Accenture today announced its membership in the Corporate Affiliate Program of the Stanford Institute for Human-Centered Artificial Intelligence (HAI), an organization dedicated to guiding and building the future of artificial intelligence (AI).
“Serving as an inaugural member of the Stanford HAI Corporate Affiliate Program amplifies our commitment to human-centric responsible AI that aligns with our value system and helps to achieve business and societal outcomes,” said Lan Guan, global lead of Cloud First Data & AI at Accenture. “Our collaboration with Stanford HAI is key because it enables Accenture to stay abreast on the latest AI research. Specifically, we can continue to move beyond defining AI principles and to put those principles into practice.”
In the first year of the program, Accenture will support a number of faculty research programs around AI safety and AI trust. In addition, Accenture will engage with graduate students who will conduct responsible AI-focused research in January 2023 at the start of Stanford’s winter term.
“HAI is excited to welcome Accenture to the HAI Corporate Affiliate Program as our inaugural member. I’m particularly looking forward to seeing the fruit of the AI research projects envisioned, and engaging Accenture’s ecosystem in HAI’s critical mission relating to education and human-centered AI,” said Fei-Fei Li, co-director, Stanford Institute for Human-Centered AI and Sequoia Professor of Computer Science, Stanford University.
Fractal Dataminds (FDm) and Katonic.ai today announced a partnership to help organisations of all sizes commercialise artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) capabilities. The partnership enables organisations to conduct incremental experimentation on their businesses and use AI/ML to create commercial value for themselves.
FDm is a data science consultancy that uses advanced causal inference methods to help companies make better decisions using data. Katonic MLOps Platform is a collaborative platform with a Unified UI to manage all data science in one place. Together, FDm and Katonic.ai provide the necessary tools for companies to rapidly iterate, deploy and scale-up and scale-out pipelines delivering AI/ML capabilities.
“We are excited to partner with Katonic.ai to empower companies to make high conviction decisions by leveraging their data and domain knowledge smartly,” said Gireesh Ramji, Managing Director of Fractal Dataminds. “Katonic.ai’s focus on collaborative workflows, observability and reliability are essential for building out efficient, effective and sustainable AI/ML solutions to business and tech problems.”
“FDm has a long history of helping companies make better decisions using data,” said Prem Naraindas, CEO of Katonic.ai. “We are excited to partner with them to help organisations adopt an agile approach to AI/ML that delivers real business value.”
The partnership will enable companies to leverage FDm’s experience and Katonic.ai’s MLOps platform to quickly prototype, deploy and manage AI/ML capabilities within their business. Organisations will now be able to move from ideation to market faster than ever before, with the confidence that their solutions are powered by the most advanced AI/ML technologies.
Linius Blockchain Solutions Pty Ltd (LBS) has reached an agreement with the Blockchain Australia (BA) group to create and market Web3 products for LBS.
In a statement, Linius said BA would commit significant time, people, and software in exchange for an equity stake in the LBS subsidiary.
The collaboration accelerates Linius’ existing goal of adopting LBS to access the Web3 market, which is now valued at US$1.3 billion and expected to grow at a 44.9 per cent CAGR through 2030. Linius may build alliances with premier Web3 specialists through LBS, boosting innovation while remaining focused on the core Linius business. This maximises value for LBS, its partners, and shareholders of Linius.
BA is Australia’s foremost blockchain development and consulting firm, with the objective of transforming emergent technology concepts into fully functional realities. BA contributes considerable expertise and experience in blockchain, cryptocurrency, and non-fungible token technologies to the subsidiary, as well as a suite of industry-leading services, software platforms, and tools.
The Amazon Web Services Rapid Prototyping team assisted Linius with constructing a Web3 prototype. The solution expands Linius sports offerings by allowing rights holders to monetise their video collection directly with fans. The initial focus of the new relationship with BA will be on finishing and launching this solution, which BA, Linius, and partners will market. Future products from LBS, targeting a wide range of industries, will benefit from the deal.
Linius CEO James Brennan said: “Linius has long had a vision for the application of blockchain technology in video, including a granted patent for attaching virtual video directly to a blockchain. Our customers and prospects, particularly in the sports market, are rapidly deploying and evaluating Web3 solutions to help them engage fans, monetize content, increase security, and improve operational efficiencies. We are excited to be actively developing our first products for this large, high-growth market. I’m confident that our products will add unique value to customers and new revenue streams to Linius.”
“Furthermore, I am thrilled to be partnering with Blockchain Australia. The knowledge and capabilities of the BA team are astonishing, and I can’t wait to see what we create together! We believe that their significant investment of time, specialized skills and software in return for an equity stake in the LBS subsidiary not only validates our blockchain strategy but, also provides the potential for accretive value for Linius (LNU) shareholders,” Brennan added.
