Category Archives: Technology

Britain needs to take concerted action to reduce the risk of malicious actors in the UK and abroad from contaminating the results of a looming general election, according to a new study that warns of the risks of public abuse and deception.

A group of experts say government, political parties and social media companies all need to take immediate action, at a time when there is rising concern within Whitehall about the integrity of the democratic process.

Lisa-Maria Neudert, who acted as the secretary to the author of the study, the Oxford Technology and Elections Commission, said there was growing recognition that manipulation and propaganda which was only thought to happen in authoritarian regimes can happen in democracies like the UK.

The research calls for:

All social media companies, including Facebook and Twitter, to warn promptly when they suspect foreign interference or other meddling is taking place.

Concern has been rising in government circles about electoral integrity in the UK. The Cabinet Office is nominally responsible but intelligence agencies have been taking a growing interest in the rise of state disinformation online, principally from Russia and China.

There have been repeated warnings about Russian interference in the 2016 US presidential election, as well as questions about the impact of microtargeted internet advertising during the EU referendum, and the commissions researchers, at Oxford University, believe the risks remain current.

During the European election campaign of the early summer, they highlighted the sharing of extremist, sensationalist or conspiratorial junk news typically involving anti-immigration and Islamophobic sentiment across the continent.

One example cited was the Notre Dame Cathedral fire, in Paris, in April which while not immediately a political story, was manipulated during the campaign period for what amounted to political purposes by Russian and other social media accounts.

They unearthed a trail of propaganda furthering the false idea that the fire in the Gothic cathedral was started by Islamist terrorists, or that plans for reconstructing the Paris landmark would include a minaret.

We want social media companies to help us understand why such stories are so widely shared by their algorithms, Neudert said. They should be required to release information so we can understand why such disinformation so easily spreads.

Other specific risks highlighted included the use of non-transparent, or dark, advertising where money can be spent on targeting voters by political actors without any visibility unless a record is taken.

Facebook, for example, maintains an archive of political adverts, but not all technology companies do. The reporting is not standardised, meaning that is usually rendered useless for statistical analysis because of inconsistent or incomplete metrics that make it impossible to compare and understand trends.

Ministers have outlined plans to require people to bring photo ID to polling stations in order to vote in a future election, but while the proposal was mentioned in the Queens speech, on Monday, it was not accompanied by a promise for wider reform of election law.

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UK vulnerable to malicious meddling in election, warns study - The Guardian

Google has been experimenting with wearable technology for the past couple of years. In 2015, they released a new line of functional clothing that allowed users to interact with their phones through the fabric.

However, due to expensive retail prices, the wearable clothing trend never caught on. Almost five years later, the company is still chasing the same goal with the recent release of Levis Jacquard-enabled jackets.

Back in 2017, Saint Laurent launched a backpack with Jacquard support priced at 1000$. Luxury products like these didnt get much attention from the average tech users due to the high price.

That is why Google is hoping to present a new type of wearable technology that will bring the same benefits at a more affordable price. Read on to learn more about their Levis smart jackets!

The New Smart Jacket Features

The latest collaboration between Google and Levis has brought to us two versions of the smart jackets, including the classic Levis Trucker Jacket at 198$, and the Sherpa Trucker Jacket at 248$.

Jacquard

Each jacket comes with Googles Jacquard dongle that is placed in the jackets cuff. It connects to the conductive fabric inside the jacket and thus makes interaction possible.

Once you connect a smartphone to the dongle, you can control multiple features with simple movements such as a swipe or a tap over the cuff. For instance, taping and holding over the cuff of the jacket will allow you to issue commands to the connected smartphone.

Users can also customize each movement or gesture to activate different features and abilities, including communicating with the voice assistant, controlling music, or controlling the phones camera.

The tech-enabled jackets currently feature 19 abilities that can be customized on the phone. The dongle also sends notifications through vibration to let you know about your messages, emails, and alarms.

Will Wearable Technology Catch On

After it has failed to earn the interest of the masses, wearable technology is making a breakthrough once again. The question is, will it catch on this time?

Experts at Google are hoping that the tech-enabled jackets will become a true thanks to their more affordable price point. Ivan Poupyrev, the head of Jacquard by Google: Since we launched the first product with Levis at the end of 2017, we were focused on trying to understand and working really hard on how we can take the technology from a single product [] to create a real technology platform that can be used by multiple brands and by multiple collaborators.

