Tag Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Business, Editorial

A Necessity to Optimise & Leverage The Cloud – Lessons From Carsome and 500 Startups

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Startups have become the norm nowadays. They’ve become a hallmark for not just the tech industry but also a thriving economy. However, when it comes down to it, the startup arena can also become one of the most brutal, unforgiving arenas any founder or individual can find themselves. The world has its eyes on Southeast Asia – Malaysia included – as its startup ecosystem teeters on the verge of another boom. The start-up arena has become one of the largest spaces for investment in the region, attracting some USD$1.48 billion in just Q1 of 2021 alone according to CB Insights. A significant chunk of 40.6% of this investment is driven by early-stage deals.

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Photo by Canva Studio on Pexels.com

So, the big question is, what do we do with this data? We’ve heard tonnes of startup stories – so, we’re offering a slightly different perspective. Let’s talk about the tech. Yes, not every startup is an app or tech-related. However, with the rapidly changing needs and challenges now, it has become even more important for startups to be able to adapt and react accordingly – in a word – AGILE. Again, it’s a term we’ve heard or read countless times. That said, it’s become even more important now that they do – it could be the difference between survival and disappearing into the ether.

Fail Efficiently, Innovate Quickly

Like a wise woman once sang – “Let’s start at the very beginning. A very good place to start…”. The world as we know it has changed over the past few decades. In fact, it’s changed in the past few years! The costs of starting a startup have reduced from USD$5 million in 1999 to just over USD$50,000 in 2010 and continue to decline.

The biggest difference? The Cloud.  Cloud computing has significantly reduced the capital needed to start-up enterprises and it will continue to do so. Companies like Amazon Web Services (AWS) are enabling agility and cost-efficiency. They are enabling startups to take off with no upfront costs but most importantly they encourage startups to experiment and fail fast – allowing them to move forward with innovating their next approach. Each failure allows startups to learn, optimise and eventually succeed.

“The great thing about startups is the ability to start small and learn as you go. So long as you get the foundations right – such as ensuring you are secure by design from the outset – it won’t matter so much if you make the odd misstep along the way, because the consequences will be small.”

Digbijoy Shukla, Business Development Lead, Startup Business Development ASEAN, AWS
Digbijoy Shukla Business Development Lead Startup Business Development ASEAN AWS

These flexibilities are key in startups as it goes without saying – the road to their success is how fast they are able to present and prove their concept. The ability to provision and decommission servers and technological resources quickly and efficiently will help these start-ups further optimise and conserve resources. With this inherent efficiency built in it falls to start-ups and their management to take advantage of the tools at their fingertips to enhance their offering, evolve their approach and embrace the insights they are privy to.

AWS Article Carsome Stock Photos 001
Source: Adobe Stock

The Right Cloud Computing Partners can determine the Success of Startups

The ability to fail fast and experiment comes secondary to the tools any startup has at its disposal. Cloud computing continues to be a necessity simply because of its robust offerings. Going digital is no more about changing typewriters to desktops, it’s about a set of tools that allow you to create, adapt and react to ensure that the company is meeting its clients’ and customers’ needs.

Khailee Ng Managing Partner 500 Startups

“It’s critical to align yourself with the right partners and support as early as possible. Folks like 500 Startups and AWS aren’t here to be new and trendy, we’ve been part of the core ecosystem infrastructure since the early days.”

Khailee Ng, Managing Partner, 500 Startups

Choosing the right cloud, then, is an essential part of a start-up’s success. It’s like choosing the right business partner, you need someone who believes in your vision and complements your skills with the correct tools. With the number of Cloud providers continually increasing, start-ups are forced to make a choice based on the needs and skill level of their organisation.

In our session with AWS, Khailee Ng, Managing Partner at 500 Startups, stressed that getting the right partner can be akin to getting that first investment. Programs like AWS Activate enable startups to continue experimenting and functioning while upskilling and adapting. It creates a simultaneous process in which founders, staff and enablers are continually interacting and improving. In fact, programmes like AWS Activate essentially provide startups with an infusion of not just credits for experimentation and setting up, it provides a platform for startups to learn and implement the relevant knowledge for their success. AWS also provides technical support which allows non-technical founders to also benefit.

Scale, Pivot and React with Actionable Insights from the Cloud

Being on the Cloud is not always about cost or efficiency. It’s about the amount of data that will be available from the experimentation and even day to day usage of services and products. The data and insights that it gives will invariably determine the direction in which the startup can grow. In fact, if utilised properly, this data can even provide insights into new niches and services that can grow the startup’s user base and open new markets.

