and Windows operating systems and even chip-making, China is discovering that money alone does not guarantee technological dominance. But it helps.

It has taken Congress far longer to come to the same conclusion. Still, China has turned out to be one of the few issues on which Republicans and Democrats can come together the bill passed the House 243 to 187, with one abstention, on Thursday. Twenty-four Republicans voted in favor, notable because G.O.P. leaders were urging their members to oppose the bill after the Senate majority leader, Chuck Schumer of New York, and Senator Joe Manchin III of West Virginia announced a surprise deal on climate, energy and taxes on Wednesday.

China immediately denounced the bill as an isolationist move by Americans intent on freeing themselves from dependence on foreign technology a strategy called decoupling that China itself is trying to replicate.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Zhao Lijian, told reporters in Beijing that no restriction or suppression will hold back Chinese progress, a clear reference to the American and European efforts to deny China the technology that would speed its technological independence.

But the big question is whether Congresss slowness to wake up to Americas competitive shortcomings has doomed the effort. While Mr. Biden and lawmakers tried to build support for the bill by describing the chips found in everything from refrigerators to thermostats to cars as the oil of the 21st century, the phrase was already hackneyed three decades ago.

In the late 1980s, Andrew S. Grove, one of the pioneers of Silicon Valley and an early leader of Intel Corporation, warned of the danger of the United States becoming a techno-colony of Japan.

The Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company produces roughly 90 percent of the most advanced semiconductors. It sells them to both China and the United States.

And while Taiwan Semiconductor and Samsung are building new manufacturing facilities in the United States, responding to political pressure to address American supply-chain worries, the net result will be that only a single-digit percentage of its production will be on American soil.

Our dependence on Taiwan for the sophisticated chips is untenable and unsafe, the commerce secretary, Gina Raimondo, noted last week at the Aspen Security Forum. With demand for more sophisticated chips growing every new generation of cars requires more and more semiconductors we dont have enough domestic supply.

The bills $52 billion in federal subsidies, she argued, would be bolstered by private money and turn into hundreds of billions in investments. She was essentially using the argument that the federal government has long used to justify incentives to defense contractors. Politicians knew that underwriting risky new spy satellite technology, or stealthy drones, was an easier sell in Congress if described as critical defense spending instead of industrial policy.

But now the logic is turned on its head. What the defense contractors need is the most advanced commercial chips not only for F-35s, but for artificial intelligence systems that one day may change the nature of the battlefield. The old distinctions between military and commercial technology have largely eroded. That is why, to get the bill through, the administration even brought Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III into the pressure campaign, arguing that he couldnt rely on foreign suppliers for the weapons of the future.

The bills authors say that while they are late to the task of rebuilding the industry, starting today is better than continuing to watch the American lead erode. Senator Todd Young said that while Chinas recent advance was sobering, he didnt think there was anyone that can out-innovate the United States of America if we mobilize our many resources.

Americas other advantage is our relationships, economic and geopolitical, with other countries, said Mr. Young, an Indiana Republican. China has no friends; they have vassal states.

Innovation has been an American strong suit; the microprocessor was invented here. But time and again, the American vulnerability is in manufacturing. And China isnt the only competitor. To extract cash out of Congress, Intel and others noted that Germany and other allies were trying to lure it to build fabs the airtight, spotless manufacturing centers for chips on their own territory.

But in the end it was China that drove the votes.

One of the first assessments of the new Chinese chip, made by Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corporation, came from researchers at a firm called TechInsights.

After reverse-engineering the Chinese-made chip, they concluded that it used circuitry that was only seven nanometers wide. As recently as 2020, Chinese manufacturers had struggled to get below 40 nanometers.

Experts say the chip, made for mining cryptocurrency, may have been based on, or stolen from, Taiwan Semiconductor. For now, Taiwan Semiconductor remains the most important single manufacturer in the world, and its sprawling facilities near Taipei may be the islands greatest protection against invasion. China cant afford to risk its destruction. And the United States cant afford for it to be destroyed.

But that delicate balance wont last forever. So China has both a commercial and a geopolitical motive to make the worlds fastest chips, and the United States has a competitive motive to keep Beijing from getting the technology to do so. It is the ultimate 21st-century arms race.

In the old Cold War, the one against the Soviet Union a generation ago, the government could afford to sit on the sidelines and hope private industry would invest, Mr. Schumer said on Wednesday. Now, he said, we cant afford to sit on the sidelines.

Catie Edmondson contributed reporting.

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China Has Leapfrogged the U.S. in Key Technologies. Can a New Law Help? - The New York Times