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IIT Madras to offer free online courses on Artificial Intelligence from January 2021. Check out how to join – EdexLive

With the recent surge in the demand for Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning, Big Data courses more so after the pandemic Indian Institute of Technology Madras (IITM) is offering two free online courses on AI through the National Program on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL) platform. These courses will be conducted by Professor Deepak Khemani from the Department of Computer Science and Engineering at the institute. Both the courses are scheduled to begin from January 2021.

Students can enrol for the courses free of cost, however, the institute will conduct an exam before awarding the candidates with e-certificate, which if opted for will cost Rs 1,000. The certificate will be awarded by IITM in collaboration with the NPTEL platform.

Speaking about the importance of learning AI in today's day age, professor Khemani tells us, "A famous computer scientist from Ireland once said AI is the holy grail of computer science. It's a common person's view of computers, they feel that computers can do everything. The user states the problem and the computer solves, that is the broad goal of AI. It is a pretty long-term goal and we are not yet nearly close. However, the availability of data, increase in computing power, use of AI solutions in fields like medical diagnosis, has brought it into the limelight. I personally feel that it is important for students and specifically computer science students to opt for AI courses."

Professor Khemani further goes on to add that, "IIT Madras recently began an online BSc programme in Data Science. We have seen the rising demand for such courses and the AI courses are mainly aimed at people who are working professionals or are pursuing another degree elsewhere. They can attend these courses part-time online and thus increase their qualification. This programme is aimed at helping people acquire new skills and thus become job-ready."

The two courses IITM is offering along with NPTEL includes an eight-week-long course that begins in January 2021 and another which is 12-week-long, which begins from January 18, 2021, and goes on till April 09, 2021. The first course, called AI: Constraint Satisfaction, is designed to teach students how to solve problems in various ways. The course focuses on how AI is inspired by diverse approaches. The course curriculum includes constraint networks, equivalent and projection networks, search methods for solving CSPs, lookahead methods, dynamic variable and value order, model-based systems, model-based diagnosis, truth maintenance systems and more.

The other course is called Artificial Intelligence: Knowledge Representation and Reasoning, which is designed to help candidates become problem solvers. It is mainly for those with some exposure to formal languages, programming and logic. The course curriculum includes Proof Systems, Natural Deduction, Tableau Method, Resolution Method, Description Logic (DL), Structure Matching, Classification, Default Logic, Autoepistemic Logic, Epistemic Logic, Multi-Agent Scenarios and more.

The courses are open to students and professionals across all age groups. "Among the people who have registered, the oldest learners are over 80 years and the majority are around 30 years of age. Most of these individuals are already working. Thus, these courses are not designed to be a primary degree but a secondary one. If you are already pursuing another full-fledged degree even then one can apply for this. It is mainly to help upgrade ones' skills," adds professor Khemani.

Finally, explaining how online platforms are helping educational institutes to offer such courses easily, the professor adds, "Definitely because of the pandemic educational institutes are finding it easier to rely on these platforms. It was happening earlier too, colleges had tied up with ed tech platforms, however, currently, this is higher. The government has also been conducting free courses on SWAYAM, which are extremely helpful for students and working professionals amid such time of crisis."

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IIT Madras to offer free online courses on Artificial Intelligence from January 2021. Check out how to join - EdexLive

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Development and evaluation of a deep learning based artificial intelligence for automatic identification of gold fiducial markers in an MRI-only…

Identification of prostate gold fiducial markers in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) images is challenging when CT images are not available, due to misclassifications from intra-prostatic calcifications. It is also a time consuming task and automated identification methods have been suggested as an improvement for both objectives. Multi-echo gradient echo (MEGRE) images have been utilized for manual fiducial identification with 100% detection accuracy. The aim is therefore to develop an automatic deep learning based method for fiducial identification in MRI images intended for MRI-only prostate radiotherapy. MEGRE images from 326 prostate cancer patients with fiducials were acquired on a 3T MRI, post-processed with N4 bias correction, and the fiducial center of mass (CoM) was identified. A 9 mm radius sphere was created around the CoM as ground truth. A deep learning HighRes3DNet model for semantic segmentation was trained using image augmentation. The model was applied to 39 MRI-only patients and 3D probability maps for fiducial location and segmentation were produced and spatially smoothed. In each of the three largest probability peaks, a 9 mm radius sphere was defined. Detection sensitivity and geometric accuracy was assessed. To raise awareness of potential false findings a 'BeAware' score was developed, calculated from the total number and quality of the probability peaks. All datasets, annotations and source code used were made publicly available. The detection sensitivity for all fiducials were 97.4%. Thirty-six out of thirty-nine patients had all fiducial markers correctly identified. All three failed patients generated a user notification using the BeAware score. The mean absolute difference between the detected fiducial and ground truth CoM was 0.7 0.9 [0 3.1] mm. A deep learning method for automatic fiducial identification in MRI images was developed and evaluated with state-of-the-art results. The BeAware score has the potential to notify the user regarding patients where the proposed method is uncertain.

Physics in medicine and biology. 2020 Nov 12*** epublish ***

Christian Jamtheim Gustafsson, Johan Swrd, Stefan Ingi Adalbjrnsson, Andreas Jakobsson, Lars E Olsson

Department of Hematology, Oncology and Radiation Physics, Skne University Hospital, Lund, Sweden. Department of Translational Sciences, Medical Radiation Physics, Lund University, Malm, Sweden.

PubMed http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33179610

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Development and evaluation of a deep learning based artificial intelligence for automatic identification of gold fiducial markers in an MRI-only...

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Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Market to Witness Massive Growth by 2025 | Top Players Alibaba, Stitch Fix, Snap, Truefit, Finery – PRnews…

Latest study Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail market across the globe is intense and has attained significant market penetration across the globe. Further, upcoming scientific development in this market is anticipated to motivate the vendors to introduce more efficient and hi-tech Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail solutions.

