Shamayita Acharya

By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) - Manga artist Kamentotsu didn't expect much when he uploaded a four-panel strip about an anthropomorphic bear who runs a cake shop to his Twitter account three years ago. But the first instalment of "Koguma's Cake Shop", drawn as consolation for a tired friend, attracted tens of thousands of likes. Within a week, 40 companies had approached him with offers. "Publishing company editors have gone from bringing up manga artists, like they are farming, to hunting for them," said Kamentotsu, who goes by his pen name and wears a mask in media appearances. By searching for talent online, publishers squeezed by the rise of the internet can see an artist's audience potential out in the open. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) - Two South Korean technology companies are borrowing from mobile gaming to shake up - and dominate - Japan's storied manga industry, a plot twist that has expanded the comics' fanbase to a new generation of readers. Backed by tech giants Kakao Corp and Naver Corp, Piccoma and Line Manga have become Japan's highest-grossing mobile apps outside games. Such online manga platforms have seen a surge in popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. Piccoma's third-quarter transaction volumes more than tripled year on year to 11.6 billion yen ($110 million), extending a wave of online manga sales that has already seen digital surpass print in Japan's $5 billion manga industry. Line Manga, now operated by SoftBank's internet business Z Holdings, saw transaction volumes jump by ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Bitcoin dropped 6.39% to $43,165.78 on Sunday, losing $2,944.20 from its previous close. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has fallen 26% from the year's high of $58,354.14 on Feb. 21 when it soared amid increasing confidence that it will become a mainstream investment and payments vehicle. Major firms such as BNY Mellon, asset manager BlackRock Inc and credit card giant Mastercard Inc have backed cryptocurrencies. Tesla Inc, Square Inc and MicroStrategy Inc have invested in bitcoin. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, dropped 8.88% to $1,329.46 on Sunday, losing $129.57 from its previous close. (Reporting by Juby Babu in Bengaluru; Editing by Lisa Shumaker) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Tetsushi Kajimoto TOKYO (Reuters) - Japanese companies are ramping up the use of artificial intelligence and other advanced technology to reduce waste and cut costs in the pandemic, and looking to score some sustainability points along the way. Disposing of Japan's more than 6 million tonnes in food waste costs the world's No.3 economy some 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) a year, government data shows. With the highest food waste per capita in Asia, the Japanese government has enacted a new law to halve such costs from 2000 levels by 2030, pushing companies to find solutions. Convenience store chain Lawson Inc has started using AI from U.S. firm DataRobot, which estimates how much product on shelves, from onigiri rice balls to egg and tuna sandwiches, may go unsold or fall short of demand. ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Bitcoin dropped 5.84% to $43,418.02 on Sunday, losing $2,691.96 from its previous close. Bitcoin, the world's biggest and best-known cryptocurrency, has fallen 25.6% from the year's high of $58,354.14 on Feb. 21. Bitcoin's price soared this year as major firms including BNY Mellon, asset manager BlackRock Inc, and credit card giant Mastercard Inc backed cryptocurrencies, while others such as Tesla Inc Square Inc and MicroStrategy Inc invested in bitcoin. Ether, the coin linked to the ethereum blockchain network, dipped 9.59% to $1,319.12 on Sunday, losing $139.91 from its previous close. (Reporting by Sabahatjahan Contractor in Bengaluru; Editing by Daniel Wallis) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Kevin Buckland and Takashi Umekawa TOKYO (Reuters) - Japan's Mizuho Bank is suffering problems at its ATMs, preventing customers from accessing some services, the lender said on its website on Sunday. Customers are unable to make withdrawals at some machines, national broadcaster NHK reported. ATMs in Tokyo are among those affected, a spokeswoman said. She declined to say which services were affected as the lender is still investigating the matter. The core banking unit of Mizuho Financial Group said that it would update customers on its website. Japan's third-largest lender by assets has a history of system troubles spanning more than a decade. It had a costly “fat finger” keyboard error at its securities arm ... Read More on Datafloq

