Sharon Gaudin
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Sharon Gaudin
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Japanese insurer to replace humans with A.I.
A Japanese insurance company reportedly is replacing 34 workers with an artificial intelligence system, and industry analysts say the same could start happening in the U.S. this year.Fukoku Mutual Life Insurance Company, a 94-year-old company based in Tokyo, is getting ready to replace human workers with an IBM Watson artificial intelligence-based system, ABC News in Australia reported.A spokesperson for Fukoku Life could not be reached and IBM did not respond to a request for comment, but ABC News said that 34 employees will lose their jobs by the end of March, when the Watson system takes over handling insurance payouts by culling hospital records, patient medical histories and injury data.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Capital One rides the cloud to tech company transformation
LAS VEGAS -- Capital One Financial Corp. is taking big steps in its transformation into a tech company.The Fortune 500 company, one of the top 10 largest banks in the U.S. with $313 billion in total assets, wants to be a tech company that also is a top financial services provider.It's a change in strategy and focus, said Rob Alexander, CIO of Capital One, based in McLean, Virginia. Among its plans as it transitions to a "tech" company are an open, collaborative workspace, IT workers with new skill sets, fast-paced apps and a service evolution, and a focus on leading with cutting-edge technologies.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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AWS looks to take the drudge work out of data analysis
Amazon Web Services is looking to make it easier, and more efficient, for enterprises to analyze their data in the cloud."Eighty percent of what we call analytics is not analytics at all but just hard work," said Werner Vogels, chief technology officer at Amazon.com, speaking during a keynote speech this morning at the AWS re:Invent cloud conference in Las Vegas.Instead of digging down into a company's data to find patterns and insights that will give an enterprise a competitive advantage, too much time is spent on indexing, storage, security, and making sure the right access is set up.+ MORE FROM AWS RE:INVENT: Cool tech at AWS re:Invent +To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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American Heart Association looks for cure in the cloud
LAS VEGAS -- Executives at the American Heart Association are betting that the cures for heart disease, stroke and diabetes lie in the cloud.The heart association (AHA), a nonprofit organization that funds research on heart disease and promotes public health policies, is working with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to set up a cloud-based system where scientists from around the world can store, share and analyze research data.Making that data available in the cloud could accelerate research and lead to a cure for cardiovascular disease, which is the top cause of death worldwide. American Heart Association Nancy Brown is CEO of the American Heart Association.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Enterprises start to migrate critical legacy workloads to the cloud
LAS VEGAS -- Now that major enterprises have gotten their feet wet with smaller cloud projects, they're beginning to focus on migrating large, critical legacy workloads.That's the take from Stephen Orban, head of enterprise strategy at Amazon Web Services (AWS).In an interview with Computerworld at the annual AWS re:Invent conference here this week, Orban said the next wave of cloud computing could be focused strategically on legacy migration.And while it's always tougher - and riskier -- to move big, mission-critical workloads and services, at least IT departments have gotten experience working with the cloud so they're not going in cold.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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More than half the world’s people still off the internet
Less than half of the world's population still isn't using the Internet, although the numbers are improving, according to a United Nations report.A report released this week by the United Nation's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that 47.1% of the population is online, an increase from 2015's figure of 43%.The spread of mobile networks around the globe has played an important role in increasing Internet connectivity, the report said. Mobile-broadband networks cover 84% of the world's population this year, but the number of users, at 47.1%, is well below those who have access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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More than half the world’s people still off the internet
Less than half of the world's population still isn't using the Internet, although the numbers are improving, according to a United Nations report.A report released this week by the United Nation's International Telecommunication Union (ITU) found that 47.1% of the population is online, an increase from 2015's figure of 43%.The spread of mobile networks around the globe has played an important role in increasing Internet connectivity, the report said. Mobile-broadband networks cover 84% of the world's population this year, but the number of users, at 47.1%, is well below those who have access.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM: In 5 years, Watson A.I. will be behind your every decision
LAS VEGAS -- In the next five years, every important decision, whether it's business or personal, will be made with the assistance of IBM Watson. That's the vision of IBM president and CEO Ginni Rometty, in a keynote speech at IBM's World of Watson conference Wednesday. Watson, the company's artificial intelligence-fueled system, is working in fields like health care, finance, entertainment and retail, connecting businesses more easily with their customers, making sense of big data and helping doctors find treatments for cancer patients. The Watson system is set to transform how businesses function and how people live their lives. "Our goal is augmenting intelligence," Rometty said. "It is man and machine. This is all about extending your expertise. A teacher. A doctor. A lawyer. It doesn't matter what you do. We will extend it."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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1-800-Flowers wants to transform its business with A.I.