Some of the key players operating in the global Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail market are Alibaba, Stitch Fix, Snap, Truefit, Finery, Stylumia, Nike, Walmart, Goody Box, Adidas, Burberry, Levis, Hook, Lvmh, Grabit

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The report also offers a 360 outlook of the market through the competitive landscape of the global industry player and helps the companies to garner Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail market revenue by understanding the strategic growth approaches.

The Study is a combination of qualitative and quantitative analysis of the virtual reality industry. The global market majorly considers five major regions, namely, North America, Europe, Asia-Pacific (APAC), Middle East and Africa (MEA) and South & Central America (SACM).

Major highlights of the report:

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1 Report Overview1.1 Study Scope1.2 Key Market Segments1.3 Players Covered1.4 Market Analysis by Type1.5 Market by Application1.6 Study Objectives1.7 Years Considered

2 Global Growth Trends2.1 Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Market Size2.2 Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Growth Trends by Regions2.3 Industry Trends

3 Market Share by Key Players3.1 Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Market Size by Manufacturers3.2 Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Key Players Head office and Area Served3.3 Key Players Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Product/Solution/Service3.4 Date of Enter into Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Market3.5 Mergers & Acquisitions, Expansion Plans

4 Breakdown Data by Product4.1 Global Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Sales by Product4.2 Global Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Revenue by Product4.3 Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Price by Product

5 Breakdown Data by End User5.1 Overview5.2 Global Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Breakdown Data by End User

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ReportsWeb is a one stop shop of market research reports and solutions to various companies across the world. We help our clients in their decision support system by assisting them choose most relevant and cost effective research reports and solutions from various publishers. We provide best in class customer service and our customer support team is always available to help you on your research queries.

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Artificial Intelligence In Fashion Retail Market to Witness Massive Growth by 2025 | Top Players Alibaba, Stitch Fix, Snap, Truefit, Finery - PRnews...

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Daewoo Engineering and Construction and SPH Engineering disclose AI partnership – sUAS News

Riga, Latvia November 16, 2020 SPH Engineering announces the cooperation withDaewoo Engineering and Construction to support the partners data management projects with ATLAS, a unique AI platform enabling aerial imagery storage, maps creation, change tracking, object detection and territory segmentation. Photogrammetry data is expected to become one of the key components for storage and processing.

ATLAS will enable Daewoo Engineering and Construction, in particular, to set up an onlinearchive of drone imagery and photogrammetry products, track changes and generate reports, automate object detection and measure the identified objects of interest. Thanks to enhanced analytical capability for drone inspections, the platform will increase data availability for participants of construction workflow and help to save days of manual processing.

ATLAS can be definitely used in various fields, but it will be a groundbreaking platform,especially in the field of construction survey. Were going to grow further together,Geunmok Song(Alex), Digital construction team manager of Daewoo Engineering andConstruction, comments.

When we introduced ATLAS back in spring, first of all we wanted to support our existingUgCS customers with an easy-to-use AI tool to store and process data collected with oursoftware integrated to a UAV. We are proud that Daewoo Engineering and Construction, the representative of Korea, has opted for our solution: the company has presented various ideas from the perspective of the actual construction company employee. We are happy to modify ATLAS interface for Daewoos style and needs, including colour and logo adjustments,

Alexei Yankelevich, R&D Director of SPH Engineering, adds.

About SPH Engineering/ ATLAS

SPH Engineering (sph-engineering.com) is the worlds premier UgCS software, developerand integration services provider for unmanned aerial systems. Founded in 2013 in Latvia, the company has created a rich global customer network while over 45% of customers are located in North America. Its developed UgCS, UgCS CC, UgCS Mapper, Drone Show Software, and Industrial Integration Solutions for UAV with Echo Sounders, Ground Penetrating Radars (GPR), Methane detectors, and Magnetometers, enriched with radar/laser altimeters, are applied across a wide range of industries worldwide. The newest product line is ATLAS a unique digital platform enabling aerial imagery storage, maps creation, object detection/counting and making territory segmentation.

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9 Engineers on the Hardest Song They Ever Mixed – Vulture

The ins and outs of making great entertainment.

Brent Kolatalo in his studio. Photo: Courtesy of Brent Kolatalo

Mixing is one of the most undersung jobs in music. While the artists and producers get the credit, the engineers work taking a songs raw materials such as vocal tracks and instrumentals, and polishing them into something that sparkles is often what makes a good song great, or a great song classic. It can be a mammoth technological undertaking that involves shaping hundreds of disparate sounds into one cohesive melody, a task that even the most cutting-edge technology cant always help. Beyond having a good ear and the skill set to adjust audio levels, engineers need to be creative, willing to take both direction and risks. Theres balancing the particular demands of artists, their teams, and their labels, all while pushing through the strains of quick deadlines while battling self-doubt.

Sometimes you will hear something and just think, Man, the production is amazing, but what you might not know is that behind the scenes, a mixer was given something they didnt really have a lot to work with, says Howard Redekopp, a Juno Awardwinning producer and mixer whos worked with Tegan and Sara, the New Pornographers, and many others. She or he might have been frustrated going, This is a brilliant song, but I wish that there were more ingredients, so they concoct parts or heavily manipulate whats there to turn it into this magical thing. It goes the other way, too a lot of great production can get lost if it goes through a meat-grinder mix.

To understand why thats the case, we spoke with nine prominent mix engineers in a number of genres about the toughest songs they tackled, be it because of picky performers or overwhelming stress and, in one case, a nearly devastating fire.

The combination of an unrealistic deadline and demo-itis (which is when the client falls in love with the sound of their demo) is a classic recipe for a mixing nightmare. Thats what happened to me when I was hired to mix Borderline for Gallant.

