美股周五收跌。大選后的美股上漲動力消退，三大股指上周均錄得跌幅，道指累計下跌1.24%，標普500指數下跌2.08%，納指下跌3.15%。 美聯儲暗示不急於繼續降息，使市場降低了對12月降息的押注。美國10月份零售銷售環比增長0.4%，超出市場預期。 周四下午，美聯儲主席鮑威爾在達拉斯的一次活動中表示，央行並不「急於」降息。其言論導致股市承壓。表示美國經濟恢復良好，勞動力市場穩健，通脹已從峰值回落，正朝着2%的目標前進，因此沒有迫切降息的必要。強調預計通脹將繼續下降至2%的目標，但過程可能有所波動，暗示預測未來通脹可能走高。 兩部門：將部分成品油、光伏、電池、部分非金屬礦物製品的出口退税率下調至9%。 阿里巴巴-W(9988)發佈截至2024年9月30日止六個月中期業績，該集團期內取得收入4797.39億元(人民幣，下同)，同比增加4.53%;淨利潤645.69億元，同比增加13.19%;歸屬於阿里巴巴集團股東的淨利潤684.23億元，同比增加10.20%;普通股股東應占淨利潤681.43億元，同比增加9.84%;每股基本收益3.58元。 外電測算螞蟻集團第二財季盈利按年升近兩倍 按季跌約37%。 LinkedIn Email Facebook Twitter WhatsApp source

A new report by the Tech Council of Australia concluded that Australia’s large, mid-sized, and start-up businesses must increase spending on technology adoption to contribute to an economy-wide push to grow overall tech investment levels and ensure the country does not fall behind the rest of the world. The report, published in November, argues that Australia should adopt a national technology investment target. It suggests that increasing total tech investment from 3.7% to 4.6% of the country’s GDP could contribute AUD $39 billion in productivity gains by 2035. The boost would require an uplift in both technology adoption investment and tech research and development spending. Researchers said ramping up spending could enhance economic productivity and keep Australia competitive with global markets. Technology adoption is part of the pathway to productivity The Tech Council reported that Australian businesses currently invest $90 billion in technology adoption — equivalent to 2.2% of GDP, or approximately $2,100 per capita. While this figure has risen from $1,700 per capita in 2016-17, the share of GDP has remained unchanged. According to the report, investing in technology adoption involves acquiring technology that is new to the business but not necessarily to the industry, country, or rest of the world. This distinguishes adoption spending from R&D technology investment, which involves developing entirely new technology. The Tech Council argues at least a 0.4% GDP rise in tech adoption investment across large, medium, and small businesses, bringing the total to 2.6% of GDP in 2035. A 0.7% rise in R&D spending would bring tech investment spending to 4.6% of GDP — well ahead of a currently projected 3.5%. Researchers found that if Australia raises total technology investment even higher to 6.9% of GDP,  $167 billion in productivity gains could be unlocked by 2035. “Australians enjoy some of the highest living standards in the world,” Tech Council’s CEO Damian Kassabgi said in a press release. “To ensure we can keep growing, we need to see an uplift in productivity growth.” He added: “Australia’s productivity growth has been declining for some time, which is one of our most pressing economic challenges. Achieving the level of growth we need to turn this around and see our economy thrive requires greater tech development and adoption.” More Australia coverage Australia lagging in business technology adoption The report noted that Australian businesses lag behind the European Union in tech adoption. Australia and the E.U. compare their respective technology adoption levels using a Digital Intensity Index, which measures factors including digital skills, cybersecurity, digital business management, digital technology and infrastructure, and e-commerce and online presence. Australian businesses cluster more around the bottom rungs of the rating system. Just over half of all Australian businesses have a “baseline” level of tech use, compared with 41% of businesses in the E.U. Only 10% of Australian businesses were classified as either “established” or “advanced,” compared with 25% of firms in the E.U. Australian businesses are not using as much tech as E.U. businesses. Image: Tech Council of Australia This low figure comes despite tech adoption having practical benefits. Research from the Office of Innovation & Science Australia and AlphaBeta showed that the Australian Stock Exchange’s top 200 firms actively investing in tech adoption and R&D between 2005 and 2016 were more likely to survive and grow than other firms on the index that prioritised paying out dividends. A survey conducted by Ai Group in 2024 found that Australian businesses are addressing their tech adoption challenges. Eighty-four percent of businesses surveyed were found to be actively adopting new tech, including 100% of large businesses, 82% of medium-sized businesses, and 63% of small businesses. How much tech adoption is required across Australian businesses? The Tech Council is counting on increased adoption investment from large, medium, and small businesses. Given the current tech adoption levels shown in the E.U. comparison, researchers estimated that: Small businesses could contribute 0.19% of GDP in tech adoption investment by 2035 through more of them (12%) moving from a “baseline” status of digital intensity into a “developing” category. If a larger number (17%) of medium-sized businesses made the step from “developing” to “established,” helped by scaling innovative small businesses up to this size, they could add 0.16% to the GDP. An additional 0.05% of GDP could be gained from large businesses if 7% of them move from “established” to “advanced.” This would see 5% of local businesses labeled as “advanced.” Businesses of all sizes could help lift tech adoption. Source: Tech Council of Australia Economy-wide executive education could boost investment The Tech Council recommended Australia examine opportunities to create technology industry-led executive education programs for all types of businesses in the economy. The education programs could focus on opportunities for businesses to adopt technology and