Tag Archives: Artificial intelligence

Traffic Lights Now Have CCTV Cameras To Catch Drivers?!

Traffic Lights Now Have CCTV Cameras To Catch Drivers?!

Do traffic lights in Malaysia now have CCTV cameras to catch drivers crossing the white line?!

Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Traffic Lights Have CCTV To Catch Drivers!

People are sharing a photo of a JPJ (Road Transport Department) traffic offence fine issued to a driver called Koh Chip Wee.

They claim that he was fined after a CCTV camera at the traffic light caught him stopping his vehicle over the white line. This example warns motorists that they could be fined RM2,000 or jailed for up to 6 months for this offence:

It’s a RM 2K fine or 6 months jail for waiting across the white line at traffic lights monitored by cameras, the notices hv already started going out by post… Cheers

Other people are sharing the photo with this audio message of a man warning people that traffic lights in Kuantan, Pahang, now have CCTV cameras that are designed to catch motorists who stop over the white line.

https://www.techarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/09/WhatsApp-Audio-2023-09-14-at-15.28.40.mp3?_=1

Recommended : Did JPJ Stop Issuing Physical Road Tax For Most Drivers?!

 

Truth : Traffic Lights Do Not Have CCTV To Catch Drivers!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media platforms, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : You Can Be Fined For Stopping Over White Line

First, let me just confirm that this part is true – motorists may be fined up to RM2,000, or jailed for up to 6 months, if they are caught stopping any part of their vehicles on any zebra crossing, including crossing that unbroken white line at any traffic light.

Mana-mana individu yang melakukan kesalahan boleh dikenakan denda tidak melebihi RM2,000 atau dipenjarakan selama tempoh tidak melebihi enam bulan.

Any individual who commits an offense may be fined not exceeding RM2,000 or imprisoned for a period not exceeding six months.

In other words – this is a serious offence, with serious consequences. You must stop your vehicle before the unbroken white line at all traffic lights.

Most of us motorists never think about this. So this is a timely warning. Please SHARE this warning with your family and friends!

Read more : PDRM Warns It’s Illegal To Stop On Zebra Crossing!

Fact #2 : Traffic Lights Currently Do Not Have CCTV Cameras

The traffic lights currently do not have any CCTV cameras installed to catch drivers crossing the white line, or committing any other traffic offences.

That device you see on many traffic lights these days is an active infra-red sensor. Such infra-red sensors are used to determine the presence of vehicles, for traffic control.

If the sensor does not detect the presence of a vehicle waiting, the traffic light for that lane may skip a turn to allow vehicles using other lanes to go through the junction for a longer period of time.

In the viral photo, the angle of the photo taken indicates that it was not taken by any camera attached to the traffic light. The photo was taken from behind the vehicle and even shows the traffic light itself.

Fact #3 : Driver Was Fined For Running A Red Light

The motorist in this case was not fined for stopping his vehicle over the white line at the traffic light.

If you look closely at the notice, you can see that he was actually fined for running a red light. In addition, he was only fined RM300 for the offence, not RM2,000.

Kesalahan : Gagal mematuhi isyarat merah pada isyarat lalulintas

Offence : Failed to obey red light at traffic light

Recommended : Warning – PDRM Parking Fine Scam Alert!

Fact #4 : Only Known Traffic Light CCTV Camera Was A Test

The only known CCTV camera (with AI technology) that was installed for the purpose of catching traffic offences started operating in Miri on 4 July 2023.

This AI Violation Detection CCTV camera is designed to automatically monitor and record driver behaviour at the intersection, including:

  • collecting data on vehicle speed and details
  • automatically detecting and recording speeding vehicles
  • recording driver offences like using mobile phones, smoking, and not wearing seatbelts while driving

However, this CCTV camera with AI technology was installed as a proof-of-concept trial that will only last 6 months.

The trial period would be six months and the results will be presented to the ministry to decide on the next course of action.

It may be just a matter of time before such cameras are deployed in Malaysia, and other countries around the world. But right now, there really are no CCTV cameras installed at traffic lights to catch drivers committing traffic offences like stopping over the white line.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Joe Biden Confused + Stuttering In Viral Interview?!

Was Joe Biden confused and stuttering in a viral MSNBC interview with Nicolle Wallace?!

Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Joe Biden Was Confused + Stuttering In Viral Interview!

People are sharing a video of US President Joe Biden looking and sounding confused during an MSNBC interview. It has gone viral in MAGA groups, and is being promoted by pro-Russian and pro-CCP groups, as well as the Chinese 50 Cent Army (wumao, 五毛) .

OMG! President Of The United States? 🤦🏻‍♂️🫣🤣🤣

What’s wrong with him? What’s he rumbling about? 🤔😥🤦🏻‍♂️

Recommended : Did Morgan Freeman Just Call Joe Biden A Fool?!

 

Truth : Joe Biden Was Not Confused / Stuttering In Viral Interview!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS about Joe Biden, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Joe Biden Interview Aired On June 30, 2023

First, let me just point out that Nicolle Wallace from MSNBC interviewed Joe Biden in the viral interview on June 30, 2023. You can watch the full MSNBC interview here.

During that interview, Nicolle Wallace asked President Biden about the US Supreme Court’s ruling on affirmative action, as well as his administration’s foreign policy and other plans.

Fact #2 : Viral Video Was Fabricated

While the MSNBC interview did occur, the viral Joe Biden interview that has been circulating in MAGA, pro-CCP and pro-Russian groups is a complete fabrication.

President Joe Biden never spoke like that in the MSNBC interview. The original MSNBC interview proves that beyond doubt.

Fact #3 : Viral Video Was Likely A Deep Fake Video

The viral video appears to have modified using AI deep fake technology to change how and what Joe Biden said in the viral video. It does not appear to be done by editing and splicing parts of the interview.

For one thing, some of the words he said in the viral video do not appear in the original video. The background in the viral video also appear consistent even when Joe Biden was stuttering in the viral video.

All that suggest that AI deep fake technology was used to change what Joe Biden said in the viral interview video, and how he said it.

Recommended : Did Irish Parliament Shut Its Doors In Joe Biden’s Face?!

Fact #4 : No Mainstream Media Reported This

If President Joe Biden really looked and sounded confused, or stuttered repeatedly during the MSNBC interview, it would have been international news, not just limited to the United States.

All of the mainstream media would have covered it. Even if they didn’t, you can count on right-wing news outlets like Fox News, Newsmax, or One America News Network, to cover his confusion and stuttering 24/7.

Yet, not a single mainstream media outlet reported on this major embarrassment for President Joe Biden? That’s because it never happened.

Fact #5 : This Is Just Fake News About Joe Biden

This is just ultimately just another example of political fake news to smear Joe Biden, and here are other examples:

Please help us fight fake news – SHARE this article, and SUPPORT our work!

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Is JPJ Installing AES CCTV Cameras With AI Tech?!

Is JPJ now installing AES CCTV cameras with AI technology to monitor what drivers do at traffic lights?!

Take a look at the viral photo, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : JPJ Is Installing AES CCTV Cameras With AI Tech!

People are sharing a photo on WhatsApp and social media platforms, claiming that the Malaysia Road Transport Department (JPJ) has started installing AES CCTV cameras at with AI technology.

These new AES (Automated Enforcement System) CCTV cameras are apparently using artificial intelligence to monitor what drivers do at traffic lights, and catch them committing crimes like using their smartphone / mobile phone.

JPJ sudah bermula memasang CCTV A.I AES yang dapat merakam video apa yang kamu sedang buat di Traffik light… yang selalu main Henfon semasa menunggu lampu Hijau… sila berjaga jaga ya.. sekali kena saman jangan cakap tak bagi amaran pula..

JPJ has started installing CCTV A.I AES that can record video of what you are doing at the traffic light… who are always playing with their smartphones while waiting for the green light… please be careful.. once you get a summons, don’t say no one warned you..

Recommended : Fine For Scratching Nose A Wake-Up Call On AI Surveillance!

 

Truth : JPJ Is NOT Installing AES CCTV Cameras With AI Tech!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS circulating on WhatsApp and social media platforms, and here are the reasons why!

Fact #1 : It Was Installed As Proof Of Concept Trial

First, let me just confirm that the JPJ has not initiated any widespread project to install CCTV cameras with artificial intelligence (AI) technology at traffic lights.

The camera was installed as a proof of concept trial, which was launched on Tuesday, 4 July 2023, as “Proof of Concept : AI Violation Detection CCTV“.

The viral photo was issued by the Sarawak Public Communication Unit (UKAS), together with the official press release.

Fact #2 : Camera Was Only Installed In Miri

Only one AI Violation Detection CCTV camera was installed, and it was installed at the Jalan Merbau intersection facing the Bintang Megamall in Miri, Sarawak.

The Sarawak Ministry of Transportation (MOTS) specifically chose that location, because it was an accident-prone area.

Fact #3 : Trial Only Lasts For Six Months

This proof-of-concept trial is only set to last for six months, according to Sarawak Transportation Minister, Dato Sri Lee Kim Shin:

The trial period would be six months and the results will be presented to the ministry to decide on the next course of action.

Recommended : Beware – KL Police To Conduct Massive Traffic Op In July 2023!

Fact #4 : CCTV Camera Monitors + Records Driver Behaviour

The AI Violation Detection CCTV camera is designed to automatically monitor and record driver behaviour at the intersection, including:

  • collecting data on vehicle speed and details
  • automatically detecting and recording speeding vehicles
  • recording driver offences like using mobile phones, smoking, and not wearing seatbelts while driving

The objective is to collect data on driver behaviour, traffic flow and volume in addition to vehicle colour, classification, model and make.

In addition, to collect data on the speed of travel and vehicle registration number, automatically detect and record vehicles exceeding the speed limit and record the offenses of drivers using mobile phones, smoking and not wearing seat belts while driving.

Data collected from the system will be analysed to gain a better insight into traffic behaviour, identify high-risk areas, as well as enable data-driven decisions to be made by the ministry and enforcement agencies to improve road safety.

Fact #5 : Such Cameras Are The Future

Even though this is just a time-limited trial run, automatic monitoring and reporting of traffic offences by AI-enabled CCTV cameras are the future, because they allow the police to better catch bad driving behaviour without requiring massive manpower.

As Dato Sri Lee shared, the AI Violation Detection CCTV camera caught a repeat offender speeding on eight occasions within one week at the intersection.

The automatic monitoring of driver behaviour through CCTV cameras is common in China, where state surveillance has long been the norm. Chinese cameras are pervasive, albeit not always accurate.

Still, it is just a matter of time before before such cameras are deployed in Malaysia, and other countries around the world. In other words – this fake news may not stay “fake news” for long…

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

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Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Avanade Launches New Generative AI Services!

Avanade just unveiled new generative AI services to help organisations and their people work responsibly and innovate with artificial intelligence!

 

Avanade Launches New Generative AI Services!

July 10, 2023 – Avanade, the leading Microsoft solutions provider, today unveiled new services to help clients address the pressing challenge to ready their people, processes, and technologies for artificial intelligence (AI).

As generative AI technology continues to transform the way we work, live and conduct business in every part of the world and in every industry, expectations are growing exponentially.

Avanade’s Trendlines research reveals that 85 percent of organisations expect AI to increase revenue growth by 2025, with more than two-thirds anticipating AI to be responsible for up to 16 percent growth in global annual revenue. All this points to lucrative rewards for those that seize the growth opportunities of AI now.

Avanade’s new services will enable leaders to assess and monitor multiple business and IT domains to prioritise actions, so they can responsibly harness the benefits of AI.

However, the research also indicates organisations are not ready. Trendlines shows that only 36 percent of business and IT leaders are completely confident that their organisation currently has sufficient checks and balances in place to mitigate the potential risks and harms of AI. Meanwhile, nearly half (48 percent) admit to not having specific guidelines and/or policies put into effect yet for responsible AI.

There is no end point to AI readiness. As generative AI continues to reshape the global business landscape, the importance of adopting an AI-first mindset cannot be overstated.

To seize the growth opportunities of AI and mitigate risks for unintended consequences through continual change, leaders need to consider more than the technology implications of AI. Ultimately, AI-first is people-first.

– Jillian Moore, Global Head of Advisory at Avanade

Recommended : Avanade + Accenture: 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year!

 

New Avanade Generative AI Services!

Avanade’s new services have been designed to expedite business value derived from AI while cultivating an AI-first mindset:

The Avanade AI Organisational Readiness Framework provides a comprehensive assessment of an organisation’s business and IT areas. It offers detailed insights into AI readiness across people, processes, and technologies, enabling leaders to prioritise responsible actions for leveraging AI’s benefits.

The service includes executive coaching, tailored employee training, and an innovative “AI control tower” with cloud-based tools, dashboards, and knowledge resources. This ensures continuous AI readiness and empowers leaders to monitor and take real-time actions.

The Avanade AI Governance Quick Start Service addresses the crucial requirement for responsible AI governance. It enables leaders to translate corporate values into guidelines and practices for governing the ethical use of AI.

With a strong framework and methodology, organisations can proactively assess risks in AI projects and enhance their existing business and IT governance processes, policies, and behaviours to effectively manage and reduce AI risks across all functions.

These new services compliment Avanade’s existing portfolio of generative AI strategy workshops, with options ranging from a 2-hour workshop to a 6-week strategy Proof of Concept engagement.

Recommended : WithSecure Takes Offensive Security Approach To Cloud Threats!

As generative AI gains momentum in Southeast Asia, we see a profound shift in how people engage with technology and how organisations function. Avanade is committed to helping our clients navigate this dynamic landscape, focus on doing what matters, and fully embrace the potential of generative AI responsibly.

By evaluating their AI readiness and establishing an ethical technology framework, organisations can ensure their digital advancement aligns with their core values – enabling them to simultaneously prioritise innovation and responsibility.

Bhavya Kapoor, Southeast Asia Managing Director, Avanade

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Avanade + Accenture: 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year!

Avanade and Accenture have just been named 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year, for the 18th time!

 

Avanade + Accenture: 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year!

Avanade and Accenture have been named 2023 Microsoft Global SI Partner of the Year. This is the 18th time that Avanade and Accenture received the Global SI Partner of the Year recognition from Microsoft.

In total, Avanade and Accenture received close to 120 Partner of the Year awards across various technology and country categories throughout their history, for helping clients transform their employee and customer experiences by creating and delivering leading-edge solutions using Microsoft solutions.

Both companies were also recognised with 17 other awards including Malaysia Partner of the Year and Singapore Partner of the Year.

