DIRS.INFO The most relevant business & tech news

☆ Ukraine reports Russian attacks in east, progress in south
▼ + stars: | 2023-07-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Russian accounts of the front line said Moscow's forces had repelled Ukrainian attacks near villages ringing Bakhmut and in areas further south, particularly the strategic hilltop town of Vuhlear. "In addition, the enemy has started an attack in the Svatove area," she said, referring to a region of northeastern Ukraine where Russian forces have been active. Maliar reported "partial success" south of Bakhmut, taken in late May by Russian forces after months of fierce fighting. And on the southern front, where Ukrainian forces have recaptured several villages, Maliar said there had been "gradual advances" in two areas. Ukraine has also had to endure persistent Russian air attacks on Ukrainian cities, though the Kremlin denies attacking civilian targets.

Persons: Volodymyr Zelenskiy, Hanna Maliar, Maliar, General Oleksander Tarnavskiy, General Valery Zaluzhniy, Ron Popeski, Nick Starkov, Chizu Organizations: REUTERS, Ukrainian, Russian, Kremlin, Thomson Locations: Russian, Ukraine, Kyiv, Bakhmut, Vuhlear, Odesa, Russia's, Avdiivka, Maryinka, Donetsk, Russia

☆ Rahul Gandhi's convoy stopped by Indian police in Manipur, teargas fired
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-29 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

[1/3] Supporters of Rahul Gandhi, a senior leader of India's main opposition Congress party, speak with him after his convoy, heading to Churachandpur, was stopped by the police in Bishnupur district, Manipur, India, June 29, 2023. REUTERS/StringerGUWAHATI, India, June 29 (Reuters) - Indian opposition leader Rahul Gandhi was stopped by local police on Thursday and teargas fired near his convoy when the 53-year old scion of the Congress party was on his way to visit the violence-hit northeastern Manipur state. Teargas shells were then fired to disperse a crowd that had started gathering in the area. "There is a possibility of a grenade attack along the highway through which Rahul Gandhi is moving. Gandhi's convoy returned to Imphal and he reached Churachandpur by helicopter, Meghachandra Singh, Manipur state Congress president, said.

Persons: Rahul Gandhi, India's, Stringer, teargas, Gandhi, Heisnam Balram Singh, we've, Meghachandra, Narendra Modi's, Zarir Hussain, Sudipto Ganguly, Frank Jack Daniel Our Organizations: REUTERS, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Churachandpur, Bishnupur district, Manipur, India, Stringer GUWAHATI, Myanmar, Bishnupur, Imphal, Meghachandra Singh, Kuki

"In the old days, in small data computing, you moved data to the computer," Nvidia Chief Executive Jensen Huang told Reuters. "But when you have giant amounts of data like Snowflake does, and the pile of proprietary data ... data that's so valuable to a company, then you move the compute to the data." In this case, Nvidia is taking a "fairly engineering intensive" move of embedding its NeMo platform for training and running generative AI models into the Snowflake Data Cloud, said Huang. "We sell more chips, and we have an operating system for AI called Nvidia AI Enterprise. Nvidia charges customers for the use of its Nvidia AI Enterprise software.

Persons: Dado Ruvic, Jensen Huang, Huang, ChatGPT, Frank Slootman, Slootman, Jane Lanhee Lee, Nick Zieminski Organizations: NVIDIA, REUTERS, Nvidia, Reuters, Enterprise, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND , California, Snowflake

OAKLAND, California June 27 (Reuters) - Artificial intelligence and quantum computing startup SandboxAQ on Tuesday said it has won a U.S. government contract for military cyber security in a deal that includes Microsoft (MSFT.O) and Deloitte & Touche (DLTE.UL) as subcontractors. The contract is with the Defense Information Systems Agency which provides global communications infrastructure for the Department of Defense, the Silicon Valley firm said. Earlier this year, SandboxAQ won a contract with the U.S. Air Force to research quantum navigation technology which could serve as an alternative to the Global Positioning System (GPS), which can be jammed. Quantum navigation uses sensors based on quantum physics to monitor slight local changes in the Earth's magnetic field, making navigation systems much more precise, Hidary said. Reporting by Jane Lanhee Lee; Editing by Christopher CushingOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

