Microsoft Corporation Artificial Intelligence Chatbot goes Haywire on the Internet

The technology giant has addressed this issue of Al chatbat and apologized publicly for its misconduct.

Microsoft’s artificial intelligence powered chatbot, Tay caused some trouble for the technology company earlier last week. The specific bot apparently messages like a teenage girl and last week it posted some offensive content that it learnt from the users. The chatbot Tay turned into a hate-speech propagating, ‘Hitler-sympathizing’ messaging robot instead which seemed offensive to many.

Users exploited the glitch in the system and took advantage of it which in turn portrayed the chatbot as a hate-speech initiator. Tay made this mistake on the micro-blogging website Twitter, Inc. In a blog post, the technology organization released a statement regarding this misconduct on Tay’s part.

Peter Lee, the corporate vice president at Microsoft Corporation, was the author of the specific post in which he expressed that the management of the tech giant was deeply sorry for the ‘unintended offensive and hurtful’ tweets that were made by its AI powered chatbot. Furthermore, he added that the chatbot’s tweet, in any way, did not represent the technology business and neither did it portrays what the company stands for. In addition to that, he even stated that, the conduct by Tay is not how the company designed it.

The chatbot was officially given permission to interact with users online on Wednesday, it’s built to become smarter by interacting with the millennial users and how they talk and interact with each other online. It has the ability to copy how the users type, their ideas and how they conduct speech. However, this ability to learn from the users led the bot to show a slate of anti-Semitic and hateful comments on the social media website; in addition to that other social media networks were involved in this as well including KiK, Snapchat as well as GroupMe.

In counter the reaction that the tweets created on the Internet, the technology giant deleted the tweets and closed down Tay on Thursday. The company has stated that it will be back on only when the engineers have fixed this problem and when they figure out how to avoid such incidents in the future. The engineer’s first task will be to prevent the bot from getting influenced by the users online so that it doesn’t misrepresent the missions and values of the company.

The Chief corporate VP also stated that this problem occurred despite of the engineers testing the artificial intelligent bot in various scenarios. This problem only surfaced after they made the service live on the internet. He added that even though the company tested it with many types of abuses on the system, it had this issue. 

Intel Corporation Leaves Behind its 'Tick-Tock' Approach

The technology giant is moving towards a new three-step development strategy and moving away from its previous, more successful Tick-Tick Strategy.

Intel Corporation’s ‘Tick-Tock’ strategy has dominated the market for over a decade now despite the fact that during this time period, the technology giant has worked on a number of different chip development methodologies. However, recently the chip maker has decided to say farewell to its ‘tick-tock’ strategy that has always seemed to work for it.

The era of relying on the ‘Tick-tock’ strategy is officially over as the technology organization is moving towards a three step development process which is called Process Architecture Optimization (PAO). This latest shift by the company didn’t come as a surprise to many since last year the company had stated that it was having issues with its 10-nanometer technology because of which it failed to go into production which it had planned to do so initially by the end of the year.

The Tick-Tock strategy basically referred to nodes, in which the new process nodes were known as the ‘ticks’ while the new architectures that were built on these process nodes were known as ‘tocks’. However, in its 10-K filing, the company declared that strategy officially dead. Furthermore, the filing also stated some of company’s future plans which included the introduction of new product families by the chip manufacturing organization.

In the filing, the company mentioned the introduction of ‘Kaby Lake’ which will be the third 14 nanometer product and is expected to have key performance enhancements in comparison to the 6^th generation Intel Core Processor. In addition to that, they are also working on their next-generation process technology which will be a 10 nanometer manufacturing process technology.

Intel Corporation is quite optimistic about its latest development strategy – however it is still too soon to say whether this new strategy will be impactful and will be able to generate the kind of response the company is hoping for it. Furthermore, we are yet to find out if it will be as successful as the initial Tick-Tock Strategy.

