Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube
Home Blog Page 12546

Silicon Valley start-up looking to sell AI system to BPO firms

By Janina C. Lim, Reporter
A Silicon Valley-based tech start-up is set to sign a contract with a major business process outsourcing player in the country to introduce its artificial intelligence (AI) system, which can take three calls at a time.
George Y. Yang, Founder and CEO of AI Pros, said the firm is looking at generating P1 billion in the sale of its AI called named Filicia in the next three to five years. However, the technology is not open for all and interested buyers will have to undertake a critical qualification review.
Currently, AI Pros is in the process of selecting which call center company it will be signing a contract with. The top five major players in the industry are vying to bag AI Pros’ software, according to Mr. Yang.
The main criterion will be the company’s “Filipino-oriented” principle, which refers to the size of the company’s footprint in the country compared with its global presence.
“We want it to be a showcase to the rest of the world that,”Hey, it can be done here,” Mr. Yang said in a press briefing with the Department of Trade and Industry Wednesday in Makati City, as he explained why he was strict about having Filipino shareholders only.
In an interview, he added that several BPOs from other countries, including the top two biggest in the industry, have expressed interest in AI Pros technology but Mr. Yang said he turned these proposals down.
“I’ve been very tough about it. If you wanna grow your business, you grow it in the Philippines,” Mr. Yang added in an interview on Wednesday.
However, this may run counter with the fact that the biggest BPO companies are only local units of multinational firms.
Asked on the investments AI Pros made to establish the software, Mr. Yang said these investments are “difficult to quantify” as they come in the form of intellectual property.
The firm said it is eyeing to hire 300,000 workers in the process.
Employees who will handle the AI-powered system will merely serve an oversight function to ensure that calls, being done by the machine-learning computer, will run smoothly from beginning to end.
For its part, the Department of Trade and Industry will partner with AI Pros to link the needed employees, who may or may not be from the BPO sector, to the company.
“Hindi naman lahat kukunin outside sa system. Yung mga not in the system na gustong maretrain, siyempre mawawalan sila ng trabaho, they’ll be the ones that will be tapped. Mag-apply din sila dito (Not all who will be employed are outside the BPO system. Those who will lose their jobs will be tapped),”Trade Secretary Ramon M. Lopez told reporters on Wednesday.
Asked to expound on the Filipino-oriented criterion, Mr. Lopez said: “Mas malaki ang operation dito sa Pilipinas (The BPO company has to have a huge operation here in the Philippines) compared to other countries who will benefit from this technology.”
“Dapat magregister ng (It should register) interest sa (in) DTI. Reserba na (It should allot) additional workforce,” Mr. Lopez added.
The official assured that AI will only enhance current jobs. Although admitting that there will be an impact on about half of the 1.3 million jobs in the sector, the workers will be trained to gain skills that will help them cater to other jobs in the sectors.
The overall initiative of promoting AI, which the Department of Information, Communication and Technology will also take part of in the aim of providing fast internet service, is expected to generate about 482,000 unskilled workers to handle low-skilled work, 525,000 low-skilled workers to handle mid-level skill work, and 309,000 mid-skilled workers to do high-level tasks.

The art of steak

By Joseph L. Garcia, Reporter

CHEF Matthew Crabbe presents a Ruby Jack’s steak.