manage technology risk. “Managerial skills have been found to have a significant impact on productivity, partly through the role that managers have in facilitating innovation and harnessing the benefits of technologies,” the report said. Recent Gartner research found CIOs have more success when they uplift CXOs across businesses. Researchers also suggested that these programs should be established as “vendor-agnostic executive education programs,” avoiding them being associated with particular vested technology interests. This would encourage wider uptake in economy-wide tech upskilling to support future investment. “Tech investment enables companies to commercialise their research and create new business models, making our economy more productive and resilient,” Kassabgi said. “There are also practical benefits to increased tech adoption, which can accelerate the growth of both small and large businesses.” source

By Josh White ( November 15, 2024, 5:31 PM GMT) — The Irish government’s budget surplus is expected to rise to 4.4% of gross domestic product next year, much of that as a result of the European Court of Justice’s ruling against U.S. tech giant Apple, according to an economic forecast published Friday…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

Join our daily and weekly newsletters for the latest updates and exclusive content on industry-leading AI coverage. Learn More ServiceNow has long been a cornerstone of enterprise IT operations with its flagship Now platform.   In recent years, the company has been growing its capabilities with the introduction of enterprise AI capabilities, including Now Assist. As a platform that organizations use to literally run their operations, having a high degree of confidence is absolutely critical. With generative AI in particular, there has been some hesitation for enterprises about safety and concerns about potential hallucinations. Today, the company announced a series of new governance capabilities for its flagship Now platform designed to help increase confidence in enterprise AI usage. The new governance features address a growing challenge in enterprise AI adoption: the gap between experimentation and full production deployment.  The governance components include Now Assist Guardian, Now Assist Data Kit and Now Assist Analytics. The new tools help organizations manage AI deployments across their enterprise. These tools are crucial as companies move beyond proof-of-concept stages into full production environments. “Last year, broadly, it was more an experimentation approach and this year it’s getting real,” Jeremy Barnes, VP AI Product at ServiceNow told VentureBeat. “People are deploying AI for something related to their top or their bottom line.” Why AI governance is critical to enterprise adoption In an enterprise, governance and compliance are critical operations.  The ServiceNow platform recognizes the often complex relationship between different enterprise stakeholders.  “Typically, our customers will have governance and compliance in a different organization to the organization which is defining and owning the economic benefits of the generative AI,” Barnes said.  What that generally means in most organizations is that one team can get a proof of concept together to try out generative AI. At that stage, there are not the same constraints as when an application or service is rolled out across an enterprise in a full production deployment. Inevitably a governance team within the enterprise will tell the development team that they can’t deploy something without first ensuring compliance with the organization’s policies. Barnes said that what tends to happen as a result, is that generative AI efforts end up in ‘limbo’ between proof of concept and production for a very long time.  He noted that the new AI governance updates help bridge this divide by providing tools and visibility that satisfy both business and compliance requirements. “AI governance is not just about researching the models,” Barnes commented.  He explained that it’s about having a system that includes AI components and traditional workflows. It’s about understanding and being able to make sure that the system fits within the expected outcome desired by the enterprise. Governance is also about understanding when something is wrong and providing the ability to manage the situation. How agentic AI  accelerates the governance imperative Among the reasons why more AI governance is needed now is the fact that agentic AI is starting to be deployed. Many organizations, including ServiceNow, are deploying agent frameworks to provide more autonomous capabilities to AI. Barnes noted that with more autonomous AI agents, there is a greater need for robust governance, controls and human oversight to ensure the systems are operating as intended and within acceptable parameters. The governance tools and workflows provided by ServiceNow aim to help enterprises manage the risks and maintain the necessary level of control over these more autonomous AI systems. The intersection of enterprise AI governance and hallucination A primary challenge for enterprise adoption is the risk of hallucination. Governance itself is not the answer to that challenge, but it’s a component of the solution that is needed. Hallucination is an industry-wide concern and is something that impacts all generative AI models in one way or another. ServiceNow is taking a multi-layered approach to mitigating hallucination. The approach includes fine-tuning language models to be more focused on extracting information rather than generating new information.  