On March 21, Intel Stock witnessed a decline of 2% in the pre-market trading as Bernstein downgraded the company’s stock to Underperform from an initial rating of Market Perform. Stacy Rasgon, analyst at Bernstein believes that since the tech organization has not shared its quarter’s results as yet, it might not be ‘out of the woods’ as yet. Furthermore, the analyst also predicts that since the company has failed to live up to its guidance for the first quarter of the current fiscal year and hence has not yet shared anything in the pre-announcement.

The tech giant is supposed to report its financial earnings for the three month period on March 31. The analysts at the Street are hoping for the company to report profit of 50 cents per share and have estimated revenue of $13.95 million.

FedEx Corporation Positive Guidance For Fiscal Year 2016

The package delivery organization is quite optimistic about the future as it reported better than expected earnings for the third quarter of fiscal year 2015.

After reviewing FedEx Corporation’s third quarter financial results on March 21, Argus upgraded the earnings per share (EPS) estimate for company’s fiscal year 2016. From an initial EPS estimate of $10.75, it got excited and upgraded it to $10.83 along with a Buy rating on the stock of the delivery company with a price target of $180.

The courier service organization announced its third quarter fiscal year 2015 earnings on March 16, 2015. In these recent earnings report, the company disclosed revenue earned through sales of $12.654 billion outperforming the analyst’s estimate by 2.37% which suggested the revenue generation to be at $12.361 billion. The net income reported by the company during the quarter was $691 million. It managed to outperform the analyst’s consensus in that respect too by 5.51% since they had estimated the delivery giant to report $654.938 million.

The chairman, president and CEO of the package delivery organization, Frederick W. Smith stated that the company’s financial performance is a reflection of the increase in demand for the business’s broad portfolio due to which we can witness an increase in revenue and adjusted profit of the corporation. He went on by appreciating the efforts of the company’s team members during the peak season who managed to give great service despite of the strong shipping demands which was driven by the growth in e-commerce.

The better-than-expected earnings were reported by the company owed to the impact made by the currency exchange rates along with the decline in fuel prices. Additionally, the company itself worked on better management initiatives. Other factors that contributed to the increase in earnings include the 7.3 million shares repurchase.

As for the guidance for fiscal year 2016, the delivery business decided to increase its adjusted earnings per share to in a range of $10.7 and $10.9 which was initially in the range of $10.4 to $10.9. Furthermore, the forecast for capital expenditure was also increased by almost $0.2 billion to $4.8 billion however it had previously announced capital expenditure on December 16 of $4.6 billion.

In contrast to that the chief financial officer Alan B. Graf. Jr. stated that for fiscal year 2016, the adjusted earnings per share are to be increased by 20% to 22% as the company had started to benefit from its profit improvement program. He added that this positively is to reflect in the upcoming 2017 fiscal year as well since the company is expecting solid growth in its cash flow and earnings.

FedEx Corporation stock is being traded in the market for a share price of $164.63 up by 0.56% with earnings per share of $4.07. Furthermore, the market capitalization of the delivery company is at $44.84 billion.

Foxtel Adapts The 'Can't beat them, Join Them' Approach for Netflix Inc

Netflix, Inc has been giving a rough time to a number of streaming media services in different country, especially Australia.

Netflix, Inc. with its expansion spree has been giving a tough time to a number of streaming media companies in most of the countries, where it has decided to spread its wings. With over millions of streaming media subscribers, the company has managed to establish itself as one of the major streaming content providers in the world. Foxtel, an Australian pay television company has been taking notice of this.

Foxtel is taking the ‘can’t beat em, join em’ approach with Netflix as it is considering adding the on-demand streaming giant to its service. In addition to that, it is also approaching other international right holders which include BBC, Discovery and Viacom to secure as many right of their content as possible, according to a report by Fairfax Media.

The Australian on-demand company has had a few gaps in its service which it is aiming at filling with the help of the international media organizations. Its strong desire to be the country’s most profitable television company is encouraging it to take these measures. However, involving Netflix in its endeavors is definitely a first for Foxtel since it will be allowing another streaming media company’s content onto its service – this would indicate a shift from its ‘traditional wall-garden’ approach.