THE JAPANESE have a habit of taking something foreign and improving upon it, resulting in a product sometimes far superior than the original: think Japanese jeans, whiskey, or jazz. These Japanese sensibilities meet with Australian techniques in Japan-based steakhouse Ruby Jack’s, which has a branch in City of Dreams.
A tasting last week in the steakhouse’s Philippine arm was graced by the presence of Matthew Crabbe, the CEO and chef director of ECN, the holding company behind Ruby Jack’s, which also has under its umbrella Two Rooms and R2 Superclub in Japan.
Mr. Crabbe takes the high Japanese standards and applies these to his food. “As a foreigner living and working in Japan as a chef, there’s no way I would even attempt to do Japanese food,” he said. He has been in Japan since 2001, brought from across the world to become the head chef of New York Grill in Tokyo, which will be preserved for posterity as a location in the film Lost in Translation.
Now let’s see to those high standards. For last week’s tasting, the crown jewel was, of course, the steak. The dry-aged beef had been veiled in cheesecloth soaked in Jack Daniel’s for 30 days, and the result was an aggressive steak, blushing furiously red, yielding a flavor that was both gamey and intense. As for the texture though, it was a delight to feel it slicing like butter under the knife, and serious lovers of beef would surely kiss someone on the mouth for thinking up this treat — who knew whisky could bring out the flavors of beef so well?
Other options included lamb chops and slices of pork, both of which had a taste that honored the animal, and as for you, diner, would be a chew that you would think of and crave for days.
When it came to the dessert options, this reporter was brought back to life with a Chocolate Rocher cake, which tried to replicate the experience of biting into the Ferrero-created confection in pastry form. A close second would be the double-baked and smoked cheesecake, which had several layers of flavor and a weight that should see you through the rest of the day.
The ingredients are all mostly from Japan, or locally sourced, and — surprise! — not all of the beef is sourced from Japan, the land of prized Wagyu.
According to Mr. Crabbe, Wagyu (literally meaning “Japanese Cow”) is graded A1 to A5, with A5 being the highest. Mr. Crabbe uses beef graded between A3 to A4, because A5-graded beef would be too fatty and well-marbled. “I don’t like that much fat content in the beef because you can’t eat it that much… it’s not good for you, basically, at the end of the day,” he said.
For everything else, he uses beef from Australia, which is more lean, but he would sometimes also source beef from the US or Argentina.
The discerning palates of the Japanese often lead to high expectations. Mr. Crabbe must be doing something right then, if he could expand an Australian steakhouse from Japan to the Philippines. “As long as you do something very well, they will appreciate it.”

Ayala enters Australian renewables market

AC ENERGY Holdings, Inc. is making its foray into Australia, as it announced on Wednesday its acquisition of a 50% stake in the Australian business of UPC Renewables.
“AC Energy is very excited to invest into UPC Renewables Australia as it complements AC Energy’s goal to exceed 5,000 MW (megawatts) by 2025. The UPC Renewables Australia platform is focused on large scale projects and is managed by a high-quality management team,” said AC Energy President and Chief Executive Officer Eric T. Francia in a statement.
Under the deal, AC Energy will invest $30 million for a 50% stake in UPC Renewables’ Australian business, as well as provide a $200-million facility to fund project equity.
UPC Renewables Australia is developing the 1,000-MW Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain projects in North West Tasmania, and the 600-MW New England Solar Farm near Uralla in New South Wales.
“The Robbins Island project itself is a very large site and together with Jim’s Plains have some of the best proven wind resources in the world, and the New England Solar project has excellent solar resource within close proximity to Transmission,” Mr. Francia said.
UPC Renewables Australia also has a development portfolio of another 3,000 MW located in NSW, Tasmania and Victoria.
“AC Energy investment into UPC Renewables Australia will enable us to accelerate projects in Australia. We are making progress on the Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain project in North West Tasmania and we endorse the Prime Minister’s recent comment about how wind and hydro are highly complementary,” Anton Rohner, chief executive of UPC Renewables Australia, was quoted as saying.
“We expect our projects in North West Tasmania to have capacity factors in the order of 50% with the turbines producing power nearly 95% of the time,” he added.
The Robbins Island and Jim’s Plain projects, together with Tasmania’s hydro assets and other new renewable energy projects, Mr. Rohner said “will assist in making the interconnectors between Tasmania and Victoria, a dispatchable and significant renewable energy generator into the National Electricity Market.”
In July last year, AC Energy disclosed that it had entered into a development funding arrangement with UPC Renewables Asia Pacific Holdings Ltd. and UPC Renewables Asia I Limited — collectively, UPC Renewables — for the development of small island power projects in Indonesia.
The partnership between AC Energy and UPC Renewables started in 2013 for the development, construction and operations of North Luzon Renewable Energy Corp., the project entity for the 81-MW wind farm project in Pagudpud, Ilocos Norte.
The two also partnered in the 75-MW Sidrap project in South Sulawesi, which is said to be the first utility-scale wind farm in Indonesia.
AC Energy’s Australian venture comes after it disclosed on Sunday that it was considering to sell as much as half of its thermal energy platform. The move is meant to balance its renewables and thermal portfolios, as well as raise capital to support growth as the company expands in the region.
The company has a total attributable capacity of around 1,600 MW across its thermal and renewables platforms.
UPC Renewables is a leading global energy player that develops, finances, constructs, owns and operates a portfolio of renewable energy generation assets. Together with partners, it has projects in Italy, US, Canada, China and the Philippines.
Shares in AC Energy’s parent Ayala Corp. slipped 0.42% to P950 each on Wednesday. — Victor V. Saulon