Eric Cheng Co founder CEO Carsome

In the initial six months, we were a car listings site. We pivoted the business in 2016, based on the data. We then extended our sales online, with customer benefits such as five days money back guarantee. Our (sales) pickup rate became much stronger, as we saw the same level of sales (as what we experienced) before the lockdowns. It’s really all about navigating successfully through this crisis.”

Eric Cheng, Co-Founder and CEO of Carsome, an integrated car e-commerce platform
AWS Article Carsome Stock Photos 002
Source: Adobe Stock

Take, for instance, Malaysian born startup – Carsome which started as a platform for searching for second-hand cars. The company ended up pivoting to complement its pre-existing service. They expanded to include the sales and purchase of these vehicles based on insights derived from the data generated by their users. They were able to gain insights that highlighted a niche that they could occupy; more importantly, it complemented their existing product. With these insights, they were quickly able to adapt, react and develop an offering that enhanced their product and led to exponential growth. They continue to use this data to enhance their service and ensure user happiness.

Of course, the Cloud doesn’t just provide for actionable insights and agility. It’s also about offloading mundane tasks and leveraging offerings like AWS Sagemaker. Implementing AI and Machine Learning in taking over tasks that can and should be automated will allow startups to focus their workforce on more pertinent tasks that will allow them to differentiate themselves further. Focusing on what is important will allow startups to eventually be able to scale. Of course, this doesn’t mean that vital tasks are offloaded, but it does mean that startups are able to maximise efficiency and optimise their workforce allowing them to flourish.

The Cloud Is Not the Future, It is Now

We keep hearing that the Cloud is the future. In truth, startups and companies that fail to adopt and adapt are bound to be held back by their own inefficiencies and stigmas. It is crucial that we realise that the Cloud is now – it’s not the future; at least, not anymore. Leveraging the Cloud and its many tools is a pivotal skill that startups need to develop. In fact, it would not be unfounded to say that it is a skill that all organisations should already be developing.

We are at a stage in the world where technology has already proliferated every aspect of our lives; from our entertainment to our work and even in our day-to-day lives. Why then are we hesitant to adopt it at scale to increase our own efficiencies and productivity? Why are we hesitant to put technology – already available – to use to increase profitability?

Startups cannot wait to adopt Cloud computing anymore. In fact, they are setting themselves up for failure without the proper Cloud and the willingness to learn how to use it. You don’t need to be a rocket scientist to put technology to work for you in this day.

Business, Editorial

Cloud, 5G, Machine Learning & Space: Digital Trends Shaping the Future

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The world is arguably never going to be the same after the COVID-19 pandemic. The sentiment rings true in many aspects and sectors even now, a year on. However, the effects of the pandemic have spurred our normal to take a digital shift in which more companies are accelerating their digital transformation journeys with some further than others. That said, the adoption of technologies has created waves and trends that seem to be influencing everything in our lives.

In a nutshell, these trends are going to change the way we approach a whole myriad of thing from the way we work to the way we shop. We’re seeing businesses like your regular mom and pop shops adopt cloud technologies to help spur growth while digital native businesses and companies are doing the same to adapt to the ever-changing circumstances. The adoption of technologies and, in particular, cloud technologies, is building resilience in businesses like never before.

Our interview with the Lead Technologist for the Asia Pacific Region at Amazon Web Services (AWS), Mr Olivier Klein, sheds even more light on the trends that have and continue to emerge as businesses continue to navigate the pandemic and digitisation continues.

The Cloud Will Be Everywhere

As we see more and more businesses adopt technologies, a growing number of large, medium and small businesses will turn to cloud computing to stay competitive. In fact, businesses will be adopting cloud computing not only for agility but due to increasing expectations that will come from their customers. However, when referring to “The Cloud”, we are not only talking about things like machine learning, high performance computing, IoT and artificial intelligence (AI); we’re also talking about the simple things like data analytics and using digital channels.

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Photo by PhotoMIX Company from Pexels

Digitization journeys are creating expectations on businesses to be agile and adaptable. That said, businesses with humble beginnings like Malaysia’s TF Value-Mart have been able to scale thanks to their willingness to modernize and migrate to the cloud. Their adoption of cloud technologies has created a more secure digital environment for their business and has augmented their speed and scalability. This has allowed them to scale from a single, mom and pop store in Bentong in 1998 to over 37 outlets today.

The demand for cloud solution is increasing and there’s no deny it. Even businesses like AWS have had to expand to accommodate the growing demands for digital infrastructure and services. The company has scaled from 4 regions in their first 5 years to 13 regions today with more coming in the near future. AWS’s upcoming regions include six upcoming regions, of which four are in Asia Pacific: in Jakarta, Hyderabad, Osaka and Melbourne.

