AI/ML
Major technology companies form AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium
A consortium of major tech companies, including Cisco, Accenture, Eightfold, Google, IBM, Indeed, Intel, Microsoft and SAP have formed the AI-Enabled Information and Communication Technology (ICT) Workforce Consortium with the aim of assessing “AI’s impact on technology jobs” and identifying “skills development pathways for the roles most likely to be affected by artificial intelligence.”
Francine Katsoudas, executive VP and chief people, policy and purpose officer at Cisco, stated:
“AI is accelerating the pace of change for the global workforce, presenting a powerful opportunity for the private sector to help upskill and re-skill workers for the future. The mission of our newly unveiled AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium is to provide organisations with knowledge about the impact of AI on the workforce and equip workers with relevant skills. We look forward to engaging other stakeholders – including governments, NGOs, and the academic community – as we take this important first step toward ensuring that the AI revolution leaves no one behind.”
The formation of the Consortium is catalyzed by the work of the U.S.-EU Trade and Technology Council Talent for Growth Task Force, Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins’ participation in the Task Force, and input from the U.S. Department of Commerce.
Advisors include the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations, CHAIN5, Communications Workers of America, DIGITALEUROPE, the European Vocational Training Association, Khan Academy, and SMEUnited.
Working as a private sector collaborative, the Consortium is evaluating how AI is changing the jobs and skills workers need to be successful. The first phase of work will culminate in a report with actionable insights for business leaders and workers. Further details will be shared in the coming months. Findings will be intended to offer practical insights and recommendations to employers that seek ways to reskill and upskill their workers in preparation for AI-enabled environments.
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Author’s Note: The consortium was likely formed to retrain workers to use AI technology, else they would be laid off or fired. In a recent survey from McKinsey, 25% of business professionals said that they expect their employer to lay off staff as a result of AI adoption. Their pessimism isn’t misplaced. According to one estimate, around 4,000 workers have lost their jobs to AI since May. And in a poll from Beautiful.ai, which makes AI-powered presentation software, nearly half of managers said that they’re hoping to replace workers with AI.
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Consortium members represent a cross section of companies innovating on the cutting edge of AI that also understand the current and impending impact of AI on the workforce. Individually, Consortium members have documented opportunities and challenges presented by AI. The collaborative effort enables their organizations to coalesce insights, recommend action plans, and activate findings within their respective broad spheres of influence.
The Consortium’s work is inspired by the TTC’s Talent for Growth Task Force and Cisco Chair and CEO Chuck Robbins’ leadership of its skills training workstream, and input from the U.S. Department of Commerce. The TTC was established in June 2021 by U.S. President Biden, European Commission President von der Leyen, and European Council President Michel to promote U.S. and EU competitiveness and prosperity through cooperation and democratic approaches to trade, technology, and security.
“At the U.S. Department of Commerce, we’re focused on fueling advanced technology and deepening trade and investment relationships with partners and allies around the world. This work is helping us build a strong and competitive economy, propelled by a talented workforce that’s enabling workers to get into the good quality, high-paying, family-sustaining jobs of the future. We recognize that economic security and national security are inextricably linked. That’s why I’m proud to see the efforts of the Talent for Growth Task Force continue with the creation of the AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium,” said U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
“I am grateful to the consortium members for joining in this effort to confront the new workforce needs that are arising in the wake of AI’s rapid development. This work will help provide unprecedented insight on the specific skill needs for these jobs. I hope that this Consortium is just the beginning, and that the private sector sees this as a call to action to ensure our workforces can reap the benefits of AI.”
The AI-Enabled ICT Workforce Consortium’s efforts address a business critical and growing need for a proficient workforce that is trained in various aspects of AI, including the skills to implement AI applications across business processes. The Consortium will leverage its members and advisors to recommend and amplify reskilling and upskilling training programs that are inclusive and can benefit multiple stakeholders – students, career changers, current IT workers, employers, and educators – in order to skill workers at scale to engage in the AI era.
In its first phase of work, the Consortium will evaluate the impact of AI on 56 ICT job roles and provide training recommendations for impacted jobs. These job roles include 80% of the top 45 ICT job titles garnering the highest volume of job postings for the period February 2023-2024 in the United States and five of the largest European countries by ICT workforce numbers (France, Germany, Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands) according to Indeed Hiring Lab. Collectively, these countries account for a significant segment of the ICT sector, with a combined total of 10 million ICT workers.
Consortium members universally recognize the urgency and importance of their combined efforts with the acceleration of AI in all facets of business and the need to build an inclusive workforce with family-sustaining opportunities. Consortium members commit to developing worker pathways particularly in job sectors that will increasingly integrate artificial intelligence technology. To that end, Consortium members have established forward thinking goals with skills development and training programs to positively impact over 95 million individuals around the world over the next 10 years.
Consortium member goals include:
- Cisco to train 25 million people with cybersecurity and digital skills by 2032.
- IBM to skill 30 million individuals by 2030 in digital skills, including 2 million in AI.
- Intel to empower more than 30 million people with AI skills for current and future jobs by 2030.
- Microsoft to train and certify 10 million people from underserved communities with in-demand digital skills for jobs and livelihood opportunities in the digital economy by 2025.
- SAP to upskill two million people worldwide by 2025.
- Google has recently announced EUR 25 million in funding to support AI training and skills for people across Europe.
