IBM

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McDonald's Is Ending AI Drive-Thru Test

Chain is exploring 'voice ordering solutions more broadly' after end of IBM partnership

(Newser) - McDonald's says that after a "thoughtful review," it is calling time on its artificial intelligence drive-thru partnership with IBM. CNBC reports that the chain has told franchisees that the Automated Order Taker—AOT—technology will be shut down no later than July 26. The technology had been...

IBM Wore the Patent Crown for 29 Years. No More

South Korea's Samsung ended a streak that began in 1993

(Newser) - IBM has low-key dominated US patent acquisitions year in and year out since 1993, always beating out flashier competitors such as Apple and Microsoft. That changed in 2022, when IBM lost the patent-winning crown to Korean tech giant Samsung, reports Quartz . Samsung was granted 6,248 patents last year to...

AI Mayflower Reaches Right Continent, Wrong Country

Boat docks in Nova Scotia instead of Plymouth after hardware problems

(Newser) - A crewless robotic boat that had tried to retrace the 1620 sea voyage of the Mayflower has finally reached the shores of North America—this time in Canada instead of the Massachusetts coast where its namesake landed more than 400 years ago. The sleek autonomous trimaran docked in Halifax, Nova...

Sophisticated Hackers Targeting Vaccine 'Cold Chain'

IBM experts suspect a nation state is responsible

(Newser) - Cyberattackers have been using sophisticated phishing schemes in an attempt to hack companies and government organizations tasked with distributing coronavirus vaccines. IBM's cybersecurity division first revealed the scheme, which was confirmed by the Department of Homeland Security on Thursday, per the New York Times . Experts say phishing emails were...

Company Apologizes for Firing Transgender Employee in 1968

Computer engineer, 82, honored during IBM meeting

(Newser) - A half-century after she was fired when IBM's chief executive learned she was transgender, Lynn Conway was called to an online meeting. Company employees—including transgender staff members—watched last month as executives apologized to Conway for the way she was treated in 1968, the New York Times reports....

IBM: It's Time to Talk About Police Use of Facial Recognition Tech

Company says it will no longer offer the technology

(Newser) - IBM says it is turning away from facial recognition technology—and the company thinks it's time for the country to take a hard look at its use by law enforcement. The company said in a letter to Congress that it will no longer offer, or research, "general purpose"...

With His UPC, George Laurer Solved Several Retail Problems
UPC Inventor Was Amazed
at How Well It Works
obituary
Dec 9, 2019 7:00 PM CST

UPC Inventor Was Amazed at How Well It Works

Development solved several problems for retailers

(Newser) - George J. Laurer, whose invention of the Universal Product Code at IBM transformed retail and other industries around the world, has died. He was 94 and died at his home in Wendell, North Carolina, the AP reports. Laurer was an electrical engineer with IBM in North Carolina's Research Triangle...

Google Says 'Sycamore' Did What No Supercomputer Can

Claims a breakthrough in quantum computing research

(Newser) - Google said it has achieved a breakthrough in quantum computing research, saying an experimental quantum processor has completed a calculation in just a few minutes that would take a traditional supercomputer thousands of years. The findings, published Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature , show that "quantum speedup is achievable...

IBM Announces 'Big Frickin' Deal' in Quantum Computing

But it gets a little complicated...

(Newser) - "We are really proud of this; it's a big frickin' deal," Dario Gil, director of quantum computing at IBM tells MIT Technology Review . But, as TechCrunch understates it, quantum computing is "a difficult area of technology to understand," so you might just have to trust...

What Happens When a Company Kills Work-From-Home

'Everyone I know is very upset'

(Newser) - IBM has a long history of letting its employees work from home—or wherever they darn well please—starting in the 1980s. By 2009, 40% of IBM's 386,000 employees were working from home, saving the company about $100 million a year on office space in the US. But...

IBM Working on Bot to Help Elderly Age at Home

Sensors can detect motion, scent, audio, and more

(Newser) - Assisted living facilities and personal nurses aren't exactly cheap. And as the Baby Boomer generation ages, finding affordable means of helping people age in the comfort of their own homes could be good not just for seniors, but for their wallets, too. So IBM is working on a prototype...

IBM Supercomputer to Help 10K Veterans Beat Cancer

First Watson competed on 'Jeopardy!'; now it's being brought into VA facilities

(Newser) - In January, President Obama handed the reins to Joe Biden to head a "moonshot" initiative to cure cancer , and a major step toward that end has just been made. Per Fortune , IBM will donate its Watson supercomputer technology—the same technology that beat humans on Jeopardy!, CNET notes—to...

IBM Makes Smallest Microchip Yet

It has four times the capacity of today's chips

(Newser) - IBM says it has achieved a breakthrough in making computer chips even smaller, creating a test version of the world's first semiconductor that shrinks down the circuitry by overcoming "one of the grand challenges" of the tech industry. Today's servers are powered by microprocessors that use 22-nanometer...

IBM's Supercomputer Chef Releases a Cookbook

Now you can sample recipes developed by a digital chef

(Newser) - IBM's Watson supercomputer has been dabbling in the world of cooking for a while now; last year, for instance, it offered up its own barbecue sauce , which was reportedly a hit. Soon, you'll be able to try some of Chef Watson's recipes in your own kitchen. The...

Trade in Focus as African Leaders Meet in Washington

Coca-Cola leads way in agricultural initiative

(Newser) - This week, Washington is hosting most of Africa's leaders for the White House's US-Africa Leaders Summit, which aims to forge stronger ties between the US and the continent, CNN reports. The event will address issues ranging from trade to security, the Wall Street Journal notes. A business forum...

Longtime Arch-Rivals Apple, IBM Join Forces

Landmark deal will create 100 IOS business apps

(Newser) - Former arch-rivals Apple and IBM have gone in different directions since they were fiercely competing for customers in the 1980s and they're now planning to share their strengths. The two tech giants have announced a partnership to work together on more than 100 business apps designed for Apple's...

IBM's Supercomputer Whips Up Own BBQ Sauce

Watson's creation is delicious, humans say

(Newser) - What does a machine with no mouth, no taste buds, and no interest in consuming ribs know about barbecue sauce? Everything, according to IBM. The company says its Watson supercomputer has analyzed huge numbers of recipes and used its "cognitive cooking" abilities to create a delicious BBQ sauce, NPR...

Lab Mistake Results in Momentous Find
Lab Mistake Results in Momentous Find
in case you missed it
May 18, 2014 2:20 PM CDT

Lab Mistake Results in Momentous Find

New synthetic polymers are strong, light, and recyclable

(Newser) - It's a happy accident: A mistake at an IBM research lab has created "a super-strong, super-light, and super-recyclable new material," that could transform the old-school world of plastics and polymers and improve a slew of products, NBC News reports. Most of our polymers date back decades—think...

A Supercomputer You Can Afford: What Is Watson?

IBM making a smarter version of our robot overlord available online

(Newser) - Bar trivia contests will never be the same. IBM will today announce a plan to make a more powerful version of its famous Watson supercomputer available online at a sliver of what access to the system has cost, the New York Times reports. Of course, the goal isn't really...

Bill Gates on Ctrl-Alt-Delete: Yeah, That Was a Mistake

Wishes he could Ctrl-Z that, make it a single button

(Newser) - If you ever found yourself annoyed at having to press Control-Alt-Delete in order to log onto Windows on your computer, you've now been vindicated. In an interview for a fundraising campaign at Harvard, Bill Gates himself admitted the three-key requirement was a mistake, the Verge reports. Basically, it was...

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