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Airtel joins hands with IBM

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NEW DELHI: IBM and Bharti Airtel, a premier communications solutions provider in India with more than 358 million subscribers, today announced their intent to work together to deploy Airtel’s edge computing platform in India, which will include 120 network data centers across 20 cities.

Once deployed, the platform is designed to enable large enterprises across multiple industries including manufacturing and automotive to accelerate innovative solutions that deliver new value to their clients and operations — securely at the edge.

Airtel’s edge computing platform, deployed as a hybrid environment based on IBM Cloud Satellite and Red Hat OpenShift®, extends secured and open cloud services wherever data resides. This can help improve business performance and customer experience by reducing latency while addressing data security and sovereignty requirements – which is critical as workloads increasingly shift to the edge.

The business value delivered by edge computing can be significantly enhanced when combined with 5G. In India, where 5G is expected to be rolled out later this year, it has the potential to create a cumulative economic impact of $1 trillion by 2035[1].

Speaking about the work, Ganesh Lakshminarayanan, CEO – Enterprise, Airtel Business said, “As India gears up to experience 5G, we see a massive opportunity to help businesses across industries transform how they deliver goods and services. We have the largest network of edge data centers available in India under the Nxtra brand and we will leverage our work with IBM to help Indian businesses address their critical business needs with greater efficiency, making it significantly easier for companies to process workloads where their data resides.”

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd, India’s largest passenger car maker, intends to use the edge platform to increase accuracy and efficiency for quality inspections on the factory floor. By deploying this platform, Maruti Suzuki expects to boost quality control and ensure their data remains protected at the edge.

“At Maruti Suzuki, we continuously strive to meet the highest quality standards by ensuring our processes and quality control are well above industry standards. Technology is a key enabler in this journey, helping boost quality, efficiency and deliver the next-gen user experience. We are excited to work with Airtel Business and IBM to set an even higher benchmark and explore the vast possibilities of deploying AI and analytics at the edge to augment the expertise of our workforce,” said Rajesh Uppal, Senior Executive Director, HR and IT, Maruti Suzuki.

The work between IBM and Airtel around embracing 5G was announced today at Think Mumbai. Airtel’s solution leverages IBM Maximo Visual Inspection for AI-enabled quality inspection. IBM Consulting is to lead the systems integration for the IBM platform. Through this hybrid cloud platform and IBM Consulting’s industry expertise and access to best-in-class technology and partners, IBM and Airtel Digital engineering teams will build use cases that leverage Airtel’s 5G connectivity and IBM’s hybrid cloud capabilities to address the pressing business issues faced by enterprise clients.

Harnessing Airtel’s 5G connectivity and highly secured edge computing capabilities from IBM can enable enterprises to deploy and manage workloads in near-real time. Industries including telecommunications, financial services, healthcare and government can benefit from reduced latency, high availability and increased connectivity speeds.

“As businesses – particularly those in regulated industries – work to modernize their infrastructures, they need to be able to do so in a way that enables them to stay compliant, without becoming overburdened by their compliance obligations — regardless of where their data resides,” said Howard Boville, Head of IBM Cloud Platform. “Teaming with Airtel to bring IBM’s hybrid cloud offerings to their Indian multi-access edge compute customers will help them embrace the opportunities presented by 5G and edge, like innovating with greater speed and security.”

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After OLED, its Google TV; Panasonic expands its TV Portfolio in India

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NEW DELHI: Panasonic Life Solutions India – a diversified technology company, today announced the launch of its new range of Google TVs. This follows the successful launch of OLEDs recently. The company plans to introduce a total of 23 new models of television powered by the Google TV platform.

The latest range of Google TVs, featuring 4K HDR and Smart capabilities are designed to provide an immersive and unparalleled viewing experience to consumers. Panasonic’s new range of TVs are available in different display size options (including 32’, 43’, 55’, 65’, and 75’ inches) and ranges between Rs 19,990 to Rs 3,19,990. These will be available at Panasonic stores, dealer networks and key e-commerce platforms.

Commenting during the launch, Fumiyasu Fujimori, Managing Director, Panasonic Marketing India, Panasonic Life Solutions India, said, “As a leading consumer technology company, we are excited to introduce our new range of Google TVs to the Indian market. Our TVs are designed to deliver exceptional picture quality and immersive sound, providing customers with an unparalleled viewing experience. The addition of Google TV to our robust TV portfolio reinforces our commitment to providing the latest technology, and innovation to the customers.”

Fujimori san added, “With an intuitive interface, preference prompts, one can control their TV and search for content using voice commands with Google Assistant. The platform also allows users to customize their home screen with their favourite OTT apps and channels and make their own watchlist, enabling them to add shows and movies from their TV, mobile app or Google Web by simply clicking the watchlist icon. Moreover, the platform offers an easy-to-browse streaming experience across all apps, displaying everything the user stream on one screen. In addition, the TVs come with built-in Chromecast, allowing users to cast content from their phone or tablet directly to their TV.”

Panasonic’s Google TV series is designed to provide customers with the ultimate entertainment experience by enhancing the four key elements of television – Display, Sound, Connectivity, and Design.