Accenture
“Helping organizations identify skills gaps and train people at speed and scale is a major priority for Accenture, and this consortium brings together an impressive ecosystem of industry partners committed to growing leading-edge technology, data and AI skills within our communities. Reskilling people to work with AI is paramount in every industry. Organizations that invest as much in learning as they do in the technology not only create career pathways, they are well positioned to lead in the market.” – Ellyn Shook, Chief Leadership & Human Resources Officer, Accenture
Eightfold
“The dynamics of work and the very essence of work are evolving at an unprecedented pace. Eightfold examines the most sought-after job roles, delving into the needs for reskilling and upskilling. Through its Talent Intelligence Platform, it empowers business leaders to adapt swiftly to the changing business environment. We take pride in contributing to the creation of a knowledgeable and responsible resource that assists organizations in preparing for the future of work.” – Ashutosh Garg, CEO and Co-Founder, Eightfold AI
“Google believes the opportunities created by technology should truly be available to everyone. We’re proud to join the AI-Enabled Workforce Consortium, which will advance our work to make AI skills training universally accessible. We’re committed to collaborating across sectors to ensure workers of all backgrounds can use AI effectively and develop the skills needed to prepare for future-focused jobs, qualify for new opportunities, and thrive in the economy.” – Lisa Gevelber, Founder, Grow with Google
IBM
“IBM is proud to join this timely business-led initiative, which brings together our shared expertise and resources to prepare the workforce for the AI era. Our collective responsibility as industry leaders is to develop trustworthy technologies and help provide workers—from all backgrounds and experience levels—access to opportunities to reskill and upskill as AI adoption changes ways of working and creates new jobs.” – Gian Luigi Cattaneo, Vice President, Human Resources, IBM EMEA
Indeed
“Indeed’s mission is to help people get jobs. Our research shows that virtually every job posted on Indeed today, from truck driver to physician to software engineer, will face some level of exposure to GenAI-driven change. We look forward to contributing to the Workforce Consortium’s important work. The companies who empower their employees to learn new skills and gain on-the-job experience with evolving AI tools will deepen their bench of experts, boost retention and expand their pool of qualified candidates.” – Hannah Calhoon, Head of AI Innovation at Indeed
Intel
“At Intel, our purpose is to create world-changing technology that improves the lives of every person on the planet, and we believe bringing AI everywhere is key for businesses and society to flourish. To do so, we must provide access to AI skills for everyone. Intel is committed to expanding digital readiness by collaborating with 30 countries, empowering 30,000 institutions, and training 30 million people for current and future jobs by 2030. Working alongside industry leaders as part of this AI-enabled ICT workforce consortium will help upskill and reskill the workforce for the digital economy ahead.” – Christy Pambianchi, Executive Vice President and Chief People Officer at Intel Corporation
Microsoft
“As a global leader in AI innovation, Microsoft is proud to join the ICT Workforce Consortium and continue our efforts to shape an inclusive and equitable technology future for all. As a member of the consortium, we will work with industry leaders to share best practices, create accessible learning opportunities, and collaborate with stakeholders to ensure that workers are equipped with the technology skills of tomorrow,” – Amy Pannoni, Vice President and Deputy General Counsel, HR Legal at Microsoft
SAP
“SAP is proud to join this effort to help prepare our workforce for the jobs of the future and ensure AI is relevant, reliable, and responsible across businesses and roles. As we navigate the complexities of our ever-evolving world, AI has the potential to reshape industries, revolutionize problem-solving, and unlock unprecedented levels of human potential, enabling us to create a more intelligent, efficient, and inclusive workforce. Over the years, SAP has supported many skills building programs, and we look forward to driving additional learning opportunities, innovation, and positive change as part of the consortium.” – Nicole Helmer, Vice President & Global Head of Development Learning at SAP
About Cisco
Cisco (NASDAQ: CSCO) is the worldwide technology leader that securely connects everything to make anything possible. Our purpose is to power an inclusive future for all by helping our customers reimagine their applications, power hybrid work, secure their enterprise, transform their infrastructure, and meet their sustainability goals. Discover more on The Newsroom and follow us on X at @Cisco.
Cisco and the Cisco logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Cisco and/or its affiliates in the U.S. and other countries. A listing of Cisco’s trademarks can be found at www.cisco.com/go/trademarks. Third-party trademarks mentioned are the property of their respective owners. The use of the word partner does not imply a partnership relationship between Cisco and any other company.
Executive Vice President of the European Commission and Commissioner for Competition Margaret Vestager and US Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo join Consortium members in Belgium. Photo Credit: Cisco
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References:
Big tech companies form new consortium to allay fears of AI job takeovers
Light Source Communications Secures Deal with Major Global Hyperscaler for Fiber Network in Phoenix Metro Area
Light Source Communications is building a 140-mile fiber middle-mile network in the Phoenix, AZ metro area, covering nine cities: Phoenix, Mesa, Tempe, Chandler, Gilbert, Queen Creek, Avondale, Coronado and Cashion. The company already has a major hyperscaler as the first anchor tenant.
There are currently 70 existing and planned data centers in the area that Light Source will serve. As one might expect, the increase in data centers stems from the boom in artificial intelligence (AI).
The network will include a big ring, which will be divided into three separate rings. In total, Light Source will be deploying 140 miles of fiber. The company has partnered with engineering and construction provider Future Infrastructure LLC, a division of Primoris Services Corp., to make it happen.
“I would say that AI happens to be blowing up our industry, as you know. It’s really in response to the amount of data that AI is demanding,” said Debra Freitas [1.], CEO of Light Source Communications (LSC).
Note 1. Debra Freitas has led LSC since co-founding in 2014. Owned and operated network with global OTT as a customer. She developed key customer relationships, secured funding for growth. Currently sits on the Executive Board of Incompas.
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Light Source plans for the entire 140-mile route to be underground. It’s currently working with the city councils and permitting departments of the nine cities as it goes through its engineering and permit approval processes. Freitas said the company expects to receive approvals from all the city councils and to begin construction in the third quarter of this year, concluding by the end of 2025.
Primoris delivers a range of specialty construction services to the utility, energy, and renewables markets throughout the United States and Canada. Its communications business is a leading provider of critical infrastructure solutions, including program management, engineering, fabrication, replacement, and maintenance. With over 12,700 employees, Primoris had revenue of $5.7 billion in 2023.
“We’re proud to partner with Light Source Communications on this impactful project, which will exceed the growing demands for high-capacity, reliable connectivity in the Phoenix area,” said Scott Comley, president of Primoris’ communications business. “Our commitment to innovation and excellence is well-aligned with Light Source’s cutting-edge solutions and we look forward to delivering with quality and safety at the forefront.”
Light Source is a carrier neutral, owner-operator of networks serving enterprises throughout the U.S. In addition to Phoenix, several new dark fiber routes are in development in major markets throughout the Central and Western United States. For more information about Light Source Communications, go to lightsourcecom.net.
