Author: Akin Naphtal

Google is making progress toward its goal of creating an AI language model that supports 1,000 different languages. In an update posted on Monday, the company shared more information about the Universal Speech Model (USM), a system it describes as a “critical first step” in achieving its objectives. Last November, Google announced its plans to create a language model supporting 1,000 of the world’s most-spoken languages while also revealing its USM model. According to Google, USM is “a family of state-of-the-art speech models” with 2 billion parameters trained on 12 million hours of speech and 28 billion sentences across over…

Google has started rolling out a new UI design for Google Drive, Docs, Sheets and Slides, in line with its Material Design 3 language. The company says that the apps will still function the same way as before but should now be more simplified, with less clutter and a few improvements and additions. According to Google, the updated design is meant to streamline core collaboration journeys across its products, similar to Gmail’s new look. The redesign was announced in February and the rollout began on March 10th for rapid release domain users. The update will reach all Workspace and personal…

Vertiv, a global provider of critical digital infrastructure and continuity solutions, has introduced the Vertiv™ Liebert® CWA, a new generation of thermal management system for slab floor data centres. For decades, hyperscale and colocation providers have used raised floor environments to cool their IT equipment. Simplifying data centre design with slab floors enables the construction of new white space more efficiently and cost-effectively, but also introduces new cooling challenges. The Liebert CWA was designed to provide uniform air distribution to the larger surface area which comes with a slab floor application, while also allowing more space for rack installation and…

Growfin, a Singapore- and San Francisco-based fintech startup that offers software-as-a-service (SaaS) for finance departments, has raised $7.5 million in Series A funding. The startup plans to use the funding to expand its operations in the U.S. and Asia and to build more AI-based technology to expand its platform. Growfin’s next plan is to create a forecasting tool that predicts trends “based on past payment behavior and current receivables data through Growfin”. The funding round was led by Singapore’s SWC Global, with participation from existing backers 3one4 Capital and angel investors. According to Growfin, the latest funding comes after an…

Apple has reportedly given the green light to an app called “aBlueMail”, which is powered by an AI chatbot, after the developer assured the company that the app has content moderation tools. The Wall Street Journal reports that Apple closely examined a language tool in the software that uses AI and questioned whether it could generate inappropriate content for children. “We assured Apple that our update includes content moderation”, said Ben Volach, co-founder of Blix Inc., the maker of the app. He also suggested that the company should be transparent about any new policies related to the use of AI…

Jack Dorsey, co-founder and former CEO of Twitter, has launched a new social media platform called Bluesky. The micro-blogging platform, funded by Twitter, is currently available in the testing phase as an invite-only beta and will soon be available for public launch, according to TechCrunch. The Bluesky iOS app was released on February 17 and has seen around 2,000 installs during its testing phase. The app has a simplified user interface, where users can create a post of 256 characters by clicking on a plus button, which can also include photos. Bluesky allows users to share, mute and block accounts,…

Alibaba Cloud, the digital technology and intelligence arm of Alibaba Group, has announced a collaboration with its long-standing partner Dubai Holding to upgrade its data centre in Dubai. The aim of this collaboration is to provide customers with the best possible digital solutions during their digitalisation journey. The upgraded data centre will provide customers with a range of Alibaba Cloud’s proven infrastructure products, including the 6th Generation Elastic Compute Service (ECS) instance and the latest Elastic Block Storage (EBS) service. These products offer significantly higher computing capacity, higher bandwidth, lower latency and improved performance, providing enterprise customers with a wider…

We are living in an increasingly digital world that provides new and exciting opportunities for growth and development. And yet women around the world are disproportionately left behind when it comes to accessing and benefitting from these opportunities. This year’s International Women’s Day, observed on the 8th of March, makes an urgent call for digital progress to benefit all people, under the theme ‘DigitALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality’. It is a call to celebrate and recognize the contributions of women and girls who are advancing digital technology and building gender-responsive innovations and a reminder that innovation and technology…

The Communications, Space, and Technology Commission (CST) of Saudi Arabia has partnered with the International Data Corporation (IDC) for the annual ICT Indicators Forum 2023, scheduled for March 8. This year’s event includes IDC’s signature ‘IDC Directions 2023 Saudi Arabia’ industry forum as part of the agenda for the second consecutive year. The forum will feature top-notch speakers, including senior leadership from ICT-enabling public sector entities across the Kingdom, local and global management from IDC and representatives from well-known ICT vendors and telecom operators. The forum will provide an overview of the current market situation using presentations, panel discussions and…

China is looking to boost its chip sector with a $140 billion investment to overcome US export curbs. The government plans to subsidize the purchase of domestically produced chipmaking equipment. However, the injection of funds alone may not be enough to help Chinese firms break from a cycle that hinders innovation and traps them at the low end of the value chain. Industry experts suggest that Chinese firms must break free from their current situation of mainly selling to domestic chip foundries, gain exposure to advanced chipmaking facilities and independently solve engineering problems to move up the value chain. The…