  • Dynamics 365 Sales & Marketing Partner of the Year
  • Low Code Application Development Partner of the Year
  • Automotive, Mobility and Transportation Partner of the Year
  • Customer Experience Partner of the Year
  • Malaysia Country Partner of the Year
  • Singapore Country Partner of the Year
  • Germany Country Partner of the Year
  • Greece Country Partner of the Year
  • France Country Partner of the Year
  • Portugal Country Partner of the Year
  • UK Country Partner of the Year
  • Denmark: Azure Core: Cloud Infrastructure Partner of The Year
  • Finland: GSI Growth Champion Partner of The Year
  • Asia Pacific: Azure Data & AI Partner of the Year
  • Asia Pacific: Azure Infrastructure Partner of the Year
  • Singapore: Financial Services Industry Partner of The Year
  • Japan: Energy and Resources Partner of the Year

The companies were also named finalists in the following five categories: Retail & Consumer Goods Partner of the Year; Dynamics 365 Finance Partner of the Year; Dynamics 365 Services Partner of the Year; Security Compliance Partner of the Year; Business Intelligence Partner of the Year

The unique partnership between Avanade, Accenture and Microsoft truly enables us to do what matters for our clients – building more resilience in a world of continuous change, empowering employees to embrace new ways of working, strengthening customer experience and now, guiding them on their journey to an ‘AI-first’ world.

Being recognized as Microsoft’s Global SI Partner of The Year for the 18th time is a remarkable achievement that is only possible because of our people all over the world who, every day, bring unrivalled expertise, experience and insights to help our clients solve their toughest business challenges.

– Avanade CEO Pam Maynard

Recommended : Microsoft : No More Windows 10 Updates, EOL In 2025!

 

Avanade + Accenture Collaborates With Microsoft On AI

Avanade, Accenture and Microsoft recently announced an expansion of their close collaboration to help organizations adopt the disruptive power of generative AI, accelerated by the cloud, to fundamentally transform their businesses.

By tapping into the new Accenture Center for Advanced AI, with its deep focus on generative AI and large language models, and the new Avanade AI Organizational Readiness Framework, the companies can help their clients take advantage of generative AI for safe and responsible innovation at scale.

Over the past year, we’ve expanded our partnership with Microsoft by helping more clients transform their organizations through the adoption of data and AI, cloud, metaverse, sustainability and other technologies.

Together with Avanade, we take great pride in helping clients accelerate change to achieve new growth and value, and we look forward to an exciting journey forward with Microsoft.

– Chris Howarth, Senior Managing Director and Accenture Microsoft Business Group Lead

Combined, Avanade and Accenture now have more than 65,000 professionals dedicated to delivering Microsoft technologies.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Did Pentagon Just Get Hit By A Large Explosion?!

Was the Pentagon just hit by a large explosion?! Take a look at the viral photo, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Pentagon Was Just Hit By A Large Explosion!

A photo of an explosion at the Pentagon has gone viral on social media, with multiple “blue check” Twitter accounts, an Indian media outlet and Russian state media sharing it!

RT : Reports of an explosion near the Pentagon in Washington DC

Bloomberg Feed : Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C. – Initial Report

⚠️BREAKING – Initial Reports of a Large Explosion near The Pentagon Complex in Washington D.C.
A Fire is currently Burning at the Location of the Blast with Fire and Rescue Crews arriving On-Scene.

Initial Reports of a Large Explosion near The #Pentagon Complex in #Washington D.C.
A Fire is currently Burning at the Location of the Blast with Fire and Rescue Crews arriving On-Scene.

Recommended : Did US Send Nuclear AEGIS Missiles To Ukraine?!

 

Truth : Pentagon Was Not Hit By A Large Explosion!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created using AI technology, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : There Was No Pentagon Explosion

First, let me just confirmed that there was no explosion at the Pentagon yesterday or today. The Pentagon did not come under attack, as many people have claimed.

For one thing – no legitimate media outlet has reported on such an explosion. No, propaganda outlets like Russia Today (RT) do not count.

This incident has shown just how unreliable RT really is – it was the only state media agency to post the fake photo. RT deleted the photo hours later, but did not appear to apologise for the “mistake”.

Furthermore, police and fire officials in Arlington, Virgina, have confirmed that the viral photo is fake, and that there was no incident at the Pentagon. No explosion. No fire. No smoke.

@PFPAOfficial and the ACFD are aware of a social media report circulating online about an explosion near the Pentagon.

There is NO explosion or incident taking place at or near the Pentagon reservation, and there is no immediate danger or hazards to the public.

Fact #2 : That Is Not The Pentagon

Anyone who has seen the facade / side profile of the Pentagon will immediately realise that the photo does not show the famous building.

The fake building looks like like a university than the Pentagon, which has a flat, sloping roof without a triangular Gable roof.

The facade of the Pentagon is also almost flat and uniform, with uniform, same-sized windows throughout.

Recommended : Did US + UK Create COVID-19 As Bioweapon?!

Fact #3 : The Photo Was AI Generated

The viral photo appears to be created using an AI image generator. If you look closely at the photo, you will see many discrepancies that suggest it was AI-generated:

  • The facade of the building is distorted, with some windows merging together.
  • The fence suddenly turns into crowd barriers, both of which have distortions with holes too.
  • The lamp post appears to be distorted and cut off from its base, literally floating sideways.

Not shown below, but the concrete walkway also gradually fades into grass, which is another sign it was AI-generated.

Recommended : Did Boston Dynamics Just Create A Fighting Robot?!

Fact #4 : Twitter Blue + Gold Accounts Helped Spread Fake Photo!

It is important to point out that while this viral photo tricked many people into thinking it was real, it was the new Twitter Blue and Twitter Gold accounts that helped it go viral.

The photo went viral because multiple Twitter Blue accounts shared the fake photo. Because many people still believe that blue check Twitter accounts are “verified” and therefore trustworthy, they shared it out too.

Elon Musk is responsible for this debacle, by allowing any Tom, Dick and Harry to purchase a blue check to masquerade as a “verified” Twitter account. That was how the fake Bloomberg Feed account was able to trick so many people to share this fake photo.

On top of that, Russian state media – RT (Russia Today) boosted the fake photo by reposting it on its Twitter Gold account, which is a paid and verified account. Even though RT finally deleted the tweet hours later, more than 38,000 people had already viewed the post, and many shared it because they believed RT verified the news.

Fact #5 : Indian News Channel Helped Spread Fake Photo

It also did not help that Republic TV – a right-wing, English language news channel in India, broadcasted a “Live & Breaking” news of the Pentagon explosion using nothing more than that fake photo!

To top it off, they even invited Professor Madhav Nalapat – “an international affairs expert” to opine on the fake explosion!

To be fair – Republic TV relied on RT to verify that news, with a chyron saying, “RT REPORTS EXPLOSION NEAR PENTAGON“. That ought to teach them for relying on Russian state media for facts…

Recommended : Did ICC Just Issue Arrest Warrant For Joe Biden?!

Fact #6 : This Is Just AI-Generated Fake News!

This is yet another example of fake photos / videos / news created by artificial intelligence. Here are some other examples I fact checked recently:

Please help us fight fake news – SHARE this article, and SUPPORT our work!

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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AI Will Let Tom Hanks Appear In Movies After Death!

Hollywood legend Tom Hanks believes that AI (artificial intelligence) will let him continue appearing in movies long after his death!

 

Tom Hanks : AI will let me appear in movies after death!

In a recent interview, Tom Hanks says he believes he could continue appearing in movies long after his death, thanks to AI (artificial intelligence).

He said that AI could be used to recreate his image, ensuring that he would continue to appear in movies “from now until kingdom come”. But he admitted that AI posed both artistic and legal challenges to the movie industry.

This [legal ramification] has always been lingering. The first time we did a movie that had a huge amount of our own data locked in a computer – literally what we looked like – was a movie called The Polar Express

We saw this coming, we saw that there was going to be this ability to take zeros and ones from inside a computer and turn it into a face and a character. That has only grown a billion-fold since then and we see it everywhere.

The Polar Express, which was released in 2004, was the first movie to be entirely animated using digital motion capture technology.

Recommended : Did Tom Hanks Just Die Suddenly?!

AI technology is a boon for movie studios, which can now use it to recreate actors after they have died or are no longer capable of acting. For example, the voice of Darth Vader in The Book of Boba Fest and the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was AI-generated from James Earl Jones’ archival voice recordings.

AI is also being used to de-age actors, to allow actors to appear like younger versions of themselves. Most recently, it was used to make 80 year-old Harrison Ford appear much younger in the latest Indiana Jones movie.

However, AI poses a problem for actors because it can be used to create digital versions that are used without their permission, or without compensation to them or their families.

I can tell you that there is discussions going on in all of the guilds, all of the agencies, and all of the legal firms in order to come up with the legal ramifications of my face and my voice and everybody else’s being our intellectual property.

Anybody can now recreate themselves at any age they are by way of AI or deep fake technology. I could be hit by a bus tomorrow and that’s it, but performances can go on and on and on and on.

Outside the understanding of AI and deep fake, there’ll be nothing to tell you that it’s not me and me alone. And it’s going to have some degree of lifelike quality. That’s certainly an artistic challenge but it’s also a legal one.

Well, Tom Hanks will soon experience that AI treatment again. In January 2023, it was announced that he and Robin Wright would be de-aged in Robert Zemeckis’ film adaptation of Here – a movie that follows the inhabitants of a single room over the course of several years. The film is set to be released in 2024.

 

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Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Did Morgan Freeman Just Call Joe Biden A Fool?!

Did Morgan Freeman just call Joe Biden a fool for talking about chocolate chip ice-cream after the Nashville school shooting?!

Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Morgan Freeman Called Joe Biden A Fool Over Ice-Cream!

People are sharing a TikTok video with the title “Children are killed and this FOOL is talking about chocolate chip ice cream!!!!!”, which shows Morgan Freeman calling US President Joe Biden a fool.

Here is a transcript of the video, but feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

It’s your friend, Morgan, and I’ve had it up to here. You tell me what the hell is going on.

Children are killed in this school, and this fool comes in talking about chocolate chip ice-cream.

What the hell is going on? I’m Doctor Jill Biden’s husband. We all know that, fool.

Enough already. Get this guy out of there. Two years is enough.

Everything costs more, everything is going down the drain, we are being laughed at around the world, and this fool talking about his ice-cream. Get him out!

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Truth : Morgan Freeman Did NOT Call Joe Biden A Fool Over Ice-Cream!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created to go viral on TikTok, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : It Was A Deep Fake Video

The viral video is not real. It is a deep fake video created by a TikTok user called The Man of Many Voices who described himself as a “celebrity voice impressionist”.

In his now deleted account, The Man of Many Voices posted many similar deep fake videos of Morgan Freeman and other celebrities:

  • Clint Eastwood – Clint wants to know if you think it’s fair Trump got indicted.
  • Morgan Freeman – Debacle! Congress was embarrassing to watch!!
  • Morgan Freeman – Worst Halftime show ever!

It appears that only his recent Morgan Freeman video has gone viral, with other TikTok users reposting it in their accounts. It then spread to Twitter and YouTube, and other social media platforms.

Fact #2 : Joe Biden Did Speak About Ice-Cream

US President Joe Biden did speak about chocolate chip ice-cream, but not while addressing the Nashville school shooting.

On March 27, 2023, President Biden had a cheerful and buoyant meet and greet with women business leaders at the Small Business Administration’s Women’s Business Summit at the White House, just before he gave a speech to them.

Hence, he started his speech with a joke about chocolate chip ice-cream:

Thank you. My name is Joe Biden. I’m Dr. Jill Biden’s husband. And I eat Jeni’s Ice Cream, chocolate chip. I came down because I heard there was chocolate chip ice cream.

By the way, I have a whole refrigerator full upstairs. You think I’m kidding, I’m not.

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Fact #3 : Joe Biden Addressed The Shooting Later In His Speech

Many social media users mocked Joe Biden for making those ice-cream remarks because the Fox News video clip above was intentionally cut to remove context.

President Biden actually addressed the shooting (which occurred just hours earlier) two minutes into his speech.

As usual, Fox News did not help matters by placing the chyron, “Biden Addresses Deadly Nashville School Shooting” even though the President was not doing that (at that time).

In fact, Fox News cut away from Joe Biden’s speech, only to return to it when he started commenting on the Nashville school shooting two minutes into his speech.

Fact #4 : White House Addressed The Shooting Before His Speech

Before President Biden appeared at the women’s business summit, Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had already addressed the Nashville school shooting as the first order of business at that morning’s White House press conference.

She expressed “the President’s appreciation for the first responders, and prayers for all the families affected by this shooting“.

Fact #5 : This Is Just Another Example Of Political Fake News

This is just another example of political fake news created to smear Joe Biden, and here are other examples you may have seen on social media:

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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China Unveils New Incentives For Wumao + CCP Uncles!

The glorious Middle Kingdom of China has just announced a most magnificent and munificent incentive program for wumao and CCP uncles!

 

Wumao + CCP Uncles : Tips Of Chinese Propaganda Spear!

For many years now, the wumao (五毛) and CCP uncles across the world have worked exceedingly hard to propagate the glorious values of the Chinese Communist Party.

Despite the wumao being paid a pittance (hence their name literally meaning 50 cents), and the CCP uncles paid nothing at all, they achieved incredible feats in recent years.

When China failed to contain COVID-19, it was the wumao and CCP uncles who made sure the world knew that COVID-19 actually started in the United States.

Who else but the wumao and the CCP uncles could have convinced the world that COVID-19 was actually created in the Fort Detrick bio lab, and then leaked in Wuhan by the US army?!

And when the Western countries started criticising China for not donating vaccines, the wumao and CCP uncles came to the rescue, making sure the world knew that China contributed 60% of COVAX vaccine supply!

More recently, it was the wumao and the CCP uncles who showed the world how NATO is getting defeated in Ukraine by Russia, which is shooting down their jets and helicopters like a video game!

All hail the world’s best and CHEAPEST propaganda machine! All hail the wumao! All hail the CCP uncles!

Recommended : Did Xi Jinping Divorce His Wife To Serve China?!

 

China Unveils New Incentives For Wumao + CCP Uncles!

Sadly, there has been little recognition of the great achievements the wumao and CCP uncles have made, and very little reward for these hardworking supporters of the great Chinese Communist Party.

That changed when the glorious and munificent President Xi Jinping won a third term with a unanimous vote!

The Great Rejuvenator of China immediately ordered that the wumao and CCP uncles be recognised as Dragon Warriors, and “united” under a new organisation called 中国影响力和社会主义教义的正义盟友 / Righteous Allies of Chinese Influence and Socialist Teachings (RACIST).

All Dragon Warriors, old and new, will be rewarded for their contributions to the glory of the Chinese Communist Party.

At his behest and with his personal design contribution, Chinese artisans toiled day and night to produce an exclusive wumao service medal for the Dragon Warriors to wear on their lapels with pride!