The city councils in the Phoenix metro area have been pretty busy with fiber-build applications the past couple of years because the area is also a hotbed for companies building fiber-to-the-premises (FTTP) networks. In 2022 the Mesa City Council approved four different providers to build fiber networks. AT&T and BlackRock have said their joint venture would also start deploying fiber in Mesa.
Light Source is focusing on middle-mile, rather than FTTP because that’s where the demand is, according to Freitas. “Our route is a unique route, meaning there are no other providers where we’re going. We have a demand for the route we’re putting in,” she noted.
The company says it already has “a major, global hyperscaler” anchor tenant, but it won’t divulge who that tenant is. Its network will also touch Arizona State University at Tempe and the University of Arizona.
Light Source doesn’t light any of the fiber it deploys. Rather, it is carrier neutral and sells the dark fiber to customers who light it themselves and who may resell it to their own customers.
Light Source began operations in 2014 and is backed by private equity. It did not receive any federal grants for the new middle-mile network in Arizona.
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Bill Long, Zayo’s chief product officer, told Fierce Telecom recently that data centers are preparing for an onslaught of demand for more compute power, which will be needed to handle AI workloads and train new AI models.
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About Light Source Communications:
Light Source Communications (LSC) is a carrier neutral, customer agnostic provider of secure, scalable, reliable connectivity on a state-of-the-art dark fiber network. The immense amounts of data businesses require to compete in today’s global market requires access to an enhanced fiber infrastructure that allows them to control their data. With over 120 years of telecom experience, LSC offers an owner-operated network for U.S. businesses to succeed here and abroad. LSC is uniquely positioned and is highly qualified to build the next generation of dark fiber routes across North America, providing the key connections for business today and tomorrow.
References:
https://www.lightsourcecom.net/services/
https://www.fiercetelecom.com/ai/ai-demand-spurs-light-source-build-middle-mile-network-phoenix
Proposed solutions to high energy consumption of Generative AI LLMs: optimized hardware, new algorithms, green data centers
AI sparks huge increase in U.S. energy consumption and is straining the power grid; transmission/distribution as a major problem
AI Frenzy Backgrounder; Review of AI Products and Services from Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta; Conclusions
AI Frenzy Backgrounder; Review of AI Products and Services from Nvidia, Microsoft, Amazon, Google and Meta; Conclusions
Backgrounder:
Artificial intelligence (AI) continues both to astound and confound. AI finds patterns in data and then uses a technique called “reinforcement learning from human feedback.” Humans help train and fine-tune large language models (LLMs). Some humans, like “ethics & compliance” folks, have a heavier hand than others in tuning models to their liking.
Generative Artificial Intelligence (generative AI) is a type of AI that can create new content and ideas, including conversations, stories, images, videos, and music. AI technologies attempt to mimic human intelligence in nontraditional computing tasks like image recognition, natural language processing (NLP), and translation. Generative AI is the next step in artificial intelligence. You can train it to learn human language, programming languages, art, chemistry, biology, or any complex subject matter. It reuses training data to solve new problems. For example, it can learn English vocabulary and create a poem from the words it processes. Your organization can use generative AI for various purposes, like chatbots, media creation, and product development and design.
Review of Leading AI Company Products and Services:
1. AI poster child Nvidia’s (NVDA) market cap is about $2.3 trillion, due mainly to momentum-obsessed investors who have driven up the stock price. Nvidia currently enjoys 75% gross profit margins and has an estimated 80% share of the Graphic Processing Unit (GPU) chip market. Microsoft and Facebook are reportedly Nvidia‘s biggest customers, buying its GPUs last year in a frenzy.
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang talks of computing going from retrieval to generative, which investors believe will require a long-run overhaul of data centers to handle AI. All true, but a similar premise about an overhaul also was true for Cisco in 1999.
During the dot-com explosion in the late 1990s, investors believed a long-run rebuild of telecom infrastructure was imminent. Worldcom executives claimed that internet traffic doubled every 100 days, or about 3.5 months. The thinking at that time was that the whole internet would run on Cisco routers at 50% gross margins.
Cisco’s valuation at its peak of the “Dot.com” mania was at 33x sales. CSCO investors lost 85% of their money when the stock price troughed in October 2002. Over the next 16 years, as investors waited to break even, the company grew revenues by 172% and earnings per share by a staggering 681%. Over the last 24 years, CSCO buy and hold investors earned only 0.67% per year!
2. Microsoft is now a cloud computing/data-center company, more utility than innovator. Microsoft invested $13 billion in OpenAI for just under 50% of the company to help develop and roll out ChatGPT. But much of that was funny money — investment not in cash but in credits for Microsoft‘s Azure data centers. Microsoft leveraged those investments into super powering its own search engine, Bing, with generative AI which is now called “Copilot.” Microsoft spends a tremendous amount of money on Nvidia H100 processors to speed up its AI calculations. It also has designed its own AI chips.
3. Amazon masquerades as an online retailer, but is actually the world’s largest cloud computing/data-center company. The company offers several generative AI products and services which include:
- Amazon CodeWhisperer, an AI-powered coding companion.
- Amazon Bedrock, a fully managed service that makes foundational models (FMs) from AI21 Labs, Anthropic, and Stability AI, along with Amazon’s own family of FMs, Amazon Titan, accessible via an API.
- A generative AI tool for sellers to help them generate copy for product titles and listings.
- Generative AI capabilities that simplify how Amazon sellers create more thorough and captivating product descriptions, titles, and listing details.
Amazon CEO Jassy recently said the the company’s generative AI services have the potential to generate tens of billions of dollars over the next few years. CFO Brian Olsavsky told analysts that interest in Amazon Web Services’ (AWS) generative AI products, such as Amazon Q and AI chatbot for businesses, had accelerated during the quarter. In September 2023, Amazon said it plans to invest up to $4 billion in startup chatbot-maker Anthropic to take on its AI based cloud rivals (i.e. Microsoft and Google). Its security teams are currently using generative AI to increase productivity
4. Google, with 190,000 employees, controls 90% of search. Google‘s recent launch of its new Gemini AI tools was a disaster, producing images of the U.S. Founding Fathers and Nazi soldiers as people of color. When asked if Elon Musk or Adolf Hitler had a more negative effect on society, Gemini responded that it was “difficult to say.” Google pulled the product over “inaccuracies.” Yet Google is still promoting its AI product: “Gemini, a multimodal model from Google DeepMind, is capable of understanding virtually any input, combining different types of information, and generating almost any output.”