He also added that the overall goal of creating wearable technology is to give people the opportunity to create new digital touch points to their digital life through things they already have and own and use every day.

Were left to see whether smart jackets are going to become the next big trend. The Jacquard-enabled jackets are currently available in Germany, France, Italy, UK, US, Australia, and Japan.

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Google And Levis Partner Up To Bring Us Wearable Technology - Forbes

UIC now invites candidates for this position which is expected to be filled in February 2020:

Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in Food Science and Technology (Ref:DST190902)

Job Description

Candidates with expertise in one or more of the following areas: Food Science, Food Chemistry, Chemistry, Food Microbiology, Food Safety, Analytical Chemistry, Nutrition, and Biological Science. Successful candidates are expected to teach undergraduate and postgraduate courses with English, conduct active and high quality research, serve the academic community at UIC.

Job RequirementCandidates should have a PhD. Post-doctoral experience is highly recommended. Strong English language skill including speaking and writing is mandatory. Preference will be given to candidate who can undertake independent research leading to outstanding outcomes, including publications in high quality international-refereed journals.Academic rank will be determined in accordance with successful candidates experience and accomplishments.

Appointment TermsAppointment to this position will initially be made on a fixed-term contract of two years. Commencing salaries will be commensurate with qualifications and relevant experience. Fringe benefits include housing allowance (applicable to Assistant Professor and above), leave and medical insurance. Continuation of appointment beyond the initial term will be subject to mutual agreement.Application Procedures*Please complete the job application form and upload the requested documents online: https://hrapp.uic.edu.hk/recruit/job/vacancy/JobDetail/223.

*If you failed to submit your application online, please send your application by emailing to recruit@uic.edu.hk. Applications should include a curriculum vitae and a completed "Job Application Form" which can be downloaded from http://web.uic.edu.hk/en/hr/job-opportunities/application-procedure. Please indicate the position being applied for, including the field of expertise, level and reference number.

Review of applicants will begin on November 1, 2019. We will continue to review applications until the positions are filled. The position is expected to start in February 2020. Prospective applicants are encouraged to find more about UIC at http://uic.edu.hk/en and the Department of Food Science and Technology at https://dst.uic.edu.hk/en/fst. For informal inquiries about the position, please e-mail: Prof. Bruce Xu at baojunxu@uic.edu.hk. The College reserves the right not to fill this position, or to extend the search until suitable candidates are identified or to make an appointment by invitation.

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Professor/Associate Professor/Assistant Professor in Food Science and Technology job with BNU-HKBU UNITED INTERNATIONAL COLLEGE | 183631 - Times...

Nations around the world are stumbling zombie-like into a digital welfare dystopia in which artificial intelligence and other technologies are used to target, surveil and punish the poorest people, the United Nations monitor on poverty has warned.

Philip Alston, UN rapporteur on extreme poverty, has produced a devastating account of how new digital technologies are revolutionizing the interaction between governments and the most vulnerable in society. In what he calls the rise of the digital welfare state, billions of dollars of public money is now being invested in automated systems that are radically changing the nature of social protection.

Alstons report on the human rights implications of the shift will be presented to the UN general assembly on Friday. It says that AI has the potential to improve dramatically the lives of disadvantaged communities, but warns that such hope is being lost amid the constant drive for cost cutting and efficiency.

Big tech companies are being allowed to go unregulated in human rights free-zones, welfare budgets are being decimated and new penalties are being imposed for non-compliance on people who may be digitally illiterate or lack access to the internet. In the UK, he notes, 12 million people, or one in five of the population, do not have essential digital skills needed for modern day-to-day life.

Alston writes that crucial decisions to go digital have been taken by government ministers without consultation, or even by departmental officials without any significant policy discussions taking place. As a result of the absence of accountability, digital technologies are employed in the welfare state to surveil, target, harass and punish beneficiaries, especially the poorest and most vulnerable among them.

A New York-based lawyer, Alston has become a piercing critic of inequality and disdain for basic human rights. In June 2018 he caused major ructions with the Trump administration by reporting that it was cruelly forcing millions of people into deprivation with its tax cuts for the rich. He went on to anger the British government with his damning report on austerity in the UK.