LAS VEGAS -- Executives at 1-800-Flowers.com expect a new wave in artificial intelligence technology will help to change their business so much it’ll be like running a brand new business.“We are on the cusp of a change as big as when e-commerce hit,” said Chris McCann, president and CEO of 1-800-Flowers.com. “It’s giving us the opportunity to have such deep relationships with our customers that it’ll be like the company hasn’t existed before. It can change our market, our supply chain. Everything. It will drive change all through the company.”That’s big talk from a businessman who knows about transformative change. After all, 1-800-Flowers.com already has transformed itself several times.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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IBM looks into the future of A.I. at World of Watson
LAS VEGAS -- In the past five years, IBM's artificial-intelligence-fueled Watson has gone from being a game show champion to operating in such industries as finance, retail, health care and pure research.In another five years, Watson will be helping a doctor diagnose a patient's symptoms and a company CEO calculate whether to buy a competitor.That's the word coming from IBM executives speaking Tuesday at the opening of the IBM World of Watson conference here."The technology is not even moving fast. It's accelerating. It's moving faster and faster every day," said John Kelly III, senior vice president of Cognitive Solutions and IBM Research. "Honestly, it blows my mind and I'm an optimist."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Five technologies that will change our lives in five years
Analysts say a handful of technologies are poised to change our lives by 2021.While Forrester Research sees 15 emerging technologies that are important right now (see the full list here), five of them could shake things up in a big way for businesses and the public in general, according to Brian Hopkins, an enterprise architecture analyst with Forrester.Those five: The Internet of Things (IoT), Intelligent agents, artificial intelligence (A.I.), augmented reality (A.R.) and hybrid wireless technology.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Enterprise IT pros see most workloads in cloud by 2018
Within two years, a majority of enterprises expect to be running their workloads in the cloud.After getting past considerable concerns about privacy and security, companies are increasingly placing their faith -- and their information and services -- in the cloud.The level of enterprise workloads in the cloud is expected to go from 41% today to 60% by mid-2018, according to technology research firm 451 Research, which surveyed more than 1,200 IT professionals worldwide in May and June. 451 then combined that information with separate interviews done with senior IT buyers and IT executives.The study also showed that 38% of enterprises said they have a cloud-first policy, which means they at least consider, if not prioritize, the cloud for all deployments.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Cloud player Rackspace goes private in $4.3B deal
A private equity firm has signed an agreement to buy major cloud player Rackspace for $4.3 billion.Rackspace announced today that Apollo Global Management, a U.S.-based investment manager, will acquire the company in a deal that will give Rackspace shareholders $32 per share."Our board, with the assistance of independent advisors, determined that this transaction, upon closing, will deliver immediate, significant and certain cash value to our stockholders," said Graham Weston, co-founder and chairman of Rackspace, in a statement. "We are also excited that this transaction will provide Rackspace with more flexibility to manage the business for long-term growth and enhance our product offerings."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Apple may be too late to make a big social impact
Amid reports that Apple is working on a social app, if not an outright foray into a social network, analysts wonder whether the company is already too far out of the social loop to make a difference."Apple would have to come up with a very solid social app in order to compete with what's available today," said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX. "Even with Apple's very large installed base of users, I think it would be very difficult for Apple to compete head-on with Facebook, Twitter or Google. I'm not sure people want to add yet another social network to manage and maintain. The market seems fairly well satisfied right now."At this point in the progression of social media - with users ensconced in Facebook, Snapchat, Instagram, Twitter and Pinterest - what would it take for Apple to make a real difference, or even a dent, in the market?To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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New York Public Library reads up on the cloud
