Author: Contributor
South African developers wanting to make a mark in the growing app development or the IoT spaces are invited to submit their original tech solutions for consideration for this year’s editions of the MTN Business App of the Year Awards and IoT Conference & Awards. These awards celebrate the talent and out-of-the-box thinking aimed at driving disruption and change. Historically, the events have been attended by more than 800 delegates including captains of industry, key ICT stakeholders, developers, MTN partners and other business leaders in the technology sector. The winners of the respective competitions, which will both be held at…
by Alison Gillwald South Africa is caught up in the global hype of the Fourth Industrial Revolution (4IR). This is distracting it from the unfinished business of redressing inequality and creating the preconditions for an inclusive digital economy and society. Reinvented by Klaus Schwab of the World Economic Forum (WEF), 4IR technologies are presented as having the potential to propel digitally-ready countries into a new age of unprecedented economic prosperity. The Forum’s appropriation of the concept has arguably been one the most successful lobbying and policy influence instruments of our time. Mobilising around the elite annual gathering in Davos, the…
Huawei has recognised its top suppliers in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) at a supplier convention held at the company’s regional headquarters in Johannesburg South Africa, pledging to walk the path to digitisation with its hundreds of suppliers. The event was attended by nearly 277 representatives from over 150 suppliers from 23 SSA countries, under the theme “20 years in Africa, Win-win Co-operation, Creating a better future.” PIC: Huawei and Suppliers from 23 African nations. Frank Wu, Senior Director of Huawei Procurement Qualification Quality & Operation Department said a healthy and sustainable ecosystem was important for every player to achieve growth…
Luno, the global cryptocurrency exchange with over 2.9 million customers in over 40 countries, has seen an 60% quarter-to-quarter increase in new customers despite ongoing Bitcoin price volatility. In the past week, the price of Bitcoin dropped to around R173 000 after highs of R188 000 in the past month. Marius Reitz, Luno’s General Manager for Africa considers where cryptocurrency is in the hype cycle – the process a new technology goes through before reaching mass adoption. The Gartner Hype Cycle Where cryptocurrency is in the cycle will differ with each commentator. The hype cycle is not scientific nor is…
by Garfield Benjamin Not content with monitoring almost everything you do online, Facebook now wants to read your mind as well. The social media giant recently announced a breakthrough in its plan to create a device that reads people’s brainwaves to allow them to type just by thinking. And Elon Musk wants to go even further. One of the Tesla boss’s other companies, Neuralink, is developing a brain implant to connect people’s minds directly to a computer. Musk admits that he takes inspiration from science fiction, and that he wants to make sure humans can “keep up” with artificial intelligence.…
by Juan Mateos-Garcia Artificial Intelligence (AI) systems are becoming smarter every day, beating world champions in games like Go, identifying tumours in medical scans better than human radiologists, and increasing the efficiency of electricity-hungry data centres. Some economists are comparing the transformative potential of AI with other “general-purpose technologies” such as the steam engine, electricity or the transistor. But current AI systems are far from perfect. They tend to reflect the biases of the data used to train them and to break down when they face unexpected situations. They can be gamed, as we have seen with the controversies surrounding…
Sasol and its partner Companhia Moçambicana de Hidrocarbonetos S.A (CMH) announced a $5.9 million emergency repair work project for the 35 km stretch of EN1 highway between Pambara and Mangungumete in Mozambique. The EN1 links the south of the country to the north, crossing the entire Inhambane Province and is a vital link to the Sasol and CMH CPF operation. The construction work currently underway will repair the road surface which is in very poor condition, in order to improve safety for all road users and the local communities. The road is used for evacuation of Sasol’s condensate and is…
Huawei has issued a legal letter to The Wall Street Journal for its false statements in a report published on August 14st (ET) that damages Huawei’s reputation and business interests across the globe due to inadequate investigation to test the allegations in the reports. In the letter, Huawei states the report describes Huawei’s alleged involvement with government cybersecurity forces in Uganda and Zambia is neither a fair nor a responsible representation of Huawei’s legitimate business activities in these countries. “Huawei is especially disappointed in the Article and video and radio podcast in light of the information Huawei provided to you…
By Lee Naik Terminator and The Matrix got it wrong. We all thought the villains of the AI era would be killer robots or hostile programmes. Instead, they’re face-ageing apps and YouTube creators with too much time on their hands. Turns out the biggest problem with machine learning isn’t the machines at all – it’s the people behind them. FaceApp may look like just another fun viral craze, but look closely at those terms and conditions and you’ll realise you’ve signed away your image to a little-known Russian business forever. The fears around FaceApp are just another reminder that technologies…
By Katharine Kemp, UNSW Australia’s consumer watchdog has recommended major changes to our consumer protection and privacy laws. If these reforms are adopted, consumers will have much more say about how we deal with Google, Facebook, and other businesses. The proposals include a right to request the erasure of our information; choices about whether we are tracked online and offline; potential penalties of A$10 million or more for companies that misuse our information or impose unfair privacy terms; and default settings that favour privacy. Read more: Consumer watchdog calls for new measures to combat Facebook and Google’s digital dominance The…