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Google's AI board dissolved within a week of birth

Following a week of controversies surrounding its composition, Google's external advisory board designed to monitor its use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) has been dissolved after just one week of its formation.

NASA test fires SLS rocket engine for Moon mission

NASA has successfully tested its engine for the Space Launch System (SLS), marking a major milestone in its aim to return astronauts to the Moon in the next five years.

New artificial intelligence approach may boost IVF success

Researchers have developed a new artificial intelligence (AI) approach that can identify with a great degree of accuracy whether a five-day-old, in vitro fertilised human embryo has a high potential to progress to a successful pregnancy. The technique, which analyses time-lapse images of the early-stage embryos, could improve the success rate of in vitro fertilisation (IVF) and minimise the risk of multiple pregnancies. Infertility is estimated to affect about eight per cent of women of child-bearing age, said researchers from Weill Cornell Medical College in the US. While IVF has helped millions give birth, the average success rate in the US is about 45 per cent. For the study, published in NPJ Digital Medicine, researchers used 12,000 photos of human embryos taken precisely 110 hours after fertilisation to train an AI algorithm to discriminate between poor and good embryo quality. Each embryo was first assigned a grade by embryologists that considered various aspects of the embryo's

Samsung launches Galaxy A20 in India for Rs 12,490

With an aim to disrupt the budget smartphone segment in India, Samsung on Friday launched Galaxy A20 dual rear camera phone for Rs 12,490.

EC names special officer to keep tab on social media in Goa

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has appointed a special officer to keep a tab on social media content in run up to the Lok Sabha and three assembly bypolls in the state. The officer, appointed Thursday, will ensure that content and posts on social media sites don't violate the model code of conduct in force for the Lok Sabha and assembly by-elections, a senior official said. The appointment is another step to curb fake news, hate speech and other problematic content, according to a statement issued by the office of Goa's Chief Electoral Officer (CEO). Voting for the two Lok Sabha constituencies and three assembly bypolls will be held on April 23. "All social media platforms, including Twitter, Facebook and YouTube, would be under scanner as per Election Commission of India (ECI) guidelines," said the official attached to the office of Goa's CEO. He told PTI that every post and content would be scanned to ensure they do not violate the model code of conduct or ...

Facebook to block foreign ads for Australia election

Facebook will block election advertising from outside Australia ahead of polls next month, in the wake of growing criticism of the social media giant's role in the spread of disinformation. The restrictions -- already rolled out for polls in other countries such as Thailand and Indonesia -- will come into force when the government announces the election date in the coming days. "We're temporarily not allowing electoral ads purchased from outside Australia ahead of the election in May," Facebook's Australia and New Zealand policy director Mia Garlick said in a statement. "The restriction... will apply to ads we determine to be coming from foreign entities that are of an electoral nature, meaning they contain references to politicians, parties or election suppression. "We also won't allow foreign ads that include political slogans and party logos." Facebook said it has introduced restrictions on foreign electoral ads in countries including Nigeria, Ukraine, Thailand, Indonesia, and ...

WhatsApp tipline of no use for 2019 Lok Sabha polls

If you thought WhatsApp has given you a helpline number to report fake news and the Facebook-owned platform will take an immediate action as the world's largest democracy prepares for elections, you are mistaken.

'Smart Compose' on Gmail to suggest email subjects

Google's "Smart Compose" feature on Gmail would now help users with email subject line suggestions, letting them draft their emails even faster.

Johnson Controls-Hitachi launches a new website

Johnson Controls-Hitachi Air Conditioning India Limited today announced the launch of its new website https"Today's Indian consumer is truly global. Easy access to global trends has changed consumer's psyche and expectations. At Hitachi cooling & heating, we believe that a happy customer soon become powerful social advocates for your business if can exceed their expectations. With the launch of www.hitachiaircon.in we have globally standardized the Hitachi website with the Johnson controls Hitachi Air-conditioning worldwide. This new website is a right example of state of the art design and best in class consumer experience when it comes to knowing about air-conditioning and Hitachi products. The new website will consist of rich information about residential and commercial air-conditioning products along with an explanation of innovative technologies in integrating manner. Hitachi has also launched a new range of expandable inverter air conditioners which expand its capacity ...