The song was set to be an exclusive single for Red Bulls music label but they needed the final mix turned in the next day no exceptions. It was already late evening by the time I received the audio files and my instructions were to make it sound like the demo but more alive and, of course, better. My anxiety level was pretty high already, but what put it into manic overdrive was realizing all the vocal files were already drenched with reverbs and delays, and completely overly compressed. Thats basically tying one arm behind the mix engineers back and still expecting them to hit a homer against Clayton Kershaw. There wasnt much I could do to it the sound was locked in.

I tried getting the raw vocal files but it was too late, so I mixed what I had and hoped for the best. After 14 hours, seven revisions, and the sun starting to creep out, I started to realize my best might not be good enough this time. They ended up using my instrumental mix for the song but went with the original demo vocal. It was a bit of a Frankensteined version and, truthfully, an ego blow. But they were happy with the end result and thats all that mattered.

At the end of the day, mixing can be a very subjective thing, because everyone has a different definition of what technically sounds better. Your client may like an overcompressed, extremely bright vocal sound, and I might think thats the most ear-fatiguing sound in the world. But whos really right in the end?Well, the client is, and its your job to get whatever sound theyre hearing in their head.

I have a place with a full studio in Playas, Ecuador, where I go to work and rebalance. Ive done work from there for BTS and their label Big Hit, and two days after finishing a track for another one of their artists, TXT, a fire broke out on the 14th floor of my building, directly below us. Someone left a cheap phone charger plugged in for a week, it burned out the socket, and expanded from there. My wife and I were home, we own floors 17 and 18, and once I saw smoke, I dropped everything, grabbed her, ran out, and closed every fire door down 18 flights to the ground. We got out and watched the building burn another five minutes and we wouldve been trapped. My studio was fine there was some smoke damage, our windows cracked, and some curtains melted. Its a miracle more of the building didnt go up. Then the call came to mix the BTS single Interlude: Shadow, and of course they need it right away.

After the fire, the owner of a nearby suite on the beach heard about it and let me stay there, right on the water. My studio was 18 floors up with no working elevator or electricity. I moved my whole thing across the parking lot to the beach, climbing up and down 18 floors with heavy gear for two days. The beach suite was like a reflective box that added reverb, so I soundproofed it as much as I could with cushions from my apartment and blankets that I hung on mic stands. It looked ridiculous but it worked. Great headphones were the true lifesaver.

Mixing in the room was great, actually the beach view was exceptionally inspiring but the real challenge beyond mixing in a reflective box is that Interlude has three distinct sections, and well over 100 tracks, so I basically had to mix three songs. On top of all the other challenges, I had to figure out how theyd go best from one section to the next with completely different sounds and vocals, so it was a lot of time and care and referencing other BTS mixes Id done to make sure it had the dramatic spirit of my favorites.

Interlude: Shadow features Suga, but Ive worked on BTS tunes that showcase all seven members, so you can imagine leads, counter leads, background vocals, harmonies, counter harmonies, stacked by multiple singers and rappers. It can be north of 200 tracks to mix for one song luckily, their producers are genius and the whole group is incredibly talented and organized. I love those mixes, because you always want to be challenged to make sure that youre as good as you think you are. Those are the super tests. You just work with it until each of the individual sections feels like a record that sounds the way you envisioned it to sound.

Ye and I have been working together since right after Jay ZsThe Blueprint. I got the call to mix Stronger on a Saturday night: Ye wants to go into the studio tomorrow. Its the first single on the new album. I try not to work on Sundays thats family day but I went in and brought my son, who was 4 or 5 at the time. Hes sitting next to me I let him play with a bucket of faders on the console that I wasnt using and I dive in and mix it in a few hours. Kanye listened to it a few times and goes, Man, sounds great. Just send it to me, so I did.

I went to New York to work with Alicia Keys for almost a month and Im thinking,I didnt hear anything from Yes camp, whether it was good or bad. Thats kind of odd.Then I get a call, Hey, man. We want to revisit Stronger. Ye likes your mix but he wants to try a few other things. I go in, learn that he and Mike Dean, the co-producer, had added a few synths, and I mix that. I get another call a week later: Can you do that again? I did that about three or four times. Two or three months later, they call me back and say, He still wants to mess with it. So, we go back.

Im sitting there, and Ill never forget this moment where Ye is pacing right behind me. Im like, Man, youre making me really nervous. Will you just stop and sit and lets just work on it? And hes like, Man, its not right. Its not right. I gotta tell you, out of all the mixes Ive ever done, Ive never, ever quit. But after so many updates, so much chasing, I was literally about to tell him that I didnt think I was the right guy for the mix. Im about to cut the cord when I hit the external button on the console and it happened to play a different version of the mix. As hes pacing, he goes, Wait, thats it! What is that? The file had the date on it and Im like, That was the first we mix we did on that Sunday. He says, Thats the mix! Ten minutes later, I was done.

It was frustrating, but later, I found out Im glad I didnt know this at the time that 12 people mixed it and he was unhappy with all of them and the one I did in three hours ended up being the final. One thing about Ye is, he really is a visionary. I think, for him, it was more about the journey of experimenting with other sounds and textures. That was what he had to do creatively. I think mine ended up being the winner because I treated the sample like an instrument I did about 150 volume and frequency tweaks so Yes voice is always the star but when he wasnt saying anything, it was the hypnotic sample.

The challenge was second-guessing yourself through the process. You go through, I suck. I am terrible. I cant get it, because youre constantly searching for something that exists in someone elses mind. Then, all of a sudden, like the Red Sea parts and boom, there it is. Its pretty amazing to experience. Funny story, my wife was in the car and my son was in the backseat, and Stronger came on the radio. He kept saying, Mom! I mixed this song! So, the joke in the house is that, because I gave him the console to play with, he mixed Stronger. Its one of my favorite songs ever.