5. Facebook/Meta controls social media but has lost $42 billion investing in the still-nascent metaverse. Meta is rolling out three AI features for advertisers: background generation, image cropping and copy variation. Meta also unveiled a generative AI system called Make-A-Scene that allows artists to create scenes from text prompts . Meta’s CTO Andrew Bosworth said the company aims to use generative AI to help companies reach different audiences with tailored ads.
Conclusions:
Voracious demand has outpaced production and spurred competitors to develop rival chips. The ability to secure GPUs governs how quickly companies can develop new artificial-intelligence systems. Tech CEOs are under pressure to invest in AI, or risk investors thinking their company is falling behind the competition.
As we noted in a recent IEEE Techblog post, researchers in South Korea have developed the world’s first AI semiconductor chip that operates at ultra-high speeds with minimal power consumption for processing large language models (LLMs), based on principles that mimic the structure and function of the human brain. The research team was from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology.
While it’s impossible to predict how fast additional fabricating capacity comes on line, there certainly will be many more AI chips from cloud giants and merchant semiconductor companies like AMD and Intel. Fat profit margins Nvidia is now enjoying will surely attract many competitors.
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References:
https://www.zdnet.com/article/how-to-use-the-new-bing-and-how-its-different-from-chatgpt/
https://cloud.google.com/ai/generative-ai
https://aws.amazon.com/what-is/generative-ai/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-is-going-super-aggressive-on-generative-ai-7681587f
Curmudgeon: 2024 AI Fueled Stock Market Bubble vs 1999 Internet Mania? (03/11)
Korea’s KAIST develops next-gen ultra-low power Gen AI LLM accelerator
Telco and IT vendors pursue AI integrated cloud native solutions, while Nokia sells point products
MTN Consulting: Generative AI hype grips telecom industry; telco CAPEX decreases while vendor revenue plummets
Proposed solutions to high energy consumption of Generative AI LLMs: optimized hardware, new algorithms, green data centers
Amdocs and NVIDIA to Accelerate Adoption of Generative AI for $1.7 Trillion Telecom Industry
Cloud Service Providers struggle with Generative AI; Users face vendor lock-in; “The hype is here, the revenue is not”
Global Telco AI Alliance to progress generative AI for telcos
Bain & Co, McKinsey & Co, AWS suggest how telcos can use and adapt Generative AI
Generative AI Unicorns Rule the Startup Roost; OpenAI in the Spotlight
Generative AI in telecom; ChatGPT as a manager? ChatGPT vs Google Search
Generative AI could put telecom jobs in jeopardy; compelling AI in telecom use cases
Impact of Generative AI on Jobs and Workers
Korea’s KAIST develops next-gen ultra-low power Gen AI LLM accelerator
Researchers in South Korea have developed the world’s first artificial intelligence (AI) semiconductor chip that operates at ultra-high speeds with minimal power consumption for processing large language models (LLMs), based on principles that mimic the structure and function of the human brain.
The research team was from the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) PIM Semiconductor Research Center and the Graduate School of AI Semiconductor (led by Professor Yu Hoi-jun). This ultra-low power “complementary transformer” semiconductor using Samsung Electronics’ 28 nm process as announced by Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT on Feb. 6th. The chip is 41 times smaller in area than the Nvidia AI processor, enabling it to be used on devices like mobile phones.
The new AI chip successfully ran GPT 2 using only 1/625 of the power consumption and at 1/41 the size of Nvidia’s A100 graphics processing unit (GPU). This breakthrough is considered a key development in the escalating global AI semiconductor war.
Previously, the technology was less accurate than deep neural networks (DNNs) and mainly capable of simple image classifications, but the research team succeeded in improving the accuracy of the technology to match that of DNNs to apply it to LLMs.
The team said its new AI chip optimizes computational energy consumption while maintaining accuracy by using unique neural network architecture that fuses DNNs and SNNs, and effectively compresses the large parameters of LLMs.
A photo describing an artificial intelligence chip which processes a large language model with neuromorphic computing technology provided by the Ministry of Science and ICT on March 6, 2024.
References:
China backed Volt Typhoon has “pre-positioned” malware to disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure networks “on a scale greater than ever before”
On Sunday, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Beijing’s efforts to covertly plant offensive malware inside U.S. critical infrastructure networks [1.] is now at “a scale greater than we’d seen before,” an issue he has deemed a defining national security threat. He said that China backed Volt Typhoon was pre-positioning malware that could be triggered at any moment to disrupt U.S. critical infrastructure. “It’s the tip of the iceberg…it’s one of many such efforts by the Chinese,” he said on the sidelines of the security conference.
Wray had earlier told conference delegates, that China was increasingly inserting “offensive weapons within our critical infrastructure poised to attack whenever Beijing decides the time is right.” The FBI chief said the U.S. is particularly focused on the threat of pre-positioning, which some European officials have described as the cyber equivalent of pointing a ballistic missile at critical infrastructure. “Those attacks are now being amplified by artificial intelligence tools. The word ‘force multiplier’ is not really enough,” Wray added.
Note 1. The FBI Director declined to elaborate on what other critical infrastructure had been targeted, stressing that the Bureau had “a lot of work under way.”
Image Credits: imaginima / Getty Images
Machine learning translation has helped Chinese security operatives to more plausibly recruit assets, steal secrets and rapidly process more of the information they are collecting, the Wray said. “They already have built economic espionage and theft of personal and corporate data as a kind of a bedrock of their economic strategy and are eagerly pursuing AI advancements to try to accelerate that process,” Wray added.
FBI Director Christopher Wray PHOTO: KEVIN DIETSCH/GETTY IMAGES
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Western intelligence officials say China’s scale and sophistication of cyberattacks has accelerated over the past decade. Officials have grown particularly alarmed at Beijing’s interest in infiltrating U.S. critical infrastructure networks, planting malware inside U.S. computer systems responsible for everything from safe drinking water to aviation traffic so it could detonate, at a moment’s notice, damaging cyberattacks during a conflict.