Persons: Jack Hidary, Hidary, SandboxAQ, Jane Lanhee Lee, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Microsoft, Deloitte, Touche, Defense Information Systems Agency, Department of Defense, Reuters, U.S . Air Force, Global, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California

The MLPerf benchmark is based on GPT-3, an AI model used to train ChatGPT, the viral chatbot developed by OpenAI and backed by Microsoft (MSFT.O). Habana Labs, an AI chip company acquired by Intel, ran the benchmark in 311.945 minutes with a much smaller system equipped with 384 Gaudi2 chips. "You will get a 1.5X to 2X speed up on the Habana results. So that's when we see Habana Gaudi2 being really competitive and lower priced than H100," Plawner told Reuters. Plawner declined to say how much a Gaudi2 chip costs, but said the industry needs a second supplier of chips for AI training, and the MLPerf results show Intel can fill that need.

Persons: David Kanter, Kanter, Intel's Jordan Plawner, Habana, Plawner, Jane Lanhee Lee, Christopher Cushing Organizations: Nvidia, Microsoft, Reuters, Habana Labs, Intel, Products, Habana, Thomson Locations: San Francisco, Habana

☆ Mexico City holds mass celebration for same-sex weddings, gender ID changes
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-24 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

MEXICO CITY, June 23 (Reuters) - Hundreds of same-sex couples and transgender people in Mexico City celebrated weddings and the completion of administrative processes to change their gender on Friday, in a mass ceremony a day before the city's annual gay pride march. Some 120 couples met the requirements to get married under the slogan "Hand in hand, we march with pride," the city government said in a statement. [1/3]A couple kisses during a mass wedding as part of the LGBT+ pride month celebrations in Mexico City, Mexico June 23, 2023. REUTERS/Raquel CunhaIn 2009, Mexico City became the first jurisdiction in Latin America to legalize same-sex marriage. Transgender people face many hurdles when they cannot update legal documents such as ID cards to reflect their gender identity.

Persons: Keila Espinoza, Vaneza Garcia, Edgar Mendoza, Raquel Cunha, Sarah Morland, Tom Hogue Organizations: MEXICO CITY, REUTERS, Reuters, Thomson Locations: MEXICO, Mexico City, Mexico, Latin America, Tamaulipas

☆ Chile official warns of 'worst front in a decade' after floods, evacuations
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-23 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The flooding around the Mapocho river has also cut off routes leading towards the Pacific Ocean, hitting families who live on its banks and leaving small towns isolated. This led authorities to declare a "red alert" and order preventive evacuations in various towns in the south of Santiago. "This is the worst weather front we have had in 10 years," Santiago metropolitan area governor Claudio Orego said. The flooding of the Mapocho river has also affected parts of the busy route that connects Santiago with the key port city of Valparaiso. In mountainous tourist areas around the Maipo river, authorities have since Thursday been moving residents out of their towns due to the risk of landslides and further flooding.

Persons: SANTIAGO, Claudio Orego, Franco Rodriguez, Natalia Ramos, Carolina Pulice, Sarah Morland Organizations: Reuters, Thomson Locations: Santiago, Noviciado, Valparaiso, City

NEW DELHI, June 20 (Reuters) - Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi left for the U.S. on Tuesday on a state visit that has been projected as a milestone in ties between the two countries that would deepen and diversify their partnership. Modi has been to the U.S. five times since becoming prime minister in 2014 but the June 21-24 trip will be his first with the full diplomatic status of an official state visit. Washington sees India as a vital partner in its efforts to push back against China's expanding influence worldwide. Modi's visit comes amid differences in the positions of Washington and New Delhi over Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The world has full confidence that India’s top-most priority is peace," he said in the interview published on Tuesday.

