Google AI centre in Accra to resolve problems, India’s Wipro Suffers Phishing Hack, and Amazon to Shut China Marketplace

Africa

Google AI centre in Accra to solve real world problems

Google’s newly opened artificial intelligence research lab in Accra will help solve real world problems. The lab is intended to use AI to translate 2,000 African languages while incorporating AI into feature phones. “We’ve managed to train machines to identify pixels, and they can transcribe audio and translate languages for us. We want all people in Africa to benefit and access this information,” Moustapha Cisse, Lead for Google Artificial Intelligence Research Lab in Africa, says. Some of the solutions will help farmers identify sick plants from a photo, thereby helping in promoting food security. The Lab will also leverage technology to count persons during census and also monitor and predict migration patterns on the continent. Goolge intends to make the AI available offline, the report said.

MTN, GhIPSS, to resolve mobile interoperability challenges

MTN Ghana and the Ghana Interbank Payment and Settlement Systems (GhIPSS)), are working to solve problems related to the mobile interoperability platform. Many MTN users have reported having difficulty transferring funds to other networks. This has led to questions of sabotage from the public. Debunking this, GhIPSS has called the challenges capacity-related issues that are being resolved in a report.

Asia

India’s Wipro investigating data breach

Wipro Ltd, and Indian IT company, is investigating an alleged advanced phishing attack that could have targeted its employees, Reuters has reported. The report follows claims that Wipro’s clients were being attacked using Wipro employee accounts. “We detected a potentially abnormal activity in a few employee accounts on our network due to an advanced phishing campaign,” the company said in response to an email request from Reuters.

Foxconn’s Chairman eyeing Taiwanese presidency bid

Foxconn‘s Chairman, Terry Gou, has said that he is considering running for president in Taiwan in 2020, it has been reported. The chairman was reportedly planning to step down from day-to-day running of Foxconn, according to reports. While it is not clear which party would win his support, it is known that Gou gave the opposition KMT, a China-friendly party, $1.5 million in interest-free loans in 2016 under his mother’s name. With heightened tensions between US and China, his decision could make things more dire for the island the Chinese have always considered a part of their territory.

TikTok removed from Apple and Google Playstores in Indai

Google and Apple have both removed video-sharing app, TikTok from their stores in India. This is in response to a ruling by the Madras High Court. The decision follows reports that users were using the video-sharing to share pornographic content. TikTok allows people to share videos of themselves to a large audience. TikTok has been fined in the US for illegally collecting data on children while Bangladesh has banned it.

The Americas

US to force allies to block Huawei from 5G network

The United States is looking to push its allies to make it difficult for Huawei to dominate the 5G market, Reuters has said. The move is part of a shared security policy to be discussed by 30 countries in Prague next month. 5G networks are critical because of the implications on smart cities and self-driving cars, any loophole could have devastating consequences for individual countries. Because of that, Washington has warned allies that China could be spying on them using Huawei technology, something the Chinese company has firmly denied.

Amazon to shut China store

Amazon has said it plans to shutdown its online shop in China and focus on other businesses. The proposed shutdown date is July 18, according to reports. Meanwhile, Amazon will focus on selling computing products and overseas goods to the large Asian country. Researchers say the move is the result of intense competition from Alibaba’s TMall and JD.com, both of which control 82% of the e-commerce market in China. Amazon is, therefore, notifying sellers that it will not offer a marketplace to Amazon.cn. “Sellers interested in continuing to sell on Amazon outside of China are able to do so through Amazon Global Selling,” an Amazon spokesperson has said.

Europe

Belgium finds no threat in Huawei devices

The Centre for Cybersecurity in Belgium says it has found no evidence that Huawei equipment could be used for spying. US has been on a campaign to bar Huawei from global 5G networks due to its alleged links with the Chinese state. While some countries have put an outright ban on using Huawei equipment in 5G networks, some, like Germany, have set tougher laws regulating the telecoms industry.

German companies urge a halt to EU laws governing connected cars

Bosses at German companies, BMW and Deutsche Telekom have urged the government to block an EU proposal aimed at setting Wi-Fi standards for connected cars. “We are convinced that mandating Wi-Fi technology will cause significant delay to the European rollout of car-to-car and car-to-infrastructure communication,” CEOs of the two companies said in a letter to the country’s transport minister, according to Reuters. The EU plans to set the benchmark for internet-connected vehicles, an industry worth billions of euros. But the standard could give an edge to Volkswagen and Renault. Other companies, like BMW, Daimler, PSA Group, and Ford, prefer another benchmark that allows communication between cars to avoid collision.

Vodafone ad banned after complain from Virgin Media

Vodafone in UK, has been banned from re-running an ad promising ‘gigafast’ broadband services. While the service offered 900Mbps, Virgin Media challenged the ad, saying the ‘giga-‘ prefix could confuse majority of users into thinking the broadband service provided speeds of up to 1,000Mbps. UK telecoms rules allow service providers to only advertise speeds that are available to at least 50% of the user base during peak hours. The Advertising Standards Authority, ASA, also took issue with the statement that 900Mbps was available for GBP 23 when in fact, that price would only fetch you 100Mbps. To get the fastest connection, users had to fork out GBP 48.