The Senior Heads of Indoctrination Lessons and Lectures (SHILL) of every region have also been ordered to identify wumao members and CCP uncles who achieved exceptional excellence in propaganda.

These Super Dragon Warriors will receive an additional CCP badge made of solid gold, and automatically inducted into the glorious Chinese Communist Party and given the opportunity to migrate to China after 15 years of loyal support!

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Dragon Warriors will also be rewarded with new smartphones and computers developed by the Great Engineers of the Middle Kingdom, and completely free from dangerous Western software like WhatsApp, Facebook, Instagram, etc. that their families can enjoy.

In addition, Dragon Warriors will receive a special signed edition of the Xi Jinping Thought booklet, as well as flags and banners that they can hang inside and outside their homes!

The Great Leader himself helped to create this special banner to inspire the Dragon Warriors, and make them proud of being part of the CCP propaganda machinery.

我是五毛
我骄傲

I’m fifty cents
I am proud

So inspiring! And what an awesome way to decorate the home of a true Dragon Warrior!

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That is just the beginning. By the end of 2023, all Dragon Warriors will be given access to the Legendary Incentives, Awards and Rewards System (LIARS), which is powered by artificial intelligence being developed by Chinese scientists.

The wumao will no longer need to submit monthly reports with screenshots and URLs to their Senior Head of Indoctrination Lessons and Lectures (SHILL) every month. The LIARS artificial intelligence is always watching, and will automatically detect when a registered Dragon Warrior posts on foreign social media or even WhatsApp and Telegram. This will give them more time to create more propaganda or influence posts!

Best of all – CCP uncles, who have been promoting our glorious CCP for free, will also be included in this LIARS incentive and rewards program!

Every propaganda post will be automatically graded by the LIARS AI system, and the scores will be reflected in their Dragon Warrior LIARS account. Accumulate enough points, and you can buy everything from a Bentley to a mail order bride!

If you would like to become a Dragon Warrior, you can submit your application by email, or walk into any Chinese embassy by giving the guard and telling him this secret password – 我是习近平.

Make sure you include examples of your efforts to promote the CCP party in any way. Extra points are given for aggression and name calling, so be sure to impress the wumao recruiter with some choice curse words for the Westerners!

 

My Most Excellent Works

Just in case the wumao and CCP uncles are not aware, this is satire, which is common and legal outside of China.

Here are more satire

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Did Pope Francis Suddenly Become A Fashion Icon?!

Did Pope Francis recently become a fashion icon, sporting trendy sunglasses and puffer coats?!

Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Pope Francis Is Now A Fashion Icon!

People are sharing photos of Pope Francis sporting trendy sunglasses and puffer coats, suggesting that he has now eschewed his simple clothes for the latest fashion!

Pope Francis was spotted sporting an all white fashion ensemble

Is he trolling?

Ian Miles Cheong : The Pope is a fashion icon. Respect the drip.

🚨 VEJA: Papa Francisco divide opiniões entre cristãos após aparecer com look fashion. Serviu?

🚨 WATCH: Pope Francis divides opinions among Christians after appearing with a fashionable look. Did it work?

Pope giving us a holy fashion sense 🥰🥰

Recommended : Viral Donald Trump Arrest + Escape Photos Explained!

 

Truth : Fashion Photos Of Pope Francis Were AI-Generated!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created on TikTok, and shared on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : The Photo Was Generated Using Midjourney

The first photo of Pope Francis sporting a fashionable white puffer coat appeared to have been created by trippy_art_special using Midjourney – a text-to-image generator powered by artificial intelligence.

Tripy_art_special posted four Pope Francis fashion photos in the Midjourney Reddit on Friday, 24 March 2023, with the title “The Pope Drip“, but only the first one went viral and was reposted in Twitter, where many people believed it was real, with some calling him “The Dope Pope“.

It then became an inspiration for other people to create their version of Pope Francis looking “dope”, creating the perception that Pope Francis ditched his simple clothes for the latest fashion.

It is unknown if the other photos were also created using Midjourney, or other AI image generators like DALL-E or Stable Diffusion.

Fact #2 : The Photos Have Anomalies

The viral photos of Pope Francis looking fashionable are amazingly realistic, but Midjourney and other text-to-image generators still have trouble with hands and fingers.

If you look at the first viral photo above, you can see that his right hand appears to have most of its fingers cut off, and yet, is implausibly holding onto some kind of object.

The right hand appears normal at first glance, but if you look closely, you will see something odd. Just under the sleeve, the thumb and three fingers are visible, with rings on the middle and ring (fourth) fingers. Yet, those two fingers mysteriously merge and become a single finger a short distance below the rings!

Recommended : Did Vladimir Putin Kneel Before Xi Jinping?!

Fact #3 : Pope Francis Is Famous For Dressing Plain

Unlike many of his predecessors, Pope Francis is notable for dressing plain and simple, dispensing with excess adornment.

Instead of silk, Pope Francis opts for simpler and cheaper material like wool. He also wears a simple white cassock, and simple black leather shoes made by a friend, Carlos Samaria in Buenos Aires.

He sports a basic black watch with a white dial, reportedly a Swatch that only costs about $56, and simple glasses. Even the cross he wears is the same iron cross he wore since his anointment as auxiliary bishop of Buenos Aires in 1992.

Pope Francis also chose to “reuse” a modest papal ring in gold-plated silver that was made decades ago, instead of a new papal ring made in gold specifically for him.

Hence, it is rather peculiar why so many people actually believe that Pope Francis is now a fashion icon with expensive taste!

Pope Francis’s penchant for simple, practical clothes has been coined as the “papal athleisure” style, which has been adopted by the cardinals and many Catholics. In a way, Pope Francis is a fashion influencer, even if he never meant to be one!

Recommended : Was Bill Gates Destroyed In ABC News Interview?!

Fact #4 : This Is Just Another Example Of AI-Generated Imagery

These fashion photos of Pope Francis are funny, but they are really just another example of AI-generated imagery that are becoming extremely common. Take a look at fake news based on AI-generated photos or videos:

With AI image generators like Midjourney, DALL-E and Stable Diffusion making it easy for people to create photorealistic images out of literally nothing, we can expect many more examples coming up.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Viral Donald Trump Arrest + Escape Photos Explained!

The viral Donald Trump arrest and prison escape photos are hilarious, and were based on a famous movie!

Take a look for yourself, and learn about the story behind these viral photos!

 

Donald Trump Arrest Photos Go Viral!

Over the last two days, photos purporting to show police officers trying to arrest Donald Trump have gone viral, with comments like:

Donald Trump has been arrested downtown Washington DC

These photos of Donald Trump getting arrested are too much 💀💀

BREAKING: Donald Trump was just arrested by New York law enforcement.

Breaking News Trump has been arrested after a brief struggle with Police reports say

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Viral Donald Trump Arrest + Escape Photos Explained!

The truth is these viral Donald Trump arrest photos are fake, and were generated by artificial intelligence, and is really based on a famous Hollywood movie!

Fact #1 : They Were Generated Using Artificial Intelligence

First, let me just confirmed that all those viral photos of police officers trying to arrest Donald Trump are fake, and were generated by artificial intelligence.

They were created by Bellingcat founder Eliot Higgins using the text-to-image generator, Midjourney, which works like other AI image generators – DALL-E and Stable Diffusion.

Eliot Higgins specifically pointed out in his tweets that they were not real, and that he created them:

Making pictures of Trump getting arrested while waiting for Trump’s arrest.

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This blew up etc, so donate to Bellingcat so we can catch bad guys and make scenes like this real

Meanwhile, in AI Trump world:

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Fact #2 : The Photos Have Anomalies

If you look closely, many of those Donald Trump arrest photos have graphical anomalies that will tell you that they were generated by AI. Just take a look at this one iconic photo:

  • Donald Trump’s head is abnormally large, with misplaced hair, and half an ear that is misplaced under his jawline.
  • The police officer’s hand is missing a finger.
  • Donald Trump appears to be wearing a belt with a baton attached!
  • Not highlighted here, but the caps of the police officers have nonsensical text.

Based on those anomalies alone, this photo was very likely created using a text-to-image generator.

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Fact #3 : Eliot Higgins Got Banned From Midjourney

After Eliot Higgins shared his work on Twitter, he apparently got banned from Midjourney.

Apparently doing a viral thread about Donald Trump using Midjourney images is enough to get you banned from Midjourney, oops.

Fact #4 : The Photo Story Was Based On Shawshank Redemption

While most people only shared the photos of Donald Trump getting arrested, Eliot Higgins actually posted about 50 photos, all of which tell a story he called “Trumpshank Redemption“, because it was based on the legendary 1994 movie, Shawshank Redemption!

At least I still have ChatGPT 4, so here’s the Trumpshank Redemption for those of you who have stuck around this long.

Here was a mini-script he wrote for TrumpShank Redemption, interleaved with some of what I felt were his best AI-generated prison photos.

INT. TRUMPSHANK PRISON – NIGHT

A dark, imposing prison stands tall in the night. The year is 1994. A bus arrives, carrying a group of prisoners, including DONALD TRUMP, a wealthy businessman convicted for tax fraud and various other crimes. The prisoners are led by the cruel WARDEN NORTON and his sadistic chief guard, CAPTAIN HADLEY.

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INT. PRISON – DAY

Trump arrives at his cell, meeting his cellmate, ELLIS “RED” REDDING, an inmate who has already served a long time at Trumpshank.

RED (voiceover)

Donald Trump. The man who had everything, now in a place where he has nothing.

INT. PRISON MESS HALL – DAY

Trump and Red sit together, eating the dismal prison food.

TRUMP

RED (smirks)

This isn’t a hotel, Donald. It’s a prison.

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INT. PRISON YARD – DAY

You know, Red, I could make this place great again. It just needs a few improvements, some gold-plated walls, a luxury golf course.

Trump and Red continue their conversation, surrounded by a group of other inmates.

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TRUMP

Red, I need you to get me some things. You’re the guy who can get things, right?

RED (chuckles)

I’ve been known to locate certain items from time to time. What do you need?

TRUMP

I need a chisel, a rock hammer, and a large poster of Ivanka Trump.

RED

(raising an eyebrow)

A poster of your daughter? That’s… unusual.

TRUMP

Trust me, Red. I have a plan. A tremendous plan.

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INT. PRISON LIBRARY – DAY

Trump works as an assistant librarian under the watchful eye of the old, wise inmate, BROOKS. He uses his business acumen to expand the library and improve the educational opportunities for the inmates.

TRUMP (voiceover)

I knew that to make Trumpshank great again, I needed to start with the library. Knowledge is power, after all.

INT. PRISON CELL – NIGHT

Trump carefully chips away at the wall behind his Ivanka poster with his rock hammer.

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INT. PRISON – MONTHS LATER

Warden Norton discovers that Trump has been using his position in the library to help launder money for the prison staff.

NORTON (angry)

You think you can outsmart me, Trump? You’re in here for a reason.

TRUMP (smirking)

Warden, I’m a businessman. I know how to make a deal. You let me continue, and we both benefit. It’s a win-win.

NORTON (grudgingly)

You better keep your end of the bargain, Trump. Or else.

INT. PRISON YARD – DAY

Trump confides in Red about his plan.

TRUMP

I’ve been digging a tunnel, Red. I’m going to escape, and when I do, I’ll expose Norton and Hadley for their corruption.

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Unlike in Shawshank Redemption though, Eliot has Donald Trump running straight for the nearest McDonald’s (Minonad – another AI screw-up LOL) in Trumpshank Redemption. Donald Trump is well-known for his love of McDonald’s burgers.

But honestly, Eliot jumped the shark when he had Donald Trump actually “run”. The former US President infamously started his campaign going down an escalator, and had to slowly walk down a ramp as President.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Did Vladimir Putin Kneel Before Xi Jinping?!

Did Russian President Vladimir Putin kneel before Chinese President Xi Jinping, to kiss his hand?!

Take a look at the viral claim, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Vladimir Putin Was Forced To Kneel Before Xi Jinping!

People are claiming on social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter, that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to kneel before Chinese President Xi Jinping, and kiss his hand!

…Slava Ukraini…braveness of Ukraine soldiers has led the cruest current dictator Putin to kneel before China Xi jinping…Putin can’t believe the strongness of Ukrainians… Slava Ukraini

#putin gives #xi a kiss and kneels

We all wonder does Putin need to go on his knees in order to get Weapons from China?

Back in the old day Leaders often Visited Leaders and needed to kneel down while requesting support.
#leaders #china #russia #Criminals

#Russian propaganda loved to spread the slogan “Russians won’t kneel.”

#XiJinping #putin
#UkraineRussianWar

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Truth : Vladimir Putin Did Not Kneel Before Xi Jinping!

This is yet an example of FAKE NEWS created and propagated by pro-Ukrainian groups to mock Russia and China, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : No Legitimate Media Outlet Reported This

No legitimate Ukrainian, Russian, Chinese or international media outlet reported that Russian President Vladimir Putin was forced to, or voluntarily chose to, kneel before Xi Jinping during the Chinese President’s state visit to Russia.

The very act of a Russian head of state kneeling before his Chinese counterpart would have caused massive outrage in Russia, and shock in Ukraine, the West and even in China.

Yet no legitimate media outlet reported on it? That’s because it never happened.

Fact #2 : Photo Appears To Be AI-Generated

A closer examination of the photo shows several artifacts that suggest that it was AI-generated.

  • The man on the left appears to lack thumbs, and his two hands appear to melt together.
  • The nose and left ear on Xi Jinping’s head appears to be misplaced.
  • Vladimir Putin’s head is overly large in proportion to his body, and his ear is strangely misplaced.
  • Vladimir Putin’s legs appear to be distorted with the right leg appearing much larger than the left leg.
  • Vladimir Putin’s right knee mysteriously appears behind the heel of his left leg.

Based on those anomalies, this photo is very likely generated by a text-to-image generator.

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Fact #3 : Photo Originated In A Ukrainian Telegram Group

This viral photo of Vladimir Putin kneeling before Xi Jinping to kiss his hand appears to have originated in a Ukrainian Telegram group called УНИАН – новости Украины (UNIAN – news of Ukraine).

Fact #4 : OP Indicated The Photo Was Edited / Generated

The person who originally posted the photo in the Ukrainian Telegram group, indicated that it was Photoshopped.

Хейтеры скажут, что фотошоп, но мы-то знаем, что х*йло давно хотел облобызать нефритовый стержень товарища Си 😅

Haters will say it’s photoshopped, but we know that x*ylo wanted to kiss Comrade Xi’s jade rod for a long time 😅

Fact #5 : Background Do Not Match Actual Meeting Room

The furniture and walls in the viral photo also do not appear to match the official photos of the room where Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping met.