Now he is likely to displease several governments who will find his report uncomfortable reading. He says that the normal state of affairs whereby governments are accountable to their citizens has been turned upside down by the introduction of automated decision-making and the removal of human discretion from welfare systems.

In such a world, citizens become ever more visible to their governments, but not the other way around.

Alstons report also tears a strip out of Big Tech companies who he says are acting as forces unto themselves. The advent of the digital revolution has allowed the private sector to appropriate huge swaths of welfare state almost without public comment.

He points to examples from around the globe of companies involved in welfare systems: Net 1s subsidiary Cash Paymaster Services together with MasterCard were initially involved in South Africas social grant distribution system which raised privacy concerns because of its biometric data collection. In Australia, Indue and Visa helped introduce cashless debit card trials, and IBM was central to the multimillion-dollar Sams system in Canada, the US, Germany and New Zealand.

The report states that in many schemes, the role and responsibility of these corporations are opaque, rendering public accountability impossible. A handful of powerful executives are replacing governments and legislators in determining the directions in which societies will move and the values and assumptions which will drive those developments, Alston writes.

Looking to the future, the UN monitor calls for Silicon Valley to be made accountable through regulation. The self-regulation that has been permitted in the big tech sector, uniquely so among major sectors of the economy, must end and technology companies must legally be required to respect applicable human rights standards.

That includes addressing the increasing use of data matching that is used to punish and criminalize low-income people. It also involves bringing under control the evermore refined surveillance options that enable around-the-clock monitoring of beneficiaries.

The UN report was drawn from Alstons country visits to the UK, US and elsewhere as well as 60 submissions from 34 countries. He concludes on a rallying note, saying it is not too late to drop the obsession with fraud and the undeserving poor.

Instead of inflicting misery on millions, digital technology could be used as a force for good. It could ensure a higher standard of living for the vulnerable and disadvantaged, devise new ways of caring for those left behind. That would be the real digital welfare state revolution.

Read more from the original source:

Digital welfare state: big tech allowed to target and surveil the poor, UN is warned - The Guardian

In a country where the biggest companies are still king, Seouls burgeoning startup sector is finding its feet.

Out in the west of the South Korean capital, a nine-storey building dressed in bright colours with a giant red bull outside is home to more than 100 startups. From one-person operations running out of a locker and a laptop on the ground floor, to fully-fledged offices on the upper levels, Seouls startup hub has supported 1,282 operations in various stages of growth in the past two years.

It has all the bells and whistles you come to associate with startup hubs across the world shared dining and working spaces, a rest area with beanbags and egg-shaped couches, a fully decked-out kitchen for food-tech companies, a broadcast studio, a library, a slide between two floors and even a 7-Eleven for those powering through the night.

There were about 467 accelerators, venture capital funds and government organisations supporting startups in Seoul and its surrounding province in 2018, some backed by bigger companies such as Samsung and Naver. There are 85 accelerators in Seoul, and the amount of angel investment increased from about US$170m ($250m) in 2015 to US$250m in 2017.

Since 2015, the South Korean government has provided $4bn to startups, Forbes has reported, the biggest government backing of startups per capita in the world. In April, Seouls mayor, Park Won-soon, said the aim was to make Seoul a global top five startup city by 2022.

Korea is particularly attractive for startups because of its high-speed internet, the fast rollout of the 5G network and the high uptake of technology.

The push towards startups has been driven by slow growth from the traditional larger companies, according to Seoul Startup Hub co-founder Matt Kang.

We have lost the momentum from large companies startups have emerged as a new momentum for Korea, he said.

One startup that moved into the hub just over a month ago is Amuse Travel a social enterprise that provides tours for people living with disabilities to popular destinations around South Korea, as well as giving people living with disabilities the confidence to travel on their own. The company develops maps of tourist destinations based on data collected during the tours, highlighting the areas positive and negative aspects such as steep inclines, stairs and other barriers to access.

The companys founder, Seo-yeon Oh, said it had previously had difficulty raising enough investment, and needed more time to prove its viability of the company. He said Naver had expressed interest in the business.

Moving into the startup hub meant Oh and his staff were able to network with a variety of businesses at various stages of life.

The strength of this hub is there is a wide spectrum of startup companies here from fintech to senior citizens, and also startup companies which once experienced failure in the past, he said.