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India's conglomerate Reliance Industries has partnered with Facebook Inc, Google and fintech player Infibeam to set up a national digital payment network, Economic Times newspaper reported on Saturday, citing unnamed sources. Last year, India's central bank invited companies to forge new umbrella entities (NUEs) to create a payments network that would rival the system operated by the National Payments Council of India (NPCI), as it seeks to reduce concentration risks in the space. Set up in 2008, NPCI is a not-for-profit company, which as of March 2019 counted dozens of banks as its shareholders, including the State Bank of India, Citibank and HSBC. It processes billions of dollars in payments daily via services that include inter-bank fund transfers, ATM transactions and digital payments. Citing three unnamed sources, India's leading business daily Economic Times said that the ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp said on Friday it has reached a settlement with WeWork's special committee and the company's co-founder and former chief executive, Adam Neumann, putting to rest a legal battle dating back to 2019. SoftBank, the new owner of the office-sharing firm, did not disclose terms of the settlement. Media reports earlier this week indicated the deal includes a nearly $500 million cut in Neumann's payout from SoftBank. The legal tussle between SoftBank and Neumann started in 2019, when SoftBank agreed to buy around $3 billion in WeWork stock belonging to Neumann as well as current and former WeWork employees. SoftBank later contested its obligation to purchase the shares. Under the new settlement, SoftBank will purchase around half the shares it had originally agreed to buy, a source familiar with the talks had told Reuters on Monday. ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. securities regulator on Friday suspended trading in the securities of 15 companies because of "questionable trading and social media activity," the latest in a string of temporary trading halts amid volatile trading in so-called "meme stocks." The Securities and Exchange Commission acted because none of the companies have filed any information with the regulator for over a year, it said in a statement. This is the regulator's third and largest wave of suspensions in response to social media activity. Retail interest in certain stocks, most notably GameStop Corp, has surged in a social media frenzy, leading to volatile trading. The SEC is continuing to review market and trading data to spot other securities to "to potential attempts to exploit investors during the recent market volatility," the agency said on Friday. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Niket Nishant and John McCrank (Reuters) - Retail brokerage Robinhood said on Friday U.S. regulators were looking into its temporary trading curbs on so-called meme stocks earlier this year as shares of companies like GameStop Corp soared during a social media-fueled short-squeeze. The brokerage, whose trading app surged in popularity over the past year, also said in a regulatory filing https://bit.ly/3kpGAUb detailing the probes that it set aside $26.6 million for a potential settlement around trading outages in March 2020, as well as its options trading policies. Menlo Park, California-based Robinhood was at the heart of a mania that gripped retail investors in late January following calls on Reddit thread WallStreetBets to trade certain stocks that were being heavily shorted by hedge funds. The flurry of activity drove ... Read More on Datafloq

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) - When President Joe Biden on Wednesday stood at a lectern holding a microchip and pledged to support $37 billion in federal subsidies for American semiconductor manufacturing, it marked a political breakthrough that happened much more quickly than industry insiders had expected. For years, chip industry executives and U.S. government officials have been concerned about the slow drift of costly chip factories to Taiwan and Korea. While major American companies such as Qualcomm Inc and Nvidia Corp dominate their fields, they depend on factories abroad to build the chips they design. As tensions with China heated up last year, U.S. lawmakers authorized manufacturing subsidies as part of an annual military spending bill due to concerns that depending on foreign factories for advanced chips posed national security risks. Yet funding for the subsidies was not guaranteed. ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Biden administration plans to allow a Trump-era rule targeting Chinese technology firms deemed to pose a threat to the United States to go into effect despite objections from U.S. businesses, the U.S. Commerce Department said on Friday. The department issued an interim final rule in the final days of the Trump administration aimed at addressing information and communications technology supply chain concerns and said it would become effective after a 60-day period of public comment. On Friday, a Commerce spokeswoman said in a statement the department would continue to accept public comment on the rule until March 22, when it would go into effect. "Trustworthy information and communications technology and services are essential to our national and economic security and remains a top priority for the Biden Harris administration," the statement said. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan NEW YORK (Reuters)pan - In an era of social distancing, businesses must be snappy in responding to customers or fall behind, a lesson Jeff Sloan, chief executive of Global Payments, quickly learned. "You've got to be more responsive and more flexible than before" or come across as not caring, said Sloan, whose company processes payments for companies in over 100 countries. Contactless payment transactions grew by 34% in 2020, with the seismic shift speeding up as much as five years because of the pandemic, he estimated. "Consumer habits are hard to change in payment," said Sloan, whose Atlanta-based company has almost 24,000 employees worldwide. "It took a long time for ATMs and debit cards to take off but once they did, it stuck." ... Read More on Datafloq