Chef Batali investigated as #MeToo spotlight returns

NEW YORK — Celebrity chef Mario Batali is under investigation for an alleged sexual assault dating back to 2005, police said on Monday, as a report emerged of a inquiry into to a second assault accusation against him in 2004.
“I vehemently deny any allegations of sexual assault,” Batali said in a statement issued by his representative Linden Zakula. “My past behavior has been deeply inappropriate and I am sincerely remorseful for my actions.”
Batali said he was not attempting a professional comeback and added, “My only focus is finding a personal path forward where I can continue in my charitable endeavors — helping the underprivileged and those in need.”
The chef, who owns numerous restaurants, has been accused of drugging and sexually assaulting an employee at one of his restaurants in 2005, according to a report on CBS-TV’s 60 Minutes program that aired on Sunday.
The New York City Police Department confirmed in an e-mail on Monday that it was investigating the 2005 allegation.
Batali is one of dozens of high-profile men who have been fired or resigned from their jobs in politics, media, entertainment and business after facing allegations of sexually harassing or assaulting women and men.
In December, after accusations by four women were reported by online food trade publication Eater New York, ABC Television Network said it had fired Batali from its cooking show, The Chew and Batali stepped away from his restaurant company.
In the 60 Minutes interview, CBS concealed the accuser’s face with shaded lighting. The woman said she was concerned that if her identity was revealed it would hurt her future job prospects in the restaurant industry.
“Who wants to be defined by their worst day in their life?” she asked.
An anonymous employee of one of Batali’s 26 restaurants accused him of assault in 2005 at The Spotted Pig, a celebrity haunt in Manhattan’s Greenwich Village run by one of his friends, and in which he had invested.
The woman alleged that Batali drugged and sexually assaulted her while she was unconscious, waking up to find apparent semen on her skirt.
She said she went to a hospital, but decided not to file a police report, and her “rape kit” from the hospital was not preserved.
Jamie Seet, another Spotted Pig employee, said she witnessed a similar incident in 2008 on the restaurant’s security cameras and several employees intervened to prevent the assault.
“I think Mario Batali’s a monster. He has been lauded as this incredible chef and this leader. But behind the scenes he’s hurtful and he does not respect women,” Trish Nelson, a former Spotted Pig waitress told 60 Minutes.
“We called him the Red Menace,” she added.
Batali is also being investigated over a claim by another woman who said he drugged and raped her a year earlier, The New York Times reported on Monday.
Citing an unidentified source, the newspaper reported that a woman told police two months ago that she had been assaulted by Batali at his Babbo restaurant in 2004.
The Times reported that the New York City Police Department would not confirm the complaint.
The police did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment regarding the matter.
While Batali denies the latest and more serious allegations of assault to CBS, B&B Hospitality called them “chilling and deeply disturbing” and said it was negotiating Batali’s divestment from the company, the terms of which it hoped to be set by July 1.
‘BRUTAL, OPPRESSIVE BUSINESS’
According to Nelson, harassment is “pervasive throughout” the industry, known for its hierarchical dynamic.
“Doing this over 20 years there isn’t one place that I haven’t had this kind of an experience,” she told CBS.
A number of chefs have been publicly accused — but none as famous as Batali.
Raised in Seattle, he apprenticed with London chef Marco Pierre White and trained in Italy before cofounding a culinary and restaurant empire that spanned New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas and Singapore.
The author of 11 cookbooks and the winner of a clutch of awards, he starred in cooking show The Chew and is known for a gregarious personality and informal style of dress consisting of shorts, socks and sandals.
One of the first chefs hit by the #MeToo movement was John Besh, a famous New Orleans restaurateur, accused last October of harassing a dozen women.
In mid-May, Washington-based celebrity chef Mike Isabella — the star of Top Chef who owned 11 restaurants in the capital — was sued for sexually harassing a former employee, an accusation he denied.
On the other side of the aisle campaigning against harassment in the restaurant industry, is former chef and food critic Anthony Bourdain — whose partner is Asia Argento, an Italian actress at the forefront of the #MeToo movement.
“I came out of a brutal, oppressive business that was historically unfriendly to women… I knew a lot of women, it turned out, who had stories about their experience, about people I knew, who did not feel I was the sort of person they could confide in,” said Bourdain in a January interview with The Daily Show.
It’s no secret that the restaurant industry remains male dominated. In 2017, female chefs made up less than 5% of the world’s Michelin star recipients, and only two were head chefs at the World’s 50 Best Restaurants.
But change might be on the horizon. Michael Ellis, international director of the Michelin guide, says more and more women are entering culinary schools — and it won’t be long before more women end up running kitchens. — Reuters/AFP