Persons: Narendra Modi, Modi, Joe Biden's, Elon Musk, Tesla, Vinay Kwatra, Twitter's, Jack Dorsey, Lavanya Ahire, YP Rajesh, Raju Gopalakrishnan Organizations: Indian, U.S, Reuters, Twitter, Wall Street, Wall Street Journal, Security Council, YP, Thomson Locations: DELHI, U.S, Washington and New Delhi, India, Washington, United States, New Delhi, Ukraine, Moscow, United Nations, BENGALURU

Italian premiers have been given state funerals in the past, but this is the first time a national day of mourning has been called for one. Italy is ruled by a right-wing coalition of Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni's party Brothers of Italy, Matteo Salvini's League and Berlusconi's former party Forza Italia. Bindi, a woman often targeted by Berlusconi's sexist jibes, said the national day of mourning was "disrespectful towards the majority" of Italians who opposed the late leader. WREATHS AND SOCCER BANNERS[1/9] People wait for the funeral of former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi, in Milan, Italy June 14, 2023. Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban was also confirmed, but few other senior European politicians were expected.

Persons: Silvio Berlusconi, Berlusconi, Giuseppe Conte, Rosy Bindi, Giorgia, Matteo Salvini's, Donald Trump, Tomaso Montanari, Nardi, Lucia Adiele, Sergio Mattarella, Elly Schlein, Mario Draghi, Mario Monti, Paolo Gentiloni, Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad, Mohammed Shia, Al Sudani, Viktor Orban, Cristiano Corvino, Angelo Amante, Alvise Armellini, Federico Maccioni, Alexandra Hudson, Gavin Jones Organizations: MILAN, Italian, Reuters, Matteo Salvini's League, Forza Italia, European Commission, Siena's University for Foreigners, REUTERS, Democratic Party, Thomson Locations: Milan's Cathedral, Milan, Italy, Altamura, Thani

OAKLAND, California, June 13(Reuters) - Silicon Valley-based AI chip startup SiMa.ai on Tuesday said it raised an additional $13 million from investors including a key fund in Taiwan called VentureTech Alliance, which has a strong strategic partnership with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (2330.TW). This is at least the third investment in U.S. chip startups by VentureTech Alliance in the past month. British AI chip unicorn Graphcore's struggles have been widely reported. Rangasayee also pointed to one recent benchmark testing result by SiMa.ai that beat AI chip giant Nvidia Corp (NVDA.O) in performance and power of chips used on devices like cameras, drones and robots. The testing data is published by MLCommons, an engineering consortium that maintains testing benchmarks widely used in the AI chip industry.

Persons: VentureTech, Ethernovia, SiMa.ai, Navin Chaddha, Mayfield, Chaddha, they're, Moshe Gavrielov, Krishna Rangasayee, MLCommons, it's, David, Goliath, Jane Lanhee Lee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: VentureTech, Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, VentureTech Alliance, Ayar Labs, Nvidia Corp, Nvidia, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California, Taiwan, British

☆ 'Really, really surreal', Women's World Cup trophy lands in Australia
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-08 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

SYDNEY, June 8 (Reuters) - The Women's World Cup suddenly became very real for Australia defender Clare Hunt on Thursday when she took part in the first stop on a tour of the trophy around the co-host nation. The trophy has already been to the 31 other participating nations ahead of the quadrennial tournament, which starts in Australia and New Zealand on July 20. With Hunt looking on, Briana Scurry, a World Cup winner with the United States in 1999, and New South Wales Premier Chris Minns unveiled the trophy at Taronga Zoo beside Sydney's harbour. The FIFA Women’s World Cup trophy is pictured during an event at Summit at One Vanderbilt observatory in Manhattan in New York City, U.S., April 14, 2023. REUTERS/Mike Segar/File Photo"It's really, really surreal to be here in front of the trophy and to have it here in Australia," said 24-year-old Hunt, who is hoping to be in the Matildas squad for the tournament.