US remains committed to private sector-led 5G wireless: Kudlow

A top advisor to President Donald Trump said Thursday the United States is committed to private sector deployment of 5G wireless networks, brushing aside the notion of a nationalised system. Larry Kudlow, the top White House economic advisor, sought to quell speculation that Washington would seek to nationalise ultrafast fifth-generation networks for national security reasons in view of the dominant position of Chinese firms like Huawei, which has been banned from US government contracts. "I want to note how well we did on 4G, and we will apply the exact same free-market principles to 5G," Kudlow told a gathering of the wireless industry group CTIA. "We will continue the process of auctioning off spectrum and letting the private companies run (the networks)," he said. 5G will herald a new level of connectivity, empowered by speed. It is crucial for the future development of devices ranging from self-driving vehicles, to industrial robots, drones and other elements of the Internet of ..

Amazon working on internet-serving satellite network

Amazon on Thursday confirmed it is working on a project to deploy a network of satellites for high-speed internet service in underserved parts of the world. Project Kuiper was first reported by tech news website GeekWire, which cited US regulatory filings disclosing the satellite project that could cost billions of dollars to complete. "Project Kuiper is a new initiative to launch a constellation of low earth orbit satellites that will provide low-latency, high-speed broadband connectivity to unserved and underserved communities around the world," Amazon said in response to an AFP inquiry. "This is a long-term project that envisions serving tens of millions of people who lack basic access to broadband internet." The filings described a plan to put 3,236 satellites in low orbit at altitudes ranging from 590 kilometres to 630 kilometre, according to GeekWire. The frontier of space is internationally agreed to be 100 kilometres above Earth, known as the Karman Line. The Seattle-based ...

Snapchat launches own multi-player gaming platform

Messaging app Snapchat, which is widely popular among younger users but has struggled to turn a profit since its creation in 2011, on Thursday unveiled new features including an integrated gaming platform, an expansion of its original series and new parnerships with developers. "Friendship is more than just the things you chat about," said Will Wu, the director of product at Snapchat as he unveiled Snap Games at a Partner Summit in Los Angeles to highlight the new features for creators and app developers. "Friendship is also about experience you have together." The six made-for-Snapchat games, including "Bitmoji Party," "Alphabear Hustle" and "Zombie Rescue Squad," will be part of a global gaming industry that saw USD 77 billion in revenue last year, Wu said. "We wanted to build something that makes us feel like we're playing a board game with family over a long holiday weekend, something that makes us feel like we're sitting with friends, controllers in hand," he ...

Israeli spacecraft enters lunar orbit ahead of moon landing

The first privately funded spacecraft to journey to the moon passed its most crucial test yet on Thursday when it dropped into lunar orbit one week ahead of landing. After travelling over 5.5 million kilometers (3.4 million miles) around the Earth and drawing ever closer to the moon, the spacecraft finally swung into the moon's elliptical orbit keeping it on track for touchdown April 11. "This was a milestone and it actually gives us a real shot at the moon," said Yonatan Winetraub, co-founder of SpaceIL, the Israeli nonprofit that built the spacecraft. The lander, dubbed "Beresheet," Hebrew for "Genesis," or "In the Beginning," is among the smallest spacecrafts in history to have entered the moon's orbit. From the control center in Yehud, near Tel Aviv, a fleet of engineers tracked the spacecraft's speed. In order to catapult away from the Earth and successfully "catch" the moon's gravitational pull, Beresheet needed to slow down from 8,500 kilometers per hour (5,300 mph) to 7,500 ..