In California, Wray met with counterparts from the Five Eyes intelligence community—which encompasses the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Canada and the U.K.—to share respective strategies for cyber defense. He has also traveled to Malaysia and India to discuss China’s hacking campaign with authorities in both countries.
“I am seeing more from Europe,” he said. “We’re laser focused on this as a real threat and we’re working with a lot of partners to try to identify it, anticipate it and disrupt it.”
The Netherlands’ spy agencies said earlier this month that Chinese hackers had used malware to gain access to a Dutch military network last year. The agency, considered to have one of Europe’s top cyber capabilities, said it made the rare disclosure to show the scale of the threat and reduce the stigma of being targeted so allied governments can better pool knowledge.
A report released this month by agencies including the FBI, the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Agency and the National Security Agency said Volt Typhoon hackers had maintained access in some U.S. networks for five or more years, and while it targeted only U.S. infrastructure directly, the infiltration was likely to have affected “Five Eyes” allies.
Author’s Note:
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Volt Typhoon, the China-sponsored hacking group, has been targeting U.S. critical infrastructure, including satellite and emergency management services and electric utilities, according to a new report from the industrial cybersecurity firm Dragos. That report outlines how the notorious hacking group is positioning themselves to have disruptive or destructive impacts on critical infrastructure in the U.S.
Robert M. Lee, founder and CEO of Dragos, warned during a media briefing that Volt Typhoon is not an opportunistic group, but is instead targeting specific sites that assist U.S. adversaries “trying to hurt or cripple U.S. infrastructure. It’s hitting the specific electric and satellite communication providers that would be important for disrupting major portions of the U.S. electric infrastructure,” Lee added.
The report comes shortly after the National Security Agency, FBI, and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, revealed that Volt Typhoon has been in some critical infrastructure networks for at least five years. That alert warned of Volt Typhoon operations that targeted the aviation, railways, mass transit, highway, maritime, pipeline, and water and sewage sectors.
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The NSA, CISA and FBI said in a joint advisory report that Volt Typhoon has been burrowing into the networks of aviation, rail, mass transit, highway, maritime, pipeline, water and sewage organizations — none of which were named — in a bid to pre-position themselves for destructive cyberattacks, published on February 7th. The release of the advisory, which was co-signed by cybersecurity agencies in the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada and New Zealand, comes a week after a similar warning from FBI Director Christopher Wray. Speaking during a U.S. House of Representatives committee hearing on cyber threats posed by China, Wray described Volt Typhoon as “the defining threat of our generation” and said the group’s aim is to “disrupt our military’s ability to mobilize” in the early stages of an anticipated conflict over Taiwan, which China claims as its territory.
According to Wednesday’s technical advisory, Volt Typhoon has been exploiting vulnerabilities in routers, firewalls and VPNs to gain initial access to critical infrastructure across the country. The China-backed hackers typically leveraged stolen administrator credentials to maintain access to these systems, according to the advisory, and in some cases, they have maintained access for “at least five years.”
This access enabled the state-backed hackers to carry out potential disruptions such as “manipulating heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems in server rooms or disrupting critical energy and water controls, leading to significant infrastructure failures,” the advisory warned. In some cases, Volt Typhoon hackers had the capability to access camera surveillance systems at critical infrastructure facilities — though it’s not clear if they did.
Volt Typhoon also used living-off-the-land techniques, whereby attackers use legitimate tools and features already present in the target system, to maintain long-term, undiscovered persistence. The hackers also conducted “extensive pre-compromise reconnaissance” in a bid to avoid detection. “For example, in some instances, Volt Typhoon actors may have abstained from using compromised credentials outside of normal working hours to avoid triggering security alerts on abnormal account activities,” the advisory said.
Earlier this year, the FBI and U.S. Department of Justice announced that they had disrupted the “KV Botnet” run by Volt Typhoon that had compromised hundreds of U.S.-based routers for small businesses and home offices. The FBI said it was able to remove the malware from the hijacked routers and sever their connection to the Chinese state-sponsored hackers.
According to a May 2023 report published by Microsoft, Volt Typhoon has been targeting and breaching U.S. critical infrastructure since at least mid-2021.
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References:
Volt Typhoon targeted emergency management services, per report
US disrupts China-backed hacking operation amid warning of threat to American infrastructure
https://www.controlglobal.com/home/blog/11293192/information-technology
Taiwan’s ITRI integrates virtual and real technologies on display at CES 2024
Major international manufacturers such as NVIDIA, Meta, and Microsoft are actively building a new generation virtual ecosystem. With the support of the Industrial Technology Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs, ITRI (Taiwan’s largest high-tech applied research institutions) has continued to develop an interactive experience that integrates virtual and real, and launched its first interactive experience at the US Consumer Electronics Show (CES 2024).
ITRI announced the introduction of AI-incorporating display and entertainment technologies along with robotics innovations at CES 2024. ITRI presented 10 groundbreaking innovations spanning AI robotics, smart sports, digital health, and AI display and entertainment.
ITRI partnered with Lianjia Optoelectronics, a major automotive LED module manufacturer, to launch a “high-fidelity 3D interactive system ” to seize 3D entertainment business opportunities.
Director of Market Research at the Consumer Technology Association (CTA), Jessica Boothe, praised ITRI’s exhibits for embodying the CES 2024 trends of AI, sustainability, and inclusivity. Expressing her enthusiasm, Boothe highlighted one of the showcased innovations, the Hyper-realistic 3D Interactive System, which was poised to launch a collaboration with Excellence Optoelectronics Inc. (EOI), a prominent automobile LED module manufacturer.
“I must say, very exciting showcase this year. We find everything to be on-trend. The CES 2024 trends were predicted to be AI, sustainability, and inclusivity. And we have all of that right here in your booth,” remarked Boothe. “We’re really excited that ITRI has been here since 2017. As we’re celebrating CTA’s 100-year anniversary, it’s nice to say that we have exhibitors like ITRI coming back every year to CES, and we continue to see ITRI continue to innovate,” she added.