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain is seeking to build a consensus among G7 nations on how to stop large technology companies exploiting their dominance, warning that there can be no repeat of Facebook's one-week media blackout in Australia. Facebook's row with the Australian government over payment for local news, although now resolved, has increased international focus on the power wielded by tech corporations. "We will hold these companies to account and bridge the gap between what they say they do and what happens in practice. We will prevent these firms from exploiting their dominance to the detriment of people and the businesses that rely on them," Britain's digital minister Oliver Dowden said on Friday. Dowden said recent events had strengthened his view that digital markets do not currently function properly, speaking after a meeting with Facebook's Vice-President for Global Affairs, Nick Clegg - ... Read More on Datafloq

By Michelle Price WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Bots on major social media platforms have been hyping up GameStop and other "meme" stocks, according to an analysis by Massachusetts-based cyber security company PiiQ Media, suggesting organized economic or foreign actors may have played a role in the Reddit-driven trading frenzy. Shares in GameStop soared last month after Reddit users banded together to squeeze hedge funds that had bet against the video game retailer and other companies. Reddit Chief Executive Steve Huffman told Congress this month that bots, artificial or fake accounts with automated content, had not played a "significant role" in GameStop Reddit message traffic. PiiQ Media's analysis of Twitter Inc, Facebook Inc, Instagram and YouTube posts, however, found that bots used the platforms to push GameStop and other "meme" stocks, although it is unclear how influential they were in the overall saga. ... Read More on Datafloq

BRUSSELS (Reuters) - The United States withdrew its opposition to the idea of global rules on taxing digital giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook at a meeting of finance ministers and central bankers of the world's top 20 economies on Friday, a G20 official said. "U.S. Treasury Secretary (Janet) Yellen announced the withdrawal of (the U.S.) safe harbour proposal. It has been welcomed, it is certainly a positive signal," the official said. The U.S. move paves the way for adopting a proposal on digital taxation of such companies from the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development b June this year. (Reporting by Jan Strupczewski) ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A bipartisan group of eight governors from U.S. auto states on Friday urged President Joe Biden to do more to press semiconductor firms to address a global shortage of automotive chips that has cut some vehicle production. The governors of Michigan, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Kansas South Carolina, Alabama and Missouri asked Biden in a letter to follow foreign governments in urging semiconductor and wafer companies to expand production and "temporarily reallocate a modest portion of their current production to auto-grade wafer production." (Reporting by David Shepardson; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama) ... Read More on Datafloq

Welcome to the 4th episode of The Tech Journal. My name is Mark van Rijmenam, and I am The Digital Speaker. In this series, I project my digital twin into cyberspace to bring you the latest-and-greatest from the digital world. I cover all the latest digital news, from blockchain and crypto to quantum computing and AI. I also always try to take it a step further and look into what these digital innovations mean for our personal and professional lives. That’s why, today we are taking a different approach and I will be interviewing Jeff Herbst, Nvidia Vice President of Business Development and Head of Inception GPU Ventures. Jeff is a senior executive, and member of the executive staff, in charge of strategic business development function and venture investments for Nvidia (the world leader in visual computing with revenues in excess of $10B/year). Responsibilities include overall ecosystem development including our GPU Ventures Program, mergers and acquisitions strategy, partnerships a

By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - The European Union will consider potential lessons from the recent frenzied trading by retail investors on Wall Street in its broad review of consumer protection in markets, a senior European Commission official said on Friday. The rise of retail investors in share trading is a trend that cannot be prevented but it has to be managed, said John Berrigan, head of the EU executive's financial services unit. "We want to take a European perspective and not assume that what happened in the U.S. can happen here," Berrigan told an EU online event. Online trading came to the fore last month after retail investors following the Reddit forum WallStreetBets piled into GameStop Corp share via the Robinhood platform, sending the retailer's stock rocketing more than ... Read More on Datafloq

By Huw Jones LONDON (Reuters) - Brexit, COVID-19 and overseas competition are challenging fintech's future in Britain and the country should act to stay competitive, a government-backed review said on Friday. Britain's departure from the European Union has cut the fintech industry's access to the world's biggest single market, making the UK less attractive for fintechs wanting to expand cross-border. The review headed by Ron Kalifa, former CEO of payments fintech Worldpay, sets out a "strategy and delivery model" that includes a new billion pound start-up fund and fast-tracking work visas for hiring the best talent globally. "It's about underpinning financial services and our place in the world, and bringing innovation into mainstream banking," Kalifa told Reuters. ... Read More on Datafloq