Edge Computing Spurred by 5G & Work From Anywhere

In fact, according to Mr Klein, AWS sees the next push in Cloud Computing coming from the ASEAN region. This will, primarily, be spurred by the region’s adoption of 5G technologies. Countries like Japan and Singapore are already leading the way with Malaysia and other countries close behind. The emergence of 5G technologies is creating a new demand for technologies that allow businesses to have a more hybrid approach to their utilisation of Cloud technologies.

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As companies continue to scale and innovate, a growing demand is emerging for lower latencies. While 5G allows low latency connections, some are beginning to require access to scalable cloud technologies on premises. Data security and low latency computing are primary drives behind this demand. Businesses are innovating faster than ever before and require some of their workloads to happen quicker with faster results. As a result, we see a growing need for services like AWS Outpost which allows businesses to bring cloud services on premises, and with their recent announcement at AWS re:Invent, Outposts are becoming even more accessible.

Edge computing is also part and parcel of cloud computing as the mode in which we work continues to change. With most businesses forced to work remotely during the pandemic, the trend seems to be sticking; companies are beginning to adopt a work from anywhere policy which allows for more employee flexibility and increased productivity. That said, not all workloads are able to follow where workers go. With the adoption of 5G, that is no longer the case. Businesses will be able to adopt services like AWS Wavelength to enable low latency connection to cloud services empowering the work from anywhere policies.

The same rings true when it comes to education. The growth experienced in the adoption of remote learning will continue. Services like Zoom and Blue Jeans have become integral tools for educators to reach their students and will continue to see their roles expand as educational institutions continue to see the increased importance of remote learning.

Machine Learning is The Way

As edge computing and Cloud become the norm, so too will machine learning. Machine learning is enabling companies to adopt new approaches and adapt to changing circumstances. The adoption of machine learning solutions has paved the way to new expectations from customers that has and will continue to spur its adoption. In fact, Mr Klein, tells us that businesses will not only be adopting machine learning for automation but also to provide better customer experiences. What’s more, a growing number of their customers are also going to expect it.

Machine Learning’s prevalence is going to grow in the coming years – that’s a given. Customers and users have already had their experiences augmented by AI and machine learning. This has and continues to create expectations on how user experiences should be. Take for instance, services like Netflix have been using machine learning and AI to recommend and surface content to their users. Newer streaming services which lack these integrations are seen to be subpar and are criticised by users.

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Photo by Lenny Kuhne on Unsplash

Aside from user experiences, businesses are getting more accustomed to using machine learning to provide insights when it comes to making decision making and automating business operations. It has also enabled companies to innovate more readily. These conveniences will also be one of the largest factors in the increasing prevalence. It will also see increased adoption which will be largely attributed to the adoption and development of autonomous vehicles and other augmented solutions.

Companies like Moderna have been utilising machine learning to help create and innovate in their arena. They have benefitted from adopting machine learning in their labs and manufacturing processes. This has also allowed them to develop their mRNA vaccines which are currently being deployed to combat COVID-19.

To Infinity & Beyond

The growing adoption of digital and cloud solutions is also spurring a new wave of technologies which allow businesses deeper insights. These technologies allow businesses to access insights gained from satellite imaging. Data such as ground imaging and even ocean imaging can be used to gain actionable insights for businesses. Use cases are beginning to emerge from business involved in logistics, search and rescue and even retail.

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Photo by NASA on Unsplash

However, the cost of building and putting a satellite in orbit is nonsensical for a business. That said, we already have thousands of them in orbit and it would make more sense to use them to help gain these insights. AWS is already introducing AWS Ground Station – a fully managed serve that gives businesses access to satellites to collect and downlink data which can then be processes in AWS Cloud.

These trends are simply a glance into an increasingly digitised and connected world where possibilities seem to be endless. Businesses are at the cusp of an age that will see them flourish if they are agile and willing to adopt new technologies and approaches that are, at this time, novel and unexplored.

Business, Health

Acer Expands to Healthcare with a Focus on AI-Assisted Diagnostics

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Acer has been really busy in the recent past expanding its portfolio to become a more well-rounded tech and lifestyle company. In recent years, the company has already introduced the Predator Shot, an energy drink targeted at gamers, the Predator Gaming Chair, a collaborative effort with OSIM, and even a brand new brand – Acerpure. The company isn’t just stopping there though. It looks like they are expanding into the healthcare segment and it’s happening really soon.

In an interview session with the media, President of Acer Pan Asia Pacific Operations, Mr Andrew Hou, unwittingly revealed that the company would be exploring opportunities in healthcare in the near future. Upon further investigation, we found that Acer has already set up a new subsidiary, Acer Healthcare. The company is listed in the Tracxn database and is noted to be founded in 2019. Acer has also set up an official website for Acer Healthcare.