Persons: Clare Hunt, Hunt, Briana, Chris Minns, Mike Segar, it's, Nick Mulvenney, Peter Rutherford Organizations: SYDNEY, Australia, New South Wales, Taronga, FIFA, Vanderbilt, REUTERS, Sydney's, Reuters, Thomson Locations: Australia, New Zealand, United States, New, Sydney's, Manhattan, New York City, U.S

☆ Factbox: India's deadliest rail accidents
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

June 3 (Reuters) - At least 207 people were killed and 900 injured when two passenger trains collided in Odisha on Friday, according to government officials in the eastern Indian state, in one of India's worst rail accidents in years. Here are details of some of the deadliest rail accidents in India in recent decades:June 1981: At least 800 people are killed when seven rear coaches of an overcrowded passenger train are blown off the track and fall into a river during a cyclone. July 1988: An express train leaves the rails and plunges into a monsoon-swollen lake near Quilon in southern India, killing at least 106 people. October 2005: Several coaches of a passenger train derail in southern Andhra Pradesh state, near Velugonda. January 2017: At least 41 people are killed after several coaches of a passenger train go off the rails in southern Andhra Pradesh state.

Persons: Akriti Sharma, Rosalba O'Brien Organizations: Reuters, REUTERS, Thomson Locations: Odisha, India, Quilon, Delhi, Balasore, Calcutta, Andhra Pradesh, Velugonda, Fatehpur, Uttar Pradesh, India's Amritsar, Bengaluru

☆ At least 50 dead, 350 injured in train crash in eastern India, media report
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-02 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

BHUBANESWAR/KOLKATA June 2 (Reuters) - At least 50 people were killed and 350 injured when two passenger trains collided in the eastern Indian state of Odisha on Friday, Indian media reported. The Coromandel Express, which runs from Kolkata to Chennai, collided with another passenger train, the Howrah Superfast Express, railway officials said. The Howrah Superfast Express derailed and became entangled with the Coromandel Express, South Eastern Railway authorities said in a statement. Media reports had earlier said that the crash was between the Coromandel Express and a goods train. Media reports said at least 50 people had died.

Persons: Pradeep Jena, Naveen Patnaik, Narendra Modi, Railways Ashwini Vaishnaw, Abinaya, Jatindra, Nag Choudhury, Shubhendu Satish Deshmukh, Andrew Heavens, David Holmes, Frances Kerry Organizations: Eastern Railway, Media, Coromandel, Reuters, REUTERS, Railways, Force, Thomson Locations: BHUBANESWAR, KOLKATA, Odisha, Kolkata, Chennai, Howrah, Balasore district, Balasore, India, Odisha's Bhubaneswar, West Bengal, Bengaluru

OAKLAND, California, May 31 (Reuters) - Lightmatter, a Boston-based startup using light for AI computing, said on Wednesday it raised $154 million and tripled its valuation as customers in need of faster, more energy efficient computing for AI work are buying its systems. "We use light to link computer chips together and we also use light to do calculations for deep learning," Lightmatter co-founder and CEO Nick Harris said. "The reason that we're getting these customers and data center scale deployments with our interconnect is that the generative AI boom is driving high-end chips like crazy." Light has been used for decades in the telecommunications industry to move data across the world with fiber optic cables. Harris said Envise will be able to run large AI models but will not train them.