Koreans seem shy, so they seem to work alone or independently, but they also co-work and work together.

Josh Taylor visited Korea as part of the Walkley Foundation Australia-Korea exchange program, in partnership with the Korea Press Foundation.

More here:

South Korean startups gather momentum - The Guardian

The disruptive force of technology is killing off older companies earlier and at a much faster rate than decades ago, squeezing employees, investors and other stakeholders, according to a new report.

"The average age of a company listed on the S&P 500 has fallen from almost 60 years old in the 1950s to less than 20 years currently," a team of Credit Suisse analysts led by Eugene Klerk wrote in a note to investors Thursday.

Average lifespan of an S&P 500 company

Source: Credit Suisse

Increased buyout activity beginning in the 1980s certainly had a hand in shortening that life span, but the increased pace of the disruption by companies like Amazon, Alphabet and Apple today is causing the trend to accelerate even more.

"We argue that disruption is nothing new but that the speed, complexity and global nature of it is," the report says. "In fact, it is clear that a number of sectors are currently impacted by multiple disruptive forces simultaneously."

This sea change is playing out in the stock market this year with shares of Apple, Alphabet and Amazon all doubling, and in some cases tripling, the 9 percent return of the S&P 500 in 2017. The Global X Robotics and Artificial Intelligence ETF, which tracks companies leading the automation of older industries, is up more than 30 percent this year.

Automation is the No. 1 "disruptive force," the report said.

"Sectors our analysts see as being at the epicentre of disruption include Autos, Oil & Gas, Utilities, Financials and Food Retail," the report says.

Credit Suisse also highlighted companies in major sectors that the firm views as the most likely to survive any coming disruption.

Aerospace behemoth Boeing ranks among those companies Credit Suisse says will survive a "substantial transformation of the relationship" between manufacturers and suppliers.

Multitrillion dollar financial services firm Allianz is one of the most resilient in the insurance group, according to Klerk and his team. The analysts expect the insurance industry to see automotive premiums revenue cut in half as "automated cars lead to fewer accidents."

In technology, STMicroelectronics on the hardware side and SAP on the software side are two of Credit Suisse's picks for companies that will survive disruption. STMicroelectronics should see accelerating growth from "semiconductor content growth" in automobiles, Credit Suisse says. The deepening influence of the cloud puts SAP in position to capitalize from what Credit Suisse said is "one of the most disruptive technologies."

Not all companies will go bankrupt because of disruption. Rather, the report said, there will be an increase in M&A as more of them team up to compete with the disruptors.

This slow killing of corporate America won't happen without some big social consequences, the Wall Street firm said.

"Personal wealth creation is likely to become ever more challenging, resulting in more polarised societies. The potential fallout raises uncertainty over economic and corporate profit growth," it said.

Read the original post:

Technology killing off corporate America: Average life span of companies under 20 years - CNBC

Customers provide their first impressions about eatsa, a vegetarian restaurant that uses iPads to place orders and holes in the wall to deliver meals as well as with the trend of society as a whole towards less human interaction in daily acivities.

Customers punch in their orders at iPads at eatsa, an automated restaurant in downtown Washington DC, on Tuesday, August 22, 2017.(Photo: Henry Taylor, USAT)

The first thing you notice when you walk into eatsa is the staff. Its almost non-existent. Theres no cash register, no counter where you pick up your order at this highlyautomated restaurant chain. A single worker, sometimes two, mans the floor to answer questions.

Customers can enter and exit, food in hand in under a couple of minutes all without ever interacting with another human being.

Its an increasingly common scene as companies from Amazon to Little Caesars and Uberintroduce more ways to go about daily tasks while avoiding face-to-face contact. On top of email, texting and social media, such technology is undeniably changing society for better, for worseor somewhere in-between.

There are times when people think it serves their purposes, and there are other times when they think its distressing that I dont spend as much time with humans as I might have in the past, says Lee Rainie, director of Internet and technology research at Pew Research.

Research in the area is mixed. On the one hand, its uncovered that those who use technology the most are often the most social people enriching their lives with devices and social media in ways that involve interactions with others. On the other hand, its also found that the mere presence of a smartphone during a conversation decreases the feeling of connectedness with another person.