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White House meets Microsoft, Google CEOs on AI dangers

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The White House is hosting CEOs of top artificial intelligence companies, including Alphabet Inc’s Google and Microsoft, on Thursday to discuss risks and safeguards as the technology catches the attention of governments and lawmakers globally. Generative artificial intelligence has become a buzzword this year, with apps such as ChatGPT capturing the public’s fancy, sparking a rush among companies to launch similar products they believe will change the nature of work.

Millions of users have begun testing such tools, which supporters say can make medical diagnoses, write screenplays, create legal briefs and debug software, leading to growing concern about how the technology could lead to privacy violations, skew employment decisions, and power scams and misinformation campaigns. President Joe Biden has also used ChatGPT, a White House official told Reuters. “He’s been extensively briefed on ChatGPT and (has) experimented with it,” said the official, who asked that they not be named.

Thursday’s two-hour meeting which began at 11:45 am ET (1545 GMT), will include Google’s Sundar Pichai, Microsoft Corp’s Satya Nadella, OpenAI’s Sam Altman and Anthropic’s Dario Amodei, along with Vice President Kamala Harris and administration officials including Biden’s Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan, Director of the National Economic Council Lael Brainard and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. “We aim to have a frank discussion about the risks we see in current and near-term AI development,” said a senior administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity. “Our North Star here is this idea that if we’re going to seize these benefits, we have to start by managing the risks.”

Ahead of the meeting, OpenAI’s Altman told reporters the White House wants to “get it right.” “It’s good to try to get ahead of this,” he said when asked if the White House was moving quickly enough on AI regulation. “It’s definitely going to be a challenge, but it’s one I’m sure we can handle.”

The administration also announced a $140 million investment from the National Science Foundation to launch seven new AI research institutes and said the White House’s Office of Management and Budget would release policy guidance on the use of AI by the federal government. Leading AI developers, including Anthropic, Google, Hugging Face, NVIDIA Corp, OpenAI, and Stability AI, will participate in a public evaluation of their AI systems.

Shortly after Biden announced his reelection bid, the Republican National Committee produced a video featuring a dystopian future during a second Biden term, which was built entirely with AI imagery. Such political ads are expected to become more common as AI technology proliferates.

United States regulators have fallen short of the tough approach European governments have taken on tech regulation and in crafting strong rules on deepfakes and misinformation. “We don’t see this as a race,” the senior official said, adding that the administration is working closely with the U.S.-EU Trade & Technology Council on the issue.

In February, Biden signed an executive order directing federal agencies to eliminate bias in their AI use. The Biden administration has also released an AI Bill of Rights and a risk management framework. Last week, the Federal Trade Commission and the Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division also said they would use their legal authorities to fight AI-related harm. Tech giants have vowed many times to combat propaganda around elections, fake news about the COVID-19 vaccines, pornography and child exploitation, and hateful messaging targeting ethnic groups.

But they have been unsuccessful, research and news events show. Just about one in five fake news articles in English on six major social media platforms were tagged as misleading or removed, a recent study by activist NGO Avaaz found.

Source: Reuters

 

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Airtel announces its largest ever 5G roll-out in 125 cities

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NEW DELHI: Bharti Airtel, India’s telecommunications services provider, today announced the launch of its ultra-fast 5G services in 125 cities. Airtel 5G Plus service is now available to customers in over 265 cities in the country.

Airtel 5G Plus has three compelling advantages for customers. First, it runs on a technology that has the widest acceptance in the world with the most developed ecosystem. This ensures that all 5G smartphones in India seamlessly work on the Airtel network. Second, the company promises to deliver the best experience – between 20 to 30 times higher speeds than today coupled with brilliant voice experience and super-fast call connect. Finally, Airtel 5G Plus network will also be kinder to the environment with its special power reduction solution. Powered by the reliable Airtel network infrastructure, Airtel 5G Plus will provide superfast access to High-Definition video streaming, gaming, multiple chatting, instant uploading of photos et all.

Commenting on the launch, Randeep Sekhon, CTO, Bharti Airtel said, “5G has revolutionized the world of internet, ushering new era of connectivity and communications that will prove to be a game-changer for the country. At Airtel, we remain committed to delivering the highest quality of network and service to our customers as we roll-out 125 more cities today. Airtel was the first in the country to offer 5G services in October 2022, and today’s mega launch is our promise to connect every Airtel customer in the country with ultra-fast Airtel 5G Plus. Our 5G rollout is on track to cover all towns and key rural areas by March 2024.”

Airtel 5G Plus service availability will continue to rapidly expand – including service in all towns and villages in the country soon – as the company is working towards offering nationwide coverage. Airtel is now offering its 5G services in every major city from the upper northern city of Jammu to the southern tip of Kanyakumari.

In the last one year, Airtel has demonstrated the power of 5G with a host of powerful use cases that will change the way customers lead their lives and do business. From India’s first live 5G network in Hyderabad to India’s first private 5G network at the BOSCH facility in Bengaluru to partnering with Mahindra & Mahindra to make its Chakan manufacturing facility, India’s first 5G enabled auto manufacturing unit, Airtel has been at the forefront of 5G innovation.

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