This song was written just after Shawn had released his sophomore album,Illuminate, and became a radio single and the first track on the deluxe version. It was nice to work in sort of a vacuum with the time frame, because we had freedom to experiment. There were no prompts on finishing it, but it was a puzzle that took us six weeks to crack.

Part of that was because the song was delivered to me in Pro Tools, which is sort of the industry-standard software but not one I normally use. I was way out of my element but there was something about it that kind of forced me to listen more. Its like you lose one sense and you gain another.

Teddy Geiger was the main producer, and when I got the song Id say it was about 60 percent done. There were six of us, including Shawn, giving notes on all the revisions so it was a real collaboration. I have my own tricks and ideas, but its about what the artist and the team want, so I followed everyones suggestions. The version that was given to me felt great it was clearly a great song, the performance was amazing but there was something about the sonics that werent gelling or feeling natural. We spent weeks experimenting with different combinations of elements and adding things and reducing things changing where the kick drum came in and the bridge and what ad-lib was interjecting at what point in the final chorus there was a lot to try, and we tried it all.

Shawn is really good at tapping into what the listener is going to be drawn to the most. We ended up integrating a lot of new vocal layers and ad-libs in the final chorus of the song, which were not recorded when we started doing the mixing. He was recording them in his apartment in Toronto and sending them to me via Dropbox. There was even a moment where we were FaceTiming and I would hold my phone up to my computer screen so he could see me running Pro Tools. He would be like, Wait, move it one bar left. Okay, add some delay, like a virtual in-person session.

The section that was the most confusing was what Id call the post-chorus drop, where the beat kicks in, theres the acoustic guitar hook, and the refrain lyric, Theres nothing holdin me back. That section was the spot that felt the least compelling in the version as I started working on it,andthe section that needed to be the biggest. I have to give Shawn credit about three-quarters of the way into the process, he said, Lets just mute everything but these elements. That was the rhythm guitar, the drums, the lead vocal, and that looping guitar hook. We tossed everything else out the window and it just came alive. Finally, we knew it was right.

Normally Im a pretty fast mixer Im generally in the two-and-a-half to five-hour range for a song, at the max. Walk the Moons Anna Sun took me days. It was a breakthrough song for Walk the Moon and really set them up for their second album. I really wanted to knock it out of the park for them, and I think we got there.

It took as long as it did because the bands A&R guy, David Walter, came to me with three different versions of the song. Two were at the same tempo but with different arrangements, and then there was the bands original demo, which was two bpm slower. There were things he liked from every version, but getting everybody playing the same sections at the same time at the same tempo was a challenge right off the bat.

There was a main track that we use most of the instruments from except I used the intro drums from the demo. There was the video version, which was a different arrangement, which had some nice keyboards and effects. They had three different arrangements of the bridge, and I liked parts of each one, but still not the whole bridge concept, so some of that went into the outro. I had to use a time-stretch tool, Pitch N Time, that allowed me to put the different sections in the same bpm without it sounding like grainy crap or a sped-up Chipmunks feel. I think it was probably a week of going back-and-forth with David before we got to show this Frankenmix to the band.

Around that same period, because bands were able to record at home, I would get a lot of labels going, Well, we redid all this but theres still stuff from the demo that we love. How can you make these two sound the same? The easiest way is to give me the demo parts! Here, we could keep the professional, big sound but still pick the demo parts that were just too raw. In this case, a lot of that was the lead vocal. Its that energy youve just written the song and youre recording it for the first time.

Nick Petricca, the singer, had a certain excitement there and sometimes thats hard to reproduce, especially with a young band. If I did my job right, hopefully, nobody could tell the difference in the final mix. As I remember, they were excited to hear all those elements put together, because I dont think they ever imagined that they could do that.

What makes a mix really good is not how you mix it, its how you record it. Thats what I was taught through my dad [legendary guitarist and recording innovator Les Paul].

Once, I was doing a session with Aretha and the drummer Bernard Purdies mic fell on the hi-hat in the middle of the take. I got up and Im running to get in the studio and fix it. I go by Jerry Wexler, a big producer at Atlantic, and he turns to me and says, Where are you going? I say, Im gonna go fix the mic before we take the next one. He said, That was it. I stared at Wexler and thought he was insane, but they didnt give a shit about imperfections. All they cared about was how it felt. Today, were getting further and further away from what happens between the instruments, and, with technology, closer and closer to perfection. That shouldnt get in the way of music. That was part of my learning process.

The first song that came to mind when thinking about a tough mix was not the most difficult it was Roberta Flacks Killing Me Softly With His Song, because the label didnt want to put it out. It was done with basically everybody in the room at the same time with Roberta doing a pilot vocal. We did her lead and the backing vocals later. The magic in that room was something I experienced maybe a dozen times in my life. It went as smooth as smooth can be, and when we took it up to the front office, they hated it. Roberta couldnt stand it.

All of us were sitting there like, What did we do wrong? This is perfect. The first thing they said was, Oh, my God. The kick drum is way too loud! That was their biggest bitch. Its funny telling this story now when all music is based on the foot the kick drum is the star and the guest appearance is the artist. But back then, it was just frightening how the impact of it felt.

So, we had to go back and remix it three or four more times, weeks of labor. We finished the other mixes, and they said, Well, were gonna put out the original mix or we take it off the album. And that kick was the whole key to the tune. That was it. That was the magic of it. Thats why, after we did all the other takes for them, we went back to the original. It was just traditional and brilliant, plain and simple. Roberta didnt care for it, but when she picked the Grammy up, it was the greatest idea she ever had.