Governance is another critical aspect of helping to mitigate risk. The new Now Assist Analysis Guardian tool will now also provide an extra layer of protection against hallucination, analyzing AI outputs. Barnes said that a key goal for ServiceNow is to make sure that hallucination is not a ‘showstopper’ for enterprise AI deployments, but rather is viewed as a risk that can be addressed with tools in the platform. How enterprise AI will help Configuration Management Database deployments Configuration Management Database (CMDB) is a cornerstone of IT operations management. CMDB systems manage the inventory of systems, software and configurations used across an enterprise. As part of the ServiceNow update today there is also a new Now Assist for CMDB capability that brings the power of AI. Barnes explained that the new capability does not directly address the population or discovery of the CMDB, which is typically done through other means but rather focuses on improving the productivity of users interacting with the CMDB data.  The CMDB analysis feature is part of ServiceNow’s broader strategy to provide AI-powered productivity enhancements for different personas within their customer organizations. The CMDB analysis feature is integrated with the AI governance framework, ensuring that the deployment and use of this AI-powered tool is subject to the same governance processes and controls. This helps address the trust and operational constraints that IT operations teams may have when deploying AI-based tools within their critical systems and data. “The more that you rely on an AI tool, the more you need to be sure that, it is trustworthy for what you’re doing,” Barnes said. source

By Christopher Cole ( November 15, 2024, 5:05 PM EST) — The Federal Communications Commission on Friday released new rules covering the sharing of spectrum by non-geostationary orbit fixed satellites that commissioners say will encourage industry growth but also protect existing systems…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

The seasons are changing, Christmas catalogs are arriving, the clocks have shifted back an hour (in some countries) … yes, the new year is coming. While we don’t advocate for closing the books on 2024 yet (it’s only November, after all!), now is a great opportunity to consider what’s in store for next year. On the privacy front, will there be new regulations? New enforcement? Let’s break down key trends. In The US: More Laws, More Enforcement A new administration is likely to bring significant changes, especially at agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission. From a regulation standpoint, we’ll likely see more action at a state level than a federal one: More states will adopt their own privacy regulations. This is admittedly a prediction, not a surety, but a handful of states have bills making their way through the lawmaking process. We expect at least one or two to advance and be signed into law next year, further complicating the regulatory patchwork of privacy laws in the US. First-time enforcement of newer state laws will cause headaches. Laws that went into effect in 2023 and 2024 may be enforced for the first time in 2025. As we’ve seen from earlier privacy laws, enforcement is a harsh but effective tool for defining key terms (like California’s fine of Sephora defining “selling data”) and the scope of laws. Compliance teams will be busy monitoring enforcement action, which will likely have ripple effects on their relationship with the marketing team and how much leeway they grant marketers to operate in regulatory gray areas. Noise (but not necessarily progress) around a federal law will continue. Concerns about how much data things such as connected cars capture and major security breaches like what happened with Change Healthcare are driving renewed lawmaker interest in data privacy and security. Even if a federal law passes next year (which is unlikely), there would be a multiyear lag before it’s enacted and enforced. In The EU: A Focus On AI Investigations We don’t expect to see any significant changes or updates to existing privacy rules in Europe in 2025. But don’t mistake that to mean the privacy waters are calm. Far from it: Data protection authorities will be the real privacy movers, not lawmakers. Data protection authorities’ activity will be more interesting than lawmakers’ next year. With multiple open investigations of generative AI apps (mostly OpenAI), we will likely see some decisions coming — possibly against the providers of genAI models at first but later against companies using customer and employee data to feed, prompt, or otherwise interact with genAI models, as well. EU AI Act enforcement will establish clearer safeguards for AI. Enforcement of the new EU AI Act will start in February, initially as a private right of action on certain requirements. But in August 2025, authorities including the EU AI Office and the data protection authorities will start enforcing requirements on general-purpose AI models/systems, and this is something to watch. For full guidance on the EU AI Act, see this report. The ePrivacy Directive will continue to stall. The only piece of legislation currently undergoing an update is the ePrivacy Directive (also known as the “cookie directive”), but it has been stuck at the trilogue stage for several months. The European Parliament, Commission, and Council cannot find an agreement on the final draft of the legislation. We believe that the failure to identify a viable alternative to the management of third-party cookies, and of cookies more generally, contributed significantly to the delay in the legislation. In APAC: Strengthening Laws, Enforcing New Frameworks, And Factoring In AI The APAC region is poised for significant