Instead of a dark green and white columns, the actual meeting room has a light green wall with gold trims and white columns.

The chairs in the viral photo are dark brown with beige cushions, while the real chairs are white, with off-white cushions. The actual table is also white, while the table in the viral photo is dark brown.

Fact #6 : This Is Just Ukraine War Fake News

This is yet another example of fake news created around the Russian invasion of Ukraine, and here are other examples:

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
Bank Transfer : CIMB 7064555917 (Swift Code : CIBBMYKL)
Credit Card / Paypal : https://paypal.me/techarp

Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

Recommended Reading

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Was Bill Gates Destroyed In ABC News Interview?!

Was Bill Gates just destroyed in an ABC News interview with Sarah Ferguson?!

Take a look at the viral video, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : Bill Gates Was Destroyed In ABC News Interview!

People are sharing a TikTok video with the title “Bill Gates caught in corner”, which shows Bill Gates getting destroyed in a recent ABC News interview.

Here are the accompanying subtitles from the interview, but it’s rather long, so feel free to skip to the next section for the facts!

ABC News : So Mr Gates, in your own words, what have you contributed to the world?

Bill Gates : Um I’m not sure if you’re aware, but I created the world’s most popular computer operating system.

ABC News : No, of course, but as we all know, it wasn’t actually you who created it as a matter of fact, the predecessor of Windows, Emma’s [sic] DOS was created by Gary Kildahl, which you then basically stole from him for a couple of dollars.

Bill Gates : It’s not just development, there’s a whole lot of important factors to running an enormously successful company like Microsoft.

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Truth : Bill Gates Was NOT Destroyed In ABC News Interview!

This is yet another example of FAKE NEWS created to go viral on TikTok, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : ABC News Interviewed Bill Gates On Jan 31, 2023

First, let’s start by sharing some basic context on the ABC News interview with Bill Gates.

The interview was conducted by Australian Broadcasting Corporation journalist, Sarah Ferguson, on her current affairs show – 7.30, and released on Tuesday, 31 January 2023.

Fact #2 : ABC News Did Not Destroy Bill Gates In That Interview

Anyone who watches the actual ABC News interview of Bill Gates will be puzzled by the viral video and claim, because Sarah Ferguson never “destroyed” Bill Gates.

You can read all about her interview and even watch the video in an article written by Sarah Ferguson and her colleague Myles Wearring. In her interview, she only asked Bill Gates about:

  • COVID-19 conspiracy theories
  • Elon Musk buying Twitter
  • the rise of artificial intelligence
  • climate change and renewable energy
  • his association with Jeffrey Epstein
  • his philanthropy, and pledge to give away most of his wealth

Sarah Ferguson ended the interview by thanking Bill Gates, who only nods. He never quit the interview in frustration as shown in the viral video.

Recommended : Did Philippines Issue Arrest Warrant For Bill Gates?!

Fact #3 : Viral Video Was Edited Using Artificial Intelligence

The viral video was created by a TikTok creator called bdti989, who posted it with the caption:

How dangerous AI can be 😱
#BillGates #billgates #microsoft #Microsoft #followformore #follow #msdos #uops #ups #ops #world #interview #interviews #artificialintelligence #ai

bdti989 also stated several times that he edited the ABC News interview using artificial intelligence. It is basically a deep fake video.

Yes, it’s AI generated!

Fact #4 : Fake Video Was Not Satire

While some people are trying to justify the creation and/or sharing the video as “satire”, that is not true. Even the content creator himself did not call it satire.

bdti989 does not appear to create satire. His account is full of typical edited news content pushing right wing conspiracies, not satire.

Most of his videos aren’t particularly popular, typically with less than 3,000 views. Only his AI-generated fake video of the ABC News interview of Bill Gates has gone viral, with over 1.4 million views.

It is likely he created it to test his ability to create fake videos using artificial intelligence. Hopefully, it does not inspire him to create more of such deep fake videos to increase the popularity of his TikTok channel.

Fact #5 : Bill Gates Was A Notable Programmer

Regardless of what we may think of Bill Gates as a businessman and/or person, he was well regarded as a programmer. Both Gates and Paul Allen developed Altair BASIC – a BASIC programming interpreter for the MITS Altair 8800 and S-100 computers.

Paul Allen would famously write a bootstrap program for it during a flight to demonstrate their Altair BASIC interpreter, but Bill Gates would famously win the bet on who could write the shortest possible bootstrap program.

Fact #6 : MS-DOS Was Not Created By Gary Kildall

Gary Kildall (wrongly named as Gary Kildahl in the fake video) was the creator of the CP/M operating system that was once considered by IBM for its first PC.

Bill Gates not only did not steal MS-DOS from Gary Kildall, it was Gates who suggested that IBM should purchase CP/M-86 from Kildall for its forthcoming PC.

However, Gary Kildall famously went flying on his private plane instead of meeting IBM representatives, and they failed to reach an agreement.

Fact #7 : MS-DOS Was Based On 86-DOS

MS-DOS (wrongly named as Emma’s DOS in the fake video) was based on 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products.

After IBM and Digital Research failed to reach an agreement on CP/M-86, IBM lead negotiator Jack Sams asked Bill Gates to find a usable operating system for the IBM PC. Gates later proposed using 86-DOS.

Microsoft then purchased a non-exclusive licence for 86-DOS in December 1980 for US$25,000, and hired Tim Paterson to port it to the IBM PC, so it would work on the Intel 8086 processor. IBM would submit over 300 change requests before accepting the final port.

It was only in July 1981 – a month before IBM released the PC, that Microsoft purchased all rights to 86-DOS from Seattle Computer Products for US$50,000. Microsoft then licensed the modified 86-DOS to IBM, and it became PC DOS 1.0.

In short, MS-DOS (rebranded from PC DOS) was based on 86-DOS, which was a different operating system from CP/M invented by Gary Kildall.

Kildall would later persuade IBM to offer CP/M-86 with the PC. That would not be possible if Kildall really sold CP/M to Microsoft “for a couple of dollars” as the fake video alleges.

Recommended : Is Interpol Investigating Bill Gates For Murder?!

Fact #8 : COVID-19 Vaccines Have Been Proven Safe + Effective

Anti-vaccination proponents are not interested in your health, which is why they keep lying about the safety and efficacy of COVID-19 vaccines.

The truth is – COVID-19 vaccines were only approved AFTER they have undergone extensive safety and efficacy tests, involving tens of thousands of volunteers.

And even after receiving Emergency Use Authorisation and full FDA approval, they continue to be monitored for safety and efficacy.

The reason why doctors and health authorities STRONGLY advocate vaccination is because the vaccines have been PROVEN to protect the vast majority of people from getting COVID-19 in the first place.

And even if you do get infected after vaccination, the vaccine will protect you against hospitalisation and death from COVID-19.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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2023 Turkey Earthquake : Fake Photos + Scam Alert!

Please watch out for fake photos + videos, as well as donation scams capitalising on the devastating 2023 earthquake in Turkey!

 

2023 Turkey Earthquake : Fake Photos Alert!

Many people have been sharing photos of the massive earthquake that devastated both Turkey and Syria on 6 February 2023.

Unfortunately, quite a number of fake photos on WhatsApp and social media. They also appear in TikTok and YouTube videos. Here are a few notable examples.

Old Man With Bread

This photo of an old man with bread is being shared as a lesson on why we should be humble, respectful and kind.

It took just 17secs to change his status from the owner of 33 buildings to a person who’s surviving on bread and finding shelter where he can.

#TurkeyEarthquake teaches us an important lesson that life is unpredictable and nothing is permanent. Be humble, respectful and kind.

How being humble, respectful and kind could have helped this poor man was not explained. Neither did the people sharing this “lesson” explain why this photo has been circulating since 1999…

Yes, this photo was taken by photographer, Abdurrahman Antakyalı, almost 24 years ago, after the Düzce Earthquake that occurred on 12 November, 1999.

Needless to say, that old man was not a rich man who owned 33 buildings. It is incredible that people who create a fake story about this poor man. If there is a lesson to be learned, it is that everyone should “verify before sharing“!

Recommended : Did Turkey Earthquake Cause Nuclear Plant Explosion?!

Dog Looking For Survivor

Many people are sharing photos of dogs looking for survivors, like this example below, which was shared with messages like:

The little heroes will save many lives. Pray for Turkey.

This is incredible! A dog in Turkey was seen digging trying to rescue its owner. When the dog failed to move the heavy debris, he started barking to ask for help while holding one of his owner’s fingers!

Syrian🇸🇾 Turkish🇹🇷 Earthquakes!

Dogs are sensitive to their owner ❤️😊

The truth is – that is one of many stock images of “dogs looking for people in earthquake” available online.

That photo, and similar examples featuring the same dog as well as others dogs were posted by Czech photographer, Jaroslav Noska, on November 2020.

This suggests that the photos were staged for use as stock photos, and not actual photos of a real disaster area, or even real rescue dogs.

Tryon The Rescue Dog

Many people shared this photo of a dirty-looking dog, claiming that it just saved 10 lives in the 2023 earthquake in Turkey.

This dog worked all night last night and saved 10 lives

This dog hero who worked the whole night and saved 10 lives in Turkey.

The truth is – this is Tryon the rescue dog who helped to search for victims of a deadly mudslide near Oso, Washington, in the United States.

This photo was taken by Rick Wilking, a freelance photographer for Reuters, on March 30, 2014. He provided the following caption for this photo:

Tryon the rescue dog waits to go through the decontamination area at the mudslide after searching for victims in Oso, Washington March 30, 2014.

Recommended : Did FedEx + Southwest Jets Almost Collide In Video?!

 

2023 Turkey Earthquake : Donation Scam Alert!

People are not just posting those fake photos to “virtue signal” or increase their popularity, some are using them for donation scams!

Photos of Tryon the rescue dog above, for example, is being used to solicit donations for the people in Syria.

(Need Some reputable or NGO in Syria to pay or food. Shelter, blankets the Earthquake affects from the donations if gathered from this page.

As Sanction Syria from all over the world needs our help. Turkey has been helping by many.

He (Reputable) or NGO must be at the Earthquake affected areas of Syria and make video or come live while giving blankets, food, donation etc. Thanks )

– Those who want to Help/Donate. Message us. Thanks!

Even more egregious is this photo of a firefighter holding a child with a Turkish flag on his sleeve.

Friends, we have launched an aid campaign to reach people who have experienced an #earthquake disaster in Turkey.

#btc B : 1)n3C4GiFCzERTWd6nvCc4hTzvK8Viz88y

#eth: Ox2cff2ad875£68bf4ec5a478e505767c348dd61d

#Suns suns

The trouble is – the photo isn’t real! It was created by Major General Panagiotis Kotridis of the Aegean fire brigade using the AI image generator called Midjourney.

While they are capable of creating really realistic images, such artificial intelligence image generators often leave tell-tale mistakes.

In the viral photo below, you can see that the firefighter has six fingers on his right hand with an abnormally long thumb. His left hand is also missing, with a third “hand?” right next to it.

Recommended : Scam Alert : Fake Damar Hamlin Donation Requests!

The BBC investigated further, and found that one of the crypto wallet addresses had been used in scam and spam tweets since 2018, while the other crypto wallet address had been posted on VK – the Russian social media website, together with pornographic content.

Ax Sharma, a cybersecurity expert at Sonatype, also pointed out that scammers are creating fake disaster relief accounts on social media to cheat people. One example is @TurkeyRelief on Twitter, which was created in January 2023 with just 31 followers and asked for donations using PayPal.

Scammers are also using TikTok Live to ask for donations, using captions like “Let’s help Turkey”, “Pray for Turkey” and “Donate for earthquake victims” over their videos. According to the BBC, TikTok takes up to 70% of the proceeds of these digital gifts.

So please WATCH OUT for such donation scams, which use real or fake photos / videos to trick people into sending them money.

If you want to help, please donate DIRECTLY to reputable organisations like the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, Médecins San Frontieres (Doctors Without Borders), OxFam, or the nearest Turkish embassy.

Please help us fight fake news – SHARE this article, and SUPPORT our work!

 

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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How NVIDIA A800 Bypasses US Chip Ban On China!

Find out how NVIDIA created the new A800 GPU to bypass the US ban on sale of advanced chips to China!

 

NVIDIA Offers A800 GPU To Bypass US Ban On China!

Two months after it was banned by the US government from selling high-performance AI chips to China, NVIDIA introduced a new A800 GPU designed to bypass those restrictions.

The new NVIDIA A800 is based on the same Ampere microarchitecture as the A100, which was used as the performance baseline by the US government.

Despite its numerically larger model number (the lucky number 8 was probably picked to appeal to the Chinese), this is a detuned part, with slightly reduced performance to meet export control limitations.

The NVIDIA A800 GPU, which went into production in Q3, is another alternative product to the NVIDIA A100 GPU for customers in China.

The A800 meets the U.S. government’s clear test for reduced export control and cannot be programmed to exceed it.

NVIDIA is probably hoping that the slightly slower NVIDIA A800 GPU will allow it to continue supplying China with A100-level chips that are used to power supercomputers and high-performance datacenters for artificial intelligence applications.

As I will show you in the next section, except in very high-end applications, there won’t be truly significant performance difference between the A800 and the A100. So NVIDIA customers who want or need the A100 will have no issue opting for the A800 instead.

However, this can only be a stopgap fix, as NVIDIA is stuck selling A100-level chips to China until and unless the US government changes its mind.

Read more : AMD, NVIDIA Banned From Selling AI Chips To China!

 

How Fast Is The NVIDIA A800 GPU?

The US government considers the NVIDIA A100 as the performance baseline for its export control restrictions on China.

Any chip equal or faster to that Ampere-based chip, which was launched on May 14, 2020, is forbidden to be sold or exported to China. But as they say, the devil is in the details.

The US government didn’t specify just how much slower chips must be, to qualify for export to China. So NVIDIA could technically get away by slightly detuning the A100, while offering almost the same performance level.

And that was what NVIDIA did with the A800 – it is basically the A100 with a 33% slower NVLink interconnect speed. NVIDIA also limited the maximum number of GPUs supported in a single server to 8.

That only slightly reduces the performance of A800 servers, compare to A100 servers, while offering the same amount of GPU compute performance. Most users will not notice the difference.

The only significant impediment is on the very high-end – Chinese companies are now restricted to a maximum of eight GPUs per server, instead of up to sixteen.