SEC warns against online firms offering ‘paid-to-click’ programs

THE Securities and Exchange Commission is advising the public to exercise caution amid the proliferation of online investment scams.

THE Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has warned the public to be cautious when dealing with online-based advertising companies offering “paid-to-click” programs, saying these may be Ponzi schemes.
In an advisory posted to its website on Wednesday, the SEC cautioned against online-based advertising firms that use the PTC method, where people are asked to pay an upfront fee or buy products, in exchange for a share in its profits.
The SEC said that some of these programs may actually be investment scams, or the so-called Ponzi scheme where earlier investors are paid with fake profits made by recruiting more investors into the network.
With this, the commission asked the public to flag investment scams that promise high returns for a minimal investment, and by asking one to do trivial tasks such as clicking on a certain number of online ads each day.
“Any investment opportunity that sounds too good to be true, probably is or in most cases, a scam,” the SEC said.
The commission said that required upfront payments through bank deposits or Bitcoins should also be a red flag for investors, questioning the need to pay membership fees or buy products just for the opportunity to click on ads.
An investment should also be able to prove that it generates revenues through real products or services.
“If the PTC program has no revenue from customers other than its own members, any returns you receive are likely from other investors’ buy-in fees,” the commission said.
Investors should also check the legitimacy of a company’s business address, such as verifying if there are actual operations at the location.
The SEC also said that having withdrawal problems from the investment may imply that the company does not have enough money coming in from new investors to cover withdrawal requests.
MORE ADVISORIES
In separate advisories, the commission also warned the public against three websites, namely Blazing Traders, Trader.Online, and Coin-option.com. The commission noted that none of these entities are registered with the commission, and are not authorized to solicit investments from the public.
The SEC found Coin-option.com to be enticing the public to invest in products involving cryptocurrencies, mostly Bitcoin, through social media platforms.
Meanwhile, Blazing Traders and Trader.Online are websites that offer investment opportunities in forex, binary options, and contract for differences (CFDs).
Binary options and CFDs are described as financial products that exposes investors to price movements in securities, without actually owning the underlying assets like a currency, commodity, or stock.
Based on a report by the Straits Times cited by the SEC, binary options was flagged as a risky investment by the European Securities and Markets Authority. The marketing, distribution, and sale of binary options to retail investors was then prohibited, while restrictions were placed on CFDs.
The commission also found a report about a former employee of an Israel-based binary options trading firm to be targeting investors in Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Malaysia, America, and Canada. The said person was supposedly involved in an entity that defrauded people.
Those found to be salesmen, brokers, dealers, or agents of the three websites may be prosecuted and held criminally liable by the commission. They face fines of up to P5 million, up to 21 years imprisonment, or both. — Arra B. Francia