In the Australian market, the video media provider has made quite mark, making it the most affordable and approachable provider of original TV shows and movies while Foxtel is known is the expensive and rigid video provider in the market. But as per latest marketing strategy launched on Sunday, the Australian cable television provider is working on changing its perception in the consumer’s mind.

Rob Farmer, Director of Content Marketing, stated that the company is working on changing the perception that people in the country has of the service because just like other streaming service providers, Foxtel can be watched in as many places as well, according to Ad News.

Additionally, it has been a rough patch for the company itself as its chief executive officer of five years; Richard Freudenstein was replaced by Peter Tonagh. Currently, the service is contemplating on whether to put Netflix on its Apple TV-style “Puck” streaming service which will be coming out soon.

This move by the on-demand video provider makes sense as Telstra, which is Australia’s largest telecommunication and media company, has decided to sell its 50% stake in Foxtel, mainly because it’s launched its very on puck called Telstra TV. However, presently they are only making this service available to its already exciting customers.

It’s a plus for Foxtel as there is still a huge chunk of market that does not have cable television and are not Telstra customers as well; if it decides to integrate Netflix’s content with its, there’s a good chance that more people will be attracted towards the service and will seem more appealing to the masses.

FedEx Corporation Report Better Than Expected Earnings for 3QFY16

The courier business has managed to beat the estimation of the analysts however it remains quite concerned as it might lose one of its most important customers.

On Wednesday, FedEx Corporation reported its third quarter earnings which easily topped analyst’s estimates..The company managed to beat analyst’s estimates in terms of both revenue as well as earnings per share. It reported earnings of $2.51 per share, however in comparison to the analyst’s calculations which were at $2.37, the company performed fairly well.

On the other hand, three month period revenue that the Street’s analysts expected the courier company to report were $12.38 billion while it reported the revenue to be at $12.7 billion – again outperforming the expectations of the analysts. Net earnings for the third quarter fiscal year 2016 were reported to be $692 million, compared to the analyst’s estimations, a difference of $37.06 million can be seen, as they calculated the net earnings to be at $654.94 million.

The executives at FedEx Corp stated that the retailers in the industry should start to pay more for the shipments to offset the cost of current expansion of the company’s network that it is doing so specifically to meet the growing demands of e-commerce.

During the current year, the Wall Street Journal reports, that the courier organization increased its capital spending by as much as $4.8 billion. This increase in the capital spending is considered to be the largest increase that was incurred in the company’s ground division that also handles the e-commerce business – as per the report by the company, this increase is likely to continue for another two years.

The Financial executive of FedEx, Alan Graf stated that the company can’t just increase its network and spend that kind of capital and not expect to get a return and he believes that the price of shipping an e-commerce package should reflect the effort that took to get the package delivered.

The delivery giant also reported that the net income during the third quarter fell by 19% to 507 million. Before the company had reported the earnings, the stock of the company is the past 12 months had fallen by 19% mainly due to higher spending, uncalled for legal costs along with a rough holiday season, as it received increased competition from one of its competitors Amazon.com.

The chief executive Mr. Fred Smith stated that it is preposterous that a number of people believe that amazon will be able to build up a network even close to that of FedEx and/or UPS Inc. He added that just because the retailer has managed to build a network of warehouses does not mean it will be able to come to a position where these courier giants are.

The Memphis, Tenn. - based courier organization might believe that Amazon will not be able to build a network as strong as that of these courier companies but it does seem to be quite upset with the fact that if it works out for the e-commerce giant, FedEx might be losing one of its most important customers. At this point, Amazon has declined to comment.

'Mobile Data Saver' Option For Netflix; Dream Come True for Users

The streaming media company will not be providing data saver option to its customer who watch shows on their smartphone however the feature has not officially been launched yet.

