Author: Contributor
by Rachel Adams Suggest to Samsung’s Virtual Personal Assistant Bixby “Let’s talk dirty”, and the female voice will respond with a honeyed accent: “I don’t want to end up on Santa’s naughty list.” Ask the same question to the programme’s male voice and it replies “I’ve read that soil erosion is a real dirt problem.” In South Africa, where I live and conduct my research into gender biases in artificial intelligence, Samsung now offers Bixby in various voices depending on which language you choose. For American English, there’s Julia, Stephanie, Lisa and John. The voices of Julia, Lisa and Stephanie…
by Stacie Garland We know that creating skills assessments needs to be easier. Choosing the best questions to help you make the right hiring decision can be overwhelming and time-consuming. That’s why we have taken the guesswork out of it and used AI to automate the process of test creation. You now have an automated Skills Assessment Builder within our platform, tailored specifically for you. So, how does it work? By using Natural Language Processes (NLP) and other techniques, Vervoe can understand the human skills and attributes that are most important to you, for your role and company. Relevant questions and tasks are pulled together…
by Ryan Falkenberg While some commentators talk about the 4IR as something that is happening in the future, the reality is a little more immediate. Not only are we currently living through the fourth industrial revolution, but the machines have also arrived and are working alongside us. Don’t believe me? Who do you think you were talking to last you got an insurance quote on your providers’ website? Or when you asked Siri to call a specific friend or send a specific message? Or when you handed over the job of providing directions to Google Maps instead of your partner?…
by Andrew Maxwell What a week it has been in the Apple core. In recent days the tech giant has released a litany of products, including new phones, watches, tablets, and more. The big-ticket items are clearly the new iPhone 11 range. These hint at some interesting technology directions, which will most likely spread across the mobile sector. Of course, it’s hardly radical to create a phone that is also a camera, web browser, computer, and gaming device. That idea is as old as smart phones themselves. But Apple’s continued progression down this road raises the question of whether this…
by David Seinker Mention Mauritius and most South Africans will think of its pristine beaches and luxury resorts, but this small country is becoming a big business player not only in Africa but on a global scale. Mauritius may just be an island – its annual tourist influx of 1.4 million outnumbers its own population of around 1.3 million – but this hasn’t stopped it, over the past three decades, from growing into a giant on the business front. As far as the continent goes, it’s already racked up a number of African “firsts” in terms of international business achievements.…
A UK-based business, Fourex, developed by South Africans, has opened its second round of crowdfunding to raise R16.3 million and is inviting South Africans to participate. Its first round was oversubscribed by 243%. Fourex revenue has grown by 175% in two years, reaching £1.98 million (over R36 million). Most travellers return from foreign trips with notes and coins in various foreign currencies and land up storing them in drawers. Fourex, established in 2015, provides an innovative self-service kiosk for exchanging 150 currencies in both coins and notes. Already at 67 high foot-traffic locations and growing rapidly, Fourex plans to be…
by Alexandros Antoniou The latest photo app craze can make you look like a movie star. Zao uses artificial intelligence to replace the faces of characters in film or TV clips with images of anyone whose photo you upload to the app. The effect is startlingly realistic and shows just how far this sort of “deepfake” technology has come. But it also highlights how great the risks have become of making your photos available online where anyone can use or abuse them – and the limitation of the law in dealing with this issue. One of the key problems is…
by Anne Fitchett There are about 500,000 square metres of green space in Chicago in the United States. Many of these are visible, not on the ground, but on building roofs across the city. Green roofs can be seen in a number of other cities around the world. Green roofs are usually installed on flat roofs with vegetation planted in a growing medium on top of waterproofing, root barrier and cuspate sheeting. The sheeting retains moisture in between rainfall events or manual watering. Research suggests that these roofs have a number of advantages. These include rainfall management by absorbing much…
There is a need to ensure broadband access for all in order to overcome social, economic and spatial inequality, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni said on Thursday. “We all know that economic growth, job creation and entrepreneurial activity is inextricably linked to broadband access. We, therefore, need to ensure that broadband access – like health care and education – is available to all,” said the Minister. Addressing the first plenary session on behalf of President Cyril Ramaphosa at the World Economic Forum (WEF) on Africa currently underway in Cape Town, Mboweni said if the continent does not overcome social, economic and…
by Sharona Hoffman The use of artificial intelligence in medicine is generating great excitement and hope for treatment advances. AI generally refers to computers’ ability to mimic human intelligence and to learn. For example, by using machine learning, scientists are working to develop algorithms that will help them make decisions about cancer treatment. They hope that computers will be able to analyze radiological images and discern which cancerous tumors will respond well to chemotherapy and which will not. But AI in medicine also raises significant legal and ethical challenges. Several of these are concerns about privacy, discrimination, psychological harm and…