Now’s the time: 3 bottles of 1774 vintage wine on sale in France

STRASBOURG, France — Tucked away in a vaulted cellar of eastern France for eight generations, they may be the oldest bottles of wine available for purchase: three bottles of Vin Jaune (yellow wine) dating from 1774 which will go under the hammer on Saturday.
The bigger-than-average 87-centiliter bottles were made by wine maker Anatoile Vercel using grapes harvested under the reign of Louis XVI.
They have been kept ever since by his descendants in Arbois, the capital of wine making in the rolling hills of the Jura region near Switzerland.
The three bottles were removed Tuesday ahead of Saturday’s sale in nearby Lons-le-Saunier.
“They are the oldest bottles of wines in the world on the market,” said Brigitte Fenaux of the Jura Encheres auction house, who will lead the sale.
It’s not the first time the 1774 Vercel wines have been offered: a bottle sold for €57,000 ($67,000 at current rates) in 2001, and another in 2012 for 46,000 Swiss francs ($46,000)
“Having three bottles from this particular year and of such quality is exceptional,” said Philippe Etievant of Jura Encheres.
A panel of two-dozen wine professionals had already gotten a taste of the bottles at a tasting in 1994, when they discerned notes of “walnuts, spices, curry, cinnamon, vanilla, and dried fruits,” rating it a 9.4 out of 10.
The bottles will cap the sale of 102 top wines from Jura on Saturday, when connoisseurs can also bid for a rare white wine from Arbois — a younger bottle, though, from 1811. — AFP

RCI pins growth hopes on property, coconut processing

By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
ROXAS and Company, Inc. (RCI) expects its business ventures to stabilize in 2018, banking on its property projects and coconut processing plant to drive growth in the coming years.
“The plan for this year is stabilize. What we did last year was implement, complete projects, get them started. This year is stabilize… The team’s working well together, they’re doing what they can to improve operations,” RCI President and Chief Executive Officer Fernando L. Gaspar told reporters on the sidelines of the company’s annual shareholders’ meeting in Makati City on Wednesday.
In October 2017, the listed holding firm started operations of its coconut processing plant located on a 21,945-square meter (sq.m.) land in Tupi, South Cotabato. The facility has the capacity to process 300 metric tons of raw coconut per day to be used for the production of coconut milk, coconut cream, virgin coconut oil, and coconut water concentrate, all of which are for export.
Mr. Gaspar expects the coconut business to be a steady source of revenues for the company moving forward, with the possibility of expanding the plant’s capacity in 2020.
“In the markets we are dealing with, the environment is good. The coconut (business), we are seeing that there is the possibility to deal locally, but the export market is (doing well),” Mr. Gaspar said.
For the real estate business, the RCI chief said sales of rooms from its Anya Resorts project in Tagaytay are picking up. Anya Resorts is the company’s tourism estate development brand.
At Anya Resorts, RCI sells some of its room inventory to investors with the option of putting it up for rent, which will then be managed by the company under a revenue-sharing scheme.
Mr. Gaspar said they are planning to add more rooms under the Anya Resorts brand due to the strong demand for the product.
The company is also crafting the next expansion phase for Go Hotels, the homegrown hotel brand of the Gokongwei family. A unit of RCI’s property arm, Roxaco Land Corp., has partnered with Robinsons Land Corp. for the Go Hotel expansion.
There are currently five Go Hotels under RCI’s portfolio, with plans to add 15 more in the future.
“In the case of Go hotels, we’re already looking at what places we can put the next properties cause our six to seven-year plan is to have 20 all in all. We have five now so we’re beginning to look where will be the next one,” Mr. Gaspar said.
For the property segment’s further expansion, Mr. Gaspar noted that RCI has a land bank of around 2,500 hectares in Nasugbu, Batangas. However, 2,300 hectares of this is covered by the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform Program (CARP), preventing the firm to develop the land.
Mr. Gaspar said they will comply with the provisions under CARP and develop the remaining land.
“Beyond that, we have in Busuanga, Palawan. (The land is) not ours but we are working with land owners to develop that into another Anya. (In the process of) planning, yes. Implementing, we need to see,” he said.
Mr. Gaspar said they expect this year’s profit to improve.
RCI booked a net loss attributable to the parent of P33.6 million in the first three months of 2018, from an attributable profit of P15.5 million a year ago. This came amid a 27% increase in revenues to P137 million.
Shares in RCI went up 18 centavos or 8.45% to close at P2.31 each at the stock exchange on Wednesday.