advancements in data privacy regulations. Here are three key trends to watch: Countries will strengthen existing regulations. Long-existing privacy regulations in the region will get important updates in 2025. Australia Privacy Act reforms will introduce stronger penalties, new protections for children’s data, and stricter rules for automated decision-making. An update to the Act on the Protection of Personal Information in Japan will implement new rules for biometric data, children’s data protection, a stricter opt-out scheme, and enhanced enforcement mechanisms. Newer regulations will be in full enforcement. After the latest Personal Data Protection Law (PDPL) in Indonesia came into enforcement on October 17, the other two newer privacy regulations will follow suit in 2025. India’s Digital Personal Data Protection Act, effective August 2023, and Vietnam’s Personal Data Protection Decree, effective July 2023, will see full enforcement by 2025. AI regulation will expand. The EU may have led the way, but as AI technologies become more integrated into everyday life, APAC countries are also updating regulations to address AI challenges. New provisions will be introduced in Thailand’s Personal Data Protection Act in 2025 to regulate the use of AI. These provisions will ensure that AI systems are transparent, accountable, and do not infringe on personal privacy. Updates to China’s Personal Information Protection Law to include specific guidelines for AI technologies are expected to take effect on January 1, 2025. If you need help making sense of the rapidly changing privacy landscape and what it means from a compliance, marketing, and customer experience perspective, schedule a guidance session! And don’t miss our webinars on our cybersecurity, risk, and privacy and B2C marketing predictions for 2025. source

Gemini is Google’s artificial intelligence ecosystem, including a chatbot that generates responses to user-provided natural language prompts. In response to a prompt, Gemini can pull information from the internet and present a response. The large language model behind Gemini delivers the response in natural language — in contrast to a standard Google search, where a result consists of a snippet of information or a list of links. Google announced Gemini (as Bard) in February 2023 after OpenAI and Microsoft garnered attention for their AI chatbot systems. In May 2023, AI advancements featured prominently in Google’s I/O event. On Feb. 8, 2024, Google renamed the AI products formerly named Bard to Gemini. What is Google Gemini used for? Google Gemini is the overarching term for an ecosystem of generative AI models and services, including natural language querying, assistants, content generation, and code writing. Gemini’s prompt-response process can help you obtain answers faster than a standard Google search sequence. A classic Google search requires you to enter a natural language query or keywords, follow links, review content, and then compile the results or repeat the process with a refined search. SEE: Check out these Google AI search prompting tips. With Gemini, you enter a prompt and then review the response. If the response isn’t exactly what you want, three options exist: View other drafts to display alternatively formatted responses. Regenerate the response to have the system craft a new reply. Follow-up with another prompt. Gemini can handle all sorts of tasks, but many of the most common uses are covered by the categories of capabilities detailed below. Google Gemini can summarize As a generative AI assistant powered by a large language model, Gemini can adeptly summarize text. For example, provide a link to a web page and ask Gemini to summarize the contents, e.g.: Please summarize ​​https://blog.google/technology/ai/bard-google-ai-search-updates/. You also can suggest a specific length if you want a particular degree of brevity, such as “Please summarize in 100 words.” Google Gemini can compare Gemini can compare two or more items. In many cases, when you ask Gemini to compare things, the system will display some of the data in a table. For example, if you prompt Gemini: Compare a Pixel 7, Pixel 7a, and Samsung Galaxy S23. Similarly, you may ask Gemini to compare web pages. Google Gemini can suggest Gemini may serve as a suggestion engine for products, services, or activities. Enter the title of books, music, or movies you like, then ask Gemini to suggest others. This can be useful when you’re researching unfamiliar topics. For example, you might try: I am interested in learning the history of machine learning. Can you recommend 10 useful and highly respected books on the topic? Google Gemini can explain When you want to learn about a topic or historical event, you can ask Gemini to explain it to you. If you like, you may suggest a desired level in order to guide the system toward an explanation that may be either easier to understand or more detailed. For a general overview of a core technology that helps make Gemini work, you might ask: Can you explain the basics of how neural networks operate? Explain it to me as if I am in my first year of college. Google Gemini can brainstorm One of the best uses of a chatbot is to gather a long list of ideas. Ask Gemini to “Brainstorm ideas for…” followed by whatever topic you wish, such as a new project, promotional effort, or paper. Encourage Gemini to provide creative, unusual, or inventive ideas for additional variety in the responses. Google Gemini can code and debug In April 2023, Google added the ability to create and help debug code in more than 20 programming languages. When you ask for code, make sure to specify the programming language and describe the code you need