“CES is the most influential tech event in the world, and this is the eighth time ITRI has participated,” said ITRI President Edwin Liu. “To be at CES, we have two main purposes: to showcase ITRI on the global stage and to provide our team with valuable exposure to the latest advancements worldwide. Through CES, ITRI is opening up even more collaboration opportunities, engaging with potential investors, and exploring tech licensing and ventures,” he added.
“ITRI has worked on smart interactive display technology for years, and our collaboration with EOI on the Hyper-Realistic 3D Interactive Display is one of the best successes. This also allows us to strategically deploy diversified product lines in Taiwan, the United States, and Europe,” said President Liu. ITRI also promoted the Institute’s strategic partnerships with Light Matrix and its investor ADATA Technology on iGolfPutter, an intelligent interactive golf simulator. Utilizing Light Matrix’s smart sports training and teaching system called SyncShot360 in iGolfPutter, targeting the global sports technology market. Notably, iGolfPutter has been named by Forbes Magazine as one of the technologies to look for at CES 2024.
EOI Chairman, Dr. Kuohsin Huang, elaborated on their collaboration project with ITRI, stating, “Unlike traditional methods relying on multiple cameras, the Hyper-realistic 3D Interactive System (ChartBox) can generate a personal, interactive 3D digital avatar from a 2D photograph. This 2D-to-3D process integrates various technologies, including real-time image matting, backside model generation, expression changes, natural speech, AI response, and facial recognition.” He added, “Furthermore, its next-generation display technology positions EOI to enter the new market of audio-video entertainment and artistic performances.”
Simon Chen, Chairman of ADATA, emphasized, “Beyond our commitment to providing top-notch memory solutions, ADATA is venturing into cutting-edge sports technology through cross-industry collaboration. Our goal is to offer an optimal training environment for athletes and an innovative experience for spectator sports. Leveraging ADATA’s well-established global distribution channels, we can actively promote Taiwan’s sports industry on the international stage.”
Commenting on iGolfPutter and SyncShot360, Light Matrix CEO Joe Chen said, “The combination of fast 3D modeling, volumetric capture, and virtual-real fusion in the metaverse creates never-before-seen services that the sports and art industry would love. Our volumetric view technology, born out of collaboration with ITRI, allows for a more precise, 360-degree intelligent analysis of golf and other sports. It holds the promise of applications in sporting events and stage performances, setting an excellent foundation for future expansion in the global market.”
From left to right in the above photo are Lin Zhaoxian, vice president of ITRI and director of the International Institute of Obstetrics and gynecology, Liu Wenxiong, president of ITRI, Huang Guoxin, chairman of Lianjia Optoelectronics, and Huang Fangyu, general manager of Lianjia Optoelectronics.
About ITRI:
Industrial Technology Research Institute (ITRI) is one of the world’s leading technology R&D institutions aiming to innovate a better future for society. Founded in 1973, ITRI has played a vital role in transforming Taiwan’s industries from labor-intensive into innovation-driven. To address market needs and global trends, it has launched its 2035 Technology Strategy and Roadmap that focuses on innovation development in Smart Living, Quality Health, Sustainable Environment, and Resilient Society.
Over the years, ITRI has been dedicated to incubating startups and spinoffs, including well-known names such as UMC and TSMC. In addition to its headquarters in Taiwan, ITRI has branch offices in the U.S., Europe, and Japan in an effort to extend its R&D scope and promote international cooperation across the globe. For more information, please visit https://www.itri.org/eng.
References:
ABI Research: Telco transformation measured via patents and 3GPP contributions; 5G accelerating in China
“SK Wonderland at CES 2024;” SK Group Chairman: AI-led revolution poses challenges to companies
On Tuesday at CES 2024, SK Group [1.] displayed world-leading Artificial Intelligence (AI) and carbon reduction technologies under an amusement park concept called “SK Wonderland.” It provided CES attendees a view of a world that uses the latest AI and clean technologies from SK companies and their business partners to a create a smarter, greener world. Highlights of the booth included:
- Magic Carpet Ride in a flying vehicle embedded with an AI processor that helps it navigate dense, urban areas – reducing pollution, congestion and commuting frustrations
- AI Fortune Teller powered by next-generation memory technologies that can help computers analyze and learn from massive amounts of data to predict the future
- Dancing Car that’s fully electric, able to recharge in 20 minutes or less and built to travel hundreds of miles between charges
- Clean Energy Train that’s capable of being powered by hydrogen, whose only emission is water
- Rainbow Tube that shows how plastics are finding a new life through a technology that turns waste into fuel
Note 1. SK Group is South Korea’s second-largest conglomerate, with Samsung at number one.
SK’s CES 2024 displays include participation from seven SK companies — SK Inc., SK Innovation, SK Hynix, SK Telecom, SK E&S, SK Ecoplant and SKC. While the displays are futuristic, they’re based on technologies that SK companies and their global partners have already developed and are bringing to market.
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won said that companies are facing challenges in navigating the transformative era led by artificial intelligence (AI) due to its unpredictable impact and speed. He said AI technology and devices with AI are the talk of the town at this year’s annual trade show and companies are showcasing their AI innovations achieved through early investment.
“We are on the starting line of the new era, and no one can predict the impact and speed of the AI revolution across the industries,” Chey told Korean reporters after touring corporate booths on the opening day of CES 2024 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas. Reflecting on the rapid evolution of AI technologies, he highlighted the breakthrough made by ChatGPT, a language model launched about a year ago, which has significantly influenced how AI is perceived and utilized globally. “Until ChatGPT, no one has thought of how AI would change the world. ChatGPT made a breakthrough, and everybody is trying to ride on the wave.”
SK Group Chairman Chey Tae-won speaks during a brief meeting with Korean media on the sidelines of CES 2024 at the Las Vegas Convention Center in Las Vegas on Jan. 9, 2024
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SK Hynix Inc., SK Group’s chipmaking unit, is one of the prominent companies at CES 2024, boasting its high-performance AI chips like high bandwidth memory (HBM). The latest addition is the HBM3E chips, recognized as the world’s best-performing memory product. Mass production of HBM3E is scheduled to begin in the first half of 2024.