TOKYO (Reuters) - Nissan Motor Co said on Friday it has reached a breakthrough in achieving a 50% thermal efficiency with its in-development e-POWER hybrid technology, which could lead to a further reduction of car CO2 emissions. This new thermal efficiency level would improve fuel consumption by 25% over the 40% thermal efficiency level in the upcoming e-POWER engine, the company said. "Nissan's latest approach to engine development has raised the bar to world-leading levels, accelerating past the current auto industry average range of 40% thermal efficiency, making it possible to even further reduce vehicle CO2 emissions," the company said in a statement. Nissan did not disclose when the e-POWER technology with 50% thermal efficiency would be launched. Toshihiro Hirai, senior vice president of the powertrain and EV engineering ... Read More on Datafloq

By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Cybersecurity executives are due to face their second round of Congressional questions on Friday over their companies' roles in the sprawling series of digital intrusions blamed on the Russian government. Texas software company SolarWinds Corp's Chief Executive Sudhakar Ramakrishna, Microsoft Corp President Brad Smith, and FireEye Inc Chief Executive Kevin Mandia were due to address a joint hearing of the House Committees on Oversight and Reform and Homeland Security. Their appearance comes three days after the trio testified before U.S. senators over the massive breach, which has ensnared nine American government agencies and more than 100 other organizations. SolarWinds' former chief executive - Kevin Thompson, who stepped down shortly before the breach was announced - was also due to testify. Hackers allegedly working ... Read More on Datafloq

By Ritvik Carvalho LONDON (Reuters) - Bitcoin fell over 6% on Friday to its lowest in two weeks as a rout in global bond markets sent yields flying and sparked a sell-off in riskier assets. The world's biggest cryptocurrency slumped as low as $44,451 before recovering most of its losses. It was last trading down 1.2% at $46,525, on course for a drop of almost 20% this week, which would be its heaviest weekly loss since March last year. The sell-off echoed that in equity markets, where European stocks tumbled as much as 1.5%, with concerns over lofty valuations also hammering demand. Asian stocks fell by the most in nine months. "When flight to safety mode is on, it is the riskier investments that get pulled first," Denis Vinokourov of ... Read More on Datafloq

BRASILIA (Reuters) - Brazil's telecoms regulator Anatel approved rules on Thursday for a spectrum auction for 5G networks this year without any curbs on China's Huawei Technologies Co as an equipment supplier. Right-wing Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro last year criticized the Chinese company and was under pressure from the former Trump administration to ban Huawei from the country's fifth-generation technology market on security concerns. Brazil's telecom companies insisted on a free market, complaining that excluding Huawei would cost billions of dollars to replace the equipment of the Chinese company that supplies 50% of the current 3G and 4G networks. Rules for the auction expected in June, however, have costly conditions such as requiring telecom companies to migrate by next year to more advanced technology with stand-alone networks not based on their current technology. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Joyce Lee SEOUL (Reuters) - Hyundai Motor has so far avoided a chip shortage that has plagued global automakers, largely maintaining its stockpile of chips last year and even accelerating purchases towards the end, three people with knowledge of the matter said. The shortage has forced production cuts worldwide, including at Volkswagen and General Motors, prompting Germany and the United States to ramp up efforts to resolve the shortage. Other than Japan's Toyota Motor, which said this month it had enough chip inventory to last it about four months, Hyundai and its sister firm Kia Corp are the only global automakers to have maintained a stockpile of low-tech chips that helped them keep up production. If it doesn't ease soon, though, the shortage could hit Hyundai too, as tight ... Read More on Datafloq

By John McCrank NEW YORK (Reuters) - Online brokerage Robinhood on Thursday said 6 million new users signed up for its cryptocurrency services in the first two months of 2021 amid higher retail trading volumes and sharp rises in the prices of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and Dogecoin. In 2020, Robinhood's crypto division averaged about 200,000 new customers trading on its platform per month, the company said in a blog post. A Robinhood spokeswoman declined to say how many overall customers trade cryptocurrencies through the app, which also offers stock and options trading. The price of Bitcoin, the world's biggest cryptocurrency, rose more than 300% in 2020 and this month hit a record high of $58,354 with a market capitalization above $1 trillion, but has since come off its highs. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Stephen Nellis (Reuters) - Dutch competition authorities are nearing a draft decision in a years-long investigation into Apple Inc over rules requiring software developers to use its in-app payment system, according to a letter sent this month to some of the developers involved in the case. The Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets, or ACM, said in 2019 https://ift.tt/2MqT9C5 that it was investigating Apple's requirement that developers use its payment system, which charges commissions of between 15% and 30%. If it issues a decision soon, the ACM could become the first antitrust authority to rule on Apple's app-store payment policies, which have long drawn complaints from app developers. The European Commission last year opened a formal investigation into the iPhone maker over some of the same practices. In ... Read More on Datafloq