Intel finds another chip exploit, says fix in place

INTEL CORP., the biggest maker of computer processors, said it found another way to attack computers related to the chip security flaws announced earlier this year.
The means to protect against the vulnerability is already in place and there is no evidence of it having been used to hack computers, Intel said in a statement on its website.
“We have not seen any reports of this method being used in real-world exploits,” the company said in the statement. “Moreover, there are multiple ways for consumers and IT professionals to safeguard their systems against potential exploits, including browser-based mitigations that have already been deployed and are available for use today.”
Earlier this year, there was widespread concern in the computer industry after the revelation by researchers at Alphabet, Inc.’s Google of ways to use features of microprocessors to gain illicit access to data such as encryption keys and passwords that were thought to be safely guarded by hardware. The Spectre and Meltdown vulnerabilities led to frantic work by Intel and its computer-maker partners to put in place software code to protect systems.
The world’s second-biggest chipmaker was forced to apologize and explain that the mitigations may slow down machines in some circumstances. Since then there have been no reports of the vulnerabilities being exploited and, importantly for investors, no evidence that security concerns have affected computer purchases.
The new variant is related to the previous Spectre and Meltdown flaws, Intel said. A potential way to exploit the vulnerability would be to try to access information via code run inside a web browser. Fixes for the original issues should have already closed off this avenue to those trying to gain illicit access, the company said. Nonetheless, Intel has created more code to make machines more safe. In tests, computers may be slowed down by 2% to 8% if the patches are used, Intel said.
Advanced Micro Devices, Inc., Intel’s main rival in computer microprocessors, said it will provide mitigations for products that are potentially vulnerable to the new exploit and recommended that computer users update their systems. ARM Holdings, whose technology is at the heart of most mobile phones, said the latest Spectre variant impacts a small number of its Cortex-A cores and is mitigated with a firmware update. — Bloomberg

Ready, aim, fire: Aussie diners given water pistols to ward off seagulls

PERTH, Australia — Annoyed at seagulls that pester its patrons, a restaurant in the Australian city of Perth has armed customers with water pistols to stop the birds from ruining the waterfront dining experience.
Toby Evans, the owner of 3Sheets restaurant in the capital of Western Australia, said the seagull problem was unusually bad and something had to be done to keep customers from being scared away.
“It was bad, it was bad. I think it’s the time of year,” he told Nine Network television on Wednesday. “Now they are getting cheekier and cheekier.”
The seagulls congregate near the waterfront restaurants at a marina, Hillary’s Boat Harbor, scavenging leftovers or hoping for scraps from diners.
Evans decided to equip each table with a water pistol and customers say the strategy, adopted since Saturday, works.
“We didn’t have to throw anything at them or run for cover,” said one customer. — Reuters