SK Telecom Co. is also working on AI, having Sapeon, an AI chip startup under its wing. Chey stressed the importance of integrating AI services and solutions across SK Group’s diverse business sectors, ranging from energy to telecommunications and semiconductors. “It’s crucial for each company to collaborate and present a unified package or solution rather than developing them separately,” Chey said. “But I don’t think it is necessary to set up a new unit for that. I think we should come up with an integrated channel for customers.”
SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom are jointly developing Large Language Models for generative AI to be used by telecom network providers.
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References:
https://en.yna.co.kr/view/AEN20240110001900320#
https://eng.sk.com/news/ces-2024-sk-to-showcase-world-class-carbon-reduction-and-ai-technologies
SK Telecom inspects cell towers for safety using drones and AI
SK Telecom and Deutsche Telekom to Jointly Develop Telco-specific Large Language Models (LLMs)
SK Telecom and Thales Trial Post-quantum Cryptography to Enhance Users’ Protection on 5G SA Network
Google announces Gemini: it’s most powerful AI model, powered by TPU chips
Google claims it has developed a new Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) system and Large Language Model (LLM) more powerful than any currently on the market, including technology developed by ChatGPT creator OpenAI. Gemini can summarize text, create images and answer questions. Gemini was trained on Google’s Tensor Processing Units v4 and v5e.
Google’s Bard is a generative AI based on the PaLM large language mode. Starting today, Gemini will be used to give Bard “more advanced reasoning, planning, understanding and more,” according to a Google blog post.
While global users of Google Bard and the Pixel 8 Pro will be able to run Gemini now, an enterprise product, Gemini Pro, is coming on Dec. 13th. Developers can sign up now for an early preview in Android AICore.
Gemini comes in three model sizes: Ultra, Pro and Nano. Ultra is the most capable, Nano is the smallest and most efficient, and Pro sits in the middle for general tasks. The Nano version is what Google is using on the Pixel, while Bard gets Pro. Google says it plans to run “extensive trust and safety checks” before releasing Gemini Ultra to select groups.
Gemini can code in Python, Java, C++, Go and other popular programming languages. Google used Gemini to upgrade Google’s AI-powered code generation system, AlphaCode. Next, Google plans to bring Gemini to Ads, Chrome and Duet AI. In the future, Gemini will be used in Google Search as well.
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Market Impact:
Gemini’s release and use will present a litmus test for Google’s technology following a push to move faster in developing and releasing AI products. It coincides with a period of turmoil at OpenAI that has sent tremors through the tight knit AI community, suggesting the industry’s leaders is far from settled.
The announcement of the new GenAI software is the latest attempt by Google to display its AI portfolio after the launch of ChatGPT about a year ago shook up the tech industry. Google wanted outside customers to perform testing on the most advanced version of Gemini before releasing it more widely, said Demis Hassabis, chief executive officer of Google DeepMind.
“We’ve been pushing forward with a lot of focus and intensity,” Hassabis said, adding that Gemini likely represented the company’s most ambitious combined science and engineering project to date.
Google said Wednesday it would offer a range of AI programs to customers under the Gemini umbrella. It touted the software’s ability to process various media, from audio to video, an important development as users turn to chatbots for a wider range of needs.
The most powerful Gemini Ultra version outperformed OpenAI’s technology, GPT-4, on a range of industry benchmarks, according to Google. That version is expected to become widely available for software developers early next year following testing with a select group of customers.
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Role of TPUs:
While most GenAI software and LLM’s are processed using NVIDIA’s neural network processors, Google’s tensor processing units (TPUs) will power Gemini. TPUs are custom-designed AI accelerators, which are optimized for training and inference of large AI models. Cloud TPUs are optimized for training large and complex deep learning models that feature many matrix calculations, for instance building large language models (LLMs). Cloud TPUs also have SparseCores, which are dataflow processors that accelerate models relying on embeddings found in recommendation models. Other use cases include healthcare, like protein folding modeling and drug discovery.
Google’s custom AI chips, known as tensor processing units, are embedded in compute servers at the company’s data center. Photo Credit: GOOGLE
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Competitors:
Gemini and the products built with it, such as chatbots, will compete with OpenAI’s GPT-4, Microsoft’s Copilot (which is based on OpenAI’s GPT-4), Anthropic’s Claude AI, Meta’s Llama 2 and more. Google claims Gemini Ultra outperforms GPT-4 in several benchmarks, including the massive multitask language understanding general knowledge test and in Python code generation.
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References:
Everything to know about Gemini, Google’s new AI model (blog.google)
Google Reveals Gemini, Its Much-Anticipated Large Language Model (techrepublic.com)
MTN Consulting: Generative AI hype grips telecom industry; telco CAPEX decreases while vendor revenue plummets
Ever since Generative (Gen) AI burst into the mainstream through public-facing platforms (e.g. ChatGPT) late last year, its promising capabilities have caught the attention of many. Not surprisingly, telecom industry execs are among the curious observers wanting to try Gen AI even as it continues to evolve at a rapid pace.
MTN Consulting says the telecom industry’s bond with AI is not new though. Many telcos have deployed conventional AI tools and applications in the past several years, but Gen AI presents opportunities for telcos to deliver significant incremental value over existing AI. A few large telcos have kickstarted their quest for Gen AI by focusing on “localization.” Through localization of processes using Gen AI, telcos vow to eliminate language barriers and improve customer engagement in their respective operating markets, especially where English as a spoken language is not dominant.
Telcos can harness the power of Gen AI across a wide range of different functions, but the two vital telco domains likely to witness transformative potential of Gen AI are networks and customer service. Both these domains are crucial: network demands are rising at an unprecedented pace with increased complexity, and delivering differentiated customer experiences remains an unrealized ambition for telcos.
Several Gen AI use cases are emerging within these two telco domains to address these challenges. In the network domain, these include topology optimization, network capacity planning, and predictive maintenance, for example. In the customer support domain, they include localized virtual assistants, personalized support, and contact center documentation.