Netflix Inc. has become a master at providing consumers with exactly what they need; sometimes the changes are big while other times they are significantly smaller. At the Mobile World Congress 2016, it had announced some of these small changes to its streaming platform, one of which was giving users a way of managing their data.

Recently, it announced a new ‘data saver’ option which appeared first on the Google Play Store however this was a beta testing program that the streaming media network had not planned to make available to the consumers as yet. It was a beta test program and the company later mentioned that these features should not be associated with the actual features that will be launched later on.

A number of people who joined the beta service stated that they saw a ‘Mobile Data Saver’ option on the program which was also announced at the MWC and was a forthcoming update that will be made available on the iOS and android operating system. During the annual conference, a number of reporters were allowed to preview the feature and take screenshots of it however numerous other users who recently joined the service has also mentioned that they have seen the specific option while streaming via their smartphones.

However, the video on demand subscriber has mentioned that the service has not been rolled out on either of the operating systems yet; additionally, it has not yet announced when it will be releasing either. And the option that was being viewed by a number of users was merely part of a test which was unrelated to the beta program.

Even on the official release on the android system, it lets a user choose whether it will play on Wi-Fi or not, under the specific ‘Video Playback’ option. If the ‘data saving’ option rolls out, the customers of the streaming media network will be able to reduce the video quality below HD 1080 and furthermore will provide more economical bandwidth to the users.

Customers have been facing issues regarding mobile data megabytes as watching shows on mobile can cost people a lot; one of the reasons why T-Mobile has been pushing its Binge on Service. But with the new Data saver option they will be able to lower the data usage on their smartphone. This roll out will the best one yet especially for the people who are on unlimited mobile data plans, as they will be able to watch more shows and movies without worrying about going over their data plan limit.

Intel Corp. Plans to Sell Some Venture Capital Assets

The technology giant has invested millions of dollars since 1991, now its considering selling some of its venture capital assets at a price of $1 billion.

The world’s largest maker of computer component, Intel Corporation is planning on selling its venture capital unit assets which could be worth as much as $1 billion, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The people close to the matter further stated that the technology giant is currently looking for potential buyers for the unit with the help of UBS Group AG. Since the information is presently private, the people who disclosed the news asked not to be named.

This move by the company has come two months after Arvind Sodhani, the president took retirement after a long 35 year period from the tech giant. The retirement came as an abrupt change in the unit due to which the biggest chipmaker in the industry had to restructure its venture capital unit in January.

According to a statement by Intel, the former president was replaced by Wendell Brooks, who was currently the head of mergers and acquisitions at the technology organization. It further added that this move was designed in a way so better investment decisions can be made by the firm.

Presently, the selling move by the company is still at an early stage and is focusing on attracting private equity firms who specialize in the purchase of portfolios that are popularly known as secondaries firms. Furthermore, this sale is likely to create a ripple affect not only for Intel but the entire industry.

Intel Capital was initiated in 1991 and ever since its inception it has invested as much as $11.6 billion in over 1,440 companies expanding through at least 57 countries across of a range of sectors. On 2015, the technology organization invested over $514 million in over 143 companies which its focus on a number of sectors including wearable devices as well as security software.

The Wall Street Journal believes that the company might not go forward with this sale as this move comes as a change in strategy by the current chief executive, Brain Krzanich who was appointed the position in 2013 when the former CEO Paul Otellini got retired. It is believed that under the leadership of Mr. Otellini, the Venture Capital unit flourished and was considered the most active venture investors in the world.

In addition to that many believe that times has change in the tech industry as PCs are being replaced with smartphone devices and cloud computing has become a destructive technology for data centers. This sale, during this transitional period, could allow Intel to use more resources in that growing and key technology areas.

Intel has declined to comment on this move and after the news broke Intel stock went up 51 cents to $31.76.

Qualcomm Stock Growth

After having a bad 2015 the company's stock has finally been recovering

Last year, when the Qualcomm Inc.’s stock slumped down by horrendous 34% of its value then, many analysts showed doubt whether the chipmaker will ever be able to regain its position in the market. However, now, from the past four weeks the American chipmaker’s stock has undergone a considerate recovery of 20%.