Using the strength and flexibility of the Linius Video Services (LVS) platform, this collaboration will broaden the range of goods and partners. The expansion of LVS into Web3 complements Linius’s existing market-generating solutions, which include Linius Archive Search & Edit, Matchvision, and Whizzard for the Education and GLAM sectors.
According to BA CEO Ralph Kalsi, BA recognised significant income prospects when the company learnt what Linius is doing with tailored video and their goal for taking it to the Web3 world and decided to join our efforts.
“The internet is an ever-growing platform that encompasses every part of our daily life. Blockchain technology is playing a huge role in transforming it and we’re passionate about helping our clients explore the potentially unlimited possibilities of this new technology,” Kalsi said.
Linius stated that the agreement represents a significant step forward for Linius and LBS as it demonstrates yet another application being developed on the LVS platform and signifies significant advancement in the productisation of Linius’ blockchain technology, with an Australian industry leader supporting it with a significant investment of time and resources.
It’s anticipated that the partnership’s initial goods will be finished in the first half of 2023.
In accordance with the terms of the contract, BA will offer consulting, design, and development services as well as a variety of software tools and licences in exchange for a 9 per cent ownership stake in the subsidiary business, LBS, which will be issued once the project is finished. The agreement normally contains the terms and conditions expected for a contract of this kind, including service levels, confidentiality, intellectual property protection, security standards, and data privacy.
Following several years of constant global instability, people are gaining greater access to emerging technologies — including AI, web3, and tokenization — which is advancing the next generation of creativity, community and data privacy.
In turn, businesses and leaders should prepare for shifts in business models due to changing customer behaviors as they find increasing value in new, emerging technologies, forecasts the Accenture Life Trends 2023 report from Accenture.
Building on the 15-year legacy of Fjord Trends, this report — now titled Accenture Life Trends 2023 — identifies five global macro movements across human behavior that will shape business, culture, and society in the coming year.
From learning to live in permacrisis to increasingly seeking to belong in online communities to missing work’s intangible benefits and using emerging technology such as AI to accelerate creativity, the landscape of day-to-day life has been greatly altered. This shift will push businesses and leaders to operate in radically new landscapes, further cites the report.
“Disruptive moments have people questioning what sense of control they have over their own lives. As they inevitably adapt and get a handle on things, the decisions made to exercise more control will affect the brands and organizations they interact with,” said Mark Curtis, global lead, thought leadership, metaverse and sustainability, Accenture Song. “These new power dynamics will create opportunities for businesses to develop fresh and modern ways to engage and build relationships with customers.”
Crowdsourced insight and intelligence from Accenture Song’s global network of designers, creatives, technologists, sociologists, and anthropologists, the annual bellwether forecast — which leveraged AI for the report’s imagery — includes the following trends and actions for businesses to heed in 2023.
We are in a permacrisis but will adapt – The world is moving from one global catastrophe to the next. But, as humanity has for millennia, people are adapting to instability by switching between four responses: fight, flight, focus, and freeze, which will affect what they buy, and how they view brands and their employers — and companies need to be ready.
What’s next for loyalty – In an unstable world, people seek out places where they feel they belong. As a result, modern brands will be built as communities first, reshaping loyalty and brand participation. For example, the majority of Accenture’s research focus group participants have tried new hobbies or joined new communities in the past six to nine months. Emerging technology is largely driving the three threads to enable this model.
Communities of belonging: on platforms like Reddit, Discord, and Twitch.
Token-gating: exclusive access reserved for “token holders only.”
Collectibles: digital arts, autographs, trading cards, and more.
The importance of work intangibles – As the debate continues around the return to the office, one thing is clear: it’s not yet a success for many people. Everyone has felt the loss of intangible office benefits, like chance encounters and consistent, close guidance of junior talent. Now the consequences of the loss are becoming clear. Without in-person engagement, companies can stand to lose mentorship, innovation, culture and inclusion. It’s time leaders went back to the drawing board to make a logical, mutually beneficial plan.
AI is becoming people’s co-pilot for creativity – Artificial Intelligence is now in the hands of the everyday user and is a new tool for the creative process. Suddenly, neural networks have been made widely available to create language, images and music with very little effort or skill. Developments within AI are also hitting the market at an astonishing speed. At scale, this is an incredible breakthrough for creativity. Companies need to consider how they will stand out in the sea of AI-generated content and how they use AI to enhance the speed and originality of innovation.