Unprotected Facebook user data exposed in latest leaks

Another day, another data leak involving Facebook. Cybersecurity firm UpGuard discovered two troves of unprotected Facebook user data on Amazon's servers, putting to risk hundreds of millions of records about users.The data include details on names, passwords, comments, interest, and likes. According to Wired, the data set had been uploaded to the servers by two different Facebook app developers.One of the databases belonged to a Mexican company called Cultura Colectiva which used the Amazon servers to store some 146 GB of data, including 540 million different records. The company was alerted back in January, but the database was secured only yesterday when Facebook was contacted about it.The second database belonged to an app called At the Pool, which shut down back in 2014. It contained plaintext user passwords for 22,000 users. Although these passwords are presumed for the app rather than for the users' Facebook account, it puts to risk those reusing the same passwords across ...

AI 'Stork' can help scan IVF embryos for faster implantation

Women who find it difficult to conceive turn to IVF procedures, which are time-consuming and costly, to say the least. However, one of the more time-consuming tasks is that of the embryologists who have to grade embryos to find the best fit for implantation.Grading requires embryologists to look at embryos under a microscope and assign a quality score which helps them in deciding which embryos to implant first.To make their jobs easier, less time-consuming, and accurate, scientists at Cornell University training a Google deep-learning algorithm to identify IVF embryos as eight good, fair, or poor based on the likelihood each one would successfully implant, Wired reports.Similar to how the algorithm learns from a set of images to identify faces, objects, scenes, and more, the one for IVF embryos, aptly nicknamed Stork, was also trained using videos of more than 10,000 fully anonymised embryos that could each be freeze-framed and fed into a neural network.To test the efficiency of the ..

Google Duplex coming on non-Pixel phones

Google's voice-calling robot service, Duplex is soon arriving on smartphones other than the company's own Pixel phones.Google Duplex is a feature within the Google Assistant and allows you to book reservations through the phone.According to Cnet, Google Duplex is arriving on more non-Pixel Android devices and for the first time, offer cross-platform support for iPhones in the US.The technology mimics human speech and currently only supports restaurant reservations. Businesses have an option to opt out from receiving automated calls.

Microsoft to facilitate healthcare for railway staff

The Indian Railways on Thursday said it will use Microsoft Kaizala to connect its employees across the country with quality healthcare facilities.

No plans to delay livestreams despite NZ massacre: Facebook's Zuckerberg

Facebook is working to prevent livestreams of terror attacks such as the one in New Zealand but it does not plan to introduce a delay on live feeds, CEO Mark Zuckerberg said. Zuckerberg, in an interview with ABC's "Good Morning America" broadcast on Thursday, also said he had confidence in measures put in place by Facebook to prevent interference in next year's US presidential election. Zuckerberg said a delay on livestreaming "might" have limited views of the Christchurch attacks, which were streamed on Facebook Live by the self-avowed white supremacist who carried them out. The attacks left 50 people dead and sparked criticism of Facebook in some quarters for providing the online tool which allowed the assailant to livestream the carnage in two New Zealand mosques. Zuckerberg said putting a delay on live streams would "fundamentally break what livestreaming is for people. "Most people are livestreaming, you know, a birthday party or hanging out with friends when they can't be ...

HashedIn Tech ties up with Redis Labs to market software

City-based startup HashedInTechnologies has entered into an agreement with Redis Labs tosell their indigenously developed software RDBTools. HashedIn said Redis is an open source, in-memory database, typically used in high performance scenarios with use-cases, including application caches, message brokers and even as a primary database. Redis is currently being adopted by some of the world's most reputed companies like Twitter, Snapchat and Github, the company said in a press release here Thursday. HashedIn Technologies, the company claimed, is a fast-growing product development services company based out of Bengaluru. It had been developing expertise in Redis for some time, solving problems and developing solutions for Fortune 500 companies. According to Sripathi Krishnan, chief technology officer of HashedIn Technologies, HashedIn created an open sourcecommand-line tool to profile and debug Redis databases inearly 2012. This product was a hit in the open ...

WhatsApp Business app available on iPhones

Facebook-owned WhatsApp Business, a free-to-download communication app specifically designed for small businesses, is now officially available for iPhone users in several countries, including in India.