SYDNEY (Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Friday said it had signed letters of intent with three Australian media firms, a day after the country's Parliament passed a law forcing it to pay media companies for using content on its platform. Facebook said it had signed partnership agreements with Private Media, which owns online magazines, Schwartz Media and Solstice Media. Commercial agreements will become effective within 60 days if a full deal is signed. "These agreements will bring a new slate of premium journalism, including some previously paywalled content, to Facebook," the social media company said in a statement. It did not disclose the financial details of the deal. Facebook on Tuesday struck a similar agreement with Seven West Media, which owns a free-to-air television network and the main metropolitian newspaper ... Read More on Datafloq

By David Shepardson and Echo Wang WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ByteDance has agreed to a $92 million class-action settlement to settle data privacy claims from some U.S. TikTok users, according to documents filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Illinois. ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns the short video app that has more than 100 million U.S. users, agreed to the settlement after more than a year of litigation. "While we disagree with the assertions, rather than go through lengthy litigation, we'd like to focus our efforts on building a safe and joyful experience for the TikTok community," TikTok said Thursday. The settlement still requires court approval. The lawsuits claimed the TikTok app "infiltrates its users' devices and extracts a broad array of private data including biometric data and content that ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Salesforce.com Inc on Thursday forecast full-year profit that was below market expectations, sending the shares of the online software company down 3.9% in extended trading. The company's latest and biggest acquisition of workspace messaging company Slack Technologies Inc for $27.7 billion deal in December is seen as expensive by any Wall Street analysts, even though there are long-term benefits. "Weak FY22 EPS guidance suggests margin expansion is likely to be muted even adjusting for the acquisition of Slack," Scott Berg, Needham & Co analyst, said. The largest provider of customer relationship management software forecast full-year adjusted earnings per share between $3.39 and $3.41, below estimates of $3.49 per share. While new emerging virus strains pose a new hurdle to business spending, Salesforce is ... Read More on Datafloq

In an increasingly competitive business world, companies across the industries are expanding the scope of technology in their operations to stay ahead of the curve. Traditional processes are gradually getting replaced by smart technologies and the growing application of mobility is shrinking the physical office space now. As mobile technologies continue to bring innovative features and business-related functionalities, a smartphone is taking up bigger responsibilities in becoming an entire workspace in itself. Whether it is accessing a knowledge source or internal or external communication, it is all possible through a mobile device today.Since the engagement of people with mobile devices is only increasing and various studies have proven that people are spending more time on their smartphones, businesses are realizing the potential of mobility as to how it can bring a higher level of operational efficiency and employee productivity. Leveraging mobile apps, novel, and innovative featur