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Carol Mitchell, 69, doesnt own a smartphone. She isnt on Twitter. She regularly turns off her cellphone one of those flip models that make it ridiculously hard to text and only checks in once or twice a day. And things get done. The world doesnt stop going around, she notes.

Still, she uses an iPad, and Facetime connects her with her grandchildren in England. But she misses more frequent contact with former co-workers who now only get together every few months because they connect via email. She blames a lot of the negativity in the world on the technology that shifts us away from in-person contact.

In an email you don't get the emotional side of it, you don't get the real feeling for exactly what they meant by whatever they said, she says.

Separated from Mitchell by more than five decades is Zoey Golabek, 15, a rising sophomore at Lake Braddock Secondary School in Burke, Va. The social butterfly isnt one of the teenagers you hear about in the news. Sure, she Snapchats with at least 10 friendsevery day and uses all the latest messaging apps. But she only texts with one or two people on a daily basis and sounds quite a lot like Mitchell when it comes to social interactions: Zoeyprefers talking in person.

It's more personal and you know what theyre sayingbecause through text if you were to communicate with someone, you don't know what they mean by it because there's no emotion, she says. Sometimes they could be sending an emoji and not really mean it.

Robyn Povich, 52, has seen the effect on her own business.About five years ago, the yoga teacher and mindfulness coach from Chantilly, Va., began fielding requests from some clients who wanted to use Skype for their coaching sessions even though they lived just a short drive away. I had to learn how to work that way with someone who Im not physically seeing whos perhaps having some emotion and how you deal with that, she says.

Customers eat at a center table at eatsa, an automated restaurant in downtown Washington on Aug. 22, 2017.(Photo: Henry Taylor, USA TODAY)

In recent years, more companies have introduced technologies largely devoid of human interaction.

Uber is testing self-driving cars in a handful ofcities. Amazon opened an automated grocery store late last year, still in beta testing, where customers (currently only its employees)can grab items and go no line, no cashier, not even self-checkout lanes. All that's needed is a smartphone, which tracks the items carted out the door. Earlier this month, Little Caesars unveiled The Pizza Portal, a machine that lets you buy and grab your pie without a cashier.

Little Caesars: Pizza Portal lets customers grab grub, skip human interaction

U-Haul: Self-service option lets customers rent trucks with smartphone

Amazon: There's no checkout line at this grocery store

Self-driving cars: Cities vie to become hubs

At eatsa on bustling K Street in Washingtonjust blocks from the White House, customers enter the store, walk up to an iPad kiosk and place an order for one of the vegetarian, quinoa-based bowls. Within a couple minutes, theyre taking videos, Snapchats or photos selfies are a regular occurrence as their food, seemingly magically, appears.

Along a wall of cubbies, one lights up with their name. They double tap the screen and the cubby opens. A few customers are so busy documenting the experience that the door closes before they can retrieve their order another need for the employee, who walks the floor wearing a red shirt emblazoned with eatsas design.

The time and cost efficiencies created from the ability to zip in and out of a restaurantor grocery storeand order an item in milliseconds at the push of a button or tell a car where you wantto go without it making a wrong turn are obvious.

But what happens when we cut out those innocuous, fleeting moments with the person behind the counter or in the drivers seat? Allison Pugh, a sociology professor at the University of Virginia, says it amounts to placing ourselves in social bubbles that consist only of like-minded people.

These casual interactions are the few cases in which youre interacting with people potentially of a different classor a different raceor a different gender identityor a different nationality or really even more important perhaps, people who think differently, she says. We are walling ourselves off from each other.

Pamela Rutledge, director of the Media Psychology Research Center, a non-profit that studies media and technology, says the situation isnt as dire as some make it sound and actually can enhance our lives.

Everything that eliminates a routine task frees up opportunities to do the things that were uniquely capable of doing, which is thinking and creating and connecting, she says.

In addition, the kinds of connections we can maintain through social media actually increaseour sense of intimacy because we no longer have large gaps of time between seeing someone, Rutledge says.

David Pakman, partner at Venrock, a venture capital firm, says the automated technologies he invests in allow people to spend more time cultivating meaningful connections and relationships, and those connections ones that we depend on each others humanity for, like when you need good advice from a friend wont disappear.

I don't think that means humans arent interacting with each other I just think they're drawn to either higher value interactions, more expressive interactions or interactions that involve compassion, understanding, nuance, context, he says.