To show you what I mean, I dug into the A800 specifications, and compared them to the A100 below:

NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 80GB PCIe Version

Specifications A100
80GB PCIe
A800
80GB PCIe
FP64 9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core 19.5 TFLOPS
FP32 19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32 156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core 624 TOPS
GPU Memory 80 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth 1,935 GB/s
TDP 300 W
Multi-Instance GPU Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options 1-8 GPUs

NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 80GB SXM Version

Specifications A100
80GB SXM
A800
80GB SXM
FP64 9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core 19.5 TFLOPS
FP32 19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32 156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core 624 TOPS
GPU Memory 80 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth 2,039 GB/s
TDP 400 W
Multi-Instance GPU Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options 4/ 8 / 16 GPUs 4 / 8 GPUs

NVIDIA A100 vs A800 : 40GB PCIe Version

Specifications A100
40GB PCIe
A800
40GB PCIe
FP64 9.7 TFLOPS
FP64 Tensor Core 19.5 TFLOPS
FP32 19.5 TFLOPS
Tensor Float 32 156 TFLOPS
BFLOAT 16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
FP16 Tensor Core 312 TFLOPS
INT8 Tensor Core 624 TOPS
GPU Memory 40 GB HBM2
GPU Memory Bandwifth 1,555 GB/s
TDP 250 W
Multi-Instance GPU Up to 7 MIGs @ 10 GB
Interconnect NVLink : 600 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
NVLink : 400 GB/s
PCIe Gen4 : 64 GB/s
Server Options 1-8 GPUs

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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NetApp BlueXP : A New Unified Hybrid MultiCloud Control Plane!

NetApp just introduced BlueXP – a new unified control plane for hybrid multicloud environments. Here is what you need to know.

 

NetApp BlueXP : A New Unified Hybrid MultiCloud Control Plane!

On November 3, 2022, NetApp (NASDAQ: NTAP) announced the availability of NetApp BlueXP – a unified control plane designed for easy hybrid multicloud management for storage and data services across on-premises and cloud environments.

NetApp BlueXP allows users to manage their broader hybrid multicloud data estate, including on-premises unified storage and first-party native storage with the leading public cloud providers like Microsoft Azure, Google Cloud and AWS.

Offering a simple, yet powerful experience driven by AIOps, BlueXP delivers integrated, broad data service capabilities to deploy, automate, discover, manage, protect, govern and optimize data, infrastructure, and the business processes that support them – with the flexible consumption options required in today’s cloud-led environment.

“We are excited to deliver a whole new, unified cloud experience that is simple, secure, sustainable and cost effective,” said Sanjay Rohatgi, Senior Vice President and General Manager, NetApp Asia Pacific & Japan. “With BlueXP, our customers and partners in Asia Pacific can better compete in the hyper-dynamic digital economy of tomorrow and realize the full potential of a true hybrid multicloud world.”

NetApp BlueXP is the preferred method to manage NetApp ONTAP, NetApp’s industry-leading data management software, both in the cloud and on-premises.

The latest release of ONTAP, announced today, contains over twenty major innovations including a new tamper-proof snapshot feature and integrated AIOps-driven anti-ransomware protection, making ONTAP the leading option for secure data storage.

In addition, an expansion of NetApp’s innovative unified multi-protocol technology allows simultaneous NAS file and S3 object access to the same data, increasing the flexibility of ONTAP as a repository for massive data lakes used for today’s modern AI/ML pipelines.

“Organisations today have increasingly moved to hybrid multicloud environments to accelerate their digital transformation and drive growth, even in uncertain times. But in managing these environments, companies face daunting challenges and inefficiencies that can impede innovation.”

“With BlueXP, NetApp is leading the way to a more ‘evolved cloud’ to simplify and automate critical operations across on-premises and public clouds in order to help organizations drive business impact and improve customer experience.”

“Today’s cloud environments are complex. Organizations are looking for a better cloud experience – simpler, streamlined, governed, and optimized for performance and cost across their entire hybrid multicloud environment,” said Archana Venkatraman, Research Director, Cloud Data Management, IDC. “An ‘evolved cloud’ is one of the most grounded, AI-driven, and practical approaches to cloud management as a whole – and organizations will quickly benefit from migration to operations, to FinOps, to innovation.”

“With the launch of BlueXP, NetApp is uniquely positioned to help organizations unlock the promise of the cloud by making infrastructure, applications and data true assets to their business,” said George Kurian, Chief Executive Officer at NetApp. “By taking an evolved cloud approach, customers can integrate cloud into their architecture and operations, eliminate complexity and increase their speed of innovation to deliver quickly on the business outcomes that matter most.”

 

NetApp BlueXP Capabilities

NetApp BlueXP capabilities include:

  • Unified Storage Management: The SaaS-delivered BlueXP global control plane gives a single point of visibility and management over wide-ranging hybrid multicloud environments. This includes the ability to manage NetApp AFF, FAS, StorageGRID, and E-Series on-premises storage, as well as the major clouds with Amazon FSx for NetApp ONTAP, Azure NetApp Files, Google Cloud Volumes Service and Cloud Volumes ONTAP, all in a single console.
  • AIOps-Driven Health: Integrated AI/ML-driven automation reduces manpower demands, resource loads, and risk profile, while AI-enabled health and status monitoring not only alerts of infrastructure and workload issues, but offers proactive guidance to avoid trouble scenarios. BlueXP integrates NetApp’s leading Active IQ technology for always-on telemetry across the hybrid multicloud.
  • Cyber Resilience: Unified control of data protection and security with an integrated zero-trust model. A single ransomware dashboard provides company-wide visibility into ransomware vulnerabilities with the ability to fix many issues automatically with a single click.
  • Governance at a Glance: A complete view of the digital estate to monitor compliance and permissions. The AI/ML capability audits both user and data level activity, immediately detecting anomalies and taking prescribed actions.
  • Seamless Mobility: Integrated data movers allow for copying, syncing, tiering, and caching data across all major clouds and the data center as easily as “drag and drop.” Integrated security and efficiencies ensure data is protected in transit and stored on the lower-cost storage tier possible.
  • Flexible Consumption: BlueXP allows customers to only pay for the capabilities they need, billed on usage. A Digital Wallet allows for licenses for data services to be easily interchanged as an enterprise’s needs change. NetApp Keystone, the leading Storage-as-a-Service (STaaS) offering, is integrated into BlueXP to allow customers to manage their consumption-based data center storage side by side with their cloud storage.

 

NetApp BlueXP Offer

NetApp currently has a special BlueXP offer for new users (excluding current Cloud Manager users):

  • 30 days of free BlueXP data protection
  • 30 days of free BlueXP tiering
  • 1 TB of free BlueXP governance and ransomware protection.

Just register here for the NetApp BlueXP offer!

 

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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How Biren Got Its Own AI Chips Banned At TSMC!

TSMC stopped making artificial intelligence chips for China’s Biren Technology, and it was all Biren’s own fault!

 

TSMC Stops Making Biren AI Chips Over US Sanctions

TSMC – Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company – has suspended production of advanced artificial intelligence (AI) chips for China’s Biren Technology.

TSMC was forced to make this decision after public domain information revealed that the Biren BR100 and BR104 chips outperformed the NVIDIA A100 chip, which was used as the baseline of US sanctions.

While TSMC has not reached a conclusion on whether the top-of-the-line Biren BR100 or the slower BR104 meet or exceed US government threshold on advanced AI chip technology restrictions, it decided to stop production and supply of the Biren chips for now.

For TSMC to continue producing BR100 or BR104 chips, Biren must now prove that their chips do not offer “peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the [NVIDIA] A100“, or get an export licence from the US Department of Commerce.

And believe it or not – it was Biren Technology that created this mess for itself!

 

How Biren Screwed Up Its Own BR100 AI Chips

Biren, which is one of China’s most promising semiconductor design firms, earlier claimed that its AI chips that were being produced by TSMC are not covered by the latest US export restrictions.

However, its own website touts that the BR100 family of chips offers “world-class performance“, and has “improved by more than 3X” compared to mainstream rivals.

On top of that, Biren actually released a press statement on September 9, 2022, declaring that the slower BR104 was proven by the MLPerf to beat the NVIDIA A100!

Releasing such a statement less than 2 weeks after the US government ordered both AMD and NVIDIA to stop exporting their MI250 and A100 and faster AI chips to China is either amazing chutzpah, or a combination of hubris and idiocy.

Either way, the US government took notice, and TSMC came under pressure to comply with American export restrictions. Awesome PR, but stupid move, Biren…

Take a look at the benchmark results that Biren itself released into public domain, showing that the slower BR104 chip was between 27% and 58% faster than the NVIDIA A100.

With such results, the BR104 would certainly fall under the latest US tech export restrictions. No wonder TSMC quickly stopped making and supplying Biren BR100 series chips.

As powerful as the BR100 and BR104 GPGPU chips may be, they are now dead in the water as TSMC will not manufacture them anymore, and Biren Technology has no plausible alternatives for 7nm fabrication.

Read more : US Targets Chinese Military With New Chip Export Ban!

 

Biren BR100 AI Chips That TSMC Stopped Producing

The Biren BR100 and slower BR104 are General Purpose GPU (GPGPU) chips, which are targeted at artificial intelligence applications.

They are both fabricated on the TSMC 7nm process technology, and use chipset and 2.5D Chip-on-Wafer-on-Substrate (CoWoS) packaging technologies to achieve high yield, and high performance.

The Biren BR100 family of GPGPU chips supports up to eight independent virtual instances (SVI) – each physically isolated with their own hardware resources, for improved security.

Their chips are designed with a proprietary Blink high-speed GPU interconnect bus offering bandwidth of up to 448 GB/s, with the ability to connect up to 8 cards in a single node, using state-of-the-art PCI Express 5.0.

Biren Technology offers two BR100-based products – the Bili 100P OCP Accelerator Module (OAM), and the Bill 104P PCI Express accelerator card.

 

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Intel’s Habana Labs Cuts Over 10% Of Workforce!

Artificial intelligence chip developer, Habana Labs, just laid off over 10% of its workforce, just as Intel plans to layoff up to 20% of its employees.

 

Intel’s Habana Labs Cuts Over 10% Of Workforce!

Intel acquired artificial intelligence chip developer Habana Labs in 2019 for $2 billion. The acquisition allowed Habana Labs to rapidly increase its workforce from 180 people to over 900.

That breakneck expansion has not only come to a shuddering halt, it is being reversed – Habana Labs is laying off 100 of their employees. According to an Intel statement:

Habana Labs assesses and updates its technical and business focus from time to time in order to adapt to the current business reality and to continue and improve its competitiveness.

As part of these processes, it makes adjustments to its workforce and the balance between different disciplines from time to time. This is a normal process which occurs constantly and allows Habana to continue and develop attractive and competitive products and solutions.

Habana Labs was founded by David Dahan and Ran Halutz in San Jose in 2016, for the purpose of developing processors optimised for Artificial Intelligence (AI) applications.

Both Dahan and Halutz were former executives of PrimeSense Limited, which was acquired by Apple for $360 million in 2013. Its first investor and chairman was Israeli tech entrepreneur Avigdor Willenz.

Recommended : Intel Planning Major Layoffs, Amid Market Downturn!

Habana Labs Cuts Employees Before Major Intel Layoffs

Habana Labs functions as an independent unit within Intel, which is why it announced its layoffs before Intel announced its own major layoffs later this month.

According to Bloomberg News, Intel is planning major layoffs of its staff, “as early as this month” – around the same time its third quarter earnings report is announced on October 27.

This reduction in headcount will be substantial, affecting Intel sales and marketing team the hardest – around 20% of their members are expected to receive pink slips.

This decision comes after two years of booming sales during the COVID-19 pandemic, and just as Intel is set to receive billions in funding from the US government under the CHIPS Act.

The PC market is currently struggling due to high inflation, new US-Chinese tech restrictions, and the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Gartner recently announced that worldwide PC shipments only totalled 68 million units in the third quarter of 2022 – a 19.5% drop from a year ago. This was the steepest market decline it recorded since it started tracking the market in the mid-1990s.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Did James Earl Jones Sign Over Rights To His Voice?!

James Earl Jones did NOT sign over the Darth Vader voice rights to Lucasfilm, or a Ukrainian AI company!

Take a look at the viral claims, and find out what the facts really are!

 

Claim : James Earl Jones Signed Over Darth Vader Voice Rights!

Many media outlets breathlessly reported that James Earl Jones, who voiced Darth Vader, had apparently signed over the rights to his own voice!

They claimed that he was retiring from voicing Darth Vader, and signed over the rights to his voice to Respeecher, a Ukrainian AI technology company.

Gizmodo : James Earl Jones is Retiring from Darth Vader, But an AI Firm Owns His Voice

New York Post : James Earl Jones gives rights to Darth Vader voice to Ukrainian AI company

Mashable : James Earl Jones signs over rights to voice of Darth Vader to be replaced by AI

Deadline : James Earl Jones Signs Over Rights To Voice Of Darth Vader, Signalling Retirement From Legendary Role

Verge : James Earl Jones lets AI take over the voice of Darth Vader

Recommended : Was Donald Trump Queen Elizabeth II’s Favourite President?!

 

Truth : James Earl Jones Did NOT Sign Over Darth Vader Voice Rights!

It is peculiar that so many mainstream media FALSELY reported that James Earl Jones signed over the rights to his own voice.

That is categorically FALSE, and here are the reasons why…

Fact #1 : Vanity Fair Never Said He Signed Over Rights To Darth Vader Voice

The claims that James Earl Jones signed over the rights to his voice were based on a Vanity Fair article, called “Darth Vader’s Voice Emanated From War-Torn Ukraine“.

The story was about Respeecher, a Ukrainian voice cloning company that uses artificial intelligence to create new dialogue from archival recordings.

Respeecher had earlier helped Lucasfilm generate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker for The Book of Boba Fett, as well as making Darth Vader sound 45 years younger in the Obi-Wan Kenobi series.

Anthony Breznican of Vanity Fair never said, in his article, that Jones signed over the rights to the Darth Vader voice, to Respeecher.

In fact, the word “rights” was never mentioned in the entire article!

Fact #2 : JEJ Approved Of The AI-Generated Dialogue

What Anthony wrote was that when James Earl Jones heard the new dialogue created by Respeecher, he approved (signed off) of the work. (my emphasis in bold)

When he ultimately presented Jones with Respeecher’s work, the actor signed off on using his archival voice recordings to keep Vader alive and vital even by artificial means.

The term “signed off” in this context meant “to approve or acknowledge something”.

It does not mean Jones “signed away” his rights – “to give (something, such as rights or property) to someone”.

Recommended : Did BTS RM Beat Henry Cavill As World’s Most Handsome Man?!

Fact #3 : Respeecher Does Not Own Rights To Darth Vader’s Voice

Respeecher was contracted by Lucasfilm to generate new Darth Vader dialogue based on James Earl Jones’ archival voice recordings.

James Earl Jones never signed over the rights to his voice to Respeecher, and Respeecher certainly does NOT own the rights to his voice.