(Reuters) - Target Corp said on Thursday it would double Apple Inc's footprint in some of its stores and expand online offerings, as the big box retailer beefs up its strategy to house popular brands at its outlets to woo more customers. Target said the expanded partnership with Apple would begin rolling out this month, with additional locations scheduled to do so by the end of this fall. The retailer recently partnered with Ulta Beauty, and said the cosmetics store chain would open shops at over 100 Target locations, a move that will help bring new shoppers to its outlets. Shares of Target, which also has deals with Levi Strauss and Walt Disney Co, were up about 1% in premarket trading. ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Microsoft Inc said on Thursday it was seeing sign-in problems with Microsoft Stream, including starting or watching live events within its workplace messaging app Teams. (https://bit.ly/3dYnR0T) (Reporting by Tiyashi Datta in Bengaluru; Editing by Aditya Soni) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Elizabeth Culliford (Reuters) - The explosive growth of Clubhouse, an audio-based social network buoyed by appearances from tech celebrities like Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg, has drawn scrutiny over how the app will handle problematic content, from hate speech to harassment and misinformation. Moderating real-time discussion is a challenge for a crop of platforms using live voice chat, from video game-centric services like Discord to Twitter Inc's new live-audio feature Spaces. Facebook is also reportedly dabbling with an offering. "Audio presents a fundamentally different set of challenges for moderation than text-based communication. It's more ephemeral and it's harder to research and action," said Discord's chief legal officer, Clint Smith, in an interview. Tools to detect problematic audio content lag behind those used to identify text, and transcribing and examining ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) - Facebook Inc on Thursday launched a campaign to explain to users how small businesses depend on personalized advertising, ahead of upcoming plans by Apple Inc to prompt iPhone users to allow apps to use their data for ads. The campaign called "Good Ideas Deserve To Be Found" highlights several advertisers that have grown their business on Facebook and Instagram, such as Houston-based fashion brand House of Takura. A commercial will air on TV, including during the Golden Globe Awards this Sunday, Facebook said. The campaign to convince users to warm up to ads comes as Facebook, which faces several U.S. antitrust lawsuits, has accused Apple of anti-competitive behavior in using its control of the App Store to limit app developers' collection of user data from other apps. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sheila Dang (Reuters) - Twitter Inc said on Thursday it expected to double annual revenue to at least $7.5 billion and reach 315 million users in 2023, sending its shares up more than 8%. Twitter will boost its new features to increase revenue and users, it said ahead of its investor presentation on Thursday. The social media network has struggled to catch up with larger rivals like Facebook and smaller viral apps like ByteDance's TikTok in offering features. But in recent months, it has made a push to launch services such as audio-chat, similar to that of viral app Clubhouse. "We know we've been slow," said Chief Executive Jack Dorsey during Twitter's virtual investor day. "When you compare us with our peers, it's been especially stark." ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Tesla Inc has told workers it will temporarily halt some production at its car assembly plant in California, Bloomberg News reported on Thursday, citing a person familiar with the matter. Workers on a Model 3 production line in Fremont were told their line would be down from Feb. 22 until March 7, according to the report. (https://bloom.bg/2O1QpeB) The report did not clarify the reason for the halt and Tesla could not be immediately reached for comment. It was also unclear how much volume or revenue Tesla would lose due to the production halt. The Fremont plant has an annual production capacity of 500,000 Model 3s and Model Ys combined. Tesla said last month that it might face a temporary impact from a global semiconductor shortage. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Sankalp Phartiyal and Aditya Kalra NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India announced new rules on Thursday to regulate big social media firms, such as Facebook and Twitter, the latest effort by Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government to tighten control over Big Tech firms. The rules come after Twitter ignored orders to drop content on farmers' protests, fuelling the goverment's zeal, dating from 2018, to clamp down on material it regards as disinformation or unlawful. The new measures will require big social media companies to set up a grievance redressal mechanism and appoint executives to coordinate with law enforcement, the government said in a news statement. The government said the guidelines in its code of digital media ethics were needed to hold social media and other ... Read More on Datafloq

BENGALURU (Reuters) - China's Xiaomi Corp is enlisting more contract manufacturers to make its phones in India, adding heft in a country where it is already one of the biggest smartphone brands. China's BYD and DBG will be the company's new suppliers in India, Manu Jain, managing director of Xiaomi's India operations, said at a press conference on Thursday. Xiaomi has been manufacturing phones in India for over half a decade and has rapidly grown in the highly competitive market where voice calling and data costs are one of the lowest in the world. "Now 99% of our smartphones and 100% of our smart TVs are manufactured in India and the majority of the components for smartphones will be locally manufactured or sourced from India," the company said. The company ... Read More on Datafloq

By Colm Fulton Stockholm (Reuters) - Virtual work parties? You can't really mingle with colleagues, or dance with them, and it's tough to get in the disco mood in your home office. On the other hand, you can't spread disease, you don't have to traipse home and there's no chance of an ill-advised amorous encounter. In the COVID-19 era though, gala options are limited. Companies are turning to events organisers to create virtual social events for staff. And with working-from-home here to stay, some expect demand to continue even after the pandemic. After almost a year of doing her job from home, fintech worker Catharina Gehrke was finally able to get some proper office gossip in the virtual bathroom and smoking area at her company's online Christmas party. The event ... Read More on Datafloq

