Huawei developed World's fastest AI training cluster. For Huawei, who previously listed 33 US companies as core suppliers for chips and processors, a ban on purchasing US goods was expected to take a hit on R&D at a crucial time. Several analysts predict the counter effect of this move is Huawei's redoubled effort to be technologically self-reliant, and a recent'AI breakthrough' might provide further backing for those comments. Huawei claimed to have developed the world's fastest artificial intelligence (AI) training cluster--Atlas 900. Atlas 900, dubbed the "fastest AI training model", combines "the power of 1, 024 Ascend 910 AI chips and has a computing capability as strong as the aggregation of 500, 000 personal computers," as reported in CCTV. At Huawei Connect 2019, the electronics maker said; "it takes Atlas 900 only 59.8 seconds to train ResNet-50, the gold standard for measuring AI training performance.

The anomaly detection method presented by this paper has a special feature: it does not only indicate whether an observation is anomalous or not but also tells what exactly makes an anomalous observation unusual. Hence, it provides support to localize the reason of the anomaly. The proposed approach is model-based; it relies on the multivariate probability distribution associated with the observations. Since the rare events are present in the tails of the probability distributions, we use copula functions, that are able to model the fat-tailed distributions well. The presented procedure scales well; it can cope with a large number of high-dimensional samples. Furthermore, our procedure can cope with missing values, too, which occur frequently in high-dimensional data sets. In the second part of the paper, we demonstrate the usability of the method through a case study, where we analyze a large data set consisting of the performance counters of a real mobile telecommunication network. Since such networks are complex systems, the signs of sub-optimal operation can remain hidden for a potentially long time. With the proposed procedure, many such hidden issues can be isolated and indicated to the network operator.

Soon the Japanese capital's trendsetting Shibuya district will boast a cafe staffed by humanoid robots that can recommend perfect desserts for customers. SoftBank Robotics on Tuesday unveiled to the press its directly run Pepper Parlor cafe, where robots take orders, engage in small talk with customers and clean up among other tasks. Customers place orders through Pepper robots placed near the entrance. They will also help customers decide what dessert to order based on the facial expression of a customer. "Let me recommend a waffle that is perfect for you," a robot told one customer.

Original article featured in ReadWrite. Sprint's recent launch of its 5G network in Kansas City, Missouri; Dallas; Houston; and Atlanta offers consumers and entrepreneurs a glimpse into the future. As rapid download speeds and seamless connectivity take hold in cities around the world, tech entrepreneurs will have more opportunities than ever before to make an impact. With 11.5 million people having access to Sprint's network already, imagine what will be possible as that number grows. The healthcare, transportation, agriculture, and manufacturing industries will all be significantly more capable of innovation and growth as these networks take shape.

The use of facial recognition technology is continuing to expand, despite concerns about its accuracy and fairness and about how it could be used by governments to spy on people. These concerns have been heightened following a report by the Financial Times which shows that Chinese groups have a significant influence in shaping international standards regarding the technology. The report details how Chinese companies including ZTE, Dahua and China Telecom are proposing standards for facial recognition to the UN's International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the body responsible for global technical standards in the telecommunication industry. Usually, the standards set by the ITU are technical in nature, but human rights campaigners say the proposals under discussion in this case are more like policy recommendations. The standards proposed include recommendations for use cases, suggesting that facial recognition can be used by police, by employers to monitor employees, and for spotting specific targets in crowds.

China has just taken a giant step forward in its ambitions to control everything that is done on the Internet, with the launch of a new "rights in cyberspace" law. It can sometimes seem that the Internet is a "lawless place", where anyone can do whatever they want; in reality, our actions on the Internet have more and more consequences, and the best example of this is China. The communist government has not hidden its interest in implementing more controls on the Internet, with the aim of "guaranteeing the rights and interests" of its citizens; however, along the way it is taking decisions that may violate others, such as privacy. The latest law, which came into force on December 1, is perhaps the most controversial. It implies the obligation to implement facial recognition to hire phone lines or mobile Internet, for all new registrations.

It's easy to throw in a buzz word like AI these days to get some attention. My aim is to offer some valuable insights into how AI can make a real difference in the world of radio access networks (RANs), looking at the way it works as well as the multiple benefits it brings. From a technology perspective, AI in the RAN is about letting the hardware adjust its decision-making capability and allowing it to learn from patterns. Learning can improve the baseband functionality, which otherwise acts based on hard-coded settings. Of course, the pattern observations and execution of AI and machine learning (ML) require a certain amount of computing capacity.

Sign up for Next China, a weekly email on where the nation stands now and where it's going next. When China's wireless carriers debut their 5G networks this year, early adopters whose mobile phones can handle the ultra-fast speeds won't be the only beneficiaries. Rolling 5G service out to the world's biggest population also should give a boost to China's digital economy, including makers of telecommunications equipment, platforms and applications for the internet of things, autonomous driving, surveillance and factory automation. It's the kind of head start that will be expensive at first but could pay off well into the future. Major cities including Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen will get broad 5G -- or fifth-generation -- wireless coverage first, while some other cities will start with 5G hotspots.

Making matters worse, improvements in infrastructure and technology have made telecoms largely comparable in terms of coverage, connection speeds, and service pricing, meaning companies must transform their businesses if they hope to compete. For many global telecoms, shoring up market share under today's pressures while also future-proofing operations means having to invest in AI. The telecom industry is expected to invest $36.7 billion annually in AI software, hardware, and services by 2025, according to Tractica. Through its ability to parse large data sets in a contextual manner, provide requested information or analysis, and trigger actions, AI can help telecoms cut costs and streamline by digitizing their operations. In practice, this means leveraging the increasingly vast gold mine of data generated by customers that passes through wireless networks -- the amount of data that moves through AT&T's wireless network has increased 470,000% since 2007, for example.

Huawei and Peng Cheng Laboratory (PCL) have jointly released Peng Cheng Cloud Brain II Phase 1, officially launching the journey to AI clusters at 1000 petaFLOPS (PFLOPS) scale. This marks a new milestone in the scientific research field for the Kunpeng computing industry. Running at the bedrock of Cloud Brain II is the Huawei Atlas 900 AI cluster, powered by the Huawei Kunpeng and Ascend processors. The computing power of Peng Cheng Cloud Brain is currently 100 PFLOPS, planned to scale to 1000 PFLOPS and higher next year. "This September, Huawei embarked on the Kunpeng Ascend dual-engine computing strategy. Inspired by this strategy, we are committed to providing the ultimate computing power to the world. We also released Atlas 900, the world's fastest AI training cluster," said Hou Jinlong, Senior VP of Huawei, and President of Huawei Cloud & AI Products and Services.