The Quadrant View

The entertainment industry will be in for a surprise this week. Popular cybersecurity leader IronNet, Inc., and IT procurement services provider JUMP Global Technology Advisors (GTA) have joined hands to announce an initiative aimed at defending the entertainment sector from cyberattacks. While most industries that nations depend on for economic stability, such as the financial sector, electric grid, and more, are natural beneficiaries of security against cyberattacks, the entertainment industry hasn’t exactly been on the radar of any company/establishment. To that end, JUMP GTA and IronNet have recognized that protecting this industry is as important as protecting the others, hence the initiative to deploy advanced threat detection and bring forth sharing of attack intelligence in real time to this industry. Walter Thurmond III, Managing Director, JUMP, has been quoted to state that it is of utmost importance to make sure entertainment companies work amid a secure digital environme...

Automotive giant Mercedes and technology conglomerate IBM have made it to the headlines for their recent collaboration. Both the companies have announced that they have successfully developed the ‘Urban Guard - Stolen Vehicle Help’ – a service designed for the Mercedes me app that help recover stolen vehicles. The solution expands on an earlier partnership between Daimler (Mercedes' parent company) and IBM that aimed to develop connected car services. According to Juergen Braun, VP and Industry Leader Industrial, Automotive, IBM DACH, connected car experiences are very important, given that today’s consumers are as inclined toward digital, connected services as they are toward the vehicle’s drive performance. To that end, Mercedes has developed connected car services to engage better with its customers and safeguard their investment, Braun added. IBM and Mercedes have worked to build the ‘Urban Guard – Stolen Vehicle Help’ into the Mercedes me App and have suitably designed it t...

Technology conglomerate IBM has reportedly announced vital details of its new processor at the annual Hot Chips conference. The company revealed that the IBM Telum Processor has been efficiently designed to address frauds in real time, by bringing in deep learning inference to enterprise workloads. For the unversed, Telum is IBM's first processor embedded with on-chip acceleration for inferencing AI during a transaction. The processor has been in development for three years, and has been designed to help customers accomplish major business insights, across the BFSI industry. The 2020 Consumer Sentinel Network Databook by the Federal Trade Commission has reported that more than USD 3.3 billion had been lost to fraud in 2020, a considerable increase from USD 1.8 billion in 2019. Using Telum however, will help clients to shift the paradigm to a fraud prevention posture from a fraud detection posture, thereby aiming for a new era of prevention of fraud at scale, sans any impact on t...

Globally renowned IoT development platform, Tuya Smart, has signed a partnership deal with internationally reputed brand owner MTS Group. The two have tied up in a bid to deepen further cooperation in the smart home sector and together create a comfortable and healthy living environment for clients. Under the terms of the partnership, Tuya will provide technical support to MTS Group and enable it to further grow its smart product lines in order to meet the changing consumer demand. MTS Group will be responsible for leveraging numerous online and offline channels for brand promotion, thereby letting more and more people the benefits provided by UNITEC products. For the unversed, UNITEC is MTS Group’s own smart brand, through which it will be expanding its growth scope in the smart home industry, thereby contributing to the smart technology revolution. The UNITEC brand is supported by Tuya technology, and it has introduced numerous smart home products in the market, such as smart ligh...

Jacobs has reportedly been selected to design and deliver the First Plasma REMS (Radiological Environmental Monitoring System), a major safety system for the world’s largest fusion energy experiment, ITER. This system is required at the precise moment when ITER commences operations, as it monitors radiological activity and protects the workforce as well as the environment against ionizing radiation. As per sources with the knowledge of the matter, F4E (Fusion for Energy), the organization responsible for EU’s contribution to ITER (accounting for nearly 50%), estimates the overall project cost at EUR 3.5 million (USD 4.2 million), inclusive of the contract for designing, procurement, installation, and commissioning. Karen Wiemelt, Senior Vice President, Energy, Security and Technology, Jacobs, has been quoted to state that the company will leverage its leading edge technical as well as project integration capabilities to ensure that this technically complex project is successfully del...

In a deal worth $550 million, ride sharing firm, Lyft announces sale of its self-driving car unit, Level 5 to Toyota’s subsidiary, Woven Planet. Holdings Inc. As per sources familiar with the matter, Lyft and Toyota, under the deal, will work collaboratively on enhancement of automated driving technology. The deal will reportedly initiate with a payout of $200 million followed by additional payments of $350 million over five years. John Zimmer, Co-founder and President, Lyft, cited that the pact would also help in pulling Lyft’s profitability timeline. The company expects that the transaction would save Lyft $100 million of annual non-GAAP operating expenses. Zimmer further added that Lyft is expecting profitability in Q3 on an adjusted EBITDA basis provided that the deal closes under the targeted timeline that is the third quarter and the recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic continues. According to reliable sources, the self-driving division of Lyft will continue to operate in Palo Alt...

In what may be termed as a move to position itself as the most aggressive regulator of the technology industry, the European Union recently unveiled its plans to impose strict policies on the use of Artificial Intelligence. Margrethe Vestager, Executive Vice President at EU cited that with the new standards, the EU will ensure the use of AI, one of the world’s most transformative technologies, in an ethical manner. She further added that the revolutionary move by the EU will pave a way for development of new global norms to make sure that AI can be trusted. The new regulations would set limits on the use of AI by governments and companies on high-risk categories of AI applications. This would encompass areas that pose a serious threat and safety risk to EU fundamental rights. The EU will also have the authority to exercise strict regulations and expand high-risk use cases of AI by delegate acts as the risks evolve. The draft categorizes high risk examples into the following: Management...