Most of the use cases leveraging Gen AI applications involve dealing with sensitive data, be it network-related or customer-related. This will have major implications from the regulatory point of view, and regulatory concerns will constrain telcos’ Gen AI adoption and deployment strategies. The big challenge is the mosaic of complex and strict regulations prevalent in different markets that telcos will have to understand and adhere to when implementing Gen AI use cases in such markets. This is an area where third-party vendors will try to cash in by offering Gen AI solutions that are compliant with regulations in the respective markets.
Vendors will also play a key role for small- and medium-sized telcos in Gen AI implementation, by eliminating constraints due to the lack of technical expertise and HW/SW resources, skilled manpower, along with opex costs burden. Key vendors to watch out for in the Gen AI space are webscale providers who possess the ideal combination of providing cloud computing resources required to train large language models (LLM) coupled with their Gen AI expertise offered through pre-trained models.
Other key points from MTN Consulting on Gen AI in the telecom industry:
- Network operations and customer support will be key transformative areas.
- Telco workforce will become leaner but smarter in the Gen AI era.
- Strict regulations will be a major barrier for telcos.
- Vendors key to Gen AI integration; webscale providers set for more telco gains.
- Lock-in risks and rising software costs are key considerations in choosing vendors.
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Separately, MTN Consulting’s latest forecast called for $320B of telco capex in 2023, down only slightly from the $328B recorded in 2022. Early 3Q23 revenue reports from vendors selling into the telco market call this forecast into question. The dip in the Americas is worse than expected, and Asia’s expected 2023 growth has not materialized.
Key vendors are reporting significant YoY drops in revenue, pointing to inventory corrections, macroeconomic uncertainty (interest rates, in particular), and weaker telco spending. Network infrastructure sales to telcos (Telco NI) for key vendors Ericsson and Nokia dropped 11% and 16% YoY in 3Q23, respectively, measured in US dollars. By the same metric, NEC, Fujitsu and Samsung saw +1%, -52%, and -41% YoY growth; Adtran, Casa, and Juniper declined 29%, 7%, and 20%; fiber-centric vendors Clearfield, Corning, CommScope, and Prysmian all saw double digit declines.
MTN Consulting will update its operator forecast formally next month. In advance, this comment flags a weaker spending outlook than expected. Telco capex for 2023 is likely to come in around $300-$310B.
MTN Consulting’s Network Operator Forecast Through 2027: “Telecom is essentially a zero-growth industry”
MTN Consulting: Top Telco Network Infrastructure (equipment) vendors + revenue growth changes favor cloud service providers
Proposed solutions to high energy consumption of Generative AI LLMs: optimized hardware, new algorithms, green data centers
Cloud Service Providers struggle with Generative AI; Users face vendor lock-in; “The hype is here, the revenue is not”
Global Telco AI Alliance to progress generative AI for telcos
Amdocs and NVIDIA to Accelerate Adoption of Generative AI for $1.7 Trillion Telecom Industry
Bain & Co, McKinsey & Co, AWS suggest how telcos can use and adapt Generative AI
Generative AI Unicorns Rule the Startup Roost; OpenAI in the Spotlight
Generative AI in telecom; ChatGPT as a manager? ChatGPT vs Google Search
Generative AI could put telecom jobs in jeopardy; compelling AI in telecom use cases
MTN Consulting: Satellite network operators to focus on Direct-to-device (D2D), Internet of Things (IoT), and cloud-based services
MTN Consulting on Telco Network Infrastructure: Cisco, Samsung, and ZTE benefit (but only slightly)
MTN Consulting: : 4Q2021 review of Telco & Webscale Network Operators Capex
Granite Telecommunications expands its service offerings with Juniper Networks
Juniper Networks today announced that its customer and partner, Granite Telecommunications, a $1.8 billion provider of communications and technology solutions, has expanded its service offerings to include Juniper Networks’ full-stack of campus and branch services, including Wired Access, Wireless Access and SD-WAN, all driven by Mist AI™. This move will enhance Granite’s ability to support its customers’ unique verticals, such as healthcare, retail, education, manufacturing, hospitality and financial.
Granite has been working closely with Juniper for several years, and with this expanded AI-driven enterprise portfolio they now offer Juniper’s full suite of campus and branch networking solutions. By leveraging Mist AI and a single cloud across the wired, wireless and SD-WAN domains, Granite saves time and money with client-to-cloud automation and assurance, while accelerating deployments with Zero Touch Provisioning and automated configurations. In addition, Granite delivers more value to its customers with a broadened service portfolio that offers new highly differentiated services.
“Granite stands as Juniper’s largest AI-Driven SD-WAN partner in Managed Services within the Americas, underscoring the strength of our relationship and confidence in Juniper’s cutting-edge networking technology,” said Rob Hale, President and CEO at Granite. “As we expand our partnership, we are poised to elevate the customer experience to new heights by offering a full suite of Juniper solutions, imbued with the defining qualities of reliability, performance and security that characterize Juniper.”
Granite has been expanding its nationwide support to address the changing and growing needs of its customers. The company is committed to delivering specialized services for the unique requirements of its customers’ verticals. The addition of Juniper’s software-defined branch and wireless services is expected to be a significant benefit to many of its customer sectors. These services are designed to improve the performance and security of networks in various industries and make it easier for businesses to manage their network infrastructure.
“We are very excited to take our relationship with Granite Telecommunications to the next level,” said Sujai Hajela, Executive Vice President, AI-Driven Enterprise at Juniper Networks. “They have proven to be an exceptional partner and leader in the communications industry, who is especially adept at leveraging AI and the cloud to deliver high value managed services to their customers. With the full AI-driven enterprise portfolio, Granite can truly differentiate from their competition with exceptional client-to-cloud user experiences.”
With this expansion, Granite continues to demonstrate its commitment to providing customers with the best possible network experience. The addition of Juniper’s full-stack solutions will enable Granite to enhance its capabilities and better serve its customers, while also providing the company with a competitive edge in the market.
About Juniper Networks:
Juniper Networks is dedicated to dramatically simplifying network operations and driving superior experiences for end users. Our solutions deliver industry-leading insight, automation, security and AI to drive real business results. We believe that powering connections will bring us closer together while empowering us all to solve the world’s greatest challenges of well-being, sustainability and equality. Additional information can be found at Juniper Networks (www.juniper.net) or connect with Juniper on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
References:
