NGS Holdings Tech Talks Weekly: Global Technology in 1st week of June 2024
Singapore pushes for green data centers as growing AI demand strains energy resources
Singapore is focusing on green data centers to manage the increased energy demand driven by artificial intelligence (AI). The city-state launched a green data center roadmap
Senior Minister Janil Puthucheary emphasized the growing need for data center capacity due to rising digital and AI demands. The roadmap plans to add at least 300 megawatts of green energy capacity in the short term, improve data center energy efficiency
Data centers contribute significantly to Singapore’s carbon emissions, making up 82% of the ICT sector’s emissions and 7% of total electricity consumption. The Tony Blair Institute highlighted that the AI boom has strained national energy networks due to the energy-intensive nature of data centers.
Singapore, the second-largest data center market in Southeast Asia, hosts over 70 data centers. The push for green data centers aligns with global trends, as companies like Microsoft and Google invest in clean energy solutions, and governments create incentives for sustainable practices.
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Salesforce to open new AI center in London as part of $4 billion UK investment
Salesforce is opening a new artificial intelligence center in London, marking a significant investment in the U.K. as a technology hub. The facility, over 40,000 square feet in size and located in the Blue Fin Building, will host more than 300 people and promote industry collaboration among tech firms, AI experts, partners, and customers. It will also facilitate AI training and upskilling programs
The center is expected to play a role in creating 500,000 AI-related jobs in the U.K. and will officially open on June 18 with an event training over 100 developers. Led by Salesforce’s U.K. and Ireland CEO, Zahra Bahrololoumi, this is the first of many planned AI centers globally to support the company's U.K. and Ireland business.
This initiative is part of Salesforce's $4 billion investment in the U.K. over five years, announced in 2023. Salesforce Ventures has also invested over $200 million into U.K. startups, including AutoGen AI and Eleven Labs.
Patrick Stokes, EVP of product and industries marketing, highlighted the strategic importance of the U.K. due to its regulatory environment and consumer protection laws
This announcement comes after Salesforce reported weaker-than-expected fiscal first-quarter revenue and issued lower-than-expected guidance, raising concerns about the company's AI investments. The company reported $9.13 billion in revenue, an 11% increase year-over-year, but below the $9.17 billion expected by analysts. Adjusted earnings projections for the current quarter were also lower than anticipated.
Medical startup Sword Health announces AI that patients can talk to
Sword Health announced a new AI solution named Phoenix, which guides patients through virtual physical therapy sessions by simulating a care specialist. Phoenix allows patients to converse about their feelings, receive real-time feedback, and adjust session difficulty. It tracks progress via a tablet, and sends performance data to human clinicians for review.
CEO Virgílio Bento emphasized Phoenix’s conversational capabilities, enhancing Sword’s existing AI tools by making patient interactions more human-like. This innovation helps clinicians operate more efficiently by proposing session adjustments, although final decisions are made by human professionals.
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Sword Health, founded in 2015, aims to help patients manage pain at home, avoiding opioids and surgery. The company has conducted over 3 million AI-powered sessions and plans to expand Phoenix's rollout across its products.
Sword also announced raising $100 million in a secondary sale for liquidity, alongside an additional $30 million in a primary sale, bringing its total funding to $340 million and valuing the company at $3 billion. The company forecasts profitability this year and intends to broaden its solutions to more patients beyond business customers.
Banks say growing reliance on Big Tech for AI carries new risks
The rise of AI in banking is increasing banks' reliance on major U.S. tech firms, creating new risks, according to European banking executives. While AI is widely used for fraud detection and anti-money laundering, its growing role necessitates significant computing power from a few tech giants.
At a fintech conference in Amsterdam, ING's chief analytics officer Bahadir Yilmaz noted the impracticality for banks to build the necessary tech internally, emphasizing the risk of "vendor lock-in." Similarly, Deutsche Bank's Joanne Hannaford highlighted the need for Big Tech to provide the required computing power, despite regulatory complexities.
Britain has proposed regulations to manage this reliance on external tech firms like Microsoft, Google, IBM, and Amazon, concerned that issues with one provider could impact multiple financial institutions.
AI was a key topic at the conference, with Mistral AI's CEO Arthur Mensch discussing its potential in financial services. ING is testing an AI chatbot, expected to handle half of customer service chats within a year. The EU's securities watchdog stressed banks' legal obligations to protect customers when using AI, indicating its significant impact on retail investor protection.
SAP Infuses Business AI Across Enterprise Cloud Portfolio
At the SAP Sapphire 2024 conference, SAP unveiled its latest innovations in generative artificial intelligence (AI) and announced partnerships with Google Cloud, Meta, Microsoft, and Nvidia. These advancements aim to enhance SAP's enterprise solutions with cutting-edge AI capabilities.
SAP is integrating Business AI into its entire suite of enterprise solutions, providing valuable insights to improve decision-making and problem-solving. Examples include AI-generated reports in SAP SuccessFactors for compensation discussions and forecasting capabilities in SAP Sales Cloud to identify the most effective combinations of salespeople and products.
SAP's Business Technology Platform is also incorporating large language models from AWS and Meta to streamline the development of generative AI use cases. Additionally, SAP's AI assistant, Joule, is rapidly expanding across the company's solution portfolio, including SAP S/4HANA Cloud, SAP Build, and SAP Integration Suite, with plans to integrate Joule with Microsoft 365's Copilot.
SAP has committed to responsible AI practices
In collaboration with Google Cloud, SAP aims to enhance supply chain risk prediction and management by integrating Joule with Google's AI assistant and the Google Cloud Cortex Framework. SAP will also leverage Meta's Llama 3 model to create highly customized analytics applications in SAP Analytics Cloud. Furthermore, SAP and Nvidia are partnering to train Joule as an AI assistant for RISE with SAP implementations, using Nvidia's advanced AI models to provide precise answers to implementation-related questions.
SAP CEO Christian Klein emphasized that these innovations will revolutionize business operations, delivering real-world results and helping companies thrive in a rapidly changing environment.