A customer waits with a cellphone for an order at eatsa, an automated restaurant in downtown Washington on Aug. 22, 2017.(Photo: Henry Taylor, USA TODAY)

Shalini Misra, a Virginia Tech professor who has researched how smartphones negatively impact everyday interactions, says shes already seeing a profound change in her students a generation that hasnt known the world before the Internet.

A student came to her to ask the seemingly easy-to-answer question: How do I talk to another human being. I would love to learn to have a conversation some time, one undergraduate student said to her, Misra recalls. The student adds: Especially, how does one end a conversation.

We cannot consider this technology as a benign object, Misra says. Something is amiss.

Pughs outlook is also not particularly bright.

There is a strong chance that these small decisions we make to limit our interactions with others will lead us to become ever more isolated, she says.

Rutledge, though, says the answer lies in balance, setting boundaries and taking responsibility if we can achieve it.

We all feel perfectly able to not to talk to someone we find insulting or annoying, but we angst over whether we should unfriend someone, she says. We havent translated our ability to set boundaries into this new environment.

That means we need to understand how the human brain works, figure out how to engage in Facebook without it taking up all our timeand understand that technology is extremely compelling, she says.

The really positive outcome will be if people really take that responsibility and establish their own boundaries, and the negative is if people keep expecting other people to solve their problems for them, she says.

Ten years ago, clients came to Povich to find balance in their lives with things such as watching too much TV, dissatisfaction with their jobs or dealing with their marriage ending. Now people are coming to me with comparisons about other peoples lives, how theyre not matching up to what they think they should be accomplishing based on other peoples lives, she says, and theyre basing that judgment on what theyre seeing on Facebook and Instagram.

Mitchell is hopeful she can stay abreast of the technology without being consumed by it. We dont have any choice, were going to have to deal with it as human beings.But Im beginning to wonder if were not all becoming part machine anyway, she says.

Zoeytakes a slightly different approach.

People tend to talk a lot more on social media than in person these days, she says, so when they talk to me way too much on social media I say Im not feeling it, Ill talk to you later.

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Automated technology isn't going anywhere and it's changing ... - USA TODAY

A recent piece on Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) presented a case that as the company's technology lags behind that of Intel Corporation (NASDAQ:INTC) and Nvidia Corporation (NASDAQ:NVDA), and that it wont be able to compete effectively once the mining spike subsidies. Well, we beg to differ. Lets dive into the details.

The bear thesis was based on the premise that AMD finished in the second place on both the Ryzen and Vega fronts.

First of all, "being second best isnt the problem at all. AMDs success is driven from closing the gap between CPU technologies - it isn't based on beating Intel's technology. To that end, the company deployed 14nm process in order to close the technology gap.

In the past, AMDs technology problem stemmed from being on a lagging process node. That problem is now solved amid GlobalFoundries push into advanced processing technologies powered by the likes of Samsung (OTC:SSNLF) and IBM Corp. (NYSE:IBM).

There is no point to inking pages in discussing the performance of Ryzen, Epyc and Threadripper. There is a lot of material around the web covering the performance aspect. The point is that AMD successfully closed the performance gap between its technology and the technology of Intel. This will lead to market share gains going forward.

The author goes on to discuss Ryzen by comparing it to the failure of Bulldozer. Intel sure does take the crown with single-threaded performance. However, discarding Ryzen just because Bulldozer failed in multi-threading is a faulty argument.

Bulldozer was based on a 32nm process, which went to compete against Intels 22nm Ivy Bridge. Even if Bulldozer had been efficiently designed, node lag would've put AMD at a significant disadvantage. Thats the key difference between Bulldozer and Ryzen.

AMD is at parity with Intels process technology, not to mention Jim Keller and the infinity fabric. Note that Jim Keller was also the lead architect for the original Athlon 64. He was also involved in designing Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) A4 and A5 processors. Both Jim Keller and infinity fabric were absent in Bulldozer. That was the reason Bulldozer didnt scale well on multiple cores.

To review, Ryzen isnt anything like Bulldozer. It uses infinity fabric to utilize more cores efficiently. More importantly, AMD's process technology is at par with Intels offerings. Intel had the edge with its process lead. That lead is now lost. Even the new Coffee Lake processors are based on 14nm process.