As a mixing engineer, one of my first clients was Diplo, and in the early 2010s, I started working with him on several projects. Hes an eclectic producer, jumping from super-pop songs to something very underground, and Im very in line with that approach. Im very happy to jump into different styles, and with projects, I really need to understand the story behind it, what the goal is. One of the first projects Diplo threw me was Snoop Doggs Reincarnated, which he was producing. He wanted me to put my stamp on it as Snoop went from West Coast hip-hop to dancehall, but first I had to get the job.

They did the single Lighters Up and Snoop said, Look, I worked with an engineer that did everything for me from back in the Dre time to everything. The label had engineers and there was me, so Snoop decided to have four mixes of the song done, pick the best, and from that point on, that guy would mix the entire album. Usually, I dont do those type of spec things, but with my Italian attitude, I kind of liked the pressure to go in there, in the dark on this new style, and try to bring a different spirit and personality to the album.

On that song, I replaced the kick drum and the 808 on the chorus because I felt it improved the quality. I didnt say, By the way, Im going to replace your drums I just did it and sent the final mix in. They did a listening session, Snoop was impressed, and I got the album. I won their trust. Back then, I had a small studio in an office area of Vegas, working on a slow computer from like 8 p.m. to 6 in the morning, just so I didnt disturb my neighbors. For this project, I got a faster computer and worked for over two months with a local engineer in Jamaica, collecting stems of tracks to get a feel for the music and understand the vision of Snoop Lion.

Overall, they gave me an opportunity to do a very organic, original mix, because they recorded very traditionally on a vintage board and let me bring in my modern techniques to something very out of my comfort zone. Snoop has a very open-minded approach and its purposely not very technical more like a feeling and a vibe. His trademark is his voice, so they wanted to make sure that was always at the front of the mix, even when he was whispering, but other than that, they allowed us to use our creativity. I was working remotely but everyone there enjoyed the best of Jamaica, smoking and going to remote places. You can see that in the documentary and hear my mixes in the background. The album ended up to have a Grammy nomination for Best Reggae Album, something that no one involved in the project expected. It was a special moment for my career and remains one of my best memories.

As a producer-mixer, I dont always mix the stuff that I produce, and I dont always produce the stuff that I mix. But the lions share of my work is both, and that was the case with Tegan and Saras Walking With a Ghost.

OnSo Jealous, I was a co-producer with John Collins from the New Pornographers and Dave Carswell, who had done the previous Tegan and Sara records. The label wanted to spend money and make the album sound more expensive but not slick, and they thought I could help walk the line. We tag-teamed the songs, because three producers couldnt be in the same room, and I remember taking Walking With a Ghost.

I dont remember the recording part of it, but I remember editing it like that was my baby and I didnt really want anybody else to touch it. Its these scrappy guitars, the vocals are repetitive and double-, triple-tracked, and the form is atypical with the chorus. Its just this weird thing that has a fluid feeling and, in mixing, I made it really bright and crisp. I remember Dave saying, Those guitars are too bright. Theyre killing me, so I tamed them down a bit, because usually when someone has a strong opinion, theyre right. The guitars were maybe a little bit too searing and kind of painful. Because the vocals kind of live in that same sort of zone. And even when I did kind of tame it down, I remember, still, Dave just being like, I dont know, I mean, it sounds good but its just too bright for me. Im not into it. I dont like it.

My approach to mixing is always finding what makes something special and unique and drawing that out, rather than lets just try to make this sound really good. What is the reaction were trying to evoke in the listener? Lets really grab onto that and push that envelope as far as you can. If it means brightened singing and annoying guitars, do that. I was trying to embrace the weird and have just enough edginess to it that people would cock their ears and go, Whats this?

At the end, I went to Tegans apartment in Vancouver before mastering and we were putting the order of the songs together. Sara was on speakerphone and someone said, Okay, what about Walking With a Ghost? And Im like What do you mean? and theyre like, Well, nobody wants it on the record.

The issue was that there was another song on the record, We Didnt Do It, that kind of has a similar sort of choppy beat. It lived in a similar world as Walking With a Ghost but it had a little bit more, I think of a traditional structure. It was a warmer-sounding song. Just kind of a bit punchier, a bit warmer, but it just wasnt as interesting. I said, Look, heres how strongly I feel about it. Im really grateful to have been a part of this record but Im willing for you to strike my name from the credits if you dont put the song on there. So they decided to go with it. and it ended up being a turning point in their career. That record, as a whole, garnered them a much bigger audience and let them tour longer and wider than they ever had.

Transatlanticism was just a bear to get it to feel right. Everything I had done up until 2003 had been on tape, and with that song, we filled up the 24 tracks on the tape machine pretty quickly. Still, it felt like it just wasnt enough. We were starting to lean into maximalism and I just felt like there was a lot more there.

It wanted some size at the ends that I couldnt figure out how to make room for, because, at that point, I didnt know anything about computers. I ran a rough mix of what we had through a piece of half-inch tape then ran that rough mix to a new piece of multitrack tape, then filled that up with guitars and with all the vocals at the end, with just no plan for how I was gonna make it all work. I had one tape machine I couldnt even play them both at the same time. It just turned into, Actually, I dont know how to do this at all, so we ended up dumping it into Pro Tools. That was my very first foray into digital recording. I hated it, but there was no other choice.

There was some instrumental stuff that we were all pretty into that we would reference, like Explosions in the Sky or Godspeed You! Black Emperor, these really epic atmospheric records. But those records dont have vocals, so it was like, How does this story work inside something thats like a big, weird, fuzzy terrarium? So we took it into Studio X in Seattle, which is now an Amazon building, and I spent 12 hours beating my head against the wall, trying to figure out how to make it all fit together. And eventually, it did. Because its so ensemble and gauzy, youre massaging it, just pushing things around. Its more Monet than Rockwell.