By Jeffrey Dastin and Paresh Dave (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Google will change procedures before July for reviewing its scientists' work, according to a town hall recording heard by Reuters, part of an effort to quell internal tumult over the integrity of its artificial intelligence (AI) research. In remarks at a staff meeting last Friday, Google Research executives said they were working to regain trust after the company ousted two prominent women and rejected their work, according to an hour-long recording, the content of which was confirmed by two sources. Teams are already trialing a questionnaire that will assess projects for risk and help scientists navigate reviews, research unit Chief Operating Officer Maggie Johnson said in the meeting. This initial change will roll out by the end of the second quarter, and the majority of papers will not require extra vetting, she said. ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Justice Department asked the judge hearing its antitrust fight with Alphabet's Google for a huge list of documents from the search and advertising giant, including some about Facebook and Google's Chrome browser, according to a court filing on Wednesday. Among the documents requested was communications with third parties regarding "any form of cooperation in responding to antitrust investigations or litigation, including communications with Facebook regarding 'Jedi Blue.'" A group of states led by Texas had alleged that Google and Facebook, the two biggest players in online advertising, used a series of deals to consolidate their market power. But the issue was not included in the federal complaint against Google. Google objected to the document demand, and others, as "overly broad" and potentially privileged but said it was willing to discuss the matter. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Conor Humphries DUBLIN (Reuters) - One of the European Union's most powerful data regulators has warned companies may yet face massive disruption to translatlantic data flows as a result of an EU court ruling last year, despite efforts by policymakers to avoid that outcome. Europe's highest court last July ruled an EU-U.S. data transfer agreement was invalid, citing concerns the U.S. surveillance regime might not respect the privacy rights of citizens in the bloc. Irish Data Protection Commissioner Helen Dixon, who was involved in the case, said the full impact would be determined by an upcoming court ruling in Ireland and efforts by EU and U.S. officials to ameliorate it. The July court ruling has created uncertainty about whether some transfers of personal data held by companies in the ... Read More on Datafloq

By Cheryl Lu-Lien Tan NEW YORK (Reuters) - When Patrick Lo co-founded computing networking provider Netgear Inc in 1996, he envisioned an online utopia in which "the internet was going to drive everything." Who would have guessed that the distant future Lo had imagined would be here in a virtual flash? "When the pandemic happened, that got compressed into a 1-1/2 year time frame," said Lo, 64, chief executive of the San Jose, California-based supplier of networking hardware for consumers, businesses and service providers. "We've got Disney and Fox saying: 'We've got to do these new releases online.' We have Peloton and people doing exercise and personal coaching at home," Lo said. "That's a huge change." Lo ... Read More on Datafloq

By Colin Packham and Swati Pandey CANBERRA (Reuters) - The Australian parliament on Thursday passed a new law designed to force Alphabet Inc's Google and Facebook Inc to pay media companies for content used on their platforms in reforms that could be replicated in other countries. Australia will be the first country where a government arbitrator will decide the price to be paid by the tech giants if commercial negotiations with local news outlets fail. The legislation was watered down, however, at the last minute after a standoff between the government and Facebook culminated in the social media company blocking all news for Australian users. Subsequent amendments to the bill included giving the government the discretion to release Facebook or Google from the arbitration process if they prove ... Read More on Datafloq

By John P. Desmond, AI Trends Editor     Reports surfaced last week that IBM is contemplating a sale of Watson Health, representing a retreat from the market of AI applied to healthcare that IBM had pursued under the direction of its previous CEO.   The Wall Street Journal  last week reported IBM was exploring the sale of Watson Health; IBM did not confirm the report. Ten years ago, when IBM Watson won on the  Jeopardy!  game show against two of the game’s record winners,   the Watson brand in AI was established.   As reported in  AI Trends  last February, t he day after Watson defeated the two human champions on  Jeopardy!,  IBM announced Watson was heading into the medical field. IBM would take its ability to understand natural language that it showed off on television, and apply it to medicine. The first commercial offerings would be available in 18 to 24 months, the company promised, according to an account in  IEEE Spectrum  from April 2019.     It was a tough road. IBM was t

By John P. Desmond, AI Trends Editor   The SolarWinds hackers appeared to have targeted cloud services as a key objective, potentially giving them access to many, if not all, of an organization’s cloud-based services.    Christopher Budd, independent security expert This is from an account in  GeekWire  written by Christopher Budd, an  i ndependent security consultant who worked previously in Microsoft’s Security Response Center for 10 years.    “I f we decode the various reports and connect the dots we can see that the SolarWinds attackers have targeted authentication systems on the compromised networks, so they can log in to cloud-based services like Microsoft Office 365 without raising alarms,” wrote Budd. “Worse, the way they’re carrying this out can potentially be used to gain access to many, if not all, of an organization’s cloud-based services.”     The implication is that those assessing the impact of the attacks need to look not just at their own systems and networks,

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine filed a lawsuit against AT&T Mobility National Accounts, alleging that the company overcharged the city millions of dollars for cellphone and internet services, Racine's office said in a statement on Wednesday. Racine's office said AT&T was contractually required to give the city the cheapest data and wireless phone services available. "Instead, AT&T knowingly invoiced the District for features, add-ons, and other services it did not need, causing millions in improper charges that were paid for with taxpayer funds," Racine's office said. A spokesman for AT&T said that the allegations were "entirely without merit." "We are in full compliance with our contract, and we look forward to vindicating ourselves in court," added spokesman Jim Greer in an email statement. ... Read More on Datafloq