in as much detail as possible. If the code generated doesn’t work, let Gemini know what went awry and ask for a suggested fix or help interpreting an error code. SEE: Explore other Google AI enhancements. Gemini can draft text Gemini can also help you write. As with most prompts, provide as much detail about the topic, length, format — blog post, poem, essay, book report, etc. — and style as possible. If you have a rough blog post outline, you might include the desired points in your prompt. For this section of text, for example, you might prompt: Using the following points as an outline, can you draft examples and explanatory text? “Gemini can summarize. Gemini can compare. Gemini can suggest. Gemini can explain. Gemini can brainstorm. Gemini can draft text. Gemini can code (and debug). Gemini can search.” The responses Gemini generated were reasonable and might have required only minor editing and correction to be usable. Google makes it easy to move Gemini text elsewhere. Select the response export button to move content to either a new Google Doc or Gmail. Alternatively, select the More button (the three vertical dots), then choose Copy to place the response text on the system clipboard for pasting into any app you choose. Using Gemini in Gmail or Docs requires the Google One AI Premium plan. Gemini can search Since Gemini can access internet content, many conventional keyword searches will also work in Gemini. Ask about current news topics, weather forecasts, or pretty much any standard keyword search string. However, Gemini will provide responses mostly in conventional text, sometimes supplemented with images, whereas Google search may show content in custom formats (e.g., weather forecasts often display a chart). When you seek a set of links, switch out of Gemini back to a standard Google search. As of September 2023, people who sign in to Gemini with personal Google accounts may optionally enable extensions. These extensions allow Gemini to draw data from other Google services, including Google Flights, Hotels, Maps, Workspace (Gmail, Docs, and Drive), and YouTube. Google Gemini can create images In August 2024, Google’s Imagen 3 image

By Tom Zanki ( November 15, 2024, 3:26 PM EST) — Chinese autonomous-driver technology provider Pony AI Inc. has launched plans for an estimated $180 million initial public offering, represented by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and underwriters’ counsel Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP, marking the latest self-driving startup to seek U.S. capital in order to fund its growth ambitions…. Law360 is on it, so you are, too. A Law360 subscription puts you at the center of fast-moving legal issues, trends and developments so you can act with speed and confidence. Over 200 articles are published daily across more than 60 topics, industries, practice areas and jurisdictions. A Law360 subscription includes features such as Daily newsletters Expert analysis Mobile app Advanced search Judge information Real-time alerts 450K+ searchable archived articles And more! Experience Law360 today with a free 7-day trial. source

The International Air Transport Association (IATA) — the trade association for world airlines, representing over 330 airlines and over 80% of global air traffic — announced a new framework and plans for using decentralized digital identity (DDID) to provide end-to-end travel experiences for domestic and international passengers. The experience includes check-in, immigration/border controls, and boarding. Despite recent negative developments around DDID adoption (such as the Sovrin Foundation likely shutting down MainNet operations), IATA’s announcement has the potential to find market traction. Here is why: Proven past track record. Digital COVID-19 immunization certificates (Travel Pass) for travel use cases were utilized by IATA and ICAO (International Civil Aviation Organization) and were based on W3C (World Wide Web Consortium) DDID standards. A study found personalization of the digital experience to be an important factor in overcoming adoption barriers, so there has already been partial adoption and implementation of DDIDs, albeit on a much smaller scale. This proves to airlines that IATA has the technology to implement DDID-based digital identities. Business need. There is a business need (with forecasts calling for a doubling of global passenger volume by 2040 from current levels) to offer a better customer experience to travelers, one that is cost-efficient and doesn’t increase airlines’ and airports’ operational costs. Automation, technology, and digitized solutions play a key role in improving the entire passenger journey from online check-in to boarding. IATA and ICAO’s current power and influence. IATA has significant influence in the global airline travel industry. All airlines need to comply with and follow current and upcoming IATA regulations. This means if IATA makes this digital ID a reality, it will gradually apply to all travelers. IATA is in a great position to operate the blockchain network behind its recently proposed DDID framework. Governments’ increasing issuance of digital identities. IATA’s proposal builds on governments’ digitally issued identities natively. Given the Global Acceptance Network’s rollout for further standardization of trust for DDID, as well as the European Union’s eIDAS adoption, IATA’s chances of amalgamating trust are high. Currently, there are no DDID-based IATA passenger ID ecosystems in live production. Forrester expects actual implementations within 18–24 months. Forrester customers who have questions or concerns about DDID should schedule an inquiry or guidance session with me. source