Persons: Lightmatter, Nick Harris, Harris, Envise, Jane Lanhee Lee, Lisa Shumaker Organizations: GV, Google Ventures, Inc, Fidelity Management & Research Company, Thomson Locations: OAKLAND, California, Boston

loadingWhile major social media platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube have made efforts to prohibit and remove deepfakes, their effectiveness at policing such content varies. In total, about 500,000 video and voice deepfakes will be shared on social media sites globally in 2023, DeepMedia estimates. Jon Smith, Republican chair for Michigan's 5th Congressional district, is holding several educational meetings so his allies can learn to use AI for social media and ad generation. Political consultancies are also seeking to harness AI, further muddying the line between real and unreal. Democratic polling and strategy group Honan Strategy Group is meanwhile trying to develop an AI survey bot.

LISBON, May 22 (Reuters) - Portuguese police will on Tuesday search a reservoir inland from where British three-year-old Madeleine McCann disappeared in 2007, authorities said, in the first formal development in the case in Portugal in several years. A fire brigade spokesperson said police were preparing to start searches on Tuesday at a dam in the southern region of Algarve about 50 km (31.07 miles) inland from a beach resort where Madeleine went missing from a rented apartment while on a family holiday. Police erected two tents beside the dam on Monday, Reuters TV footage showed. Brueckner, a convicted child abuser and drug dealer, is behind bars in Germany for raping a 72-year-old woman in the same area of the Algarve from where Madeleine went missing. German police said in June 2020 that Madeleine was assumed dead and that Brueckner was likely responsible for it.

☆ From joy to dismay, Syrians split over Assad's Arab League return
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-19 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

DAMASCUS/ATMEH, Syria, May 19 (Reuters) - As some Syrians welcomed President Bashar al-Assad's return to the Arab League on Friday, others expressed dismay that Arab states had welcomed back a leader they blame for death and destruction during 12 years of brutal civil war. he said, speaking at a camp for displaced Syrians in the northwestern town of Atmeh near the Turkish border. In Damascus, university student Wael Hmeideh said he hoped Syria's return to the Arab League would be good for the country. "We hope the return of Syria to the Arab league, or the return of Arabs to Syria, plays a role to solve the crisis and conflict in the country, and end the Syrian war," he said. "Let him release our prisoners and return us to our homes before they think of returning (Assad to the Arab League) and reconcile with him," he said.

OAKLAND, California May 15 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley automotive ethernet chip startup Ethernovia Inc said on Monday it had raised $64 million in a Series A funding round including Porsche Automobil Holding SE (PSHG_p.DE), Qualcomm Ventures, VentureTech Alliance and others. Instead, they are building a central computer to control everything from camera and radar sensors to the windows and the entertainment dashboard. Ramin Shirani, Ethernovia's co-founder and CEO, said he started the company in 2018 to build a single ethernet network in the car that would be the backbone for these new vehicles. But anything that connects the brains to the sensors, that's where we are," Shirani told Reuters. Ethernovia has created a family of ethernet chips and software that help simplify the electronics architecture of the car, he said.

OAKLAND, California, May 9 (Reuters) - International Business Machines Corp (IBM.N) on Tuesday launched watsonx, a new artificial intelligence and data platform to help companies integrate AI in their business. The new AI platform launch comes over a decade after IBM's software called Watson got attention for winning the game show Jeopardy. Fast forward a decade, chatbot ChatGPT's overnight success is making AI adoption at companies a focus, and IBM is looking to grab new business. This time, the lower cost of implementing the large language AI models means the chances of success are high, IBM CEO Arvind Krishna told Reuters ahead of the company's annual Think conference. IBM said companies can use the watsonx platform to train and deploy AI models, automatically generate code using natural language and use various large language models built for different purposes such as chemical creation or climate change modeling.

☆ Texas mall shooting prompts Biden to renew call for gun control
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-07 | by ( Maria Caspani | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

REUTERS/Reuters TVMay 7 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden on Sunday called on Congress to pass gun control bills in the wake of yet another mass shooting that left nine people dead, including the gunman, at a Texas mall on Saturday. The gunman killed eight people, including children, and wounded at least seven, before a police officer killed him, police said on Saturday. Some Twitter users said people and politicians needed to see videos like this one to grasp the magnitude and horrific nature of gun violence. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and other Democrats stressed the need to pass stronger gun safety legislation to curtail gun violence. One unidentified eyewitness told local ABC affiliate WFAA TV that the gunman was "walking down the sidewalk just ... shooting his gun outside."