Digital wallets could end the digital identity crisis – The use, and misuse, of personal data is long overdue for a transformation. Transparency and trust in online brand experiences are quickly diminishing in tandem. But control of their data could soon swing back to the user. Digital wallets containing tokens (representing payment methods, ID, loyalty cards and more) will allow people to decide how much data they share with — and even sell to — organizations. That’s great news for brands: the data that people do hand over will be even more valuable than the third-party information that is no longer collected in a cookieless world.
“Shifts in control ultimately lead to shifts in power, and these seemingly small — yet profound changes —in human behavior will alter the power dynamics between people and organizations,” said David Droga, CEO and Creative Chairman, Accenture Song. “In roles as leaders, workers, customers, consumers and creators, people seek ways to regain control. The outcomes will look different — a new picture of progress — from what we’ve seen before thanks to changes in attitudes and maturing technology.”
Edith Cowan University (ECU) is excited to announce a new partnership between the School of Education and FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia.
The collaboration will see the introduction of the very latest in global printing technologies, with the installation of state-of-the-art UltiMaker 3D printing devices, supplied by FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia.
“We are thrilled to continue to be at the forefront of quality, modern and innovative teacher education here at ECU.
“It’s no secret that the ability to learn with and integrate 3D printing technology into everyday teacher training is that next step in preparing the teachers of the future and for industry collaboration,” Dean School of Education Glenda Campbell-Evans said.
ECU’s School of Education will deliver professional development training in 3D printing for its students and offer in-service training for teachers.
The technology will also be used as a tool for research support.
“This is about bringing learning to life, offering innovative research technologies to take teacher education and research projects to a new level,” she said.
“We are proud to partner with Australia’s leading university for teacher education to bring learning to life through 3D printing technology, teacher training, and research support to build the STEM skills of the future,” said Dan Smith, General Manager of Marketing and Business Development, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia.
“Designed for everyday use in the classroom with professional results, UltiMaker devices enable 3D printing across a broad range of open-source applications – from simple models to help primary students grasp concepts right through to complex technical models in university labs.”
As a part of the agreement, FUJIFILM Business Innovation Australia will also fund a PhD scholarship to investigate the use of 3D technology in secondary schools to enhance student engagement and aspirations in STEM learning.
For those interested in this research opportunity please contact Dr Julie Boston, Industry Partnerships and Engagement, School of Education for more details.
Use of the new 3D printing technology will commence in Semester one 2023.
CyberLink Corp., a pioneer in AI and facial recognition technology, announced that their facial recognition engine FaceMe® had acquired FIDO Alliance’s UAF Level 1 Certification.
In a statement, Cyberlink said the certification indicates that the FIDO Alliance has recognised a variety of advanced FaceMe security and interoperability protocols that meet the high-security standards of the financial services industry, such as employing multi-factor authentication over traditional password login. These standards apply to a broad spectrum of online interactions, from basic content access to transaction enabling in industries such as banking, securities, insurance, and electronic payments, among others.
The FIDO Alliance develops authentication standards to assist in reducing the world’s dependency on passwords. Its certifications have grown in popularity and importance, particularly among global technology corporations dealing with more complex electronic systems and data-sensitive transactions. The FIDO Alliance provides authentication methods, and its standards have already been adopted by crucial network technology sectors and cloud service providers, as well as by numerous governments.
CyberLink’s FaceMe is not only FIDO Alliance certified, but it also has various other certifications and security metrics. FaceMe recently passed the iBeta ISO PAD Level 2 liveness detection test with flying colours and is ranked first in the world by the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s (NIST) Facial Recognition Vendor Test (FRVT) with an accuracy rate of 99.81 per cent and an error rate (False Match Rate) of 1 in 1 million. These data demonstrate that FaceMe’s industry-leading accuracy and anti-spoofing capabilities can be relied on to effectively avoid misidentification or identity fraud.
When allowing access to extremely sensitive information and carrying out duties for online banking, securities, insurance, electronic payments, and more, FaceMe’s face recognition software is more convenient and smooth and a more secure form of user identification. CyberLink customers using FaceMe’s face recognition technology to offer a more secure experience include Yuanta Life, Meihao Securities, and the virtual currency exchange CoinTrust.
Financial eKYC (electronic Know Your Client) solution FaceMe Fintech from CyberLink is also FIDO Certified. CyberLink’s major ongoing initiatives include increasing security and privacy protection and the FaceMe experience. As a result, the business will keep looking for ways to enhance its solutions and submit them to the top certification programs.
DXC Technology, a leading Fortune 500 global technology services company, has unveiled five ways it predicts the metaverse will impact life and business in the next 5 years.