Four years ago, the New York Public Library began to move its web properties to the cloud.Today, the library system has all of its approximately 80 web sites in the cloud. The library has shrunk the number of on-premise servers by 40% and is running those web properties 95% more cheaply than if it had bought the hardware and software to do it all by itself.The library took a risk on the cloud, and on Amazon Web Services (AWS), and it paid off."We've grown but we've grown in the cloud," said Jay Haque, director of DevOps and Enterprise Computing at the library. "Today, we're primarily focused on the digital identity of the NYPL. How our properties look. How they merge and integrate. How our patrons use the site … Without the cloud, we wouldn't have the time to focus on the customer experience."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Twitter suspends 360,000 accounts for terrorist ties
Twitter continues to fight to keep terrorist groups and sympathizers from using its service. The social network announced today that in the last six months it has suspended 235,000 accounts for violating its policies related to the promotion of terrorism. In February, Twitter reported that it had suspended 125,000 accounts since mid-2015 for terrorist-related reasons. That means Twitter has suspended 360,000 accounts since the middle of last year. "Since that [February] announcement, the world has witnessed a further wave of deadly, abhorrent terror attacks across the globe," the company wrote in a blog post. "We strongly condemn these acts and remain committed to eliminating the promotion of violence or terrorism on our platform."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NASA to send spacecraft on 1.2B-mile journey to asteroid
NASA is less than a month away from launching a spacecraft designed to return a sample of an asteroid to Earth for the first time.Scientists are hoping the seven-year mission, set to launch on Sept. 8 from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida, will give them information about the makeup of the solar system, about life on Earth and the potential of life elsewhere in the universe, and about asteroids and how they could affect Earth.“This mission exemplifies our nation’s quest to boldly go and study our solar system and beyond to better understand the universe and our place in it,” said Geoff Yoder, acting associate administrator for NASA’s Science Mission Directorate. “NASA science is the greatest engine of scientific discovery on the planet and [this mission] embodies our directorate’s goal to innovate, explore, discover and inspire.”To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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NASA $1M contest intent on sending robots to Mars
NASA engineers want humanoid robots to help astronauts living and working on Mars to help build habitats, grow food and make potable water.The space agency on Tuesday opened registration for teams to compete for a $1 million prize purse in what it’s calling the Space Robotics Challenge.The contest is intended to encourage development of robots that are capable of working in the harsh environment of Mars and that have enough strength, precision and autonomy to be useful to human teammates.A qualifying round will run from mid-September to mid-November. Teams that make it through that initial round will then compete in the finals next June.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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Google’s new Fuchsia OS may take over the IoT
With Google apparently working to develop a new operating system, speculation is centered on whether the company is looking to play a big role in running the Internet of Things (IoT). "The important thing is that this could be Google's bid to supply the OS that runs Internet of Things-type systems," said Dan Olds, an analyst with OrionX, a technology analyst firm. "This could be an OS to run on sensors that, for example, check on fertilizer levels in farmers' fields or voice recognition features for fitness products. The array of possibilities in these devices is endless and they all need some sort of operating system."To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here
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In DARPA challenge, smart machines compete to fend off cyberattacks
The first all-machine hacking competition is taking place today in Las Vegas.Seven teams, each running a high-performance computer and autonomous systems, are going head-to-head to see which one can best detect, evaluate and patch software vulnerabilities before adversaries have a chance to exploit them.It’s the first event where machines – with no human involvement – are competing in a round of "capture the flag, according to DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency), which is sponsoring and running the event. DARPA is the research arm of the U.S. Defense Department.MORE ON NETWORK WORLD: 6 simple tricks for protecting your passwords The teams are vying for a prize pool of $3.75 million, with the winning team receiving $2 million, the runner-up getting $1 million and the third-place team taking home $750,000. The winner will be announced Friday morning.To read this article in full or to leave a comment, please click here