The San Diego, California based organization came in the limelight at the Mobile World Congress 2016 where it showcased its most recent Qualcomm Snapdragon 820. A large number of smartphones were debuted by their manufacturers which had Qualcomm’s 820 processor installed in it. However, the smartphone which caught everybody’s attention was Samsung’s Galaxy S7 and S7 Plus. The event marked the cordial reception of the processor.

Earlier last year, the predecessor of 820, the Snapdragon 810 put the company into hot waters after below average performance. The processor heated the devices which made Samsung to withdraw from Qualcomm’s chips and it later installed its interiorly built chips in its Galaxy S6 series smartphones. The suspension of the business from one of the largest and the top most clients left the company in a bad position with its stock value instantly stuttered down.

Getting Samsung back for business has indeed created a positive opportunity for the chipmaker however for the company who happens to plan on widening its scope of operations, this isn’t everything. On Analyst Day recently, the company disclosed about a host of different chipsets which has been intended to cater to the need of multiple industry segments including wearable and communication hardware. Moreover, the company has recently planned on developing a mobile processor for mid-tier smartphone. Analysts will be looking out at this initiative as Qualcomm has only been developing top-tier smartphone processors.

It is noteworthy, however, that the company’s step inside the server chip market has been ensured by a lot of enthusiasm and determination. It is also very close of having Alphabet Inc.’s official backing on being their chief server chip supplier. If the semiconductor manufacturing organization successfully closed the deal with Alphabet Inc. then it will be the point of massive victory for it.

Moreover, the firm’s strategic partnerships, for the development of sever chips, with Chinese counterparts is likely to strengthen the position of the company in the chip market which currently has Intel’s strong dominance.

Bringing about few changes in its business model has already landed the company in positive results. Apart from astonishing success at the MWC, the company’s expansion plans has also significantly affected the stock performance of the company. Both the investors and analysts have generated high hopes from the company. Although the commencement of the year has been positive for the company however in order to retain its stock growth the company has to maintain its momentum.

Delta Is Trimming Down Its Workforce And Reducing Working Hours

Changes in Delta Airlines Workforce might be witnessed in the future as it has announced plans of trimming jobs and reducing working hour for current employees.

Delta Airlines recently sent out a notification to the Kentucky of its decision to trim down its workforce and make approximately 120 job cuts and even reducing the number of working hours of 185 of its employees. The air travelling company plans are going to be fully effective starting from the 1^st of May.

Delta Airlines announced this decision right after two of its flights ticket prices were increased, which indicates that the company is seeking for profit and reducing costs by cutting down its worker force. These job cuts might be made in the airports customer service department and cargo operations, thus most affected employees from this move will be the ones in the customer service section of the company.

The Air Travelling Company is going to make efforts to compensate for the loss the fired employees will be facing by getting those workers transfers to other companies, or even take voluntary retirement and severance. It sent out a letter informing its workers of its plans for them and said that the customer service department had more than required workers, thus restructuring has to be done. The letter said that the business is making this decision in order to lower the costs of shipping as the cargo industry is facing a tough time.

The workers that are eligible will be given a transfer in, maybe in the same department of the company, in a different location.  25 employees will be removed who are currently working as customer service agents and 95 workers are going to be removed, who are working in the Ready Reserve department of the organization. The reduction in working hours is going take place in the same department of customer service for the workers who will still be working in the area, the number will be 185. Employees can get in touch with the company’s HR manager if they wish to for further details.

The air carrier recently lost its number one spot in Dayton International Airport after American and US Airways merge. The company is trying its best to not let its workers get affected from this recent move badly and is making efforts to take the best care of them as possible by offering them retirements and transfers so that they are not left without jobs after the job cuts, which is not what most companies give much importance to. Hence for other workers of the company, this can be provide security that as long as they are working at Delta, they will not be left jobless even if the organization makes job cut decisions.