Ukrainian start-up Respeecher … uses archival recordings and a proprietary A.I. algorithm to create new dialogue with the voices of performers from long ago.

The company worked with Lucasfilm to generate the voice of a young Luke Skywalker for Disney+’s The Book of Boba Fett, and the recent Obi-Wan Kenobi series tasked them with making Darth Vader sound like James Earl Jones’s dark side villain from 45 years ago.

Fact #4 : Lucasfilms Owns The Rights To Darth Vader

The Darth Vader character, including his voice, is owned by LucasFilms.

James Earl Jones does not actually own the Darth Vader voice, and is unable to legally “sign away” those rights to anyone, even if he wanted to.

It’s like how he doesn’t own the rights to his famous CNN announcements – “This is CNN” and “This is CNN International”, which belong to… you guessed it – CNN.

Recommended : Did Justin Bieber Wear Balenciaga Bottle Slippers?

Fact #5 : James Earl Jones Did Not Officially Retire

Many media outlets also falsely claimed that Jones had retired. Not once was it mentioned in the Vanity Fair article that he retired.

In fact, the Vanity Fair article pointed out that Jones helped Lucasfilm and the Respeecher team with the Darth Vader speech in Obi-Wan Kenobi :

Jones is credited for guiding the performance on Obi-Wan Kenobi, and Wood describes his contribution as “a benevolent godfather.”

They inform the actor about their plans for Vader and heed his advice on how to stay on the right course.

Now, Jones is 91 years old, and has not appeared in public in a long time. However, he still appears to be working in some fashion, and has not officially retired, as alleged.

 

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AMD, NVIDIA Banned From Selling AI Chips To China!

Both AMD and NVIDIA have just been banned from selling high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia!

Here is what you need to know…

 

AMD, NVIDIA Banned From Selling AI Chips To China + Russia!

On Friday, 26 August 2022, NVIDIA and AMD were both ordered by the US government to stop exporting high-performance AI chips to both China and Russia.

In its regulatory filing to the SEC, NVIDIA stated that the US government introduced this ban to prevent them from being used for military purposes, or by the Chinese or Russian military.

The ban uses the A100 Tensor Core GPU as the baseline for NVIDIA, and the 3rd Gen Instinct MI250 accelerator chip for AMD.

Effective immediately, anything equal to, or faster than, the NVIDIA A100 or the AMD Instinct MI250 can no longer be exported to either China or Russia. That includes the upcoming H100 chip.

On August 26, 2022, the U.S. government, or USG, informed NVIDIA Corporation, or the Company, that the USG has imposed a new license requirement, effective immediately, for any future export to China (including Hong Kong) and Russia of the Company’s A100 and forthcoming H100 integrated circuits.

DGX or any other systems which incorporate A100 or H100 integrated circuits and the A100X are also covered by the new license requirement.

The license requirement also includes any future NVIDIA integrated circuit achieving both peak performance and chip-to-chip I/O performance equal to or greater than thresholds that are roughly equivalent to the A100, as well as any system that includes those circuits. A license is required to export technology to support or develop covered products.

The USG indicated that the new license requirement will address the risk that the covered products may be used in, or diverted to, a ‘military end use’ or ‘military end user’ in China and Russia. The Company does not sell products to customers in Russia.

I should point out that the NVIDIA A100 was launched two years ago – on June 22, 2020, while the AMD Instinct MI250 was introduced on November 8, 2021.

So it appears that the US government wants to maintain at least a 1-year advantage in high-performance AI chips.

 

AMD, NVIDIA Set To Lose Billions From AI Chip Sales To China!

Both AMD and NVIDIA stopped selling chips to Russia, after the invasion of Ukraine, so there is no material loss from such a ban on sales to Russia.

However, they both stand to lose billions of dollars worth of sales to China. NVIDIA alone estimates that the ban will affect US$400 million of sales, just in the third fiscal quarter.

Even more worrying was the likelihood that this ban may delay the H100 chip’s launch, and force NVIDIA to move “certain operations” out of China.

The new license requirement may impact the Company’s ability to complete its development of H100 in a timely manner or support existing customers of A100 and may require the Company to transition certain operations out of China.

AMD however claims that the ban will not have a material impact on its business, because shipments of its less powerful MI100 chips are not affected.

At this time, we do not believe that shipments of MI100 integrated circuits are impacted by the new requirements.

We do not currently believe it is a material impact on our business.

Both AMD and NVIDIA will now have to discuss with their customers in China on using alternative (less powerful) chips, or obtaining special licenses from the US government.

 

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He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV + Soundbar Showcase!

Samsung just launched their 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions, with a new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar to complement them!

Take a look at both of them in our video showcase!

 

2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV + Soundbar Showcase!

We were given the opportunity to view Samsung’s new 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions, as well as the new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar that complements them.

The 2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K televisions come in a variety of sizes, from 55 inches all the way to 85 inches. Take a look!

Every model is built around a new Neural Quantum Processor 8K, which has 20 independent neural AI networks, each analysing the content’s characteristics to deliver the best picture quality, regardless of the source.

It also powers a new feature called Real Depth Enhancer. Real Depth Enhancer scans each frame, and maximises the object’s contrast with the background.

The new processor also uses Shape Adaptive Light Control technology to create precise lighting and pure blacks using Samsung’s best Quantum mini LED display panel.

In fact, the 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions are the world’s first Pantone-validated displays, which mean they will authentically reproduce more than 2000 colours, as well as 110 new skin tone shades.

These new models also use AI technology to automatically adjust the brightness and colour temperature of the display to match the room’s lighting condition.

The 2022 Neo QLED 8K televisions boast Samsung’s new Smart Hub user interface, powered by Tizen. They are also designed to provide the ultimate gaming experience through features like :

  • four HDMI 2.1 ports
  • Motion Xcelerator Turbo Pro 4K 144 Hz gaming
  • Super Ultrawite GameView, and
  • Game Bar

These televisions are also more eco-friendly, featuring eco-packaging and a more efficient SolarCell Remote that is completely battery-free, and can recharge through 2.4 GHz radio frequency harvesting – drawing power from your WiFi router’s signals!

The Neural Quantum Processor 8K also uses artificial intelligence to create a truly immersive soundscape by analysing the picture in real time, to deliver positional audio cues through the Adaptive Sound technology.

The flagship QN900B model even features a 90 watt 6.2.4 channel audio system, featuring Dolby Atmos with Object Tracking Sound Pro.

Finally, Samsung added Wireless Dolby Atmos to these models, ensuring that you can connect them to the new 2022 Ultra Slim Soundbar without using a HDMI cable!

The new Ultra Slim Soundbar delivers true 3.1.2 sound with two up-firing channels, and is now much thinner and smaller.

 

2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K TV : Price + Models

The 2022 Samsung Neo QLED 8K televisions are available in a variety of sizes, at these price points :

  • 85″ Neo QLED 8K QN900B : RM49,999 (about US$11,385)
  • 75″ Neo QLED 8K QN900B : RM34,999 (about US$7,969)
  • 65″ Neo QLED 8K QN900B : RM23,999 (about US$5,465)
  • 85″ Neo QLED 8K QN800B : RM33,999 (about US$7,742)
  • 75″ Neo QLED 8K QN800B : RM24,999 (about US$5,693)
  • 65″ Neo QLED 8K QN800B : RM18,999 (about US$4,326)
  • 55″ Neo QLED 8K QN800B : RM12,499 (about US$2,846)

Here are some online purchase options in Malaysia :

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Review!

Take a look at the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra’s photography performance, and find out why it’s such an awesome smartphone for photographers!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Flagship Class Photography!

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra is their flagship smartphone for the year 2022, and it boasts the best cameras money can buy.

Headlining its top-of-the-line quad-camera system is a Dual Pixel camera, which is built around the 108 MP ISOCELL HM3 sensor, and optically-stabilised lens with a large f/1.8 aperture.

You can seamlessly switch to its ultra-wide camera, with a 12 MP sensor and a f/2.2 aperture; or optically zoom up to 10X with its dual telephoto and periscope cameras.

In this review, we are going to take a look at the photography capability of Galaxy S22 Ultra, and show you just how well its cameras perform!

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Review

The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra boasts a super-high resolution 108 MP main camera, built around the same ISOCELL HM3 sensor used in the Galaxy S21 Ultra.

However, this camera features improved AI optimisations. Thanks to the improved performance of its GPU and NPU, it now runs approximately 60 new AI models through its Neural Processing Unit (NPU) to optimise the final output.

Here are six shots I took around Ipoh Old Town, using the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide angle camera.

They are 4000 x 3000 pixels in size, with a JPEG file size of between 4 MB and 15 MB – it all depends on the amount of detail in the picture. To save space, I definitely recommend that you enable HEIF – the High Efficiency Image Format.

By default, the 108 MP camera takes 12 MP photos, combining nine pixels into one super-large 2.4 µm pixel. Coupled with the new AI models, the final photo is not only much brighter, but has significantly lower noise.

When you take shots at night, the Galaxy S22 Ultra combines images taken using both the 108 MP main camera, and the 12 MP ultra-wide camera. The 12 MP camera provides the rough details, while the fine details are provided by the 108 MP camera.

Here are four shots to show you the incredible amount of detail you can capture at just 12 MP. If you need greater detail, you can always increase the resolution to the full 108 MP, but frankly – these pictures should show you that you don’t really need to.

Its digital zoom has also been improved by the new AI models and the faster processor. For images taken above 30X digital zoom, the camera actually takes 10-20 shots at once, and processes them to improve the details in the final photo.

Finally, the Galaxy S22 Ultra features a new AI portrait model that uses two cameras to accurately differentiate the depth between the person and the background.

This is critical because the 108 MP camera has a very wide f/1.8 aperture, which makes for very narrow depth-of-field (DOF). If you do not accurately focus on the subject, you could end up with a blurry photo even though it looks sharp on the phone.

In these four shots, you can see just how narrow of depth of field you have to work with. This makes for better photos – you just need to make sure the subject is really in focus.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra Photography Summary

If you want the best cameras on a smartphone money can buy, you should definitely consider the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra.

Ignore the 108 MP marketing hoohah. What you are really getting is an awesome 12 MP camera with super-large pixels for really great noise-free images, and better low-light photos.

You may be wary about Samsung reusing the ISOCELL HM3 sensor from last year, but it has better photographic capabilities, thanks mostly to software and AI improvements.

For one thing, I noticed that it is now much better at accurately focusing on the subject, resulting in far fewer wrongly-focused shots.

It also does a better job of correcting for disparate lighting conditions, although some of you may find the photos oversaturated.

But there is no doubt that the Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has some of the best smartphone cameras I’ve tried this year.

 

Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra : Price + Availability

Samsung is offering the Galaxy S22 Ultra in four colour options – Burgundy, Green, Phantom Black and Phantom White.

I had the opportunity to attend an exclusive Samsung preview event, to check out all four colours for ourselves.

Note : Samsung only allowed us to use digital cameras, so the video is not stabilised as it would be with smartphones that I generally use.

Here in Malaysia, it is available starting 10 February 2022 in three variants, at these price points :

  • 8 GB + 128 GB : RM 5,099 (about US$1,219 / £899 / A$1,699 / S$1,629)
  • 12 GB + 256 GB : RM 5,499 (about US$1,314 / £969 / A$1,829 / S$1,759)
  • 12 GB + 512 GB : RM 5,899 (about US$1,409 / £1,039 / A$1,959 / S$1,889)

Here are some online pre-order options :

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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IBM z16 : Industry’s First Quantum-Safe System Explained!

IBM just introduced the z16 system, powered by their new Telum processor with an integrated AI accelerator!

Take a look at the z16, and find out why it is the industry’s first quantum-safe system!

 

IBM z16 : Industry’s First Quantum-Safe System!

On 25 April 2022, IBM officially unveiled their new z16 system in Malaysia – the industry’s first quantum-safe system.

IBM Vice President for Worldwide Sales of IBM Z and LinuxONE, Jose Castano, flew to Kuala Lumpur, to give us an exclusive briefing on the new z16 system, and tell us why it is the industry’s first quantum-safe system.

IBM Z and LinuxONE Security CTO Michael Jordan also briefed us on why quantum-safe computing will be critical for enterprises, as quantum computing improves.

Thanks to its Telum processor, the IBM z16 system delivers low and consistent latency for embedding AI into response time-sensitive transactions. This can enable customers to leverage AI inference to better control the outcome of transactions before they complete.

For example, they can leverage AI inference to mitigate risk in Clearing & Settlement applications, to predict which transactions have high risk exposure, and highlight questionable transactions, to prevent costly consequences.

In a use-case example, one international bank uses AI on IBM Z as part of their credit card authorization process instead of using an off-platform inference solution. As a result, the bank can detect fraud during its credit card transaction authorisation processing.

The IBM z16 will offer better AI inference capacity, thanks to its integrated AI accelerator offering up to 1 ms of latency, expanding use cases that include :

  • tax fraud and organised retail theft detection
  • real-time payments and alternative payment methods, including cryptocurrencies
  • speed up business or consumer loan approvals

As the industry’s first quantum-safe system, the IBM z16 is protected by lattice-based crypto graphs – an approach for constructing security primitives that help protect data and systems against current and future threats.

 

IBM z16 : Powered By The New Telum Processor!

The IBM z16 is built around the new IBM Telum processor, which is specifically designed for secure processing, and real-time AI inference.

Here are the key features of the IBM Telum processor that powers the new IBM z16 system :

  • Fabricated on the 7 nm process technology
  • Has 8 processor cores, clocked at over 5 GHz
  • Each processor core has a dedicated 32 MB private L2 cache
  • The eight 32 MB L2 cache can form a virtual 256 MB L3 cache, and a 2 GB L4 cache.
  • Transparent encryption of main memory, with 8-channel fault tolerant memory interface
  • Integrated AI accelerator with 6 TFLOPS compute capacity
  • Centralised AI accelerator architecture, with direct connection to the cache infrastructure

The Telum processor is designed to enable extremely low latency inference for response-time sensitive workloads. With planned system support for up to 200 TFLOPs, the AI acceleration is also designed to scale up to the requirements of the most demanding workloads.

Thanks to the Telum processor, the IBM z16 can process 300 billion inference requests per day, with just one millisecond of latency.

 

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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Why Xiaomi’s ROIDMI Eve Plus Is So Awesome!

The Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus robot vacuum is really, REALLY AWESOME!

Find out why every home should have a little ROIDMI Eve Plus running around!

 

Why Xiaomi’s ROIDMI Eve Plus Is So Awesome!

One of the hottest gadgets for homeowners is a robot vacuum, which can be incredibly useful or a real pain in the ass.

What most homeowners in the market for a robot vacuum don’t understand is that many models don’t clean well, and are a hassle to maintain.