The other thing that I realized was that I actually didnt have any idea how to deal with a full 48-channel board and get the song to unfold in a cinematic way. Im always shooting for records that sound great, but more importantly, just feel right something you can really sink into and let take over the experience. I missed that on the first mix. The density was all wrong, it wasnt clear. Sometimes these big songs fall by the wayside as people get into the album, and I just knew this wasnt one of those because everybody was reacting to it so strongly in the studio. It felt special.

I just listened to it again for the first time in years. Some of the placement choices are pretty wild, but it was indie rock in 2003. In a modern mix, the vocals would be louder, and I wish the bass was louder. I so seldom side with my work I always feel like theres some rock that didnt get turned over or some opportunity that got missed, or suggestions I didnt incorporate because I was insecure or for ego reasons. But the feeling in Transatlanticism is really there. I was really happy to hear that.

Are you an engineer with a great hardest mix story to share? Let us know at stories@vulture.com.

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Engineers Without Borders urges industry reflection – The Engineer

International NGO Engineers Without Borders has called for more self-reflection on the ethical, social and environmental role that engineering plays.

In an open letter, the organisation praised recent updates made to the International Engineering Alliances Benchmark for Graduate Attributes and Professional Competencies. Those changes include awareness of diversity and inclusion as well as an acknowledgement of UN Sustainable Development Goals. However, Engineers Without Borders believes a more fundamental shift in the engineering mindset is required, one which looks more deeply at the role engineering plays in creating as well as solving problems.

Covid shaping career options and aspirations

Pandemic prompts upsurge in commitment to corporate sustainability

In the revision, engineering continues to be promoted as a process uninfluenced by societal values that leads to one correct solution, the letter states, when in fact it is a complex process embedded in society that necessarily involves navigating ethical issues and value tensions, making judgements with uncertain and ambiguous information, and adapting to context.

In other words, the revision does not adequately guard against and at points even perpetuates a narrow view of engineering, one that doesnt fully acknowledge that engineering itself has a serious impact on and consequences for people and the planetWhile it has resulted in incredible advances to our comfort, health, and safety, it has also played a fundamental role in getting us to the unjust and unsustainable practices that dominate the world today.

In light of this, Engineers Without Borders organisations from around the world are calling for three core competencies to be universally incorporated into the benchmark values. These are:

Engineers Without Borders said it is actively promoting these core competencies by helping students and professionals develop the skills to reflect on and think critically about engineering, and by building connections with social scientists, indigenous leaders, and other groups with valuable insights on the relationship between engineering and society.

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Global Automotive Simulation Market To Witness Astonishing Growth 2026 | Altair Engineering Inc., ANSYS Inc., PTC, Siemens AG, Autodesk Inc.,…

A competitive era calls for businesses to be equipped with acquaintance of the major happenings of the market and Automotive Simulation industry. Being a valuable market report, Automotive Simulation Marketreport provides industry insights so that businesses indeed dont neglect anything. It helps achieve an extreme sense of evolving industry movements before competitors. This market research report makes knowledgeable about strategic analysis of mergers, expansions, acquisitions, partnerships, and investment. The Automotive Simulation report explains market definition, currency and pricing, market segmentation, market overview, premium insights, key insights and company profile of the major market players.

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Global Automotive Simulation Market To Witness Astonishing Growth 2026 | Altair Engineering Inc., ANSYS Inc., PTC, Siemens AG, Autodesk Inc.,...

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Wolves alter wetland creation and recolonization by killing ecosystem engineers – UMN News

Beavers are someof the worlds most prolific ecosystem engineers, creating, maintaining and radically altering wetlands almost everywhere they live. But what, if anything, might control this engineering by beavers and influence the formation of North Americas wetlands?In a new paper published in the journal Science Advances, researchers with the University of Minnesotas Voyageurs Wolf Project and Voyageurs National Park observed and demonstrated that wolves affect wetland ecosystems by killing beavers leaving their colonies to create new ponds.Beavers are important ecosystem engineers that create wetlands around the world, storing water and creating habitat for numerous other species. This study documents that wolves alter wetland creation when they kill beavers that have left home and created their own dams and ponds.Juvenile beavers disperse alone and often create new ponds or fix up and recolonize existing, old ponds. By studying pond creation and recolonization patterns along with wolf predation on beavers, project biologists and co-authors Tom Gable and Austin Homkes found that 84% of newly-created and recolonized beaver ponds remained occupied by beavers for more than one year. But when a wolf kills the beaver that settles in a pond, no such ponds remain active.This relationship between wolves and dispersing beavers shows how wolves are intimately connected to wetland creation across the boreal ecosystem and all the ecological processes that come from wetlands (see infographic).How large predators impact ecosystems has been a matter of interest among scientists and the public for decades, said Gable, project lead of the Voyageurs Wolf Project. Because wolves are the apex predators in northern Minnesota and beavers are ecosystem engineers, we knew there was potential for wolves to affect ecosystems by killing beavers.Researchers found that wolves can have this impact on wetlands without necessarily changing the abundance or behavior of beavers. This newly supported link between wolf predation, dispersing beavers and wetlands may have long-lasting impacts for boreal landscapes and habitat for other species. The Voyageurs Wolf Project is investigating the long-term effects of this relationship."In 2015, we documented a wolf killing a dispersing beaver in a newly-created pond, said Homkes, a field biologist with the Voyageurs Wolf Project. Within days of the wolf killing the beaver, the dam failed because there was no beaver left to maintain it. The wolf appeared to have prevented the beaver from turning this forested area into a pond. This initial observation was fascinating and we realized we needed to figure out how wolves were connected to wetland creation in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem.After five years of intensive fieldwork, Gable, Homkes and colleagues have estimated that wolves altered the establishment of about 88 ponds per year and the storage of over 51 million gallons of water annually in the Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem. The pond observed in 2015 still has not been colonized by another beaver, said Gable, who visited the site in mid-September 2020.Our work hints at the possibility that wolves might have a longer-term impact on wetland creation and generate habitat patchiness that supports many other species across the landscape, but we need to study this mechanism further, said Joseph Bump, study co-author and associate professor in the Universitys Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology.Wolves and large predators are usually thought to have outsized ecological effects primarily by reducing the abundance of their prey or by altering the behavior of their prey through fear of predation, both of which allow predators to indirectly impact lower parts of the food chain such as vegetation, songbirds and other wildlife. Some research has even claimed wolves impact river ecosystems through trophic cascades, but this has been met with substantial skepticism and remains hotly debated among scientists."The fact that we have convincingly shown wolves can impact wetlands without necessarily changing the abundance or behavior of beavers is a really exciting finding," said co-author Sean Johnson-Bice, a project collaborator from the University of Manitoba.The Greater Voyageurs Ecosystem sits within a flat landscape that is dominated by water and trees, creating the perfect conditions that currently support some of the highest beaver densities in North America, said Voyageurs National Park wildlife researcher and co-author Steve Windels.Though we dont have evidence that wolves are limiting the size of the beaver population in Voyageurs, understanding the nuanced and complex ways that predators and prey affect one another and their environment is critical to fulfilling the National Park Services mission to protect and preserve our resources for future generations.This study identified a novel and unique way by which predators influence ecological processes, which ultimately enriches our understanding of the diverse roles predators play in ecosystems."There are a number of good reasons to maintain and restore healthy predator populations and this study should be helpful for understanding the full role and therefore value of predators, especially when they eat ecosystem engineers," Bump said.For more information on the Voyageurs Wolf Project, check out their website and follow their Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter accounts for regular project updatesThe Voyageurs Wolf Project is funded by the Minnesota Environment & Natural Resource Trust Fund, Voyageurs National Park, the National Park Service, the Department of Fisheries, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology at the University of Minnesota, the National Science Foundation, Van Sloun Foundation, Bell Museum, Thomas H. Shevlin Fellowship, Voyageurs Conservancy, Rainy Lake Conservancy, Byers Foundation, Northern Michigan University, Sturgeon River Chapter of the Minnesota Deer Hunters Association, Timber Wolf Information Network, National Wolfwatcher Coalitionand numerous small donors and hardworking volunteers.