Source: Channel News Asia / Mr Andrew Hou, President of Acer Pan Pacific Operations

It looks like Acer is looking to leverage its prowess in dealing with data and technology to help bridge the closing gap between technology and medicine. Acer Healthcare seems to be looking into using AI-powered devices to help with diagnosis and patient monitoring. The field has been growing in the past few years with multiple startups and companies exploring opportunities and new technologies that can help better diagnose patients.

Acer Healthcare has already released a product called VeriSee DR, an AI-assisted solution for diagnosing Diabetic Retinopathy – a condition that affects close to 130 million people worldwide. Using Acer’s VeriSee DR, the condition can be diagnosed by utilising AI to analyse pictures of patients’ ocular fundus (the interior of the eye) for signs of diabetic retinopathy. According to their website, the technology works with a 95% sensitivity with 90% specificity for diagnosis. In fact, Acer Healthcare has ongoing clinical trials with the VeriSee DR and has published research on it in multiple medical journals.

anonymous oculist examining vision of patient on eye screener
Photo by Ksenia Chernaya on Pexels.com

In addition to VeriSee DR, it looks like Acer Healthcare is focusing on research and development of new diagnostic technologies using AI. Of note are a few currently listed research projects which include the diagnosis of heart arrhythmia using AI analysis of data collected from continual detection using an Acer Leap Ware wearable device and the diagnosis of renal impairment through retinal fundus imaging. While it does seem like the company’s focus is on diagnostic technologies they are also working on technologies for medical record and referrals as well.

Computers, News

HP Unveils the HP EliteOne 800 All-in-One with AI Noise Reduction

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Source: HP / HP EliteOne 800

With the world moving to embrace the work from anywhere culture, it is becoming increasingly imperative that we have capable setups both at work and at home. A third of the workforce is expected to continue splitting their time between home and office even after the pandemic. HP is looking to provide an option with their new HP EliteOne 800 All-in-One (AiO).

Source: HP / HP EliteOne 800

The new AiO from HP is being touted as a virtual conference powerhouse for both home and office. It comes in two sizes – 23.8-inch and 27-inch. Both versions come with an integrated pop-up webcam which not only allows you to connect with colleagues and loved ones but also allows you to put it away when you’re not using it, helping maintain your privacy. HP is also offering an option for a dual-facing 5-megapixel camera which bring additional features including intelligent face tracking which tracks the user’s face allowing them to move about during video calls without being out of focus. It also dynamically adapts to lighting for optimal video quality.

Source: HP / HP EliteOne 800

The HP EliteOne 800 AiO comes with AI Noise Reduction which helps minimise background sounds. The integrated AI helps reduce not only outbound noises but also inbound ones. This will help ensure that you’re heard on the other end even if it gets a little bit noisy. This paired with HP’s run quiet design which maximises airflow and keeps the system running cool and quiet. Your data is also kept secure when you walk away from your PC with the EliteOne 800 AiO with HP’s Presence Aware. The AiO is powered with the latest Intel Core processors paired with high-performance memory and RAM to fit your needs.

Source: HP / HP EliteDesk 800 Desktop Mini

Together with the AiO, HP also announced a new line up of EliteDesk desktops which are configurable to meet the needs of any workspace. The EliteDesk 800 comes in three form factors: the Desktop Mini, Small Form Factor and Tower. These desktops are designed for different workspace needs. The EliteDesk 800 Desktop Mini and Small Form Factor are designed to minimise the physical footprint of the desktop while keeping it cool and packed with power while the Tower is built for ultimate expandability.

Pricing & Availability

No official pricing has been announced by HP for the AiO or desktops just yet. However, it is expected that they will be available worldwide in May.

Business, Computers, News

NVIDIA Grace CPU for Datacentres for Next Generation Super Computers

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NVIDIA’s GTC 2021 just happened last night. If you remembered 2020, you would remember that GTC 2020 was also the time where NVIDIA introduced their new A100 GPU chips for super computers. 2020 was also the yea NVIDIA launched their highly anticipated, and highly capable RTX 3000 series consumer grade GPUs.

GTC’s keynote is always a highly anticipated event. Not because the conference always brings a new GPU. Recent years of GTC has always been exciting because somehow GPU is able to push the limits of what is possible with computing and cloud. NVIDIA has made itself relevant not just in the graphics world, but also in the super computing world, Artificial Intelligence (AI), and even cybersecurity. NVIDIA’s own AI even composed its own song, and it is a good song mind you.

