Is the Tech Talent Shortage Really Over? Twitter’s commitment to privacy is expiring internationally and a Canadian retail icon puts humanoid robots to the test in its stores.
Welcome to trending hashtags for Friday, March 10th.
I’m your host Jim Love, CIO of IT World Canada and TechNewsday in the US – here’s today’s top tech news.
Is the talent shortage over?
With the number of layoffs that have been announced in the tech industry, it might be tempting to think that the resource crunch — the severe shortage of tech talent — may actually be over.
Gray and Christmas, according to US outplacement firm ChallengerThe tech industry led the way in February with 21,000 job cuts, accounting for 28 percent of all layoffs and job cuts in the US. That’s a huge amount, but it’s still a big improvement from January, where about 40,000 jobs were lost, according to the same report.
And we’ve all heard about the vast and potentially ongoing vandalism of the workforce at Meta, Twitter and other firms.
but according to Mbula Schoen, a senior director at research firm Gartner Inc. – “The shortage of technical talent is not over.” Its recent report states that “current demand for tech talent far exceeds supply,” and the firm, which is known for its predictions, expects it to be by 2026 based on forecasts that they will have IT spending Is.
The report also pointed out that the people who are being hired in the tech industry are largely from business functions rather than technical roles. Plus, she says, there are a growing number of IT job opportunities outside of big tech companies.
What is the account of these deductions? According to the Scone report, many of the cutbacks over the past few months “were prompted by public companies seeking to optimize share prices and meet shareholder desire for lower spending.
And while these layoffs have been perceived as a necessary adjustment after an “over-optimistic” hiring spree during the COVID crisis, Scone’s report says the data shows that “new Hiring hasn’t necessarily been affected.”
The report further noted that the layoffs were more indicative of organizations prioritizing key products and services – a strategic adjustment versus outright cutbacks.
In addition, Gartner research shows that “the 10 biggest tech talent layoffs at companies still employ 150,000 more people in total than at the beginning of 2020.
In addition, the report notes that companies and CIOs in particular are struggling to find and keep key talent. It advises that companies need to revise their value proposition and cast their net wider into non-traditional sectors to attract and retain the talent they need.
This is a warning that they should heed. Organizations that are struggling to compete for resources – such as the US Pentagon – are stepping up and offering new levels of job flexibility and other perks to attract and keep some of the technical talent that some in the workplace lack. Must be looking for something different.
Source: Gartner
Microsoft’s search engine Bing is now attracting 100 million daily active users a month, since the launch of the AI chatbot. According to Yushu Mehi, Microsoft’s VP for Modern Live, Search and Tools Microsoft acknowledges that Bing’s share of the search market is still in the single digits, down from less than 5 percent last year. but a rough back of the envelope calculation If this new trend holds, it will more than double its best performance for any month in 2022.
According to Microsoft, Bing’s mobile search has shown a sixfold increase since the addition of the AI component.
This is clearly attracting new users for the first time. Mehdi noted that a third of Bing’s daily Active users are new. In addition, Microsoft is also reporting that there has been a strong increase in engagement with people conducting more Finders.
While Microsoft attributes its share of growth in users and market share to its new Edge browser, the real story It is undoubtedly the AI chatbot addition that has made Bing’s search results more relevant and more interesting.
On average, Microsoft is seeing three chats per session, and more than 15 percent of these sessions are asking Bing to generate new content. And when looking at these numbers, we have to remember that Bing’s new search isn’t available to everyone yet.
Clearly, despite the obstacles, the issues, and Sydney’s alleged “hallucinations”—the name that someone thought to be an excellent name for an AI entity—Microsoft has given its search engine a real boost and for the first time is positioning itself as one. Shown in Potential threat to Google’s search engine dominance.
But before you start calling it “Bing” or “Sydney,” we shouldn’t count Google out of the running because of its false start with its – Bard AI. Google employees have undoubtedly been working overtime to launch Bard and compete with Bing.
So is it Bard or Bing? No one is certain except for one thing. With so many artificial intelligences, couldn’t we come up with better names?
Source: Engadget
This Twitter outage has some real ramifications.
We’ve covered some major Twitter outages in North America, but one that flies under the radar has a bigger impact. Twitter’s Tor and Onion browser-based service use this anonymous browser, the same tool that hackers use on the dark web, to make Twitter available in countries where the social network is banned.
Why did it go off air? Apparently, according to an article in Tech Crunch, Twitter’s Tor service has gone dark because Twitter failed to renew its certificate. Twitter’s onion site certificate expires on March 6th Just before the first anniversary of the Tor project.
Pavel Jonoff, director of strategic communications at the Tor Project, the non-profit organization behind the anonymous global network, told TechCrunch that the site is “no longer available with no plans to upgrade.”
But if you go past the warning that the certificate has expired and you’re on an unsecured site, you see a Twitter error page, which perhaps indicates that Elon Musk’s commitment to privacy and free speech isn’t on those sites. cannot reach the people who need it. majority of.
Facebook, the BBC and even TechCrunch are among the list of companies that maintain accessible sites and have a link full list in text of this article on itworldcanada.com
Source: techcrunch
Grammarly gets an AI boost
Grammarly, the ubiquitous app that reminds us when to put an apostrophe in our text edits, has been updated with new Generative AI functionality. The name of the new tool is GrammarlyGo and it will be available to most users in April.
Rahul Roy-Choudhury, Grammarly’s global head of product, explained the inspiration behind the new functionality in a blog post. “Poor communication destroys relationships, affects business growth and results, and slows down feedback that eats up our time, just to name a few effects.” He further cited research the company conducted last year with The Harris Poll, which “established that poor communication costs US businesses up to $1.2 trillion annually – or $12,506 per employee.”
In addition to correcting your grammar and spelling, GrammarlyGo will provide suggestions for improving your writing, including how to change the tone for different scenarios and audiences. Using Generative AI allows it to understand situational context And give tips for getting the right message across in different situations.
It will also generate outlines and ideas – a one-click cure for writer’s block.
GrammarlyGo will be available alongside the company’s premium product line And some will also be made available to selected Grammarly Free users.
Source: GrammarlyGo
Canadian Tire Corporation, which has become famous for its tools for home and auto repair, has launched a new futuristic technology for its stores.
The company is testing a pilot using humanoid robots at its Mark Work warehouse clothing chain. The robots, referred to as “mechanical interns” in an article in the Register, were tasked with 110 different retail tasks at the front and back of the store. They picked and packed merchandise, filled shelves on the floor, cleaned, tagged, labeled, and more.
The devices were first trained by their creators, Vancouver-based Sanctuary AI, in a lab that housed a replica of the store.
and when the robots were under the control and guidance of human operators, Geordie RoseThe co-founder and CEO of Sanctuary AI was encouraged by their performance. He explained that the robot performed “many essential but rudimentary tasks that people find unsatisfactory or counterproductive.”
Robots are humanoid, right down to having hands that allow them to perform relatively delicate tasks.
So are these new robots a threat to retail jobs? Or do they simply do work that humans don’t find interesting, allowing employees to focus more on customer service and sales?
Part of it will depend on cost. On this point, Ben Reed, chief marketing officer at Sanctuary AI, is a little less clear. The Register reported that he said in an email, ,Our model is focused on providing labor as a service to the customers. Hourly pricing varies from business to business and the complexity of the tasks that need to be completed.
Source: register
That’s the top tech news for today
Links to these stories can be found in articles posted at itworldcanada.com/podcasts. You can find more great stories and in-depth coverage at itworldcanada.com or in America technewsday.com
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I’m your host Jim Love – have a wonderful Friday!