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Social app Parler apparently receives funding from the conservative Mercer family – The Verge

Social media app Parler receives financial backing from conservative hedge-fund investor Robert Mercer and his daughter Rebekah, The Wall Street Journal reported. The app, founded as an alternative to Twitter and Facebook which bills itself as viewpoint neutral saw nearly 1 million new downloads in the days after the US presidential election, rocketing it to the top of the iOS and Google Play app stores.

Parler turned into a kind of de facto home for conservatives protests against the election including the persistent Stop the Steal campaign after the race was called for former Vice President Joe Biden. Several high-profile conservative social media personalities encouraged people to abandon Twitter and Facebook because of their moderation policies, and instead follow them on Parler.

According to the WSJ, the Mercers, known for giving financial support to conservative causes and organizations, including Cambridge Analytica, have not previously revealed their connection to Parler.

In a parley (what Parler calls its posts) on Saturday, a user with the handle Rebekah Mercer and a yellow verified badge said she and John, an apparent reference to Parler CEO John Matze, started Parler to provide a neutral platform for free speech as our founders intended, and that the ever increasing tyranny and hubris of our tech overlords lead the fight against data mining and online free speech.

Matze replied: Bekah is a great friend, an American patriot, and said he was grateful for her support.

Parler did not return a request for comment Saturday. On its website, the Nevada-based company says it is the solution to problems that have surfaced in recent years due to changes in Big Tech policy influenced by various special-interest groups. As the Wall Street Journal notes, Parler doesnt use the content recommendation algorithms that other social platforms do, algorithms which determine what content users ultimately see based on their behavior. Instead, Parler shows users all posts from other users they follow.

A longstanding gripe among conservatives on social media is that Twitter and Facebooks algorithms discriminate against them, shadowbanning their content. So far, theres been no conclusive evidence of such behavior.

Update November 14th, 5:55PM ET: Adds parley comment from CEO John Matze

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How TikTok could be used for disinformation and espionage – CBS News

The popular social media platform TikTok has so far avoided being banned by the Trump administration. But until it addresses concerns over its national security risks, its future in the U.S. remains uncertain.

The Trump administration's deadline for TikTok to find a new owner came and went this week, a missed milestone that would have rendered the social media app effectively banned in the U.S. as of November 12. Instead, the administration granted the video-sharing app a 15-day reprieve. This gives TikTok until November 27 to be divested from its parent company, ByteDance, possibly through convincing government officials to approve a proposed deal with Walmart and Oracle.

The administration's push for a new owner is in large part because national security experts say the issues with TikTok stem from its current owner, ByteDance, a $140-billion Chinese company that also runs Douyin, the Chinese version of the app.

Both Douyin, which boasts 600-million daily users, and TikTok, which has been downloaded on 100 million American devices, use cutting-edge, AI-driven algorithms that analyze exactly how long users watch a video, in order to gauge their interests. The app then presents videos through a "For You" page, amounting to an endless stream of videos uniquely suggested for each user.

It is through this page of recommendations that the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) can push disinformation, according to Kara Frederick, a fellow at the Center for a New American Security. Formerly a Pentagon intelligence analyst, Frederick also worked at the National Security Agency.

"If the CCP decided [through] ByteDance to feed you propaganda, you're addicted," she told 60 Minutes. "It is there, and you're going to get more and more and more. And there, they can tweak and see what you like, what you don't like."

Frederick also said TikTok could potentially inject disinformation into the dialogue in the U.S. to sow discord, similar to the way Russia bots amplified the controversy over NFL players kneeling during the national anthem.