With GTC 2021, NVIDIA shows that they are not done innovating just yet. Now, they also want to give the likes of Intel a new sort of headache. NVIDIA has introduced Project Grace.

Source: NVIDIA

NVIDIA’s CEO, Jensen Huang mentions that the name Grace refers to a particular pioneer in the computer science field, Grace Hopper. The project is NVIDIA’s first dip into the datacentre CPU industry. Fitting to the Grace Hopper namesake, project Grace is supposed to be 10x more powerful than the current NVIDIA GDX x86 supercomputer platform.

Why is this a problem for Intel? The world’s fastest supercomputer today is all powered by Intel’s x86 CPU platform. The x86 platform has also existed for about a decade now and the platform has approached its technological limits in 2021. Of course, NVIDIA took matters into their own hands and the Grace CPU is an ARM based chip for the fastest ever datacentre and servers in the world.

Just saying that the CPU will be the fastest ever server-based CPU though means nothing. What you want to know is numbers, and these are big numbers. The new Grace architecture allows the CPU and GPU to communicate at up to 900GB/s speed thanks to NVLink technology. According to NVIDIA, that is 30x faster than most servers today. Of course, paired to LPDDR5x memory modules, you get up to 10x the speed of today’s machines.

Before anyone can say that NVIDIA’s Grace dreams is just that; dreams, NVIDIA also announced that they will be installing their Grace based datacentre in the United States Department of Energy’s Los Alamos National Labrotory and the Swiss National Supercomputing Centre (CSCS). The two clients will feature their very own NVIDIA powered supercomputer soon.

Source: NVIDIA

In those two places though, the servers and supercomputers are not built just to push cloud storage to corporations. They are purpose built for AI training and implementations. They are built for neural and language programming and training. They are built to progress humanity and probably cure cancer one day.

Of course, because Grace is a giant processor made for datacentres and supercomputers, we will not be expecting to see NVIDIA dive into consumer level ARM-based processors for PCs anytime soon. NVIDIA is working with MediaTek to bring their GPU technology into the mobile space and even ARM based PCs though. In that case, us regular consumers can expect a Qualcomm Snapdragon notebook PC with NVIDIA GeForce graphics power soon, probably. Catch NVIDIA’s GTC 2021 keynote on their website.

Business, News

Aruba ClearPass Security Portfolio Recognised for Ability to Reduce Risk

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As companies continue in their digitization journeys, they are seeing an increased need for solutions that are able to mitigate risk. However, with the many solutions in the market, it can be daunting for them to discern between them. Marsh, a global insurance broking and risk management firm, has come up with a program called Cyber Catalyst which recognises and certifies cybersecurity solutions for their effectiveness across a set of criteria including the effectiveness, efficiency and viability of the solution. For the second time, one of Aruba’s security offerings has been recognised for its efficacy as part of the Cyber Catalyst Program.

Aruba’s ClearPass Suite of identity-based access control solutions has been recognised in the Cyber Catalyst program. The ClearPass suite encompasses an array of individual, AI-driven services which allow organisations to have better visibility of their network activity. It allows businesses to scale – even with the rigours of remote work – effectively without compromising network and data security through the implementation of automated device compliance policies and even through BYOD provisioning. Aruba’s ClearPass covers everything from onboarding, policy control, remote management and even guest access security.

Aruba’s ClearPass joins its Policy Enforcement Firewall (PEF) which received the same recognition in 2019. As two of their services have now been recognised, the company now boasts an integrated identity-based network access control solution. Aruba’s offerings are now a comprehensive approach to Zero Trust and Security Access Service Edge (SASE) frameworks.

Editorial, Health

The Future of Health Lies in Technology But We’re Not Ready According to the Philips Future Health Index

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It goes without saying that technology is seeping into every aspect of our lives. This was a theme that Philips found to be true even when it comes to the medical field. In fact, technology is becoming so ubiquitous that the Future Health Index (FHI) has indicated that in a broad sense, the field of medicine simply isn’t ready. Their yearly survey of younger medical professionals had very interesting findings this round given that it was commissioned in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Younger Doctors Want Technology – It is the Key to value-based healthcare

In its fifth year, the Future Health Index found, among other things, that younger doctors are open to adopting technologies to assist in the mundane, repetitive tasks of medicine. In fact, nearly one in three doctors saw benefits in adopting technologies such as artificial intelligence, automation and telehealth in the day to day functions of medicine. 76% of doctors also cited that the adoption of technologies was able to help with decreasing the stresses of medical practice – one of the main worries with frontliners in the current pandemic.