This is an important moment not to cede leadership in any emerging technologies," Panchanathan said. The NSF is a federal agency that funds a big portion of science and engineering, including research at universities. TIP is the agency's first new directorate in more than 30 years and would help identify research, a lot of it already funded by the NSF, that can become technology products, he said. The directorate would help build up an ecosystem of academics, corporates, venture capitalists, and others to help researchers and startups get off the ground. Panchanathan and Khanna met nearly two dozen venture capitalists, startup CEOs, and some big tech firm executives in Santa Clara, California to discuss the CHIPS and Science Act.

☆ Italy's Naples explodes in joy as city finally regains Serie A crown
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-04 | by ( Antonio Denti | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +3 min

Kevin, another fan who declined to give his surname, said of the expected Scudetto party: "It will be chaos, mayhem. Authorities also banned car and scooter traffic from the city centre in the hope of minimising risk to public order. "I've been waiting for the Napoli Scudetto since I was small," said a teenage girl out with two friends, her cheeks painted Napoli blue. "It's a victory for the entire city, it's wonderful," she added, declining to give her name. In Udine, there were post-match scuffles as Napoli fans ran onto the stadium pitch to celebrate with players, but were met by hostile home supporters armed with belts and batons, the ANSA news agency said.

OAKLAND, California, May 4 (Reuters) - Impact Nano, a Massachusetts-based startup that makes specialty chemicals for the semiconductor industry and others, said on Thursday it raised $32 million in funding from investors including Intel Capital and Goldman Sachs Asset Management. And they are made in regions of political instability," said Matthew Stephens, CEO and co-founder of Impact Nano. Stephens said Impact Nano is inventing new ways to produce chemicals that chip makers use. Stephens also said Impact Nano is looking to apply for some of the CHIPS Act funding that will support the suppliers for semiconductor manufacturing. Goldman Sachs Asset Management is part of Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) and Intel Capital is the investment arm of U.S. chip giant Intel Corp (INTC.O).

☆ Pollution, bird flu threaten 'very fragile' Chilean dolphin population
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Quilun Ecoturismo Marino/Handout via REUTERSSANTIAGO, April 21 (Reuters) - Growing pollution, industrial activities and now bird flu are threatening the Chilean dolphin, one of the world's smallest cetaceans, in the cold Pacific waters off Chile's western coastlines. "The Chilean dolphin is disappearing at an alarming rate," he said. One official also pointed to the threat of bird flu, which has been detected in Chile's wild birds, marine animals and industrial complex. Soledad Tapia, the director of the country's fisheries service, said two species of dolphins had been infected by the virus. Reporting by Reuters TV; Writing by Natalia Ramos and Sarah Morland; Editing by Leslie AdlerOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

OAKLAND, California, April 19 (Reuters) - Silicon Valley 5G chip startup EdgeQ Inc said on Wednesday it raised $75 million to help fund a ramp up in production as the company starts selling its technology to customers, including telecom operators. EdgeQ makes semiconductors that power base stations for 5G telecom towers and for 5G access points that can be installed inside places like factories to run robots and autonomous vehicles wirelessly, said Vinay Ravuri, CEO and co-founder of EdgeQ. The fundraising shows that companies viewed as promising by investors are able to secure financing even though funding has dried up for many startups following the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and the ensuing banking sector turmoil in March. EdgeQ has a valuation of "hundreds of millions of dollars", said Ravuri, adding it was "definitely less than" $1 billion. The recent advent of a new open standard chip architecture called RISC-V has made it possible to design its new 5G chip more cost effectively, he said.

Search resuls for: "Reuters TV"

25 mentions found