"That's low-hanging fruit, I would say," she said. "I wouldn't be surprised if China tried its hand at such things."

Through its algorithm, TikTok could potentially censor content, even if it does not outright ban it. By simply never recommending videos with information, for example, about Tiananmen Square, Tibetan Independence, Hong Kong protests, or Uighur Muslims the company could influence what America's youth sees on a regular basis.

In addition to its potential to control information, TikTok is also collecting vast swaths of it.

Like many social media apps, TikTok asks users for permission for access to their microphone, camera, photos, videos, and contacts. It even collects "keystroke patterns," which is the unique rhythm a person uses to strike their keyboard.

Because China's 2017 Cybersecurity Law requires China-based companies such as TikTok to provide the Chinese government with access to their data, security analysts say this data could be a veritable goldmine for the Chinese government. Hackers linked to Beijing have already stolen the personal data of millions of Americans through security breaches at institutions like Equifax, Anthem, and the U.S. government's Office of Personnel Management.

In an executive order this summer, President Trump addressed TikTok's potential for data mining, writing, "This data collection threatens to allow the Chinese Communist Party access to Americans' personal and proprietary information potentially allowing China to track the locations of Federal employees and contractors, build dossiers of personal information for blackmail, and conduct corporate espionage."

In an interview with 60 Minutes, Vanessa Pappas, TikTok's interim CEO and the third person to helm the company this year, pushed back against the notion that the Chinese government can access the data the company collects. She noted that TikTok does not operate in China and said the data gathered from the U.S. is stored here as well.

"If a government were to request data we will put that in our transparency report and tell you," Pappas said. "And certainly the Chinese government has not requested data, and if they did it would be an emphatic, 'No.'"

But according to Klon Kitchen, who leads technology policy at the conservative Heritage Foundation, the Chinese government does not even have to make the request.

"The national security and cyber security laws of China require them to operate and build their networks in such a fashion as to where the government has unfettered access to their data," Kitchen said. "And so no, the CCP doesn't ask them for information. They don't need to. They have access to the information."

Kitchen said the data TikTok collects, while seemingly harmless, could potentially be used in conjunction with information gathered in previous high-profile hacks. By combining TikTok data with other sources of information, he said, the Chinese government can get a fuller picture of an American they want to target.

"And they begin to understand, 'What is the ideal candidate for someone who gets hired into the U.S. intelligence community?'" Kitchen said. "If they were to try and source a human-intelligence asset, well, they know the exact type of legend or profile that they need to have to be an ideal candidate so they might get hired."

The U.S. Commerce Department in September attempted to ban downloads of TikTok, giving November 12 as a deadline for other internet companies to cease hosting the app.

After TikTok and TikTok content creators filed separate suits, two federal judges temporarily blocked the ban. "It is undisputed that the Secretary's prohibitions will have the effect of preventing Americans from sharing personal communications on TikTok," U.S. District Judge Carl Nichols wrote in one of the decisions.

In a later decision, U.S. District Judge Wendy Beetlestone wrote that the ban would cause the creators to "lose the ability to engage with their millions of followers on TikTok, and the related brand sponsorships."

But the nationwide injunctions did not address the other aspect of Trump's executive order, which requires TikTok to find a new owner. The administration has never explained the requirements for TikTok to keep operating in the United States, nor has it spelled out the consequences should the company fail to be sold by the new deadline of November 27.

In a statement to 60 Minutes, TikTok's New York-based head of corporate communications, Josh Gartner, said he is confident the Oracle deal will pass muster.

"Our U.S.-led security team has put extensive measures in place to guard against access to American user data by any government," Gartner wrote. "In September, we offered to make Oracle our trusted technology partner to further protect and verify the security of U.S. user dataa proposal that the President endorsed. We look forward to implementing this solution to put this issue to rest, once and for all."

Under this deal, Oracle and Walmart would partner with TikTok in the U.S. The two companies would have a combined 20 percent stake in TikTok, with Oracle taking 12.5 percent, and Walmart getting 7.5 percent. China's ByteDance would retain the remaining 80 percent ownership of the company. President Trump in September said he gave his "blessing" to the partnership.

Microsoft had also been in negotiations to acquire TikTok's American operations, but ByteDance rejected their offer in favor of Oracle. Critics of the Oracle deal note the closeness between the company's leadership and the Trump administration: Oracle's Chairman Larry Ellison earlier this year hosted a fundraiser for President Trump, and the company's CEO Safra Catz served on the president's 2016 transition team.

According to a statement from Oracle, the deal would move TikTok's U.S. user data to the American company's cloud infrastructure, thereby making Oracle accountable for data security and privacy.

Oracle would also have access to check the app's source code, but ByteDance would reportedly retain the TikTok's algorithm and technology. The complete makeup of the deal has not been made public, and some in the tech industry fear it may not do enough to solve national security concerns.

"A deal where Oracle takes over hosting without source code and significant operational changes would not address any of the legitimate concerns about TikTok, and the White House accepting such a deal would demonstrate that this exercise was pure grift," former Facebook security chief Alex Stamoswrote on Twitter.

For now, TikTok's future in the U.S. remains unclear. For Kitchen, the video-sharing app is not the only threat the U.S. faces, simply one the U.S. government is beginning to address.

"I would say it's emblematic of the broader concern," Kitchen said. "And that broader concern is the fusion of the Chinese government with its industry. And if the Chinese government would adopt a more responsible posture, then Chinese technology companies could operate in the U.S. market and thrive."

Graham Messick and Jack Weingart contributed to reporting.

The video above was produced by Brit McCandless Farmer and Will Croxton. It was edited by Will Croxton.

To watch Bill Whitaker's 60 Minutes report on TikTok, click here.

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How TikTok could be used for disinformation and espionage - CBS News

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