However, the findings of Philip’s FHI show that key competencies which are key to a digital healthcare system are lacking in basic medical training – of interest is the lack of data competencies among younger medical professionals. In the FHI, about 47% of respondents found that they were left in the lurches when it came to key data competencies. Skillsets such as data analysis and interpretation were among the skills that were cited. Another notable competency when it came to data, was the management of data privacy, one of the current growing concerns of society.

Photo by Günter Valda on Unsplash

These particular findings highlight a robust issue that should be tackled in academia as well as with continuing medical education. Only 54% of doctors in Asia Pacific reported receiving training to address the legislative issues pertaining to data privacy while only 51% were receiving training in handling data.

These competencies are key in the current shift towards value-based healthcare. A healthcare model that measures patient outcomes as a key factor in determining the value of healthcare. While there is a good awareness of the term in the Asia Pacific region (82%), drilling further found that an alarming 4% knew what it was entirely. The majority of doctors surveyed only knew it by name.

While that may be a concern, the integration of technology into everyday healthcare and patient care is key in a value-based system. Only when doctors can access, interpret and analyse the data coming from adopted technologies, can they truly access the quality of healthcare. Key appreciations of technology in reducing their mundane workloads need to be more pervasive.

Technology in Improving Healthcare

Technology plays a vital role in creating a more efficient and effective standard of health. In their FHI, Philips found that a majority of younger doctors are advocates of adopting newer technologies. They see value in adopting the right technologies in creating a better standard of care.

However, in countries like Malaysia, these doctors are facing issues even with the simplest issue of automation of administrative tasks. That said, medical practice is being revolutionised by technologies that were once farfetched are becoming a reality. As the issue of personalised healthcare comes to the forefront, we have an increasing amount of doctors across the Asia Pacific region who see the benefits of having Artificial intelligence applied in the field. 74% surveyed opportunities to offer more personalised care while 79% believed that AI would help with more accurate diagnoses.

Photo by National Cancer Institute on Unsplash

That said, for AI to be effective, data needs to be made readily available. Nevertheless, the medical industry faces a data conundrum – should more effective and personalized healthcare come at the expense of data privacy? That said, the conundrum is addressed by anonymizing patient data to allow ready access. However, with the multiple data silos created by multiple software platforms, doctors are strained to have any actionable insights.

Interoperability is becoming a hurdle as hospitals and even clinics begin adopting new technologies that are not speaking to each other. This lack of interoperability creates data silos which doctors have to manually import and analyse. With a more cohesive digital architecture, doctors will be able to access a more holistic view of patient data and outcomes; and with the state of AI and machine learning now, they will be able to get even more insights to tough cases.

Technology isn’t just for the betterment of patient care, the FHI has also found that younger doctors report being less stressed at work when technologies are adopted effectively. The psychological benefits of reduced stress on the doctors will undoubtedly benefit patient care in the long run.

Looking to the Future & What the Medical Field can Learn from the Digitisation of Other Industries

Younger doctors are the key to the field of medicine progressing into the future. When it comes to their willingness to learn, it comes as no surprise that these doctors are spearheading the charge to adopt and learn new skills to remedy the skills gap that is emerging. However, it now falls to academia to address the needs in the nascent class of doctors emerging from their institutions into a field of medical practice that is both familiar and different.

What remains is for the medical industry to look to others who have a head start in dealing with the issues they are facing now. New technologies being adopted such as Kubernetes and the cloud could see the medical industry getting a quantum leap when it comes to patient care and medical breakthroughs.

Photo by Bofu Shaw on Unsplash

There is no better proof of the benefits of adopting the right technology than the state of vaccines for COVID-19. In a matter of months, multiple vaccine candidates have been developed. Some candidates such as the mRNA vaccine are revolutionary approaches which were made possible with the augmentation of human ingenuity with the insights derived from machine learning and AI.

In addition to technologies, their adoption needs a fundamental change in attitudes and values in the industry as well. Younger Doctors are already aware of these attitudes with an increasing number looking to autonomy in their practices. They also look to workspaces which are collaborative and have access to the latest medical equipment. However, more importantly, they look to a culture that supports work-life balance.

As with any industry, a majority of the attitudes will need a top-down approach; spearheaded by veteran doctors and administrators in hospitals and practices. It goes without saying that the agility needed to adapt and adopt new technologies and approaches must be spearheaded by leadership. They will also need to look into empowering younger doctors to be bold in their approaches and use of new technologies.

Computers, Contributed, Editorial

We’re in the Golden Age of Machine Learning, Tomorrow it will be Ubiquitous – Four Things We Need to Do Now

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Today, thanks in large part to the cloud, actions such as communicating over text or transferring funds digitally are so commonplace, we hardly even think about how incredible these processes are; as we enter the golden age of machine learning, we can expect a similar boom of benefits that previously seemed impossible.