All in all, Ryzen cant be compared with Bulldozer at all. The competitive environment is altogether different with factors like level process technology and infinity fabric at play. The author has put forward the argument that multi-threading is AMD's excuse. This doesn't seem to be true. AnandTech has the following to say about multi-threading:

"AMD pulls ahead when anything needs serious threads by a large amount, and most of the time the memory arrangement is not as much of an Achilles heel as might be portrayed. If a user has a workload that scales, AMD is bringing the cores to help it scale as wide as possible.

Then, there's price

"Intels i9-7900X is priced at $999, the exact same level that AMD has pitched its flagship 1950X the latter of which proved almost 50% quicker in the benchmark tests", notes Techradar.

Another argument put forward by the author was that multi-threading might not be attractive in the consumer market. Well, "more cores at a cheaper price" is a potential selling point for AMD. Apart from enthusiast and gamers, the average consumer will treat this as positive news.

Moreover, AMD isn't primarily focused on the consumer market. Its devoted to take market share from Intel in the enterprise space. Lisa Su had frequently touted the growth of AMD's enterprise market. We can see that AMD is being successful in that arena.

China is becoming the playground for AMDs datacenter market. Tencent (OTCPK:TCEHY) and JD.com (NASDAQ:JD) followed suit as Baidu (NASDAQ:BIDU) announced deployment of Epyc in its data centers. Baidu attracts the most traffic from China. JD is 7th in traffic rankings. And everyone knows Tencent as the company that controls most of the Chinese mobile games market. AppAnnie puts Tencent as the No.1 company in terms of its revenue-generating ability.

With all due respect, multi-threading isnt an excuse. Its a real threat to Intels dominance.

According to the AMD bear:

"Vega 64 is such a complete flop, it seriously jeopardizes the company."

Well, we have several reservations about that. First, Vega cant be a flop even assuming sub-par performance. The cryptocurrency craze is actually driving the demand for AMDs GPU products.

"While management wasn't specific on how much, the GPU revenue upside was driven by cryptocurrency applications, noted Stifel's analyst Kevin Cassidy while commenting on the companys second-quarter earnings release.

However, bears are fast to point out that Vega isnt the best mining solution, according to the recent data. Vega 64 mines up to 37 MH/s, as compared to 29MH/s mined by GTX 1070. Despite this lead, power requirements make Vega unfavorable for mining. However, this can change with firmware and mining software updates. Even if Vega stays sub-par in mining, gamers will buy Vega given the unavailability of other cards.

Moreover, Vega 64 matches GTX 1080 in performance. Vega 56 has an ~8% performance advantage over GTX 1070. Price-wise, AMD is a better option. Vega 56 is a $100 cheaper than GTX 1070, and it performs better than the latter.

Power consumption is the bear's key argument. Gamers usually dont care about power draw. Back in the day, price and performance were the main factors I considered while buying the GeForce 8800 Ultra.

When it comes to gaming cards, the pecking order is price and performance, followed by power.

AnandTech puts it like this:

"Having priced the RX Vega cards aggressively enough that at least on a price/performance basis, theyre competitive with NVIDIA if not enjoying a small lead."

How is Vega a threat for AMDs business model given the fact that the company generated around 46% of its revenue from the enterprise, embedded and semi-custom segment during the second quarter of 2017? Further, the rest of the revenue isnt just from GPUs. The computing and graphics segment also includes desktop, notebook processors and chipsets. Therefore, even if Vega flops, AMD can still stay a going concern.

Again, Vega isn't a complete flop, nor does it jeopardize AMDs business.

Another argument against AMD is the burning of cash. The author notes:

"Worse still, AMD lost money last quarter, despite massive demand from currency miners.

Strictly speaking, AMD reported negative cash flow. It didnt lose money in an economic sense. Its accounts receivable balance increased by a staggering $303 million during the first half of 2017, indicating increased demand for the companys products. Therefore, fixating on cash flow might not be fair in the case of AMD.

(Source: AMD Q2 2017 earnings release)

Increased receivable balance indicates healthy demand, which is deducted while calculating cash flows. The company adjusted $303 million in its cash flow statement during the first half of 2017. But this will reverse once debtors pay those receivables. In an economic sense, it wouldnt be right to say that AMD is losing money.