Record $1-million whisky sale is toppled by another hours later

FREEPIK

HONG KONG — A rare 60-year-old Macallan whisky fetched HK$7.96 million ($1.01 million) at Bonhams Hong Kong on Friday last week, smashing the record for the most expensive bottle ever sold at auction.
The record lasted barely a dram. A second bottle, also from the 1926 vintage, went for $1.1 million hours later at the same event.
Both sold for more than twice their high estimate of HK$4.5 million. Pre-sale forecasts exclude the 22.5% buyers’ premium added to the hammer price.
The new record works out to $14,466 per centiliter for the standard 75-centiliter bottle, one of only 12 ever made when the limited edition was released in 1986 after aging for 60 years in a cask by the Scottish distillery.
Prices for whiskies have soared in recent years as more and more buyers seek out rare single malts from Scotland, including Dalmore and Port Ellen, as well as Japanese distilleries Karuizawa and Yamazaki.
Since the end of 2008, an index of whisky prices compiled by Rare Whisky 101 has increased 580% while the Liv-ex 100 Benchmark Fine Wine Index grew about 50%.
“Nothing can compare with the performance of whisky, it has proved its status as an alternative investment,” said Daniel Lam, head of wine and whisky at Bonhams Hong Kong.
While a wine’s vintage is determined by the year in which the grapes were picked — bottling usually takes place within 16 to 24 months after the harvest — the age of a whisky refers to the time spent aging in a cask. For example, the Macallan 1926 60 year old was not bottled until 1986.
Because of continued loss due to evaporation, known as the “angel’s share,” older whiskies produce fewer bottles, adding to their rarity. Unlike wine, which should be consumed within hours of opening, a bottle of whisky can be enjoyed for up to one year after it has been uncorked.
The record-breaking bottle was one of 12 numbered and signed by Italian artist Valerio Adami who designed the label. The earlier bottle sold was also one of 12 of a limited edition label designed by Peter Blake, the British pop artist best known for co-creating the cover for the Beatles album Sgt. Peppers Lonely Hearts Club Band.
The previous auction record of HK$4.9 million was set in 2014 in Hong Kong for a six-liter bottle of 60-year-old Macallan in a Lalique decanter. That’s eight times larger than the standard-sized bottle sold Friday. — Bloomberg

Diebold bullish on PHL market

DIEBOLD NIXDORF, Inc. is bullish on its business in the Philippines, which will be driven by the projected growth in banking and retail sectors.
Diebold Nixdorf Country Managing Director Julius Servando said the company is ready to support its banking clients which are expected to see growing demand.
It cited RBR Research as saying the total number of automated teller machines (ATMs) in the country is expected to grow by about 48% to 29,400 terminals by end-2022.
Diebold Nixdorf said it has 58% market share of the installed base of ATMs in the country. It serves over 40 banking customers, with more than 11,500 ATMs nationwide.
“The ATM network in the Philippines is still below Asian countries so we are actually here to support customers both in banking and retail in any technology,” Mr. Servando said during a media roundtable.
Despite the growth of mobile payments and cashless transactions, Diebold Nixdorf is not threatened by this trend, with officials saying the company will keep innovating to serve its clients.
“Cash will continue to play a role in the future… We have to continue innovating to provide solutions. Withdraw cash without a card, we can withdraw cash even by a mobile,” Biswajit Jha, managing director for ASEAN, said.
The company is working with an undisclosed bank to launch a new type of ATM machine in the country. With the new ATM machine, a customer will scan his ATM card to make a transaction, and can make a withdrawal from a terminal through the bank’s app.
For retail, Diebold Nixdorf said it is positioned to provide omni-channel software and services solutions for retailers. The company has over 15,000 electronic point of sale systems installed in the Philippines, with around 13% market share. It has 24 local and international retail customers in the country.
“Because we are present so widely in the country, we can check the machine network if there are problems,” Mr. Jha said.
Diebold Nixdorf is headquartered in Ohio, United States and it has operated in the Philippines since 2003. — Patrizia Paola C. Marcelo