1. Workplace collaboration will never be the same again
Around the world, the metaverse will become part of daily work for an increasing number of employees. Instead of staring at a grid of 2-dimensional faces on a videoconferencing screen, colleagues will be able to choose their seat at a virtual table, pop out of the room for a break, and even go on a virtual walk with their boss.
To maximise benefits, many firms are already combining traditional video conferencing with immersive collaboration technologies. DXC has noticed the positive impact of its own private virtual world, with increased levels of productivity, engagement, and creativity amongst its employees.
“Metaverse experiences are helping employees to concentrate better and retain more information. Virtual worlds can help us get out of our videoconferencing routine and open the door to greater collaboration and innovation”, says Nathalie Vancluysen, Head of Extended Reality at DXC Technology.
2. Large scale professional events will go virtual
The metaverse is a place where thousands of avatars around the world can come together to interact, meet and engage. Controlled by people from the comfort of their chosen location, personalised 3D avatars can roam freely over an almost infinite space and teleport themselves from one place to another instantaneously. In the future, more large-scale events like conferences, expos and summits will take place in virtual worlds, enabling greater worldwide collaboration opportunities and reducing the time, resources and carbon footprint used when travelling.
3. Bands, DJs, sports clubs and dating will transition into the metaverse
More and more individuals and organizations from the music and sports industry are encouraging fans to join them from virtual seats in virtual venues, bringing the excitement of concerts and matches to the individual’s home. Additionally, some dating apps like Nevermet and Flirtual are already offering services in the metaverse. In the next five years, consumers will be offered more interactive, immersive opportunities to do the things they love doing in the physical world – all via their digital avatar.
4. Brands will express themselves in new ways
Virtual customer experiences will become commonplace with brands looking for new and exciting ways to engage with their customers. Major retail brands like Louis Vuitton, Adidas, Gucci, Coke, and Nike, alongside car companies like Nissan, Toyota and Ferrari are already experimenting with virtual environments and augmented reality. In the next five years, DXC expects more and more brands to offer customers an opportunity to explore their brands, solutions and services in 3D – from hotels, to cities, to airports.
5. Recruitment and onboarding will be metamorphosed
Recruiting talent is integral to the success of any business, and reaching talent is the first step. Over the next five years, organizations will increasingly turn to the metaverse to connect with candidates in engaging, enticing ways. The metaverse can also be good for inclusivity. Hosting first-round interviews in the metaverse can help recruiters identify candidates with the right behavioural profile rather than just the ones with the right CV credentials or look.
“Individuals and businesses are opening their minds to the possibility of using the metaverse in everyday activities”, sums up Nathalie Vancluysen. “Many of today’s young adults have grown up socialising and gaming online, so businesses, government organizations and brands must be able to engage them with products and services which feel familiar and exciting.”
Honda is leveraging advanced virtual reality (VR) technology to develop future products ranging from the full-electric 2024 Honda Prologue to the rugged, all-new 2023 Honda Pilot TrailSport. VR has quickly become a critical tool for Honda designers in the development of future mobility products.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic travel restrictions threatened the ability of Honda designers to collaborate with engineers on the design of the all-new Prologue. The styling team in the Honda Design Studio in Los Angeles leading Prologue’s design accelerated the use of VR to bridge the divide among its global design and development teams.
Utilizing VR, the LA-based design team accelerated collaboration with various engineering and design groups using VR environments. The computer-aided design model enabled global design teams to receive immediate feedback and apply refinements to the clay modeling, color, material and finishes related to the EV model. As a result, Prologue design development not only remained on track, the real-time global collaboration advanced the team’s capabilities and the role of VR design moving forward.
“Incorporating virtual and augmented reality in the design process allowed our Honda engineers and designers to merge digital content and physical assets in a cohesive way to interact with what they’re experiencing and touching in an immersive environment,” said Mathieu Geslin, VR technology leader, Honda Design studio. “Honda Prologue was key to fully using VR in a data-led design process, with clay modeling as the verification tool, something we will carry forward into the development of other Honda products.”
While Honda Prologue also deployed traditional design processes by having a full-size exterior clay model to refine the details, the interior design execution was mainly carried-out by VR and AR technology. For interior design, these virtual methods transformed the design process and provided visualization of unlimited color and materials applications, improved collaboration, and allowed for quicker feedback.
“Virtual reality prototyping removed limitations to the interior design and allowed us to address feedback quicker and collaborate more cohesively with the HMI and color, materials and finishes design teams,” said Lisa Lee, interior design project lead.