AMD has closed the technology gap, thanks to 14nm process technology and Jim Keller's designing capabilities. Lagging technology doesnt affect the bull thesis at all, as the thesis was based on narrowing the technology gap. If AMD were to beat Intel, it should be in Intels place in terms of market cap. Anyhow, second best is a moot point as far as the investment thesis is concerned.

Regarding multi-threading, AMD is a serious threat to Intel in the datacenter market. Chinas market is already showing signs of AMD's product adoption. Ryzen is completely different compared to Bulldozer. Bulldozers failure wont be reflected in Ryzen. Thanks to cryptocurrencies, AMDs GPU side has the time to make amends. The balance sheet is indicative of healthy business coming the companys way.

In effect, AMDs technology does fall short, but not short enough.

Disclosure: I/we have no positions in any stocks mentioned, and no plans to initiate any positions within the next 72 hours.

I wrote this article myself, and it expresses my own opinions. I am not receiving compensation for it (other than from Seeking Alpha). I have no business relationship with any company whose stock is mentioned in this article.

Additional disclosure: This publication is for informational purpose only and reflects the opinion of Focus Equitys analysts. This opinion doesnt constitute a professional investment advice. Our senior technology analyst compiled this research piece. Focus Equity is a team of analysts that strives to provide investment ideas to the U.S. equity investors.

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AMD Technology Falls Short... Really? - Seeking Alpha

Morgan Stanley said quantum computing will have dramatic implications across several industries during the next decade.

Quantum computers use atomic particles and the laws of physics to perform calculations. They are faster than current computers and will enable much higher computing power, according to Morgan Stanley.

"With more companies moving quantum computers from the lab to commercial activities, we believe widespread quantum computing is about to become a reality and holds the key to double the high-end computing market," the firm's research team wrote in a note to clients Wednesday.

"We believe quantum computing could trigger the beginning of a fourth industrial revolution, with far reaching consequences for many sectors where computing power is becoming a limitation for R&D."

Here are the industries and applications Morgan Stanley said will be most affected by the new computing paradigm:

"Financials, Pharma (drug discovery), Oil & Gas (well data analysis), Utilities (nuclear fusion), Chemicals (polymer design), Aerospace & Defense (plane design), Capital Goods (digital manufacturing and predictive maintenance), Artificial Intelligence, and Big Data search in general."

The firm said IBM, Google, Microsoft and Nokia Bell Labs currently have the "most credible" quantum computing pipelines.

With faster computing, "classical algorithms, which would take years to solve on a current supercomputer, could take just hours or minutes on a quantum computer," they said.

The analysts said that, according to IBM, the current size of the high-end computing market is $5 billion to $6 billion per year. Morgan Stanley predicts the market will grow to $10 billion a year in the next decade due to the rise of quantum computing.

"We expect the next 10 years to see a rebalancing favoring commercial vs consumer computing as quantum computers are able to solve many problems that could not be solved up until now," they wrote.

More here:

Morgan Stanley: This next big technology trend could start the 'fourth industrial revolution' - CNBC

San Francisco-based Blendis simplifying the process of mortgage applications for both borrowers and lenders, but is looking to expand into other lending products. To do that the company has raised $100 million in new funding led by Greylock, with participation from a bunch of existing investors.

Founded in 2012 by a group of Palantir veterans, Blend builds technology used by multiple big banks to help collect and evaluate information in their mortgage underwriting processes.

By helping banks move their application process online, Blend is able to simplify the user experience and increase completed applications. Furthermore, its infrastructure is instrumental in helping underwriters at financial institutions to keep track of mortgages in process and keep them connected to their clients.

As more banks compete for mortgage business online, Blend has been able to rapidly expand its customer base. In the last 18 months, the company has tripled the number of financial institutions that use its technology, and in 2017 alone Blend has seen more than $30 billion in mortgage applications.

With all that in mind, the company raised another big round of funding, this time from Greylock Partners. Existing investorsEmergence Capital, 8VC, Lightspeed Venture Partners and Nyca Partners all participated in the round, which brings total financing to $166 million.

While the mortgage industry represent a huge portion of the total lending market, Blends technology could be applicable to other lending products as well. While its just dipping its toes into those adjacent markets, its existing reach and customer base means that it could move quickly once it launches new products.

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Mortgage technology provider Blend raised another $100 million led by Greylock - TechCrunch