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Federal Communications Commission said the three largest U.S. wireless companies won $78 billion in bids in the government's auction of a band of C-Band spectrum critical to next-generation 5G networks. Verizon Communications successfully bid $45.4 billion for 3,511 licenses, while AT&T won with $23.4 billion for 1,621 licenses and T-Mobile won with $9.3 billion for 142. In total, the FCC said there were $81.2 billion in winning bids. (Reporting by David Shepardson; editing by Jonathan Oatis) ... Read More on Datafloq

By Ann Saphir (Reuters) - The Federal Reserve says its Fedwire Funds, Fedcash and some check clearing services have resumed normal operations after a more than three-hour disruption to more than a dozen critical central bank payment services forming the backbone of the U.S. banking system. The National Settlement Service and the Fedwire Securities Service, which provides issuance, settlement and transfer services for Treasuries and other government securities, have also been restored, the Fed said. "Our technical teams have determined that the cause is a Federal Reserve operational error," the Fed said on Wednesday on its website. "The Federal Reserve Banks have taken steps to help ensure the resilience of the Fedwire and NSS applications, including recovery to the point of failure." Staff first became aware of a disruption to ... Read More on Datafloq

(Reuters) - Reddit recovered from an hour-long outage that affected thousands of users on Wednesday afternoon as volatility returned to stocks including GameStop GME.N> and AMC that were at the center of a slugfest between retail traders and Wall Street. Videogame retailer GameStop, which had closed up about 104% on Wednesday and was once again a favorite pick on the WallStreetBets page, doubled in extended trading, even as the social media platform was not fully functional. Analysts that follow the stock offered several reasons for the surge, including a corporate reshuffle. The firm had on Tuesday said its finance head Jim Bell will step down next month. Reddit, now more famous for its day-trading forum where individual traders recently triggered a rally in many shorted stocks, has faced several outages in recent months. ... Read More on Datafloq

By Guy Faulconbridge LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's cyber spies at the GCHQ eavesdropping agency say they have fully embraced artificial intelligence (AI) to uncover patterns in vast amounts of global data to counter hostile disinformation and snare child abusers. AI, which traces its history back to British mathematician Alan Turing's work in the 1930s, allows modern computers to learn to sift through data to see the shadows of spies and criminals that a human brain might miss. GCHQ, where Turing cracked Germany's naval Enigma code during World War Two, said advances in computing and the doubling of global data every two years meant it would now fully embrace AI to unmask spies and identify cyber attacks. The world's biggest spy agencies in the United States, China, Russia and Europe are ... Read More on Datafloq

By AI Trends Staff     In a recently-released updated evaluation of the posture of the US Department of Defense (DoD) on artificial intelligence, researchers at  RAND Corp .  found that “despite some positive signs, the DoD’s posture is significantly challenged across all dimensions” of the assessment.   The RAND researchers were asked by Congress, within the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA), and the director of DoD’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center (JAIC), to help answer the question: “Is  DoD ready to leverage AI technologies and take advantage of the potential associated with them, or does it need to take major steps to position itself to use those technologies effectively and safely and scale up their use?”   The term  artificial intelligence  was first coined in 1956 at a conference at Dartmouth College that showcased a program designed to mimic human thinking skills. Almost immediately thereafter, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) (then

By AI Trends Staff   Tesla’s goal to release its level 5 Full Self Driving  (FSD)  mode autopilot capability in 2021 was deemed unrealistic by the CEO of competitor Waymo in a recent interview.   Tesla is the only autonomous vehicle manufacturer using real-time cameras, rather than pre-mapped Lidar (Light Detection and Ranging) to guide vehicle movement. Tesla also uses its own AI chips, developed after early experience with N VIDIA  chips.      “It is a misconception that you can simply develop a driver-assistance system further until one day you can magically jump to a fully autonomous driving system,” stated John Krafcik, CEO of Waymo, the self-driving startup spun off from  Google’s X lab , in a recent interview with German business magazine  Manager Magazin , reported in  Observer .   Krafcik acknowledged that Tesla  “is developing a really good driver assistance system,” but very different. He said Waymo “manufactures a completely autonomous driving system…For us, Tesla is n