The possibilities of using VR as a tool in the development process started six years ago with the Honda design team exploring, testing, and validating the technology as part of its effort to continue to find new, more efficient means to create better products. This advance work enabled the team to have the right skills, equipment and artistic ability when the need arose during the COVID pandemic.
The all-new 2023 Honda Pilot was the first production model where the LA-based team used VR for a product evaluation. One of the many tests performed included color evaluation in a VR environment, which is valuable for the color, materials, and finishes team to visualize all trims holistically, enabling instant feedback between the design studios in LA and Japan.
“We don’t want to lose emotion and the human touch to Honda design, so we won’t pursue a purely digital approach, but we are really excited about the Honda products that will be coming to customers in the future by leveraging VR technology,” said Mathieu. “It’s an ongoing effort to further explore the technical capabilities of VR and AR in our development centers worldwide for cross-collaboration that will further enhance the appeal and quality of our products.”
Another strong milestone was accomplished today for virtualized radio access networks (vRAN). In collaboration with Intel and Red Hat, Verizon has expanded its vRAN leadership position with the addition of the first Ericsson Cloud RAN cell site into its network. Verizon has been a global leader in virtualizing its network, announcing recently it already has 8,000 cell sites virtualized in its network with an eye toward virtualizing 20,000 sites.
Virtualizing the far edge of the RAN – the cell sites closest to the customer – is a function of decoupling the hardware and software associated with a cell tower and transitioning the software so that it’s not just stored in the cloud, but is designed for a cloud-native architecture and operation.
“Cloud-native virtualized RAN provides web-scale benefits, cost savings and flexibility to manage radio networks at a highly granular level,” said Cristina Rodriguez, vice president and general manager of the Wireless Access Networking Division at Intel. “Verizon’s latest deployment with Ericsson and Red Hat is a milestone in vRAN’s growing expansion around the world, and further validation of Intel-based general-purpose processors as the platform of choice.”
Intel has been a pioneer in network virtualization for more than 10 years and is the leader in network silicon with nearly all vRAN deployments running on Intel architecture. Working with a global ecosystem of proven partners, service providers are embracing Intel technology to create open, virtualized radio access networks. Intel’s contributions to Verizon’s recent milestone include providing its 3rd Gen Intel® Xeon® Scalable processor, Intel® vRAN Dedicated Accelerator ACC100 and Intel® Ethernet Controller E810 to deliver the processing, acceleration and connectivity requirements.
Accenture Ventures has made a strategic investment in BehaVR, a leader in virtual reality (VR) digital wellness and digital healthcare experiences.
On the same day, BehaVR announced a merger with OxfordVR, an Oxford University spin-off that is a leader in science-based virtual reality therapies for severe mental diseases. The newly formed firm will provide complete, cross-acuity VR-based therapy interventions for mental health as part of a digital therapies market estimated to approach $13 billion by 2027.
The BehaVR platform offers individualised, dynamic experiences that are managed and altered in real-time based on biometrics, protocols, and machine learning models via its proprietary delivery platform for building, validating, and managing digital medicines solutions.
According to the Accenture Digital Health Technology Vision 2022 research, healthcare professionals expect virtual reality and the metaverse to benefit the future of care by aligning the proper technology, operating model, data, and culture to deliver more efficient and empathic treatment.
“Providing people with the flexibility to decide when, where, and how they want to receive mental health care will help to improve access, experience, and outcomes. BehaVR offers people choice and clinicians options to expand how they care for patients,” said Rich Birhanzel, senior managing director and Health practice global lead at Accenture.
BehaVR is now a part of Accenture Ventures’ Project Spotlight, a program that connects emerging technology businesses with the Global 2000 to bridge strategic innovation gaps. Accenture’s domain experience and business clients are available through Project Spotlight, allowing entrepreneurs to harness human ingenuity and deliver on the promise of their technology.
Accenture Ventures managing director Tom Lounibos said mental health concerns have never been more widespread in the United States and worldwide, and there is an urgent need for greater resources and treatment.
Lounibos stated that BehaVR is harnessing virtual reality’s immersive power to activate and reconfigure neural circuits to cure patients suffering from anxiety, stress, terror, and other conditions.
“Around the world, providers and employers are grappling with how to enhance the depth, breadth and efficacy of their mental health service offerings, and we believe virtual-reality-based digital therapeutics can play a vital role in helping them do all of those things. Joining Accenture Venture’s Project Spotlight is a powerful way to drive increased awareness of BehaVR’s VR-powered mental health services as we continue our work to lower barriers and deliver advanced care to the people that so desperately need it,” BehaVR founder and CEO Aaron Gani said.