Humans fight back against robots mining personal finance data

REGULATORS are beginning to teach robots who’s the boss.
After spending billions of dollars on cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies, Europe’s banks and insurers face tougher scrutiny of the tools they use to help root out fraud, check borrowers’ creditworthiness and automate claims decisions. European Union rules starting this week will stress human oversight and consumer protection, which may hamper companies trying to build the tools of the future.
“Companies developing AI technologies will have to consider and embed the data protection issues into the design process,” David Martin, senior legal officer at Brussels-based consumer advocate BEUC, said in an interview. “It’s not something where they can just tick a box at the end.”
The rules could present an obstacle to coders looking to design ever more sophisticated algorithms. That may handicap EU firms that are competing with rivals in US and Asia to develop new technologies, according to Nick Wallace, a Brussels-based senior policy analyst at the Center for Data Innovation, a nonpartisan and nonprofit research institute.
“For an algorithmic model to be transparent to a human, even a human with a fairly good understanding of algorithms, it needs to be kept within a certain level of complexity,” Wallace said. “The more abstractions you have, let alone the more data points, the harder it’s going to be for any human being to sit down, read through all of it and scrutinize the decision.”
Regulators worldwide are trying to catch up with the financial industry’s rush to automate everything from trading desks to lending decisions and customer help-desks. The banking industry will invest $3.3 billion in AI and related technologies this year, making it the second-biggest spender after retail, research firm International Data Corp. (IDC) estimates. Overall spending on the technologies will grow to $52.2 billion by 2021 from about $19 billion this year, according to IDC.
The EU’s General Data Protection Regulation being introduced on May 25 will generally require firms to get consent from people when their personal data is used to fully automate certain types of decisions that have significant effects, such as whether to award a loan. Clients will have the right to demand a firm’s human employee intervene and review a decision, and they will have the power to get details about an automated process to help guard against discriminatory practices.
“Major corporations recognize that this is a challenge and that privacy rights and data protection rights need to be given full consideration during the design and development of any kind of product or service,” John Bowman, London-based senior principal at International Business Machines Corp.’s Promontory Financial Group subsidiary, said in an interview.
COMPANY CONCERNS
As policy makers ironed out the details of the regulations over the past year, financial industry lobbies including the Association for Financial Markets in Europe and UK Finance pressed authorities to tread softly and to acknowledge ways the technologies can benefit consumers. In a 24-page letter to policy makers, the European Banking Federation said “profiling activities should not necessarily be perceived as having a negative impact on customers.”
The law is being closely watched by the insurance industry, where four out of five executives say that AI systems will be used alongside human staffers within the next two years, consultant Accenture said in a report this year.
The UK arm of Ageas, a Brussels-based insurer, is looking to speed up the handling of thousands of claims for car insurance by using AI software to review images of vehicle damage and help estimate a repair job. GDPR won’t affect the current technology, and the insurer has included the law’s requirements in its processes, an Ageas spokeswoman said.
Allianz SE, Europe’s biggest insurer, uses data and machine-learning technologies in several areas of its insurance business. That includes automating what was once a paper-based and manual underwriting process for small- and medium-sized businesses.
Automatic decision making is typically based either on consent or as a condition for entering a contract, according to Philipp Raether, chief privacy officer at Munich-based Allianz Group.
“In scenarios where profiling is necessary for entering into a contract, this will be made transparent to the customer in an understandable way,” Raether said. — Bloomberg

1...12,54512,54612,547...14,238Page 12,546 of 14,238
ADVERTISEMENT
ADVERTISEMENT
© 2024 BusinessWorld Publishing.
All rights reserved.
Read our privacy guidelines
Facebook Instagram Linkedin X Youtube