Machine learning is already helping companies make better and faster decisions. In healthcare, the use of predictive models created with machine learning is accelerating research and discovery of new drugs and treatment regiments. In other industries, it’s helping remote villages of Southeast Africa gain access to financial services, and matching individuals experiencing homelessness with housing.

While the short term applications are encouraging, machine learning could potentially have an even greater impact on our society. In the future, machine learning will be intertwined and under the hood of almost every application, business process, and end-user experience. However, before this technology becomes so ubiquitous that it’s almost boring, there are four key barriers to adoption we need to clear first.

Democratizing machine learning

The only way that machine learning will truly scale is if we as an industry make it easier for everyone – regardless of their skill level or resources – to be able to incorporate this sophisticated technology into applications and business processes.

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Photo by cottonbro on Pexels.com

To achieve this, companies should take advantage of tools that have intelligence directly built into applications that their entire organization can benefit from. For instance, 123RF, a homegrown stock photography portal, aims to make design smarter, faster, and easier for users. To do so, it relies on Amazon Athena, Amazon Kinesis, and AWS Lambda for data pipeline processing. Its newer product Designs.ai Videomaker uses Amazon Polly to create voice-overs in more than 10 different languages. With AWS, 123RF has maintained flexibility in scaling its infrastructure and shortened product development cycles and is looking to incorporate other services to support its machine learning & AI research.

As processes go from being manual to automatic, workers are free to innovate and invent, and companies are empowered to be proactive instead of reactive. And as this technology becomes more intuitive and accessible, it can be applied to nearly every problem imaginable–from the toughest challenges in the IT department, to the biggest environmental issues in the world.

Upskilling workers

According to the World Economic Forum, the growth of AI could create 58 million net new jobs in the next few years. However, research suggests that there are currently only 300,000 AI engineers worldwide, and AI-related job postings are three times that of job searches with a widening divergence. Given this significant gap, organizations need to recognize that they simply aren’t going to be able to hire all the data scientists they need as they continue to implement machine learning into their work. Moreover, this pace of innovation will open doors and ultimately create jobs we can’t even begin to imagine today.

That’s why companies in the region like Asia Pacific University, DBS, Halodoc and others are finding innovative ways to encourage and nurture more young talents to gain new machine learning skills in fun, interactive hands-on ways, such as the AWS DeepRacer League. It’s critical that organizations should not only direct their efforts towards training the workforce they have with machine learning skills, but also invest in training programs that develop these important skills in the workforce of tomorrow.

Instilling trust in products

With anything new, often people are of two minds – either an emerging technology is a panacea and global savior, or it is a destructive force with cataclysmic tendencies. The reality is more often than not, a nuance somewhere in the middle. These disparate perspectives can be reconciled with information, transparency, and trust.

Photo by Arseny Togulev on Unsplash

As a first step, leaders in the industry need to help companies and communities learn about machine learning, how it works, where it can be applied, ways to use it responsibly, and understand what it is not.

Second, in order to gain faith in machine learning products, they need to be built by diverse groups of people across gender, race, age, national origin, sexual orientation, disability, culture, and education. We will all benefit from individuals who bring varying backgrounds, ideas, and points of view to inventing new machine learning products.

Third, machine learning services should be rigorously tested, measuring accuracy against third party benchmarks. Benchmarks should be established by academia, as well as governments, and be applied to any machine learning-based service, creating a rubric for reliable results, as well as contextualizing results for use cases.

Regulation of machine learning

Finally, as a society, we need to agree on what parameters should be put in place governing how and when machine learning can be used. With any new technology, there has to be a balance in protecting civil rights while also allowing for continued innovation and practical application of the technology.

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Photo by Sora Shimazaki on Pexels.com

Any organization working with machine learning technology should be engaging customers, researchers, academics, and others to best determine the benefits of its machine learning technology with the potential risks. And they should be in active conversation with policymakers, supporting legislation, and creating their own guidelines for the responsible use of machine learning technology. Transparency, open dialogue, and constant evaluation must always be prioritized to ensure that machine learning is applied appropriately and is continuously enhanced.

What’s next

Through machine learning we’ve already accomplished so much, and yet, it’s still day one (and we haven’t even had a cup coffee yet!). If we’re using machine learning to help endangered orangutans, just imagine how it could be used to help save and preserve our oceans and marine life. If we’re using this technology to create digital snapshots of the planet’s forests in real-time, imagine how it could be used to predict and prevent forest fires. If machine learning can be used to help connect small-holder farmers to the people and resources they need to achieve their economic potential, imagine how it could help end world hunger.