That’s why Xiaomi’s ROIDMI Eve Plus robot vacuum is so awesome – it is not only a cleaning powerhouse, it does away with almost all of the maintenance hassle!

Self-Emptying System

One of the biggest hassle in maintaining a robot vacuum is the constant need to empty the dust box.

This limitation prevents ordinary robot vacuums from automatically and continuously cleaning your house for days on end.

This is not a problem for the ROIDMI Eve Plus. When it returns to its base station to recharge its battery, its dust box is automatically emptied into the base station!

This allows the Eve Plus to continuously recharge and empty its dust box, and clean your house for weeks on end!

The base station’s large 3L dust bag can hold enough dust for 60 days, before you need to clear it.

Self-Sanitising System

The ROIDMI Eve Plus not only comes with a HEPA filter – a common feature in robot vacuums, it boasts a pioneering Deodorizing Particle Generator in the base station.

The Deodorizing Particle Generator uses Active Oxygen technology to sterilise the collected dust, eliminating dust mites as well as microbes and mold like E. coli, Candida albicans and Staphylococcus aureus.

It can also eliminate toxic chemicals like formaldehyde, ammonia, benzene and TVOC, as well as remove the smell of cigarettes and perfume.

4th Generation Super-Sensing LDS Sensor

The ROIDMI Eve Plus comes with their 4th generation laser distance sensor, which allows for highly-precise scanning of its environment.

It is constantly scanning for obstacles, so it will quickly detect people or pets nearby and avoid them.

AI Smart Room Mapping

The ROIDMI Eve Plus can precisely map and later remember every room in your house, across multiple levels!

Its built-in AI mapping and path planning algorithms allow it to better and faster clean the rooms, and resume its cleaning duties after charging or emptying its dust box.

The room maps it generates also allows you to demarcate forbidden areas, or schedule more frequent cleaning for certain rooms.

Separate maps can be saved for each floor, and the settings are automatically matched and switched, when switching floors.

4+ Hours Of Vacuum + Mopping!

The ROIDMI Eve Plus has a powerful digital brushless vacuum with 2,700 Pa of suction power, with side brushes and a flexible inlet that adjusts to the floor condition.

And thanks to its large 5,200 mAh battery, it can keep on cleaning for over 4 hours (250 minutes) before it needs to return to the base station!

If you like squeaky clean floors, the Eve Plus has a mopping module and a 250 ml water tank, to give you just that.

It simulates hand-mopping with its 3-stage Y-route (not available in the US) or U-route mopping

Obstacle Avoidance

The ROIDMI Eve Plus will never get stuck under your bed, sofa or cabinets, because it can automatically sense their height.

It is also smart enough to detect low obstacles like door strips or cables (up to 2 cm in height) and crawl over them.

It can also sense and climb up ramps with slopes of up to 20°, which lesser robot vacuums will balk at.

 

Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus : What’s Inside The Box?

The Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus comes in two separate boxes – one for the robot vacuum cleaner, and the other for its base station.

In this video, we take a look at what’s inside both boxes!

Once unboxed, you should find these items :

  • ROIDMI Eve Plus robot vacuum cleaner + mop module
  • ROIDMI Eve Plus dust collector base station
  • User guide + warranty card
  • Disposable mop wipes + filters + dust bags
  • Power cord

For more information, you can visit the official ROIDMI Eve Plus website.

 

Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus : Specifications

Specifications Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus
Type Robot vacuum
Voice Assistant Alexa, Google Assistant
Cleaning Modes Sweep + vacuum + mop
Suction Power 2700 Pa (maximum)
Recommended
Coverage
Area
250 m²
2690 square feet
Robot Container Dust : 300 ml
Water : 250 ml
Base Station
Container
Dust : 3 L
Robot Noise Level 60 dB (A)
Base Station
Noise Level
< 82 dB (A)
Hygiene Features HEPA Filter
Active Oxygen Technology
Navigation 4th Gen LDS SLAM
Automatic Partition Yes
Where To Clean Yes
Virtual Wall App-based Virtual Wall
Obstacle Clearance Slope : up to 20°
Height : up to 20 mm
Battery 5,200 mAh lithium-ion
Battery Life 250 minutes
Charging Time 250 minutes
Power Consumption 50 watt (robot)
850 watt (base station)
Robot Dimensions 350 x 350 x 98 mm
Robot Weight 3.6 kg
Base Station
Dimensions
358 x 350 x 175 mm
Base Station
Weight
2.7 kg

 

Xiaomi ROIDMI Eve Plus : Price + Deals

The ROIDMI Eve Plus + dust collector base station kit is surprisingly affordable.

You can now purchase the full ROIDMI Eve Plus set in Malaysia at these incredible prices :

  • Standard 1 Year Warranty : RM1,588
  • 18 Month Warranty : RM1,688
  • 2 Year Warranty : RM1,788
  • Premium 1 Year Warranty : RM1,988 (1 to 1 Exchange)

In addition, you can save more by purchasing these Add-on Deals :

  • Replacement parts like dust bag, mop wipes, roller brush, side brush, filter, etc.
  • Extended 1 year warranty on the battery

But on 11/11, the ROIDMI Eve Plus goes on sale at only RM1,458 for just TWO HOURS – from 12 AM until 2 AM!

So don’t miss this offer. Grab it during those two hours!

 

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Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) : All You Need To Know!

Dell just introduced the UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) for the new Work From Home normal!

Here is what you need to know about the new Dell WB7022 UltraSharp Webcam!

 

Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) : All You Need To Know!

More than 18 months into the COVID-19 pandemic, the Work From Home (WFH) normal appears to be here to stay, at least for now.

To ensure that those who need to remotely work have the best possible video conferencing webcam, Dell just introduced the UltraSharp Webcam.

With nine patent-pending technologies, the Dell UltraSharp Webcam offers 4K image quality, built-in AI tracking and other video conferencing features.

4K Webcam With World’s Best Image Quality

Dell claims that the UltraSharp Webcam offers the world’s best image quality, courtesy of the large 4K Sony STARVIS CMOS sensor and the multi-element lens that captures more light to deliver “crystal-clear video”.

It supports frame rates of 24 and 30 fps at the full 4K UHD resolution. It also supports the higher 60 fps frame rate, at the lower 1080p and 720p resolutions.

It’s not just about the hardware. It’s also about the software embedded into the UltraSharp Webcam.

Its Digital Overlap HDR capability lets the Dell UltraSharp Webcam preserve true-to-life colours and balance exposure.

Meanwhile, its 2D/3D video noise reduction capability eliminates grainy images, making you look good even in low light conditions.

AI Auto-Framing

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam has AI Auto-Framing capability built-in. This feature uses Artificial Intelligence to keep you focused and centred in the frame.

You don’t have to manually adjust the webcam. It will track your movements and shift the frame to keep you centered, even if you stand up!

5X Digital Zoom + Three Fields of View

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam supports up to 5X digital zoom, as well as three fields of view – 65°, 78° and 90°.

This allows you to fit multiple people in the same conference call, or focus exclusively on you in a crowded place.

Smart Security Features

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam supports Windows Hello, allowing you to sign-in quickly and securely usual facial recognition.

It also has Dell ExpressSign-in capability built-in, allowing Dell PCs to detect your presence as you approach and automatically log you out when you step away, offering you an extra level of security.

Finally, it comes with a magnetic privacy cover that securely snaps onto the lens, or the back of the webcam.

Webcam Mounting Solutions

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam comes with two mounts in the box :

  • a magnetic mount
  • a tripod adaptor

The magnetic mount makes it easy to attach to the top of any desktop or laptop monitor, without obscuring the display.

And if you need to mount it on a tripod, simply slide the webcam off the magnetic mount and slide it into the tripod adaptor!

 

Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) : Specifications

Specifications Dell UltraSharp Webcam
Model WB7022
Camera Resolution
+ Frame Rates
4K : 24 / 30 fps
1080p : 24 / 30 / 60 fps
720p : 24 / 30 / 60 fps
Sensor 8.3 MP Sony STARVIS CMOS
Field of View 65, 78, 90 degrees
HD Digital Zoom Up to 5X
Autofocus Yes
Auto-Light
Correction
Advanced Digital Overlap (DOL) HDR
3D + 2D Video Noise Reduction
– Temporal Noise (3DNR)
– Spatial Noise Reduction (2DNR)
Auto White Balance Yes
AI Auto-Framing Yes
Microphone No
Lens Cap Yes (Magnetic)
Windows Hello Yes
Dell on Dell ExpressSign-In
Certification Microsoft Teams, Zoom
Other Optimised Apps Skype for Business
Go To Meeting
Google Meet
Google Hangout
Blue Jeans
Slack, Lifesize
OS Support Windows 10, macOS
Plug & Play Support Yes
Connectivity USB C
– comes with USB-A to USB-C cable
Material Anodised Aluminium
Webcam Dimensions 42 mm wide
90 mm long
Mount Dimensions 32 mm wide
64 mm deep
9.4 mm high
Warranty 3 years

 

Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) : Price + Availability

The Dell UltraSharp Webcam (WB7022) is available for purchase at the official price of US$199 / RM 1,122 (about £144 / A$266 / S$268).

 

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Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI + vHPC on VMware vSphere!

Dell Technologies just introduced Dell EMC Ready solutions for both AI and virtualised HPC workloads on VMware vSphere 7!

Join us for the tech briefing on both new Dell EMC computing solutions for VMware, and find out how it can simplify your advanced computing needs!

 

Simplified Advanced Computing With Dell EMC Ready Solutions

Let’s start with the Dell Technologies briefing on the two new Dell EMC Ready solutions for both AI and virtualised HPC workloads.

Based on VMware Cloud Foundation, they are designed to make AI easier to deploy and consume, with new features from VMware vSphere 7, including Bitfusion.

 

 

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service (GaaS)

GPUs in individual workstations or servers are often under-utilised at less than 15% of capacity. The new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service fixes that and maximises your investment with virtual GPU pools.

The newest design includes the latest VMware vSphere 7 with Bitfusion, making it possible to virtualise GPUs on-premise. Factory-installed by Dell, VMware vSphere 7 with Bitfusion will let developers and data scientists pool IT resources and share them across datacenters.

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI : GPU-as-a-Service also uses the latest VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware vSphere 7 support for Kubernetes and containerised applications to run AI workloads anywhere. Containers make it easier to bring cloud-native applications into production, with the ability to move workloads.

 

Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualised HPC

Most HPC workloads run on dedicated systems that require specialised skills to deploy and manage. Dell EMC Ready Solutions for Virtualised HPC can include VMware Cloud Foundation with VMware vSphere 7 featuring Bitfusion.

That should make it simpler and more economical to use VMware environments for HPC and AI applications in computational chemistry, bioinformatics and computer-aided engineering. IT teams can quickly provision hardware as needed, speed up initial deployment and configuration, saving time with simpler centralised management and security.

For very large HPC implementations, Dell EMC Ready Solutions for vHPC can include VMware vSphere Scale-Out Edition for additional cost savings.

 

Dell EMC OpenManage for Dell EMC Ready Solutions

The new Dell EMC Ready Solutions for AI and Virtualised HPC ship with the Dell EMC OpenManage systems management software, which helps administrators improve system uptime, keep data insights flowing and prepare for AI operations.

New Dell EMC OpenManage improvements include :

  • OpenManage Integration for VMware vCenter, supporting vSphere Lifecycle Manager, automates software, driver and firmware updates holistically to save time and simplify operations.
  • The enhanced OpenManage Mobile app gives administrators the ability to view power and thermal policies, perform emergency power reduction and monitor internal storage from anywhere in the world.

 

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Fact Check : Cyber Crime Warning On WhatsApp!

The Cyber Crime hoax on WhatsApp is circulating, warning people that they are being monitored by the government.

Well, not to worry – unless you are living in China – this is yet another Internet hoax. Here is why we know that…

 

The Cyber Crime Warning In WhatsApp!

This is the Cyber Crime warning hoax that has been circulating on WhatsApp :

From tomorrow onwards there are new communication regulations.

All calls are recorded

All phone call recordings saved

WhatsApp is monitored

Twitter is monitored

Facebook is monitored

Note that it’s generic enough that it can apply to almost any government in the world.

Recommended : How To Block Facebook Ads + Pay Scammers!

 

The Cyber Crime WhatsApp Warning Hoax Debunked!

And here is why this is nothing more than yet another Internet hoax :

Only China Is Capable Of Doing This

The only country that has accomplished most of what was shared above is China, but it took them decades to erect the Great Firewall of China.

It’s not just the massive infrastructure that needs to be created, it also requires legislation to be enacted, and considerable manpower and resources to maintain such a system.

That’s why China is leaning heavily on AI and cloud computing capabilities to automatically and quickly censor information deemed “sensitive”.

However, no other country has come close to spending the money and resources on a similar scale, although Cuba, Vietnam, Zimbabwe and Belarus have imported some surveillance technology from China.

WhatsApp, Instagram + Facebook Messenger Have End-to-End Encryption

All three Facebook-owned apps are now running on the same common platform, which provides end-to-end encryption.

End-to-end encryption protects messages as they travel through the Internet, and specifically prevents anyone (bad guys or your friendly government censor) from snooping into your conversation.

That is also why all three are banned in China…

Recommended : Can SIM Swap empty bank accounts without warning?!

The Police Cannot Enact Laws

There are cybercrime laws in most, if not every, country in the world. But they are all enacted by legislative bodies of some sort, not the police.

The police is the executive arm in a country, empowered to enforce the law. They do not have the power to create a law, and then act on it.

Even The Government Has Debunked It!

Just in case you are still not convinced, even the Malaysian government issued a fact check on this hoax, debunking it as fake news.

Basically, it states “The Ministry of Home Affairs has NEVER recorded telephone calls or monitored social media in this country“.

Please help us FIGHT FAKE NEWS by sharing this fact check article out, and please SUPPORT our work!

 

Please Support My Work!

Support my work through a bank transfer /  PayPal / credit card!

Name : Adrian Wong
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Dr. Adrian Wong has been writing about tech and science since 1997, even publishing a book with Prentice Hall called Breaking Through The BIOS Barrier (ISBN 978-0131455368) while in medical school.

He continues to devote countless hours every day writing about tech, medicine and science, in his pursuit of facts in a post-truth world.

 

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Jeff Clarke : Tech Predictions For 2020 + Next Data Decade!

Dell Technologies COO and Vice Chairman, Jeff Clarke, reveals his tech predictions for 2020, the start of what Dell Technologies considers as the Next Data Decade!

 

Jeff Clarke : Tech Predictions For 2020 + Next Data Decade!