To achieve this reality, we as an industry, have a lot of work ahead of us. I’m incredibly optimistic that machine learning will help us solve some of the world’s toughest challenges and create amazing end-user experiences we’ve never even dreamt. Before we know it, machine learning will be as familiar as reaching for our phones.

Accessories, Consumer Electronics, Lifestyle, News

Tune out the world with the new Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro

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Together with the new Galaxy S21 series, Samsung has announced a new addition to their wearables specifically their Galaxy Buds. The new Galaxy Buds Pro comes with a new design language, better features and a more comfortable fit. Samsung says that the design of the Galaxy Buds Pro comes inspired by last year’s Galaxy Buds Live. That said, the Galaxy Buds Pro seems to have more in common with the Galaxy Buds+ when it comes to design cues.

The Galaxy Buds Pro comes with one of the most wanted features for the Galaxy Buds line up: IP certification. It comes with an IPX7 dust and water resistance rating meaning that you won’t have to worry about the Buds malfunctioning after your run. However, they still aren’t rated for swimming.

IP rating aside, the main system of the Galaxy Buds Pro consists of an 11 mm woofer and 6.5mm tweeters. Samsung claims that the new Buds are one of the most sophisticated audio products that they have made. With the AKG tuned audio from the new setup, users should be able to experience deep bases and warm mids and thrilling highs. In addition to these improvements, the Pros are also the first Buds to support 360 Audio. This means that your audio experience will be even more immersive than ever before. 360 Audio allows you to experience sound as if it was coming from around you.

Improved ANC with AI Augmentation

Aside from that, the new Galaxy Buds Pro comes with three mics this time around for an improved Active Noise Cancellation (ANC). The new ANC approach uses a three microphone system to filter ambient noise. The system consists of a high signal-to-noise (SNR) microphone which should reduce the vacuum effect of ANC and increase the amount of noise effectively filtered out. This is paired with an outer microphone that measures ambient noise as well as detects active voice for its voice pass-through. The third microphone is an inner microphone which allows the ANC to maintain pressure balance which maintains comfort. With this new system, the Pros are able to filter out 99% of ambient noise.

Samsung has augmented the Pro with AI. The Buds Pro comes with adjustable ANC; users can select between four different levels. The Buds Pro is also the first Galaxy Buds where ANC works in tandem with ambient sound. This allows the Buds to dynamically switch between ANC and ambient sound; allowing you to interact with people without the need to switch ANC off. In addition, the Pro can automatically switch between devices. If you’re connected to your Tablet watching a movie and you get a call on your phone, the Buds Pro will automatically pause your movie and switch to the phone for you to answer.

The Galaxy Buds Pro comes with up to 8 hours active playback time. It can have up to 28 hours with top ups from the case. That said, if you need a quick top up, you can get 1 hour of playtime with 5 minutes of fast charge.

Pricing & Availability

The Samsung Galaxy Buds Pro will be available starting 15 January 2021 for USD$199.99 (MYR807.16). It will come in Phantom Violet, Phantom Silver and Phantom Black.

It will be retailing in Malaysia for MYR799. Pre-orders start on 15 January, 2021.

Business, News

Maxis Becomes First Malaysian Telco Accredited as AWS Advanced Consulting Partner

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Maxis is one of the only telecommunications companies in Malaysia already embracing the cloud. The company embarked on its journey to become a one-stop provider for connectivity and infrastructure for Malaysia back in 2019 with an early partnership with AWS (Amazon Web Services) who is currently the most prolific web service platform in the world. Today, they are announcing that they have successfully achieved new accreditation as an AWS Advanced Consulting Partner; making them the only telecommunications company in Malaysia to have done so. This solidifies their claim to being one of the most equipped converged solutions providers in the country.

The new accreditation certifies that Maxis is equipped to provide its customers and partners with the technical support and know-how to migrate and sustain their businesses in the cloud. To achieve this, Maxis has to demonstrate a sustained competency in their workforce equipped and certified by AWS for the many services that their platform provides. This includes taking advantage of the Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence components available on AWS.

In addition to this, Maxis is now also offering AWS Direct Connect. AWS Direct Connect allows customers to access AWS directly via a dedicated network connection with one of the many AWS Connect locations using industry-standard 802.1q VLANs. This also allows customers to partition the connection into multiple virtual interfaces easing access to object instances in the AWS public and private clouds while maintaining network separation.

The new accreditation comes on the heels of Maxis having announced key acquisitions that have bolstered the company’s position as one of the most equipped telecommunications companies in Malaysia able to empower businesses in their digitization journey. The company has also been certified in the AWS Public Sector Partner program with over 300 Maxis employees being accredited and undergone comprehensive training by AWS.