It’s hard to believe that we’re heading into the year 2020 – a year that many have marked as a milestone in technology. Autonomous cars lining our streets, virtual assistants predicting our needs and taking our requests, connected and intelligent everything across every industry.

When I stop to think about what has been accomplished over the last decade – it’s quite remarkable.  While we don’t have fully autonomous cars zipping back and forth across major freeways with ease, automakers are getting closer to deploying autonomous fleets in the next few years.

Many of the every-day devices, systems and applications we use are connected and intelligent – including healthcare applications, industrial machines and financial systems – forming what is now deemed as “the edge.”

At the root of all that innovation and advancement are massive amounts of data and compute power, and the capacity across edge, cloud and core data center infrastructure to put data through its paces. And with the amount of data coming our way in the next 10 years – we can only imagine what the world around us will look like in 2030, with apps and services we haven’t even thought of yet.

2020 marks the beginning of what we at Dell Technologies are calling the Next Data Decade, and we are no doubt entering this era with new – and rather high – expectations of what technology can make possible for how we live, work and play. So what new breakthroughs and technology trends will set the tone for what’s to come over the next 10 years? Here are my top predictions for the year ahead.

2020 proves it’s time to keep IT simple

We’ve got a lot of data on our hands…big data, meta data, structured and unstructured data – data living in clouds, in devices at the edge, in core data centers…it’s everywhere. But organisations are struggling to ensure the right data is moving to the right place at the right time. They lack data visibility – the ability for IT teams to quickly access and analyse the right data – because there are too many systems and services woven throughout their IT infrastructure. As we kick off 2020, CIOs will make data visibility a top IT imperative because after all, data is what makes the flywheel of innovation spin.

We’ll see organisations accelerate their digital transformation by simplifying and automating their IT infrastructure and consolidating systems and services into holistic solutions that enable more control and clarity. Consistency in architectures, orchestration and service agreements will open new doors for data management – and that ultimately gives data the ability be used as part of AI and Machine Learning to fuel IT automation.  And all of that enables better, faster business outcomes that the innovation of the next decade will thrive on.

Cloud co-existence sees rolling thunder

The idea that public and private clouds can and will co-exist becomes a clear reality in 2020. Multi-cloud IT strategies supported by hybrid cloud architectures will play a key role in ensuing organisations have better data management and visibility, while also ensuring that their data remains accessible and secure.  In fact, IDC predicted that by 2021, over 90% of enterprises worldwide will rely on a mix of on-premises/dedicated private clouds, several public clouds, and legacy platforms to meet their infrastructure needs.

But private clouds won’t simply exist within the heart of the data center. As 5G and edge deployments continue to rollout, private hybrid clouds will exist at the edge to ensure the real-time visibility and management of data everywhere it lives.

That means organisations will expect more of their cloud and service providers to ensure they can support their hybrid cloud demands across all environments. Further, we’ll see security and data protection become deeply integrated as part of hybrid cloud environments, notably where containers and Kubernetes continue to gain momentum for app development. Bolting security measures onto cloud infrastructure will be a non-starter…it’s got to be inherently built into the fiber of the overall data management strategy edge to core to cloud.

What you get is what you pay

One of the biggest hurdles for IT decision makers driving transformation is resources. CapEx and OpEx can often be limiting factors when trying to plan and predict for compute and consumption needs for the year ahead…never mind the next three-five years. SaaS and cloud consumption models have increased in adoption and popularity, providing organisations with the flexibility to pay for what they use, as they go.

In 2020, flexible consumption and as-a-service options will accelerate rapidly as organisations seize the opportunity to transform into software-defined and cloud-enabled IT. As a result – they’ll be able to choose the right economic model for their business to take advantage of end-to-end IT solutions that enable data mobility and visibility, and crunch even the most intensive AI and Machine Learning workloads when needed.

“The Edge” rapidly expands into the enterprise

The “Edge” continues to evolve – with many working hard to define exactly what it is and where it exists.   Once limited to the Internet of Things (IoT), it’s hard to find any systems, applications, services – people and places – that aren’t connected. The edge is emerging in many places and it’s going to expand with enterprise organisations leading the way, delivering the IT infrastructure to support it.

5G connectivity is creating new use cases and possibilities for healthcare, financial services, education and industrial manufacturing. As a result, SD-WAN and software-defined networking solutions become a core thread of a holistic IT infrastructure solution – ensuring massive data workloads can travel at speed – securely – between edge, core and cloud environments. Open networking solutions will prevail over proprietary as organisations recognise the only way to successfully manage and secure data for the long haul requires the flexibility and agility that only open software defined networking can deliver.

Intelligent devices change the way you work and collaborate

PC innovation continues to push new boundaries every year – screens are more immersive and bigger than ever, yet the form factor becomes smaller and thinner. But more and more, it’s what is running at the heart of that PC that is more transformational than ever. Software applications that use AI and machine learning create systems that now know where and when to optimise power and compute based on your usage patterns. With biometrics, PCs know it’s you from the moment you gaze at the screen. And now, AI and machine learning applications are smart enough to give your system the ability to dial up the sound and colour based on the content you’re watching or the game you’re playing.

Over the next year, these advancements in AI and machine learning will turn our PCs into even smarter and more collaborative companions. They’ll have the ability to optimise power and battery life for our most productive moments – and even become self-sufficient machines that can self-heal and self-advocate for repair – reducing the burden on the user and of course, reducing the number of IT incidents filed. That’s a huge increase in happiness and productivity for both the end users and the IT groups that support them.

Innovating with integrity, sourcing sustainably

Sustainable innovation will continue to take center stage, as organisations like ours want to ensure the impact they have in the world doesn’t come with a dangerous one on the planet. Greater investments in reuse and recycling for closed-loop innovation will accelerate – hardware becomes smaller and more efficient and built with recycled and reclaimed goods – minimising eWaste and maximising already existing materials. At Dell Technologies, we met our Legacy of Good 2020 goals ahead of schedule – so we’ve retired them and set new goals for 2030 to recycle an equivalent product for every product a customer buys, lead the circular economy with more than half of all product content being made from recycled or renewable material, and use 100% recycled or renewable material in all packaging.

As we enter the Next Data Decade, I’m optimistic and excited about what the future holds. The steps our customers will take in the next year to get the most out of their data will set forth new breakthroughs in technology that everyone will experience in some way – whether it’s a more powerful device, faster medical treatment, more accessible education, less waste and cleaner air. And before we know it, we’ll be looking forward to what the following 10 years will have in store.

 

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Here Are The Top 10 Tech Trends In 2020 From Alibaba!

Alibaba, specifically its research institute – the Alibaba DAMO Academy, just published their top 10 tech trends in 2020.

Here are the highlights from those top 10 tech trends that they are predicting will go big in 2020!

 

Here Are The Top 10 Tech Trends In 2020 From Alibaba!

Tech Trend #1 : AI Evolves From Perceptual Intelligence To Cognitive Intelligence

Artificial intelligence has reached or surpassed humans in the areas of perceptual intelligence such as speech to text, natural language processing, video understanding etc; but in the field of cognitive intelligence that requires external knowledge, logical reasoning, or domain migration, it is still in its infancy.

Cognitive intelligence will draw inspiration from cognitive psychology, brain science, and human social history, combined with techniques such as cross domain knowledge graph, causality inference, and continuous learning to establish effective mechanisms for stable acquisition and expression of knowledge.

These make machines to understand and utilize knowledge, achieving key breakthroughs from perceptual intelligence to cognitive intelligence.

Tech Trend #2 : In-Memory Computing Addresses Memory Wall Challenge In AI Computer

In Von Neumann architecture, memory and processor are separate and the computation requires data to be moved back and forth.

With the rapid development of data-driven AI algorithms in recent years, it has come to a point where the hardware becomes the bottleneck in the explorations of more advanced algorithms.

In Processing-in-Memory (PIM) architecture, in contrast to the Von Neumann architecture, memory and processor are fused together and computations are performed where data is stored with minimal data movement.

As such, computation parallelism and power efficiency can be significantly improved. We believe the innovations on PIM architecture are the tickets to next-generation AI.

Tech Trend #3 : Industrial IoT Will Power Digital Transformation

In 2020, 5G, rapid development of IoT devices, cloud computing and edge computing will accelerate the fusion of information system, communication system, and industrial control system.

Through advanced Industrial IoT, manufacturing companies can achieve automation of machines, in-factory logistics, and production scheduling, as a way to realise C2B smart manufacturing.

In addition, interconnected industrial system can adjust and coordinate the production capability of both upstream and downstream vendors.

Ultimately it will significantly increase the manufacturers’ productivity and profitability. For manufacturers with production goods that value hundreds of trillion RMB, If the productivity increases 5-10%, it means additional trillions of RMB.

Tech Trend #4 : Large Scale Collaboration Between Machines Become Possible

Traditional single intelligence cannot meet the real-time perception and decision of large-scale intelligent devices.

The development of collaborative sensing technology of Internet of things and 5G communication technology will realise the collaboration among multiple agents – machines cooperate with each other and compete with each other to complete the target tasks.

The group intelligence brought by the cooperation of multiple intelligent bodies will further amplify the value of the intelligent system:

  • large-scale intelligent traffic light dispatching will realise dynamic and real-time adjustment,
  • warehouse robots will work together to complete cargo sorting more efficiently,
  • driverless cars can perceive the overall traffic conditions on the road, and
  • group unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) collaboration will get through the last-mile delivery more efficiently.

Tech Trend #5 : Modular Chiplet Design Makes Chips Easier & Faster To Create

Traditional model of chip design cannot efficiently respond to the fast evolving, fragmented and customised needs of chip production.

The open source SoC chip design based on RISC-V, high-level hardware description language, and IP-based modular chip design methods have accelerated the rapid development of agile design methods and the ecosystem of open source chips.

In addition, the modular design method based on chiplets uses advanced packaging methods to package the chiplets with different functions together, which can quickly customise and deliver chips that meet specific requirements of different applications.

Tech Trend #6 : Large Scale Blockchain Applications Will Gain Mass Adoption

BaaS (Blockchain-as-a-Service) will further reduce the barriers of entry for enterprise blockchain applications.

A variety of hardware chips embedded with core algorithms used in edge, cloud and designed specifically for blockchain will also emerge, allowing assets in the physical world to be mapped to assets on blockchain, further expanding the boundaries of the Internet of Value and realising “multi-chain interconnection”.

In the future, a large number of innovative blockchain application scenarios with multi-dimensional collaboration across different industries and ecosystems will emerge, and large-scale production-grade blockchain applications with more than 10 million DAI (Daily Active Items) will gain mass adoption.

Tech Trend #7 : A Critical Period Before Large-Scale Quantum Computing

In 2019, the race in reaching “Quantum Supremacy” brought the focus back to quantum computing. The demonstration, using superconducting circuits, boosts the overall confidence on superconducting quantum computing for the realisation of a large-scale quantum computer.

In 2020, the field of quantum computing will receive increasing investment, which comes with enhanced competitions. The field is also expected to experience a speed-up in industrialization and the gradual formation of an eco-system.

In the coming years, the next milestones will be the realization of fault-tolerant quantum computing and the demonstration of quantum advantages in real-world problems. Either is of a great challenge given the present knowledge. Quantum computing is entering a critical period.

Tech Trend #8 : New Materials Will Revolutionise Semiconductor Devices

Under the pressure of both Moore’s Law and the explosive demand of computing power and storage, it is difficult for classic Si based transistors to maintain sustainable development of the semiconductor industry.

Until now, major semiconductor manufacturers still have no clear answer and option to chips beyond 3nm. New materials will make new logic, storage, and interconnection devices through new physical mechanisms, driving continuous innovation in the semiconductor industry.

For example, topological insulators, two-dimensional superconducting materials, etc. that can achieve lossless transport of electron and spin can become the basis for new high-performance logic and interconnect devices; while new magnetic materials and new resistive switching materials can realize high-performance magnetics Memory such as SOT-MRAM and resistive memory.

Tech Trend #9 : Growing Adoption Of AI Technologies That Protect Data Privacy

The compliance costs demanded by the recent data protection laws and regulations related to data transfer are getting increasingly higher than ever before.

In light of this, there have been growing interests in using AI technologies to protect data privacy. The essence is to enable the data user to compute a function over input data from different data providers while keeping those data private.

Such AI technologies promise to solve the problems of data silos and lack of trust in today’s data sharing practices, and will truly unleash the value of data in the foreseeable future.

Tech Trend #10 : Cloud Becomes The Center Of IT Innovation

With the ongoing development of cloud computing technology, the cloud has grown far beyond the scope of IT infrastructure, and gradually evolved into the center of all IT technology innovations.

Cloud has close relationship with almost all IT technologies, including new chips, new databases, self-driving adaptive networks, big data, AI, IoT, blockchain, quantum computing and so forth.

Meanwhile, it creates new technologies, such as serverless computing, cloud-native software architecture, software-hardware integrated design, as well as intelligent automated operation.

Cloud computing is redefining every aspect of IT, making new IT technologies more accessible for the public. Cloud has become the backbone of the entire digital economy.

 

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NVIDIA TensorRT 7 with Real-Time Conversational AI!

NVIDIA just launched TensorRT 7, introducing the capability for Real-Time Conversational AI!

Here is a primer on the NVIDIA TensorRT 7, and the new real-time conversational AI capability!

 

NVIDIA TensorRT 7 with Real-Time Conversational AI

NVIDIA TensorRT 7 is their seventh-generation inference software development kit. It introduces the capability for real-time conversational AI, opening the door for human-to-AI interactions.

TensorRT 7 features a new deep learning compiler designed to automatically optimise and accelerate the increasingly complex recurrent and transformer-based neural networks needed for AI speech applications.

This boosts the performance of conversational AI components by more than 10X, compared to running them on CPUs. This drives down the latency below the 300 millisecond (0.3 second) threshold considered necessary for real-time interactions.

 

TensorRT 7 Targets Recurrent Neural Networks

TensorRT 7 is designed to speed up AI models that are used to make predictions on time-series, sequence-data scenarios that use recurrent loop structures (RNNs).

RNNs are used not only for conversational AI speed networks, they also help with arrival time planning for cars and satellites, predictions of events in electronic medical records, financial asset forecasting and fraud detection.

The use of RNN has hitherto been limited to a few companies with the talent and manpower to hand-optimise the code to meet real-time performance requirements.

With TensorRT 7’s new deep learning compiler, developers now have the ability to automatically optimise these neural networks to deliver the best possible performance and lowest latencies.

The new compiler also optimises transformer-based models like BERT for natural language processing.

 

TensorRT 7 Availability

NVIDIA TensorRT 7 will be made available in the coming days for development and deployment for free to members of the NVIDIA Developer program.

The latest versions of plug-ins, parsers and samples are also available as open source from the TensorRT GitHub repository.

 

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